My "Weekend"

My weekend begins when I get home from church on Sunday (usually around 3 or 4pm) and ends when I go to bed on Monday night.  Needless to say, Mondays are very dear to my heart.

Yesterday after church, we went out with some of the youth to good ol' Fatburger.  Exhausted from 8 straight hours of "people," I came home and had a video chat with Ann in China.

Then, I alternated between watching my TV show (still get my Grey's Anatomy fix all the way over in Indonesia) and reading a new book that one of the youth lent me because the TV show had to stop and "buffer" so often.  Got a spurt of creativity before bed, so I updated my blog (see previous post).  

Today was the first time since being sick (mid-September) that I did NOT set my alarm to go off.  Sleeping in until 11:30 felt amazing!  I got up and spent a little time reading, then headed down to the pool.  Unfortunately, morning is the prime sunbathing time, and I missed out.  I only sat by the pool reading my bahasa lesson for 30 minutes before giving up (on sunbathing, not on the bahasa lesson).  

I have been trying to get to know my neighborhood by walking more (previous blog post) so I decided to try to find the salon on foot.  The mom of one of my youth had made an appointment for me with her friend. I set out at 3:25 and made it by 3:50 - not bad!  It was quite a pleasant walk.  Now I know where to go the next time I'm craving Starbakss...

Tried not to disturb anyone's sleep...

And finally made it to the salon.  

It took an hour and a half to get my hair washed, cut, and blown dry.  I asked her to take off just a couple of centimeters - but I think the result was several inches.  She also went crazy with the thinning shears!  I tried not to look.  The result looks ok straight, but I'm a little nervous how it will look when it's back to its curly self.

I caught a taxi just as the first few drops of rain fell.  Before long, the streets looked like this...

It took over an hour, but I finally made it to the mall to meet Jessica for dinner at Burger King and a movie.  Total cost: $6.05.  Well, if you include the frosty from Wendy's afterward: $6.78.  

All in all, it was a great "weekend"!  Plus, I had a nice long phone call with my brother when I got home.  Good to hear his voice!

Berjalan-jalan

Thought I'd give you a little walking tour of my "neighborhood" here in Jakarta. This was on a rare occasion that I was either a) home before dark (6pm) or b) up before it got too hot for such things. Pretty sure it was the former.

This time of year is supposed to be rainy season in Indonesia, but we haven't seen too much rain yet. I'm actually a little disappointed. Despite the flooding and increased traffic caused by torrential rains, I've been looking forward to a little change in the weather. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. Ninety degrees every single day with high humidity is just fine. I only need enough clothes for one season, my hair loves the humidity, and I have nothing against a year-round tan. On the other hand, it sure would be nice to cozy up in a nice fuzzy sweatshirt, wear socks to work, smell some leaves burning, and get a glimpse of ANY kind of change in color. I'm pretty sure "pollution gray" was not on God's palate when he mixed up his paints. Sometimes I feel as if time were standing still. Sunrise - 6am. Sunset - 6pm. 90 degrees. Humid. Partly cloudy. Every. Single. Day.

I digress. Back to my walk...

I set out on my walk armed with my umbrella (it is rainy season, after all), but we all know that if I remember to bring my umbrella it most assuredly will not rain.  Though the view from my window before I left revealed storm clouds and lightening, it never did rain in my neighborhood.

I live on a fairly busy street which, fortunately, has a very nice sidewalk.  The traffic consists of bicycles, motorbikes, cars, trucks, buses, and carts pushed on foot.  Along the way, I pass through a nice strip of plants for sale.  I almost forget that there is a traffic jam on the other side of the greenery!

After I turn a slight corner - where there is a never-ending line of cars waiting to turn left aided by a man on foot who helps the driver ease into the already clogged street* - I see a whole new sight: kids playing in the street, people out for a casual stroll, neighbors visiting on the "patio."  

*aside - don't you think it's funny that my street is actually called, Simprug Artery?  If this city would take better care of its health, it wouldn't be in such desperate need of multiple bypass surgery!

Along with the change of scenery comes a change of stench.  The odor of the polluted river that runs behind my apartment building is overwhelming - so I take my picture and continue on.

As I meander along, I continuously hear, "Hello mister!  How are you?"  That is about the extent of the English in this area.  One motorbike taxi (ojek) driver, however, actually got as far as...
"Hello mister, want ride?"
"No, thank you"
"Okay, enjoy Indonesia!"

I just smile and keep walking.  There is no end to the variety of vendors along this street: combo umbrella repair/balloon animal cart, tailor on wheels, portable kiddie ride.  One mom tried to get her child to pose for my camera, but the little girl ran away screaming.

I'm sure there will be more walks, whether the rains ever show up or not, and I'm never without my camera!

For more photos of the walk, plus a few randoms...

