The First Day of School!!!

Well folks, the day has arrived. My family donned their plaids and pleats at 5:30 am this morning, ate a light breakfast and smiled cheerily at my camera at 6:20, then headed off to their new schooling adventure. They look like they're actually looking forward to it, don't they?

Rules of dress for the kids are: no ankle socks, belt for senior boys (ie/ no bum cracks, no fundies poking out), no jewelry except studs or sleepers on girls, no knees showing on any girls (jr or sr), black shoes, hair off the face at all times, shirts tucked in. You should see the Junior boys (Abby's classmates...): they get to wear long shorts. When you see this uniform on the kindergarteners (called "Kindy's" here b/c of the strong Aussie influence) you just melt.

I attended the Senior School assembly with a few other parents (parents are always invited to assemblies) and was very inpressed with the caliber of the whole event. What got me most was when the President of the School Council got up to pray for the new students and she prayed with authenticity (does that makes sense?) and with such a knowledge of the promises of God for the students. I felt relief at knowing that yes, my kids are in the right place.

One thing that I thought was interesting, regarding me missing Canada, is that when a photo was put up on the big screen of the guy who used to tightrope walk over Niagara Falls (from Canada to US side), I got all tight-chested and teary-eyed. I guess the Toronto is just close enough to remind me of home. :)


Not a long blog tonight. It's only 8:12 pm (6:12 am your time...you have yet to go to work/school) and we're all heading to bed.

Just a note...Tris is heading to India for 3 days in November, and I've been asked to substitute here at some point. Guess I'll have to find myself blues and whites in the next while, too...and a comfortable pair of shoes.
Give your family a hug for me.
Thanks for reading.

The Last Day of Summer

If you have kids in school, the next time that they complain that "there's nothing to do" or "I'm borrrrrrrred," sit them down and tell them that they're lucky, that they could be going to school say, tomorrow, like Matt and Abby. Today was our last day of summer holidays... if that's what you call them in a climate where it is continually summer.

the Olympic pool

Unfortunately, today was "final shopping for school supplies day." That wouldn't have been so bad except that today was also a holiday and so everybody and their lizard (can't say dog...if you've been reading our blog you'll know dogs are not appreciated in this muslim country) was at the Supermall. Fortunately for our kids, we sandwiched our day with swimming in the Olympic pool in the morning (they did laps!!!) and the Family pool in the afternoon.


A funny thing happened to Tris today while we were at the mall. Let me begin my story by saying that Tris may never let me give him a home haircut again. We stopped by a barber in the mall, a very manly man place amongst a bunch of stylish salons, where Tris waited for a 50,000 rp haircut ($5.00). I left him there, expecting to pick him up in 10 or so minutes. About 30 minutes later he falls out of the front door of the barber's in a daze, with a rather guilty/stunned look on his face. Because he took so long I expected all ear/nose/back hair down to the ankles to be gone, but apparently all services focussed primarily on the top of his head. When he sat down, his head was covered in a nice soap and his haircut took only a few minutes. The barber then proceeded to cover Tris' head with a warm cloth and massage his head, face and neck. After the massage Bapak Barber grabbed Tris' head, cracked his neck both ways, cracked his EAR LOBES and then cracked the point right between his eyes. Needless to say, Tris is definately going to go back for a well-spent 50,000 rp. Apparently this is going to be a weekly regime for him.


Dinner's ready...thanks for reading!!

Random Thoughts by Kim

Our new friend

For those of you who keep asking how to comment on a blog post, scroll down to the bottom of the posting that you would like to comment on, and hit "0 comments" or however many comments there may be.

As I write I am waiting to walk to the bus stop to pick up my kids...they're at friends and they're going to ride the bus alone. I just realized that Abby will be carting along her homemade Littlest Pet Shop 2-storey home in a laundry basket, so this may be interesting. The total cost for them to ride the bus home is $.70 altogether, for a 20 minute ride. I went grocery shopping, however, and bought what is called "ex-pat" food (ie/ wheat germ, cereal, specific spices) and it cost me $70.00 (700,000 rp) for 4 small bags. Cost is all relative here...I also just bought Mossimo t-shirt for $4.00 so that was nice. If you plan to come, plan to shop but don't have out of this world expectations because like I'm learning, and like the song says (here it comes) "You can't always get what you want."

