My Library Friends

I have written often about my two librarian friends, Ibu Fransesca and Ibu Risma. Finally I had opportunity to sneak into the Senior Library and take a photo of each of them.

Ibu Fransesca is the Head Librarian (not sure what we call that here) and she's got great control over her library. Ibu Risma (black jacket) is at the front desk, and she's the one who helps me with my Bahasa-Indonesia when I'm stuck. She also loads me up with books on Indonesia, Indonesian recipes and just plain old novels. These ladies have helped me to adjust to living here just by letting me go and hang at the library when I needed a quiet place to be and didn't want to be at my house anymore. In the beginning, especially, it was difficult after a while to be in a white-walled house with no one to talk to, so I would venture over to main library and study there for an hour or two. Or, I would have a volunteering position to go to and it would be an hour away from a meeting I had just attended, so the librarians have just been patient about me popping in and out at my leisure.

This has been an interesting week in terms of general day to day living. Last Friday the Housing department head finally came over to look at the mold in our house and at the leaks down our walls. Apparently there is going to be something done sooner rather than later, which is good. We haven't been too panicky about it, although it is black mold, but JUST after Ibu Rose (Housing) left it began to smell like a dead rat was in our house. The rat man had been here a week earlier and had not returned to collect his trap, so we called him and he came. There was nothing in his trap nor was there anything dead to be found anywhere: ceilings, roof tiles, drains...all were empty of dead bodies of any kind. However, even after he left there was still a strong smell of 'rotten death' (what else can I call it???) throughout the house, and strongest in the main living area, especially near the leaking wall. We've come to the conclusion that the stench comes from the leak...and so we will have to live with it until the housing department can hire someone to come out and knock out our cement wall, fix it, patch the wall, and repaint. Fortunately either we're getting used to it or the smell is going away a bit.

I am waiting right now for our car to arrive. We bought one out of the showroom, otherwise we'd have to wait to what could be halfway through my parents' visit while a new order came in.

The suv was due here last night and I just have to wait patiently for it to arrive today.

Thanks for reading.