So many things to say...

I guess it's time. Looking back, I realize I've neglected my blog quite significantly, and so I need to sit down and organize my thoughts. There's so much to update and oodles of photos that I'd love to share. Let's see what I come up with:

This weekend, beginning on Thursday and ending on Monday night, is a holiday. It's Idul Adha here in Indonesia (muslim holiday somehow based on the story of Abraham--or Ibrahim in Islam--and Isaac, or so I believe. I wrote about it a year ago, where hundreds of thousands of goats, sheep and cattle are sold on the side of the road, purchased by wealthier families, and slaughtered/sacrificed in the mosques. The meat, once cut into pieces, is distributed in the not-so-wealthy villages) and it so happens to coincide with American Thanksgiving. As well as Idul Adha, our school has given staff and students extra days off, and I'm not complaining! As a result, a few of us got together and organized an "International Thanksgiving Family Potluck." It was held in a room at the university and 105 people attended, with each one contributing money towards the turkey, as well as a dish or drink. There wasn't much of an agenda, except that we sang a song of thanks around the piano just before grace. We've had positive feedback and although I missed having Thanksgiving...AGAIN...with family, it was really nice just to chat with people who we see around but are always too busy to talk with for too long. It was also nice to eat turkey:)

Yesterday (day after Thanksgiving dinner) a bunch of families headed to the beach! Although we live quite close to the ocean, the areas we COULD swim are not particularly pleasant, so we drove an hour and half southwest and ended up at Anyur Beach. It's my first beach experience on the island of Java, and it was quite nice. The roads on the way there are a bit of a laugh. Janet Weeda had me take a photo of the holes dug right next to our lane; they went on for kilometers. I had a good chuckle at how Worker's Compensation would feel about how close the traffic was to these holes.

Once there, we hung out, ate and swam. Oh, and fended off the vendors. Once they figured out that we weren't interested they backed off, but only to the perimeters. This hasn't been unusual in Indonesia, and I think it's similar all over the world. I'm sure each one of us has the same stories from various beaches around the globe.

Unfortunately, just before we left for the beach Matt suffered a bout of stomach illness, and decided to stay home. Of course, he felt fine after we left and regretted having to stay all alone, just he and the tv...for hours...and hours. He would have played Wii but he'd left part of it at the dinner the night before. He did have company, though. Our driver Haris stayed behind to deal with the construction guys who came and built a roof over our back garage area. For those of you who have stayed with us, you'll be happy to know that Ami and Haris now have a covered area during the rainy days. Ami also has her room, but the extra dry space is necessary and I think will be appreciated. When we returned home that evening, Haris had washed all of our dishes I'd brought to Thanksgiving and also lent out. There was a whole counter full and I sure was happy to come home to a clean kitchen. Weird, but Matt says he never heard a thing the whole time!

The photo is of Sophie and Abby. Tris brought his body boards for the kids to ride the waves close to shore, but I'm pretty sure they've been retired and will be soon replaced by a set of golf clubs. As for his rehab, he swam a kilometer today using both front crawl and breast stroke. That's wonderful, especially knowing he can do a full rotation of his right arm now.

As for me and my blogs, I think I've been putting it off because of lack of energy. I haven't said too much but since last April I've been quite nauseous in the mornings (no pregnancy here!!!) but because it lasted only a while I would forget to see the doctor later in the day. In the past 2 months it has gotten worse and has lasted throughout the day, with me always needing at least an hour nap during the day. We were concerned and local doctors didn't have much to say on the matter (except...'are you depressed?' because of my being tired. My answer "No...but I'm homesick. Does that count?"). Last week Tris took me to a hospital in Jakarta and we had a variety of tests done, and then last Thursday the diagnosis came in as a high content of e.coli. Not pathogenic, so all is well. I'm not going to take any antibiotics because they'll just kill all my good bacteria, and we'll fight it with vitamins, lots of water and acidophilus. I had started taking all those items last week and I think my immune system has kicked in or something. I'm not nearly as tired and I was even able to play ultimate frisbee today. I'd missed it for 3 weeks! I've had bouts of nausea but not nearly like it was before last week. So there you have it. E coli (which we all have in our systems, beginning at about 40 hours after our birth), and that's it. Some have asked if it is related to the dengue fever I had in January, but there's apparently no co-relation.

Well, that's it for just this weekend. Life has been busy. Lots of celebrations here lately, and Christmas holidays are fast approaching. Tris and Sunny arrive in less than 2 weeks and we're very, very excited. I do have to end this posting now because the main lights have been turned off, the new plastic Christmas tree is up (never thought I'd appreciate a plastic tree!!!), and the Christmas music is cranked. Time to decorate!!

