Show Me the Money!

Check out this great blog (by one of my fellow PCVs) on Indonesian currency and how it is used!

Prairie State of Mind

When I was in Washington DC, people consistently asked me if I had any Indonesian currency. Money says a lot about a country–the images and words printed on legal tender remind citizens daily of a nation’s ideals. Shared currency is perhaps the only thing that unites Indonesia’s 17,000 islands and innumerable tribes.

It’s also just plain cool. I’ve never heard anyone looking at foreign currency say anything other than “Wow, that’s so cool.” Yes. Very astute.

Here’s the full spread of Indonesian currency, called rupiah. Front:

and back:

$1USD is currently equal to IDR13,000. So what could that buy?

• transit fare to my nearest city–there and back
• a Magnum ice cream bar
• a mid-sized bottle of shampoo
• More than a dozen eggs
• 6 or 7 apples
• 1.5 kilos of uncooked rice
• two Snickers bars
• 70 text messages
• a small bunch of broccoli, a mid-sized bunch of cauliflower, 2 carrots, and a cucumber.
• 10-20 snacks at my school’s canteen
• six public…

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Nasi Kuning: Rice Never Looked So Good

It’s testing season in Indonesia. The 9^th graders at my school have been practicing and taking tests for the past few weeks, and while most of these exams vary little from the tests dreaded by students around the world, one stood out: Nasi Kuning.

One Year in Five Lessons

One year ago today, I woke up in Indonesia. I was a Peace Corps trainee, and had no idea what was ahead of me.

Although this picture is a fair representation of my life these days…

All awkward, all the time.

…I could never fit everything I have experienced in this past year into one blog post (or an encyclopedia). I do, however, want to share five things I’ve learned.

Laba-Laba: The Eight-Legged Nightmare

I am a dreamer in the literal sense of the word: I dream a lot. Usually my dreams are positive and amusing. But on the rare occasion that I have a nightmare, it is always about two things: something bad happening to someone I love or spiders (laba-laba in Indonesian). Today, I met the latter of my nightmares.