Jambi

It seems like so long since I've written, but there really isn't very much 'news worthy' stuff going on here. At least nothing to blog about!

Our family news? Matt's decided to play the Bassoon, which is interesting and unique and I'm proud of him for taking this on. Bassoon. I keep saying Bazooka but it's ticking him off so I have to say Bassoon now. He's still in hip hop after school, and is working out at the gym now and then. He's still skinny like his parents were in high school but he's got this mini six pack starting up. Is that weird to write on a blog? LOL.

Abby's big grade 6 "Exhibition" assignment is looming and it's considered the biggest project in all of junior (elementary) school. I'm not worried about her not doing well; sometimes our concern is that she's doing too much homework, but I've noticed she's mellowed out a little, so there's hope! There is fun in her future!

Tris still loves his job. His shoulder is now strong and his arms are once again the same size, although with all the working out he's been doing his arms have probably increased in size since last summer. I'm not complaining. He looks great!

I've enrolled in my masters and now I'm UNenrolling. There were a lot of red flags with this particular university, and instead of going away they got bigger once I enrolled (and paid). So, although it makes me eat humble pie, I have to swallow my pride and keep looking. Maybe a masters isn't what I'm supposed to do. Only God knows. However, I'm constantly looking for a way to use my time most productively (not the WASP work-ethic productively, but eternally productively) and so I have some volunteer stuff ahead I'd like to dive into more now that my schedule has 'opened up.' It also leaves me more time in case visitors come...

Which leads me to the next thing...Rebecca McMillan arrives next Tuesday, and will be here for almost 3 weeks! Needless to say I am very excited and am looking forward to seeing her. I'm also looking forward to the ketchup chips she's bringing JUST FOR ME. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do but I have plans. Many plans.

As for our gang, we are heading home for a visit and will land 2 days before my 40th birthday. What an incredible gift! Home! We arrive YVR June 13 and fly out again July 19. That's a nice holiday at home. Pray it isn't a rainy June...

I almost forgot, and it's today's title: I'm heading to Sumatra (left of Java on the map) in about an hour. My friend Janet Weeda is speaking at a nursing school conference, and I'm going along (I invited myself as tag-writer) just because. I love just because. We are only gone 2 nights but I'm sure there's lots to see in that short period.

Thanks for reading.

Update on Little Zoey Baker

Here is an email sent to me from Stephanie and Greg, mom and dad of little Zoey.  We've written of her over the last year and a half, and here is an update for those who have been praying for her.  Pictures even!

We were at the urologist this week and were given a tentative surgery date
for zoey in mid-March. Earlier than we expected but would be nice to get
this over with too. It is complicated to coordinate as at least 4 senior
surgeons will be present in the surgery for her bladder, rectum, and hips.
Last time it was over 7 hours for the surgery from what I recall and then of
course the month in traction in hospital. We haven't worked out any details
of if we'll rent an appt or try to get hospital related accommodations so
that the kids can be close so we can stay nearby zoey -- will figure all
that out as the date nears and of course will have to see if the surgery
goes forward or if it is postponed (last time she was almost bumped minutes
b4 her surgery was due as there wasn't a bed in the ICU for her to go to
after the surgery was to be completed). The goals of the surgery are to put
her bladder back inside her body and to make incisions into her hip bones to
rotate them forward again and close them at the front and to fix her rectal
prolapse. The urologist stil estimates that when Zoey is school-age they
will need to do further surgery to assist her in gaining bladder
continence.....but that is a long-time away and the least of our concerns
right now.

Our immediate prayer requests are for the surgeons and support staff
involved that they have great wisdom in zoey's case and are able to work
together in her best interests in whatever preparations are required prior
to the surgery and also during the surgery and recovery process. Also that
we as a family would be able to make arrangements for living/visiting zoey
and supporting her as she copes with not being able to move for a month (not
an easy task for any 18-24 month old!). We'll keep you posted in the next 2
months of any developments/date changes.

Love, Stephanie

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Thanks for reading!

