We're off!

It's 3:33 am, the muslim call is wailing through the air telling worshippers of Allah to wake up, make your breakfast, time to pray! My family is still asleep and I'll let them sleep for a few more minutes before I wake them up to get ready for the car and driver we've hired. He'll be here by 4:30 to drive us to the airport. By 10:30 am our time we'll be at the waterslides in Bali, where we're staying for 3 days (in the same area). After that we move onto someplace a little quieter for another 5 days.

What are we looking forward to? I'm so thankful my family gets a little rest; all 3 of them have been working very hard. Of course, I am looking forward to shopping, and I heard that we can hire a driver to take us to the mountains and see a waterfall. I think that's my heart's desire for this trip; if there's no waterfall this trip I'll work on that with my trip with mom and dad in January. Tris is totally stoked about the surfing...so is Matthew, too. Matt is looking forward to putting some great shots up on his blog, so I guess I have some photo-shooting to do while I'm there. Abby hasn't said much about what she's looking foward to; she just wants away from school and uniforms:) and is looking forward to getting away.

Not much to say except that sentimentality is ripe at 3:30 in the morning, and I miss my family and friends. I wish we could all have a reunion in Bali and eat, lay on the beach, shop (of course!), snorkel and body surf together.

Please pray for us...I always get a little anxious taking planes.

Thanks for reading.

Life is so different

Matthew being grabbed by a tree-vine on the way home; luckily he had a machete in his back pocket and so he cut his way out. Life here is very dangerous at times, but it keeps Matt on his toes.

There are so many times that it just hits me that life is so much different here. I wrote about our gardener and his employees; they came again yesterday and turned over the clay-dirt, preparing it for the end of one week of Idul Fitri holiday (end of Ramadan and fasting). Once it's over they'll return to put in compost and then the grass. We, our family and our readers, can watch it grow together. Isn't that something to gasp about?!

I went to the mall and bought a 'berry-licous' smoothy; it contains black/blue and raspberries and so is my source for something I rarely find here. During Ramadan, to bring in customers, the booth offers a free cup of ice cream with your smoothie. I asked for 'take away' (which means take-out) and since they don't normally do this, they accommodated me by finding lids that fit, taping them on, bagging the little cups of ice cream in ice and double-bagging so it didn't drip on me on the way home. Takes about 5 minutes, but I just love the customer service. Sometimes it gets so frustrating to do business with someone, but when it comes to little things like bagging items or finding a parking spot, there's always someone on hand to help you out. Sometimes there are 3 people helping you out, actually. Sometimes there's a crowd watching, too!

I visit the Senior School library quite often (I told them I feel like the library mouse and I think the name has stuck); I sneak in and out, usually spending about 1/2 hour studying Bahasa-Indonesia and chatting with the 2 main librarians, Ibu Risma and Ibu Franscesca. You THINK you are being inconspicuous, but the other day as I was heading to my class (yeah, I get to go to school too!) a maintenance fellow asked me in broken english if I was heading to the library. He wanted to let me know that it was closed. I always forget that we kind of stand out in the crowd here; it's sure nice to know that people are looking out for us even if we have no idea who they are. Isn't that bad???!!!

Today I splurged big time and had a pedicure at a local, reputable hairdresser's salon. The proprietress is Chandra, and she speaks English; her prices are great and so her clientele numbers are quite high. Just before I left Canada I had a wonderful, relaxing 'girls' day' with Aunt Sam and it was the perfect start to a new move. I am estimating that the pedicure we had was approximately $60 (or more), and I only tell you this to give you a comparison. The pre-Indonesian pedicure came with a foot scrub, a glass of juice in a lovely wine glass, and excellent music; the company of course was supreme. Today, in comparison, I was offered a plastic bottle of water (no complaints intended) and some '80s music. I had a great pedicure companion, Diane Fennel, who is always great company to be with. I had a foot bath, foot scrub, almost 35 minutes of foot attention (very meticulous!) and for an extra 50 cents I got to have my nails painted, too! The best part of the whole one hour session was the leg/foot rub. In all my pedicure experience, I have never had a leg/foot massage included in my pedi, even when advertised as such, at least not like this! Needless to say, when Aunt Sam ventures over to our neck of the woods, we're headed to Chandras as often as our feet cry out. You ready for the price? Five dollars (that includes the price of the polish). Is this incentive to come and visit??

By the way, in my last post I mentioned that I miss my mom's roast beef. I stand by that comment and I am not changing it; although I have had flack on the comment, remember: Food Is Love!

As I write, Abby is coaxing a hamster out from behind our computer desk. Our friend/neighbour/fellow SPH teacher is having her house 'fogged' for typical creatures around here...not uncommon...bugs of all kinds I believe...and we're housing her 4 lobsters (probably will be three when she picks up, by the looks of them), houdini hamster, her dog Bella and her 6 puppies for a time. Bella was secretly pregnant for most of her gestational period; when

I asked her owner said she wasn't too sure, and next week, she gave birth under her owner's bed! Mama Bella is small and long with short legs, kind of corgi-ish, and she's a real sweetheart of a dog. I have permission to pick her up during the day and take her on my walk, and today we went out for the first time. Not sure about poop scooping here but I'm pretty sure it's not a law!

If you look at the pictures of Matt and Abby, you can see the obvious question in their minds. The obvious answer to Tris and I is NO! We have access to someone else's pets and I think that that, and the pet rat in our ceiling, is enough for now.

Thanks for reading.

Piano is here, new grass on the way!

Boy, the title makes us seem rather boring...

Yesterday we got our piano, and it's wonderful. It was tuned for about 1 1/2 hours last night and it still seems a little off in places, but maybe it's just my playing...It was so awesome to hear Abby when she played some worship stuff after school today. It felt just like our home! Apparently I was playing so loud this morning that woke up Ruth Fox, and for that I apologize. Sound travels well through major pollution! What is a little disconcerting is that our house has little slats above the doors leading to the outside, so things like ants, mice, cicaks (geckos) can come in at their leisure. Must be a humidity thing...anyways, sound travels through our cement homes quite loudly, especially through these slats, so when we play I think that Abby's teacher 2 doors down can probably hear us. It's my goal to play while the majority of people are at work!

We're heading to Bali soon. These photos are of our family at the Marriot in Jakarta with our travel buddies, the Comrie family: Bruce, Judy, Sophie and Ben. Ben just turned 8 this weekend. The countdown is on and I've started to pack...but really, what is there to pack but a few pair of underwear, a bathing suit and some sunscreen? Apparently we can rent towels there even, so that leaves more room for souvenirs! Any requests (Candace and Miranda, I cannot put men into my suitcase, sorry!)

