For teachers

Many of you teachers have come into schools a few days early to set up your classroom. Well, here, we have people that take care of that for you. If we just write on the wall the colour that we want the 'bees' will come in an do it for you. In fact, they get downright angry if you do it yourself.

I helped Marni move a desk and our aid, Redy (his joke is "I am Redy!"), gave us shit.

But, don't think it is all fun and games. One thing about Indonesian culture is that if you don't tell them to do something, or ask the right questions, jobs won't get done. I asked some Bees to give my room a cleaning. They used one rag- for everything. Never rinsed it. And, I had to leave every drawer and cupboard open or else it would not get done. There is no assuming in Indonesia. But, like a wise women said to be one "A clean classroom means your a good teacher." That one is for Simon. Come to think of it, that lady cleaned my whole room with one rag, too. Oh, Richard!

And....back home you don't have to clean up rat shit.

The whole "Not asking the right questions" thing came to a head yesterday while they were installing SMART boards. Apparently, we could have had 6 fully loaded SMARTboards, projectors and speakers for about $18000 through a company in Texas. After negotiating with a local company, we successfully purchased $18000 worth of equipment for exactly $18000. That said, we have some great SMARTboards with no projectors. Apparently, they were not part of negotiations.

Somebody, somewhere had asked if the model of SMARTboard we were ordering were adequate for our school. The answer was, of course, "Yes". But, that would be like asking if you could row a boat to England. You could, but there are better options. Somebody here was not made clear the other options. You never have to worry about being upsold here in Indonesia. They will just rip you off with the stuff you want.