Before school closed for the holiday break, ETA Daniel Knoll, invited his English For Communication club out to KFC for lunch. KFC seems to be a desirable place for lunch as many of the students were excited to hear this offer, and while KFC is an American chain restaurant, the menu seldom resembles the comfort food of Western cuisine. Buckets of fried chicken are of course is still on the menu but the combo deals include rice instead of fries, and sambal instead of ketchup.

They were able to talk about the environmental movement KFC and other chain restaurants are taking to make their business models more eco-friendly by using different packaging materials and only given straws on a per-request basis.

They also discussed some differences in dining customs, such as having to throw away your own trash after eating at a restaurant that does not have a waiter for you in America. Daniel was told this frustrates many Indonesians as it creates conflict in the dining practices in Indonesia where the food provider always cleans up their customer’s trash.

Later in the month, Danny, who is a retired D1 athlete at Marist College, had been greatly missing something in his new lifestyle as an English Teaching Assistant in Indonesia. The void of the competition after ending his college swimming career has left Danny feeling unmotivated to stay healthy and a strange sense of sorrow from the missing anchor in his everyday life. He no longer had to endure physical exercise three-four and half hours a day and he knew he needed an outlet to release this built up energy. Continuing the practice of swimming proved to be difficult due to an overwhelming amount of people at the pools, but he was able to find his outlet by going to weightlifting gyms in Payakumbuh.

As it turned out, Danny’s next-door neighbor, Gienno Soundana, was the owner of two of the gyms he went to and was an international bodybuilding champion. He began to coach Danny, providing tips and workouts, as well as discussing training and nutritional philosophies. He would train every day with gym regulars who quickly become some of his closest friends.

In December he put his training to the extreme, practicing twice a day to prepare for his first body contest, at the Sumatra Open Body Contest in Pariaman, West Sumatra. The contest was open to everyone on the entire island of Sumatra. Amongst over 200 contestants, Danny made it to the finalist round.

The journey was surprisingly very difficult, but it provided a sense of purpose, feelings of pride, and kept him healthy and happy.

Daniel Knoll is currently teaching at SMAN 2 Payakumbuh, West Sumatra.