Power's Out...again...SO...random bits of info

The power was out tonight, just like last Wednesday night. However, this Wednesday wasn't as frustrating, because last week's outage coincided with our newly-arrived-from-the-plane guests and I showing up at our house ready for dinner. Talk about an Indonesian welcome. The Malcolm's had said that they wanted to 'truly experience Indonesia' and I can't think of a better way to start such an adventure than experiencing what a huge percentage of the population of this country goes through every night. Fortunately for us, Tris and I used our cell phones and a recently purchased lamp to find the keys to our car, and we all drove to the mall for dinner.

Back to the power being out...I woke up just before midnight wondering what was sitting on my chest, only to realize that it was just the humid, hot air that was making it harder to breathe. It's really not so bad if you don't move around too much, and sometimes if we open our bedroom door we can catch a cooler air movement passing by. We can't complain, really, when I realize that I can get ice cubes from our freezer to cool down, or use our super-duper electrically-charged flashlight (lasts for up to 7 hours!) to get ready for bed with. So many others here don't have that privilege, and every night they contend with hot sleeps and stagnant air, especially those who sleep on a second or third story. Our power is now back on and I've left the a/c off in the room where I am typing, just because I feel I can't justify turning it on for 20 minutes computer time. Not sure if I'd categorize that as guilt for being a Have-family where so many are Have-Nots, or if I just want to relate a bit more.

Sometimes once I wake up, I'm not able to fall asleep right away, and the computer is a great time-filler for a while. I think I take after my night-owl mom, but I don't get up and clean floors like she used to. I have memories of waking up on some school mornings to the clean smell of PineSol, but I digress....I was debating what to write about. There are a variety of tidbits of things I've seen and learned over the last while, but nothing that's big enough to make up a post. I've wanted to share a few things like:

-to describe the man I saw whose beard grew about 20 cms long, but not out of his chin. He has it growing out of his neck. What made is especially weird was that he didn't have any facial hair.

-to mention how funny it is that the little bajaj (little tin can people transporters) have written on them: maximum people 3, maximum weight 150 kg. That means that the powers that be recognize the average weight of Indonesians to be 50 kg, or about 110 lbs. That's about the average weight of a skinny teenage girl in Canada!

-cockroaches can fly, at least the little ones. I was at a friend's house last night and one flew onto my arm. Not nice.

-It costs about 50 000 rupiah, or $5, to get into SeaWorld here in Jakarta. It costs about 2 000 rupiah (20 cents) to get into a local museum (little or no English though).

-when we play ultimate frisbee on our school's playing field, we are experiencing something that very, very few Indonesians do. A flat, clean playing field with lots of space to run around.

That's the info floating around in my head tonight. I need to head to bed. Tomorrow's a big day: it's Abby's day to present her Exhibition project.

Thanks for reading.

Zoey's Update: Day 11

Here is an email from Stephanie regarding little Zoey and her bladder surgery. I have received a few prior to this but this is the latest:

Zoey has really turned the corner the last couple days and has had a couple great days and nights. She has been happily playing in her bed, smiling and laughing and not experiencing her pain in the evening. Still not crazy about nurses and dr's but seems to be at least tolerating their existence (yesterday when one of the urologists came in and was stroking her hair and talking she looked the other way and refused to acknowledge he was there, but didn't cry; friday she was playing happily with her worker from the TriCity Infant Devp't Dept and anytime a nurse/dr walked into the room she got totally solemn, then would resume her playing as soon as they left). She no longer whines to be picked up as she seems to have accepted the fact that she is going to be stuck in bed on her back for a while.

Not really any major concerns at the moment. We're trying to get her to eat and drink more (at home she was a great eater). Have any of you tried eating much lying flat on your back and digesting that way?.... i guess i don't blame her for not being as hungry as before...

While she is doing great overnights the last couple nights, we still aren't getting any sleep as the hospital policy is to walk into the room every hour throughout the night. I wake up every time the door opens every hour....so greg came last night to give me a night at home to sleep and he got a chance to also experience the hourly interruptions in sleep :) We'll have to see if they can perhaps bend the rules for us as I won't be able to cope with another month of this:)

Thank you all for your concern and help!

Thanks for reading!

Coming, Going, and Grade 6 Exhibition

So much happens sometimes that it's hard to take a moment to reflect. When I last posted, it was a quick cut and paste from an email I received from Stephanie regarding Zoey (please continue praying for Zoey, both for proper healing AND for patience as she lies completely inactive in her hospital room). In doing so, I forgot to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom officially on this blog. So mom, Happy Birthday! I love you:)

Last week was a very difficult one for me, as one of my dearest

friends here in Indonesia moved home to the US. Jamie and her husband Sheldon left on Friday and have safely landed in their hometown. It's a bittersweet event for me in that I selfishly wish she was here so that we could continue in the wonderful friendship we've established, yet I know that for Jamie to move home to be near family is so important to her. It really is like living a military life here in Indo, as people we meet move away to either their home country or to another job elsewhere. I'm not sure that it's something that I'll get used to, but I do appreciate the time I get to spend with incredible friends like Jamie while they're here. When it comes to friends, moving from Canada was hard, and so is staying here.

