There's No "Time-and-a-Half"; It's All the Time You Have!

Prior to my trip to Kalimantan, the school had crayons and scissors packed away in boxes, untouched. When asked why they weren't being used, the answer was simple - they had no paper. Nothing to color on, nothing to cut. So, when I went, our team took stacks of paper! We even made cards with the Junior and Senior High School students as they learned English! 335,500 Rp. = $36.99 My first bilingual Indonesian-English book: Fidgety Fish! If only I could capture the look in the eyes of children fascinated by the artwork, their excitement bursting as they hear a story, all in English. They may be puzzled by the words they hear, but they understand a story by the tones in my voice and by the beautiful, colorful pictures! 19,500 Rp. = $2.15 Here, there is no "overtime." It's the weirdest feeling to think that adjusting to a new culture is "work" in itself. Yet, it takes so much of my inner strength to be able to do so. There's not much down time, even when you're home relaxing: a new home, new people, new food for lunch and dinner, new loudspeaker calls, new smell of ashes from a nearby volcano or burning trash... Still, so much to explore, much to learn.