A Gift at the end of a Busy Month

I love it when God gives me exactly what I need, exactly when I need it in a very tangible way.  Let me explain.  

This month has been one of the most stressful months our family has ever experienced.  I remember looking at the calendar one day at the beginning of the month, and at the length of our to do list thinking, "There is no way we can accomplish this."  The list included:  school, sorting and packing through all our possesions, writing a 10 page paper, preparing and delivering a sermon/devotional in chapel, coaching soccer, loading a shipping container, saying goodbye to friends, etc.  

The next day Mike got sick.  Sick, like stuck-in-bed-with-a-fever-for-days-sick.  I was now left alone to try and balance everything.   

Every morning my prayer was for enough energy to make it through the day, and I know we had a lot of people praying for us back home.  We survived and by the grace of God finished everything on our to do list.

Needless to say, by the end I was drained.  When I need to be recharged, the best method for me is to go for a hike and get out into nature.  Now this is the part of the story that gets good.  One day as I was waiting to pick up Colton a lady from the International School walked by and invited me on a hike!  She said she felt God prompting her to invite me even though we hadn't really met, or gotten to know each other yet.  I love how God used somebody else to reach out to me and give me exactly what I needed!  

Of course I have to post some pictures.  A group of us girls hiked Gunung (Mt.) Andong together.  It was beautiful!

We parked by a large mosque in a small village that served as "base camp".  It was really crowded because the day we hiked was a "red letter day", which means it was a holiday and most people had the day off.

I wanted a picture before I got too sweaty from hiking.

A view of Gunung (Mt.) Merbabu, and Gunung (Mt.) Merapi (which is still active and is spitting out smoke in this picture).

The official puncak (peak).

On the island of Java you can find a warung (store) no matter where you are, selling pop mie and 3 in 1 coffee, even on the top of a mountain!

I don't know these guys, they just wanted to pose for a picture with me.  The best part of this picture is the girl on the left, look at how many clothes she has on!  It's like she was outfitted to climb Mt. Everest!

We were assured by another hiker that we could cross the ridge on top and hike down the other side of the mountain.  We trusted him and hoped we wouldn't end up in the middle of some random farmer's field (we did), but we made it back to our car without any problems.

Pine trees!

This is the biggest bamboo I have ever seen!

Walking through farmland on the way back to base camp.

Foto-foto

Yes, this blog has been silent for awhile.  To be honest I really don't know where I want to take this blog anymore... 

When times are rough and I have a million thoughts going through my head trying to process our new life here in Indonesia, or I am experiencing yet another tropical disease, I rarely have the time or energy to actually sit down and write them.  It also feels strange to post about ministry related items, because it feels as if I am "letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing" and I don't want to come off sounding self-righteous, because that is far from how I feel about myself and how I want to be.  That leaves me with the option of posting fun pictures, which leads everybody to think that I am on a cool "vacation", which is also far from the truth.  Thoughts?  Anybody?  Bueller?

For today I'll talk about a problem we tend to run into here.  Photos.  Indonesians LOVE taking pictures, selfies especially.  I love a good photo opportunity too, don't get me wrong.  Indonesians also love kids, especially our kids because they look, well, foreign.  Different.   When our family is out and about and they see our kids they usually ask to take pictures with them.  Sometimes we are asked in a very respectable way, and sometimes we are not asked in a respectable way.  Sometimes the kids are up for it and sometimes they are not.

   
Once, at the park while I was pushing Macie on the swing, a man walked over, stopped her swing and took a picture of her.  Colton has been literally chased after by a group of kids trying to get a picture with him.  Those are the times that are hard to deal with. 

Sometimes it can be a good, positive experience.  Sometimes it opens up a good opportunity for a chat and can be fun.  Sometimes people will play with the kids for awhile (and I can have an extra set of eyes watching my kids while out in public).  Macie has learned that if she walks up to a group of girls, she will soon end up sitting on their laps taking "selfies" and have candy handed to her.  She also uses this new trick at restaurants, she knows if she walks over to another table she will be invited to sit with them (and receive food). 

Trip to Palangkaraya

A couple of weeks ago in between unit 4 and unit 5 at IMLAC, our language school, we had a week long break.  We decided to take this opportunity to visit one of our MAF bases and get a glimpse of what life will be like for our family after language school.  We also wanted to have some fun.  We visited the MAF float plane base in Palangkaraya, on the island of Borneo.  We will not be serving at this MAF base, however this base is in the same Kalimantan program we will be serving with.

