Just a normal day?

I could try and go back and describe the process of getting here to my new house, explain in detail about my flights or the first day of unpacking, but rather I am going to skip all of that and just tell you a little bit about my day today.

This morning I woke up to two women talking rapidly back and forth right outside my window at 6am. I just had to smile as I lay there, listening to their intense speech, wondering what in the world they were talking so strongly about at such an early hour.

Then my roommate and I had to go to the local hardware store to return a 3 meter piece of PVC pipe. She had misunderstood while talking with the worker. He said we need one ½ inch pipe. She thought he wanted a 1 ½ inch pipe. So I rode on the back of her motor bike with the long pipe in tow.

After coming home with the right size, a couple of local high school age boys came over and continued painting the inside of our house. They have worked for several days now giving all the walls a fresh coat of paint. They just had one room left to go but for some reason it took them 4 hours.

While they were doing that our neighbor was over installing the new sink we bought. After arriving I realized my new bathroom does not have a sink- no place to wash hands or brush teeth. The landlord had agreed to remodel the bathroom outside- put in a roof, working door, tile, western style toilet, shower and hot water heater. This would give us two functional bathrooms in our new house. I was impressed by the work and happy to see that they had finished it. One small problem- no sink. So my roommate and I had gone out the day before and picked one out. I drove my motor bike and she carried it home on the back.

Since my landlord was working in the morning he asked the other neighbor to come and get the project started. He is an older man who I have already become fond of. I sat and watched him work for awhile. He made a level out of a clear piece of pipe by filling it with water and looking at how it sat. While I sat there a cockroach startled me as it scurried across the tile by my foot. The teenage boy that was helping the old man saw my reaction, quickly reached down, picked up the cockroach by its antennae and walked it outside.

Then my other neighbor started calling through the front door. Before I knew it she had let herself in and was handing me a plate covered in brown paper. “Ikan!” she exclaimed. She had cooked us two fish and they were still hot. I thought it had smelled fishy when we had first gotten back from the hardware store. She apologized that there was no rice and was gone as quickly as she had come.

In the late afternoon the landlord, who is also my neighbor, came by to finish the work on the sink that was started in the morning. The first guy had just secured the sink to the wall and put in a few tiles as a backsplash. That was about all he could handle. This other guy is more of the expert. However, after watching him study the many pieces we had purchased to connect the sink to the water supply and to the drain it was apparent that he was a little less knowledgeable than originally thought.

So I sat nearby on the floor and watched. At some points I had to restrain myself from jumping in and giving my two cents about how I thought it should go together. It took him hours and hours. He improvised a little along the way- adding extra tape, melting pieces, and shaving things off. Even as the sun set and it turned dark he was still working. When he was almost done the power in our neighborhood went out and we scrounged around looking for a flashlight. Eventually the light came back on and he was able to finish. My favorite part was that when he was all done and it seemed like there were not any leaks and everything was good, he took some clear packing tape and wrapped it around a couple of times, just for good measure I am sure.

Oh what a day. Just a normal day in the kampung I guess.

New

I am not sure what thoughts come to mind when you hear the word ‘new’. I think new things tend to scare most of us. It is only normal to be hesitant to change. It is only human nature to react cautiously to things that are new. That was my reaction most of the time growing up. But something has changed within me in these last few years of living overseas. I have come to embrace newness. I have come to look forward to change.

And that is where I find myself currently. I am about to head into a new school year, to meet new students, and welcome new staff members into our school community. But even more than that I will be moving and adjusting to a new house, in a new neighborhood.

And as I embrace all this newness in my life I am reminded that God also loves new things. Throughout scripture there is promise of a new name. New covenant. New life. New commandment. New heavens and earth. There are calls to declare a new song throughout the psalms. One of my favorite promises comes from Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

The one that most sticks out to me today is Isaiah 43:19, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

God is doing a new thing and is making a way for me. This coming year I will be moving into a kampung (or local Indonesian village/community/neighborhood). I will be living with two other friends and teachers at the school. The three of us got special permission from the school to take this new step, which no one else from our school has done. To be honest I do not really know what this will look like or how it will change my experience in Indonesia. I could speculate for you, but instead why don’t you just come along with me for the journey.

Welcome to my life in the kampung.