Five weeks came and went, and Tris and Sunny are now in wintery Germany visiting Christian, Jen (Tris' sister) and their boys. Within a 48 hour period Tris and Sunny went from a low of 26 degrees to minus whatever. We came to the conclusion here that minus ANYTHING is cold. They've gone from swimming in the school pool to sledding with Jen's boys. Word on the street is that the 23 degrees experienced here a few mornings ago was one of the coldest mornings ever experienced by one of our longer-term teachers here. A mere 23 degrees!!!

It's hard to know what to pack into little posting about this last month.

We had an incredible visit, and I've posted a few photos on Facebook to

give an idea of what we did with the

"other" Mr. & Mrs. White. Tris and Sunny left us with a few more photos before they left. One Sunday we met with our driver and his family, and had an ice cream at the mall. That's everybody but Tris (at home) and I (photographer) in the photo. I think Tris and Sunny, like all visitors to our home previously, have decided that they'd like to get a driver of their own when they return home. The ice cream was one way they showed Haris their appreciation, and it was another way to connect with the culture a little bit more, even if the mall is still inside the Lippo Bubble. Abby, Haris and I all took turns translating in what you could call "Englonesian" and we got along ok

ay.

In the waterfall photo, the one with a half-naked Tris is us standing before the waterfall I mentioned previously. I was in my glory. When I played all the photos as a slide show, I used the Rebecca St. James song "God of Wonders," and the chorus, God of wonders, came along just as this photo did. Good timing. Something as powerful and beautiful is truly a witness to the creativity of God. When you haven't seen or experienced anything like it for 2 years it becomes even more beautiful.

One more shot before I head to bed (to be continued in the near future) there's one more photo I like. It's Haris (here's the driver again...a very appreciated part of our new lifestyle) washing our car before we head

home from Puncak. In Lippo we live in what is pretty much a plain, and there are very few mountains to view, and those only in the far distance on a very clear day. Here we are right in the mountains, and this is the view from the breakfast table. It's refreshing and I think it's quite breathtaking. The air that flows into the room is incredibly clean, even if a bit of smoke wafts in as well. I love the mountains and all that they're about. It looks warm in this photo because of the palm trees, but it was really quite cold. Sock-wearing, long sleeves at night and maybe even jeans cold. We soaked it into our bones and used the cool later on in the day when we drove in the oven that is Jakarta.

Thanks for reading.

Bicycling Around The Bubble

Happy Birthday Tris! Forty three years ago yesterday my soul mate was born, and for that I am truly thankful.

Today was a day of errands and finishing small projects. Tris and Sunny left here for the airport at 3:30 am for a quick two night stay to Jogjakarta, the rest of my family headed to school by 6:30 am. I'd like to say I had a leisurely day lying around but I've done a lot of that lately and it's actually gratifying to be able to say I've had a productive day. Each day I intend to spend some time on my new Mac--more than just email, blogging and Facebook--with the goal of learning some new step everyday. I am a little intimidated by the whole idea of learning a whole new set of programs on the Mac, and of finding my way around Deakin University site (it's a very busy site with an incredible amount of branches), and so hopefully I'll learn the important stuff before classes actually start.

When Dale was here we visited Jogja, and while there I bought a batik tapestry (some might call it a batik tea towel..) of a map of Indonesia and its many islands. I had it stretched onto a frame and went to pick it up while Candace was visiting. It wasn't ready yet (3 months later) and so I tried again today. Six months later, I now have a map of Indonesia on the wall, or rather, on the floor leaning against the wall, waiting to be hung. Talk about rubber time. Hopefully it'll be hanging ON the wall by the time Rebecca gets here in February.

In the late afternoon I discovered I had 'beans in my pants,' which is an accidental combination of ants in my pants and beans in my belly. Not sure where it came from but when I asked my neighbour Rebecca if she'd like to come out and play she suggested we ride bikes around the neighbourhood, it was exactly what I was looking for. Instead of riding within the Lippo Village limits, we dragged our bikes through a hole in a cement wall and rode them along a cement path through rice paddies and corn fields. I felt like I was in a movie: she was riding a girlie bike complete with a wire basket on the front, and for a bit I had a scarf around my neck which had the potential to flow delicately in the wind as I gently rode the cement path. Realistically, once I rode around for a bit, the scarf felt like a woolen winter scarf wound around my neck, causing my face to turn a lovely shade of red even before we started. It looked good in the a/c of my vehicle an hour earlier, however. As an aside, the other day Sunny, Abby and I took ojeks (we were passengers on motorbikes) to a salon for a cream bath. I wore one of my new translucent brown, green and gold scarves, and it flowed in the wind while I rode on the back of the motorbike. I've decided it was such a cool look that next time I'm going to wear my sunglasses and bright red lipstick. I might even tie the scarf around my hair so as not to mess up my coiffe.