I went shopping in Jakarta with my neighbour Kai and her friend today. Kai's a very friendly, nice person to be around. It wasn't the same as "girlfriend day" shopping with Kathleen, Julie and Marlene but I think (hope) that that will come in time. Everyone I have met here, ex-pat or national, has been extremely friendly and helpful.

Just recently, before I left Canada, I began purchasing Bath & Bodyworks through Naomi (only available in the US). Guess what I found today, in a big grocery store...Mango B&B! I would have bought it except that it would have cost me $16 and I wasn't prepared to put out that kind of cash, especially since I know that I would have paid less if I had bought it through the US.

Remember the lizard photo? Yesterday during lunch (of course) Matthew pointed out a dead carcass in our teeny backyard. Of course I had to look, and I believe it was the body of our lovely green lizard. How sad! It looks as though maybe a cat got to him and dragged him around for a bit. I guess that's life but it's still sad.

Tris and I met a friend the other night. Just as we were heading to bed I heard an "EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW, gross!" and I saw Tris trying to flick a huge cockroach off of our shower curtain in the ensuite. Gross was right. We got him down the drain in our floor (just like a laundry room drain...in the floor of our bathrooms) and then I Raid-ed it. Next morning, wouldn't you know it, there was an almost dead cockroach right beside my side of the bed. I figure he was out to get me but died just before succeeding.

If anyone goes and visits my parents during the times that we can connect (we're 14 hours ahead of West Coast Canada) please help them set up their webcam so that they can hear us talk. They can see us and we can see/hear them, but that's it. I'm tired of writing flashcards for them:) That would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, I've uploaded a photo of my new look b/c some of you have asked (and I can't do it on Facebook...i can't seem to upload any photos on FB, any ideas???)

Thanks for reading.

Our Community

Although we have a lot to learn about the area in which we live, I do have a few bits of knowledge that will give you an idea of the uniqueness of the community we are in. Lippo Karawaci (LK), to me, is like a large UBC village. It is not a very large area, yet it holds a huge mall, banks, a school (SPH~ said "ess-pay-hah") and a university (UPH~"ooh-pay-hah"), as well as a hospital. In 1992 plans were made to build a bunch of not-very-profitable, difficult to irrigate rice fields in Lippo Village into a new 500 hectare town. Small villages were moved elsewhere and the rice fields were built into what is now known as LK Central. Other areas were added on later. What is amazing is that once the project began, the school (SPH) that we are now working at was completed within 6 months and was ready to go by 1993. The first residents moved into LK in 1994; this means that the professional structures of the village were established first and then the people came. The population is now around 45,000.



We live in what is called a "taman," or estate, and they're very different from "Copperfield Estates." Each taman has it's own personality...ours is one of the first and so there are numerous trees and vegetation. Danau Biru (ours) was built with the intention that all homes would follow a particular architectural design; other tamans have more individualistic homes on larger plots of land. We feel quite blessed to be housed in the taman that we're in because we're right next to the school. It is a 3 minute walk to the front gate. Each taman has a guarded entry gate complete with at least 2 guards on at the same time. When I get up the nerve I will ask them if I can take their photo and show you our friendly "sampak" (security guards). And no, we haven't seen any with guns.
This photo is of our neighbourhood. The roads in Danau Biru are quite narrow.


We have not yet had the opportunity to truly experience Indonesia like we saw it in videos, with the poverty and the incredibly frustrating all-day long rush hour traffic. We have experienced traffic like I've never seen it before, but that's another blog in itself. I have not yet met Mrs. Os "magazine seller" but when I do, I've promised that I will indeed buy a magazine from him. However, what we have experienced has been unique in itself for us, with having to build a house into a home from scratch (this will take a while...but we did buy ourselves a new 32" tv with a home theatre system inexpensively. Between that and being able to bake a wacky cake, it's beginning to feel like home). I think that once things get moving, school gets started and I join a few things, we'll see beyond the beautiful area that we're living in and experience the Indonesia that we expected to see.



