Emily In Bandung

Christmas is coming...

2011-12-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

Eeek so much going on. So much to do. We are leaving Indonesia tonight to fly back to the States. Christmas is right around the corner!

An early Merry Christmas to you all!

May Peace, Joy, and LOVE fill your hearts and homes this Christmas.

Maaf

2011-10-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

So sorry friends that it has been so long.

In case you haven't heard the big news... I'm engaged! Joel and I are getting married in January! So very exciting and so much to do. So please do not hold it over my head for not posting. I have been a little preoccupied lately. I wish I had more time because there is much that I would like to share here about life, about teaching, about Indonesia, and some random musings that have been on my mind. For now a couple of pictures are all I've got with the hope that I will be back soon to share more.

Sibuk {busy}

2011-05-06T05:32:00.000-07:00

Somehow life has gotten away from me. These past few weeks, ok really months, have been so busy. Each day seems to have enough trouble of its own and each day takes all my energy to keep up with all that is going on. In the midst of it I am reminded that God is gracious and gives me just the strength that I need for each day. The other day I walked out of our school to this beautiful sunset. The whole sky was filled with orange rays. Another reminded of God's presence.

In the month of April we were busy around here with:
*a wonderful friend's birthday celebration
*Family Fun Festival
*picnic day
*sea tribe party... celebrating a great trip as a team
*baby shower for two beautiful staff women here
*spirit week
*swim pep rally
*spring concert
*science fair
*amazing StuCo Talent Show
*quick weekend trip to the beach with great friends
*simple celebration of Easter

Between now and the end of the year somehow all these things will be accomplished:
*house hunting
*one last Picnic day
*ESO portfolio due
*8th grade banquet
*big philosophy of education paper due
*StuCo service event
*a couple more baby showers
*high school BANQUET, which I am in charge of this year
*all night after party
*5th grade move up day
*senior exit interviews
*awards assembly
*high school graduation
*secondary exams
*FiElD dAy
*moving
*end of the year staff banquet
*saying goodbye to good friends who are leaving

Please pray for me... Regardless of how it all goes I will be getting on a plane headed to the States June 10th.

Week Without Walls {WWW}

2011-03-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

Way back in November, our school had its annual Week Without Walls. This is one of my favorite times of the year because it means the whole school steps outside of our school building and serves the local community in some way. The students split up into groups and participate in a wide variety of projects. Then at the end of the week we come back together and share what we have seen and experienced and learned. Everyone from Preschool up thru 12th grade.

This year I was supposed to participate in a project in my neighborhood but that ended up getting canceled. So they switched me into the kampung school group to go back and teach English like I had done last year. Then at the last minute they needed an adult to sub for another staff members who was sick.

So this year for WWW I ended up joining the Desa Project group. We teamed up with some local workers and went out to a village in southern Bandung. We visited a community development site where they build water filters for those in villages without access to clean water. We built a bamboo fence (hard work!) for the property to keep it safe. The night before we came all their chickens had been stolen because there land was open for anyone to come onto. So our work building the fense really helped bring more security to the property.

We also worked with the school next door, a local school for kids with disabilities. We painted a mural at the school. We also spent a morning playing with the kids. I really enjoyed getting to know the kids and watching them interact with one another. They were a wide variety of ages and had all sorts of different disabilities- some were deaf, others had serebral palsy, others were down syndrome, and more.

One night we slept down at the site so we wouldn't have to make the long drive back home. We had a lot of fun being together, experiencing how local Indonesians live in the village. We stayed with a host family and slept all around on their floor. The students were great and worked really hard. They had great attitudes and really learned a lot from the kids at the school. We were all blessed by our interactions with the students with disabilities.

Here are some pictures of my experience. We had such a great time. We laughed a lot, worked hard, loved on a lot of kids, build strong relationships amongst our team, and more.

Playing in the courtyard of the school.

Lena and Luke showing off their stilt skills.

Playing with the kids.

Lena with a mom and her daughter.

New friends.

Kelly and I working hard at our mural project.

Taking a break in the heat of the day to enjoy some watermelon.

The night we slept over, we enjoyed a special Indonesian meal.
These giant leaves served as our plates.

We sat around on the floor and ate with our hands, like local Indonesians do.

After dinner we sat around and played games and talked and laughed lots.

Me with my beautiful friend, Monica.

The next day we finished our murals!
So much detail... they were lots of work.

Our painting team in front of the other mural.

Our girls with some of the students at the school.

The boys with some of the students in their new pink uniforms.

Large group photo.

Saying goodbye.

Weird Happenings

2011-03-05T17:19:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I came home and noticed some debris on my bedroom floor. I looked up to find there was a large hole in my ceiling. What in the world?!

