Filling a Jar
2 weeks left of Pre-Service Training in Batu with my fellow trainees and we have already completed a bunch of requirements and have received news of our permanent site placements. Just this past week we spent 4 days and 3 nights away visiting current volunteers and seeing how they live and interact in their schools and communities. Each site is so different but every site is also perfect and catered to that volunteer because of how they have cultivated their environment to fit their needs.
As Swear-in approaches I've really been thinking about how I want to approach these next two years and how I want to cultivate my own site. It's easy to get lost in our day to day activities now because we are simply living in the moment. Peace Corps for me has always been a dream, an application that I worked on for two years because I was afraid to submit it and even more so to have something that I've hoped for, for so long, actually come true. Now that I'm here more than 2 months into training, it's a bit surreal sometimes to look at my life objectively and realize I'm in Peace Corps - I live in Indonesia - I've learned Bahasa Indonesia in 6 weeks - I'm moving to a rural village - I'm in a Peace Corps program that is still within its first 3 years since re-activating in 2010 - I represent Americans, my fellow trainees/volunteers, Peace Corps Indonesia and our host communities/schools - I will be among the first volunteers to serve in West Java and after all this I have to ask myself...
What is it that I want out of my Peace Corps service?
What can I do to help my community?
How can I help sustain projects here and further improve the PC Indonesia program as a whole?
In my village, I want to be an integral part of the goings on and be involved in daily activities and look at my service more from a perspective of how can I contribute to students lives, how can I serve my counterparts better as a co-teacher in their classroom? I want to come out of this with Bahasa Indonesia flowing through my vocal chords, I want my counterparts and school community to accept me and they don't have to be motivated but for me to feel like just another teacher- not just the bule "foreigner". I want my students to understand how they can apply English in their daily lives and in their futures and to inspire them to dream one step further than before. I hope that they can relate to me because I'm a Sri Lankan-American, to know that my parents came from villages just like their own and life is what you make of it. It doesn't matter if they are farmers, laborers, teachers there are so many ways to enrich your own life to reach for a higher ambition and improve yourself for every day that you were blessed with in your life. If any one person I meet can see that truth at the end of my 2 years, I will be ecstatic.
Although, this is what I reach for. I know that my small wins will be the glue that holds my service together. For every time a neighbor of mine tells their friend that thinks I'm Indian, "no she's American". For every time the children in my village scream 'Mbak Amanda' and greet me as I return home. For every time my Ibu, my neighbors and my family here claim me as their own kin to strangers. For every time I'm invited with open arms to attend a PKK meeting or a prayer meeting. At the end of the day with my jar of little wins - for every little win will be a few steps closer to making a difference one jar at a time.
As Swear-in approaches I've really been thinking about how I want to approach these next two years and how I want to cultivate my own site. It's easy to get lost in our day to day activities now because we are simply living in the moment. Peace Corps for me has always been a dream, an application that I worked on for two years because I was afraid to submit it and even more so to have something that I've hoped for, for so long, actually come true. Now that I'm here more than 2 months into training, it's a bit surreal sometimes to look at my life objectively and realize I'm in Peace Corps - I live in Indonesia - I've learned Bahasa Indonesia in 6 weeks - I'm moving to a rural village - I'm in a Peace Corps program that is still within its first 3 years since re-activating in 2010 - I represent Americans, my fellow trainees/volunteers, Peace Corps Indonesia and our host communities/schools - I will be among the first volunteers to serve in West Java and after all this I have to ask myself...
What is it that I want out of my Peace Corps service?
What can I do to help my community?
How can I help sustain projects here and further improve the PC Indonesia program as a whole?
In my village, I want to be an integral part of the goings on and be involved in daily activities and look at my service more from a perspective of how can I contribute to students lives, how can I serve my counterparts better as a co-teacher in their classroom? I want to come out of this with Bahasa Indonesia flowing through my vocal chords, I want my counterparts and school community to accept me and they don't have to be motivated but for me to feel like just another teacher- not just the bule "foreigner". I want my students to understand how they can apply English in their daily lives and in their futures and to inspire them to dream one step further than before. I hope that they can relate to me because I'm a Sri Lankan-American, to know that my parents came from villages just like their own and life is what you make of it. It doesn't matter if they are farmers, laborers, teachers there are so many ways to enrich your own life to reach for a higher ambition and improve yourself for every day that you were blessed with in your life. If any one person I meet can see that truth at the end of my 2 years, I will be ecstatic.
Although, this is what I reach for. I know that my small wins will be the glue that holds my service together. For every time a neighbor of mine tells their friend that thinks I'm Indian, "no she's American". For every time the children in my village scream 'Mbak Amanda' and greet me as I return home. For every time my Ibu, my neighbors and my family here claim me as their own kin to strangers. For every time I'm invited with open arms to attend a PKK meeting or a prayer meeting. At the end of the day with my jar of little wins - for every little win will be a few steps closer to making a difference one jar at a time.
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