If you'd like to check out real estate:) please go to

http://www.lippokarawaci.com/

Thanks for reading!

What I miss and don't miss about Canada

Okay, so there are a few differences between the country we've left and the country we now call home. It's only been 1 1/2 weeks but there are definately some things that stand out to make this a different experience than what we're used to. Here is a list of things that I miss and don't miss about Canada:

Things I miss already:
kissing my nieces' and nephews' chubby cheeks
sitting next to a fresh water lake with a cool summer breeze on my face
owning a car and having transportation available whenever i need to get somewhere
telephone access!!!
gardening in soft, brown dirt
picking my own veggies from my garden and prepping to pick summer berries
my girlfriends and my family
having craft supplies on hand (and proper kitchen utensils, for that matter. We're still buying stuff)

Things I don't miss about Canada:
black flies...I haven't seen any here yet
grey, cold summer days when we should be at the beach
superstore
gas prices
cleaning my toilets and washing my floors
the price of lettuce...i bought red leaf lettuce here for $0.22!!

Obviously there will be more to add to the list as we go along, but I thought it would be fun to sit and list what i have felt in the last few days.

Funny signs

These are a few of the funny signs that we have run into during our travels. The "do not pass gas" was in a shuttle bus in Singapore. Do you see the humour in the next one? This was in Singapore as well, in the lobby of our hotel.

The last one with the horn is in our taman (compound) and it means do not blow your horn (on your car). I thought it meant do not play loud music until my KIDS told me otherwise.

Night Life

What to tell, what to tell? Because I've been unsuccessful at uploading any photos I thought I would just list a few things that you do and do not want to bring to Indonesia when you come (for those who have an inkling that this may be a good place to visit...)

DO BRING:
*bug spray
your favourite kind of tea and coffee (yup, we live on the island of Java, next to Sumatra, but there are only 2 kinds of coffee to choose from...except Starbucks, of course. They're everywhere)
cotton everything (think sticky, sweaty undergarments....)
your camera...there are a multitude of photos to take...
good hair gel, not a wax-based one
sunscreen
cheezies (these are for us if you think you're heading our way)
electrical adaptor/transformer
your glasses rx...think cheap, cheap, cheap!!!

DO NOT BRING:
polyester anything (again...sticky, sweaty...)
your dog...you won't find doggy poop bags anywhere here
drugs of any kind...death penalty to those who do...my kids were very intrigued by the signs in the airport...i don't think tylenol or ibuprofen counts, though
long sleeves, unless it's cotton
jeans...although long-time ex-pats wear them and we just sweat looking at them

This is not the end of the list, but it's the end of tonight's. We haven't got cable yet, it's Friday night and we're going to watch one of our 6 adult dvds from home (adult meaning that it isn't animation, or full of farting jokes) on our laptop. We rock!

By the way, we do have cell phones now. We've just registered them (thanks to our very helpful Indonesian-speaking Smart phone representatives that live next door) and now we're waiting for them to kick in. Here they're called 'hand phones' and everyone and their dog....well, maybe cat... has one.

If, by the way again, Greg Baker reads this...I just want you to know that one of the drivers that was waiting outside of our place looked exactly like an Indonesian version of you. Very weird.

Our Journey

As I said earlier, many of you have been asking about how we got here and want a play-by-play. I'll do the best I can to make it interesting, but...

We flew out of YVR on July 13, 5:35 pm and headed to San Fransisco. While in YVR Tris' family was there to see us off, and we also ran into the LeGoff's. Some lady just about took me out while I was standing in line at BKing, and when I looked up there was a big, friendly smile. It was Julie, who was heading to France with her family.

