Sewing Machine Goes to North Jakarta

Yesterday my friend Esther McIntyre and I headed into Jakarta, picked up Maria Samual, an Indonesian national, and headed to one of the warehouse shopping districts to buy a sewing machine. Originally we had planned to take the money that was donated by my parents and their Campbell River friends and head into East Jakarta. Maria, the woman who has taken both my parents and myself to the slums for a visit, found out that the store she wanted to buy the machine from had closed down, so we headed into another area of Jakarta. Wouldn't you know it, we found a brand new Singer machine for almost 750 000 rupiah ($75) less than we would have purchased it for in the original store we'd been looking for. God is good! Both Maria and I have been praying for the best price for a good quality machine, and we found both. Noth only that, if I want to buy a machine for myself, the shop owner will sell it to me at the Indonesian price, not the one that they give to foreigners (bules). Now I just have to find that store again....

The women who received the machine are part of an empowerment project led by Maria through the Yayasan Emmanuel (Emmanuel Organization). The goal of the project is to teach women who are eager to learn, how to sew or do handicrafts. They sell these items to provide an income for themselves and to purchase more supplies for future projects. Once each woman has reached a certain level of training, she is expected to take on 4 students of her own, who she then teaches her skills to. Not only are skills taught and improved, this also serves to draw these women together, which is so vital to the survival of the community. Before this project was introduced into this particular slum, all of these women in this photo had to compete against each other for survival, and some couldn't stand each other. Although Maria does not preach to these ladies, she demonstrates the love of Jesus to them through her actions; she had been told numerous times by these women and others that they know that Maria is a Christian because of the way she treats them. They feel her kindness, love, patience and confidence in them and their abilities. All but one of the women in the group are muslim, but they are very aware of the power of Jesus and his Father God, and recognize it verbally. Now, these women have learned to work together, to be patient with one another, and to sell for profit but not to be greedy in doing so.

What is exciting for Esther and I, and now for those who have been a part of the donations towards the sewing machine, is that we have been an answer to prayer by one of these women. I believe her name is Iian (Ee-eean), and she is the woman in the white shirt with the big smile. Iian knows how to sew and finds such life in it. She was extremely happy to be part-recipient of two donated sewing machines just a while ago, but after a time the Yayasan decided that there was an even greater need for these machines in another slum area. The day that these machines were taken elsewhere, Iian cried and cried. Maria told her that they could pray together and ask for another machine, and although she was hesitant, Iian agreed. That was a few weeks ago. Last week I arranged with Maria to meet the next Thursday to purchase a new machine, and she told the ladies in her group to expect a new machine next Thursday. Apparently Iian didn't believe her, and so when we walked in with a boxed, never-been-used Singer sewing machine she was very, very happy. For some of us, a sewing machine is something that we use in our spare time, or we at least think of using one day, and we fit time into our schedules to figure out how it works and what it can do for us. For ladies such as Iian, this machine is her life. She has the time to fill tinkering with the machine and she has the desire to learn how to create a life using the machine. Because this machine was purchased brand new and specifically for these ladies, it is staying in this area.

Thank you to those of you who donated money towards this project. There is money left and it will probably go towards another machine; this particular purchase was a bit of an experiment to see how things worked, and they worked out great! I realize that some who gave were not able to give much, but you gave anyways. Because you did, Iian was able to see that God loves her enough to hear her prayer, even a prayer prayed hesitantly, and supplied her with a sewing machine even better than the ones she had to give up.

How's that for exciting?
Thanks for reading.

Super Woman!!!

And they say being a housewife is easy! Today I saved a life, assisted in the creation of 2 cakes, quesadillas, creme brule, crepes, omelettes, apple enchiladas and fettucini alfredo; I learned a language, read an entire book on Christopher Columbus, went to a rockin' hip hop concert, and am now attempting to write it all down.

Well, not exactly. I DID save a life, technically speaking, because the kid in FoodTech who was washing his blender beaters under a steady stream of water forgot to unplug the beater first. I could have almost saved another life but the kid who I told to tie his shoelaces to totally ignored me and continued deep frying his breaded shrimp. Fortunately he never tripped. As for the food, I had the privilege to volunteer alongside Ibu Elsje, who is the FoodTech teacher, and today was the day grade nines did their last practical (actual cooking). As a result, I was able to "speak into" the creation of a whole bunch of recipes; four hours worth, to be exact. I got to sample some, too, and sometimes that's a bit of a stretch for me, especially since I've been sick twice with food related illnesses. It's a toss up for me which is the biggest stretch: the communal bowl/plate with individual spoons (very common in Indonesia apparently) or the kids cutting raw chicken/meat and not washing their hands and knives before they cut the veggies. Obviously that is what FoodTech is for, to teach them to NOT do just that, but hey, sometimes it's a big learning curve.

