Competitions
Competitions here are VERY popular. In school curriculum you not only have to teach reading, writing and arithmitic, you also have to teach kids how to win competitions. Everything in me as an American teacher says no you teach team work and working together but here in Indonesia they value competitions from babies crawling the fastest to adults competiting in a variety of activities. There’s a lot of pressure to WIN!
At school we just tried to make these competitions fun and low stress. No pressure, just have fun. Enjoy the pictures.
(In case you look at the pictures and wonder what a grupuk is – it’s an Indonesian cracker more or less and they come in a varity of flavors from ayam (chicken) to udang (shrimp) to sapi (beef) and they are extremely popular here.)
Independence Day
August 17th is Indonesia’s Independence Day! It’s a fun day full of Indonesian pride and spirit. In true Indonesian fashion we celebrated with all 85 of our students and their parents with a fun celebration. It included a formal Indonesian ceremony with flags, saluting, a speech and songs. We also ate together and had some fun friendly competitions. It was our first special event of the new school year; it turned out to be really fun! During the ceremony we were challenged by the principal to live lives of bravery and holiness, which is what the red (bravery) and white (holiness) in the flag stand for.
As an American celebrating Indonesia’s Independence Day I couldn’t help but think about my own country. I love my country but I also love this place. God has placed a love in my heart for this country but it cannot replace my own. Today say a prayer for both places which so desperately need Jesus. And take a minute to appreciate the things we take for granted everyday, one of them being, the freedom you have to worship anywhere you want without persecution.
Enjoy the pictures!
