Despite some unexpected circumstances, ETA Eliana Steele found ways to share American culture with high school students from across Indonesia. Unfortunately, Central Kalimantan has been seriously impacted by ongoing forest fires, causing schools across the province to pause in-person activities. Although traditional extracurriculars have been cancelled at Eliana’s school, Eliana was introduced to an online project known as the 30-Day English Challenge, organized by English teachers from six vocational high schools from Borneo, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. In this activity, students submit short speaking and writing tasks in English every day for a month and regularly join online meetings to discuss their progress. Eliana was invited to collaborate on this project by Tinue Laut, one of her co-teachers from SMK 3 Palangkaraya.

During two of these online meetings, Eliana gave presentations about her life in the United States and American culture more broadly. First, she gave a presentation about her favorite places to visit in Northern California, in which she described local beaches and hiking trails. On a later date, she joined the students again to give a lesson about the celebrations of Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. First, she described the historical and religious contexts of these holidays. Then, she used these holidays to explain the significance of the Irish-American and Mexican-American communities in the United States. She ended the presentation by emphasizing value of multiculturalism that is shared by many Americans. After each of her presentations, she had fruitful discussion with the students about life in the United States.

Eliana Steele is currently teaching at SMKN 3 Palangkaraya, Kalimantan Tengah.