As for the language, I only learned how to go shopping for recipe ingredients and to barter for them, BUT it did take up 2 hours of my day and that's pretty significant in the life of a mom. It's no lie that I read a book about Christopher Columbus, but the stretch is that I read it over a grade 4's shoulder while he read it aloud. It had four chapters and I learned a lot! The queen of Spain was Queen Isabella and I would never have remembered that from grade school. Also, Columbus was a rather nasty, self-centered man and when you learn about him as a kid they sometimes forget to mention that. This was a pretty informative book!

Other than waking up, the best part of my day was the concert. The star of the show? Our son! He is part of a Hip Hop dance team and is the only boy of 7 students. Can you imagine how proud we are as parents? Talk about brave!! Almost as brave as my own brother who took ballet at 14; I think HE did it for the girls, and I have a feeling it paid off. However, I digress....Matt was so good up there on stage. The best way to describe him (and you can quote me on this) is that he is like a wet noodle with beat and a backbone. I tried to dance his dance with him last Saturday at the gym and couldn't quite get the smoothness that he has. I'm not "noodly" enough. For those of you who may consider yourself a fan, I am hoping to figure out how to upload videos to this blog and when I do, I'll let you know. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died this morning AFTER I left the house, so I do not have any stills.

Thanks for reading.

Random Thoughts Again

It's been a while since I've written and there are a few things that may be 'reader-worthy.' I think that our seasons have officially changed from wet season to dry over the last few weeks. How do I know this? Because my body responds accordingly and my family has this incredible ability to state the obvious. Usually the statements that are directed to me involve the word "sweat" such as "Hey, you walked here? Your back is all sweaty," or during a 1 1/2 hour game of ultimate frisbee "Gee mom, you are all sweaty. Gross." Very rarely in this climate do you hear the response "No sweat!" to a request, because it always involves sweat (unless there's a/c). Walking from the door to the car involves sweat. The other day I was considering a nice, dainty "drying cloth," which I would use to delicately dab the sweat off of my forehead. Great, except if I get real, I need a beach towel (in a pretty colour, of course) to get all of the sweat off. Yesterday after our Ultimate game, Tris looked like he'd stepped in a puddle of water because the tops of his runners were all wet. There were no puddles! During the game I hit an opponent accidentally, and although he was a really big guy I was not harmed in any way, only because when we collided the sweat layers just made me "skim" by. Gross. Why do I tell you this? Because it's new to us this year, and this blog is about what is new in our lives. The positive side? When I exercise in ANY way I always look like I've been working so hard, and there's got to be something said for that.

Last Friday night Matthew, Abby and their friend Neil Weeda went and visited the Papuan kids behind us. They went as a result of a project that Abby & Neil had to work on for grade 5, but Abby would like to go back and spend other Friday nights with them. All three kids ended up teaching small groups of kids English lessons. The Papuans had an English exam the next day and so we are hoping that it paid off in the end. From our house, it sounded like the whole gang was having a great time, so great that I ended up sneaking over and taking some photos. What's funny is that as soon as I started snapping shots most of the kids ran upstairs and grabbed their camera-phones and started snapping as well.













On Saturday we usually go to church in Jakarta, but this time we sent the kids with friends and attended the Lippo Ladies' Trivia for Education night. It was a night of trivia that was attended by about 85 people, which was awesome. Our original expectation was about 60 and we figured that we were aiming high. With the money that we earned we'll buy books and musical instruments for a specific school inLippo. Unlike the Muslim school that we painted, this one is run by a Christian couple and has paid staff.

Our team name was the "Dark Horses." Not sure why...maybe because we're on-the-ball fast when it comes to trivia? Anyways, we think we tied 2nd place. The raffle prizes were exceptional and the donors were very generous. I figure there was a prize for every 2 1/4 people. I would definitely help set up something like the trivia night again; already lots of people have asked when the next one is. For the record, our team was made up of (left to right): Bruce & Judy Comrie, Naomi (doing a 3 week practicum here from Australia), Christine Freeman, Amy Sanders and I, Alexis Hughes, Tris, Mel (glowing and growing a lovely belly) and Jonathon Carpenter.

