No Earthquake Here

I received a call from a concerned relative last night, wondering if we'd experienced the .8 earthquake that has been reported in Indonesia. So far I haven't heard much locally (I'd have to leave the house for that) but another Canadian relative has told me that 2 hospitals collapsed as well as many other buildings. The earthquake shook the island of Sumatra, not our island of Java, and my hope is that the buildings that were destroyed were smaller. Jakarta is the biggest city in Indonesia and has the biggest hospital buildings. In a smaller, less populated location, chances are that the hospitals are much smaller and so are the buildings. That's my hope, anyways.

I just want you all to know we're okay and that we are safe.

Thanks for reading.

Street Boys in the City

I am a very visual person, which may seem ironic considering how blind I am/feel without my glasses. I cannot even answer the phone and hear the other person on the line properly until I put my glasses on. Lame, I know, but ask Tris, it's true. However, if I remember an event or a situation, I remember it as a positive or a negative experience by the 'colour' of my memory. For example, if it's a grey memory, even about a sunny summer day, it wasn't a happy event for me. I remember one very bright, sunny day when I answered the phone and had someone tell me of the suicide death of a family friend. The memory of me standing at the desk, holding our phone, looking out onto the summer flowers on our back deck, isn't bright and sunny. The colours of that day are muted and shadowed. Sometimes it's the memories of the stormy, grey, west coast autumn nights at home that are bright with the colours that surrounded us, like the warm quilts my kids wrapped themselves in on the couch, or the flames in our glass-fronted woodstove. What I see really influences me, and how I pull from that memory later sometimes surprises me.

If you've read my blogs recently, you'll note that we've been on holidays, and the holidays have been wonderful, relaxing and full of fun. We've spent time together as a family alone, together with other families, and although I haven't yet mentioned it, I even got to spend 2 days at a local hotel with Abby, just a girls time together. We headed to the mall where we dug in bargain bins for 'random' t-shirts (with weird sayings like "Help, I'm talking and I can't shut up!"), ate frozen yogourt and watched sappy dvds while we stuffed our faced with theatre popcorn, Junior Mints (found some here...what a treat!!) and some jelly bears. THAT is definitely going to be a bright memory.

It's funny, though, that as I look over the past 2 weeks, there's one scene that sticks in my mind, one fleeting memory that is dark not only because it was past 6 pm, but because of the scene itself. When I think of it I get that lump in my throat and it makes me really start to think of what it is I am doing here. It's one of those 'kick in my pants' moments that I hope spurs me on to keep holding on to the dreams God gave me years ago, and to allow the new dreams I have to grow and drive me forward. On Saturday night we were leaving one of our favourite 'Saturday night' restaurants and we headed into extremely busy traffic. The road we entered is a 6 lane road, with a cement divider between the two traffic directions. Walking across the street in this area is sometimes next to impossible and very dangerous for an adult, let alone a kid. To my right was this cement divide, and on it were two young boys. One of the boys was sitting there, playing with a piece of string or a stick, and he was facing the other boy, who was laying there. The boy laying down looked as though he was sleeping, and actually looked rather peaceful doing it. This isn't a terrible scene, with blood or pain involved, none evident on the surface at least. However, this scene shouldn't be occurring in the middle of 6 lanes of Saturday night city traffic. It looked like a scene that could have been lifted from one of the kampungs: two grubby little boys in torn clothes settling down together for the night. Neither of them looked too worried. In fact, the awake boy seemed oblivious to the dangers around him. It's not like I haven't seen scenes like this before. In fact, I've seen ones that could be considered far more traumatic, but this one has stuck with me like a pin stucking a live beetle to a cork board.

I'm not too sure how this scene will influence my decisions, but I do know that as I contemplate my Masters and whether or not I'll be able to get a job after I spend oodles of time and money on it, I am hoping and praying that I can become a part of the solution for boys like these. I'm not sure how, but as I continue to live here I'm praying God will give me the direction and the peace about the decisions I am making, and will open doors to do the things that burn within me.

Thanks for reading.

