Road to Indonesia---Mountain out my window

  At last a picture!!!  New people who just moved into the apartment below us posted this picture and I stole it. Every morning walking to school, this is what I look at. The white in the middle is a waterfalls. It waxes and wanes with the rain.  Lately it has been pretty full and we can predict what it will look like in the morning after listening to the hours of  heavy rain in the night.  If you expanded the picture out you would see the top of mountain.  Kids have told me if I climbed to the top and climbed a tree I could see the Pacific Ocean. (But the director advised me I would never make it to the top myself.) There is a huge mud slide coming about halfway down. That happened 2 years ago in March.  The students talk about it alot because there were many deaths and much loss of property as a result of the mud slide. It basically missed the school, but devasted the town of Sentani.  As the anniversary approaches and we again face a season of ...

Road to Indonesia---Motorscooter 2

 A friend told me where 2 stores were that might have some dresses that would work for me, so I made Rick take me downtown again on the motorscooter. I was less jittery this time, partially because I finally slid back far enough on the seat and was able to get my feet into the "stirrups".  More support.  The two shops were closed.  I think it was nap time. But we went on to the "mall".   This is a euphemisim. There was a clothing store there. As soon as we went in I knew it was mainly Muslim wear.  Interesting, I have never looked more closely.  There are many robe like outer wear that are open down the front with long sleeves??? The head coverings come in more styles than I have ever noticed. I finally found what I was looking for: lightweight flowing cotton dresses. I bought 2. They were only about $5 each.  However, I also know completely that really they are Muslim nightwear.  Do you think people will notice I am wearing my nightgown...

Road to Indonesia---Motorscooters, Massages, Beds, and Visas

 Took our first motorscooter ride into the actual downtown.  Rick did great, but I felt pretty skittish perched on the back. How did I used to do this in Taiwan with the two girls in front and behind me?  Part of the problem is that my legs don't bend sufficiently to fit on the foot rests, so they are just hanging out there flapping in the wind. I am sure I will get used to it because it means more independence.  We were disgruntled to arrive at the massage place and be told that the price was double what it was last week.  Of course we could not communicate. I made like I was going to leave to see if they were just scamming us, but they did not back down. So we went ahead.  It was $20 apiece for 2 hours this week, rather than $10 apiece. I think we are OK with even this price.   I particularly needed it. My back has been spasiming for the past 3 days and really pretty debilitating. Of course it has felt better today as I anticipated a massage. Us...

Road to Indonesia--My Birthday

 Today is my 68th birthday. Always interesting how the day is spent where ever I am in the world. I slept in and then took a long nap.  Waited for my kidney beans to finish cooking for chili in my crock pot and then realized that I had cooked them on "warm" for 6 hours. Still waiting now for them to be done. Made myself a birthday cake.  Realized that we were out of bread and no way to make it to a store, so late in the day made bread. (Love, love, love my Kitchaid mixer with dough hooks, etc. )  Took them out of the oven just in time to go to friends' house for apple pie and to play games. Also got some bananas (for Rick) and a baggy full of taco seasoning as a gift as I was almost out.  Also a card that all the pertinent data is covered with applicable sticky notes.....so that I can recycle the card!!! What a wonderful missionary idea. One never has enough English cards and if you share it within the mission community, everyone understands what you are doing. ...

Road to Indonesia--- SuperBowl and Beggars

 Monday was Superbowl Sunday here. Everything is 10 hours later.  Kind of messes things up a bit.  The director of the school took a half holiday and stayed home and had a get together to watch it at his house at 8:30 in the morning.  Those who did not work at steady jobs could go watch it.  I considered putting my laptop in the corner of the classroom and running it obscurely while I taught, but decided that probably would not work.  So instead we watched it recorded on Monday night.  The director had it recorded and came over and set it up on our tv.....without telling us who had won. The grade 3 teacher, who had gifted us the helmets, and we were the ones who wanted to see it, and we had posted around saying anyone who wanted to come, please do.  Only the friends who take us to the market on Saturday and she came. For the best. I was a little concerned about the warnings about not getting together in groups, and I did not want to ignore that, b...