After 2 hours we landed in SF and waited for 5 1/2 hours. During this time we ate dinner, made a few phone calls using the phone cards Kathleen gave me (thank you X3!) and Matthew played chinese checkers with his crazy uncle Darren on Skype.

We were supposed to take off at 1:20 am, but there were electrical difficulties. Once on the plane we waited an hour, during which the safety video malfunctioned; we were okay even when, during take-off, a bunch of glasses smashed to the ground b/c someone forgot to lock a door properly. It was a little disconcerting but we were too tired to really care. After 13 hours we stopped over in Hong Kong, then 3 more hours to Singapore. While on the plane we had met up with another family: Stephen, Janet and Eric (12), Neil (10) and Hope (4) who were headed to our school as well. Also, we met another Steven who, when we were all together, helped tremendously in getting all of our gear together in one spot. We all headed to our hotel, had dinner together at a local bar, where 2 of the 5 kids fell asleep. Of course we couldn't resist this photo...

We also saw Raffles, a famous hotel that Aunt Sam told us we had to see. This is the place where the Singapore Sling was invented.

The next day we took a bus around Singapore, went up on the Singapore Flyer (an observation ferris wheel) and the kids swam in this really neat pool.

We flew out of Singapore around 9 pm and arrived in Jakarta about 10:30. It was around midnight when we got to our new house and the adventure that was waiting for us there...

Just a note about how well our trip went. Not once did we have to pay overweight charges, not once did we have our bags searched or lost. I got frisked once but I don't think I looked like a criminal...it was probably just routine:). Customs was always a breeze. We really felt God's grace during our journey, from the timing of when we met our new friends to finding and loading up all of our luggage, to arriving safely in our new house.

Finally, some photos!

Success! I have been trying to post photos to no avail. I wrote a nice blog, tried to add a photo and ended up deleted all. I guess that by the end of this I'll be a blogging expert, b/c we learn from our mistakes and I keep making them!

This little green guy is not our new helper, he is a lizard of some sort. I thought that the Best kids would get a kick out of this photo especially, being the lizard-loving family that they are. Abby went out of our kitchen door and when she called me, I was expecting a pile of red ants or something, but this was much more exciting. Unfortunately, Matthew the gecko-guy had just left our house to play X-Box with the boy across the street and missed his opportunity to catch this one. Long-time ex-pats have looked at this photo and so far none of them have seen this kind of lizard around here. But.....apparently really, really big Monitor lizards are wild around here. One huge one ripped thru a teacher's door screen and went into her living room. Not sure what she did, but I think that if it was our house, Matthew would try and touch it and I'd grab my camera!

The little Indonesian lady (20-something) in the photo with Abby is Sri, our helper. She has a beautiful smile but was too shy to use it in this photo:) That huge room that they're standing in is our kitchen. I am very fortunate to have new cupboards in there as well as a new sink. We're hoping to put more cupboards on the opposite wall b/c it's just an empty white space. Our house is full of empty white spaces. What you cannot see is the little propane stove behind Abby and to the right. Our brand new stainless steel fridge is beautiful and clean...and in our dining room. I'm not complaining, b/c it's really nice and it displays all our lady bug magnets for us. I found a 4 pack of ladybug magnets here. Cool!

I'm going to do a new post about our travel adventures here b/c that is what most of you are asking about. Check it out!

a day in the life

I thought that I would run through my day today, just because it was quite full and oh so different from what I would normally do. Tris and I woke up around 5:30 this morning to the sound of jungle birds (not sure what they really are, but that's what they sound like) and geckos squacking outside of our house. Because the sun rises every day around 6 am year round, life gets going very early around here. Helpers and drivers go outside and begin their daily chores, which includes sweeping the walks and washing the cars. Our garage is attached to the next house and on the other side our house attaches to the neighbour's garage, so our neighbourhood closely resembles a townhouse complex. Quite often when a neighbour stirs, its hard to stay asleep. All being said, it is likely that we won't be sleeping in around here with the workers and the wildlife.

