It's hard to believe I've been here only for a week. My schedule has been packed! All of the Fellows attended the TEFLIN (Teaching English as a Foreign Language Indonesia) conference last week and each of us conducted a workshop. I was nervous but my workshop went well. My topic was "Applying Brain Based Research to Design Effective Instruction." From what I've heard from other Fellows, teachers here use very rote methods of teaching....mostly lecture. So the participants of my workshop seemed to enjoy learning how to incorporate art, music, drama, etc. into their lessons.
After the conference the Fellows and Teaching Assistants (Fulbright Program) went to Puncak which is a 2 hour trip from Jakarta. We stayed at a beautiful resort in the mountains for our retreat. A State Dept. official joined us and he really had some interesting stories about life in the foreign service.
I'm now back in Jakarta and leaving tomorrow for my site, Yogyakarta. I'm excited to get settled and to finally be able to do laundry!
I've definitely seen some shocking things this past week. A colleage and I were in a taxi and saw a dead man on the side of the street. He had been riding a motorcycle and was hit. I'm still pretty shaken from seeing that. Returning from the retreat we saw people without legs begging in the middle of the road. One man had no legs and had large tumors growing all over his body. Obviously we have accidents and beggars in the States, but these things here are just more intense.
After the conference the Fellows and Teaching Assistants (Fulbright Program) went to Puncak which is a 2 hour trip from Jakarta. We stayed at a beautiful resort in the mountains for our retreat. A State Dept. official joined us and he really had some interesting stories about life in the foreign service.
I'm now back in Jakarta and leaving tomorrow for my site, Yogyakarta. I'm excited to get settled and to finally be able to do laundry!
I've definitely seen some shocking things this past week. A colleage and I were in a taxi and saw a dead man on the side of the street. He had been riding a motorcycle and was hit. I'm still pretty shaken from seeing that. Returning from the retreat we saw people without legs begging in the middle of the road. One man had no legs and had large tumors growing all over his body. Obviously we have accidents and beggars in the States, but these things here are just more intense.