Holidays are almost over

I've lost count of how many days into holidays we did what, and now the holidays are rolling to a close in a few days. However, although they're coming to an end, we've had a great run of things. We still haven't done anything terribly exciting but we've had some great times spent with friends. Someone will put the word out that an event is going to happen and then a bunch of people show up at the meeting place. This week, after our swim-in theatre night, we went to a waterslide park called Waterbom (we don't say the word 'bomb' here, so it's pronounced 'boom'). I went on some pretty scary-drop rides and still lived to tell about it. Everyone came home a bit on the red side, but other than that we had a great time in the sun and water.

Yesterday a large group of us (including at least 10 kids under the age of 5) went skating at the only ice arena that I'm aware of. It's on the third floor of an incredibly decadent mall, where when I was there last December there was fake snow falling the length of 6 floors from the ceiling. After 2 hours of skating the gang all went to Pizza Hut for lunch, except I must admit, a friend and I (we both have older kids) snuck out to a great Thai restaurant for the lunch hour. I don't get much opportunity to try out new restaurants because usually when I'm with someone they have a favourite they want to go to, so this was fun. The food was awesome and the price was right, so if you plan on coming for a visit this is a place I'd love to show you.

Today we did housework for the first few hours. I still haven't touched a toilet in a year because I've now delegated that to the kid during the holidays:) It takes hours to do laundry, especially for it to dry, and then we usually have to iron it afterwards. The weather has been incredible and hot, so we don't have to worry about drying out the clothes with the iron at this point. When there's ironing to be done, Abby loves the chore so it's hers. Me, I like floors and all the kitchen related stuff.

Because most people head home to their villages during the holidays, the traffic has been very light. You plan to get somewhere in an hour and it actually happens. Incredible! I am wondering if the lack of vehicles in the city has contributed to a lack of pollution and that's why the sky has been blue everyday of the entire holiday. Sounds like a great theory but I'm not sure of its accuracy.

Thanks for reading.

Swim-In Theatre

Day 5 of our holidays, yesterday, was yet another wonderfully relaxing day. The kids slept in really late, read before getting out of bed, and then did those things that make kids happy...hung with friends, watched a movie, etc. Tris has been doing physio in the school pool and yesterday I joined him. Actually, I walked over to the pool with a hat and a book in hand, and while he walked the pool and did his resistance exercises, I laid precariously on a cafeteria bench someone had dragged into the pool area. While I read I listened to both Tris' ipod and to the silence of no one else at the pool. Wonderful. All against a blue sky backdrop.

Sometimes I get a little antsy with all of the 'hanging around,' and so I began to bake. I made flour tortillas (if anyone has a recipe that doesn't cook crispy, I'm looking for one. I want my tortillas to roll, not stiffen up) and an apple/blackberry pie. Fresh apples but canned blackberries. Not quite the same but we will enjoy it just the same.

The highlight of day five for me was a pretty spontaneously planned gathering of about 5 families to play soccer. I love playing with all the ages...kids love playing soccer with their dads. Moms were on the field, but there's just something about kids kicking a ball with their dads that's fun to watch. After the game most of the gang headed to the pool to cool off while another mom, Alyce, and I headed to the mall for buckets of fried chicken. After a swim, everyone had dinner and then we watched Napoleon Dynamite on a projector screen next to the pool. It gets dark at 6 and so it's easy to have a dinner theatre by the pool and get home in time for a good sleep. I've never watched a movie from the pool before (I got a later swim in because I'd been at the mall buying chicken) and it was quite a magical experience. Of course I tried to capture it on film but it didn't work all that well. Sometimes things are best left in the corners of our minds rather than on film.

Today's plan? Water the garden, eat pie, read. We'll head out for dinner tonight and the kids are thrilled...no dishes! To me it's about the food; to the kids it's about the chores:) I am really hoping that our house help is having a good time with their families. Our driver, Haris, only had a 3 hour bus ride (no a/c, no bathrooms on the bus) with his family, but our helper Ami had an 8 hour ride. Potentially, because of traffic, her ride could take up to 24 hours. I thank my blessings when I'm in my nice litte a/c-cooled vehicle and I see a huge bus next to me, with arms and heads hanging out the windows. People always look so tired in those buses. I have nothing to complain about.

