Study Guide for Teachers

Here are some themes and ideas I found to be important as I was writing the book. Click here to download this as a word document.

1) Assimilation

The main character is having difficulty assimilating in Indonesia, despite the fact that she has moved around often in her young life.  She considers Boston to be her real home.  I wanted kids to think about some of the differences between cultures, as they relate to their own lives – to imagine what it would be like to live somewhere else and learn another way of doing things, or at least to appreciate that other people do them differently.

(a) Ferry travel

Ferry travel is an important, necessary means of getting around in many countries.  Yet safety precautions and government regulation of ferries and ferry operations are lax or non-existent sometimes.  I’ve kept a file of clippings about ferry accidents across the globe since I wrote Overboard; they are numerous and still occur regularly.

Questions: Do we Americans think about the safety of trains, buses, and planes on a daily basis?  Ask your students if they’ve ever noticed a lapse in safety or vehicle regulation in the U.S. and worried about it.  (For example, when street lights go out at busy intersections I am alarmed, and I just assume it will be fixed immediately or a policeman will be assigned to direct traffic.)  Or, in a similar vein, have they ever noticed moments when the infrastructure they count on (plumbing, or electricity) has failed?  How do they feel when the lights go out?  Do they trust that it will be fixed promptly?  Has anyone ever been caught in a broken elevator?  How did they feel, and would they feel differently if it happened on a regular basis?

(b) Small gestures

In Indonesia you must point with your thumb and not your index finger.  You should never show the soles of your feet.  Children should hunch deferentially when passing elders.  You never kiss – even a small peck – in public.  Same-sex friends walk hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm in public as a sign of friendship.  Indonesians never shake hands with the left hand, or pass or receive objects with the left hand, which is considered unclean.  Revealing clothing is not acceptable, and Indonesians will stare at you if you wear it, or even make comments.  Women, especially, should wear cool, long, loose sleeves and trousers or long skirts.

Questions: What examples of polite body language can your students think of that are typically American?  (I can think of chewing with your mouth closed, elbows off the table, sneezing into your sleeve, speaking quietly in public.)  What are “accepted” clothing styles in the U.S.?  What styles do your students believe are unacceptable, if any?

(c) Slow service: otherwise known as “rubber time” 

The pace of life is different in Indonesia (probably not so much in the largest cities). 

Question: Have your students ever encountered slow, leisurely service in the U.S., or experienced it in social situations?  For example, my dear friend is from the south, and I am relatively hyper.  I have to slow myself down to converse with her.  She thinks carefully, speaks deliberately, and strolls when we walk somewhere together.  If I were to finish her sentences I think it would be disrespectful, and so instead I try to slow myself down and be patient.  I also learn more if I listen to her quietly.  I think I would feel the same in Indonesia – I would learn a lot from making myself slow down.

2) Religion

There are tidbits about Islam in the book that I wanted to present in a way that made the people who practice it seem real. 

(a) Many of the things that Isman considers, or that govern his decisions, are related to his religion.

Question: Can the students remember any particular instances in which Isman’s religion governs his actions?  (For example, he wants to pray at the appropriate times during the day, but he isn’t sure what time it is, or what direction to face in the water; he wants to fast during the day because it’s Ramadan, so he initially refuses the chocolate; he has learned the 99 names for God and uses them to remember God’s goodness; he says a little prayer of acknowledgment to God when he attempts something difficult, or when he eats.)

(b) The book was inspired by a real ferry disaster in Indonesia in 1996.  Of the forty survivors, only three were women, and one was a boy.  The water was warm, so being able to swim well conferred a huge advantage in terms of survivability.  Yet because Indonesian women cover themselves for modesty (and therefore can’t be seen in a swimsuit in front of men), fewer women know how to swim than men.  (Other factors that contribute to poor swimming skills for both men and women are that many of the coastal waters are rough, and there are sharks.)

Question: How do the students feel about the fact that religious beliefs contributed to a different survival rate for men and women?  Can they think of ways that girls might be encouraged to learn to swim in countries with strict religious attire?

3)  Friendship

For me, the real plot of this book is that Emily begins the story emotionally closed and by the end she has opened up to Isman and cares deeply for him.  She finds friendship in an unexpected person (he’s younger, he’s Muslim) and in an unexpected place (the deep waters off the coast of Sumatra).

Questions: Ask your students for examples of how Emily closes her mind to Indonesia when she’s on land.  (She rejects the friendship of Madjid, the young man who works in the clinic and would like to speak English with her; she helps grudgingly in the clinic but doesn’t feel close to the patients; she covers her ears when she hears the muezzin chanting a call-to-prayer; she clings to the British couple after the ferry sinks.)  Ask your students if they’ve ever discovered friendship in an unexpected place, or rejected someone and then later learned something about him or her that caused them to reconsider.

4) Personal strength

There are hints at the beginning of the book that Emily is a strong person.  The peculiar method of her upbringing (parents who travel the globe working for an organization much like “Medecins sans Frontiers,” and her homeschooling) has given her practical knowledge and abilities, and has forced independence on her at a young age.  She’s also physically strong, and has had the advantage of taking swimming and lifesaving lessons.  These physical strengths see her through her ordeal at first, but much of the emotional strength she gains by the end (which is the strength she really needs to save herself) comes from her relationship with Isman.

Question: Ask your students to talk about how relationships make human beings stronger, and why close friendships are important for survival – in many senses – in all societies. 

5) Indonesia

If I were leading a discussion, I’d get out a map of the world and help the kids find Indonesia.  (There is a small map of Indonesia in the first few pages of the book, before the acknowledgements.)  Indonesia is an unusual country because it’s made up of more than 17,000 islands, covering about 1.8 million square miles (0.7 million miles of which are landmass).  The population is around 230 million; about half live on the island of Java.

Religious demography: a 1990 census reported that 87 percent of Indonesians were Muslim, 6 percent were Protestant, 4 percent were Catholic, 2 percent were Hindu, 1 percent were Buddhist, and 0.6 percent were Other.  While religious freedom is protected in their constitution, only the 5 religions listed above are officially sanctioned by the government.

Indonesia is a fascinating place that will only become more important in politics and economics: it has the most Muslim inhabitants of any country in the world; it’s working hard to be a democracy rather than an Islamic state; it’s difficult to govern because it’s made up of islands. 

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