Interaction

Because I wake up before the sun has fully risen and go to bed relatively late, my days stretch on, making me feel as if I have lived here at the Untal-Untal Orphanage for months instead of days. But in the few days I have been here, I feel that I have discovered how I will stay happy: constant interaction. It may seem that surrounded by 60 other people, that I would never be lonely, however, because I have a room and bathroom to myself, I often find myself alone.

Here, four girls share one room, and the rooms that they share are about haft the size of mine, holding two bunk beds and a wardrobe which they all share. In my room, I have a cabinet, a desk, and a tv with a stand, as well as a mosquito netted, canopy bed. I love sitting in my bed while the resident geckos start chirping because I like to pretend that in this bed I am safe from everything outside, even though the occasional mosquito gets inside.

The second best part of my room is the air conditioning. I was excited to go to Bali and to be warm. I did not fully appreciate that warm in Bali means sweltering. While I like to think that in a month or so I will grow used to the heat, right now, my air conditioner is my best friend.

But with my new commitment to interaction, I doubt that my steady relationship with any air conditioning could stand the pressure of human friendship, which I am slowly finding in each girl. Although I came to Bali thinking that I would be living with girls who have absolutely no family, I’ve learned that most girls are not orphans, but that their families are too poor to pay for an education for them.

These girls go to several different schools: junior high school, senior high school, vocational school, university, and the very little ones still march off to elementary school each morning. Dedicated to their education, most see the value of speaking English, and slowly, shyly they have begun to speak with me. We speak about hobbies, religion (mostly Christianity), American and Indonesian culture, and aspirations. Chi Chi, although studying multimedia, wants nothing more than an iPod; right now she stores music on a flash drive and plays Jay-Z and Lady Gaga on a community laptop while doing homework. Ulan is studying Christianity so she can be a teacher. Betrini wants to be a cook, and if she has enough money, wants to open a restaurant in her home village where her parents still live.

When I talk to the girls here, they open my eyes to what commitment and sacrifice mean. In Indonesia, people often think that girls do not need an education because they will grow up to be housewives; even their school books say so (Cooking is a good hobby, especially for girls who will grow up to be housewives). But these girls live far from their families in order to receive an education and to have the power to be self-sufficient business women, but regardless of educations and aspirations, I hope that regardless of what they learn in school, the 60 or so girls here learn how to stay happy.