Day Four: Christmas Party with Rumah Anugrah Orphanage (Abby) and Bintaro Slums (Matthew)

Last Sunday was a quiet day of rest (watched BOLT at the 'nice' mall). Monday was back to school for Tris and the kids, and so mom and dad and I had to find something to keep ourselves busy. Unfortunately the photos are on mom's camera and I haven't figured out how to upload them onto this computer, or you'd be able to witness the ultimate in decadent. I booked mom and I for pedicures and dad for a 1 hour massage. He was great with the massage and enjoyed it thoroughly. Mom ended up with 3 ladies working on her and I had 2. Our pedis turned into manis as well, and mom also got a cream bath. This is where her shoulders are bared, her hair is washed and then she sits with cream rinse on her hair while her head and shoulders get massaged. I'm not sure she's ever going to return to Canada, especially when she saw the grand total of $30 for everything (all of us), less tips.

Tuesday was a big day at school. All of the grade 5s got together and bought gifts for the students from Rumah Anugrah, the orphanage which, 10 years ago, started housing and educating about 50 young people from Ambon, a war-ravaged area of Indonesian. A party was held on Tuesday and there was singing, games and of course, food. Mom, dad and I weren't able to stay very long because we had signed up to head out to some slums with the grade 7s in Matthew's homeroom. However, I was able to listen to the kids sing, which was a special treat. The Rumah Anugrah kids sang 2 songs in English and did a very good job. It was neat because my friend Coral drove out to the orphanage the night before and took mom, dad, Abby and I with her, so they knew some of the RA kids who were singing. Unfortunately, because the focus of this orphanage is educating the children so that they can return to their home island, most of the students had to remain at school/university, but we were able to see a bunch of them. Here's a photo of them singing, and then one of Angel (real name is Dorsila) surrounded by SPH girls. Angel is so tiny the only way to distinguish her from the other girls is that she isn't wearing plaid! She's 16 years old and very sweet.

After this event we headed out to Bintaro, with our temporary but wonderful driver Selamat. Thank the Lord for drivers, because without him we wouldn't have been able to go to the Bintaro slums with Matthew's class. The Bintaro slums is a poverty-stricken area where 23 families work together collecting garbage, sorting it and reselling it to recyclers. When we arrived, the area we were to meet in was under cover; beatup, patched and full of sunlit holes. The kids sat on tarps and many moms with their babies watched from the sides. The purpose of the visit was for the SPH kids to get an idea of what life is like outside of their personal, happy, sometimes rich bubbles. Each student was assigned 2 buddies, and they were to use whatever means they could to find out information about those 2 kids, as well as play a fun learning game with them. Afterwards the buddies and their SPH friends were given a boxed lunch of rice, chicken, veggies and a snack. During this time the parents were supposed to monitor the interactions and mainly just be a supportive presence. Of course, not all parents were obedient, and neither were grandparents!

At one point I had lost mom and dad, and they showed up with the woman named Maria who organized these kinds of community events. She has 6 various slums that she works with and is always looking for help. Mom and dad went on a walk with her and she introduced them to a variety of people, and then when they returned from their walk they grabbed me with my camera and I got a bunch of neat photos. I will post them on a seperate blog with minimal comments. So the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

After the slums we headed home, had dinner made for us (this is such a treat and we appreciate it every weekday!) and just hung out.

Today, day 5, was the last day of school. There was an assembly where Tris and I sang in the Christmas choir, Matthew sang in his vocal class choir, and Abby was asked to pray for the Junior School VP who is returning to Australia with his art teaching wife. After a lunch of fresh sushi and CANADIAN CHEEZIES (great combo!) we are resting. Matt's bowling with friends, Abby has a piano lesson and grandparents are sleeping as I blog. It's hard to type quietly but they want the blog and a sleep as well, so they're willing to listen to me type and Abby play while they rest. They deserve rest...they've been going strong! Tomorrow's Abby's birthday and so we are going into Jakarta to get a few things for our trip to Lombok as well as finish up Christmas shopping.

Thanks for reading!