Speaking of friends, we've had the privilege to have the Malcolm clan come for a visit. They come from Nanoose (we met in Courtenay years ago and they were a part of our Life Group there) to visit friends in Bali for a few weeks, and we're their "Java" part of their trip. Tomorrow they head off to Jogja and then to see the volcanos in the Mount Bromo area. Their son is 13, in between Matt and Abby, and their daughter is 6. We've had a great time cramming as much fun as we can into 5 days: Taman Safari Zoo (and the vendors along the roadside up to the area), Mangga Dua (shopping Indo style), movie theatre for $2.50 each, a community event at our school, BBQ buffet at the local hotel, and today, a visit to Malabar (traditional market) as well as to our driver's in-laws' home as well as to his own home. We've packed a little bit of everything into our visit.

This upcoming week is a huge deal for Abby. This is the week that she presents her research and processing work for her Grade Six Exhibition project. She has been studying nutrition and, more specifically, malnutrition in the Jakarta area. She and other students, mostly girls, in grade 6 who are studying the same topic have had to connect with various organizations, arrange field trips into Jakarta and do interviews with people associated some how with nutrition. Some of the organizations they met with were World Vision, WHO (World Health Organization) and Unicef. I didn't even know what those organizations WERE when I was in grade 6, except maybe Unicef because of the little boxes we'd carry around for donations at Hallowe'en, so Tris and I are thrilled for the exposure she's getting.

There's always more to write, but I'll save a bit for later.

Thanks for reading!

Update on Zoey's Surgery

Here's an update on Zoey, who had surgery today (see last few posts for more details):

We had a long day today. Zoey’s surgery was at 7:45 – I got to go into the O.R. with her until they put her to sleep – our last snuggle for a while! The surgery finished around 3:15 – apparently they had some difficulty getting the hips as close together as they would have liked, but close enough to get the bladder back inside and urologist said he was pleased with how well the bladder went together. The rectal part of the procedure only took 20 minutes. She had a small blood transfusion since it was such a long procedure. We had to wait another 2 ½ hours after that until we got to see her. She ended up going to the ICU since there was no room upstairs in a ward for her. Turns out this was a good thing because when we saw her in the ICU she was unexpectedly in a fair bit of pain (and partly annoyed at all the tubes preventing her from sucking her thumb and of course her legs being straight up in the air). The epidural they gave was supposed to avoid any pain…. Anyhow after about 30-60 minutes and several calls to pain control dep’t and several painkillers and sedatives and a local anaesthetic, she calmed down and by 8 pm was peaceful. Since she’ll be in the ICU for the night she’ll have a nurse by her bedside the entire time and she seems comfortable so we decided to try and get some rest at home for tonight, as it may the last chance for quite some time to get a good sleep, at least for me J We’ll be back there in the a.m. and she’ll likely get moved up to her new home in a ward.

Zach and Eliana are coping very well at their Oma and Opa’s thankfully.

We really are so thankful to have your support and prayers and practical help this next while. Today they confirmed what we suspected – that she would be in traction 4-5 weeks and see after that how her bones are growing and her incisions are healing. We’ll continue to keep you posted over the weeks ahead as there are any new developments.

Love, Stephanie

Thanks for reading.

Little Zoey's Surgery

This is an email I received from my friend Stephanie in mid-January. A month before we moved to Indonesia Zoey and her twin brother Zack were born. In previous posts I have mentioned Zoey mostly, and this post is specifically about her upcoming surgery.

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 or 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 still 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.

The mid-March date was postponed until mid-March. This is the last email I received from Steph:

Zoey’s surgery is going ahead for April 15^th it seems. The OR is booked for her for the entire day I am told. We have had consults with the surgeons for both urology (bladder) and those dealing with the rectal prolapse. We have a great team of dr’s that I’ve met from those departments (5 of them that I’ve met). We’ll meet the orthopaedic surgeon Tuesday next week, as well as the anaesthesiologist and those in charge of her pain control and get both xrays and ct scan done.

I will keep you posted as I receive updates.
Thanks for praying and thanks for reading.