My First Youth Retreat

Well, I survived. It was only 2 nights and 2 days altogether, but it felt like a week. I learned a lot about planning large youth events in big cities. Luckily, we had our faithful office staff to rely on for making reservations for hotel, buses, food, drivers, etc. We also had dedicated and willing parents who went out in Jakarta on the hunt for snacks, supplies, and prizes for 25 hungry youth and adult leaders. We learned that teenagers in Indonesia are even more non-committal than teens in the U.S. Not only were the teens joining/backing out last minute, but the adult leaders were as well. That will definitely require more advanced planning in the future.
We knew the headache would begin with navigating a bus through outbound Jakarta traffic at 6:30pm on a Friday night. On top of that, it was raining = really bad traffic. It took 10 minutes just to get out of the church driveway and onto the street. I knew it was going to be a long ride when the bus driver suddenly jumped out of the bus (without pulling over) and ran around the outside to some storage compartment where he kept the dvds. Luckily, the only one of 3 English movies that was NOT rated R was Mr. Bean - which the kids loved and even provided narration for.

Kid 1: Oh, now he's taking out the test.
Kid 2: There're two tests. He's got the wrong one.
Kid 1: Oh, this is the part with the pens.
Kid 2: Where's the teddy bear?
Kid 3: He keeps pulling out more pens!
Kid 2: Now he's cheating!

Just a tad frustrating. But the 2hr 45min hour bus ride (the earlier bus made it in 1hr 15min) allowed me the time to breathe easy between the stress of loading kids and bags on the bus and unloading once we reached the destination.

After only one turn-around on a narrow mountain road complete with hairpin turns and steep drop-offs, we made it to Gunung Geulis Resort in the mountains of Ciawi, Bogor (south of Jakarta).

After some snacking (thanks to the moms) and a little orientation, we had an exciting game of capture the flag in the dark, on the side of a mountain.

The next morning at 7 am, I woke up the girls (I think my knuckles are bruised from knocking so hard on their doors), and we rode up to the meeting hall in a golf cart to discuss the devotions I had written for them.  They spread out around the resort to spend some alone time with God.

Our breakfast was a yummy spread of fried rice, fried chicken, and french fries.  The morning continued with sessions of worship, lesson, and small group time, as well as team time to decide on a name and cheer.

My team - The Red Cross! (yes, we know the cross is actually white)

After lunch, we kicked off game time by showing off our team cheer.  Games included throwing darts, running around (and through) the swimming pools, and last, but not least, the String Labyrinth of Death!  Game time ended in a rousing game of "dump buckets of water on as many people as you can"!

After a nice hot shower and a little quiet time, we met back up again for dinner and another session.  Most of the kids said this night-session was their favorite.  There was a short message, then a presentation for salvation.  Though no one came forward for that, the Holy Spirit was moving, and several kids came up just to have a leader pray with them.  Then several groups of kids broke off on their own to pray for one another while other kids spent time writing letters to God.
We asked the resort to build us a campfire.  It was very nice - right in the middle of a parking lot.  A little unconventional, but a campfire is a campfire, right?  Before long, every kid had a long stick to play in the fire with.

The last planned event of the evening was a lip-sync competition between the four teams.  Given 45 minutes to prepare, our team finally decided on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with 10 minutes to spare.  Yikes!  I believe you can see us in all of our glory on my Facebook wall https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=187701288.  I was falling asleep by this time, so I headed back to my room while several of the guys and youngsters stayed up to play "flashlight kick-the-can."

Sunday morning was another bright-and-early 7am wake-up call for the girls.  We packed our things and drove up to the meeting hall for devotions, breakfast, and our final session.  Before leaving, we had a group photo shoot, stocked up on snacks, and made sure everything fit on the buses.  Then we were off!  I thought for sure the kids would be asleep in no time, but I was wrong.  The chattered all the way home!  I guess we didn't keep them up late enough the night before.

All in all, the weekend was a success.  We've received several messages of thanks from students and parents, kids are continually uploading videos and pictures to Facebook, and they're even talking about the next retreat coming up in April.

To view all of the photos from the retreat:

Verity Retreat Oct 2011

The Perfect Day Off

I had the opportunity to take a day trip with some new friends back in September.  Jessica, who is here for a year volunteering with a ministry for slum kids, invited me to join her and two friends visiting from Germany.  I jumped at the chance to get out of the city for a day, and also brush up on my German a little. :-P  I'm proud to say that, although I didn't know exactly what was being said, I at least could figure out the subject of conversation.  Once, Jessica even started talking to me in German.  She didn't figure out why I was laughing at her until she had finished what she wanted to say.  

We had a great day, although it ended much too soon.  Here's a little slideshow I put together for your viewing pleasure!  No music, sorry...

A Very Youth-Worker Day

I had a request for a post on what my typical day looks like.

