Inbound Orientation October 18-22

I woke up, got packed and relaxed. Because I would be traveling I could not go to school. I rode with Lae and her host mom to the 'travel' station. Travel is a van that takes several people to a predetermined destination (there are travel cars that go from Bandung to Jakarta every day). Leti, Lae and I took a van to Jakarta for inbound orientation at about 2:30 pm. The drive was pleasant, after experiencing very bad roads the new highway system was amazing. I was able to stretch out and relax and the trip only cost 7 dollars. When we got to Jakarta, we were met by a Rotarian. We would spend the night at her house and then go to orientation in the morning. Her house was very nice and the three of had a goodnight. The only hiccup was a distinct cultural moment. In Indonesia- wet is clean; because of this philosophy bathroom floors are often soaked (and in houses you cannot wear shoes so it is sometimes very gross) and people 'wipe' with little hoses attached to the toilet. Leti took a shower first, it took her longer than normal, almost 20 minutes. When she finally came out I asked what took her so long, she said that the shower was malfunctioning and wished me luck. I showered last. When I got in the bathroom- everything was already soaked. I got into the shower (no curtain) I turned on the water. I immediately knew what the problem was. The water shot off in every direction, soaking the walls, the hard wood floor and everything else in between. I just took a shower fast, knowing that nothing I did would stop the water from going everywhere. I would feel bad that we destroyed the bathroom but, wet is clean and Indonesians do not seem to care when everything is wet. We woke up in the morning, had breakfast and got ready to go. We left an hour and a half before we had to meet everyone for orientation - traffic in Jakarta is even worse than the traffic in Bandung. I slept most of the way. We arrived at an old government building made by the Dutch. We were some of the last people to arrive. This year there are 29 inbounds in Indonesia they live all over Indonesia and come from countries all over the world (USA, Brazil, France, Belgium, Japan, Colombia, Germany and Canada). Everyone started talking. I had not met anyone yet and it was really nice to get to know people. Rotary decided that we should have a tour so they paid for tour guides to walk us around the building and teach us about a boring building in Indonesian. No one paid attention. I feel bad for the guides but, talking to people was much more interesting than looking at a building. We took several pictures, loaded up our stuff onto a bus and headed off to another destination. We went to the National Museum. Again, we had people talking us through the exhibits and it was very hard to listen to them. We took more pictures at the museum and them drove the national monument in Jakarta. I had already been here but, it didn't matter much. We got off the bus lined up took pictures and then got back on the bus. We couldn't even really look at the monument because it was behind us in the pictures. We got back on the bus and drove to Bogor- a city about an hour and a half away. Then we went to a walking museum where there are life size models of traditional Indonesian ethnic groups. It was actually fun to look at the houses but, the fun was broken up with more photos and more talking by the guides (who also talked during most of the bus ride). The last stop on our tour was the 'Golden Snail' it is a yellow building that is a 3D movie theater. We did not actually see a movie there but we did take a picture. Eighty years from now I am going to look at those pictures and think that I actually when to those places.. nope I just took a hundred pictures there. With our photo tour concluded we went to the hotel for dinner, or that is where we thought we were going. The "hotel" was really a bunch of small houses set in hills with an outdoor dining area. After our dinner, and settling into our rooms we had free time. It was about 9 but we decided to go swimming. It was so much fun! There was a slide that was shut down (it was after hours) so we took turns running up the slide and then going down it. It was much better than going on an open slide and using a ladder. There were some pretty funny wipeouts too. The next morning we had to wake up early for sports. "Sports" was run by us (because Indonesian people never work out) and it turned into stretch and then go for a leisurely walk. After our rigorous morning workout we had time to eat, shower and get ready for the morning meetings. These meeting made me appreciate the Rotary program in Florida. We had the typical 'be aware of sexual abuse' lecture. The lady told us to follow our instincts and that if we feel uncomfortable we should tell someone. Then to make the message very clear a man got up and told us "you cannot always trust your instincts". He told us about cultural differences and how it is ok for people to rub our legs or push our butts. I was getting