{"quotes":[{"text":"I’d see the arrow. I’d think about attitude and perception. Maybe the green arrow on the ceiling is to Muslims as the KJV in the Motel 6 nightstand is to Christians.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["9-11","christianity","education","indonesia","islam","jakarta","teaching","terrorism","travel"],"id":4841,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"It’s not that I had more important things to do or that I didn’t want to help with whatever problems were interfering with her students being successful—rather, it’s this horrible truth that life has taught me: misplaced hope is the most devastatingly painful thing you can give someone.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["education","indonesia","jakarta","leadership","students","teaching","vietnam-war"],"id":7369,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"The only thing I knew for sure is I hadn’t slept in ten years. Not really. I’d been fighting my own monster since nine months after 9/11. I had regrets. I had pain that I still can’t find words to describe. But sooner or later you have to make a choice. Maybe fate or luck or God had a plan for me in Jakarta that was greater than an educational leadership conference, a few papers and a book deal. If Vietnam was for Dad, then maybe Jakarta was for me. Indira says I shouldn’t discount that it was Allah’s plan. The way I see it, Allah’s plan is what started my war.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["education","jakarta","military","poverty","students","teachers","trust","vietnam","war"],"id":57120,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"Far to our left I could see a commercial airliner on final approach to Soekarno-Hatta. Far to our right I could see the outline of tall city buildings. The imagery was hard to ignore. In the midst was an impoverished world filled with dangerous radicals. Some believed it was God’s will to crash airplanes into buildings. Some recruited children to self-detonate on buses and in coffee shops. It must be incredibly difficult to hold fast to hope when you live in such a world. It’s also hard to keep faith with humanity when religious ideology is used as an impetus for war. But I also believe that for every war there is a hero … and for me, Jakarta will always be Indira’s city.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["heroes","jakarta","terrorism","war"],"id":149373,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"It was only a couple of chickens. Real chickens. The kind that walk around clucking and pecking. Which is what they were doing. Only no one else seemed to care, or even notice. This is normal? Obviously I had a little hiccup reading my notecards. Understandable. I was talking to forty orphans who had to share a dirt floor with two chickens. No one in college had ever prepared me for this scenario.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["bodor","chickens","indonesia","jakarta","leadership","orphans","schools","students","teaching"],"id":306292,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"The sun appeared between the twin spires of the cathedral as its light reflected off the crescent and star that rose out of the dome on top of the mosque. It was beautiful, and surreal. In one instant, the bells rang out from the cathedral and if I closed my eyes then I could easily imagine that I was back home in Europe, but in the next, the call to morning prayer sounded from the mosque, and it was a stark reminder of how far away I actually was from my true home.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["9-11","cathedral","education","indonesia","jakarta","military","mosque","teaching","terrorism","war"],"id":315549,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"I said, “Je parle français.” Indira gave me a weird look. Or a look that said I was weird. Whichever. The point is, I don’t really speak French, but it’s a useful phrase for confusing people you don’t wish to speak with. However, it’s apparently more useful in Europe, where no one enjoys speaking to the French.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["education","france","french","jakarta","militarytary","terrorism","the-rainy-season","travel"],"id":361356,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"The night skyline was stunning. I could see the Monas and Istiqlal Mosque bathed in brilliant white lights and a dozen other places of cultural and historical significance. It’s an amazing, beautiful world we live in … despite Uncle Google’s abysmal view of American schools, the security checkpoints and vehicle inspections that seem to be everywhere, and the need to be vigilant because of the things we do to each other.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["9-11","education","indonesia","jakarta","military","rainy-season","teaching","terrorism","travel"],"id":370338,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"The Delta agent saw my itinerary and said, 'You’re flying to Jakarta via Atlanta, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur? You must have really pissed off your travel agent.","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["indonesia","jakarta","travel","vietnam"],"id":374781,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"},{"text":"We obviously don’t live in a perfect world. If we did, then my dad would never have volunteered for Vietnam so he could use the GI Bill to pay for college, Uncle Google would have more important things to do than searching for eight hundred million reasons why our schools suck, and I wouldn’t be at an education leadership conference in Jakarta because there’d be no need for it … right?","author":"Tucker Elliot","tags":["education","google","jakarta","rainy-season","soldiers","students","teachers","terrorism","vietnam","war"],"id":427102,"author_id":"Tucker+Elliot"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":12,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}