8:00 am
Pried my eyelids open and started the morning routine.  Recently that has included nausea, diarrhea, and sometimes vomiting.  It's not as bad as it was 3 weeks ago; I'm getting pretty used to it.  Once that episode was over, I could head out for the day.

9:15 am
My driver picked me up at the lobby of my apartment building and navigated his way through the Jakarta traffic to my Indonesian class.

10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Bahasa Indonesia class at Brightstar Community Learning Center.

Febry, my teacher, is on the far right.

These are the regular students who come to the school (Febry's home) to do lessons.  They work mostly on their own out of workbooks.  The younger ones learn English through storytelling.  I sit with Febry at a big table in the middle of all the action, working on my bahasa.
Since I've been unable to attend class for a month, we spent most of today reviewing vocabulary.  We did a little bit of reading, and some conversation as well.  I usually come with a list of questions that I write down as I'm out and about.  Febry is a believer, so we can include faith-based vocabulary, and I practice reading from a children's book of Bible stories.

12:00 pm
Pak Sarmili drove me back to Central Jakarta and dropped me off at Graha Niaga, the bank building where our church meets and has its office.

The office and main service are on the 2nd floor, but the youth meet on the 28th floor of the building (penthouse).

  I dropped my things off in the office, and headed down to the cafeteria to get my lunch.  Normally, I get fried chicken and rice, but I was a little late today and all the good looking chicken (ayam) was gone.  I settled for mi goreng (fried noodles - like ramen noodles).

The cafeteria where I get my food.  Each little stall around the edge sells a different type of food.
My lunch usually costs 12,000 Rp ($1.40)

I asked for my noodles "tidak pedas" - not spicy.  But in Indonesia, that means "only a little spicy" because who wouldn't want ANY spice in their food.  I couldn't eat very much of it before my mouth was on fire.  Good thing I brought an extra jeruk keprok (tangerine) and some fresh jus wortel (carrot juice) to fill me up.  The office staff advised me to say "Jangan pakai cabai" next time - don't use chili.   

1:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Working in the office.

Our communal office

Surprisingly, I can get quite a lot of work done this way.  It helps that the others speak in bahasa Indonesia much of the time, it's very easy to tune out.  Here we are demonstrating our team slogan, BISA!  It's like saying, "Si, se puede!" or "It can be done!"
On my to do list for this week:
Keep in touch with kids via Facebook and through texts
Plan for meeting with 2 youth later this week
Prepare for Saturday night youth group, Sunday morning 1st service youth group
Plan order of service for Sunday morning 2nd service
Look over various materials
etc

3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Packed up my things and had Pak Sarmili drive me to the mall closest to my apartment.  It's one of the newer malls in the city, very big, oddly shaped, and easy to get lost in.  I had planned to meet Rachel, a 10th grader, for coffee after school.

We discussed starting a small group in her home during the week.  Having small groups with the teens is what I've been most looking forward to in starting my new job at JICF.  Rachel was pretty excited about the idea, and we started brainstorming who we could invite, when we could meet, and what we could study.  I also discovered the yummy chai latte!

5:30 pm
Back to my apartment to change clothes and then off to IES Pro (a mini church service for young adults at another English-speaking church in Jakarta).  This was my first time attending the service.  After the message, we broke into small groups and had some great discussion and prayer time.

10:30 pm
When I got home I decided to try out my new nose strips.  The cool thing is that they come in BLACK here.  You can also get multi-colored flowery scented ones.  I thought black would be fun so I could actually see what came out of my pores!  Don't worry, I won't post that picture.

Selamat tidur!

I'm not sure what to call this blog post.  Maybe something good will come to me while I write it.  This is just a little update on my health and my new "experience" on Monday - colonoscopy and endoscopy procedures.  

I had the procedures because it had been over two weeks with the same symptoms (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea every morning), and multiple antibiotics, acid blockers, and whatnots had not had any affect.  

I thought about my last meal on Sunday evening very carefully.  Dr. Teddy recommended protein, but no fiber, and nothing red.  I settled on french toast.  When I got home from the store and cracked open the first egg I realized from the orange color of the yolk that I had purchased "vegetarian eggs".  I'm not sure what exactly that means, but I decided to try it anyway.  It was getting close to 6pm, the crucial hour when I had to stop eating or drinking anything but water.  After the meal was ready, I realized I had no syrup - no problem, I used peanut butter instead.  I was all set to start my protein-packed evening! 

I spent the rest of the evening preparing for a long night.  I cleaned my room and bathroom, paying special attention to the bathroom floor because I knew I would be spending a lot of time there.  I got all the books ready I might feel like reading, made sure my ipod and kindle were fully charged, and waited until 10pm, the fateful hour when I had to drink the laxative.  

The two bottles of saline and two bottles of water I had to drink.