lost of mixed messages (and I speak English- I have no idea what the kids where thinking if English was their second Language). Then the lady kept talking about cultural differences and said I quote "Indonesia is not as free as Brazil, we do not drink and have sex all the time here." Jaws dropped. There was silence as we all looked at each other, one of the boys from Brazil quickly corrected the lady and the meeting went on. But, Rotary youth exchange is a program whose purpose is to bring about cultural  education. It is completely unacceptable for Rotary leaders to be throwing out stereotypes. We talked about many other things including school and host families. Many kids talked about problems they were facing and Rotary said nothing. They just said "well Ok we will think about it but, we need to move on so no more talking about it" or "you need to try harder" (this advice was given were it had nothing to do leadership, no clear direction and I left feeling like I could not count on Rotarians to help me with my problems (including possible serious ones that require immediate action). I left the meeting frustrated and angry. We went outside, to find that we had another activity planed. We were taken by some random people to a little soccer field. They had us form a circle and then led us through a series of activities that can be described as childish, ridiculous, pointless, and a total waste of time. We were all starting to feel the effects of staying up all night. Many of my friends had already had several cups of coffee. Everyone just wanted to stop and do anything else. It felt like forever but it was at least an hour and a half of stupid exercises. When we were finally done we all ran away from the field before the 'activity leaders' could call us back. I met lots of people throughout the weekend. Everyone when on exchange for different reasons and we are all individuals but we have all been through similar experiences. After lunch we had more meeting and a speech contest. No one told us that what we should say or that it should be at least two minutes long. And guess who had to go first- me. Sweet. I had something prepared but it wasn't very good and I just read it. I don't really care though, some people did much better than me others did much worse. It didn't really matter. We had dinner and then the talent show. Everyone should perform in two presentations (one with the other people in your host city and one with the people from your home country). The girls from Bandung and Cirebon played the Angklung. We messed up a lot, which sucks because we actually practiced and then the Americans did the YMCA and sung our national anthem. The talent show was confusing and unorganized but that is the Indonesian way and I am starting to get used to it. We stayed up late talking again.  In the morning we left at 8 am to go to a drive through zoo (called a Safari). The safari was very cool. The only thing that bothered me a little was the big cats section. There were at least a dozen lions of tigers and they were free to move around. There wasn't any railing or distance separating the wild cats and us, only a sign that said "do not open your car door." After the driving tour, we had time to walk around a different area of the zoo. I touched an elephant for the first time and latter I paid about two dollars to hold a monkey. While I was standing in line to hold the monkey the monkey dropped out of the lady's arms and ran to the Zoo Worker. The worker picked up the monkey, walked to the bushes, the monkey went pee and then the worker washed the monkey's butt in the sink that is for guests to wash their hands and dried the monkey's butt on a janitor's rag. By far, the safari was the best thing we did all weekend. Some people had to take a plane home but for those of us that would be staying the night in Jakarta we went to dinner. The dinner was very good but it was unclear who was paying until the bill came. Apparently, the Rotarians wanted us to pay for our dinners (even though they invited us to dinner and most of the time when we go out with people they pay for us). It would have been nice if they had warned us. I didn't have a problem because I always have money but some people had to go to the ATM. It was all very confusing which was followed with deciding where everyone was spending the night. We ended up staying at a Brazilian boy's house with his host family. They were very nice, and they even let us sleep in the next morning. After a late lunch we barely made it to the travel on time to get home. The trip was uneventful and I was picked up by my fourth host family at the travel station in Bandung. I went to my host club Rotary meeting with my host family and then went to their house. They are so nice and I was very excited to spend the next day with them.

I do want to say that I love Rotary and that most times I love the activities and the get-togethers. I just think that this event was sub-par. It was no one's fault and I still want to get to know the Indonesian Rotary better.