Volunteering!

I have been super busy since I last wrote! I have spent a lot of time volunteering at the Foundation for Mother and Child Health in South Jakarta. The first few times I went to the center I just observed their programs and made friends with the staff  and the women and children that utilize the resources and programs there. One of the classes that I saw was a cooking class... because malnutrition is such a major problem in poor areas of the city, the organization offer not only health education classes but hands-on cooking classes too, both at the center and at women's homes in the slum areas (how cool is that??). They had set up a gas burner outside in the center's courtyard and the women were sitting on the white tile steps prepping food. They cooked rice, meat, and veggies together in a pan with some oil and then picked up handfuls of the rice mixture and packed it into balls in their palms. Then they squished a quail egg into the middle of it, and deep fried each ball. One of the staff then assessed the weight and calorie content of an average rice ball and talked to the women about it. I got to taste one.... delicious! Another program that I saw was the Feeding Program. The center accepts 30 children every few months that qualify as severely malnourished and have the mothers and children come in 3 times a week. Each time they come the child is provided with a healthy meal, and the staff records how much the children eat. Once a week the child is weighed, and only when the child has reached an acceptable weight and level of health is he or she released from the program. To be part of the program, however, the mothers are required to participate in the health education classes and cooking classes. (There are also sewing classes that teach the women how to make bags and other items out of used plastic materials, like instant coffee packets; the center will then buy the finished products from the women and sell them at the center). 

The only skill thing that I can really do for the center is teach English, and so I have been asked to teach classes to the children, mothers, and the staff. The center has a Early Learning Center program for pre-schoolers (the program prepares them to enter government schools, and also provides scholarships so that they can pay the mandatory school fees). I am doing a unit on animals and so spent the first day just teaching general names of animals.... I had little plastic animal toys that I would hold up and yell "elephant", "whale", "tiger", etc and have the kids repeat after me. The kids speak zero English and are only 3-5 years old, but are very well-behaved. And cute! ;-) Future classes will focus on ocean animals, jungle animals, what animals eat, what food comes from animals, etc. I will plan out the lessons, and the teachers will provide the materials. It's fun! Classes for the mothers and staff will start next week. 

Last Saturday when I was at the center I met a doctor named Drevino who volunteers with this organization. He is launching a program for malnutrition in West Timor, with funding and support from the Foundation for Mother and Child Health. He has done TB work in that area before and so is well-aware of the widespread problems of malnutrition. So, last month he organized a team to conduct some preliminary research, and their findings showed that 63% of the children are malnourished, and 87% anemic! He is returning to West Timor on November 15 and is going to do a Participatory Rural Appraisal, in which he and his team will host community discussions to identify problems and come up with solutions. And... he has invited me and Sara! I would LOVE to go- this is development in action! The issue is how long we can go for, because now we have all these commitments here in Jakarta. But hopefully we can go for a week or so in November.  

I have also spent some time volunteering with an organization called Hope Worldwide. They had organized a book drive, and so needed help sorting the donated books into boxes for different schools in the area. I really liked this volunteer opportunity, because it didn't require Indonesian language (just helping hands) and so it was one of the few times that I actually felt helpful as a volunteer. 

The books had been stored in the organization's tuberculosis clinic... so seeing the TB operation was the really interesting part of that experience. We got to sit down with the director of the clinic and learn all about TB: the local stigma associated with the disease (how it's a disease of the poor, and so when people get the disease they don't seek treatment or tell others about it for fear of being shunned...which allows this contagious disease to spread), the treatment process, the costs involved, etc. It was fascinating! The center offers free treatment (treatment would otherwise be about $11 a week, which is an exorbitant amount here), but the treatment requires taking a daily pill for 6-8 months, so many people don't finish the treatment. We were taken into the lab where we saw a woman sitting at a microscope looking at patients' sputum samples and recording whether they were TB positive or negative. The samples were scattered around her on the table, and next to the microscope was a stack of papers and a pencil... she was literally just checking a "positive" or "negative" box on each form after looking at the corresponding sputum sample. It was so simple! We even got to look in the microscope at a sample that was TB positive, and I could actually see the TB bacteria (it was red, so stood out). Wow! Where else could I have this kind of experience?? I feel like I am being exposed to so much! On a side note, neither Sara nor I have had the TB vaccine (most Americans do not) and so wore face masks and gloves the entire time we were there. 

The third and last organization that I have gotten involved with is an organization called SOS Children's Village. It is an Austrian-based organization that has branches all over the world. I have befriended the woman whose family brought SOS to Indonesia (her husband is currently the Indonesian director) and they have encouraged me to volunteer at the Jakarta village, as well as check out the other 7 scattered around Indonesia if I have time. The Jakarta Children's Village is quite far away... it's in Southeast Jakarta and takes 2 hours to get to on public transportation. I went one day last week to check it out. It's an incredible organization! Basically it's a center for children that either don't have parents at all or have parents that can't provide for them. The center is set up as an actual village, with a soccer field in the middle, and 15 small houses situated around it. Each house has a mother in charge, and has 5-8 kids that live there. Each house is autonomous and has its own rules and traditions (some are Muslim houses, others are Christian), but the kids get to live and interact together in a beautiful and well-maintained "village". Imagine mango trees everywhere and little kids running around playing hide and seek in bushes... it appeared very idyllic!  The children all go to school in the morning (they attend normal government schools), and in the afternoon they are required to participate in extracurricular activities. They have so many options... sewing, traditional dance, percussion, choir, badminton, etc. I sat in on a percussion group, which was utterly amazing! Apparently they have won first place in a televised competition. I also watched a choir class- adorable. I think that when I come back to the village in the future, I will spend the night (to make the long trek out worth my while), and just hang out with kids and maybe do some English-teaching. 

Volunteering aside... I got a JOB! Woohoo! I will be teaching English at a English language school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For every 80 minute class I teach I will make $150,000 Rupiah... about $15 (and I get cash at the end of every session! And they throw in about $6 for transportation).  The students are all Indonesian, age 7-18, and come from fairly wealthy backgrounds if they can pay for a program like this. The downside to the job is that it's a quite a trek to get to the school. It's only about 12 miles away.... but with traffic it takes about 2 hours each way. I take 2 buses to get there... and it is a LONG journey. 

So yes... I will be teaching lots of English in the months to come! I am excited though, I am starting to settle into routine and get to know the area. 

That's all for now!