Man, it's hot here. Christmas music seems funny, especially Frosty the Snowman.

Thanks for reading.

Panti Pintu Elok Orphanage

Today, Monday, I had the privilege of joining Abby and about 12 other grade six students, along with my friend and grade 6 teacher, Johanna, on a trip to an orphanage. The grade sixes are studying social justice issues for this unit, and so the entire grade has divided up into 5 groups and headed out of Lippo. At this point I'm not sure what the other four groups did, but we went to a Christian orphanage that has been running on faith for 20 years. The purpose of the grade six visit was not to see the children (which was good because most were in school) but to find out how the structure of the orphanage works.

Pintu Elok orphanage was started in 1989 by 5 founding members. Originally there were 15 children, and that has grown to 65 in 2009. What they (and I) learned was that this is a totally faith-run orphanage, and they have run this way for 20 years. They do not advertise or promote their organization; when they have a need they just pray for it. They have testimony after testimony of someone showing up at their door at just the right time with rice and veggies, or noodles, and sometimes someone donating anonymously just the right amount of rupiah. None of the staff, even the founders, receive any kind of wage. Talk about sacrifice.

Children are not just brought into the orphanage randomly. First research has to be done, as much as can be, into the child's family situation or lack of, the financial situation of the child's parent(s), as well as whether the child really needs to be raised in an orphanage. Many of the children come from broken homes where the mother is unable to raise her child due to financial difficulties. As a result, none of these children are adoptable. That's ok, according to the woman who we spoke with, because many of these children grow up and move away, yet they return just like our own children would, during special holidays and events. The orphanage loves them into maturity and they often come back and reciprocate, by volunteering with the newer or younger children.

One of the things that impressed me about the way that the children are raised is that when food donations come in, it is given to the children directly, not the volunteers. This ensures 1) that the children get the food and it is evenly distributed to them; the volunteers have no access to this distribution: 2) the children learn responsibility, independence and also how to share as a community, rather than learning self-survival. They learn at an early age how to give to those around them and how to work together as a family rather than individual units.

The photo above is of two of the children who live at Pintu Elok. They are Charlie and Estherina. Charlie is 1 1/2 and shy, and Estherina is 2 1/2 and quite willing to say hello. Each of the children that we met throughout the morning, whether they were coming or going, were all very well-socialized and would shake your hand in greeting.

When asked what kinds of things they need at this time, they said hygiene products, like soap and shampoo, dish soap and bleach. Obviously, they'll always need food donations as well.

It was neat to see the response of some of the children from SPH. Many of them are talking of returning to bring supplies or to just play with the children. It's a treat to know that we can go and play with the kids, because many orphanages here do not want that. The average person is denied entrance in order to protect the children, I guess. At Pintu Elok, we have been told that we are welcome anytime. That's great, because it not only gives the kids at the home some extra attention, it gives our kids an opportunity to give beyond themselves. Even here in Indonesia, it's sometimes hard to find ways to teach our kids to look beyond their own comforts and their own desires and to meet the needs of someone else. To me, that's more important even than excellent grades in school.

Thanks for reading.

My drive into Jakarta with my Camera and my Driver

When Candace was here in August, she and I headed out to what is considered a slum area of North Jakarta. This is the same place mom and dad visited and that I have mentioned a few times in the blog. While we were there last time the ladies showed me a quilt that they had made, with the intention of selling it at a later pasar. It was the first quilt that they had ever made and I was very impressed with it. I asked if they would like to learn a new technique on how to finish a quilt edge, and they were very interested. In the time between now and then I made a 10x10 inch sampler square quilt, and I brought this in on Friday. With the extra material and stuffing, the ladies copied my sample and made their own samples. This is a time when I wish I had access to a proper quilting cutting board and an Olfa rotary cutter for each of these women! These ladies are incredible, and they soak up anything you teach them so quickly; I wouldn't be surprised to find that they take what I showed them and improved on it by the next time that I visit.

On the way in to North Jakarta you have to drive over a really skanky river and on that river there are various types of homes. In the foreground is a recycling community, where people live amongst the garbage that they collect, sort and hopefully later, sell. If you look the background, there are some really nice looking, cookie-cutter cement homes, and further behind that are the fancier malls. I've been casually observing the growth of the recycle spot along the river over the last year, and I've noticed that it has grown quite a bit.