I've finally hired a gardener. It took 3 estimates, and this guy won out mostly because I've seen his work AND his wife speaks English really good (unlike some of us...) Ahem, really WELL. This may not seem like a big deal but it gets really frustrating after a while when nobody understands you, even if you have been studying your vocabulary for WEEKS. This gardener is Pak Suki and his wife is Ibu Narni. Because I am older than them I do not use the Pak and Ibu, but my kids would. What is really unfortunate is that the other 2 men have families to feed as well and I have to say no to them. It's not the same as saying no to someone in Canada, because there is some semblance of a support system there, and there is absolutely nothing here. Sometimes there is something, a job of some sort, that we could probably just do ourselves, but for the money that we end up paying and the hassle of trying to figure out where to get supplies etc, it's just better to hire someone. Apparently the average construction worker gets about $5 per day. That's a five; it's not a typo.

I want to include photos of our yard. The only known photo of our backyard before the gardeners and his buddies tackled it is on my Facebook videos. However, I have taken a photo of the area after they dug it up. The soil is mostly made up of red clay it seems, and is very difficult to work with if you're used to "processed dirt" like we are. You still have to buy your dirt here, too. You can buy a large rock for about $5, and to think I just left a home on Copperfield that has dozens in the front yard under the grass! The first photo is of our front yard. What we've got there is Elephant grass, lemput gaja, but as you can see we have to cut it regularly. So, there's another option out there and it's called Mini lemput gaja. The workers come and remove the old grass, work the dirt a little and break up the clay, then they plant itty bitty individual plugs. I'm not sure how long it takes for the plugs to take root but they water them regularly for us. Guess that means I'll have to splurge and pay the $50 for a garden hose. You get a package deal here where you buy the hose and the ends and you put it together at home. Very interesting. I haven't ordered any plants because I want to see what our yard looks like with just grass. I think I prefer potted plants because then I can move them around whenever I want.

Sunny, you would love the gardening help here!

What is really difficult is that it is Ramadan and so everybody is fasting. These guys are outside in the sun and I could only offer water to one out of four of them. When they return after Idul Fitri (Lebaron), which is like our Christmas, forgiveness day, and summer holidays all in one week, then they can eat and drink again.

The last photo is taken from the corner of our lot into what is called the 'garage.' Sri is in the background sitting on the stoop in front of her room. Her toilet is in a room just behind her and the clotheswashing machine sits in this little landing between the two rooms. Everything in our house is quite 'tight.' Some houses have better accomodations for their helpers and we're trying to make it as comfortable for Sri as possible. It's our hope to get a roof for the garage before long, so Sri can come and go without getting wet, her bike will stay dry,and the cement floor won't go as slimy green as it will without covering. Do you see the drying rack in the background? We now have 2 (Sri is thankful...it's difficult drying 5 peoples' clothes on one rack!) and one sits in the garage, the other on our back porch. It's too durn hot on the backporch to actually use it, but it's great for drying clothes!

Supper is ready. Time to go...

Thanks for reading.

I can't sleep!

It's 10:30 pm Sunday night, which is scary because 5:00 am comes pretty early!! I'm not able to sleep and it seems extra hot out, so I decided to come down and journal my life to the world. Well, to a few of our family and friends, anyways:) I haven't got anything specific, but I do want to share a few things with you.


The first topic is the most important. There are 5 grade 7 classes in Matt's year and each class is made up of about 20 students.

All of these students have to take a biblical studies class and each one had to do a project recently. Matthew chose to do a technical project where he made a 10 minute power point presentation based on a bible verse. He used Brian Doerksen's song about Canada along with a bunch of photos that we took just before we left. It made me sad to watch it :) This scan is of Matthew's final assessment, which he got a perfect mark on. He got the highest mark in year 7! For those of you who would like to take a closer look, double click on the image and it'll fill yer screen.

The school here is very challenging and has extremely high expectations for the students. Our kids have found the transition to school to be a difficult one, but I am proud of the efforts that they have put into their work. I think that Matthew is finding out new things about himself and his abilities, and that he is enjoying the challenge.

A few weeks ago Abby went to a sleepover for all of grade 5, and there was a talent show that the teachers said was mandatory. Abby and 2 girlfriends worked very hard on a comedy act and they won first prize. Unfortunately I don't have a photo but she did win a tacky gold-paper medal! The difficulty that Abby is having is that in the last few years she has been one of the top students in her class, and now she is having to work hard to get back to that position. I'm not sure what her standing is compared to the rest of the class, but Tris and I are constantly encouraging her to go a little broader, to play with her friends or go out and play a sport rather than just focus on schoolwork outside of school.

As a mom, I believe it's my perogative to let my friends and family know how well my children are doing. So please, those of you who aren't all that interested in my kids' grades, bear with me. I know that Grandmas and Grandpas and great Aunts and Aunties are reading this, so this is technically for them:) Also, I am printing off our blog so that years from now we'll have a record of our life here, at least the first year. We've used a lot of paper and ink already!

What's new in our lives? We are finding that settling takes a lot of time and money and patience! For weeks our children have been bugging us to buy a piano because they both are involved in music, and I myself would love to sit down and play a couple of times a week. Thankfully we have found a lovely friend, Henny (she's the one who has taken me to various places), who is Indonesian and also a piano teacher, so she has helped us chose and purchase an upright Yamaha (used). It is supposed to arrive tomorrow! Unfortunately, in Canada I spent hours photocopying and cutting and organizing Abby and my loose-leaf music pages, and I just realized that I left the binder in Canada. Now we give an extra big thank you to Anna and Aunt Sam for the gifts of music books to Abby and I before we left. We are so excited to be able to pull them out soon.

Tris went vehicle shopping today with Bruce Comrie. He's narrowed our choices down to 3: a Toyota Kijang, a Nissan Lavina (?) and a Hiatsu (?). Really, they look like a minivan, a station wagon and an suv respectively. There are 3 colour choices here on the island of Java as far as we've seen: gold, silver or black. There is the odd burgundy vehicle out there, but you should see the parking lots. Everything looks the same!!! We'll let you know what we order probably later in the week.

It sounds like we're doing a lot of shopping, and we are. Hopefully it'll calm down once we get the big necessities out of the way. To our kids, the piano was essential to making our house a home (in their words, too! Except for the word essential...) Once the mold in our wall/ceiling in the living room is taken care of, I'd like to paint a little and make the place a little more of our own. We're not sure of the timeline on that but we're waiting patiently.

We've been discussing things that we miss from Canada and a few things are:

the way our wooden house creaked in the night; the way the stairs made noises

the cool breeze

cinnamon gum

inexpensive red nail polish!

just knowing we can head to Cloverdale anytime we want to visit Tris' family

sushi with Aunt Sam

big strong hugs from my dad (Poppa)

mom's roast beef dinners!!!! (I have yet to see a roast here, unless you count the ones that were hanging from the hooks at the wet market)

Willie (Tris is pretty sad about having to leave him behind)

Canadian green grass...what we have here is similar to a weed that I would pull in my garden at home

leaves turning colour

There are a lot of good things here, but we just miss a few of the things from home. Obviously we have a bunch more, but if I wrote them all out, I may look like a bit of a whiner!

