anyer

okay here's what happened.

4th jan i left for jakarta with a rough idea i was gonna coach some kids for 5 days.
here's the real story:

arrived in jkt and took a 3.5 hour drive to a town/village called anyer. nobody was there so my and omar(the organiser) started surfing. i managed to stand up. soon the sailors started streaming in, we washed up and i was introduced to all of them. 21 of them in total. 8 optimists kids, 6 lasers, 2 420s, 5 windsurfing.

dea, helen, edo, alfin, opang, migraj, legam, edward, yaumi, marwah, annisa, ajay, rindi, abi, febri, boy, hendra, ratiah, ambri, blong and yanto.

its wonderful how names have no meaning to them.
but the people behind those names do.

especially helen and alfin, my top 2 optis, hendra and febri the sociable and english-enabled. these kids dont have very much, as omar said, if they werent sailing, they'd be renting body boards on the beach. they eat pretty much the road side food, which tasted like crap and wasnt exactly cheap. each of them had a heart of gold. no theft no deceit no backstabbing. they're like just smooth sailing their lives through, happy and satisfied. i slept with my door unlocked, left my wallet around, nothing happened. in fact, they reminded me to look after my belongings. there really isnt any need for crime anyway. if u realise, only the poor people in the city commit crime, because they are tempting in a environment of wealth.

okay so we had strong wind waves everyday, and varying current. the waves were huge and the sailors did a fantastic job given the circumstances. they had no proper coaching, no proper equipment and learnt sailing by themselves. so it was pretty hairy at times, given a coach boat slightly bigger than an opti and a 8HP boat. horsepower, not hitpoints. slow given the huge swell and wind.

coaching in a foreign language was challenging but fun. the outcome is that im taking bahasa indonesia as a module this semester, and my vocabulary has improved significantly. here's a few simple ones.

who--siapa
what--apa
where--mana
when--berapa
how--kenapa

and a few related to sailing.

pull--tarik
important--penting
front--depan
near--dekat
below--bawah
look-lihat

okay thats just a few i picked up.

so training was fun/dangerous/frustrating at times. but to be honest the frustrating bits were mainly the lack of facilities and logistics.

days were spent giving them lessons, and we concluded the last day by organising a 4 race regatta which i must say was a success. laying 6 bouys which didnt drift, repeating 4 races with little fuss, is one of the highlights of my coaching career.

nights were spent playing cards, watching tv, chatting with the kids. sleeping at 1030 because we were all beat. waking at 9am to repeat the whole process again. teaching these kids life skills amidst the sailing theories.

at the end of the day, although my host in jakarta pangseh me so i came back early, the entire time i spent at anyet at bandulu sailing club was really humbling and awesome at the same time. physically it was uncomfortable but thankfully army prepared me sufficiently for it so i could focus on my job and what i needed to do.

thinking of the kids make me feel like returning. and life really has a new look to it now. i cant really put a finger on it. but not for one second should u as a reader feel like we're the privileged ones, internet and facebook and all. they are the lucky ones. happy and satisfied with what they have, living a life of smiles and simple pleasures.