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".
