Visiting Islamic High Schools (August 31)

Islamic School Cultural Experience (August 31)

Today I was planning on going to Gili Trawangan (Gili T) for a night or two and meeting the 7 Indonesians I met from the beach before. Gili T is famous for it’s beaches and nightlife, but since I can’t move that well and can’t swim in the ocean for about a week I decide to just stay at Iwan’s place in Lombok. I need to rest and relax. Staying in Lombok had an extra bonus. I was going to go with one of Iwan’s friends, who is a high school teacher at different Islamic High schools in Lombok. In Indonesia, a teacher will normally not work at just one school. Instead, they will go to different schools in a day to teach one or two classes at each school.

I woke up at 8 am pretty sore and try my best to get ready with my new injury slowing me down.  Iwan’s friend picks me up and takes me to the first Islamic high school. As we walk into the open plan school students start staring through all the windows to get a look at me. I am one of the first foreigners to enter this school ever. Boys and girls go to class and learn together, but they sit on different benches. Everyone is wearing a uniform, which includes a hijab for the girls. I stand in front of all the students and give a speech about my background, what I am doing in their country, and I was told to include something about the importance of learning English. Afterwards, I let them ask any questions they wanted about me, or the USA. Surprisingly, the girls were the boldest ones and would ask the most questions. While, the boys focused more on American music and movies such as, “Did I liked Eminem?” or “What is my favorite Marvel movie?” the girls wanted to know if I had a girlfriend or if I would be facebook friends with them. They were all very engaging and had dreams to travel the world. They especially wanted to travel to the USA and all seemed to love President Obama. We did this at two different high schools and we would leave after taking pictures with the classes. It was a really great experience and the students and me really enjoyed ourselves.