Enculturating Oneself

DATE: January 12, 2019 – 3rd Day

Today, at 7:00 in the morning, Mr. Wahyu a faculty member of Halu Oleo University, assisted me in my assigned school. We went to SDN 84 Kendari and meet the principal to get my schedule for the following days at SDN 84 Kendari. As Mr. Wahyu talking with the principal, Mr. Wahyu is translating it for me. They said that my schedule will be from Monday to Friday and at 7:00-12:00 noon. I was asked what subject would I prefer to teach. Since I am not that good speaking Bahasa Indonesia, I said that I want to teach English subject. After the meeting with the principal, Mr. Wahyu toured me first around Kendari. We went to Masjid Al-Alam, the biggest mosque in the city. Afterwards, Mr. Mustamin told us to dress-up because we are going in to a party. I thought it was a welcome party for us but it was a wedding. I was amazed and it is a new experience for me to witness a Muslim wedding. After the wedding, we went to a park where you can see the beauty of Kendari beach. After taking pictures in the park, we went to Masjid Al-Alam. Because of the heavy rain, we wait outside of the mosque for about 1 hour. When the rain stops, we went to Tracking Mangrove Pulau Bungkutoko, it is like a forest. We take pictures and enjoy the view. At 9:00 in the evening, Mr. Mustamin fetch us to have a dinner with his family. We ate ayam goreng or in English, it is fried chicken.

Lessons learned:

Today, I have improved myself in listening. I need to listen carefully to the instructions and everything that they will tell me because despite of the language barrier, if you listen carefully you will be able to understand them. Hence, listening is the key! Another lesson that I have learned today is that, being able to see the beauty of other culture. I am amazed because Indonesian people really preserving the importance of ethnicity, tribes, and their culture. Just like the wedding that I’ve witnessed, you will see that although modernization in the world has been stabilized, they still manage to retained being traditional and that makes their country even more beautiful.