I guess in all fairness we should consider the things here that we are thoroughly enjoying:

Tris LOVES the heat

Tris loves his job

Matt and Abby are being thoroughly challenged in school and are facing it head-on

you can go anywhere and order fresh-squeezed juice from a variety of fruits

there are some great outlet shops here...they carry brand names of things that are "made in Indonesia" (Esprit, Gap, Old Navy, etc)

there are no spider webs in my house

I don't have to clean my toilets

the storms are incredible!

we get to learn a new language

Well, it's getting late. That took me 1/2 an hour and now I'm hoping that I can fall asleep. Thanks for having this little gab session with me...

Thanks for reading.

Goth hair and Indonesian bum-sprayers

I dedicate this blog to my favourite hairdresser, Dale (Mrs. O). Yesterday I went into Jakarta with a friend and I went to the Hair Club (no, not the one 'for men'!). I arrived armed with 4 photographs of what my last haircut looked like from all angles, as well as with a formula for my last colour because I knew that the Hair Club colours with Goldwell products. This place is not overly glamorous, but it is clean and well-staffed. You are greeted as you walk in the door (not with a big huge elephant-dog who pees on the floor when he sees you, like the last regular place that I got my hair done) by a variety of staff. Once seated, I was offered a drink, which I declined, because I knew that the drink would soak into my body and just at the right moment, the one where I had colour all over my hair, I would have to, well, you know...I'd have to pee. Not a big deal if the washroom ("toilet" or "kamar kecil") is in the same office space as you, but it is when you have to go outside of the business, into the main hall and down to the area by the elevators. Lovely toilets, by the way, in this particular high-rise business building. Complete with toilet paper and the standard, Indonesian bum-washers, which are a story all of their own. I just have to bunny trail with this one...there is this little pipe that sticks up out of the back of the inside of the toilet, which you have control over at the side of the toilet. You know that curiousity typically gets the better of me, but I am positive that if I were even to try this little contraption, it wouldn't squirt the intended area...it'd get the back of my shirt for all to see. Picture me, if I had consented to a lovely drink, having to pee, going to the bathroom with my colour in process, and exiting minutes later with water all up my back, to my neck. I can just see it now.

Yes, I digress....but this is my blog (Tris' in name and by marriage only at this point) and so as long as I keep it clean, I can write what I want. LOL.

As I was lead to the back of the salon, a man approached me and indicated that I was to take off my shirt. Ummm, we don't do that in Canada, I thought. Quickly I figured out that he was handing me a shirt to put on and to do so, I'd have to remove my own shirt. Quickly I whipped into a little closet and donned the teeny tiny Indonesian-sized striped hospital gown. Once I was seated at Lillian's station, I was able to show her my photos and my formula. She took a look, played with my hair a bit, and then after a few minutes of mixing, slapped the colour on my hair. The fun part here, for those of you who will visit us, is that my friend Jamie was right beside me, having a pedicure done. We were able to chat while I was having my hair done and it was a great "girl" experience.

Because of the air conditioning in the salon, the "HEATER" was brought out so that the colour would set. Wish I had my camera!!! It looked like something out of Star Wars; it had 4 different metallic discs that surrounded the sides of my head and 2 that angled the top. It was huge! Just like in the old days where the 'electric permanent' machine came out of the ceiling, this behemoth came from the ceiling as well. Other than it's size, however, it was rather modern in the way it worked, with all the bells and whistles.


The highlight (positive one) of my salon experience was my hair-washer. For those of you who have experienced Andrew at Roots in Courtenay (as the hair-washer, not as his new job of hairdressing), you know what the ultimate shampoo/conditioning experience is like. My washer was a guy as well, and as weird as that sometimes is, he was really good at washing and rinsing....he massaged my head for 15 minutes, I'm sure (the waste of water in Indonesia is another blog...I won't get started here)!!!!
Finally, when the bag was removed and Jamie and I looked at my hair, it was dark, dark, dark. To make a long story short, Lillian had decided to take it upon herself to use a different formula or something like that, to, get this...hide the grey!!! Whatever!!! Maybe I like my blonde hairs that look a touch silvery in certain lights. Fortunately, the colour is a demi, which means it washes out. Already, after 2 washes today, it is less black than it was yesterday. I've posted photos that Abby took of me tonight, just to show Dale, mom and those who will ask to see my hair later, what the colour ended up like. Please remember that I have very weak gel and no hairspray at this point (too cheap to pay US prices in the salon!) so I wasn't able to get the 'lift' every girl needs in her do. BTW, see the shirt I'm wearing? It's an Esprit, with a cute tie around the waist. Bought it the other day at an outlet store for about $6.5o. That was the most expensive shirt I bought. This store is MY kind of store...finally I have found a clothes-shopping place that I will be able to convince my husband to come to.


As I write this, Tris is doing his Masters at the kitchen table (on a Friday night, no less!) and Matt and his buddy Haddon are watching a video (for more photos of Matthew please see his blog, the link is on the right of this page at the top ). Our house is rather small so we all get the benefit of hearing what is on tv, no matter where we go. Abby just spent some time talking to grandma Bea on Skype and is waiting for me to come and eat chocolate cookies and drink Milo with her. This has been a rather "girlie" blog, but I do hope that even if a man reads it (dad??) that you get a good kick out of my first hair experience in Indonesia.

Thanks for reading!

Great Update on Baby Zoey

Here is the latest update from Greg, baby Zoey's dad:

"Hi everyone,
Zoey has been getting a little bit better every day since I last wrote and has moved from the ICU to a post-surgical ward at Children's. She has gradually moved from morphine to methadone to codeine and today took just Tylenol. She still has a catheter in each kidney, a drain in her abdomen anda feeding tube down her throat, but other than those, she has shed all the rest of the IV's, and other paraphernalia that was sticking out of her. My guess is that the feeding tube may go in the next few days as she has taken a bottle a few times without incident (although it is a little tough to burp her since she is still in traction with her feet straight up in the air!). Her spirits are generally good and she is starting to look like her old self and even gives a few smiles and laughs if she is in a good mood.Steph and I get out to see her every day and the plan at this point is that she'll be in traction for another 3-4 weeks and come home in about 5-6 weeks. We'll see how things go. On the home front, everything is good. Zach has even slept through the night a few times. I keep telling the nurses that Zoey had better be doing the same by the time they send her home. :)
greg."

