Celebrating Indo Day, SPH style

Yesterday, Monday, was the official Indonesia Day. I'm told that, during this 3-day weekend, I could've easily gone to Jakarta without any major traffic problems. However, I had no burning desire to go to Jakarta, mainly because I was so burned out from school, so I have no idea what kinds of festivities went on in Jakarta.
I did manage to trek to Bogor to a mall. Bogor didn't seem any more exciting than usual (translation: not very exciting), so I didn't really do much to acknowledge the holiday.
However, SPH always honors Indo's independence day by having a flag ceremony in the morning. (No flag ceremony is ever complete here without a cot for when the little girls faint from heat/buckling their knees...it's always an exciting thing...) Then the students listen to lectures in the morning and get muddy/sweaty/stinky all afternoon by having fun in the blazing sun.
Enjoy the photos!
The student council kiddos organized the afternoon's activities. We were outside all afternoon, and I looked forward to the water balloon fight, because it was ridiculously hot. Alas, there was no water balloon fight, for some sad reason.
Anyways, Student Council had cooling fundraisers throughout the day to raise money for an orphanage. Getting your face painted was one of the fundraisers, but I didn't have any money on me, so...I was just a regular bule face all day. :-P



One of the activities involved eels somehow. All I know is I saw students running around, trying to smash the eels into water bottles, and then trying to wipe their eel-y hands on innocent students and teachers. They invited me to join them. I politely declined.

Nooooo thanks!

Cleo's showing her Indonesian pride!

Some happy girls, showing their patriotism

These are some of my favorite 8th grade students, who were formerly my drama students. :-P

Mr. Eric, hanging out w/ his 11th grade kiddos

Some of my sweet English 10 students!

Funny kids :)

Go, 9th graders!

I took this photo mainly for Regina's animated face as she cheered for her team, but I actually like all 3 of the girls' faces. Soo pretty!

I actually did a sack race with some of the other teachers, but I didn't get a photo taken of it. (There are many skeptics in my family who, for some reason, doubt my amazing athletic abilities, so they'll probably never believe me on that statement.) However, I WAS a part of the teacher team for Tug-of-War.

Here are photos as proof!

Thinking about doing Tug-of-War takes much concentration...

...to pull the rope, or to not pull the rope? That's such a difficult question!

"Ok, Mr. Scott, you've convinced me I can help the teacher team win! Let's do this thing."

Sooo...

...ready...set...

...GO!

Look! I'm pulling the rope!

(And YES, I actually DID exert myself in doing this!)

Remember the scary pole that I wrote about in last year's post from Indo Day? Well, the men climbed it again. They all were hosed down and tried to climb the greasy bamboo pole, which was also being hosed down, in hopes of getting some random prize at the top, such as a pot or a rice cooker. It was scary to watch.

So I didn't.

The guy in the red t-shirt is named Pak Lili, and he's the P.E. teacher. He was in charge of the creepy eel activity, and here, in this photo, you can see his funny facial expression after he put the finally-dead eels down the pants of the men trying to climb the pole. (I later yelled at him for this.)

In a few weeks, we'll acknowledge Indonesia Day again in the gym. However, this time, it will be to exhibit how many of the classes had created interdisciplinary units around Indonesian themes. Naturally, I'll post photos. :-P

Now it's time to work. It's gonna be a late night..............