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.