Thanks for praying for Zoey, and keep it up! Just as an added prayer, please just ask for a special blessing on both Steph and Greg as today is Greg's birthday and the 8th of September was Steph's.

Our news? Not much. I'm having a teary week, and it all started Thursday last week when I bought a jar of blueberry/raspberry/blackberry jam. What's the deal with that??? There's nothing to complain about here, and I think it's okay to miss home. Please continue to pray that we'll continue to settle, and especially for the kids and their schoolwork. It's a pretty intense workload, especially for their age and what they're used to. What they're doing is incredible...I'm amazed at the work that each of them is putting out; however, I think they're overwhelmed feeling at times and they just need to realize that they can do it, step by step. I know that Abby is doing a countdown to Bali, and so I hope that it's a wonderful relaxing trip for Tris, Matthew and Abby.

The country is 1/2 way through Ramadan. This is a good thing for us as well, because there are some things that are definately a little more difficult to get used to. One of them is the eating. Muslims are not allowed to eat between sunrise and sunset (or drink anything, including water). This means that anyone we're purchasing food from during the day is having to prepare, cook or serve food for hours and they don't get to participate. Sri our helper just keeps on going and I've never heard a complaint from her. Today Tris brought donuts to school and stuck 2 in the fridge for her for dessert. I think she's looking forward to the end of the day, because they're almost as good as Cumberland Bakery donuts! The other day I had whipped some cream and I held out the beaters for her to clean off (aka eat off the whipped cream). When I said "would you like these?" she looked at me and laughed. Oops. She said "yes, I would like them very much" except that it was 2 hours until sunset yet. I felt so mean! Needless to say we saved a big dollop just for her.

We try to avoid the malls around dinner time this month. It's just crazy. At about 5:50 the food courts/restaurants are packed. I feel really bad for the food fair/restaurant servers/cooks who will have to work and are unable to break their fast for later.

What I especially wonder about the fasting is...what about those who havent' got any food to eat in the first place? Of what significance is it to them that they're fasting? I imagine that they would focus on fasting all the other areas (water, if available, sex, smoking) but when you are just surviving, would you even have the energy or means to pursue the other areas?

So many times when I am in Jakarta I choke up, and I am not sure what's going on inside me. Not sure if it's my own sadness or if it's something God is doing in my heart regarding Indonesia. My heart breaks for some of what i see, and there is so much more of these heartwrenching scenes outside of the big city, things I h ave not yet seen. I have googled different areas of Indonesia and various news articles have given me a little more insight into this country we are living in. Also, the book that I was reading on the history of Indonesia (IT IS FINISHED!!) has given me intellectual insight if nothing else on the people of Indonesia. This is definately not a country in unity by any means, and it never has been. There is such a conglomeration of cultures, languages, religions and heritages in this country, and such an integration of outside influence. Each religion has taken on different aspects of past beliefs (ie/ in some areas animism has become intertwined with Christianity) and so if you were to try and research the religions of Indonesia as a whole it would be incredibly difficult. Just for the record, that is not something I personally am aspiring to:) I will continue to examine my heart and ask God what it is that these emotions are inside me. Sometimes I feel a sense of pride for the people of Indonesia and I think it's just a stitch in the canvas that is being built in our family while we're here. As much as we stand out, we don't want to be on the outside of what is going on in Indonesia. We want to be a part of people's lives here. Not sure how that will happen in the area that we live, but we're here for a reason and since God has a purpose and a plan for our lives, we'll just have to see how this all works out.

We covet your prayers!
Thanks for reading.

And the 3rd place winner of the 1500 meter endurance run is.....

What is really cool is that we captured this shot of Matt around the 5th lap when he realized that he was doing quite well. It's like he was thinking "yeah! I am doing great! I can do this..."

He also ran in the 4x50 m relay and his grade 7 Merapi (house team---green shirts and all) team came in 2nd. He didn't do as many events as Abby, but those he did he did well in. All in all, both Abby and Matt each had a great sports day.

Here are a few photos of the day, with a few of Abby's day thrown in because, well, what parent doesn't like to post pictures of their kids....especially when relatives are reading this blog?!

This guy is Haddon, Matt's friend. Today he was the enemy (rival teams and all) but they still hung out together. They look rather Christmassy, actually!
We call the relay one "Poser..." Such style, such form! The one of Tris is called "Tris the Timer." He sat in one chair all day with his thumb on the timer chord.

Sports Days at SPH

What a good looking man...

Yesterday and today our family has been outside on the school fields, selling sate and garage sale stuff (that was me), running, jumping, throwing, timing and of course eating and drinking. It has been hot and dry which is a great thing, because if it rains it pours (see our video on facebook?) and there would have been about 600 kids plus staff outside in it. So...I am thinking that you are probably curious as to why there's a sweaty shirt on this blog. It's so that you get the gist of just how hot it can be and how we look half of the time. Actually, we don't spend hours and hours on end outside, so we rarely get this bad. However, today I was getting some funny looks from indonesians and when I got home I realized that I looked like a foreigner, all sweaty and gross. I'm not sure how some of the women I was helping sell sate with looked so clean and cool. I guess it comes from living here. Had to share it with you, because so often so many of you ask "are you sweaty all the time?" and "is it really hot there?" Our answer ultimately would be yes and yes. As I write this, my family is still at the school; Abby's sports day was yesterday and Tris and Matthew (senior school) have the whole afternoon off to do theirs. I am going to return for when Matt runs but I needed to come home and cool off. I am so glad that we live in the taman next to the school!

I will post this blog as if it's dedicated to Abby's sports day and then do another for Matthew, when I get some good photos of him. Yesterday Abby won 2 ribbons that we know of (2 of her events we don't know who won yet): a 2nd in 60 m hurdles for grade 5 and 3rd in long jump for grade 5. Unfortunately I went to get my camera while she was doing the long jump and I barely saw her do the hurdles; we did get a great shot of her running sprints, though. Abby did an excellent job and tried so hard...I was exhausted just watching her run/jump/throw in the heat!

This is Bruce Comrie, Tris' friend from highschool/UBC, who heads up the PE department at our school. He's our connection to SPH and the reason we are now living here. We find that our lives are connected with various families here, and the Comries are one of them. We're headed to Bali with them during the next school holidays, along with their friend, and my new friend, Alexis. She looks like fun, doesn't she? She's be a great 20/20 girl! In the photo with Bruce is Abby and 2 other grade 5 girls; they're receiving their hurdles ribbons. Matthew hung out after school with a few of his friends. This is Eric Weeda, his first friend in Indonesia. I am curious to see how Matthew is going to do today. Regardless of how he runs, I think that he needs an award for most enthusiastic...if they ran a cheering team here or had a mascot he'd be the perfect guy for the job!