I have no idea what kind of critter was crawling around in the ceiling, but I bet it was surprised when it hit a soft spot in the ceiling and just fell through.

I was worried about the size of such an animal that would cause a hole that size, but found no traces of anything inside our house.

Then awhile later I was having trouble sleeping one night. I heard noises in my ceiling. Normally that would not bother me (every house I have lived in here has had critters that crawl around in the ceiling and make noises day and night). However, as I lay there all I could think of was the hole in my ceiling. Whatever was making the ruckus most certainly could find its way into my room and thus into bed with me. So I tossed and turned and tried to ignore the noises.

As a result, the next day we finally got around to asking our landlord to come fix the hole. We also mentioned the noises I had heard all night. He climbed up onto the roof and found the opening the animals had been using to come in and out. Then he went into the space between the ceiling and the roof to patch the hole in my bedroom. There he discovered what had kept me up the night before. A whole litter of kittens!

He put them in a plastic bag and brought them downstairs. I was a little nervous about what was in his bag. I thought possibly it could be dead. But no they were all still alive. I think there were 5 of them. He took them outside and called to some neighbor kids to come take them away.

Around the classroom

2011-02-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

Lots of learning taking place around here. I can't believe we are almost done with 3rd quarter! Today and tomorrow is parent teacher conferences. Spring break is right around the corner. Hurray!

In Geometry we are integrating math and art. It's one of my favorite chapters to do with the kids. And it makes my classroom much more colorful as well.

Kites- to show the properties of this special type of quadrilateral

Snowflakes- to practice creating lines of symmetry

Tessellations- to look at tilings in the plane and various symmetries

SEW {spiritual emphasis week}

2011-02-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

The beginning of February our school held its annual spiritual emphasis week (SEW). We had three speakers come from the States- one to speak for elementary, one for middle school, and one for high school. Each morning the whole school gathered on our school's sports court for worship. Then we split up for our speakers sessions followed by small group discussion.

Our theme this year was SEW good, SOW good, SO good. For high school our speaker focused on Micah 6:8 "Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with your God."

Here are some pictures that one of our talented staff members- Melissa- took throughout the week. She captured some great moments.

Gathered together under our sports court

Started with some singing each morning

Leading the school in worship

Brian, the middle school speaker

Kurt, the high school speaker

Emma, my old roommate and good friend, came back to speak for elementary.
This is from the closing ceremony when we were saying thanks and saying goodbye.

Student testimony

Theme shirts

Bayi {baby}

2011-02-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

During Christmas break, which was awhile ago now (sigh... I am so behind on blogging), I went to visit a friend's house helper who had just had a baby. I took my helper with me so she could show me the way. We chatted for awhile, admired the baby, and drank some hot tea (with lots of sugar... as is custom in Indonesia).

Just thought I would share a few pictures from my visit:

Sleeping baby... do not know how under all those blankets.

Keep in mind that it is at least 80 degrees and humid here.

Not so happy...

Such big eyes!

Smiles {senyum-senyum}

2011-01-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

Nongkrong {hanging out doing nothing}

2010-12-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

The other day I took a walk through my neighborhood. It had been awhile since I had been out and tried to interact with my neighbors and be visible in the community. So I left my house with my camera, not sure where exactly I was headed. I ended up walking around and snapped a few photos of daily life.

Rice fields... always in different stages of growth

I walked up upon this group hanging out by the side of the road.
I love this old man and the little boys together.

He's got a pretty good Indonesian squat (which I personally find very difficult to do).

You would think they were watching something cool happen, sitting there together.
But actually I think they were just chilling and watching this- an empty rice field.
The word nongkrong in Indonesian literally translates 'sitting around doing nothing'.
Pretty sure they have this mastered... and perhaps I could learn something from them.

As I continued walking the sun started to set and I was awestruck by
the beauty that surrounded me. It spoke to my heart and to my soul.
Life has been so busy and I rush around failing to just stop and take in the good gifts God gives.
I need a little more nongkrong in my life,
especially if it involves sitting and doing nothing but enjoying things like this.

As I was out walking it started sprinkling so I decided to turn back toward home.
Suddenly it started raining harder and then started pouring.
As I got nearer to my house my neighbors had already all returned home.
Indonesians really don't like being out in the rain or being wet.
Huddled together on their porches, out of the rain, they made comments to me as I passed by.
"Hujan!" they exclaimed. Yes it is raining. I know. I am walking through it and very wet from it.
But that didn't stop them from informing me anyway. I have yet to understand why they like to state the obvious. Clearly I know it is raining but they will always tell me anyway.