The bike ride was beautiful. The only way I could describe how I felt was that it was truly a bike ride on the Island of Java, not just a bike ride outside of Lippo. We meandered through green corn fields, high grasses (but didn't get too close because thats where snakes like to hang out), under palm trees, beside ramshackled huts that were made of bamboo, grass mats and blocks of salvaged styrofoam, next to newly turned red clay dirt mounds (often mixed with a variety of garbage), prepared for planting. Swallows were flitting about, diving across our path, doves were cooing in the distance, and roosters were strutting their stuff for the ladies nearby. Sounds rather romantic and lovely, and visually it was. The people we met along the way were quite friendly, giving us a ready smile, especially when we greeted them in Indonesian. The reality of it all is still there, such as the poverty as seen in the rusted, metal seated pedal bikes with ratty wicker baskets secured to its sides, the scrawny, sickly kittens mewing at the roadside, the workers coming home on rickety bikes, wearing threadbare clothing. The reality is that the land we live in is rich in beauty, but the people nearby live hand in hand with poverty. It's the same people who get up each morning, walk or ride their bikes to work in our village, and see how we live in abundance. I wonder what their perspective is as they walk through the fields, climb through the hole in the cement wall, and enter the bubble that is Lippo?

Happy New Year 2010

Wow, life just keeps on going even when you don't blog:) Since my last posting we've crammed a lot of "holiday" into our days, starting with Christmas events around town and school, on to Bali and the little island of Lembongan, home again and then a few nights in the mountains at Puncak. Tris and I head into Jakarta for a one night's stay tonight (it's his birthday on Sunday) and school starts on Monday. This is our last week with Tris and Sunny and so we will be slowly easing ourselves into routine once again.

It was Abby's 12th birthday on December 18 and as you can see, she's no baby girl anymore. We're thoroughly enjoying both Matt and Abby as they grow and mature. It

is hard to see my babies grow up but such a joy to see them making their own decisions and

choosing their own style (even if it's not skirts for Abby like I'd like), and watching them test out their personal style of humour and of communication. What is weird is when we see a little of Tris and I in them. I watch Matthew gesticulate (that was the word of the day yesterday on igoogle...) and think...that's my mom...that's ME! Watching Grandpa Tris and (my) Tris walk side by side, each with their hands in their beige short pockets, kind of leaning forward into the nonexistent wind, inspires me to have Matthew walk over to them to ask them a question. In him I see the same walk, the same posture, and it makes me grin.

Abby looks so much like her dad (so much so that my automatic face recognition program in my mac confuses Abby and Tris when Abby's hair is pulled back), and has a sharp, witty sense of humour that is her own, but we can see it 'tainted' with both Tris and my sarcasm and perspective on life. Like I said, we're enjoying watching them mature, whatever the pace may be.

I'll give the highlights of our last

month. Tris and Sunny arrived Dec 11th and in our first week we visited a slum area with Kara

waci Ladies, watched my husband and kids perform at the school Christmas concert (and yes, it was called a Christmas concert...no harvest celebrations here), shopped in a local market, had cookies and tea--lots of tea--and rested. On the following Saturday we headed to Bali, where, on

the first day, we met the Comrie family at Waterbom (waterslides).

After sliding and sleeping all day we headed to Laguna Spa and Resort. Very, very nice. We stayed there over Christmas and although we didn't officially celebrate Christmas there (that was Jan 30th for us) we did invite the Comries and Carla (Judy's sister)

to join us for an incredible Christmas breakfast buffet at our hotel. The photo of Matthew feeding a squirrel shows what our location at this hotel was like. We could choose from 8 different swimming pools, or we could wander down to the beach and swim or sleep. The hut in the left hand corner is a massage hut, which was really tempting, but after our $5 massages here in Lippo, we couldn't bring ourselves to pay the asking $70. After six days of eating, sleeping, reading, swimming and chatting over tea (always tea), we headed to Lembongan Island, one I've mentioned before in July's postings.