Our family's "team" is green (can't remember the name...will have to ask) and so we're supposed to wear green. Matthew probably would have painted his nails green if he'd been allowed.

One last photo, and that is of the gardening ladies or "ibu"s who are constantly picking up leaves, picking weeds and doing a variety of work. Each time I see one of them I say "Selamat pagi, ibu" (ibu is singular and plural). They always return the greeting with a big smile, especially the ibu on the far right. After I took this photo they kept speaking to me in Bahasa-Indonesia, and finally I (brokenly) told them that I don't understand them, and i don't speak Bahasa-Indonesia. They laughed at me, but I remember them saying something to me about "pulang" and when I asked Sri, our helper, she said the word means "to take to my home." So, I have just printed out this photo and when I return to school will give each ibu one. Off I go to watch Matthew run!

Thanks for reading.

Recent Contact Updates

Okay, move over telus. We're tired of trying to contact you, get answers from you, and to make some sense of why we're paying you $5/month for what we consider poor customer service. All we want is to be able to send/receive e-mails to friends and family back home, yet for 2 months we've struggled with using Telus and they have not responded in any way.
So.........we are now going to try a new account. Please send any e-mail you may have for us to trisandkim@hotmail.com rather than our telus account. If you e-mail us then we can automatically put you into our address book and I won't have to manually add each person at a time from Tris' notebook computer.

As well, I am going to include our mailing address, which may be a bit different from the one that you were given while we were in Canada. If ever you decide to send something other than a regular letter to us, please mail it c/o Tris White to:

SPH Lippo Karawaci
2500 Bulevar Palam Raya
Lippo Karawaci
Tangerang, 15811
Indonesia

Regular letters can still be sent to:

92 Danau Biru (means "Blue Lake")
Lippo Karawaci,
Tangerang, 15811
Indonesia

Our new home phone number is +62.21.546.2532
My mom and Dale have called it and I'm not sure how much it cost them, but it's not a very clear connection. I would recommend that you call it just to let us know you would like to skype us, so that we can set up. On that note, our skype code is: tris.and.kim.white

We have handphones (cells) but I'm not sure if they'd work for you! Apparently some of my friends can sms their families back home, but I don't think that our phone is good enough to do that.

This is just a quick update on our info.

Thanks for reading!

Nothing much going on

There's not a whole lot to report on right now. Our weeks are getting pretty scheduled and our weekends are kind of laid-back. I've been trying to upload a few videos of our weekend; one is of our drive to church and one is of our entry into the rainy season. Not terribly action-packed but they give you an idea of what we experience here. I did successfully put them on Facebook so if i can't get them on here, they're available under my (kim) profile.

On Friday night we went to a friend's house for dinner. She and her husband made homemade burgers and we had hotdogs, salads and all things North American. It was wonderful! It's important to not be too stuck on things back at home, but really, when you get a chance to taste what life used to be like it sure is a treat. After dinner we had homemade apple pie with whipped cream, and then played a game of Cranium. If you like Cranium and haven't heard of Turbo Cranium, give it a try. It's a hoot and way more interactive than the old version.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to go to 2 garage sales here...not a common experience in Indonesia. Both were held by ex-pats; one was to raise money for a 15 year old's school project and another was because a family has just found out they're returning to Australia. I am beginning to understand how things work here and it is probably going to be a difficult thing over time. You get to know someone, put your time and effort into them, and then they eventually move away (or you do). Does that sound familiar to some of you? We have 2 choices: we can hide in our homes and live our lives as protected as possible, or we can just meet people, give it our all, and deal with each separation as they occur. Life's too short and people are too interesting to not reach out.

One thing that I am realizing is that it would be easy to be self-centered here, at least for me. Our lives are so different and adjustments can be hard, and sometimes I feel that I am so focussed on settling and making this life here work that I forget about why I am here in the first place. I don't think we're here to just experience a new way of life. I think God has more than that in store for us, and I don't want to lose perspective. I wonder what kinds of things I'll be writing in a year?

The countdown to Bali is on. We will do the research and get back to you on where to go and what to do. I haven't had any part in the planning of this trip (that's a first!) and so I have no idea where we're going on Bali, except that we're going to be at a waterpark for a few days. I've seen the photos and the place looks awesome.

I assume that with school back in and the Fall season setting in that everybody is getting back to the regular grind. I hope that you take time out to enjoy life while you get into the groove. Next time you feel a cool ocean breeze on your face, or you hike a mountain and see an ocean view, or even if you just drive past a lovely river on the new Island Highway or some BC highway, think of us. When you are driving on a highway and you are all alone, think of us. Finally, when you throw a log on the fire, inside your house or out, think of us.

One last thing. I can only buy strawberry jam here and yet I have the odd opportunity to go to an ex-pat store and buy other kinds. My favourite time of year is blackberry/any berry picking season, and I love to jam what I've picked. When I found a blackberry/raspberry/blueberry jam on the shelf, I picked it up and almost started crying. Whenever I mentioned the moment later, I actually got teary. Sometimes it hits me in really weird ways how much I miss home.

Thanks for reading.

We are Safe!

For those of you who heard on the news that Indonesia has had an

earthquake, you heard correctly. However, it was not on our island or anywhere near us. What we have learned is that it was a 5.1 quake on/near the island of Flores, a small island to the east of Java (which we are on). It's funny that we cannot easily get news about Canada, and it definately would not be on our national newscast if Canada experienced a quake, yet you get our news quite quickly. I did feel a quake about 2 weeks ago, on a Tuesday morning, and I thought that when I was standing in my dining room that I was just a little dizzy for a moment. Nothing swayed and nothing creaked; however, a friend was in a tall apartment building and felt it sway a bit. Nothing like a little excitement to stir up the air. I didn't even know it was a quake until the following Saturday! Needless to say, please do not worry or fret if you hear news of any kind of natural phenomenon in our area. We do, however, appreciate it when you tell us of what you have heard, because we often don't even get this news ourselves!

On that note, a friend of mine described her parents' reactions to news coming out of Jakarta of great demonstrations by a large group of people. They were worried about her, and so when they later came to visit, she and her husband took her parents to witness these types of demonstrations. What they saw was about 100 people shouting and holding placards, but the angle that the media often takes is that it is a much greater event, and they use different photographic angles to show the world just what is going on. If you take a photo at the right perspective, you can show a picture of something that isn't exactly true. Soooo...if you see or hear news on the tv and it disturbs you, please remember that media isn't always telling it like it is. Give us a ring or get in touch with us and we'll fill you in on the news from our end. I saw a demonstration by students outside of Jakarta's parliament buildings today. There were a few students on a jeep yelling through a bullhorn and they were being followed, on foot, by about 50 students. It was non-threatening and nobody seemed to pay much attention.


