Building Walls part 1 of 2

After breakfast, we reviewed the half dozen Indonesian words we had learned the night before and loaded up the boat. The kids were supposed to be in work clothes, but half of them were in overpriced Quicksilver t-shirts and new Nikes. I could see that the Telunas staff had loaded a half dozen shovels, several pick axes, and a sledge hammer into the front of the wooden boat.

The village was about 30 minutes away. A mix of people –young and old- were waiting for us on the dock when we arrived. We walked our way up hill and into the village. In the center of the village was the school complex made up of a central courtyard surrounded by school buildings on three sides. The teachers and principal must have declared it a school holiday, because even though all the kids were in uniform, they were milling about.

We were led directly into one of the classrooms for the opening formalities. Inside were desks, chairs, and few posters on the wall. This may be a poor, third-world village but like any self-respecting Indonesian village, they had an impressive-looking karaoke machine that was being used as a p.a. system. As my students were settling into their seats, Mike from Telunas waved me over indicating that I should join him and the headmaster at the large table up front. Apparently, I was going to be making a speech. It was pretty obvious, that out of the three chaperones from our school, I was being asked to say a few words because I was the sole male. Apparently the Equal Rights Amendment hasn’t made it to the outer reaches of Indonesia.

Students packed the doorway and filled up every window surrounding the room so that we could just see the tops of their heads peering over the window sill. With the help of a translator, I made a grandiose speech complementing the superintendent on the fine school, thanking them for inviting us, and about building long-lasting friendships between Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the United States. Mine was only one of several speeches.