Batang (Seattle International Learning School) 25/08 - 11/09

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We bounced off the train at around midday and was met by Andy, Erwin's brother. We jumped in the back seat and the 'Hello Kitty' seat cushions and toys gave away that he had a little 3 year old girl called Nayla. We had some small talk with Andy before arriving at the English Centre where we will be working for the next 2 weeks. We met the main man Erwin who owns the place. He was very friendly, welcoming and bought us both coconut water with brown sugar which went down a treat. As is traditional with all Asian countries it was time for a rest. We headed to Andys gaff and he introduced us to Villa (Andys wife) who was heavily pregnant with twins, Nayla and not forgetting Yulie (the household helper).

That night after Erwin finished work we sat down for Chicken satay with peanut sauce and Sambal (the hot stuff). It was delicious! Already the Indonesian food was SO MUCH BETTER than that in Vietnam or Cambodia. We were told after dinner that we would be sleeping in separate houses - this was a bit of a surprise. We respected their wishes as it was their Muslim religion due to us not married and thems the rules if you're not hitched!

During our two weeks at Seattle we taught a range of age groups starting from 6 years olds all the way to 50 odd year olds in the adult class. The lessons were mainlay lead by Erwin with us delivering the spoken paragraphs, helping pronounciation and general sentence structure. Erwin had lesson plans and worksheets for most of the classes and so we worked through these with the groups using the PPP model: Presentation, Practice, Production. It seemed to be mostly successful and the younger children really impressed us with how fast they can learn. It was also important to play games though, after an hour of learning they would all call out for games to finish the class and we loved doing this too, obviously! Some classes were harder than others! One particular class was a nightmare! It was next to pointless as the kids had been fasting all day due to a national holiday (no food OR water) they were on their knees! Luckily the Imam prayer call rung out during the lesson so we handed out donuts to every starving/parched child and Erwin (cos we're nice like that). It was obvious from the start that white people were not a common occurrence in Batang and so the kids took some getting used to us but over the 2 weeks we really noticed improvements in their English and in there confidence talking to us. This was most evident when we did a presentation on English culture at a local secondary school, it was as if Hollywood film stars had landed in their school and kids were clambering at the windows and queuing round us to shake hands and have photos.

Our time in Batang was not just a teaching placement it was also a cultural exchange and so Erwin was keen to show off what Central Java had to offer. We went to Paligaran Tea plantation which resembled the rice terraces of Sapa. It was stunning, everywhere you could see the hills were covered in terraced hedges of tea and we took a mini bus right to the top of the hills where the views were fabulous. We went to Tombo coffee, a small start up business in the remote villages where everyone was so friendly and the coffee was so strong Char got the shakes! We visited the Batik museum in Pekalongan where Erwin enthusiastically showed us round all the different styles of Batik and explained the process which we were lucky enough to try out. The Batiks are made always by starting with white material and then built up in layers of colour by covering the different sections with wax to form the patterns. It's a hugely time consuming process but the end products are amazing. Our attempt was less amazing, the tool for creating the pattern is a stone age piece of crap and kept dripping hot wax over our designs and down our legs. However, the professional doing the demonstration didn't seem to have so many difficulties!

The fasting day we spoke about earlier was to prepare for the "sacrifice day" where goats and cows were sacrificed in mosques and the meat shared between the people. We never really got to the bottom of why this happened only that it was a tradition. We opted to watch the sacrifice and whilst we were both glad we fully understood what happened, the process was hard to watch and not very humane. The poor goats had their throats dramatically slit so the blood spurted out and was "given back to the earth". They were then left to fit and bleed out slowly on the ground before being hung on a bamboo washing line by their back legs and skinned. Later on the the meat was cut up and distributed for goat statay feasting later that night. Unfortunately Erwin had contributed to the feast by buying a goat and so was unable to participate in the feasting as tradition depicts that if you make a contribution you must expect nothing back. This annual day was Andys favourite day of the year (not only because he could feast on as much food as he wanted, he is a big eater!) because he is a cow farmer and he sold 52 cows in 2 days bringing in £15 million per cow. He ended the two days with a rucksack so full of cash he couldn't close the zip!

