I seem to have overloaded a bit on extracurriculars! I’m hoping this will help me keep busy and stay positive this year.
I’m teaching newspaper and debate club each once a week. I’ll finally start taking Bahasa Indonesian language classes twice a week. And I kind of fell into joining a teacher softball league that plays on Fridays.
Today we played against the best team in Bogor… and lost. But I hit the ball and got a run! Not bad for my first softball game. Ever.
Between debates, a student and I snuck down to the street festival to get some cotton candy, a treat that really lifted our spirits. The day was long and grueling: I left at 8:00am and was home at 10:00pm. We won 4 motions and lost 2, which isn’t bad. We return tomorrow. (Update: two out of three teams moved on to the quarterfinals to debate on a fifth motion, but lost by a small margin.)
Meanwhile in Bali; Seth, Ellie, Ed and Marlene had a packed day buying textiles and carved wood in Sukawati and Ubud. Traditional wear was a priority for the wedding they’ll be attending on Friday. Here are a few pictures he shared from the Monkey Forest and the traditional markets. Love the batik shirt!
Only 10 days ago was I asked to take three teams of students to compete in the IAAS Olympic Debate Championship.
Keep in mind, we do not have a debate team. Nor have any of our students ever competed in a debate before. I had my work cut out for me.
Fortunately the Principal knew some members of the University of Indonesia’s Debate Team. We invited them to hold an exhibition and spend a few hours with our students to help coach them on the rules of an Asian Parliamentary Debate. I also through out my lessons and held in-class debates to help us begin researching the motions on agriculture, science and technology, energy, and the environment.
The basics of Asian Parliamentary Debate include: Two teams, one is the government and the other the opposition; the government supports the motion put forward; each team has three members; each member speaks for 7 minutes, each team gets to reply for 4 minutes. Teams may also interrupt each other with “Points of Information”.
We did well. In fact for this being our first contest, and one that was slightly rigged in how it forced our teams to debate each other so that only one team could move to the semifinals; we did very well.
We got third place! About 1,000,000RP, certificates, and medals. Now, we prepare for the larger competition next month in Jakarta. Bring it!
Bali or Bust 