I had refrigerated the laxatives, thinking they might be easier to choke down if they were cold.  Ugh, just thinking about them makes me gag.  The first bottle wasn't too bad because I didn't know what to expect.  I didn't mix it with water, as was recommended, couldn't imagine prolonging the misery.  I just chugged the bottle.  Wow, it was like drinking an ocean.  I expected it to kick in pretty quickly, but I ended up getting bored waiting around, so I just went to bed.  

It kicked in three hours later.  Don't worry, I won't go into details.  I'll just say, there is absolutely no position of sitting on the toilet or laying on the bathroom floor for 5 1/2 hours that is even remotely comfortable or allows for any sleep to be had.  The second bottle of saline, along with the second bottle of water, was much harder to get down, but I did it!  

At 6:30am, I had to pull myself away from the bathroom and taxi to the hospital.  It was a very long 22 minutes, but again - made it!  Dr. Teddy goes to JICF and is the parent of one of our youth.  He has been keeping a close eye on me throughout this illness and has accompanied me on all of my doctor visits.  Teddy met us at the clinic and helped me know what to expect.  I got changed into my gown and, get this, cotton athletic shorts with the seat cut out!  I would have laughed if I had had the energy.

It took 4 nurses to get an IV needle in my hand, apparently I have very small veins, but they succeeded in inserting the needle and giving me the sedative.  Then I laid back and visited with Teddy until the doctor arrived.  We started with the endoscopy.  The only part I remember is lots of vomiting, and Teddy saying, "Wow!  You still had food in your stomach!"  But I did get to watch the view of my esophagus and stomach on the monitor.  Here is what we saw...

Conclusion: Esophagitis, pangastritis, and duodenitis

From my understanding, that means that my esophagus, stomach, and duodenum are all inflamed.

Next was the colonoscopy.  I remember this part better and could see the monitor more clearly.  It was especially painful when the camera was trying to go around all of the twists and turns.  

Conclusion: Pancolitis (inflamed colon).

They took biopsies at both ends and will test them for all kinds of things.  I'll get the results back in a week.  

I was pretty emotional after the whole thing, and slept until 6:30 that evening. This week is one of the biggest holidays of the year in Muslim culture, so I got to watch 39 fireworks displays from my balcony on the 20th floor.  Went to bed around 10pm.  

Today I was not sick.  Teddy said not to get excited yet, too soon to know anything.  But I'll take a day of not being sick!  Going to celebrate by going out to eat and getting a refill on my drugs.

All the prescriptions I've been taking recently.

So, keep the prayers coming.  It is a blessing to know that I'm being lifted up in prayer to our Father.

Grand Tour

Take the tour of the new apartment.

New Digs

It's my first night in my new apartment!  I'm all moved out of the Wacek's (I think) and now am a resident at Apartemen Simprug Indah!  I haven't done anything yet, but drop my bags in my room and plop down on the couch.  Still not feeling well.  I sent another stool sample to the hospital.  Embarrassing story: Sending your poo to the hospital via your driver.  I now know the term for "fecal specimen" in Bahasa.  It came back clean, besides a little fat.  But because it's already been 8 days with no change, and parasites can be very difficult to find in stool anyway, the doctor decided to give me flagyl.  Being me (teacher, librarian) I decided to look this up...

Metronidazole (Flagyl) is an antibiotic effective against anaerobic bacteria and certain parasites.  Anaerobic bacteria are single-celled, living organisms that thrive in environments in which there is little oxygen and can cause disease in the abdomen, liver, and pelvis.  Giardia lamblia and ameba are intestinal parasites that cause abdominal pain and diarrhea in infected individuals.
Minor side effects include nausea, headaches, loss of appetite, a metallic taste, and rarely a rash.


I'll give it a shot.  I already have the first three symptoms anyway.  I also looked up all of those parasites mentioned above but will NOT be copying that info here.  Unless you like to be grossed out, I suggest you don't look them up either.  Let's just say if I end up having a worm crawl out of my nose, I'll try and get a picture of it for you.  I survived amoebas in Guatemala, I can get through this, too.  Of course, I'm saying that now, at 7:35pm, which has been the only time each day when I feel almost normal.  Tomorrow morning I might be singing a different tune.  

After I recovered from my morning in the bathroom, and after the driver returned from delivering my "sample," I packed up the remainder of my belongings (and snagged a half-full jar of peanut butter) and made the big trip across town.  According to google maps, the drive is 10.5 Km and should take about 15 minutes.  While the distance may be correct, the time certainly isn't.  Google must not know about Jakarta traffic, or the fact that you can only make left hand turns.  I left the Wacek's place at 1:17 pm and arrived here at 2:25pm.  

