What's the excitement around the White house today? Abby has started basketball and loves her coach; Matthew played 3 on 3 with the 'old guys' (aka dad and his basketball teacher-buddies) today; Tris and 3 of his fellow teachers won a fund-raising lunch-hour basketball tournament and they were the OLD GUYS! Me? I've been home reading and resting, popping out of the house now and then for things like tea with a friend, a trip to the school library, or bible study. Thankfully, our computer is out of the shop and so I will be able to do a few things I've been wanting to do while I am recuperating. Hopefully I'll get the dozen or so mini-dvs edited and burned onto cd, as well as editing and culling through my old photos. I prayed when the hard drive crashed that I wouldn't lose my last 6 months worth of photos and, God is good, they have all survived. In a nutshell, I am not playing basketball but I now have something other than tv or books to keep me occupied at home. This recuperating shouldn't last too much longer.

Not to dwell on dengue fever, but we've been told that one of the clinical symptoms of the fever is homesickness. I have to say that if, during the first 2 weeks, someone had handed me a ticket to Canada I would have been on a plane faster than you can say 'dengue.' I wanted my old house, my old bed, the snow outside and me snuggled inside (and I don't like snow), and I wanted everyone around me to speak english. One of the things I found I really disliked for 2 weeks was Bahasa Indonesia, and this is strange because the language has been quite life-giving to me as I've learned it over the past 1/2 year. As I am feeling better, these symptoms have decreased and as much as I love and miss my home country, life is starting to fall back into place here.

Although we do not have to make a decision for one more year about renewing our contract here, our family has done a bit of soul-searching at the dinner table. What it comes down to is that Indonesia was never on our list of places to live, but the opportunity fell into our laps and we took it and ran with it. I wonder who put it there in the first place? Ultimately what we want as a family is to do God's will and to be the best where we are, whether it's here or in Canada. Whether we stay longer or not is to be determined at a much later date, but we realize that as we are here our individual attitudes will make or break our time here.

Today I met the new Junior School principal's wife, Sylvia at my Wednesday bible study. Actually, I met her and her husband, Gregg, late last year when they came to do the position interview. They're originally from Vancouver, BC and what a treat it is to talk about the area with someone who has lived there. We can discuss cities, streets, transportation, mountains, recreation, universities (a few of their kids are UBC-ers) and they can relate. This may sound crazy, but it's so refreshing to have these conversations. I know it's not healthy to do so every time we meet, but it is like getting a little taste of home. She and Gregg had raised their family in India since 1991 and I have a feeling they've got a lot of wonderful stories to tell.

I knew that once the hols were over and mom and dad left that there wouldn't be a lot to post, but since this seems to be my main means of getting information out, I will continue! A few more notes about our lives: Abby and I took a walk today, hoping to somehow check out the possible-orphanage or school boarding house behind us, but there were no opportunities to meet anybody (yet). Our helper, Sri, has moved her 'weekend home' 10 minutes from our house and it seems to have caused a more positive adjustment in our home; she seems to be enjoying her life here in our home more and we are sure appreciating having her help, especially this last month. As for company, we were very, very sad to find out that Adam and Stephanie Campbell won't be able to visit us during their visit to Thailand; we were looking forward to hanging out for a few days with this crazy, wonderful couple. However, we are expecting company in May now that Dale O has booked her tickets! I am so excited to know a friend is coming just to hang with me. My friend, Dale's niece, Candace, is heading to Mozambique this early summer and we'll be seeing her at the end of August for over a week. A few others have said they are looking at coming but until they book their tickets I won't allow myself to get too excited. We feel really blessed that people are coming to visit in our first year here; many expats have told us that they haven't had very many visitors in years of living here, mostly because of the cost.

I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading.