Substitute teachers

 The day we visited the Merapi area, we delivered supplies to two school that had pupils from refugee families, delivering the bags to the appropriate children. At the second school we visited, all the faculty came out, and they brought us tea (this is not remarkable – tea simply appears) and made us comfortable and brought the kids out in small groups. We gave them the packages one by one in a sort of awkward procession (for me) – they would shake our hands and thank us and take the supplies. “Terima Kasih” “Sama-sama” again and again. We sort of dispersed after a while, Laura inside talking to someone while the kids were who knows where and I was in the parking lot, squatting so I could look kids in the face, shaking hands, saying “sama-sama” again and again. Only after I it had been happening for a few minutes did I register the howls of laughter coming from a classroom just behind me.

As soon as I finished passing out bags I darted into the school, because I have learned that most of the time the loud peals coming when I am around have something to do with my kids. Sure enough, in front of the noisy classroom were Seamus and Graham giving an impromptu English class to a group of 7^th graders while their teachers were at first distracted and then delighted. Graham would write things on the board like “Saya suka ayam goreng” and then when a girl (all girls in this class) would say “I like fried chicken” he marched to the back of the class and gave her the whiteboard marker and insisted that they come forward to write their sentence on the board. This occasioned great squeals and much embarrassment, and it was truly hilarious.

I’ve included a full text of Seamus’s English lesson below. 

(Bule is the Indonesian gringo.)
Saya suka bule ini.
I like this bule.
Bule ini keron sekali.
This bule is really cool.
(Kesukaan) saya bule adalah Seamus.
My favorite bule is Seamus.