Kasey, West Sumatran Celebrity turns West Sumatran Star Athlete!

As if things couldn't get more strange here for Kasey Jacobs in West Sumatra, Indonesia, a whole new celebrity status was applied to me yesterday.

My day started at 5:30AM where I washed with my bak mandi and bak air (water tank and water scoop), ate nasi goreng (fried rice) freshly made by Bu Elly since she was already up after morning prayer, and waited for my ride. Mercy Corps was holding a School Socialization Workshop for Disaster Risk Reduction in Painan, probably my favorite coastal town here. It's a two hour drive and the workshop was starting at 9:00AM. 6:00-8:00AM slept uncomfortably in the car because of the windy roads, odd driving style of Indonesians, and at times unpaved areas where cows, small children, motorcycles, trucks, cats, monkeys, etc play in the street. Arrived at the school and learned about school DRR from my colleagues and our partner organization, Kogami (komunitas siaga tsunami-tsunami prepared communities). I went to the workshop to take notes and photos for documentation and to learn more about the way a socialization workshop operates but of course my foreigner status prompted the Head of the Education Department to insist I sit on stage with him, Bu Endang, and Tommy from Kogami, even though I played no role in organizing this workshop and could not offer any information about DRR in schools. He kept thanking me for coming. I felt really akward. It should have been Jupe or Yudi (Mercy Corps staff and school awareness officers) that sat up on stage.

After the workshop the plan for weeks was I was going to swim in a fun race that kicks off the Langkisau Festival, an annual festival in Painan. Pak Iqbal, head of local police and someone becoming a close ally here (he's the one that helped me set up the interview for the Bupati and Water Power Source Department in Pesisir Selatan) is an organizer for the event and when he told me about this weeks ago I immediately asked if westerners could participate. How much fun would it be to swim in the Painan Harbor surrounded by awesome fishing boats and finally get a workout?!

So I arrived at the Festival grounds with the Mercy Corps driver, Roni (who can't speak English and we were alone so communicating was difficult) and was immediately asked to change parking spots because the Governor (my friend Bapak Fauzi) was on the way. The race is going to begin in about fifteen minutes. After reparking we found our way to the docks and I asked to change my clothes. All these people are looking at me and a few are actually following me. I changed in the most disgusting bathroom (Jones Beach on the Fourth of July is marvelous compared to this)into my SCUBA skins. Its very important to be culturally sensitive here. I must always where at least 3/4 length sleeves and at least capris or long skirts when in public. I thought that meant swimming in a festival race with a western bathing suit would be inappropriate so I opted to wear my long sleeve, long pant thin SCUBA skin instead. Right after I change I pass my stuff off to Roni to put in the car and find Iqbal. He hadn't really registered me so I wasn't given a swim cap with a number. I didn't mind, because for a fun race, I didn't care if I was really registered or not. I just wanted to swim. The race organizer asked me which event I wanted to participate in, the 1km or the 2km. This means nothing to me as I am terrible at doing math in my head quickly so as a true swimmer/lifeguard who would not do the lesser race I said, "2km please". As we are walking to the starting line, Governor Fauzi and his wife, followed by an insane amount of cameras and reporters greets me. We shake hands, he tells the reporters who I am, his wife asks me questions, I talk a bit about Mercy Corps, and then he walks away after asking if I was swimming. WHen I said yes, he said "you must be the champion". I laughed and said, "oh please no pressure Governor". As he walked away, the race started without me! I couldn't believe it. I quickly handed my shoes to Iqbal, threw on my goggles last minute and dove into the water from the docks. I was a good 25 or 30 meters behind everyone else.

I swam pretty fast on the start and caught up to the pack. After about ten minutes though the pack seemed to disappear and the only way I could keep on pace was by occasionally looking up to see a few green caps. Then I would put my head down and keep swimming. About half way through I finally did the math and realized I am an idiot for agreeing to 2km when I haven't trained or even swam in a pool since March or April! 2 km is 2000 meters (my long distance event in high school was 500 yards), this is roughly 1.2 miles. In the photo above you will see the city of Painan and the blue water body is what I swam completely across.