Biru {blue}

2010-12-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

The other day my 7th grade class decided that it was blue day. They talked amongst themselves and contacted each other the night before. They all wore these bright blue shirts that they had gotten at a retreat. I looked up as they were taking their math test and realized they were all matching. Cracks me up.

Macet {traffic}

2010-11-18T03:57:00.000-08:00

This is my life...

Reflections

2010-11-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

I have been pondering life lately...
in the few moments of thinking time that I can fit in these days.

I know it has been awhile since I updated this blog. Some of that comes from a severe lack of time. But another part of that has been a intentional choice to refrain.

It seems sometimes that technology and electronic communication overtake us and suck us into a false reality. It takes away from the genuineness of our actual relationships. We spend more time connecting with people in virtual reality than in real life, face-to-face interactions. I am not sure what to do with this but it has spurred me to want to live in the present, in community with the people around me, instead of searching for meaning and recognition from an artificial world or electronic friends.

In the meantime life continues rolling by, filled with simple moments of kampung life and daily living.

Like the other day when I was on my way to school and a little boy was standing on the side of the road. He could not have been older than 4. When he saw me passing by he stopped, kind of got down in a squatted position with his butt sticking out. He stuck his finger out at me, pointing and staring me down until I was out of sight.

Another morning down the road a little further an older man was standing in the middle of our dirt road in nothing but his boxers. He looked a little lost. Perhaps he had just woken up and stumbled outside. Standing there in a daze, he seemed to be trying to remember what it was he came outside for.

Yesterday on my way out in the afternoon, I looked over down the small path that is across from my house. Outside one of the houses was a girl in maybe 4th grade wrapped in a towel. She looked like she had just finished with her afternoon mandi (bucket bath). I have no idea why she was standing outside but she was.

Today I came home from school to find they had harvested what I affectionately call "our rice field." There is a small field that sits right in front of our house. I claim ownership over it even though I take no part in the labor involved in making the rice grow. Over the past few months we have watched it go from small little sprouts to tall stalks of bright green. But now it has all been chopped down and the field lays barren and brown.

Just some random reflections of life here in the kampung.

Bekk and Adam are getting married!

2010-10-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

Some good friends here recently got engaged.
Adam is from Alaska and Bekk is from Australia.
They met here in Bandung and have been dating for the past year.
We are so excited for them!
Their plan is to get married here over spring break and
their families will come to Indonesia for the wedding.

To celebrate their engagement we gathered for a picnic in Bekk's backyard.
We drank homemade chi tea
Ate yummy treats.
Chatted, laughed, and soaked up the sun.
It is so fun to celebrate life moments like these with good friends.
And it is a reminder to me of the importance of living life in community.

Here are a few pics of the fun:

Picnicing is the perfect way to celebrate
and the perfect way to spend a saturday afternoon.

Bekk has a strange teletubbie statue in her backyard.
Charity and I look on puzzled and a little frightened.

Lots and lots of laughs

Bekk and her sister team up to try moving it out of the way
so we can party without the creepy statue looming.

Bekk tells the story of how she proposed to Adam, in a way that only she could.

Botram {potluck}

2010-10-09T04:56:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share a little bit more about our staff picnic we had a couple weeks ago.

We had about 90 of our staff show up- both Indonesian and bule (american). We went to this really cool place that had big grass fields, a large pond filled with fish, a zip line, and a covered picnic area perfect as shelter from the rain.

We picniced Indonesian style. They call it botram. Everybody brings their own food and a little to share. We sat around on woven mats in little family groups. Then you go around tasting what everyone else brought. Kind of like potluck but everyone keeps their own food and waits for others to come to them to try what they have.

At the beginning they guys got a game of soccer going and some volleyball while the kids played in the fish pond (they were trying to pull the fish out of the water), and the woman sat around chatting. Then after we ate and it started raining we played some intense games of crab soccer under the roof.

It was a very fun day to hang out as a staff outside of school and just be together.

finding time to breath

2010-10-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

It has been so busy around here lately.
I have found myself running here, there, and everywhere.
The calendar is packed full and there does not seem to be any reprieve any time soon.
It has been hard to find time to breath in the midst of it all.

This morning I read, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Oh, how true that is.

This evening heavy rains have come again and it is pouring outside.

A couple of weeks ago our staff gathered for a picnic.
Here's some proof that we have been getting lots of rain lately:

Selesai {finished}

2010-09-19T06:34:00.000-07:00

Ramadan is finally over. For some reason it was a tough season for me this year. You really have to reorient your whole life so that you do not eat or drink in front of anyone all day. Especially in our little house in the kampung. It felt like we were hiding behind our door and curtains- perhaps because we were.