Road to Indonesia--Missionaries and Movies

 Very busy the last few days.  Sunday we went to church, and then were invited to lunch with the token Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary community here.  CMA is my background. We served with them in Quito from 1976-1980, and have overlapped with them many times since, including most recently attending an Alliance church when we have been in Greenville, SC. There are three couples here. One of them are in their late 80's.  They gave testimony in church that they have finally finished their Bible translation of the Old Testament in a local language!!! They will retire to the States this summer.  What faithful, faithful servants.  Their name is Ellenberger, and we served with their nephew and his family in Senegal.  We both taught their grand nephews.  Mission life is always entertwined. The youngest mission couple here is about 50, and the wife attended the Alliance Academy in Quito as an MK from Brazil some years after we left. It was su...

Road to Indonesia--Van/Taxi, Driving

 We went to the open air market this morning.  As always quite a trip.  Got lots of stuff, even a big piece of pork that the man cut up for us into little pieces! for about $10!  After we were done,  another friend took us down to the bottom of our hill to the main drag of the town: one rather long street.  You put your hand out and a number of white vans will stop.  There might be quite a few people in the van, but that is OK. It is just going to drive up and down the main street and you can tell them to stop where ever you want. Near or far it is going to cost about a quarter.  We overshoot our mark, and walk a bit, and our friend keeps asking people where the location is. We finally get back into another van and ride a bit and find what we are looking for. It is a motor scooter helmet shop.  Our friend, the grade 3 teacher, is going to let us use her scooter whenever we want to. It was given to her, and she wants to share it. But she insis...

Road to Indonesia--Hot Water and Umbrellas

 I just took my first shower using hot water since we arrived in Indonesia, Dec. 31.  One often takes many showers a day, if you do not have AC, and all of my showers have been using the cold water tap.....which really is not what you would call "cold".  Well, the weather is moderating slightly, and maybe we are getting acclamated. A week or two ago Rick woke in the night and said he was cold.  I said, "You are not cold!" (I am sure you can hear the tone of voice.) But now I feel slightly chilled at night as well , and we are turnng down the big overhead fan, and put two bedspreads on the bed for warmth. (No quilts available.) It is slightly windy (sometimes very much more than slightly, but mostly only slightly.)   That has helped.  It has also been very, very rainy the past few days. Wednesday morning, it was pouring when it came time to walk to school. I purposefully had not brought an umbrella to Indonesia.  It seemed like taking coals to Newc...

Road to Indonesia--China, Mermaids, and Easter

 As I posted yesterday's discussion about some of the cultural differences, I was reminded of a situation in China our first semester in Taian Teacher's Training College, in April, 2017.  I thought I would repost. Ann Morrison Marklund A h t p S r i p l o n s a n o n s o h   s a 8 l , r   e f 2 0 1 7 r d h l d    ·  Shared with Your friends I am not sure how to write this post without sounding like a heretic, but I don't think I am. As we were in the "US culture" class today (for 4 hours every Saturday), the students were responding to a newspaper article that talked about a lady with webbed fingers claiming to be a mermaid. The students had to give a review of the article and then ask a discussion question. The question they asked was: "Could these fairytale creatures be real?" They proceeded to have a pretty good discussion and the overall opinion seemed to be that "Yes, they might be real. We are so limited in our intelligence that who knows what...

Road to Indonesia--Cracker Barrel vs. a Fire Pit

 As my grade 8 language arts students came in today to class, I was peeling a baked sweet potato and eating it. A friend had given me about 6 of them, which I had baked. Maybe it is a bit strange to take it to school as your breakfast, but you take what you can get sometimes. An MK who has lived most of his life in Indonesia and is from a family of 7 kids asked me if I liked sweet potatoes at Cracker Barrel. We talked for a few minutes about how great they were, and it was obviously a good memory to him.  Another student, who is a native Indonesian, had come in also while I was peeling my sweet potato.  He gave me the Indonesian word for sweet potato which immediately flew out of my head, of course. But then he went on to talk about being "in his village".  With a big smile he recounted how he and his friends would have sweet potatoes that they would bury in a pit with hot stones on top of them in the morning. Then when school was done they would come and unbury them...