Since we like to save money (maybe we are a bit cheap) we decided to fly on Lion Air.  I'm going to let my airport geek flag fly here fly for a bit.  Check this out:  Lion Air doesn't provide beltloaders for their rampers, and they have to load a 737-900!  The seat pitch is also the craziest seat pitch I have ever seen!  They also charge for water.  Other than that it is a great airline.  Really.  I guess not every body can be as good as Horizon Air.  We will fly on Loin Air again of coarse, being cheap and all.

We flew through Jakarta, the last time our family was in Jakarta was when we first moved here.  I remember all the Indonesians in the airport sounding like the adults do on Charlie Brown cartoons to me, you know, "Wha, whah, wa, whah."  It was a lot easier flying through Jakarta this time because we could actually understand what people were saying to us!  Proof that language school is working.  

On Sunday when everybody at the MAF hanger had the day off, we came down with the MAF family that was hosting us and played on the dock.

Here are the two oldest MAF planes (I believe) in the fleet.  There is a brand new Kodiak on floats bound for Palangkaraya waiting for certification (Mike actually worked on the Kodiak that will be based here when we stayed in Idaho waiting for our Visas).  

Don't judge, we jumped into the brown water.  In our defense, it is stinkin' hot in Indonesia, and it was super fun.  Parts per million is what we were told to think about while we swam.

Here is my turn on the rope.  Mike captured this moment on the GoPro, along with all of the crying before I got up my courage to actually jump (I'm not the best with heights).  To answer the question you must be thinking, "Did any water get in her mouth?"  The answer is, "yes".  I did have my mouth closed, but the impact of hitting the water made it shoot up my nose, and I ended up with a mouthful of river water.  I'm still alive, so it can't be that bad.  Parts per million!

Colton's turn!

Macie didn't play on the rope swing, but she had fun jumping off the side of the dock and floating on the tube, which was tied to the dock so that she wouldn't float away.

On Monday our whole family was able to go on a quick flight around town.  I have always wanted to go for a flight on a float plane, so I was quite excited.  Compared to the island of Java, the island we currently live on, this part of Borneo is completely different.  Java is covered in volcanoes, and hills, and it is very densely populated. Palangkaraya is very flat and the houses are more spread out.  The people who live here actually have space in between each other.

Our trip to Palangkaraya is exactly what we needed.  It gave us some extra motivation to keep pressing on and trying our best in language school, our trip also gave us a lot of opportunities to practice our language skills.  It was also good to get out of Salatiga for a bit, we love Salatiga, but it is on the small side.  This trip was the first time our family rode in a car for 2 months!

I hope you enjoyed our pictures, for now our family is back into the school routine.  It is a bit hectic because all four of us are in school right now.

Our New Normal

It is hard to believe that Mike and I are already in Unit 4 of language study!  Starting Unit 4 brought to us a big change in routine.  Instead of going to class 4 hours in the morning 8-12, we now go to class for 2 hours a day in the afternoon 1-3.  

In Unit 4 we are given a set of questions, usually about Indonesian culture, and we go out and interview an Indonesian friend (in Bahasa Indonesian of course).  When we have enough information we write a one page essay on that topic, we then take turns in class presenting our findings.  First, we stand up in the front of class and read our essay, we then answer questions from the teacher and our fellow students.  After our presentation our teacher fills the white board up with all of our mistakes!  It is actually very helpful, our teachers are helping us dial in our grammar, the theme of Unit 4 is actually called "Tightening the Seams".  

I am also working with a tutor three mornings a week for more practice.  Mike is able to go out at night and play badminton and soccer with some Indonesian friends, which is fun and great for his language.

Going to school in the afternoon has been good for our family life, now that Mike and I have time to do our homework in the mornings while the kids are in school, we can devote our evenings to family time instead of working on our homework. 

It is crazy to think how far we have come with our language skills (and how far we still need to go).  It is such a blessing to be able to communicate a little better with our Indonesian friends, don't get me wrong, we still have plenty of moments when we yearn to be able to speak with them on a deeper level.  