That was our week up to yesterday. This Thursday I plan on heading into Jakarta to meet with Maria, the woman who will help me purchase the sewing machines for some slum ladies, courtesy of my mom & dads' gang of donor friends.

Thanks for reading.

Papuan Neighbours

There's a house behind us that I've referred to now and then, and usually it is connected with the words "neighbours" and "noisy." We have recently connected with these neighbours and have found out that they are children are here from Papua (which we knew already). Papua used to be known as Irian Jaya. These beautiful children are here for an education and right now they're studying hard to pass 3 exams: city wide, provincial and then national. If they can pass, they can return next year to continue their studies. I have yet to find out what happens to them if they do not pass. Twice now we've had the privilege of playing soccer with them on SPH fields. Last night they came over to watch an Indonesian dvd called "Laska Pelangi," which means "rainbow troops." We watched with English subtitles. It's a video about a muslim school on an island that used to be rich (in the 1970s) in tin and with its production...at least the owners of the companies were rich. Most children who didn't go to a private school ended up being a 'coolie.' Very basic movie but quite touching. What was better than the movie was watching these kids laugh REALLY LOUD. Their house mom kept being concerned that the kids were being too loud, but when you are watching a movie you can never laugh too loud (except when it's late and your neighbours are trying to get a good sleep for work tomorrow). I wanted to whip out my camera, but I still have that camera shyness where I don't want to offend someone by just snapping their photo, so when I get to know them a bit better I hope to take some more laughing shots. They're beautiful. Almost as beautiful as when Matt and Abby laugh uninhibited but not quite. Nothing is as beautiful as those two.

Although it seems that most of the 9 Papuan children have families back on Papua, there are a few without parents. One of them is Telly, and she's the youngest of the bunch. She lives with her grandmother when she is not here, and she's one of the ones who has especially touched my heart. I don't know whether it's because she's the youngest and shyest of the group, or if it's because she reminds me a bit of my sweet niece Lucy, especially when she looks out of the corner of her eye at me. If you look at the group photo there is a fellow sitting in a chair to the far right. His name is Amos (Ah-moss) and he is the other one who has particularly reeled me in by the heartstrings. He's the eldest and has very little english, though he tries. One time I asked him a question and he wouldn't answer; his house mom's response was that Abby was standing next to me and Amos wouldn't answer because Abby is too beautiful. That made me smile. Like the other boys, Amos LOVES soccer.


This is nine year old Telly.

I have to admit, once I start to think about it, already each one of these kids has made me laugh or smile or want to cry, and they are each working their way into my heart..and they don't even know it.




This guy is 13 year old Amos








Thanks for reading.

Trivia Night for Education

A few months back a friend of mine who is also a member of Lippo Ladies, had a great fundraising idea. This friend, Kylie, suggested a trivia night for people who live within Lippo Village. Lippo Ladies has, in the recent past, been known to put on extravagant balls with all of the extras, and so a mere trivia night might seem to some as almost anti-climactic. I have personally been thrilled with the response; most people who buy tickets say to me "I'm so excited! I love trivia!" or at least "I am terrible at trivia but this sounds like a fun night!". Many posts back I wrote of how a few of us Lippo Ladies went to tour a school to determine whether or not we'd support the needs of this particular school. It was decided that the funds raised from our trivia night would go towards buying books and musical instruments for this school, and since then preparations have gone forward full-tilt. The two key organizers are Kylie and the president of LL, Sandy S. After months of planning, asking for donations (the raffle prizes that have been donated are quite incredible...much nicer than we had imagined), organizing a venue and selling tickets (all of which was mostly done by Kylie and Sandy), the Trivia For Education night happens this Saturday. I'm looking forward to it!


Kylie & Sandy painting at the muslim school


Last week LL had an opportunity to bless another school; this one is in a kampung (village) within the Lippo district, and I believe it's called Sukabumi. A bunch of volunteer painters were organized to come to the school early on Thursday and to paint a newly built room. In this school there are many children, a few beat up classrooms filled with desks and chairs that are of the same caliber, and some volunteer teachers. Admittedly, I have to say that in one way, it was disheartening because although the kids were very well-behaved, it didn't always look like there was a teacher to lead them through the day. I was quite impressed, actually, that although there were very few adults present, the majority of the children kept out of trouble and just 'hung out' until an adult arrived to their classroom. At one point we got some of the boys doing some work for us moving things around; we had to return a second day to finish a 2nd coat and during our absence someone had filled the classroom with desks, chairs and a whiteboard. I had to leave before the room was completely painted and so I have not seen the finished room, but I did see the blue paint and it was a very cheerful, clean colour.