Our family has been the proud recipients of a package from home!! Tanya mailed it to our school address and it got to us within a few weeks. Aside from some important papers, it held some real treasures, and i've included a few photos of the necklaces that cousin Lucy made for Matthew and Abby. Thank you, Lucy and Elijah! We miss you!

Thank you for your continued Skype calls, emails and Facebook contacts. We love to hear from you and though we may not be able to answer immediately, we hope to get back in touch with you over time. Once school's out, our 2 computers are both turned on until dinner, then after until bed, and homework is the main focus by all three SPH people. I, of course, spend my time sending my new friends messages (they're called sms' here. What are they called at home?) on my hand phone (cell) and reading my book on Indonesia. It's taken 6 weeks but I'm almost through. It's the first time I've read a textbook from cover to cover...please don't ask me to repeat anything I've read because I'm sure it's in my brain somewhere but I'm not sure it'll come back out:)

I am still working on Tris doing a post for this blog, but now that he's started his Masters back up again he may never do it...

Thanks for reading!

Some recent photos of my family...in Canada

Update on Baby Zoey

For those who are praying for Steph & Greg Baker's 3 month old baby Zoey, here is the update they sent me:
for those of you who are unaware, Zoey had major abdominal surgery on Sept 5th. In order to get to the area the surgeons had to break her pelvis and she is now in traction.

Below is a photo of Zoey and her big brother (twin) Zak. I think this is about 2 months ago.

"Hi Everyone,
Here is the update on Zoey...

She was in surgery for about 7 hours yesterday and the surgeons were all pretty happy with how things proceeded. They broke both sides of her pelvis and moved the bones to properly close in the front and then repaired her bladder and reconstructed her lower abdomen that didn't form normally at birth. She was moved to the ICU after the surgery and we got to see her briefly last night. She was in quite a bit of pain, even with all the morphine that she was getting, so that was pretty difficult to watch. Overnight they decided to up the dosage and when we saw her this morning she looked more comfortable. Unfortunately one of the side effects to giving babies large doses of morphine is that they stop breathing, so she is intubated and has a ventilator breathing for her. She has a catheter in both kidneys and another in her bladder and a drain in her abdomen. She also has an IV in her arm, another in her head (another shaved patch!!) and yet another directly into her jugular, since they had run out of places to poke and still needed to give her more stuff. Both her legs are sticking straight up in order to get the pelvis to heal correctly and her whole body is bruised and swollen from the surgery. She is also on a feeding tube down her throat and they started to give her tiny amounts of milk this afternoon. Hopefully she is able to tolerate it and they can slowly up the amounts over the next few days.

She was scheduled to be in the ICU for only a day, but it looks like it will be longer as they won't send her upstairs to a ward until she can breath on her own. She will probably be in the hospital for about 6 weeks.

All in all, it was a long, difficult day and it will be a long, difficult recover, but as I always say, no matter how bad it gets, you don't have to look around very far at Children's Hospital to see kids that have it even worse, and that helps keep things in perspective.

Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes.

greg."

That's the update. Please continue praying for Zoey and her family (mom, dad, 2 year old sister Eliana and her twin brother, Zak)

Thanks for reading.

The city of Jakarta

As you well know now, we live about 40 minutes away from the city of Jakarta in a lovely little township (?) called Lippo Karawaci (karawachi). Over the past 8 days I have had opportunity to take a few photos of a few trips into Jakarta and I'd like to share them with you. They were taken on our little digital so the picture isn't as clear as it would be with our Canon. It's our hope to one day take a video camera with us in the evening during weekend traffic, and hang out of the window to take a clip. We feel that a photo won't do it justice!

The first picture is of Hanna, myself and Helena (fellow Canadian) in a place called Kemang (i think). We took a taxi in and that is where I bought my 2 wooden floor lamps and desk chair. I took a picture of a bench of who knows what kind of wood that I would love to have. One of the reasons I love it is that it reminds me of John & Shirley and the furniture that John makes.

Although we took a taxi in, we ditched it after a while and walked around the streets a bit. This is not easy to do as the few sidewalks that they have are mostly overtaken and uprooted by tree roots. When you want to cross the street you don't wait for a lull in traffic because that doesn't happen...you create the opportunity. Mostly you step into traffic (usually you pick a slower moving car coming towards you) and then you put out your arm to indicate that the oncoming car should stop. Usually it works. :)

As we walked along we came upon a man fixing a bus. If you look carefully you can see him squatting under the bus. It was just a great touristy photo to take, so the three of us whipped out our digitals nonchalantly and snapped.

That was last week. This weekend I spent the day with Alexis, whom I will get the pleasure of travelling with to Bali along with the Comries. We went for my first all-body massage...whole different posting because I think it deserves its own!! After that we went for lunch and then to a furniture maker in a little tiny store. Tris and I had hand-drawn a VERY basic desk for our spare room and within 1/2 an hour the owner had redrawn it with measurements, sliders, pulls and the like. It's beautiful, teak and it will cost under $500. Absolutely amazing. Needless to say, we'll be bringing wood furniture home with us if we are able. O yeah, the wood this guy uses is recycled from homes and so the possibility of it cracking when we bring it back to Canada is even less. Another recycler! I just love going into these stores...I am going to have to take a photo because they're not anything like what you'd imagine. They're usually very long and narrow, very dusty and very difficult to find.

After Alexis dropped me off at our church (I met my family there) I was able to capture this sunset in Jakarta. See how smoggy it is? The sun is usually reddish in colour.

This photo of the graveyard is one that I've been wanting to take for weeks. Unfortunately you can see my reflection in the window because I had to take it through the plexiglass window in our church's stairwell. This photo is the perfect shot of Jakarta and all that it is and was, and the dichotomy of this city. See the uniformity of the Dutch graveyard? It's interesting how the church it very European yet has a tinge of Muslim to it with the little ball top to the left of the main building. Not sure if it was originally a European look or not. In the far top left hand corner there is the modern city of Jakarta and all its tall buildings.

To the right is what I believe to be an older part of Jakarta city. Down in the bottom right hand and up the middle of the right side is the chaotic housing where everyone is crammed together. If you increase the size of this photo you can see a lady in the road on the bottom right, holding a baby and rocking it in her arms.

I LOVE this photo. It would be a dream if I could retake it without a window blocking my view and take it on my new camera. Maybe one day...

Thank you for reading.

No, I am not hanging from the ceiling and taking a photo. Our house here is set up a little like the one at home...we have one room that extends from floor to ceiling. I am standing on our landing upstairs, where the doorways to our 3 bedrooms are. This was taken this morning at about 6 am, just before everyone got their teeth brush and went to school. Notice the green shirts...Friday is theme day, and this year's theme is FAITH. Excellent choice for our first year here, I think.