We are trying as hard as we can to immerse ourselves in the culture here and learn as much as we can.  It is funny, my inner-monologue right now is actually 1/2 Indonesian, 1/2 English.  I take this as a good sign.  :)

  

Three months

3 1/2 months!  It is hard to believe our family has been living in Indonesia for that long.  That being said, the 3 month mark is usually when culture shock sets in.  We have read about culture shock in books, we were warned about it in training, so why was I surprised when it decided to hit me (Angie)?  

It is hard to describe what culture shock feels like, for me it was/is just a feeling of "heaviness".  Some days I feel stared at and just want to stay inside and hide.  I find those days are the most important to get outside and interact with people.  Somedays I feel a little angry at silly things like the ants crawling on EVERYTHING, or the hot water heater breaking once (or twice) a week, or the lock on the front door breaking and locking our family outside of our house, or the neighbors burning their garbage in their yard (again) filling our house with smoke.  

It helps to know that these feelings are completely normal and when I can identify that I am having a culture shock "moment" to just take a deep breath and remember the completely awesome perks there are to living in Indonesia.  

Perk #1  The people of course!  Indonesians are so nice, everyday that I live here I fall more in love with them and their culture.


Perk #2  My fruit bowl.  I love the fruit here!  It is like Jamba Juice in our own kitchen the mornings we make smoothies.

  
Perk #3  My scooter.  Once you get over the fact that driving a scooter around on the roads here is somewhat terrifying, it is a lot of fun!

Perk #4  The pool.  We don't make it swimming very often (about twice a month), but it is the perfect way to decompress and get some in some exercise.

Perk #5  Rendang.  I would live here just for the Rendang. 

I could go on, but I'll stop for now.  In all serious though we cannot live here on our own strength (or positive thinking) alone.  We are learning to rely on God's strength for everything, we are quickly learning that we are not enough.  It is a hard and exhausting lesson, but a very valuable lesson.  We also can't do this without our wonderful friends back home sending us notes of encouragement and prayers.

How am I doing right now?  Good.  I feel "lighter" this week and more like myself.  I do love it here, but there are defiantly hard days along with the good days.

Our First "Adventure"

I am proud to say that Unit 2 is complete for both Mike and I.  It has been a tough month with a lot of ups and downs for both our family and our fellow MAF teammates here in Salatiga.  A fellow teammate and I both struggled staying healthy throughout the unit. I actually lost my voice for 3 days, it is hard to practice a new language when you can't speak!  We welcomed a new family to our MAF team and one week into living here he blew out his knee and had to move back to the US for surgery and recovery.  We were all sad to see them go, but look forward to their return when he is recovered.  Our MAF team in Salatiga currently consists of 3 families, a big change from the 6 we started out with when we first moved here.  

We had a few days off before Unit 3 starts and Mike and I really wanted to go explore Indonesia to check out the island of Karimun Jawa 50 miles off the coast of Java.  We decided to experience the island the way Indonesians do on vacation so we bought a packet through an Indonesian friend (actually one of our language teachers).  The schedule and instruction were entirely in Indonesian.  With 2 months of language under our belts our family headed off by ourselves on our great adventure.  We decided we were either being incredibly brave and adventurous or a little stupid.  (Don't worry it works out for us).

First we had to figure out how to get to the ferry that would carry us over to the island.  We hired a driver to take us to the city of Japara 3 hours (without traffic) from Salatiga.  We had to be on the ferry dock by 8am Saturday so we thought it would be best to drive to Japara Friday night.  Our driver, Pak Ashadi, set up a hotel for us to stay in that was close enough to the dock for us to walk to the ferry in the morning.  The hotel was also crazy close to a mosque!  At about 4:30 in the morning I was about blasted out of bed by the speaker system, luckily the kids slept through it.        

  

We passed a park on the way to the ferry dock, it was pretty run-down, I couldn't figure out if it was just shut down for the off season or broke down.  We let the kids play for a little bit before we walked to the dock, Macie kept taking off her shoes though and with all the trash on the ground my germ-meter was going off so we cut play time short.

We didn't have any tickets in our hands yet or have any idea what time the actual boat left, all we knew was we were meeting somebody at the warung close to the dock.  We finally found our contact and the first thing he says to us is, "I need $200 now for your tickets."  (In Indonesian of course).  We had already paid so Mike sorted it out (in Indonesian) eventually and we were told to sit and wait.  We were never told when the boat was leaving.  I pointed at the boat and asked the lady working at the warung what time the boat left and she held up 5 fingers (not a good sign).  I noticed another orang asin (foreigner) trying to figure out when the boat left too.  