Thanks for reading.

Day 3 of Holidays

Day 3 of a very low-key holiday. This time last year we were in Bali for the first time, and this year we've stayed home, mostly due to Tris' shoulder pain. It's kind of fun being home without school/work, especially since for some reason a lot of people have not gone on holidays anywhere. We finally get a chance to socialize and get some down time together. This morning we headed to the olympic pool to exercise and then to the family pool to chat with others. What a nice way to spend the morning!
Big news here: McDonald's in the next city sells breakfast!! With many people away to the outskirt villages of Java (the island we live on) or further, traffic is minimal and it would only take 10 minutes to get to that McDonalds. Speaking of driving, both Tris and I got our Indo licenses last weekend. Tris renewed and I got one for the first time. Now I can drive around without trepidation of being pulled over by the polisi. A friend of mine was driving without a license (not uncommon, licensing isn't a big deal...costs $8 for a license and you don't need a test or anything) and was let off when she burst into tears. No longer do I have to save up my tears just in case...sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

On our first day of holidays I headed into Jakarta with Tris for his physio. What would take 1 1/2 hours in Courtenay took us 4 hours because of traffic. Everyone is trying to get out of town.

Yesterday, Day 2, I had lunch with a friend. She found a loaf of REAL pumpernickel bread and some sauerkraut and so of course, we had Reubens. O yum! Because Idul Fitri (the partial reason for our school holiday) is similar to Christmas, many businesses are closed for the week. Because of that my friend, Coral, and I headed to our favourite salon and I got a massage while she got a facial before they closed for the week. That was a GREAT way to start the holidays.

That's our holiday. Very different from what we'd usually be doing...camping, gardening, swimming at the lake, but a good holiday nonetheless.

Thanks for reading.

Finally figured out how to Download Phone Photos!

After owning our Nokia camera phones for almost two months, we've just figured out how to download our photos to the computer. This is a photo of Tris' dislocated shoulder. Check out how square it is!

This next one is a good comparison of his "in" shoulder and his "out" shoulder. The ONLY reason he is smiling here is that he's pretty high on the painkillers. Photo taken at about the 9th hour of the 11 hours the shoulder was dislocated.

Third photo is of Abby's hair when she got it straightened after a cream bath. Sigh...so grown up looking.

Seconds after we bought my phone the kids got a hold of it and starting taking photos.

It's fun having this phone because I can take photos of randomly weird things that I see around town, like this funny hand-written price sign at a local bakery...although I was all alone I just HAD to take the photo!!

This little sweetheart is my friend Esther's little girl, and she wouldn't smile but would gladly give me a weird face.

When Candace and I headed to the slums I decided that since I kept bringing my big camera this time I'd go without one, just so they didn't think they were always on show. However, we did get a small shot of us...not very glamorous for sure, but since it was the only one, I'll post it for Candace's sake.

These are the kinds of signs you see in the public bathrooms here. You can use your imagination.

Here's Candace at the Marriott holding my dessert plate...check out the size of it! I actually went back for more after that was done, but you would too if you had tasted the ice cream.

Finally, here's Candace at her 2nd cream bath. This is the cream bath where I couldn't get her to chat, and she just responded with the odd blink. I think she liked it.

Thanks for reading!

Lazy Sunday Morning

It's a lazy Sunday morning here at the White house. Tris went back to work Friday after being off for 9 work days, and the kids had their usual heavy weekly work load for school. Sundays in Canada always involved church in the morning and usually something social or at least outdoors later, so our Sundays here are so much longer. Now we head to church in Jakarta on Saturday nights, and Sundays we mostly just rest, rest and rest some more, except for ultimate frisbee at 4.