In order to see the ladies from the slums my driver has to take a road that is sandwiched by another filthy river and some mass-inhabited home fronts. There's not a whole lot of room for our vehicle, small as it is, and we have to share the road with motorcycles, pedestrians, very small, half-naked children, and sometimes another oncoming car. When I go into the home area, Haris our driver sits by the river and smokes, watching our car. We've been told not to leave it unattended. I feel a little guilty, kind of like I slink in, do my thing, and then climb into my new car with a driver and cold a/c, and drive off to my safe home where mosquitoes are relatively controlled, there are satpams protecting me and my family, and I have a refrigerator full of food. I guess I could allow my guilt to overcome me and avoid such situations, or keep looking for opportunities to experience the lives of others, regardless of their situation, while I learn from them. I've got so much to learn.

This is a rather long blog but there were so many photo opportunities and I want to share some of them with you. As Haris and I headed home, my hands cleansed by my ever-handy hand sanitizer, my belly full of bottled water, imported pretzels and a peanut butter sandwich, we came upon a street light where many street beggars take advantage of cars having to stop and sit for a few minutes. Again, it's hard not to react to a situation where you have an onslaught of people banging on your window, either wanting to sell you a bobble head, a blow-up life child-sized life jacket (hmm? Who chooses the items to sell? Is it marketing or the result of a box that happened to 'fall of the truck' when merchandise was being unloaded in a warehouse somewhere?), or just to wanting you to hand them some coins. Just before we started moving, this little guy came around. When you watch him over time, you can see he has the knack; he's got the look figured out. My response was to leave the windows rolled up, but it inspires me to continue to seek out ways to help within my own community.

The latest email from Karawaci Ladies (I have been using their old name in my postings) informs me that we're collecting money to supply items to 'cardboard kid' schools. These schools have been set up by local individuals (nationals, I think) to provide an education for the kids who, like this little guy in the photo, work the streets during the day. They cannot afford an education. There are local national teachers who volunteer their time and energy (beyond their regular work) each week to come and teach these children, and they have asked that Karawaci Ladies supply them with a plastic bin full of learning supplies (paper, pencils, books, etc). I can't help this little guy (there's probably a big guy who takes most of his money from him and his mom anyways) from my vehicle but thankfully, Karawaci Ladies is a great way to help him, practically, from my home.

One more thing the ladies' charity group is doing is raising money for goodies to be distributed to these children at Christmas time. Each student will receive a plastic cup with a toothbrush, toothpaste, face cloth, a bottle of water, a comb and some other sundries.

Thanks for reading.

Rain!

Okay, rainy season is upon us with a vengeance. Thunder, lightening, pouring rain, and then bright sunshine a little later. It's quite exciting, actually.

The other day was very unique. Usually when a thunder storm is brewing the clouds boil and brew and eventually roll in, blocking the sun and turning the inside of my bright home dark and dreary. You can actually feel the electricity built and crackle in the air and on your skin. What made last Monday unique is that this didn't happen when the lightening came.

I was just standing up from the kitchen table to bring my plate into the kitchen when I saw a bright flash outside, brighter than the sunny day it was, and there was a HUGE boom. I jumped in my skin so hard that I almost dropped my plate. My helper, Ami, was outside hanging clothes on our metal clothes dryer and she said she jumped right off of the ground.

A few hours later, Ami came and told me that a tree 4 houses down from ours had been hit by lightening, and when I looked you could see branches and leaves everywhere. The next day I drove by and, from a different angle, saw the tree like it is in the photo. That's the closest I've ever been to a tree being hit by lightening. Apparently they heard it at the school and some of the kids screamed and dropped to the ground; others said it was no big deal. I guess it depends on where you were at the time.

Today as Ami and I were driving the usual 6 minutes home from the local mall, we ran into a flood. It had been raining the usual noontime deluge and I figured we'd spend a bit of time running errands in the mall and then return home quickly. Not a chance. It was like a water main had broken or something, although I tend to think that the something is more like inadequate sewage drains. We had to merge into 6 lanes of traffic (seriously) that bottlenecks into 2 lanes (but traffic here remains at about 4 lanes still, with motorcycles weaving in and out). My concern was that the water would get into our engine and we'd stall, but after carefully weaving in and out, avoiding the biggest muddy lakes, we made it onto our main strip to go home. Surprisingly, that part of the road was flooded as well, and what is usually a one way road became two.

It could have been a stressful time, but I had no where to go, we didn't have ice cream or frozen veggies melting in the car, and I had Third Day on the cd player. We sat, inched forward, sat, moved our side mirror in so that we could squeeze a little further into the bottleneck (that's whatcha gotta do here), and people-watched. A little boy in an angkot, a station wagon-mini bus type people carrier, contributed to the water flow with his own yellow flow; students from the university were taking off their shoes, rolling up their pant legs and still getting their pants wet when trying to maneuvre in between all of the cars to get to the 'other side'; motorcycles were SOMEHOW squeezing between cars to get ahead; policemen were knee-deep in water directing traffic; umbrella boys and girls were not getting much work because there was a greater chance of getting wet feet than a wet head. I wish I had my camera.