Field Day

The end of the end... The school year ended in typical busy fashion. The last few days the middle and high schoolers took their semester exams. Then the very last day of school was Field Day- a half day of fun and games. The whole school gathered outside and ended the year playing together.

Gathering outside to get the day started.

Field day was an all school event, so Preschool thru 12th grade. The teams were mixed up and the high schoolers helped keep track of the little ones.

This little guy especially needed to be kept track of. As you might be able to tell he's kind of a handful. So he was passed around- from Matt to Forrest, back to Matt then to Joel.

The teams gathered for friendly competition. Throughout the morning they rotated through different stations and then it all ended with a final four fight off. Let the games begin!

Love, love, love that we are all one big family. Love when the big and the little gather together. And love to celebrate the end of the year with fun and games- and what a great year it was.

A Weekend Away

with the 10th Graders If the Talent Show was my favorite night of the year, this might have been my favorite weekend. I worked a lot with the 10th graders this past year. As their class sponsor they found a special place in my heart. So when a couple of students came to me and asked if we could do a class trip I succumb to their request, even in the midst of end-of-the-year busyness. We headed to the beach on our last long weekend, just a couple of weeks before the end of the semester. Here is the weekend in review:

There were 23 of us, 18 students and 5 adults. We loaded into 5 cars- here's the craziness inside one of them along the way.

One the road... little did we know that ahead of us lay LOTS of traffic.

I love this view of rice fields that have been flooded in order to get them ready for planting.

Eventually all that water will allow them to grow up vibrant green- which is what we saw out the window on much of our drive.

MinYoung is SO glad that we finally made it after a long 7 hour car ride. The house we stayed at was HUGE. I was afraid that all 23 of us were not going to fit, but we did with plenty of space. It was a beautiful place and was perfect for our weekend away.

We arrived to a special treat! Coconuts for everyone!

Jemma and Caris enjoying some yummy coconuts.

And of course we enjoyed lots of beach time. Here Bora and I sit on the sand chatting.

While some of the boys dig themselves into holes.

And then they decide to bury Terry. Yes, completely bury him.

He comes out fully covered in sand.

So it is time to wash off.

Bora and I just sit back and watch. Silly boys. :)

Some fun beach jumping shots.

I love the international make-up of my school. Throughout the trip we had three languages going constantly- English, Indonesian, and Korean. The students have to speak only English at school, but this trip of course was different. The parents of one of the Korean students came with us as chaperons. The mom and I kind of avoided each other the first half of the trip because of the akwardness of language differences. Then finally we broke through that and ended up having a pretty serious conversation on the beach- mostly in Indonesian, with the little English she knew and some Korean thrown in as well.

An afternoon snack of local Indonesian ice cream. I joined with a small group of students and decided to give it a try. They filled a little cup with ice cream, cake pieces, red beans, black fermented rice, jellies, and some sort of sauce. It was... interesting. But Alvin looks pretty excited about it. :)

Dinner was some local fish. We got a great deal thanks to the Korean dad that was with us.

Barbecue time.

Some of the boys decided to go hunting for crabs while we waited for dinner to cook. They came back with a bucketful and then insisted on cooking them and eating them.

Here is the table that we gathered around for meals. The house was great and had a huge kitchen and eating area. In this picture I think Joel, one of our high school teachers who came as a chaperon, is overseeing the crab eating.

Dan, our high school principle, also came along as a chaperon. Here he is telling the kids a story about his foot. Next to him is Yoon Seong who joined a bunch of the guys in getting a henna tattoo, which are easy to get at the beach and very inexpensive.

The nights consisted of staying up very late, playing games, talking, laughing, and some people could not stay awake for it all.

Here is a cool view from the second floor of the house looking out toward the beach. The night sky was being lit up by lightening.

Sunday morning we gathered for some singing and a devotional before we left- only to face more traffic and a long ride home again. Despite the traffic from the holiday weekend we still had a blast. I really enjoyed hanging out with these students and taking them away from school to have new experiences. One of my students had never been swimming in the ocean before. (He had been but never gotten in.) It was so fun to watch him wade around for hours, even after everyone else had gotten out. And some of the girls had never ridden a becek before (a local form of transportation). I laughed as they got in and sqealed with delight at the new experience.