Thanks for reading.

The Rescue

Today is a quiet Sunday. We've filled up on waffles after crawling out of bed late (is 8:30 late?) and are now watching Lord of the Rings (3rd one) in our pjs. Great movie but too much "dark action" so I need to take a break. We had Haris, our new driver, take us into Jakarta last night for church and then went to our favourite restaurant, Chiles. It's an American restaurant that serves Mexican food. It's rather expensive but the portions are so large that we've learned over time to share our meals.
This is a photo of Haris and in it he is apparently smiling. When I told him to smile he went from a big, toothy smile to this. I notice that Sri, our helper, has done that before as well. I guess 'smile' means 'don't show your teeth.' It's been awesome to have Haris during the week. I haven't taken the opportunity to drive into Jakarta with my camera yet, mostly because of feeling a bit sick, but that's over now. Janet Weeda and I did go into Jakarta on Friday to check out a massive shopping area that reminded me of 7 stories of Tijuana shops, selling mostly clothes, knock-off bags and children's items. I didn't buy anything but it was interesting to check it out. The area is called "Mangga Dua" which means "Two Mangoes." Funny name for a city district.

Last Thursday SPH held an Easter assembly which was called "The Rescue," with an obvious focus on the death and resurrection of Christ in worship and through songs that the choir sang. Abby was part of the choir but until I get a proper flash I cannot take photos in the gym...way too dark. The main speaker was a kindergarten teacher named Maribelle Flores (Miss Belle). She spoke, apparently for the first time publicallly, about a time in her life where she relied on God's help to rescue her. Miss Belle is from the Philippines, and when she was 11 (1985) she was a survivor of a ferry sinking. Along with 4 classmates and as many chaperones, Belle was tossed into the water off of the Philippine Islands during a stormy morning. When 36 hours of clinging to the sunken ferry's mast was finally over only 6 of the 40 passengers had survived. At 11 years old, Maribelle witnessed the deaths of her friends and others right in front of her eyes, and had only a few crabs and some raw seaweed to eat during that time (the crabs were attached to some floating coconuts shells). Once someone died their bodies were tied to the mostly-sunken ferry in order to take them home for burial. This didn't bother Belle at the time, she said, but the fact that she witnessed the deaths did. There was a time when some fishermen paddled by, and their little boat was so overtaken by the ferry survivors that the fishermen hit many of the survivors off the boat with a bamboo pole. The one thing Belle will never forget is a father who had made it onto a boat who told his son, who was still clinging to the sunken ferry, "just do what you can to survive." She was able to relate this to our God, and she said "can you imagine if God told us that? To do what we can to survive??" She spoke of God as our rescuer and how when we depend on Him then we can truly live. In the end, a fishing boat came along and picked up the remaining survivors. Maribelle's mom and Maribelle were 2 of the survivors, but her uncle, who had swam with some other men to try and get help, never survived. It was one of those events where I felt privileged to hear someone else's story.

Thanks for reading.

Around the House

Yup, he's finished. How can I tell? Easy. The other day I was laying on the bed trying to finish the last few pages of a really good book, a book that Tris finished 2 days before. Up comes Tris, who flops down across the bed and starts chatting with me. When I answer monosyllabicly he just lays there and stares at me. Then sighs (a guy sigh). Flops onto his back and asks me another question. Finally, I look over my book (which he knows I'm trying to finish...he's the one who knows how it ends) and stare at him. My question to him is "don't you have some project or something to do?" Of course, with no shed, no wooodworking shop, no tools, no space, no garden and NO MASTERS he really doesn't have a whole lot to do. Actually, that's not totally true because once people get wind that Tris has "time" on his hands outside of the schoolwork he always has to keep up with, I think he'll be asked to fill in various roles around school (ie/ coaching basketball has already come up). Realistically, I think that Tris will fill his time wisely but that really was a funny incident...I am glad that he has time to chat and sigh a guy sigh and flop onto his back in relative boredom.

