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Author Archives: melanie aleman
Bondowoso / Culture / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People / Teaching
The Weight of A Cultural Difference
The following was written before in-service training in Surabaya. I am standing in front of the mirror in my room, analyzing every curve at every angle. Am I fatter? I think to myself. I don’t look any different. I try different clothes on to check. Nothing looks different, but after one-too-many comments on how I … Continue reading
Bondowoso / Culture / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / Religion / Teaching / Travel
Traditional Ghosts in Indonesia
Indonesia—like most countries—has many folk tales, myths and dubious characters (i.e. ghosts). Javanese in particular are very superstitious people, who will often sleep with the lights on to guard away evil spirits. Today, quite randomly, English club diverted into talking about ghosts—though it does fit in appropriately with Halloween and Dia de los Muertos in … Continue reading
Bondowoso / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People / Teaching
Teacher Problems, #3
Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People
Suasana Hati
Seven months ago my life was a mess. I was selling furniture, giving away stuff, sorting through papers and clothes, all in preparation to move across the world. I slept in a half furnished room, in a nearly empty apartment. At the time, I was dismantling the life I had built, rolling it up into … Continue reading
Bondowoso / Daily Life / Food / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People
Mango Mania
A characteristic of my village neighborhood is that it is lined with mango trees. Every house has at least one. Mine has two. I was completely unaware of this until about a month ago, when small budding fruit started to appear on every tree. Now, growing green mangoes hang gloriously on all the trees and … Continue reading
Bali / Culture / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People / Photography / Religion / Travel
Sunset Silhouettes in Ulu Watu Temple, Bali
Bali is only a few hours from Java, but culturally, it is a whole world away. The people are primarily Hindu, so small baskets of colorful flower petals and incense—and the occasional cigarette—line streets, sidewalks, steps and cars’ dashboards as offerings to the gods. In Bali, I saw no mosques and heard no call to … Continue reading
Bali / Culture / Daily Life / Indonesia / Language / Peace Corps / People / Photography / Religion / Travel
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Kuta, Bali
As Peace Corps Volunteers we are forbidden to travel away from our sites overnight during our first three months at our permanent site. September 15th marked our group’s three-month mark, so we are finally released from our gilded village cages. To celebrate this, 13 volunteers and I headed to Southern Bali for the first time … Continue reading
Bondowoso / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / Teaching
Teacher Problems, #2
Bondowoso / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People / Religion / Teaching / Travel
Behind-the-Blog Drama
During Idul Fitri, the biggest Islamic holiday of the year, I had way too much time to think about life and generally, I was having emotional overload with all the new experiences and information. I felt a lot of things that I couldn’t really blog about simply because it just wasn’t very clear. Now, after … Continue reading
Bondowoso / Culture / Daily Life / Indonesia / Language / Peace Corps / People / Travel
Becak Ridin’ & the Most Useful Word in Bahasa Indonesia
The other day I arrived to my site from visiting nearby volunteers in another city and it was pretty late—meaning after 6pm. It was already dark out and I didn’t feel like walking the several kilometers between the bus terminal and my house, so I decided to take a becak. A becak is basically Indonesia’s … Continue reading
Culture / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People / Photography / Travel
An Epic Beach Battle
At a beach side warong, there was once an epic battle between two little island boys with the sea in their blood and the sun in their hair. Continue reading
Bondowoso / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / Travel
Conversations with Indonesian Journalists
(Alternatively, this could be titled Accosted by Indonesian Journalists.) A few weeks ago, I was trying to catch up on some online activities at an outdoor internet café close to my town’s main square. I spotted a nice empty table to sit at, next to a large group of men, smoking and a single, lone … Continue reading
Bondowoso / Daily Life / Indonesia / Peace Corps / People / Teaching
Teacher Problems, #1
Bondowoso / Culture / Daily Life / Food / Indonesia / Peace Corps
The Best Indonesian Dessert Ever
Ramadan ended with the Idul Fitri holiday, which required me to accompany my host family to Jember and visit more than ten different houses of close family and friends. (Ten doesn’t sound like a lot, but trust me, it is.) In each of these houses I met more than 25 people, sometimes we went to … Continue reading
in the land of dragons 