Sea Tribe 2010

I am finally getting around to posting about this. Sorry it has taken me over a month. This year I once again joined our school's annual Sea Tribe Youth trip. A group of 14 students and 8 adults spent 12 days near Batam on some remote islands. This year I helped lead the trip and was stretched beyond what I thought I was capable to make it all happen. But "The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it." I have seen how true this is.

Here is our team at one of the meetings we had before we left.

I have a bazillion pictures of our trip and a few dozen stories of our time. Many of you may have already read the story I wrote about my experience. If you have not and would like to, let me know and I will email it to you. As this is my third time going many of the pictures and experiences may seem familiar to those of you who have been tracking my blog and faithful to look at my photo albums each year. Because of that I thought I would just share a quick snap shot of it all. So to recap:

 

 We took lots of boat rides- here is just one. These girls are the ones I stayed with on the first island. I really enjoyed my time with them and serving the local people along side of them.

Our first island was different from all other one's I have been to because it was a BIG island. There were stores, paved roads, cars, etc. When we got there the first thing we did was load into two buses, which took us to the part of the island that we would stay at. We worked with one of the high schools and stayed in the homes of some of the teachers.

Our second island was the complete opposite- very tiny. You could circle the whole island in 10 minutes (no exaggeration). We enjoyed staying right on the water here though. You might be wondering what we did while we were there...

 

 We spent much of our time sitting around on the floor and talking.

 

 We drank A LOT of tea and ate A LOT of traditional food. Some favorites this year was snail and sting ray.

 

 We did a work project on both islands. Here Bora and I work on cementing the volleyball court we made.

 

 We sat around and laughed and watched our team compete with the locals in sports.

We swam in the ocean and played on the beach.

 

 We learned to play the kompong (traditional drum instrument).

 

 We participated in the local tradition of inai. (Similar to henna.)

We got to wear their traditional clothes.

And of course we met some new friends.

I have lots and lots more pictures. Tons of pictures of cute kids like this one. Tons of pictures of the island people and their daily life. Tons of pictures of beautiful sunsets and sunrises, boat rides, ocean views, etc. We had a great trip! Thanks to those of you who were praying.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Even though I am a million miles away and do not get to be there to celebrate with you,
I am still thinking of you today.
And as I think of you I cannot help but smile.
I love the way you are able to laugh at yourself.
I love how you love people and how you love to feed them.
I love the crazy fetishes you have with things like stuffed animal machines,
frying tostada shells, quoting commercials, etc.
I love how hard you work at whatever you do and how you have taught me to do the same.

I miss you so much and love you more than words could express.

Another Project Done

Can it already be May? And May 7th at that? Crazy. The year is flying.

I would just like to announce that Student Council (of which I am the advisor) has one more project checked off its list. We have been working on this hallway project since the beginning of the year, practically. First it was all the planning and voting about the plans and finalizing everything. Then we spent a whole Saturday painting one side of the hallway blue. Next it was the canvases for the other side. We bought the materials, had them built, then commissioned each class to create their own that symbolized them. These are finally finished and ready to be hung. They are all very different but each is a good representation of the uniquness of the class.

Seniors

Juniors

Sophomores

Freshman

Rice Field Adventure

A couple weekends ago a friend and I decided to go for a walk. We walked through the complex that I live in, through a narrow alley way, and ended up in a nearby kampung. The closest translation that I can find to that word in English is village. But basically it is an Indonesian neighborhood (sometimes translated as ghetto) where locals live. As we walked, we passed people walking along the streets and said hello. We passed people just sitting around on their porches and they asked us where we were going. We passed children playing and trying to hide their smiling faces from us. It's rare that white people come around and walk along these roads. Some people laughed and began talking about us as we passed. Some people starred at us blankly and said nothing. As we walked we came across rice field after rice field. All the fields were in different phases. Some just barely sprouting up, others ready to be harvested; some toiled and ready to be planted, others just recently cut down and laying barren. My friend was preparing to leave Indonesia that coming week. She had just a few days left before she would get on a plane and fly back to America. Her time of student teaching at our school was drawing to a close and she was moving onto other things. So as we walked we talked about her time here and her experiences in Indoensia. We laughed at funny things that had happened and processed through some of the hard stuff. On our way back home, as we were about to leave this area and return to the complex where I live, we passed one last rice field. A group of women were working in the field that was ready to be planted. We stopped to watch and I told my friend of the time when I had helped plant a rice field. She thought that was so cool and started taking some pictures of the women. They called out to us and laughed as they saw her with her camera. I asked (in what little Indonesian I know) if it was all right for us to take some photos and if we could come closer. They laughed nervously and continued to shout out to us. Unfortunately, I did not fully understand everything they were saying, but it did not really matter. They were friendly and we were up for some adventure so we followed the path out to the field where they were working. There was a group of 5 women working to plant and I asked them if we could join them and if they could teach us how. My friend needed to have the experience of planting rice in her last weekend in Indoensia. So we jumped into the field, knee deep in mud, and for about an hour planted rice along side these women. They were very concerned about us being dirty and laughed a little about us being there. One women told me, "What are your friends going to say when you come home covered in mud?" I told her, "they will probably want to come join too." After we had finished a small field we felt successful (and exhausted) and decided it was time for us to go. They were going to keep on working, because there was lots more work to be done. As we were leaving they asked if we wanted to come to their house. I really wanted to but I knew my friend needed to go somewhere. I told them I wanted to come back later. They asked "tomorrow?" Here are some pictures along our walk and of us in the mud. Indonesia is a beautiful place, full of beautiful people. It is beginning to capture my heart.

I love how this house is completely surrounded by rice fields.

Some of the kids we met along the way. Sometimes Indonesian kids are

really shy but these boys were brave enough to pose in front of the camera.

They plant the rice in such straight rows.

This field is sprouting up- so much green.

They make these grid lines to guide where to plant the rice-

that's how they get it so straight.

Then they use those bundles of small sprouts to plant the field. They shove them into the soft soil along the crosses of the grid.

This man is smoothing out the field so that he can use another tool to make

the grid lines. Then later they will begin planting.

This little guy helps carry the sprouts to be planted out to the fields.

Here are some of my new friends.

They were hard at work when we asked if we could help. Perhaps they were glad for the extra hands.

Can you spot the bules (white people)? It's kind of hard to miss us. We are the ones lagging behind because we are so slow and bad at doing this.

The small field completed. Many more to go for these ladies. Enough for us for today.

Caitlyn and I, sweaty...

... and muddy.

This is what our field will look like later after it has a chance to grow- ready for harvest.