One of our most interesting parts of the stay in Batang was Erwin's wedding. The entire process was alien to us. Firstly the invitations to the wedding were distributed by hand in the three days running up to the wedding, there were 900 invitations! We had been told before hand that the wedding spanned over two days and the first day was for the delclaration and required us to wear a traditional couple Batik. Hilarious! We set out one evening with Villa to purchase our outfits and ended up buying Char a very modest, no skin showing, long sleeved, long dress and Jack bought the matching short sleeved shirt. As time drew closer we were also informed of 2 further days of celebration. 2 days before the wedding the men of Erwins neighbourhood came to his family home and had an evening of prayers, well wishing and feasting. The following day was for family to attend the home. More feasting and conversations were advertised however it seemed that our presence was a deterrent for conversation and company as all of the family ran into another room as soon as we entered. This meant one thing - we should get out of their hair aka go to the pub. We should also mention here that 'going to the pub' is not as easy as it sounds in Batang. Due to the strict Islamic faith alcohol is almost illegal. The only place we could find a drink was in a karaoke bar near the beach who have to pay off the police in order to sell it. Needless to say we frequented this premises regularly!

So anyway, back to the story. The first actual day of the wedding arrived and we were hoiked out of bed and wisked off at 5am (yes AM) sporting our matching couples Batik looking fresh (jack even waxed his ever growing hair for the first time since leaving England and similarly Char put on some make up). We fannied around at Erwin's house being force fed breakfast by every relative until 7.30am. We then all clambered into cars and headed in convoy for Ana's (the bride) house. If it's possible for an Asian person to look pale - Erwin looked like a ghost! The poor man was rigid as a stick but looked sharp in his white blingy Elvis suit. Unbeknown to us we had very important roles for the next 30 minutes. As we arrived Char was handed the rings and Jack was given the wedding prayer mat that is traditionally given to the bride on her wedding day. (We focused every bit of our weary energy not dropping them!) We walked in slow prosesstion behind Erwin's parents, parents in law and Andys family. We felt like fraudstars crashing a wedding but continued as instructed trying to blend in but failing as the camera phones were all pointed in our direction. We were met by Ana's mum and dad at their front door and then 3 men took it in turns to speak in a monotone voice for what felt like an eternity stood in the heat trying not to lose grasp of these treasures in our hands. Finally we were aloud into the house and every one of importance (plus us) clambered into the living room where after more talking and praying by the men, Ana was revealed out of the side door. It felt to both of us that the woman was of less importance in the ceremony as over the course of the 2 hours Ana was only present for 20 minutes. The majority of which was the photo shoot. The whole process was done and dusted by 10am so after being force fed more food at Anas we were brought back and allowed to resume our interrupted sleep.

WEDDING DAY. This day was dedicated to celebrating the marriage of Erwin and Ana. As we were sleeping in different houses, Char was being prepared at Anas house whilst Jack was getting sorted at Erwin's. The morning for Jack consisted of small talk with Erwin's family, obligatory selfies by family and trying to find a long sleeved black buttoned silk shirt that fitted. All topped off with a golden sarong and black slippers. Not forgetting a matching hat to top off the look. Quick, simple, easy, comfortable. Chars morning was far more eventful. Ana was keen to help her prepare and soon enough Char was in bra and knickers in Ana's room being helped into a base layertop, a beautiful multicolour sarong with matching scarf and an amazing sparkly embroidered jacket. Unfortunately Char is not as acustumed to the heat as everyone else and soon felt like she was in a pressure cooker so had to ditch the base layer and scarf.

Next it was onto makeup. This was a daunting experience, the makeup was nothing like what we would wear in England and very over the top. She ended looking a little bit like a trainee drag queen (in her opinion) and so quickly wiped off the majority in the mirror. Next came the hair stylist, Chars curly locks are a far cry from the silky black hair and hijabs they are used to preparing but they were eager to give it a go. The finished product looked like a birds nest topped off with a tiara, Char dismantled the lot and created her usual style instead. Char arrived at the venue in the car with Ana and Erwin where poor old Jack had been waiting for nearly an hour. Another slow precession ensued, two by two, women on one side, men on the other, no hand holding. Ana, Erwin and their parents took up their places on the stage and everyone else was supposed to stand on the red carpet and shake hands with the 1000+ guests which followed. The venue looked lovely, it was kind of a summer village fete with food stalls and a red carpet running diagnally through the hall. All the guests proceeded up the carpet, usually requested photos with us, then made their way onto the stage to shake hands with the bride and groom and their parents before tucking into the free food. Poor Erwin and Ana had to shake hands and smile for 4 hours until all of the guests had gone home and they could finally sit down to have some food and a drink...of coke, not alcohol! For us this felt like a very serious event, a far cry from what our celebrations will be! However, it was so special to be included in their wedding and something we will never forget.

There was lots of other bits and bobs that happened in Batang but we feel this entry is already long enough!

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