I've already learned many things about my new apartment.  1) I am much closer to a "call to prayer" speaker than I was before. 2) The neighbors have small children. 3) The elevators don't stop moving before the doors open, and they almost always make what we've dubbed a "ghost stop". 4) We have ants and cicaks (lizards) even on the 20th floor. 5) I need a lighter to light the oven or stove.  6) The wifi is SUPER fast! (Hint: good for skype calls).  7) If management tells you there are no parking spaces left, call the landlord and one will mysteriously appear!  8) I now know the universal hand signal for "I need someone to hook up the gas stove."  9) They keep space suits in the basement!

Love the boots

Don't get me wrong, these are not complaints, just observations.  I am really excited to be in a new apartment that I get to fill up and decorate with help from my roommate, Tina.  We now have a dining room table and chairs, sofa, tv, and beds.  Tina was proactive and bought her entire bedroom set before we even had an apartment.  I prefer to wait and think about things until I can't stand it any longer and just buy the first thing I see that will get the job done.  Still on my list - desk, nightstand or shelf, coffee table.  At the moment, the difficulty is that traffic during this month (Ramadan) is really bad (worse than usual) in the afternoons, but it isn't until afternoon that I feel well enough to leave the house.  So going shopping for anything on the list, well, it stinks.  Getting any work done and concentrating on my job here also gets difficult.  Please keep praying for me - for the flagyl to do the trick so that I can do what God called me here to do!  

Poor Track Record

Forgive me!  I know I've been terrible at keeping up-to-date with my blog.  Maybe you should all nag me about it until I post.  Now that I have no more blogging Waceks around, I cannot rely on anyone else to write about the experiences here in Indonesia.  In case you didn't get the link already and don't want to wait around for me, you can read about the trip to Papua as well as some other interesting adventures here

What has been happening in the last few months?
1) The Papua trip was an amazing experience that will definitely require its own post (most likely several).
2) I got to experience some "vacationy" things with the Wacek family like three days at the beach and a trip to Taman Safari (not your typical zoo experience).
3) Tina (my co-youth-worker) and I found our own apartment and are slowly finding furniture to fill it up!  I'll be moving in sometime this week.
4) I have been a little sick with typical Indonesian stomach issues.  Started antibiotics today and praying they will take care of the issue.

What has been going on in the youth program - my principle reason for moving here?
1) The teens are all back in school now, home from summers vacationing here and abroad.  Yesterday was the kickoff to the new year of Verity Youth and there were over 40 kids in attendance!  We are busy working on planning each Sunday by lining up speakers, music, games, etc.
2) Wednesday is Independence Day in Indonesia.  We are hoping the kids are up for some bowling on their day off of school!  It will be our first event since school has started and everyone is back in-country.  Praying for at least 1 teen to turn up!
3) Small Groups!  This is what I have been waiting for.  I'm not much for large groups, but give me a small group where I can build relationships and get to know individuals and I'm happy!  We have begun the process of forming a few small groups within the youth and hope to start meeting in September.  The logistics are much more complicated than at home with having to travel across the city, academics being much more rigorous, etc.  Pray that we will be receptive to God's leading as we start this new venture!
4) Staff retreat - Definitely something new for me.  In a few weeks we are going to spend a Friday evening and all day Saturday team building and learning together as a group of adults seeking to lead youth to a strong relationship with Christ.  Tina and I are the 2 full-time youth workers, but we also have a great group of about 10 people who volunteer their time on Sundays and for special events.

Thanks for reading!  Seriously, bug me a little more about posting more frequently!

Some random photos from the last few weeks...

Office staff say farewell to Leah

Our weekly Bible study - quite a bunch!
In order to understand all the "peace" photos, you have to have  at least  visited Asia.

One of the youth volunteers is a full-time teacher for some pretty adorable kindergartners!

A few friends got together to experience Jakarta street food.  This may or may not explain why I am currently on antibiotics.

Skip to Scene...

Yesterday, I shared with my mom that I was a little overwhelmed by how far behind I have gotten on my blog.  The last post was before the Papua trip, before the Wacek children came, before the trip to the beach, before Taman Safari.  So many things have happened that I don't know where to begin.  Mom advised me to begin with the present.  I can always go back and fill in the gaps (no matter how wide), but if I don't start with today - I'll only fall further behind.  Since I always do what my mother tells me, here goes...

Mondays are my days off.  This may sound odd for anyone who does not work in the ministry.  Monday is my new Saturday.  This has both its advantages and disadvantages.  One the one hand, there aren't too many crowds at the beaches, parks, malls, etc. on Mondays.  On the other hand, many of my friends work in the real world of business or education and for them, Saturday is still on Saturday.  

Today just happened to be a half day off, however, since the author of a study we are doing in youth group was speaking in Jakarta.  I did get to sleep in until 9am (despite being woken up around 5am for the call to prayer over the loudspeakers), then got up and puttered around on my computer for awhile. I had a wonderful breakfast of oatmeal (the only way to disguise non-American milk) with brown sugar (I take a packet or two every time I'm in a coffee shop or restaurant since I can't find it in the stores).  I did a little work (just a little, it is my day off!) and then headed out at noon.  

