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.