Indonesian Trip 2010

The new text here is being posted to a blog I did while speaking in 2008. This new data is actually not connected to that trip -- and to be more confusing -- it is related to a trip I took in 2009. The 2009 and 2010 (this trip) are both funded by a US State Department grant we call "Democracy and Tolerance: A Two Nation Exchange.
I did not keep a record of the 2009 trip on line.

The reason for attaching this to my 2008 trip is that many of my 2008 observations may be interesting in light of newer comments.

The following posts have the quality of a "We did this and then we did that" but I wanted to at least post events before I forgot them. Internet access is limited and it you can't ignore how tired you are after a day of meetings and talks in the midst of adjusting to jet lag -- your energy level does not always match the availability of technology.

The program “Democracy and Tolerance; A Two Nation Exchange” involves four separate trips.

The first was in February of 2009 and involved Newton teacher Michael Kozuch; Amherst teachers Samantha Camera, Tom Fricke and Kristen Iverson; and myself.

During that trip we traveled to Jakarta, Balikpapan, Makassar, and Jogyakarta. We learned as we went, made contacts in schools, and recruited teachers for the second trip when 15 Indonesian would come to the US for one month. Our fifteen friends arrived in June of 2010 and returned from Washington DC shortly after the Fourth of July.

Our 2010 trip, for which this blog is a record, is designed as a follow up to deepen partnerships and examine the use of curricula developed earlier, I am accompanied by Samantha Camera (again) and newcomer Julienne Webster. Both Sam and Julienne have lived in Indonesia and speak some Indonesian; both come from schools that are interested in building long term relationships with Indonesian schools; and both are committed to making western Massachusetts a center for the study of Indonesia.

For more information on our grant and past exchanges go to our Indonesian program website

My colleague Samantha Camera (Sam) is also keeping a blog for her students – she both is and has a camera – so for visuals both still and moving go see her site.