I had a new address for Pak (like Mr. or Sir) Sarmili, but had complete confidence that he would be able to find it.  He constantly reminds me that he knows everything about Jakarta.  After only one wrong drop-off, we found the complex and I headed up to the seminar.

I've been reading a book on mentoring by Dr. Tim Elmore http://timelmore.com/, and we will be doing a study written by him starting in a couple of weeks, but I'll admit that I wasn't really sold on his material.  However, the three hours I spent listening to him today really changed my mind.  He really knows his stuff and has a solid foundation for his teaching.  He discussed a term he coined, Generation iY, referring to those born after 1990.  It was very interesting, and I will be reading his books now with much more interest (despite the fact that he uses way to many acrostics).  

Side note: Our boxed snack at break time was so Indonesian, I had to share it with you.  

1) We quite often get water in these little containers and have to poke a straw in the top.  I laughed when I saw the speaker up front trying to peel the cover off of his water like it was a pudding snack pack and remembered when I once tried to do the same thing.  Side-side note: the word for water in bahasa is "air"

2) A fried something-or-other (top right) with hot chili sauce.  From what I could tell, it was deep-fried on the outside, and rolling around on the inside were a few julienned carrots, hard-boiled egg, mayonnaise, some kind of meet, and a stick of cheese.  Oddly, it was pretty good.

3) What's that on the bottom right?  A brownie.  Sprinkled on top?  Shredded cheese.  I am from Wisconsin, but cheese? on a brownie?

4)  Lastly, stapled inside a plastic container, an attempt at a cheesecake bite.  I think...

After the seminar, Tina (my co-youth-worker) and I headed over to one of 3 malls within walking distance so she could take me to a store she knew I would like.  This store sells office supplies, books, dvds, video games, computer and phone accessories, and of course, treadmills.  Maybe it's the teacher in me, but I loooove office supplies.  I didn't really click with this particular store however.  I don't know if it was the lack of post-it-notes, the overly high priced paper (a pack of 50 pages of looseleaf for about $4), or the fact that they didn't have or were sold out of the two things I specifically went there for.  I did end up buying a book of Bible stories for children (in bahasa Indonesia, of course) and a nice map of Jakarta to hang on my wall.  

After meeting Leah at the mall and sending Pak Sarmili home for the day, we walked over to Chili's for a nice meal.  One thing we Americans take for granted - free refills.  Ok, so we had to pay for the tortilla chips, but they were bottomless.  Turns out the "bottomless" soda only referred to regular Coke, and not diet Coke (sorry Leah!).  

My mountain of a salad (with ranch dressing!!!), quesadilla, and bottomless Coke

The last treat of the day was to take in a movie (yes, an actual, Hollywood movie) at the Platinum XXI.  We snuggled up in our La-Z-Boys, pulled the blankets up to our chins, and enjoyed seeing Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts fall in love.

That brings me up-to-date!  Well, not quite.  But at least now you know that I made it home safely from Papua.  I hope to add more posts and photos of the trip soon.  Although, you might have to wait until next Monday!  

Adventure within Adventure

Tomorrow evening I'll be departing Jakarta, my home for the past 4 weeks and 1 day, and heading to Papua!  This is one of the many things I have been looking forward to since this whole journey began on May 1.  Many people go to Papua for the beaches and scuba diving, but I will be there to see something even more amazing.  After many years of waiting, the people in this language group will receive the written NT in their own language for the first time.  I have the honor of attending the dedication!
I only know a little about what to expect on the trip.  You've heard that Texas is a country all it's own?  That's what they say about Jakarta.  So I'm anxious to see the "real" Indonesia!

SCHEDULE

June 25 late-night flight from Jakarta that arrives in Sentani next AM

June 26 recover, overnight in a small guesthouse in Sentani

June 27 fly to Serui, overnight at a simple hotel

June 28 Dedication in Serui (midday at an outdoor venue), overnight at same hotel

June 29 trip up the mountain (stay in village house for next 3 nights)

June 30 Dedication in Ambaidiru

July 1 “free day” in the village: roam, take pictures, talk to Yawas

July 2 trip down the mountain, fly back to Sentani, overnight at same guesthouse

July 3 fly back to Jakarta


You can pray for the safe travel of everyone involved - 21 Americans coming and going.  We are starting our malaria meds tomorrow and will continue for the next 30 days (apparently, the malaria germ can survive that long).  We will be covered in bug spray to ward off dengue mosquitoes during the day and malaria mosquitoes at night.  Most of all, we pray that God is glorified!  Amen anyone?

