Somethings never change. Somethings are constantly changing. Here in Indo you can try to stay on top of it but it'll probably stress you out. I'm learning that how I respond to things is going to make or break my own experience here. When we moved here we had no idea what to expect. My personal expectation is that we'd be living along a dirt road where vendors plied their trades and traffic was always passing by, stirring up dust and making it rather unsafe to walk alongside the road. I'd pictured our house (before we received a photo of it) as a one-storied cement building surrouned by a cement fence. That was partially correct. Although our home is two-storied it is made of cement, and so is our 'white picket fence' that surrounds it. Needless to say, if you've read any of our past postings that describe our home and neighbourhood, our expectations were blown out of the water when we saw our home and the furniture it came with. The moral of this reference to expectations: lower them, lose them, at least reduce them to bare minimum when you have no basic reference point, and you will ultimately not be disappointed.



What are some of the things that are a constant for us here? The daily calls (sometimes 'wails') to prayer, mosquitoes, heat & humidity, Tris still loves me (that's his input on this post), there is almost always a man who pops out of nowhere when you are backing up and 'helps' you park, and there is always some form of noise in the air. Our family still loves to watch American Idol. Another constant is the fact that God brought us here and is constantly providing some form of challenge to us individually and as a family, and at the same time is directing us through these challenges. It's my hope and prayer that one day, when we move back to Canada, people will say "you've changed" and mean it for the better. I wonder if I will be more patient? They say miracles do happen.



The changes? Well, each day brings a new surprise for us. Some of the foremost for Tris and I are that the heat is relatively the same yet it seems to have cooled down a bit in our own minds...who ever would have thought we'd think that 27 degrees is cool? Our kids don't look like little ones anymore, and they don't act like it either. Our surroundings seem to change constantly. Tris never thought he'd be as interested in Christian Education as he is now. I actually like cicak, the squishy little lizards that run throughout our house, and I never thought I'd like any squishy creature. Weekly I waffle on whether I'd like to stay here longer than our planned contract; yesterday was a prime example of an "I want to go home" day. At 6 am I went to have a shower and we had no water, and when I went to go eat breakfast instead, I discovered we had no power. Although both came back within a few hours, I was already ticked off that our new computer hard drive had died for the 4th time, and my microwave had burned out the previous day. Add this to the fact that I have been wanting to challenge myself and drive outside of what I would call the "protective area" of Lippo Village, and the entire route has been changed through fencing and barricades and therefore made it even more challenging, and you've got a less-than-patient Canadian woman wanting to go home. However, today is a new day and a change in attitude (it was a little better when my microwave decided to come back to life, too).



I don't think that the challenge is in just the constant or in the change; I think it's in both. If our family woke up everyday and was as frustrated by situations and circumstance like I was yesterday, we'd be in big trouble. However, we're constantly being given new chances, new days. Some things we just have to get used to, like the call to prayer and the constant overall noise in the air. Other things we can at least be proactive about, like keeping mosquitoes at bay with sprays and bed-netting. Some other things take care of themselves, like the electricity and water supplies (actually, I think that somebody must take care of that...). It's how we look at what life hands us and how we respond that will make or break us. It's our prayer that these things will strengthen Tris and I as individuals, and that they will provide our children with the skills and tools that they need to live as joyful, thankful Christian adults one day.

By the way, I did end up driving to the mall yesterday, with Dalenea's help. It wasn't that bad; trying to merge from the far right to the far left across 5 lanes in a window opportunity of about 100 feet was the biggest challenge, but my co-pilot directed me.

Thanks for reading.