Yesterday at bible study we were sitting around telling animal stories, and I love that each of us has such a unique "animal past" because of our geographical backgrounds. A few of us had West Coast (North America) stories about squirrels getting into things and cougars and bears wandering near our campsite or home. Others had stories about monkeys (India) taking revenge on the laundry lady who early the same day had chased them away from her clean, hanging laundry. When she returned later that afternoon all of the laundry had disappeared, and it wasn't until she looked 50 feet up into a neighbouring tree that she found it (probably with the monkeys thumbing their noses at her). Another (New Zealand) had stories of different festivals being held when she was a child and her mom telling her not to eat the meat (her mom knew what the meat originally was...horse). There were even more such stories and I love just to sit and listen to others tell of their past; of course I always have a story to stick in there myself.

Recently we've had a few visitors to our home. The other day Matthew checked out 2 nests that had fallen from the palm trees in our front yard. Wouldn't you know it, one had 2 little eggs in it still (unbroken, too). In the photo, the large white thing is a golf ball, so it shows just how little these eggs are. We also had a large rat that we discovered last week during a thunderstorm...we were standing at the front door and he was cowering under our car, drenched from the rain. When he saw our open door he made a beeline for it, and Matt, my friend Jamie and I all screamed (yes, screamed, just like in the movies) and hopped around trying to slam the front door. Once he saw the door shut he detoured to a hole that we've been trying to keep filled near the side of our house. Thankfully, that same rat was found dead 3 days ago, laying near our car, poisoned by a visit from the pesticide man (while we were away in Jogja). About 2 weeks ago we were taking photos of our friends the Myers, and a large moth was sitting on the tree just above them. That hand (Dalenea's) is about the same size as mine.

Thanks for reading!

Blue Sky, Buddha and Becaks...and Tris is done!

It is FINISHED! As of Wednesday morning, approximately 3:47 am, April 8th, 2009, Tris pushed his final "send" in order to send off his very last Masters of Educational Technology assignment. How did we celebrate? About 13 minutes later we piled into our car and took the 6 am flight from Jakarta to Jogjakarta with the Weeda family. Of course we'd planned it, but it sure felt good for us, especially Tris, knowing that the next time we caught him in front of a computer it would be for pure enjoyment. Our family is very proud of Tris for toughing it out and working so hard in order to increase his education.

We just returned from Jogja and it was one of my favourite Indo trips that we've taken so far. I have had some excellent trips thus far and so was a little curious as to why this would be so. After I thought about it for a while I think it's because I have been inside our house for a lot of the last 4 months due to being a little under the weather off and on. However, there was something a little magical about the place, and I think it had something to do with the centrality of the hotel, which in itself was clean, modern and had a great swimming pool. We rode a becak (bicycle manned push-cart) and a horse drawn carriage, and walked many kilometers of market stalls. My favourite memory (however recent) is of a nighttime becak ride that Tris and I took alone through the streets of Jogja. While we chatted in our best Bahasa Indonesia with our becak driver, he drove us through the Sultan's village where there were night stalls set up with batik clothing, entire shops filled with cheap flip flops, beadshops, and puppet shops where they make puppets out of wood or of buffalo hide (kulit caribou). Every once in a while we'd smell chicken or goat satay being barbecued over charcoal briquets and although we've learned it's best not to eat from street vendors, ours mouths would still water. Once 2 guys on a motorbike carrying stalks and stalks of jasmine rode by, did a u-turn and then rode by once more, and the scent of the jasmine clung to the air. I've never experienced such a thick floral aroma outside before, and mixed with the night smells it was quite memorable. Mix that with the various sounds of the nighttime call to prayer (via loudspeaker), cicadas in the Banyan trees, the bells and calls of vendors and oddly, a portable bread cart ringing an electronic song to bring in customers, and the night was beautiful. I never thought I'd say I enjoyed the call to prayer, but in the mix it seemed to fit.

We stayed a total of three nights and four days, and although we did a lot of touring around we did spent a good part of each day near the pool. When asked, I'm sure that each of the kids would say that one of their favourite parts of the holiday would be the pool time. On our second day we woke up almost as early as the previous day (4:30 verses 3:30 the day before) and rode our rented mini-bus up to the famous Borobudur temple, a buddhist monument built 1300 years ago. Although we hired a guide, Tris and I missed out some of the time because we'd fall behind taking photos of the friezes and of the headless buddha statues. Of course there were photo opportunities that we couldn't pass up and our kids were right there eager to help out.