Red arrow indicates Yapen Island, West Papua, Indonesia.  Yellow star indicates Jakarta, Indonesia.

Lalu Lintas (Traffic)

I was warned about the traffic in Jakarta.  It's messy, unorganized, slow, and can be a little scary.  Seeing as I am prone to motion sickness and can't read or look anywhere but straight ahead in the car, I was dreading this particular aspect of my new life.  However, I was unaware how much of a blessing it would actually turn out to be!
Here's a look at the lalu lintas in Jakarta...

Here we are travelling down a small street.  As you can see, motorbikes outnumber cars because they can weave between the vehicles.  We drive on the left side of the street.  Making right turns anywhere is pretty complicated (if possible) and often requires the help of a "traffic cop".  

Macet (mah-chet) - traffic jam

Parking lot at the immigration department

Motorbike parking

They take a lot of liberties

Leah and Tina walking down the non-existent sidewalk.  We don't do too much walking.

I'm still working on figuring out the driving "language."  Drivers use their lights and horns to communicate much more than we do.  A tap on the horn or a flick of the lights may mean: I'm not stopping for you; I'm coming around the corner; don't merge because I'm passing you; hurry up!; what did you do that for?; COMING THROUGH!; and much more.  

I also learn so much about the language and culture by driving around the city.  I practice reading signs, try to figure out where I am and how to get where I'm going, practice speaking Bahasa with my driver, and there is no end to the incredibly interesting things I see every day in Jakarta.

I haven't been in or seen any accidents yet, though we do come close.  The good thing is we are normally moving so slowly that any incidents would be fairly minor.  We do quite often here taps on the car from motorbikes' mirrors or handlebars hitting the car.  A friend was riding in a taxi and the driver hit a parked motorbike, then turned around and started yelling at her!  If there is an accident, I believe a few choice words are uttered, then you go along your merry way!  

I am learning what landmarks to look for so I know when to start waking up or packing up my things, but I would have no idea how to get anywhere on my own.  You can't make a right turn onto main roads, so we are forever doing u-turns, which completely mixes me up.  I just recently learned that one of the malls we often visit is just around the corner from the church building!  Looking at a map helps me more than just driving the route.  

"So how is this traffic a blessing?" you ask?  Well, if you know me at all, you know I'm an introvert.  I recharge my battery by being alone rather than being with people.  A day of social activity is far more exhausting to me than a day of physical activity.  Part of my new role is being around people    all    the    time, and in many different spheres - youth, parents, peers, meetings, one-on-ones, Bible studies, parties, services, classes.  I don't think I would be able to do all of that if it weren't for the down time in the car between events.  This time allows me to think, listen to books/music/sermons, pray, sleep, and recharge!  So far, I've never caught myself thinking, "Oh man!  I wish I didn't have to spend so much time in the car today!"  More often, I look forward to the time in the car and a chance to prepare for the next step of the day.

  

Another new experience

We are avoiding certain parts of the city tomorrow because of possible riots.  Read about it...

Indonesia braces for verdict in cleric terror case

Photo Albums

I'm trying to create a link to my photo albums.  Try clicking here

Claim to Fame

We met this lovely young lady at a young adult gathering of area churches... 

Indonesian supermodel, Tracy Trinita sporting red hair and wearing a selection from Gucci‘s gemstone colored ensemble from Spring Summer 2011 collection on the June cover of Indonesian fashion publication, dewi.

Bahasa Indonesia

Today I had my first language lesson!  I will be going to lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am - 12pm.  I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it is to be studying a language again!
FYI, "bahasa" means language.  So when I say bahasa Indonesia - it means Indonesian language.  Bahasa Inggris- English language.  It seems like most people just say bahasa, so that's probably what I'll do.
Since it was my first time and traffic is unpredictable, I left an hour early - 9am.  Turns out Sarmili (our driver) is so good at what he does, I arrived at 9:30.  It's a little embarrassing, because in Indo - people are usually late.

My teacher, Febry, runs the school from her home.  It is mostly for Indo kids who come to learn their lessons in English - Math, Social Studies, Science, etc.  There were three kids there when I came, working away at little carrels around the room.  I later found out that one of the teachers didn't show up this morning, so they all thought I must be a new teacher!  Their English is very good.  I even heard them using idioms, albeit incorrectly (piece of pie instead of cake).

Since I was early, I had to wait on the couch for 30 minutes while Febry prepared lessons for the children.  During this time, I had my first Indo bathroom mishap.  Don't worry, it wasn't bad.  I was led to the bathroom in the center of the house - but the door did not close all the way.  I figured they probably all knew the whereabouts of the bule (pronounced boo-lay = white person) in the house, so didn't worry much about that.  The toilet was up on a raised area so that my knees barely fit between the stool and the sink.  Upon finishing, I realized there was no TP.  No worries!  I pulled out my handy dandy pack of pocket tissues I was told to bring for just such occasions!  Then discovered that the toilet didn't flush.  Oh, well.  No biggie.  After pumping soap onto my hand, discovered that there is no water in the bathroom whatsoever.  Alright - pulled out my second pocket tissue to wipe off the soap and used hand sanitizer.  Note to self: use toilet before going to bahasa class!