For the past two weekends we've had speakers from the Ravi Zacharias ministries (North America) come and speak at church, and they've been really challenging. I've been challenged in the area of forgiveness (last week) and simply looking to God's word on a daily basis for wisdom and strength (this Saturday night). These are reoccuring themes that come from the pulpit, but typically what comes from the pulpit usually coincides with what's going on in our personal lives...ever find that? I don't believe in coincidence. I do believe that God loves to talk to us and wants us to just listen to what He has to say. It's sometimes through the bible, sometimes through circumstance and sometimes in ways that He knows will register with us.

Our update on Tris is a good one. He went to physio on Thursday for the first time since the surgery, and although there are a few things he has to work on, the prognosis seems good. This morning he went to the pool to allow his right arm to float on the water's surface; he's just working now at strengthening (read: gaining some basic muscle strength) his arm muscles. He still has pain but it's more because the atrophied muscles are tired, so as he strengthens his entire body he should find more relief.

We are now in the middle of Ramadhan. I don't find that the calls to prayer are nearly as loud this year as they were last year. It is difficult to remember not to eat or drink in public, but we're in the 2nd half of the month and I believe the fasting ends around the 21st of September. After that every muslim it seems goes back to their village of origin. Not a time to be travelling. Originally we'd booked a homestay in the city of Jogja (where I went with Dale) during the holidays for a language school, but we've since cancelled because of Tris' shoulder. Friends who have lived here for years have reassured us that we REALLY didn't want to be in Jogja at this time. Apparently it's a major muslim area and it gets incredibly crowded during this time. Matt's opinion on going to language school during the holidays was not the most positive; we've come to the conclusion that he'd probably rather stick a hot needle in his eye. Needless to say, although we haven't yet broken the news to him, he'll be glad to stay put.

Thanks for reading!

Candace left early, early Sunday morning and our quiet life has continued just as when she was here. Of course, we're not getting massages and cream baths because that's more of a treat, but with Tris home we don't do a whole lot outside of the house. I just got a FB message that she made it home okay, all the way back to the good ol' Comox Valley. I can't help but envy her a little.

After we dropped Candace off at the airport early Sunday morning, Matthew and I drove...well, Haris drove, we rode in the car...into Jakarta for morning church (first time in a year!) and then some outlet store shopping for some clothes for Matthew. The kid keeps on growing!

Today I had the privilege of joining a few of my charity group ladies on a trip to a leprosy village in Tangerang. The people who live in this village have been diagnosed and treated, and they live here with their families. Many of them have children, and to those of us who know very little or nothing about leprosy, it is a good report to know that the disease does not get passed on to the next generation. The village itself was built by the dutch and is a mix of Christian and Muslim villagers. Our pastor friend told us that it's the 2nd generation of lepers (is there a better term for them??? What is politically correct?) or actually, families of the leprosy patients who are now living there.

A few of the people we met today were pastor Don, the guy carrying the 50 lb bag of rice (beras) donated by the charity group. It will be distributed by the local pastor (didn't catch how to say his name properly, but his son in the middle of the photo is Abrahim) to those who need it most. I don't know about his wife, but the pastor himself was a victim of leprosy and came to the village because of it. Eventually he realized what position/role he could play within the village and became a pastor. I'd love to hear his whole story.

The photo of the two people in a store are a married couple, no children, who run a small village version of a 7-11. As for the puppy, who wouldn't take a photo of a cute puppy when a camera is handy? I'm pretty sure he was posing.


Finally, this is the group of us that were on the trip together, along with 2 of the villager ladies. Neither lady has family and so they live together in the same home.We are Esther, Kylie, Trish, Amanda and myself. The two teeny tiny ladies are Indonesian.
I met a friend and got to practice a little Indonesian on him. If I remember correctly, his name is Iin.


On our way home, near the airport and the village we visited, is the largest mosque in the Tangerang district (our district). I have never seen it before.



Thanks for reading.

Tris is Home

Tris about 5 hours after surgery.

What is normal? The Oxford Canadian Dictionary say it's "1. regular, typical, usual. 2. physically or mentally sound. 3. average." Great definition of what was NOT my day. It wasn't full of adventure, but it was full of new experiences. I woke up in a Singapore hotel, alone in my room, an experience I have never had in my 39 years. I, a grown woman of 39 years, had never stayed completely alone in a hotel and then eaten breakfast on my own. What did I learn? I learned that I don't mind the sleeping part, but it's not fun searching for a good breakfast in a foreign country, to be eaten alone. At least they spoke English in Singapore.

