The Great Meeting & Getting To Know You

Its August 26th,
what would have been my friends 21st birthday had he not died-fucking life. I began this trip with a heavy heart. Dian and I had an early ass flight like 6am from Jakarta to Palembang. Dian stayed up all night doing some last minute work for the trip poor thing, she was scrambling around at the very last minute to pack...we finally left her house only to realize that she had forgotten her bank card. We turned around and went to get. Finally, we arrive at the airport thinking we would probably miss our flight. We had the intention of smoking a joint before hand but her parents were with us so we couldn't. As we went through security they stopped us because of the goddamn paint in my checked luggage...fucking airports. So we knew for sure we would miss our flight...some how though we didn't. Now the question was what to do with the joint? Well, in a moment of non-thinking I just shoved the cigarette pack down the front of my pants, thank god I had on a t-shirt....my heart was racing each time went through the numerous security checkpoints. It was definitely the most ballsy thing I've ever done.

We arrived in Palembang at 7am and waited for some more people to arrive, then we went to Pa Ade's house had snacks and started to get to one each other. YF, Dian, me, Miloni, Li Jing, Terence, John, and Charmaine were there, some people were missing but it was a pleasant time. We left and drove around Palembang on the way to our hotel, I saw many women precariously perched sideways on the back of motorcycles, one woman even held a very small child on her hip...I couldn't help but thinking of how terrible it would be if they crashed.

After leaving Pa Ade's house we checked into our hotel, Horizon. It's a gangsta ass place with beautiful rooms, a bar, and even a pool. I spent the afternoon with Terence, Li Jing, and John, teaching them how to play spades. We lounged by the pool talking-getting to know each other more. I told them about driving 12 hours like it was nothing-it was a merry time with much laughter. After Li Jing and I won at spades, we played hearts. It's funny how I always seem to end up with the boys playing cards and drinking.

We went out for dinner as a team, well all but Megan she would arrive the next morning...It was interesting-there's just something about fish with the heads still on that I can't seem to take. The driver's here keep calling me preman (gangster) because of my tats and lip rings, damn right son!

It's now August 27th,
we arrived in Sekayu today.
On the bus ride there I chilled and mourned for Matt in the front of the bus while the rest of the team played games and got rowdy together-it definitely sounded like they were having lots of fun, YAY!!!

Jumping right into the circle painting with Hiep was an interesting experience. At first, we expected about 15-20 students, then all of a sudden a swarm of students came there had to be like 150 of them. It was quite overwhelming. Eliza did an amazing job translating for Hiep. He seemed a little to controlling for my tastes, directing the kids a little too much in what was supposed to be creative expression. How could that bring people together like it was supposed to. The mayor of Sekayu joined us, we had gone to meet him earlier in what was supposed to be an informal meeting but turned out to be rows of people in uniforms. Dian had to give a speech in front of them all-she was nervous but as far as I know she did an amazing job.

After circle painting we relaxed a bit then met as a team to really discuss what we were going to be doing for the next week or so. Everyone provided great ideas and had really marvelous insights about ways to help this community. The leaders are absolutely amazing, and really lead everything well. We broke ourselves up into two groups: leadership and service (radio).
Radio: Kim, Dian, YF, Eliza, Steven, Eugene
Leadership: Megan, Li Jing, Terence, Charmaine, Miloni, John-John, and me

After our meeting, we relaxed some more and did spotlight on YF and Steven style. I was the one who pushed and pushed about the sexual/drug/taboo subjects (which would be the trend for spotlight on teeheeteehee). I felt it got everyone more comfortable and made the less racy questions much easier to answer.

At debrief, Hiep said he was disappointed in the lack of planning for the circle painting. Fucking bullshit goddamn asshole mother fucker. It really pissed me off because he seemed to somewhat blame us for something that was completely out of everyone's control

Anyways, thats been our time so far...it's been pretty fucking gangsta!!!!