Persib Vikings!

For those of you who have been following the criminal investigation of the Balinese monkey who steals water bottles, the police have released this photo

If you have seen this monkey please contact crimestoppers immediately 

Welcome back to Trevinindo. One of the highlights since my last post was attending a Persib Vikings football match. Persib is the local professional soccer team and two of the BBS drivers offered to take Kyle, Cassanadra, Alice and I out to a game. The stadium is 30km from where we live. The game began at 3:00pm. We left at 10:00am in case there was traffic. As some of you may have just calculated, it would have been faster to walk to the game.

One thing that Indonesians are very good at is carpooling. And today it seemed like everyone was coming out to watch Persib play

First order of business was to purchase some Persib gear so we would look like real fans

Usually my first instinct is not to wear a scarf in a country that is summer year round but for today I will make an exception

In Canada, "one size fits all" hats are a lie. It is even more of a myth in Indonesia

Fortunately there was "no traffic" so it only took us two hours to get to the stadium. It then took us another two hours to get in the stadium because we stopped and posed for literally over a thousand pictures. Every local wanted a picture with the four Bules (white people) who were at the Persib game so we happily obliged and received many laughs, smiles and much gratitude from everyone who took a picture. We stood still for hours while locals rotated in and out for a photo, while we smiled and wondered when the line would ever dwindle down. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I kind of enjoyed all the attention. I am also happy to know that if teaching doesn't work out for me I have a promising career as Santa Clause in the "take a photo with Santa" booth at the mall.

When we did enter the game my water bottle was taken from me and the water was poured into a plastic bag and I was given a straw. Having owned several goldfish as a child I had to double check that there wasn't a goldfish in the bag. Later I did find out why my water bottle was taken from me. I originally thought the water bottle monkey thief was hiring soccer security guards to do his dirty work but I will share the real reason with you shortly.

A shot of our group. Alice, Cass and Kyle in the front row. And in the back is myself between the two school drivers, Jojo and Okie, who joined us for the game

A photo from our seats showing how decorated the crowd gets. Fortunately our seats were in the shaded section

If posing for photos all afternoon didn't make us feel like celebrities, the interview with a television crew certainly was the icing on the cake. It still perplexes me why this was a newsworthy story but it must just be incredibly rare that white people would be attending a Persib game (again, later I got a better idea why that is the case).

One interview would have been interesting enough, but a second television crew spotted us at halftime and wanted an interview. Questions included where are you from? Why are you in Bandung? Do you like Persib? Kyle managed to get a plug in for Bina Bangsa School.

Just after halftime Kyle received a facebook message from one of our students that he saw us on TV. He kindly rewinded and took a photo for us all to enjoy. 

I was going for Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker", for my more artistic readers

Oh and yes, there was actually a soccer game being played this whole time. Persib dominated the scoreless first half but gave up two goals early in the second. We managed a late goal on a penalty kick and the crowd absolutely erupted. 

I just found a youtube video showing the goals of the game we were at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeOSLuG0b_8

The game itself had what I imagine to be a very South American vibe where you just do not show up to a game dressed in the away team's colours. I found out that the perspective from many expats, locals, and all of my students is that going to Persib games is very dangerous. The following two photos were taken towards the end of the game when the fans decided Persib was going to lose (we were only down one goal). The first picture is of some flares that were lit by overly passionate fans. The second is the reason why water bottles are confiscated before entering the game, because they throw them on the field. There was also a large amount of police with riot control gear in attendance the whole game. 

I'm reluctant to post this video because I think it implies that it is much more dangerous than it actually felt but here is a youtube video about some rioting at the game we were at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvsG890Zr0

I have no idea what the reporters are saying, its all in Bahasa Indonesian, but I can definitely understand why there is a belief that it isn't safe to go to the games. At the same time, I can't emphasize enough that it is actually quite a small percentage of fans that get reckless, and we felt fairly safe the whole time. As we were leaving there were many people trying to take photos with us, and just enjoying the sunny afternoon, and not looking to make a fuss about Persib losing. Please don't take the video and photos out of context. I would be fully comfortable going to a game again, it just isn't somewhere I would go with my mom. But Adonis Hamadi, if you're down to go I'm sure there is some serious betting action on Persib games.

Then it was time to pile everyone in, and on top of, the car to head home. I respect that one of them had the consideration to bring a drum since they don't have radio on the roof

These past two weeks had quite a few memorable moments that I'd like to share with you:

Surprise moment of the week!

There are certain things in life that you have just always known to be true. Stealing is wrong, fire is hot, all dogs are boys and all cats are girls, watermelon is green on the outside and red on the inside. You don't remember ever learning these things but everyone knows them to be true. Imagine my surprise when I cut my nice, juicy, green watermelon in half and saw this

I almost didn't eat it because I didn't trust it, but I think yellow watermelon might taste even better than red watermelon

Ironic moment of the week!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I'm generally a happy guy and almost always in a good mood. But from time to time, I can get a little grumpy. Another one of life's truths is that when I am grumpy, the worst possible thing you could do is ask me if I am grumpy. I hate it. And it makes my grumpiness worse. It got so bad that my housemates of four years at Queen's started referring to it as "the G word" because it was much more tolerable for me to hear when I am grumpy.

One fine Wednesday morning last week I woke up and immediately recognized that I had a bad case of the G word. I was not going to be fun to be around today. When I got to school and tried to make a coffee, the water heater that boils our hot water wasn't working. I made it very clear to those around me that it was to everyone's benefit that I find some hot water for a coffee.

My first class that morning was life skills, and of all the possible topics I could have taught on that day when I was the G word, I had to teach positive attitude. Another universal truth was broken. I thought the worst thing that could happen to me when I was grumpy was for someone to ask me if I am grumpy. But it turns out the worst thing that can happen when I am grumpy is to have to teach a group of very impressionable children the importance of having a positive attitude. After the previous week's fiasco on teaching perspective, and now this, I am beginning to think teaching life skills is not my calling.

Just had to ask moment of the week!

Another universal truth is that if you dig a hole deep enough, you will end up in China. By logical reasoning, I assume that children in China grow up being told that if you dig a hole deep enough, you will end up in Canada. This realization occurred to me in the middle of class, and Indonesia is kinda close to China, and I couldn't focus on teaching until I found out for sure. There was a slight moment where I realized the students might think I am crazy, but I had to ask. "Hey guys, if you dig a hole and just keep on digging, where will you end up?". Blank stares. The seconds on the clock ticked by. The literalist in the room took a stab at it, "The centre of the Earth?". I could work with that, "Keep digging, where do you end up?". Finally one student shouted out, "China!!". I guess its not a two way tunnel after all, if you dig a hole anywhere in the world, you will end up in China.


This past Friday we went out for Karaoke with some of the school secretaries and their friends. There are quite a few things in Indonesia that I prefer the way we do it in Canada, but I have to give Indonesia credit that they do Karaoke right. In Canada, you go to a bar, put your name and song on the list, wait up to a few hours for it to be your turn, all while listening to strangers sing quite terribly, and then when it is finally your turn to sing you have to sing in front of a bunch of strangers, who are judging you just as much as you were just judging them.

In Indo you and your group go into a private room with your own Karaoke set up. You can sing all the songs you want, you're only performing for your friends, and with the press of a button they bring you another pitcher of beer. It was such a good time and it is a tradition we hope to keep up once a month for the rest of the school year. Not to brag or anything, but Kyle and mine's duet of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers got a score of 100, the highest score of the evening.

 The other thing about Karaoke here is dancing is highly encouraged

And I am sure everyone knew I would be singing this song. See if you can spot the typo