Our stay at Lembongan was very different from Laguna Resort, but wonderful just the same. One day the kids and I walked 20 minutes into the interior village and bought some water at a small outdoor, family-owned shop. Instead of drinking down the water and walking on, we got to chatting with one of the sons of the shop owner and in turn met his two children. They didn't know much English so we were able to practice our Indonesian. Eventually a small group of village boys came along with a few English instruction books and a child's dictionary, so we went over the words with them and had an impromptu English-Indonesian language class.

Definitely a highlight for me.

The next day all six of us walked down to the lower, seaside part of the village. Here a bunch of local kids were swimming in the rising tide, splashing and laughing right up to the moment four white (some whiter than others) foreigners jumped into the ocean with them. It was then that the laughing stopped, for a moment, while the kids stared at my family (minus me, the photographer) and my mom in law (Tris Sr. watched, too). Once

the kids got over the shock, they went back to what they were doing, and some even warmed up to Abby and Sunny enough to chat with them. After most of the gang climbed out, Tris sat

down among a bunch of boys lined up along the ledge of a house and began to chat with them, again using his Indonesian. Just prior to him sitting down, I took a photo of these boys,

but didn't pay much attention. Check out the greeting the middle kid is giving me (middle finger salute). It was actually this same "friendly" kid who did most of the talking to Tris once he sat down. Again, another highlight. This time, I didn't do any talking, but it was neat to watch the interaction between my family members and the local kids. It was neat to hear Tris

speaking Indonesian as well.

After four days on Lembongan we took a small boat to Bali, got picked up by a transport van and then flied home. I have to admit that arriving home to a decorated house when Christmas has come and gone definitely sinks the emotions

for a bit. However, I determined to celebrate Christmas as typically as possible. Once next morning's breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sweet potato and eggs was on the table, presents were unwrapped and stacked in various corners, and Bruce Cockburn's Christmas cd was playing a Huron Christmas Carol (as well as other Christmassy tunes), it felt like Christmas, if only for a few hours. I must admit, once the dishes were finished, courtesy of our helper Ami....hallelujah for Ami and not having to wash up the Christmas morning dishes ourselves...I tackled the decorations and had the place back to normal by 3 in the afternoon.

It was Sunny's (mom in law) birthday on the 4th and we celebrated by taking her and Tris Sr. to the Marriott international buffet. The food was incredible and we had a lot of fun. Sunny thoroughly enjoyed celebrating her birthday this way. On her actual birthday we went and watched Avatar in 3d. Interesting movie.

Since then, we've had some quiet days, lots of reading and eating again, and then we headed to Puncak. We spent 2 nights in the mountain villa, accompanied by our neighbours (and fellow SPH teachers) the Mercer family. It's the first time we've spent 2 nights up there and so it was nice to have one full day to explore, and explore we did. We found a 200 ft waterfall that we had to hike in to see, and it was so refreshing and breezy and cold! Minus the palm trees and huge vegetation, it was a little taste of home.

That brings us up to date, with the exception of the news that I'm officially a university student (after 17 years) again. A very scary but

thoroughly exciting thought. Talk about procrastination...I thought, prayed, cried (seriously), almost threw up from anxiety a couple of times I'm sure, and finally decided that it was time to stop mulling it over and just do it. Now it's paid and I'm enrolled and there's no turning back. Along with this decision came a wonderful Macbook Pro laptop that I'm

typing on right now and LOVING it. There are a few quirks to figure out, but time and other people's knowledge (DALE!) will get me by.

This posting will have taken some time to get through, but I have time and the means to write so I thought I'd get in as much as possible. Now I'm off to Jakarta on a golf club hunting date with my husband (surfing is a thing of the past...). To be left-handed in Indonesia is very unique (it's the 'dirty' hand in this culture) and so Tris, a lefty, is having difficulty buying clubs. We'll check out a few stores and then spend the night in the city.

Thanks for reading.