Sunday, March 21, 2010

Little Momma


I don't have much to say today, but I saw this photo on my nephew's Facebook and laughed pretty good! My mom looks so cute!!!
Left to right: Poppa (my dad), Josh (nephew), Darren (big brother), Justin (nephew), mom (itty bitty mom).

Thanks for reading.
I often contemplate closing down our blog as we near the 2 year mark (July 2010), as writing about my day (I woke up, read my bible, said goodbye to my family heading to school, went for walk, showered, met with so and so...) can be redundant and for those reading, just plain boring. There are those times in our lives when exciting things happen and we want to share the news. There are other times when we trudge on with our daily activities and really, who wants to read about what we ate for dinner, and how long it took to get homework activities finished? However, as Tris has pointed out, this blog is just as much about recording our lives in Indonesia as it is about informing friends and family in Canada about what we're doing here. And so, the blog continues...

Summer is slowly creeping up (well, not that slowly...I just realized that it's already the 21st of March already...happy spring, Canada!) and our trip home is looming, wonderfully bright, but looming nonetheless. There is so much to do and so many things to purchase! We have dentist appointments to make and to confirm (it's hard to do, even with email and skype), paperwork to prepare and clothes to pack. Well, really, not that many clothes, because it's my hope that I'll get to do a little shopping while I'm there. I am yearning for quality clothes that fit. Mostly, we are all looking forward to sitting around with family and friends, and chatting and eating and eating and chatting. That's all we really want. And to climb some mountains.

Our lives in a nutshell over the last month: Abby has started her grade six Exhibition series, which I liken to having to do a thesis on the given theme: education improves people's lives. Her focus will be on nutrition, and she'll visit local villages and organizations, write in a journal about the whole process of deciding on and developing her topic, create an action plan on how she can take what she's learned in her investigation and use it to impact society, and display what she's learned during Exhibition Week at the end of April. Sounds pretty intense, doesn't it? Thankfully the teachers suspend classes in a variety of subjects for a number of weeks and the students are able to fully focus on their projects.
Also, Abby is still in basketball after school, with Tris as her coach. They've had a few games, lost each one, and are learning how to be good sports. Tris is a great, patient coach and enjoys working with the girls.

Matt is still hankering to play the bassoon, which we have yet to rent. We went to his band concert on Friday night and we saw a bassoon solo (the only bassoon in the school)...the air that comes from your mouth has an incredibly LONG way to go before exiting the instrument!! I love it that he's wanting to tackle this. He's still in hip hop and the club has reached their goal of choreographing 7 dances this school year, which they're pretty excited about. Next week he heads to Bandung (the home of where Louis Pasteur did his experiments with milk...Indonesia...who would have thought??) for a 3 day field trip. They're going to stay in a hotel but will be doing a lot of things out of doors. They're expected to bring rain gear and this is always interesting; many parents aren't particularly fond of their children getting wet here. It is said that parents feel it will make the kids sick because of the cold. Of course, coming from Canada, it's hard to see this from their perspective.

Tris is in exam season and so is marking up a storm. He loves his job, loves coaching, and this week coming up is looking forward to a rugby clinic being held by a man who is, in the rugby world, akin to Wayne Gretzky in the hockey world. When he's not at school he's golfing, either in reality or in his head. Thanks to Rebecca, there are orange whiffle balls in our backyard and even a few in the neighbours!

As for me, next time someone asks me what I do with my day, I can give them more specifics. I have become the new president of Karawaci (Lippo) Ladies, a position I look forward to and expect many personal challenges and much growth from. We're an ex-pat charity group that raises funds for medical and educational purposes, to provide for children under the poverty line in our local community. I'm looking forward to the blogs that tell of our visits and ventures. Also, I am now volunteering with World Vision Indonesia. Mostly I've just edited for them, but I am waiting to see where and how I will be used next. In April I have the privilege of visiting an area in Jakarta where WV works (it's called an ADP, or area development program). If you sponsor a child in Jakarta, I may just meet up with them one day!

I do have a health prayer request, and that is that you pray for a specific diagnosis of what's going on in my body. Since I've had dengue, but not sure if it's related, I've been nauseous and a little more tired than normal. Over the year I've been diagnosed with a few things, one being overactive e.coli ("take your vitamins and drink lots of water..." didn't work) and most recently CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome). The latter was diagnosed by a doctor who barely looked at my file, listened to my list of symptoms and in a matter of less than 3 minutes, gave me a diagnosis. Only AFTER her diagnosis did she check my heart, my eyes/ears/tongue, etc. Never did ask about stomach issues, and my loss of 6 kg this year didn't phase her. Her cure? Change my diet and exercise less. Can you say frustrating??? Thankfully Tris was with me and insisted on the doctor running some tests. We'll get the diagnosis in a week, and have vowed we'll get it from a doctor who can speak speak the same language as us. I'm pretty sure it's not serious, just hasn't been diagnosed properly yet. And so we wait. Thanks for your prayers.