Thanks for reading.

Recent Photos

Here are a few photos of our last month. Unfortunately,when Sam and I went to Bali I didn't have my nice camera, so most of the good photos are on her digital one. I only have 2 photos of Sam and I together on mine, and one of those didn't even turn out. The one of us here is probably before 6 am, taken on the day she flew back home.

One thing that we enjoy here is having a driver; his name is Haris. Here is a photo of Sam and Haris in our driveway.

The one of Sam and Tris was taken at a school pep rally in the gym. Normally my camera doesn't take good photos in that gym, so this is a unique thing, to have a photo that looks normal from there.

This photo of Abby in her school uniform is of her holding her gold medal in English, on stage at a special awards ceremony. Don't know about her gold medal? See 'older posts.'













We really haven't taken that many pictures, so I guess we'll have to get back on the ball.

Thanks for reading.

Rainy Season

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATHANIEL!
Just a few posts ago I mentioned our niece, Lucy (BC) and our nephew, Tristian (Germany) and said that it was their birthdays. What makes me sad is I don't have very many updated photos (obviously, if I'm not there!) of all of the cousins who are growing so quickly. I do, however, have a very recent photo of my nephew Nathaniel (Germany), who turns 6 today. (Let me do the math this time...if he was born in 2003, he's turning 6). I am starting to feel a little old in that I can't remember all the birthdates of my relatives.

It sounds, literally, like we're in the middle of rainy season now. The thunderstorms are loud, window-shaking and incredible. It's not so fun if you live in a little plywood or tin shack, but when you live secure and comfortable in a cement home it is quite the thrill. We had one today while the kids were in school and I was at home working on a project.

Abby's waiting for the computer now (story of my life) and our rule is that homework takes priority. I do want to mention that the exciting news for me, and Tris, is that Tris is now able to do the front crawl and is almost up to a kilometer. That's pretty exciting news considering he was barely moving his arm 6 weeks ago.

Thanks for reading.

Water, Air and Popcorn

Not sure what to write about except that we're all doing well and are staying healthy. Aunt Sam left last Monday morning and we're slowly getting back to our routines (not like we swayed too far out of them while she was here, though). Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to a huge shopping area (cheap prices, cheap items) in Jakarta and bought a Christmas tree. We have absolutely no storage for a fake tree, but you can't have Christmas without a tree, and it was high on the kids' priority list of things we needed this year. Last year we borrowed, but that opportunity hasn't surfaced yet. Now that we have it, we're all ready to decorate it...but we realize we should probably wait until at least after our "International Thanksgiving Family Potluck" on Nov 27. After that it's officially allowed.

While I was in this shopping area, I kept thinking "Sam would love that shirt" or "Sam would have loved this ...[whatever it was]..." and thinking she should have stayed a little longer. That thought changed when this morning, at 5:30, the power went out and stayed off until approximately 4:30 pm. I kept thinking all day "I'm so glad Sam's not here to experience this!" Thankfully outside it wasn't as hot as it can sometimes be, AND we were able to spend the day in the mall. We ate lunch, ate frozen yogourt, watched "This Is It!", the Micheal Jackson movie about his "This Is It!" tour rehearsals. I don't particularly like Micheal Jackson, but I was quite impressed by the movie and what an incredible performer he was. It would have been some concert.

Tris spent the day in Jakarta and we all returned home at around the same time. I went out again to a second mall in search of a bigger air bed for our next set of guests, Tris and Sunny, to sleep on. It's our dream to one day have a regular bed, but an air bed it'll have to be in the meantime. After much searching, a bed was found, and my friend Amy and I also found a Dairy Queen/Orange Julius! Needless to say, date night at Orange Julius is on the dating roster. How romantic!

Last night was interesting. Tris and I got into the pool around 5 pm, with some dark clouds looming. Storms here come in fast sometimes, and after just a few laps I popped my head out just as lightening flashed and within only a few short seconds, thunder followed. Tris was waving to me " get OUT of the pool!" and we were out before the next flash. We had originally planned on walking home, but the lightening and thunder were on top of each other and so we didn't want to become roasting sticks. A very kind staff member took pity on us and drove us home. The storms here are awesome, there's no other word for it. I think next time I see dark clouds like that I'll just choose the gym, or even better, a movie and popcorn at home.

Thanks for reading.