BikeJava Day 2: Learning Together

May 25th, 2011

We woke up to our first day of volunteering in complete silence. If there was a call to prayer, I had missed it because I was completely passed out. There were no motorbikes, trucks, or street vendors passing in front of our door – we were about 10 meters above the rice paddies and 300 meters away from the somewhat paved road. For us, the experience became new when we towed our bikes and panniers up the steep path to our temporary residence.

Satria Muda Homebase

When I say we volunteered, I mean it in a very relaxed way. There were no sign-in sheets, hours logged, free shirts, or clearly written-up agenda. The sun lazily parted the mist on the land below, children scurried off to school, adults went for work, and in the distance backhoes began their day’s labor of sand mining, eating away at a nearby hill. In the cluster of 7-8 homes there was one older model motorbike. After our first of many cups of coffee on this journey, a group of high school girls showed up – the newest members of Satria Muda. Not only are they the newest members, they are also the first cohort of females to the group! We chatted, taught some English, introduced ourselves and played a name game. Then the catfish came! Approximately 680 catfish in these two blue barrels. I asked if the villagers and/or Satria Muda were breeding them yet. They said they were still in the learning process, so these catfish are to help teach them how to care for the catfish, to ensure that their pond is adequate, and get them used to taking them to market. The breeding will be underway soon, hopefully. Next we stuffed polybags with a mix of fertilizer and compost for cultivating trees. The girls hopped right in with no qualms about getting a little dirty. It got hot fast so we only filled half of the bags for the day. We left the girls with a little motivational farewell with the hope that they will continue to protect the environment and continue to love learning whether it’s English or not. The rest of our day was spent waiting for some young adults to show up for an English lesson, but the rain kept them away.

Group Shot with Satria Muda (Note the Newest Female Members in Green).

Fish in a Barrel!

Fish Out of the Barrel.

Packing Polybags with Compost/Manure for Tree Saplings.

After About 3 Weeks to a Month.

Beginning Our English Lesson.

Even though we rode for only a day so far I am glad we had that day of rest for mine and Heather’s sake; Mas Wang didn’t need it but he took many naps and smoked a number of cigarettes. He must think we’re odd. We’re doing this BikeJava tour stopping at obscure places to play English games.

In order to bring you these short snippets of our tour I cycled to a nearby warnet 2km away at night through rice paddies (literally; on a 1/3 m wide slightly paved path) then over hills. One of our hosts, Mahmud, accompanied me. I frantically clicked at tabs, programs, windows on the warnet computer as if racing to stop a bomb. I showed Mahmud all the cool nature photos on the National Geograhic website and bought him a ginger drink and a coffee for myself. The coffee was a horrible idea... I laid awake in bed from 9:30pm to 11:30pm trying to sleep, then I had really bizarre dreams.