I decided to take a walk with the kids to look around the dock and snap a few pictures.

Macie started crying because she was getting nervous and I think she was experiencing a bit of culture shock.  Waiting for a ferry in Washington state is a whole different experience than waiting for a ferry in Indonesia!  No Starbucks to sip on.  I stopped and prayed with Macie that she would have courage and be brave.  When we walked back to the warung and sat down, she was still a bit weepy.  Some Indonesian girls asked what was wrong, I told them she was nervous.  I have mentioned this before and I will say it again, Indonesians LOVE kids.  The girls invited her to sit with them, took a bunch of "selfies" with her and gave her some snacks.  From that moment on Macie's disposition changed and she was totally at ease.  

The boat ended up leaving at 11:00.  It was cramped, hot, smelled like diesel and rocked back and forth like crazy.  They played the movie "Last Stand" dubbed in Russian with subtitles in Bahasa.  Poor Colton ended up getting seasick.  It was a LONG 1 hour 45 minute ride. 

When we arrived at the dock, we had no idea if we had a ride.  Luckily we were ushered into a taxi which drove us to our room.  The driver dropped us off in the driveway threw our bags in a pile, yelled, "Pak!" and drove away.  We waited for a person to come and greet us, but nobody came.  Mike peeked into what looked like the office and only saw a little girl watching tv.  We waited a little longer, still nobody came.  Eventually Mike asked the little girl for help and a guy came out to help us, pulling his shirt on as he walked out side (he was taking a nap).  He showed us our room and left.  

The rooms we stayed in were super cute, but rustic.  We only had electricity from 6 pm to 6 am and COLD showers, with no towels provided. 

At this point we still were not given a single instruction or a "heads up" on what to expect.  It was unnerving to say the least.  About a half hour later our taxi driver pulled into the driveway and told us we were going snorkling. We ran into the room and threw on our swimming suits and were out the door.  We still had not been fed lunch and had no idea if we were going to get lunch that day. 

Then things started to get fun!  We piled onto an old wooden boat with about 15 other Indonesians and set out to explore.  They served us lunch on the boat and we went snorkeling.    

Being on a boat surrounded by Indonesians was great for language practice, most of them were from Jakarta and a couple could speak a bit of English so we were able to communicate some-what.

I was a bit worried about Colton snorkeling but I shouldn't have been, he is literally better at it than I am.  He loved it!

Our pale-skinned kids are a bit of a commodity here in Indonesia and people are always asking for photos with them.  The cool part though was that they would also play with the kids too.  Macie loved the attention.  Colton gets a bit nervous surrounded by Indonesians, so this trip was really good for him.  He started to talk with them and every time he used an Indonesian word all the Indonesians would squeal with delight.   

Macie and the "paparazzi".

For lunch one day they BBQed fish for us on a tiny island.  No utensils, just hands to eat with.  It tasted great, but I wasn't able to eat dinner that night.  

Coconut water in it's true form.

Seriously, we got to spend time on an island you always see on a postcard, or a calender.  The only problem is that getting to a "postcard" island is really HARD.  :)  

We were not looking forward to the boat ride home.  Colton was worried that he was going to get sick again, so we prayed that he wouldn't, and he didn't!  Seriously though, riding the boat was awful!  I had to sit with Macie on my lap because they didn't sell her a seat and it was cramped.  I had to keep my eyes closed and take deep breaths to ward off seasickness and claustrophobia.  Inside my head I was screaming, "Get me off this boat!"  All of the Indonesians were smart, they just went to sleep and were fine. 

I forgot to mention the scary part of our trip.  The first night a robber snuck through the window and stole Mike's phone from the living room.  He also went into our bedroom while we were sleeping and took my wallet.  So scary!  Luckily he was a "nice" robber and only took my money and threw my wallet on the porch when he left with all of my ID cards inside of it.  So nice of him.

So there you have it, our first Indonesian "vacation" experience.  We are here to learn the culture and language, right?  What better way than to set out and travel and fumble our way around with 2 months of language "skills".

A Day in the Life of Language School

What does a typical day look like for our family right now, you may ask?  I'll walk you through our day.

4:30 AM- Call to prayer from the nearby mosque(s) starts broadcasting and wakes me up if I fell asleep without my earplugs.