After breakfast I went to pick up Tris from the hospital. It took a while to be discharged (a peak at the bill...$16 000 Singapore dollars for the medical bill...better suck up the whining about insurance not covering our travel/accommodation costs) but we were speeding down a spotless Singapore highway by 8:30 am. After one attempt to drop us off at the wrong terminal, our taxi driver got us to the correct one ($25 Singapore later versus the approximately $4 it would have cost us to take the subway if all had been normal).

A little bit of comedy always occurs during travels, and ours was that our airline ticket counter agent took quite a long time to book us the 'perfect' seat for Tris so that he wouldn't have his arm/shoulder banged. We ended up in the very back row, no complaint on our part, with an empty seat between us as a buffer. The funny bit? Of the potential 186 seats in our plane, probably 40 were taken up, and all at the front. Life is always good for a chuckle.



Tris in the terminal...looks much nicer with a colourful shirt on and no tubes sticking out of him. Funny that.

The plane ride itself was mostly uneventful, except for two rather bumpy sessions of turbulence. Maybe it was just a practice session of the later earthquake we were to experience once we got home. I was reading on the couch and I saw Candace's foot touching same couch. When the sofa started jiggling of course the first thought to pop into my head was "she can sure move the couch with her foot!" Then I realized her leg wasn't moving. We conferenced and decided we'd best get into a safe position (which here is probably outside rather than in a cement house). It probably lasted just over a minute, long enough to discuss and analyze, and then it was gone. I've seen on FB that it was a 7.4 but I don't know where the epicenter was. No worries though. Most of you who are reading this live on a similar kind of fault line, so don't fret about us way over here.

We spent the rest of our afternoon just hanging. Wednesdays the kids get out early and so we read and played some games. Not a typical Wednesday but we wanted to keep it low key for Tris for at least a day. He's doing well and any pain he's experiencing is a "hopeful, healing" pain rather than the dull, hopeless ache he's experienced for the last 7 weeks. That's good news!

Thanks for reading.

Surgery's Over and all is well

Well, Tris had his surgery this morning. It lasted an hour and a half at least, and he was pretty out of it when I arrived on the scene. He's got this huge wrap around sling on, and bandages everywhere under it. Once the anesthesia wore off he was in great spirits, especially once he was able to make his right hand and fingers move. That concerned him a bit, but the nurses said he was unable to move them because of all the drugs and painkillers in him. IF he was able to feel them right away that wouldn't have been good. Prognosis of recovery is good. Thanks for your prayers. It's been a very peaceful time.

The surgeon came for a visit in the afternoon and showed Tris a video of the surgery. Needless to say, although I am better able to take blood, a video of someone cutting and stitching my husband was a little too much for me. I was burying my head in a book, just peeking over the top now and then to see what was going on. Tris is excited to show it to his physics kids when they do 'physics medicine' or something like that. At least it's not as weird as my brother Darren's biology teacher in the 1980s, who kept his first child's placenta in a jar of fermaldahyde in the classroom. To tell you the truth, what I saw looked very similar to National Geographic photos of the planet Mars. Bizarre.

I love Singapore. The stores in this area are quite expensive, except for one little 'local' mall right in the middle of the famous shopping haven "Orchard Road." This country is definitely east meets west. Sometimes it seels like Asia and sometimes home. I love to just listen to the Singaporean accent...it's very singsong and beautiful.

We had a chuckle last night when I opened a bar of the hotel soap. It actually had an expiry date and had a line "fat content 89%" on it. Like I'm gonna eat the thing!

Anyways, all is well and we head home tomorrow. Tris and I had a great conversation today about God, his will, destiny, pain and God's discipline. Maybe when I get it all sorted out in my head I'll blog it. I am just thankful, ultimately, that no matter what is going on, my strength and peace comes from God as I trust him. Sometimes I don't want to, but I know it's the only way to go.

Thanks for reading.