This kitty photo has a sad little story behind it, but before I tell you, please know that cats are just as welcome as rats around here. Most of them are feral and those that aren't get mistaken for ones that are. Typically they experience the same fate, which I imagine has something to do with the "Animal Control" van that drives around the tamans, where people with nets/boxes jump out of the van at the first sign of 'cat trouble' and somehow scoop the cat up. I haven't seen it first hand, but the vans remind me of the cartoons we used to see as kids, where the animal control guy chases the cat/dog with a huge net over his shoulder.

The story of this psycho kitty (what else can you call him? Apparently Seamus has spread his genes all the way across the world) is that he and his mom were walking on the wall that divides us and the university students' house behind us. The mom jumped up onto the next ledge and baby was unable to follow. We watched this, expecting mom would come back and pick him up in her mouth, because isn't that what cats do? At least that is what we've seen in documentaries. In the middle of the night we heard mewing and more mewing, right into the morning. The little kitty was still sitting on the ledge and mommy was back and forth, coming and checking him out now and then. Eventually we brought out a teeny bowl of water for him (typically a no no here but even I can find compassion for a little kitty who is thirsty). I think there was a great sermon in the making because I put this bowl of water in front of him and what did he do? He hissed and glared at me and shrunk back like I was there to harm him. Never once did he look into the bowl to see if it was something good in there.

Finally, Tris donned rubber gloves just before work and pulled the little guy down. We set him in the front yard and he meowed while his mom meowed from some distant spot. The garage door was left open so that his mom could find him. I took this photo as he hid next to my flower pot. He was NOT happy with me and he kept hissing and glaring and I thought that he would attack my feet if I got any closer to him. I had to head out, and the sad story is that when I returned, I found out that the satpams had come along and taken him away in a box. I never inquired as to what happened to this little guy because I'm afraid of the answer. All I know is that my mother's heart ached because soon after his mom came back, meowing for her baby. Ironically, after all the hours she had spent staring at him from above, just after he was taken away mommy found a new route to where he had been sitting for over 12 hours.

This would make a great movie if it was revised a bit. I know that I have so many cat-loving friends and family out there (why do Scott and Naomi come to mind so quickly??). I hope that there is some sort of lesson or story that can be gleaned from this.

Just a note: WE GOT A PACKAGE!!! Thanks, TJ, Tan, Lucy and Eli.

Thanks for reading.

Baby Zoey

I want to ask anybody reading this to please pray for my friends' 3 month old baby, Zoey. Her parents are Steph and Greg Baker and they've asked that people would cover baby Zoey in prayer for September 5th. On that day she will undergo a 6 hour surgery on various parts of her abdomen, and to get to the area to be corrected the surgeons will need to break her little pelvis bone. For 2-4 weeks after Zoey will be in traction and her hospital stay is estimated to be up to 6 weeks long. They've only just had her home for a while and I imagine that this alone will take a toll on them. Their prayer request, other than a quick recovery, is that bleeding and infection would not occur after surgery. Also, that this would be the last such surgery for Zoey and that this particular surgery would not traumatize her in any way in the future. For those of you who have been following the growth of Zak and Zoey in Steph's womb to their delivery and finally being able to come home, you know that God has been at work in both the twins lives and that it's a miracle that Zoey is even here.
God is able to do things that we can't even begin to imagine, but let's pray for what you may consider the impossible!

When I find out more information, I will post it to this blog.

Thanks for reading!

The world is at our fingertips...in the form of a handshake

This hasn't been a really exciting week for us, which sometimes is a good thing. I think that it means we're feeling the routine of life and that we're settling in as if this is now our home. Our biggest anticipation this month is Bali at the end and so we trudge along....Actually, we're not even trudging. Each day brings something new to us, usually in the form of a new friend, something fun for our house, a skype-phonecall, a blog comment (yes, we love them!) or even a new idea of what we'll do when Grandma Bea and Poppa get here. Imagine being in a place/situation where almost everyday you meet a new person or root a new relationship just a little deeper. It's a very exciting place to be in that instead of us travelling the world, the world is being brought to us. Just at the school alone we have met people from Scotland, Australia, USA, Korea, China, Eastern Canada, New Zealand and Indonesian nationals as well. Outside of school we've been in contact with people from every continent.

I have always wondered how God could create billions of beings and not one of us looks exactly the same, except of course identical twins, and that's a different biology lesson. I have, however, seen evidence of similarities between people that I know and people I am coming into contact here. For example, as I've said before, there is a driver right across the street from us who looks so much like Greg Baker, just a more Indonesian version. Two days ago I met a Chinese Julie LeGoff...same lips, same big smile, same hair colour. She also has Julie's sense of humour and likes to laugh. The other night I bought a few bags of whole wheat flour (hallelujah!!!) from an SPH teacher who lives in our taman...she has the same gestures and facial expressions as my friend Judith Roy. Also, although Naomi is never replaceable, I have met a woman who is remarkably like her in stature and in spirit. Determined, strong and loves God with her whole heart. No person who works their way into our lives and hearts can be replaced, but God sure knows who to put into our lives and when. God seems to know that I need strong women in my life, ones that know God, love God, are honest, loyal and reliable, and who adore their families. Finally, the first friend that God put in my life is someone I have mentioned before. She isn't a redhead, but she's married to one! Her name is Janet, a nurse with her master's degree, ex-military (navy perhaps??) and who had her last child at 40. She doesn't remind me of any of my other friends in particular, except that she has the qualities that I've listed above, and most of the Canadian girls that I hang with seem to have similar qualities.

I am thankful for the people that God is putting in my life and through my relationships is putting into my familys' lives. There are the women in the study I do on Wednesdays; I am really blessed by that time with them each week as we just share what's going on in our lives from week to week and share how God's working in our lives. The woman who leads it is Esther; she's from New Zealand but yesterday I discovered she's originally Samoan and speaks the language. I loved hearing her speak to her little girl in Samoan (sp?).

We have found a home church. It's called International English Service (IES) and it's in Jakarta. The Comries introduced us to it and they have been picking us up each Saturday evening and driving us in with them. There are a few reasons we chose this particular church and the biggest one is that Matthew and Abby love it. Matt goes to the youth church and really enjoys it. He's a pretty easy-going guy and so I think he'll fit in just great. Abby has hooked up with Sophie Comrie and they go to kids' church together. You should see the two of them together. They walk arm and arm and swing their legs together like a marching band. Very cute (except when they almost kicked someone in the mall...). Another reason is that the pastor has good, biblically based sermons that challenge us. We haven't yet found worship as good as our own Northgate church (maybe we're biased) but the worship at IES is pretty good. It's our hope that soon we will be able to buy a car and give the Comries a little freedom by us driving...or better yet hire a driver on Saturday nights.