Another 15 minutes later I realized it was just me and this one guy left in my direct vicinity. I was starting to worry since there were no buoys around. Were we way off mark? Can I trust the guy next to me to know where we are going? A few minutes later my question was answered. We were right on mark but soo many of the swimmers gave up and were on the rescue boats being brought to the finish line. After what felt like an eternity we came up to a really cool catamaran fishing boat (very old, kind of look liked Kevin Costner's in WaterWorld) and then I swam under an anchor line for a smaller boat. That's when I could finally see the finish line. I picked up speed at this point as best I could but the SCUBA suit was starting to really fill with water and was giving me a lot of drag. Oh I should have mentioned earlier, that all the women in the race were wearing modern swimming suits, just with tight shorts so they didn't show too much leg. If I would have gotten to the line earlier I would have ditched the huge drag suit. Silly me and being culturally sensitive.

I finally make it to the docks and I see Roni, my driver, running to the end. There's a very excited Indonesian woman with a clipboard yelling at me to run becuase I came in 8th place. I looked around me and there was no one to fight to for the finish line so I walked akwardly while everyone stared at the weird westerner in a SCUBA skin. As soon as I was handed the 8th place tag and signed my name cameras were in my face. Pak Iqbal came up and translated for me. They immediately wanted to know what handicaps I had, I am guessing they all saw my late start. I took photos with the 1st and 2nd place women (I feel bad for 3rd through 7th place who were shafted because of the westerner). About twenty minutes later there was a ceremony where we all took photos and stood by a podium and the big surprise was I was given 500,000 Rupiah ($50 USD) for winning 8th place. The first place woman got 4 million rupiah ($400 USD). If I knew this was NOT just a fun race but for that amount of cash I would have made sure to not talk to the governor, to wear my modern racing suit, and to haul ass and win. I know I could have beaten the others. So bummed! My time was 43 minutes which is like a nice and easy swim. Haha, I'm totally kidding in my disappointment. I was the first foreigner to ever compete in the Langkisau Swimming Competition and so I think I will donate the money to the Padang Swim Club since there are far too many people here who don't know how to swim. What happens when a tsunami comes? This weekend I will stop by the local pool and give them my winnings. Kind of funny though how out of all the American swim competitions I ahve been in for school and for lifeguarding and never was money offered as a prize, but in Indonesia, developing country, I make $50 for a leisurely swim and 8th place!

As I walked around the festival with Mercy Corps and Pak Iqbal tons of people wanted to take photos with the "foreign swimmer" (since I was forced to keep my skin suit on while waiting for Roni). Such a nutty feeling. I really felt like Dara Torres or Michael Phelps and realized I am soo glad I am not them. I am not someone meant for the spotlight. So uncomfortable and difficult to smile so long while people are taking 3,4, or 5 photos of you each.

We went up to see the paragliding event (and I think because Pak Iqbal so how uncomfortable I was and wanted to get me out of the main area). I meet my first other American up there. His name was Ray, originally from Jacksonville, Fl and living in Bali now. He spoke fluent Indonesian and had competed earlier in two paragliding events. He was also getting a lot of attention. Nice to see it inflicted on someone else actually, haha.

The day ended with a Dorian party at Iqbal's house with Mercy Corps (and black rice and coconut to complement the fruit, a divine dessert)and playing with his kids. Then headed back to Padang where we all passed out in the car, the windy roads, cows, children, and dogs on unpaved roads not bothering us at all. Arrived at the house, attempted to watch an old 80's movie on the couch with Poppy, and fell asleep soon after. Pak Iqbal is going to check the newspapers for me for photos or at least ask the Tourism Dinas for some photos since I left my camera in my other swim suit.