Loveology

The study of love. Last week was our school's annual "Week Without Walls." A week dedicated to stepping outside of the walls of our school and serving the local community. This year's theme was "Loveology." We were on a mission to study love. What does it mean to love our neighbors? What would it look like for us to do that? Practically... not just in theory. So all 207 BAIS students and all 40 BAIS teachers and staff left the building, stepped outside of the walls of our school and tried to tear down the walls we put up inside of our hearts. I led a group of 12 high school students that went to a local school in the kampung (local neighborhood) to teach English. The school was down a muddy dirt path off the main road where no cars could drive to. The school has 210 students and only 9 teachers. The building is small with 6 classrooms (one for each grade). My high school students created lessons to teach English words for simple things like colors, body parts, animals, etc. They sang songs, acted out motions, did some coloring, and passed out candy. When it was all over we stuck around to play with the kids and a few of our guys started up a game of soccer. My favorite part of our time at the school was on our last day when we were about to leave. We told them we wanted to say goodbye, so they gathered all the kids out on the courtyard. I gave a little speech and thanked the principle for letting us come. We gave some gifts- donations we had collected for the school (basic school supplies, books, colored pencils, etc.). The principle gave a short speech and thanked us for coming. Then our group sang a couple of songs. The second one was in Indonesian and all the kids joined along in singing with us. It was a beautiful moment all of us there, singing together. And the goodbye ended with them singing an impromptu song to us. We took a group picture and then shook hands and went our separate ways. When it was all over we walked away with some simple reflections. Here are some things my group learned about love: -loving others means serving them -love is something we give away once we ourselves have received it -love takes relationships, relationships take time -love must be sincere -love is puzzling to those who do not often receive it Such beautiful stories came from each group in our time scattered across the community. One of the things I took away from the experience is how incredibly blessed we are to be living the life we do. Each of us lives a life far better than most. Yet in the midst of our thankfulness and rejoicing that we are blessed, we must not forget that we are therefore called to be a blessing to others because we have been blessed with so much. There are many pictures to share, but I just chose a few. Enjoy!

Teaching Math

For those of you who follow this blog you may or may not know that I am a math teacher. I don't often bring it up here. But anyway, yes it is true. I teach middle and high school math. I live in Indonesia and I love that, but the reality is that I spend most of my days in my classroom teaching. My current load is five different classes ranging from 7th grade Pre-Algebra, 8th grade Algebra 1, 9th grade Geometry, 10th grade Algebra 2, to 11th/12th grade Statistics. I love my job. I love the variety. I love the students. It's challenging at times and overwhelming at others but overall really, really good.

Just wanted to give you a glimpse into my classroom for a change. This week in Geometry we learned about four important points in triangles. We talked about the Circumcenter, Incenter, Centroid, and Orthocenter. Then the students created examples of each on oragami paper and I hung them in our windows to add some color to the room.

I love math! :)

Do you?

Weird Weekend

What a weird weekend.

Lots of odd things happened this weekend.

Perhaps it started last Friday when I walked into my classroom in the morning and there was a bird flying around inside. It kept darting back and forth across the room, smashing into the window over and over again.

Then Friday night I drove my motor bike into town (about 45 minute drive) in the pouring rain. The strange thing was that it was raining so hard and so hard to see but pedestrians kept j-walking across the street anyway. On top of that there were several motor bikes on the road driving without their lights on. Very, very dangerous.

Saturday morning on my way into town I saw a guy peddling a bicycle. Strapped to the side of the bicycle was a door. Yes, a whole door. He made it look quite easy to ride his bike with this large object tied to it but I had a feeling it was not.

Saturday was filled with weird things but perhaps the weirdest was the adventure a few of us went on to find a crocodile farm we had heard rumors about. We were told it was up in Lembang, a mountain town about an hour from where we live. Apparently there is a guy in Singapore that has a wife in Lembang and goes there once a month to see her. As his hobby he bought some crocodiles so that he could enjoy them when he came. We had heard you can watch them feed the crocodiles live chickens. A friend had been before and fed them live rabbits. We stuck with dead chickens. It was kind of like jaws where you could sense something under the water and then they brought out the chicken and out of the water came the largest crocodile I have ever seen.

(Oh I almost forgot! On Sunday I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for a guy to come back with a motor bike to be a taxi for my friend so she could join us for lunch after church. As I sat there a woman walked up to me and in pretty good English asked me what I was doing. I told her I was just waiting. Then she proceeded to invite me to her son's wedding next weekend. It has always been his dream to have an international wedding, she told me. He would really love it if white people came. So she asked if I would please come. Then without giving more details about time or location she walked away. So weird.)

Oh Indonesia. You never stop surprising me.

Plans Changed

Hi friends,

So despite the fact that I had planned and prepared to go to Vietnam and meet up with my sister it didn't work out. I had made my plans but the Father reminds us "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Everything was ready for me to go. My lesson plans were done, my sub plans were written, my plane ticket was bought, and hotel reservations were made. There was just one small detail I forgot in all of it. I arrived at the airport on Wednesday, sat and waited until I could check in. Finally, I walked up to the counter where the guy behind the desk informed me that I could not go to Vietnam without a visa. I had forgotten to check into the visa process in all my other planning. Apparently, you need to apply to the embassy ahead of time and can't just get a visa on arrival. Can't even get on the plane without a visa.

I was crushed.

I had come so close but could not go and would not get to see my sister. However, since I had already taken days off and arranged for a sub, I decided to take advantage of it. I bought a ticket to Batam to visit a really good friend of mine who is living there right now. We spent time at Telunas Beach where she is working right now. We relaxed and chatted lots. It was good to reconnect. We swam and ate good food and kayaked and slept. The last night we layed on the dock and looked at the stars (trying to figure out the constalations in the southern hemisphere... quite hard when you've grown up looking at totally different ones). Then one of the Ibus who works there took us shrimping. She showed us how to catch the shrimp with this long fork like thing and a bright light (to shine on them in the dark). She laughed at us the whole time as we attempted it. She would point out the shrimp to us and all we had to do was stab them, but they just kept escaping before we got to them. She told us we were good at it, but we were not.

I came back refreshed and re-energized which is what I had been hoping and praying for. God answers our prayers in many unexpected ways. And through it all I was reminded that the Father knows how to give good gifts to His children, even when we initially don't think they are good and we are filled with disappointment.

I didn't take very many pictures but here are a few:

Me and my friend Jennie in the boat on the way to Telunas

A fisherman passes us by

In the boat on the way to the isolated resort

So peaceful

To Do

This week I will:
-teach my students about standard normal distribution
-go to women's bible study
-do morning duty
-meet with my language tutor
-travel to a foreign country

Yes, the whole list is true including that last one. This week I am headed to Vietnam for 5 days. I will meet up with my sister who is sailing through and stopping there for a few days. I cannot wait to go!