We finally got started.  It was a tad awkward at first as it is in any class for the first time - students getting to know teacher's style and vice versa.  It didn't take long, though, before my language brain kicked it into full gear and I was off!  Febry's Enlgish is fairly good, but her grammar is even better.  She can explain things to me from the grammatical perspective - which is the way I like it.

We started right off with pronouns.  Bahasa is pretty easy to learn because:
1) There is no distinction between I/me/mine/my
2) No distinction between he/she
3) No conjugation
4) No tenses

Nice, right?  It does make it a little more different to understand - you really have to get specific about who you are talking about and when it is happening.  But I won't worry about that until I get to it.

After pronouns, we learned some easy verbs, then basic nouns, and finally time words.  Febry is a tough teacher - she wanted me to start writing some sentences right away!  I had no examples, which made it a challenge for my perfectionistic brain to write something when I KNOW there were mistakes in it.  All in all, I think it was a pretty good method.

Here are my first 5 sentences:
1) Nanti saya kerja.  (Later, I work.)
2) Saya bangun jam 7 pagi. (I wake at 7 in the morning.)
3) Saya mau makan sarapan. (I want eat breakfast.)
4) Nanti saya makan siang. (Later I eat lunch.)
5) Saya datang sebelum kelas bahasa Indonesia. (I come before (early) Indonesian class.)

It kind of sounds like baby talk.  Next, we added more vocabulary, and I wrote 5 more sentences:
1) Kakak saya punya tiga anak. (My older sibling has 3 children.)
2) Kami minum dan makan di dapur.  (We drink and eat in kitchen.)
3) Kakak saya pergi ke Bali. (My brother go to Bali.)
4) Saya kerja jam 2 siang.  (I work at 2 p.m.)
5) Kami nyanyi di gereja. (We sing at church.)

Pretty good, huh?

At 12, all of us students and the teacher stood in a circle while one student prayed in English for lunch.  Then I had to introduce myself in bahasa... Nama saya Sally... and say where I was from... Saya datang dari Amerika.  Then the boy who prayed got to dismiss people by how properly and quietly they were standing.  At this point I called my driver to pick me up, but I'm hoping some day I'll be invited to stay for lunch so I can get to know the kids.

I decided to try out my new skills on Sarmili, the driver.  He knows some English, so we could always work things out if I was wrong.  My problem is, I need to see something - I'm very visual.  Hopefully I can pick some things up from him still.  So I said to Sarmili, "Sarmili, Saya mau makan siang (I want to eat lunch)" and asked him where the closest mall was.  He took me to Blok M, where I had been before, and dropped me off.  I took the escalators up to the 5th floor, didn't find any restaurants, so went back down and finally found them in the basement.  At this point I was pretty tired of being adventurous, so I went with KFC.  It was a bit too spicy, but I ate it and survived.

Side note: my lips are super chapped from the dry air on the long plane ride.  Spicy foods do NOT feel good on chapped lips.

After my meal, I called Sarmili to come pick me up and take me back to the church office.  From there, I walked down the street to the Grand Lucky mini-mart (still by myself) and did a little shopping for toothpaste, more hand sanitizer in case I need to use the restroom at Febry's again, and other odds and ends like a binder to hold my language notes (too bad they don't sell paper to put IN the binder).

So that was my day of adventure and independence and grownupness and LANGUAGE!

The Movies

To celebrate Ascension Day, some friends and I went to the movies.  It seems that the Indonesian movie distributors owe tons of money in royalties or taxes or something to American film companies.  As a result, the film companies are no longer allowing Hollywood films to be distributed in Indonesia.  That's how I understand it anyway.  It just means that we don't get to see most American movies that are coming out.  Somehow, the movie "Limitless" did make it in - so we took advantage!

I'm not sure how other movie theaters in Indo compare to The Premiere, but I don't think I care to find out.  We paid 75,000 Rp (almost $9 US) only because it was the evening before the holiday.  I think it's normally about half that price.

Our tickets printed on silver paper - come in a handy little folder.

The desk where you purchase tickets from an agent.

The menu - everything from sushi to waffles to popcorn, of course.

Waiting room before the movie.

Getting comfy in my seat.

All of the staff wore snazzy uniforms, females all had their hair and makeup done the same way.  Once we found our assigned seats, we pulled out the packaged blankets from the drawers and got cozy.  I didn't order anything, but a staff person came to each seat to take your order, then delivered it when it was ready.  

The movie was nothing special, but I will definitely remember this experience!