Some of our other highlights will remain in our memories but unfortunately for various reasons not on camera. One of them is the bird market, which contained not only birds but mice, rats, snakes, ferrets, dogs, cats, bats, owls, eagles, maggots, fire ants, probably rabies and who knows what else. Matthew's conclusion about this market is that it was "interestingly sad." Both kids comment on how both their grandma Bea and Grandma Sunny as well as Aunties Laura and Jenny would probably come into the market and turn over the stalls (like Jesus did in the temple of Jerusalem) because of the horrific treatment of the animals. There were so many sad, sickly animals crammed into such small spaces. SPCA would have years of work to revamp the mindset of the treatment of animals here. One of the reasons it was a highlight is because the bird market was built at the base of the remains of an old, old castle. We had a self-appointed tour guide lead us from the bird market up some stairs (no workers compensation codes of safety here) into the crumbling walls of the castle. After a quick peek at the top we descended into a tunnel which led us to the 4 pools that the Sultan and his wives and family shared many years ago. My favourite was when the fellow lead us through the village to reach our becaks again and we just saw the people living at the foot of these ruins, their rooftops leaning against the castle stones.

Another unrecorded memory was of a Javanese (Jogjakartan) ballet called Ramanaya. It was a story of love and war accompanied by music and Javanese singing. I enjoyed it and I think the others did too, especially after intermission when we realized that there was a sheet written in english interpreting the ballet for us.

Overall we had a great time celebrating Easter holidays and, of course, Tris' completion of his courses. If you want to see more photos, I will be posting some more on my Facebook page. It's way easier to put in comments etc that way.

Thanks for reading!

Recent School Events

I've been saving up a few photos to show you what's been going on at SPH with Tris and the kids. Last month Matthew had a piano recital, something he hasn't done in at least 2 years, if not longer. I was a little apprehensive that he'd be really nervous, but he got up there, played by memory (I was very impressed by that!) and sat back down. He may have been nervous on the inside, but if he was he looked calm on the outside. In school he takes a music class, and turns out it's piano. Abby's taking piano outside of school but hasn't had any recitals yet. She wrote a theory exam last month and we haven't heard the results yet.
Abby's been playing basketball. Tris took this photo because I was a little ill and had to miss her first game. I can't believe I missed it.

Last week our school had their annual "soccer day," where the whole school participates in soccer games. There are also carnival games, food, drinks and the newest and most popular, a dunk tank. Tris did his time!

Our family belongs to one of 4 school teams, and we're part of the green team called Merapi. Tris played the part of "Team Spirit Leader." He did a great job...had to yell and everything. I hardly ever hear him yell like that so it was weird in a way. It was also weird seeing him with so much hair...

Matthew would have been a great partner as a team spirit leader...he goes all out with the colours when it comes to being a Merapi. Abby was more into the soccer than the team spirit, but she sprayed her hair (it's green under the hat). I was the mom in the green shirt and hat behind the camera. Too bad I didn't get to wear green hair.









Thanks for reading.

The things we do around here

It's a Saturday afternoon and my family is heading to Jakarta to church. I am staying behind and have read reams of books and watched a good share of tv throughout the week. Soo.... what I'm saying is that I may do a few posts this evening, more for my enjoyment and posterity (I'll bind this first year's blog later) than anything else.

Do you ever read the bottoms of your candles before you light them and walk away, expecting their delicious aroma to fill the room that they're burning in? I do. It says "do not leave unattended" and "do not burn for more than 2 hours at a time." Check out what happens when you don't follow this advice. All I can say is "thank the Lord for tiles floors!" Looks rather like a bloody mess, doesn't it?







We had a visitor to our home last night. He wasn't a very a big guy but he was big enough to have the kids yelling for me (why not yell for their dad???!!). I got out the Bayclin (like Raid) and sprayed him whenever I got the chance. It's hard to get a good shot when you are standing on a chair, but obviously some got on him. We found him a few hours later, after he'd scurried up our tiled kitchen wall (yes, up a wall...I didn't know cockroaches could do that), into the crack between our kitchen cupboards and the wall, and climbed back out again. Matthew decided to teach him a lesson and had him for a nice snack. LOL! Not really. He was dead, on the way to the trash bin, when Matt pretended to have a good chew.
Notice he didn't hold it directly over his mouth, just in case the antennae broke. It kind of looks like the cockroach is chatting with Matt a bit, doesn't it?

That's what we do for fun around here.