I've got the Joy down in my heart

Have you ever had such a good day or week that you feel like you are going to burst with contentment and joy? One of those weeks where there's nothing really specific that you can point at and say "THAT made me happy..."? That is how I would describe my week. It's a bit ironic, really, because, like I said, I didn't really have anything specific that made this an extra special week, and in fact almost daily I have received some kind of sad or worrisome news. What I think has happened is that I've had a full week, and I like full. I've been with Abby in some capacity or other all week, either during a field trip (to a pollution/earthquake/water monitoring station and also to World Vision's staff launch of Child Health Now), a presentation in her class pod (Student Led Conferences where she showed me her school work and sang me 2 songs in music class, as well as a presentation by a Pelita Harapan school needing sponsorship), watching her play basketball at her SPH cup, and watching her sing a small solo for the Easter assembly in Junior Choir. In the same assembly Matt and his hiphop crew danced 2 songs, and I was so proud to watch them both during this school gathering. Abby and I also had the privilege of sharing dinner with a group of families who live in some nearby slums.

Also during this week a friend had a baby girl (beautiful Aliya, 2.5 kgs and lots of lovely hair), and old(-ish) friends have returned to Indo for a visit. If you visited before last June or read any of my blogs in the first year, you may remember Abby's grade 5 teacher, Mr. Jonny, and his wife Mel. They've come to visit SPH friends and have brought their beautiful baby Zoe, who is now six months. Their story a year ago is that Mel was thought to be having a tubal pregnancy and there were fears that the baby would not make it. Just seeing Zoe's beautiful smile shows how God answers prayer.

Intermingled in all of this good news are bits and pieces of sad and sometimes disheartening, most of which won't make it to this blog post. I will say that sadly, my good friend Jamie is leaving for the US in two weeks. Her presence here in Indo and in my own life will be sadly missed; she has been a tremendous encouragement to me during my transition to Indonesia and away from my home in Canada. She'll be breaking up the "Kimmie and Jimmie" team but, as the lesson is constantly learned here, that's the way life is and we've just got to be thankful for the blessings we receive as we receive them and as we reflect upon the past.

Like I've said, nothing terribly exciting or out of this world, but this week has been full of people and connecting. Next week I look forward to another field trip with Abby, a possible trip to Mangga Dua to buy a wig or two to take home with me (for the kids!!), dinner with friends, a trip to the orthodontist with Matt (it's the closest thing I get to a date with my son...he's trapped in the car with me for at least 3 hours that day and so we'll have a good chat I'm sure), my first meeting as Karawaci Ladies pres, cramming in as much time with Jamie as possible, as well as visiting a bit more with our Australian friends. While I am doing this, may I ask that you pray for our friend Zoey from British Columbia, who I have mentioned now and then on this blog as well. She goes in for some major surgery on April 15th, and I'll post specifically on what her parent's requests are.

Thanks for reading.

With the passing of Easter weekend and all the significance it holds, I've been thinking about life, material wealth, health and how they're all so temporal (uh oh, here comes a deep post...). Admittedly, I find it easier to contemplate wealth and lack thereof living here. We are finding that with our situation here it is actually easier to enjoy the 'finer things in life,' which we usually link up to food and good fun. Maybe that is why it's easier to experience the sense of guilt that comes with driving through poverty-stricken areas (which, honestly, is pretty much all of the Indo I've seen, with the odd pocket of upper class neighbourhoods tucked about). We sit in our nice, new (first time for everything) car, a/c blowing and usually, a cd playing, and we drive around the streets between Lippo Village and Jakarta. I have to admit, I love the drive, except when it's a turtle's pace. No matter where we are, there's always something to look at, but again, it usually has a sense of poverty attached.

For example, you can tell that the highways ran right through some villages years ago, because right next to the 6 lane byways are farmers ploughing their fields, harvesting their rice, and shepherding (huh?) their caribow (cattle that look like buffalo). Ragged bits of clothing hang on sticks shoved into the rice paddies, to help keep the pesky birds away. You can see decrepit little bamboo huts spotted throughout the fields. They are usually leaning over so far that you wonder how anyone can keep out of the rain and stay dry in them. What is particularly interesting are the Charlie Brown trees that hold myriads of torn kites along the side of the road. It doesn't matter how little money you have, you can always make a kite!

So there's the poverty along the roadside. It's more evident in the city, and I've posted a lot over the last 2 years on what I've seen there. However, there's also another kind of poverty here, and it's worldwide. It's the kind where people strive to look good, whether it's financially or physically, in leadership or employment, in making a name for ourselves while we're here. Here in Indo, presentation is everything. I don't think it is much different in North America much of the time, even if it is a subtler idea. Ultimately though, who cares? I know that I put years of paint, scrubbing, sewing, trim (well, that was Tris), and finally we put in new floors and windows into our house. It looked good for a time, but there was always something else to change, to fix, to improve upon. We're no longer in that house and I was still spending precious thought time (which I have a lot more of here) thinking of those horrible metal sliding doors we had in our bedroom. WHY? I still want to change them and we don't even own the house!!!