A funny situation happened the other day: I was at a social event and, being in Indonesia, there are typically people who are a little darker skinned than myself (not difficult wherever I go!) at such events. In order to gather up my kids I said "let's go White kids!" A little Indonesian girl near me mumbled "white kids?!!???" and then, knowing our family name, figured it out. Guess I will have to rethink how I address my family from now on:)

That brings me to another thought: today I was talking with my helper Sri and telling her how it's funny that in Indonesia you can buy 'skin whitening' soap, cream and lotions. She got a good chuckle when I told her that in North America so many women lay out in the sun and even spray themselves with lotions to darken their skin. Are we never content with who God made us to be?

One final funny note for you: Tris is part of the math department, obviously, and one of his teaching partners is Wong. So, we've got White and Wong teaching math together.

Thanks for reading!

More random thoughts by Kim

No photos today.
Thank you all who faithfully read of our adventures, and to those who just check it out once in a while. It's nice to know we are connected somehow. I have been printing off our entries and putting them in a binder so that 20 years from now we'll have a paper copy of what we're doing here. If we stay a long time I may need a room to store the binders in!!

There are so many little things that I keep thinking during the days and wish I had someone to tell, and then I realize that I can, thru this blog. Things like:

*for all of you who hate it when people talk in the 3rd person, you'll have to suck it up when you come to visit. Our school repair man that comes to our house to fix stuff is Pak (Mr) Bisner. Yesterday he was telling me in Bahasa Indonesia that "Pak Bisner will go to the school and then Pak Bisner will come back" and it sounds so weird for a grown man to be speaking that way. However, that's the way it is and I have to figure out how and when to address people like that. That is my new challenge in learning this language. By the way, if I was to write what he said in what I think is Bahasa Indonesia, I think it would be a little like this:
Pak Bisner pergi sekolah dan Pak Bisner kembali. Not sure if that's accurate but it's what is in my head at this point!

*We have a pet. Since people are not too fond of dogs and the cats here are rather mangy, we've decided to get a pet rat. However, we haven't seen this cuddly creature yet; it's probably because he's nocturnal and we're not. He does, however, communicate with us through the ceiling, and sometimes he scratches so hard that we think he might just fall through the ceiling tiles. He just wants to be near us! I am trying my hardest to find him and take a photo for my nephew Eli who says "Auntie Kimmie, I want to see your rat!" but it hasn't happened yet. On an aside, my friend had a cat trap out in her yard, found a cat in it but then realized it was just a really, really big rat (tikus). Hopefully our friend is not of the same breed.

*School is going well for everyone. Tris is heading to Tokyo in a few months for more BI (Baccau Laureate) training. It started out that he was going to India, then Australia (and we could have come along in the summer break!) and now it is officially Tokyo for a few days. I think he's looking forward to it, but I think that he's counting the days until our trip to Bali (say "Buh-lee, not baaa-lee) with the Comries and Alexis. Yes, I admit, I am doing a countdown myself, except that I don't really know the confirmed date of departure! I think it's Sept 29th but I'm not sure.

*Yesterday was the beginning of Ramadan and so the atmosphere is a bit different. Ramadan is a month of abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sex during the daylight hours. Our helper (as all Muslims will do) gets up around 3 am to cook, eat and drink before sunrise. They fast until around 6 pm; they're not even allowed water during the day. At the end of Ramada is Lebaran or Idul Fitri, which lasts around 7 days. This is when Muslims spend time with their families and then their friends. Helpers and drivers get their holidays during this time, with double pay for the month as well as transportation fees to get to where their families are.

*Last Friday night we went into Jakarta on what should have been a 45 minute ride. It was 2 hours because of traffic, and others who were attending the charity event took even longer to get there. Apparently Jakarta has some of the worst traffic in the world, and I believe it. Last night i went to the orphanage in Jakarta again and on the way home my friend Coral JUST missed a motorcycle that came right at her and at the last second sssqqqqqqqqqqquuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeeezzzed between her suv and an oncoming truck. Freaky. That's all that I can say. What's weird is that if she hit the motorcycle, because she's bigger, she'd have to pay damages.

*Speaking of driving, Tris and I are going to go and buy our licenses this Saturday. Like I'm going to drive anywhere! I'm not sure how much it costs but apparently when Matthew is of age, he can get his license here, go to BC and do the written test and drive there. Scary. Needless to say, we'll be covering our bases..ie/ like not even consider Matthew driving in Indonesia!!!!

*I am going to my third session of the ladies' study "moving on after moving in" tomorrow. It's a great study and a lot of the women are able to connect through it as well. It talks about mourning our losses almost as if we have had someone die, because in reality we really have taken on a new life. Just a reminder though, we're still Tris, Kim, Matthew and Abby and no matter what we learn, see or experience, we're still the people that left Courtenay. If we haven't changed after our stint here, though, I think something is wrong. Anyways, this book talks a lot about the stages of anger, frustration, feeling lost, denial amongst others that you need to go through. I don't know about the rest of my family (they seem to be just sliding into their roles here no problem) but I have experienced a bit of those. Maybe not denial, but then maybe I'm just kidding myself:). Most of the time, though, I am thankful we're here, thankful we are healthy and thankful I don't have to clean my toilets.

*I love the customer service here! For every job there are 2 people to help. For example, if I wanted to buy a pair of shoes, I would go into the shoe store, ask for help, and then have one clerk assist me and another stand by and watch. There is the odd time that if they don't have your size or they don't really understand what you are saying that they walk away and don't come back. However, I really do love the help. In a mall, if you buy a larger package, someone will help you carry it to your taxi (and maybe even help you find the taxi in the first place). If you are backing up your vehicle, no matter where you are, there's always someone willing to pop out of the bush or a building to direct you. If you buy a coffee, you walk away and they'll bring it to you. I don't think I'm doing the service here justice; you'll just have to come and experience it for yourself.

*Finally, I have a bible verse that I am studying in the book I was just telling you about (rabbit trails, I know) and it is Habbukuk 3:17-18. The original version goes something like this:

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive tree should fall, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation."

I was supposed to paraphrase it and thought I would share it with you to give you an idea of what minor issues we're going through here.

"Though the door locks stick and the mosquitoes will bit, and the garden grows wild with deep rooted weeds, though my seeds may not sprout and the brand new fridge's thermostat thinks that warm is an okay temperature, though the main shower leaks and the repairs will cause cement dust to settle everywhere, though the noises in my ceilings are caused by a large rat, yet Iwill praise God because God is God and He has given me everlasting life."

It sounds bad when it's on paper, but there isn't anything that can't be fixed or dealth with. If we were in our old house we'd have some of these same issues but we'd have to pay for the repairs!!

In a nutshell, we're adjusting, we're stretching, we're loving that we're in this together as a family and we're really, really looking forward to Bali!

Thanks for reading.