Goodbye Telkomsel... Hopefully Forever

I first want to apologize for the sparse (lack of) updates recently. It has been a perfect storm of mundane misfortunes that has kept me from not only using the internet but also writing in general. The biggest deterrents have been increases in my responsibilities at the school, as well as having to keep up appearances in neighboring villages. I haven't really written much about the flooding here, but as catastrophic as it has been, I still would have been tied down in Guyangan flood or not.

The last half of February and the first half of March went by without my having ventured outside Pati at all. Spending extended amounts of time in my village with no breaks has been incredibly rewarding, but I can certainly understand why most of the Fulbrighters don't do it. Your daily activities, friendships, tasks, and expectations that others put on you start to snowball exponentially, out of control, until no semblance of your life in the States remains.

After eight months of living in an exotic alien environment, I've only now come to fully understand my daily needs and recognize what is essential to ensure my happiness. Everything really comes down to people and relationships when I take into account what keeps me smiling on a day-to-day basis. If you know me pretty well, you know that I'm a social person, and this might not come as too much of a shock. However, the extent to which it is true has surprised even me. Any time I leave Pati, the only thing I really ever buy is ice cream at the mall in Semarang. And if I do shop, I inevitably end up with two bags full of imported candy that I use as rewards for my students. My vices and my splurges are so minimal here. The sacrifices I've made to live in Guyangan have ended up being so inconsequential. That's why I've been able to afford a video camera and a new computer from nothing other than my Fulbright stipend; there's really nothing to spend money on here. I guarantee that I use no more money on a daily basis than most teachers at my school, other than when I travel of course (which is a big expense). Friendships have always been my number one priority here, and while they've sometimes been confusing and occasionally frustrating, they have been my most worth while investments.

That being said, I can't leave these introspective thoughts without telling the whole story – if I didn't have a lock on my door, I would probably go insane. I'm positive that people know (to the minute) when I'm in my house, when I'm at school, and when I'm in Jakarta. So, when someone comes to my door, I'm sure that he (not “or she...” that would be disastrous) knows quite well that I'm in my living room. But, do I always respond to their obsessive knocking? God no. Being no less than 100% extroverted when I'm outside my home has lead to my becoming virtually 100% introverted while I'm inside my home. I'm in the center of a fairly large complex of buildings, I have no outside windows, and I can't even hear the call to prayer. It has been terribly satisfying to spend an entire day, from time to time, ignoring every Indonesian phone call I receive, laughing at different cadences of knocks on my door (trying to guess who will certainly not be entering my house today), and not even seeing the light of day from sun up to sun down. That might sound depressing, but it doesn't happen like that very often. Waking up to random people watching my television, using my computer, or reading my books didn't bother me at first (kinda), but I felt that it was necessary to have at least some sense of privacy. When you set boundaries here, ya gotta set 'em high!

Oh, and one more thing. Internet. I either want a reliable source of internet or no internet at all (preferably the former). My cell phone being stolen was a real blow, but I can confidently say that my blood pressure has gone down since it happened. One evening, upon being blindingly furious about the 7th failed attempt in row to connect to Telkomsel's remote server (a pretty common occurrence), I calmed down and decided that I would get to the bottom of why exactly I was so irate. This had to be done. I remember very few times in my life, if any, of being angered to the point of wanting to inflict physical harm to virtually anything I looked at, and I didn't want this to be a new personality trait. My soul searching some how lead me to the school's library, where I looked up the word “technology” in an English dictionary. Its entry was this: “Technology – The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes and for simplifying our daily lives.” I want to stress “simplifying our daily lives.” Simplifying. By it's very definition, this advanced piece of equipment sitting next to my computer was contradicting its only purpose for even being in existence. I take that very personally. So, I'm not even angry with the guy who stole my phone, which is much more than I can say for my friend Imam. He was so appalled and embarrassed to hear that something like that had happened to me in his country that he promptly wished an eternal stomach ache on the thief. I doubt though that his curse was even necessary, because if that pickpocket hasn't already keeled over from a heart attack of frustration, then he deserves to have a Nokia N70.