Thanks for reading.

A Rumbly in your Tumbly? Got remedies!!

Okay, no photos today. That's because we're focussing on local recipes to help ease the grumblings of an unhappy belly. I'm not sure that you can find the same ingredients in North America but it's always worth a try. As I've learned here in Indo, substitution works. It may not taste exactly the same but there's no harm in trying.

One of the first things that people here recommend when they find out that you have stomach ailments are charcoal tablets. The ones here are branded Norritt, and they really are little black tablets of charcoal. You swallow up to nine in one shot. Not my favourite thing to do, but it eases the bubbles if need be. I don't, however, recommend going out and chewing on the charcoal bits from your woodstove (dad...don't even think about it!!!! LOL). I'm sure there's charcoal tablets to be found in a pharmacy near you!

This is a recipe to help relieve diarrhea, given to me by a friend who, like me, has not dared to try it yet. However, it was given to her by someone who has lived here much longer than us and who swears it works. Check it out...and notice that it's not high on the "tasty" list:
*1 litre warm water
*2 tablespoons sugar
*1 teaspoon salt
*pinch of baking soda
Mix this together and drink as often as possible.
Couldn't you just make cookie dough and add a litre of water? It's almost the same. Just omit the margarine, eggs and flour!

My favourite drink, oddly one that I discovered just before moving to Indonesia in the small city of Courtenay, BC, is ginger tea. It's made up of ginger, sweetener of some kind, and water. However, since I have moved here my pembantu (helper) has shown me how to make it from scratch and it tastes much better. If you like ginger, you've got to try this. Where nothing else has helped ease my tummy troubles, this has at least calmed down my stomach.
Boil together (these are all approximations because I came into the kitchen after the tea was boiling):
*1 litre water
*1 green tea bag (steeps in the water as it boils)
*1/4 cup fresh ginger, chopped into 3 cm rounds
*1/4 c red raw sugar (you can use white, but red is common in Indonesia. Add your own amount to taste)
Boil these together until all sugar is dissolved and the water is quite dark with the steeping tea. Probably about 5 minutes. Strain and drink immediately OR strain and cool in the refrigerator. Both ways are wonderful.

If you ever try any of these gastro-calming remedies (or just try the ginger tea for a refreshing drink) let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

Countdown begins!

This is my friend Dale O. She lives in Courtenay and is heading this way for May 12 (Mother's Day!). I wouldn't allow a countdown before April because that just takes way, way too long. Mom started on day 72 I think, when they came, and I just can't do that.
So, Dale, I'll let you start the countdown and I will just wait patiently on this end for your plane to arrive.

Life here is quiet. Today is the last day of school and then school's out for a week. Needless to say, my family is very excited. Next week we head to Jogyakarta (Jogja) with the Weeda family for 3 nights. Jogja was the original capital city of Java and so is full of rich heritage. That is where the Borabudura (sp?) Buddhist temple is, a must-see for anyone in or near the area. Unfortunately, although mom and dad wanted to see it during their 5 week stay, our days were too packed to head in that direction. There are also a lot of Dutch heritage buildings, old temples and apparently some great shopping. Our hotel is quite near the bird market, which is a place that Matthew read about before we came to Indo and has wanted to see since.

Our latest news is that we've hired a driver, which is quite freeing for me. Since I don't want to drive outside of Lippo (and some areas inside if it can be helped) I haven't strayed too far without a driver. His name is Haris and he's with us 3 days a week. We are all on a 2 month trial and so we'll see how he does. So far he's quite capable and our car looks great! He has limited english and so with our smattering of Indonesian we are just able to get things across. I have a language book that I often study while riding in the car, and I notice that he's been peaking at it now and then. I'm not sure how much knowledge he has of physical Jakarta but that's okay, we'll all learn together.

I am heading to the Dr again today once Tris gets home. Seems I've caught a bug that just doesn't want to let go of a free ride in my stomach. You'd think it would be a great weight-loss program but instead of weight loss I've experienced muscle-mush. What that means is that everytime I get well enough to exercise I work out for a bit, walk and do all the good stuff that will make me fit, and then I end up spending a stint sitting/laying around the house while the bug runs its course. Nothing much to worry about but it does get frustrating. One of the good things is that I have had time to organize, sort and burn onto dvd my older photos. I'm now getting really creative and compiling a list as to what photos are on what cd. There is a silver lining in every cloud!

Thanks for reading.