Thanks for reading.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Creatures


Last blog post I promised a few photos and stories of the creatures around our house. The ants are far too small, most of them at least, to take photos of, but we do have some good stories. One of them is from when Rebecca was here. She went into her room to change her t-shirt and begin itching within minutes. After thinking that she might be going a bit crazy, she decided to check it out. When she removed her shirt there were ants crawling all across her. Ew!!! Lets just say that I knew something was up from the sounds of disgust coming out of her room. In the months around her visit we've been driven crazy by the little ants, ones that are much smaller than Canada's sugar ants. I thought maybe it was something in our house, but as I visit other homes, no matter how classy the home, I can still see ants on the floor at least. We've resorted to spreading baby powder at the base of our beds, and this has seemed to keep them at bay. No longer do I get woken up abruptly from a nap by some sharp bite on my arm or leg. I still have to shake out my toothbrush before I use it, and that may never end.

Since I last wrote the post promising stories, I've seen numerous lizards in our yard. Last week I saw one on our front door screen and was able to get a photo, and even better, yesterday I was cooling down after a long walk and saw a chameleon climbing a bush in our backyard. The red-spotted one in the photo was also on our front porch, and it's called a Tokay. It actually makes a sound like that. It's a very interesting lizard, and it loves to eat the big, fat juicy ants and flying termites that hang around our yard. In the last 36 hours I've seen 4 lizards (3 outside of our yard) and that's amazing. Usually I see one every few months. It must be lizard season!

We've also had a weird stint of bats around our place. It was neat that Rebecca was here to witness them with me. One Saturday
night we had stayed home from church, and we had a swarm of what we call flying termites (not sure if that's correct) buzzing our front porch

light. All of a sudden there were what seemed like dozens of bats swooping at the bugs, and this lasted for at least 30 minutes. Rebecca took a video and I got some photos. See the cat
watching the bats? We have no idea where it came from but it was just as intrigued as us. For the record, we took the photos from inside the house...there was NO way you'd get us outside with those evil looking things flying around our heads.

The photo of the frog was taken by Rebecca, in the middle of the night in our home. She saw it moving in the dark and instead of turning on a light, she figured out what it was by taking a flash photo of it. Clever! Lately there have been hordes of frogs frollicking in our front yard. They're everywhere...not quite a plague but they do make themselves known. I was even transplanting an orchid and there was a frog in the pot, under the orchid roots. Do they hibernate near the equator???

Today when I was gardening I found a dead snake in our little nook at the side of our house. Really, there's no better snake than a dead snake, at least when it comes to me entering dark spaces!!!

Thanks for reading.

Monday, March 1, 2010

A Visit to Ami's Village

It's amazing how rainy season is upon us yet I am looking out my window right now and the sun is beaming, the clouds are white and puffy, and there's laundry hanging that was only put out yesterday and is ready for ironing today. Although there are many things that can discourage us as we live in Indonesia, the weather isn't very often one of them. Even when it poured rain the other day while we were driving, it was still easy to love the rain. It was quite the adventure as the weather changed from sunny to gray to torrential downpour in about 20 minutes. I was visiting Ami (our helper) and her family in their village, and just as Haris and I were getting ready to get into the car, the rains came. By the time we exited her village and got onto the toll road, we couldn't see two feet ahead of us. When a huge bus splashed our car as it drove by, Haris had to come to an almost complete stop just so we didn't hit anything or anybody. Like I said, it was rather exciting. And mom, don't get your knickers in a knot. They have big buses and big puddles in Canada, too, even on our Island Highway:)
this is the view of Ami's village through our windshield during the
downpour
For months now I have been wanting to visit Ami, her family and her home,
and the fire in her neighbourhood gave me a chance to do so. A few friends of mine gathered some children's clothing and a few toys to donate to the family that lost their possessions, and so Ami and I drove with Haris to deliver them. I have seen a few homes before and was preparing for 'not so nice.' I was so pleasantly surprised when I saw that Ami lives in a 4 room, cement home, with a fridge, tv, running water, separate sleeping quarters, and a garden that she tends on her days/nights off. It's not a big home, but it was clean, tidy, full of furniture and photos. Thankfully, because of the cement walls, Ami's own home was untouched by the fire itself (just the smoke entered her home) and the family that had the fire didn't lose their home, only the possessions within.

Visiting the kampungs (villages) around Indonesia is what gives me the most life. When I look back over my 1
1/2 years here, it's the days that I have spent outside Lippo, inside a village, that have been my favourites, whether it's on the island of Java, Lombock or Bali. I'm not sure what it is, but I know that the Lord has given me a love for Indonesia and I'm not sure how He's going to use that in me. It always hits me as ironic, knowing that 2 years ago, other than an awareness of the huge tsunami, Bali, Suharto and Sukarno, I never really knew anything about Indonesia.

One opportunity I have to learn more about Indonesia is through my volunteer work at World Vision. I'd love to be working within the communities but language is a huge barrier, as well as a few other things. For right now, I have asked if I could edit various documents like briefs, reviews and reports. Through these I am learning how WV works within Indonesia as well as becoming aware of statistics and conditions throughout Indonesian provinces. So far I've covered Papua, Kalimantan and Java and I've learned so much. This opportunity is a new one for me, and I'm curious to see what will come of this particular trail in my life.

Not only do I have a love for Indonesia, but my family has a love for its creatures, and we've been getting a whole lot of exposure to some of them lately. Stay tuned for photos and descriptions of various creature events that have occurred within our home in the last few weeks.
Thanks for reading.

this is a photo of the water tower in Ami's village, where some of the water was used to put out the house fire. Sand was also thrown on the fire, and there was a huge, smoky wet mess to clean up once the fire was put out.