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!