By 8:30 we were ready for the day and one of the school drivers came and picked us up for a meeting with all of the other newbie teachers. Even though our family lives right next to the school (4 minute walk) they still send a driver out for us. After our meeting, Abby and I drove with our new friends Janet and Hope to Hypermart and Ace hardware to shop (again) for 1 1/2 hours. Back to the school for lunch and to register for school and then back to our house to interview our helper, Sri. Looks like she's going to work out just fine. She will live in our house (in the very tiny helper's room near the kitchen) for 6 out of 7 days and will help with the cooking and cleaning. Took Sri shopping to outfit her little room with bed, bedding and clothes storage.

Just before Sri left to go home (will start tomorrow) she had to order gas for us as our propane tank is empty, I do not yet speak Bahasa Indonesian, and we cannot cook in our kitchen without gas. Our tank is the size of a bbq tank and costs 60,000 rupia to fill (about $6). After Sri left, I met with Tris and the kids, who were on their way back from swimming at the school. We paired up and took off for dinner at the Supermall...rode O-JAX to get there. These are motorbikes that allow you to pair up so that there are 3 people on one vehicle. It costs about 5000 rp ($.50) to ride the 2 miles to the mall. The kids were thrilled, even when the 2 drivers separated and Matthew and I were alone in a huge mall, looking for Tris and Abby. Thankfully we found them in the food court. It was good that I found him because I was carrying millions on me...well, actually, millions yes, but in rupia. When I first went shopping I had 7 million rupia on me, or 70 paper bills. That is equivalent to $700.00. Unfortunately, that is long gone.

When we were riding the O-Jax we were saying "our grandma's would love this!!" On our way home we took a taxi (a taksi) and it cost us about $1 total. Not bad! Now we're home, it's 8:15 and we're totally ready for bed. Not a terribly exciting day, but new to us.

The White House...literally

Kim here. Well, we've finally made it here, and after 5 days of trying to access the net we are able to hit our blog. Not sure where to start except that this place is truly an adventure and we're in it full swing. Our home is literally a white house, inside and out, from top to bottom. White cement walls and white tiled floors. Our ceilings are 10 feet high, with a 20 foot ceiling over the dining room/living room. The kitchen is very tiny, with brand new cupboards, which we are thankful for. There are a few things around the house that we're trying to get used to, like showers that hit the entire bathroom (difficult to keep the toilet paper dry) because the bathroom is literally the shower itself.
For those of you who love to shop, picture being able to start out with $1500.00 US to outfit as much of your home as you can. That's toilet paper, pots and pans, dishes, food, microwave, etc. Sounds fun, heh? Imagine me, standing in "HyperMart" (that's really the name, too...it's exactly like it sounds) trying to decide between the pastel purple ice cube trays and the pastel green. The day after we arrived I had 6 hours to shop for all of these things, and it would take me 20 minutes just to make a decision. Sometimes, after deep contemplation, I would just walk away without the item I'd just stared at for so long. The first night, I went home with all my kitchen utensils and a bunch of handy items, but no food, no dishes, no cutlery and no pots/pans. Was quite comical if my family hadn't had to eat that night. Thank goodness for Skippy Peanut Butter.
As I am writing this, Tris is in the kitchen cleaning up (our helper arrives this week) and just got a scare as a gecko ran past his foot. They're these weird, transparent guys that are our friends... they eat mosquitoes and little ants. Matthew is in his glory between geckos and zapping mosquitoes with our heavyduty electric zapper.
Not sure what people want to hear about our adventure, but we'll try and fill this in regularly to keep you updated. It's been difficult without access to the net. Imagine coming home and having no net, no blinking telephone messages and no tv. That's where we're at right now, except that our neighbour has been kind enough to let us mooch off of his wireless for the time being.
We hope to post some photos later on, once we slow down. Our days have been packed with orientation, unpacking, shopping and falling into bed at night completely exhausted. I'll deal with the emotional side of this adventure in a later blog. Thanks for reading. Kim