As my thoughts swirl and spiral about, it comes down to this: all is for naught, if you don't know why you're here. It's not to look good. I am a Christian, I believe that I have been put here, as God promises, for a purpose, and although I don't always know/believe what that is, I still trust that He knows what's going on and that if I give Him control, He'll give me direction. I still strive, although I'm not sure why or for whom. Probably myself most of all. As I age, as each Easter passes and I contemplate the death and resurrection of Jesus, I hope that I will one day get it, understand it to the core, that He really is the only reason I exist, and that He's the one who is in charge of 'looking good,' not me.

Thanks for reading.

Spring Break (but where's Spring???)

The holidays are here and you'd think I'd have spent some time blogging on my computer. We chose not to go anywhere during this Spring (?) Break, in order to save for our upcoming trip to Canada. It has been a quiet time for us, full of sports, shopping, food and some fellowship. Most people went away for at least four days to places like Thailand (Phuket, Phi Phi Islands), Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali and other Indonesian locations. Before most families left, we had a game of softball, and it was a great way to start off the holidays.

Our family headed once again to Anyur Beach, about 1 1/2 hours from our front door. This time I didn't take my camera, but I did take some prints of photos I'd taken the previous visit. I was able to distribute these and in doing so, realized that some of the best photos I could have taken were the smiles on the faces of the Indonesians receiving a photo of themselves. I've been instructed to bring my camera next time so that we can take a group photo of myself and all of the ladies working on the beach (massages, mat rentals, banana & food sales).

There is a place in Jakarta called Mangga Dua, and in it there are some excellent, truly

Indonesian spots to shop. Rebecca and I shopped there when she was here, and I've been a few times with friends. This holiday is a bit unique in that most of Indonesia is not on holidays, our school is, and my

family hasn't gone anywhere. I realized that this may be the one and only time my family may see Mangga Dua without the crowds, and that's the only way I'll ever get Tris to agree to go along. To me, it's a great "Indonesian Experience." We headed out with Haris, and our friend Jamie came along. Our very favourite purchases were our wigs: Matt bought the white one for a skit he and his friends are wanting to do for YouTube. We were also able to find really inexpensive jeans for Abby and some other odds and ends.

This Wednesday Abby and I had the privilege of heading for the second time to some slums. These ones are probably the worst I've been at here,

with the children and their families using the filthy river water for their bathing and washing. We're not sure about cooking, but it's not a healthy situation, regardless. It was one of our first times riding in an Angkot, a typical Indonesianmode of transportation that most foreigners don't get a chance to experience. One of the reasons we stay away from them is that we really don't know where they're headed!

This is a photo of the teachers who have allowed us to come along with them, and of the regular Angkot driver that they hire each week to deliver and pick them up. What is most exciting to me about this trip, and the last, is that Abby has had opportunity to teach English to some of her peers. I helped with the little ones next door, but stuck my head around the corner now and then to see her in action. She's a great teacher! Other than watching Abby, one of my other favourite things about visiting this area is the greeting, or 'salam,' that the children give us each time we arrive and depart. Regardless of their age, the children take your hand and place either their lips or the side of their face on the top of your hand, and bow a little when they do so. It's a very humbling greeting.

Surprisingly, we haven't spent much time swimming, but we have taken advantage of the empty tennis courts, and Abby's been practicing her basketball shots as much as she can. She received some wise sports advice from her coach, who told the girls on her team to bounce the ball around the yard, the neighbourhood and even in the house as much as possible. Unfortunately, although she's a very obedient kid and does as the coach suggested, I disagree, but my opinion doesn't go very far in that area because, well, I'm married to the coach.

In one way this has been an odd holiday for me, because my kids are getting older and doing much more of their own thing. Although they're growing and Tris and I seem to be shrinking, when Tris and I went to an few outlet stores to buy some clothes, the kids didn't want to come. Imagine that, not wanting to buy stuff! They preferred to stay home by themselves. *Sigh*. On that note, remember Mr Plaid? We've made a deal. Tris was allowed to buy a whole bunch of good quality shirts (really inexpensive, too!) IF he got rid of his plaid shirts that he's been wearing for years. I think it was an easy decision for him, especially since he wore his plaid shirts constantly during the time he struggled with his shoulder pain (they were easier to get on). Now he's Mr Golf Shirt.

So, all in all, not a terribly exciting holiday but definitely a relaxing one, and one where we got to explore the Jakarta area a bit.

Thanks for reading.