 6 AM- Alarm goes off.  I get out of bed and make my morning cup of coffee.  (Lighting the burner on the gas stove with a lighter doesn't scare me anymore, so I am making progress).  I read my Bible, and of coarse my Face Book, and look over my pengalaman (more on that later).  I wipe the ants that have migrated onto our kitchen counter off so I can make breakfast.  Scrambled eggs, pancakes, leftover papaya, or toast is the usual fare.  Sometimes the kids are awake to eat with us, if they are still asleep I cover their plate of food with plastic (so the ants don't carry it away).

7:45 AM-  Ibu Yani our pembantu (house helper or more accurately lifesaver) arrives to watch the children and help with laundry and cleaning, she also cooks us lunch.  We say goodbye to the kids (if they are awake) and walk to IMLAC, our school.  IMLAC is about a mile walk from our house.

8 AM- School starts.  On Mondays we have chapel together, but every other day we go to class right away.  There are six people in our Unit 1 class.  We all take turns at the beginning of the class sharing our "pengalaman"  which means "our experience".  We write eight sentences in Indonesian about our past day and stand in front of everybody to read it.  Starting next week the teacher would like us not to read off of the paper.  Yikes!  After we are finished the teacher (or pilatih) will write down our mistakes on the board and we all practice the correct way together.  Intimidating, yes.

9 AM- We split up into two groups and practice short drills.  We are given about 3 phrases to learn for the day, we then repeat the phrases with the pilatih.  Later in another class we learn words we can substitute in the phrases.  We also have a 20 minute class where all we do is repeat words the pilatih says.  By the end of this class my mouth is sore, there are a few sounds our mouths just don't make in the English language that are hard to get used to.  

11:45- At the end of the day we dialog with the pilatih (in front of the class) the text we have been working on all day.  This whole process is quite draining, by the end of the day the first week I honestly was holding back tears I was so tired by the last class.  I would get crushing headaches and forget simple phrases.  Anybody who is close to me knows that I am NOT a crier.  :)  It is getting easier, class is still crazy hard, but we are getting used to the schedule.  

IMLAC Campus

I forgot to mention that about 1/2 of the pilatihs don't speak much English and the entire class is taught in Indonesian.  If we have a question, it is asked/answered in a mixture of Indonesian, drawing on the white board, and charades. 

12 PM- Class is out.  Mike and I walk home, which is perfect because it gives us time to decompress from the day.  We arrive home to an amazing meal that Ibu Yani and Ibu Janarti have made for us, from scratch.  The meal of coarse always involves rice in some form.

2 PM- The pembantus go home for the day and Mike and I try to get out of the house so we can practice our Indonesian.  Our neighborhood isn't good for practice so we usually take a walk, with the kids, and try to strike up a conversation with people, or we hop onto the angkota and walk around downtown.  It is super intimidating to try and strike up a conversation with a complete stranger and this is the most stretching part of our day in many ways.  We are trying to find ways to be immersed in Bahasa Indonesian more, which is difficult because all the locals speak Javanese to each other so we can't just listen to their conversations to "get an ear" for Bahasa Indonesian.

5 PM-  We rotate between eating out for dinner and eating leftovers at home.  By this point of the day we are exhausted and cooking is too much to think about at this point of our overseas journey.  Of coarse heating up leftovers is a lot of work here too because we don't have a microwave.  Funny thing is if you asked me a month ago if I could live with out a microwave I would have screamed, "NO!"  Now I don't even really miss having one, leftovers taste about 10 times better reheated on the stove anyway.  There are not a lot of convenience food items that require a microwave here either, so you don't really need one.  They are available here, but many people joke if they plugged a microwave into the wall of their house and tried to use it, it will overload the breaker and their power would go out!

6:30 PM- I help the kids take showers, we only have showers in this house no baths.  Yes, we do have hot water!!!  The water is heated by an LPG tank outside, the system has broken on us three times so far in one month, but who's counting?  I am thankful for a husband who can splice wires.  

8 PM- We try to have the kids in bed by this time.  After this Mike and I start on our homework.  We try to study our vocab words, translate the next day's lesson, and then we write our Pengalaman and try to read it a few times before we have to recite it in class.

3 AM- During Ramadan, which just ended 2 days ago, we would be awoken to a drum parade and cries of, "Barung!" that would last about 30 minutes.  This went on for an entire month.  I'm glad I can delete this from our current routine.  

For now, that is a day in the life.  August 12 it will change a bit because the kids will be starting school.