***I’m so sorry this took so long to get to you all! Major technology issues & sketchy wifi has made it so difficult, but I am getting help & hopefully I will be getting out all of the Indonesia blogs in the next week & a half. FYI — we made it safely to the Philippines — yay!! So here’s the blog I wrote week 2 of Indonesia…***
So you wanna know what Indonesia is like, huh? Since there are a gajillion islands, I can only tell you about life here on my island, but at least you’ll have a decent idea of how we’ve been living. Here’s a few general topics that might answer some questions.
The weather: I love this topic 🙂 It is rainy season here, so guess what? It rains…a. LOT! Sometimes we’re having a gorgeous sunny day & then — boom! Rainstorm! But I love it…mostly :S 😉 My least favorite time for it to rain is on the way into school, but mostly because I’m then soggy all day. But otherwise, I love all our rain! Super therapeutic & brilliant for sleeping in!
Currency: here we use rupiah & the money is so beautiful! It might look like I’m rollin’ in it but don’t let these large bills fool you — the conversion is roughly 13,000 rupiah to 1 US dollar, so this is only about $2.80 at home. I am the team treasurer, so I’m in charge of all the rupiah around here :S 🙂 there are also coins but their value is so insignificant, I figured they’re not really worth showing…
House Guests: we have a very welcoming household here in Indonesia, or at least that’s what the critters have decided to spread around. Our first night we met Harold, our upstairs lizard. Well…we thought he was just upstairs. We’re pretty sure he & Sally — our downstairs lizard — have a lil thing going on, cuz sometimes we see Harry downstairs. We’ve also seen a baby lizard on the stairs in between so we’re pretty sure it’s serious.
I wish I had a video to record the first cockroach sighting, but I’m pretty sure that day will live in infamy — & some giggles. The first roach showed up while we were in the middle of dinner…Ace was in the kitchen & all the sudden we heard this “Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!” & there was Ace, gracefully leaping out of the kitchen. We were so confused as to what had happened because we heard this almost cheerful exclamation & then there was our girl looking like a gazelle, floating out of the kitchen. What just happened? All we know was that a roach had looked her in the eye & she pranced away, leaving us with a floor show to accompany our dinner. That’s our Ace 🙂 There have been a few more roach sightings but none were as eventful as Candace’s encounter. Then last night Alyssa called me to help her — a mouse had made it into the kitchen & went all Evel Knevel with a death-defying leap in an attempt to leave the kitchen. Unfortunately, the courtyard door was closed & he instead fell to the ground. But since she couldn’t find him, I was enlisted so help him find his way out. Armed with a broom, I really tried, but he had already fled the scene. We also have resident slugs & snails, but they live on the porch & none are yet named, except for the choice word name someone called the slug that slid into her shoe without permission one day when she was in a hurry to put them on. Ahem.
Cats: Shelby recently cracked me up saying that cats were the squirrels of Indonesia, & I think she just might be right. If I didn’t hate cats so much, I could already have made a few bucks by selling a “Cats of Indonesia” calendar. They are EVERYWHERE. My niece, Afton, would be in heaven here! But though they might seem sweet, they can be nasty buggers. There are nights that Ace & I have heard a lot of loud meowing followed by a vicious fight, which most certainly is to the death. Also, the other night we were all sitting in the living room & we heard a visitor at our door. Ace couldn’t stay away, but when she went out to see the cat, it had the audacity to look her in the eye & then pee — all over our shoes!! Whaaaaaaaaat?! Just…why? See? Cats are totally evil!
Mosquitos: Ha. Well…it’s hard to say if it’s actually the mosquitos that are biting me or if it’s some other hateful bug, but regardless — I’ve come to the conclusion that I am delicious! This week started with waking up to a rather large red lump on my arm…by the end of the day, it was the size of a softball & what had begun as a dime-sized bite further down that arm turned into something a little smaller than a golf ball. I’m not really sure why that particular arm was so delectable that night, but yeah — that was pretty itchy. Later in the week, it was pretty exciting to wake up to limited vision in my right eye, which turned out to be some kind of bite on the lid that left it swollen for 2 days. The good news is, it was the Super Bowl the day I woke up that way, so I just told people I got into a fight with a Patriot’s fan & that the other guy looked much worse 🙂 The day after my eye looked normal again, I got another bite on my forehead. Now, I got a few bites on my face the first week & my face is still discolored from that, so by this time I was genuinely looking like some kinda Star Trek character. But hey — no malaria, so I’d call this a winning situation for sure (;
Ministry: This month our main ministry is at Bandung Alliance International School (BAIS). The school is pre-school through 12th grade & we have quickly fallen in love with these amazing kids & their dedicated teachers. The job basically involves just saying yes to whatever is asked of us. We’ve done everything from some serious library work (for you teachers & librarians — shout out to Aunt Jean & Kristen! — we have Lexile leveled & then organized about elevendy billion books) to running chapel to cleaning out/organizing/inventorying the athletic shed, & all kinds of other jobs that just straight up needed to get done. Ace & Caley have been painting sets for the school play since day 1…we are basically trying to free up the teachers so they have more time to pour into their students. & they do. The teachers at BAIS are phenomenal, & even though we’re there to support them, they are constantly loving on us. They are incredible hosts that are so kind & generous to us. & they feed us! The hospitality has been outrageous! But anyways, there definitely have been some fun interactions with the kids — they are pretty great. We have been able to do several things with them, including taking the 6th-8th graders on a field trip — so cool! It was about a 2-mile walk there & decently toasty outside, but they were troopers & it was a great trip. Doing chapel services has brought us closer to them as we have just gotten personal & real with them about our lives. This ministry wasn’t what we had planned or imagined, but it’s an important one because education & supporting teachers is so vital. We love our BAIS family!! Our other ministries are working with former prostitutes at a house of refuge & teaching English for conversational use to people primarily in their 20s. Both experiences have been very eye-opening & really really good exposure to this part of the country. I am so grateful for all these cool opportunities…God has been good.
That’s all for now, but there will be more updates coming — more info on the people & food in part 2. Hopefully this was a helpful glance into our lives here, but please feel free to ask questions & maybe you’ll make it into my blog! Much more to come, but there’s no internet this month so again — bear with me — we’ll get there! But for now, that’s the skinny on our first country, Indonesia.