The last night of Ramadan was a crazy one. The neighborhood stayed up all night and partied. The prayers were going off on the loud speaker, chanting and singing and sometimes just someone speaking. Occasionally they would have a drum session and music would fill the air. Throughout the night fireworks were continuously being set off.

But personally I think if you successfully fast- from food and water- from sun up (6am) to sun down (6pm) every day for a month you have every right to party it up.

All that to say, I am glad Ramadan is finished. I feel a new sense of freedom as I am sure my neighbors do as well.

In other news we are getting lots of rain these days. It seems there won't be a dry season for us this year. It is suppose to quit raining in April or May until about October or November so we can dry out before raining season starts up again for the rest of the year. Looks like that won't be the case this year. It just keeps raining. Guess that means we will have lots of green hills.

Sawah {rice field}

2010-09-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

I am obsessed with rice. Both eating it and watching it grow.
My neighborhood is surrounded by rice fields. In every nook and cranny it seems
that someone has planted some rice- across the street, in between houses,
along the road, in every patch of empty space.

I find it absolutely breathtaking.
I am amazed at how green the fields are, from the time they are planted
with little tiny bundles until it grows up tall and bushy. Only in the very final stage
does it begin to turn golden brown and then you know it is time for harvest.

This morning on my way to school the air was crisp
and the sun was shinning
and the rice fields were glowing.
Little water droplets clung to the tips of each individual blade.

And somehow it seemed that all was right with the world.

Village Life

2010-08-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

Just another day in the kampung

A friend asked me the other day, "How's life in the village?" I just had to sigh. Some days it is more fun than others. Sometimes you realize the benefits of not having everyone know all the details of your life and keeping track of your coming and going. The benefits of going wherever and doing whatever. The benefit of not getting stopped every time you enter or exit your house by the landlord who lives across the street and wants to talk or the neighbor who lives next door and wants to know where you are going and where the rest of your roommates are.

This afternoon my roommate and I took a short walk through the neighborhood and stumbled upon a large group of women and children hanging out. We struck up simple conversation with them. They asked us where we were going, where we lived, our names, etc. The crowd slowly grew larger as more kids gathered and more women came out of their homes. It is amazing to me how many people can be living in seemingly such a small area. Suddenly we had a whole group of people standing around us just starring, like we were a spectacle and unlike anything they had seen before. They did not know what to say and honestly neither did we. We spent a few minutes trying to play with the kids and teach them a hand game- one of those where you stand in a circle, sing a song, and people get out if they are the last one to get the slap. Quickly though the sun began to set and it was time for everyone to go home. There was talk of "let's do this again," "see you later," "come to my house to visit tomorrow" and then the crowd dispersed.

Oh village life, some days you overwhelm me.

Anak-anak {kids}

2010-08-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

Kids are everywhere in the kampung. Sometimes I wonder where they come from and who they belong to. They wander along the streets, waving hi and smiling as I pass by in the mornings or afternoons. The other day I heard our front gate open and expected that my roommate had just come home. When I peaked out the window I saw a group of kids playing on our front porch. I went out to say hello but they quickly scurried off. As cute as they are, Indoneisan kids tend to be very shy.

These are my next door neighbors. The little guy's name is Radit.
Most Indonesian kids are quite shy, but not him. He lets me hold him and play with him.

A friend took this picture.
Indonesian kids are so beautiful!

Bola Voli {volleyball}

2010-08-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ever since moving in, our neighbor has been talking about volleyball. He asked us if we play. None of us do. But we said we would be willing. He took that as a green light and told us to get a group together from the school. Everyday he pestered us, wanting to know when we could do it. We finally agreed on a Sunday afternoon. He said he would get a local team together to play us. Everyday he would stop us on the way in or out of our house and ask again about volleyball. The Saturday before we were set to play he caught me in the driveway. "Can we play this morning?" he asked. No. "How about this afternoon?" No. "Sunday morning?" No. I reminded him again that we agreed on Sunday afternoon.

I recruited some of our female staff at school and we gathered at our house, then our neighbor led us to the court. After walking a ways down a small road, he led us to a dirt court on the edge of a different kampung. There we found a team of local woman as well as a small crowd that had gathered to watch the game.

We knew we were in trouble as they started warming up. These woman were serious. They play every afternoon, just for fun. We on the other hand had a whole team of bules (white people) who were willing to play but had no skills. After one game of us vs. them, it became obvious who the reigning champs would be. They beat us so quickly and so badly, that the next round they decided we should mix up the teams. This provided a more well matched competition and we played half a dozen games like this before calling it quits.

Perhaps one thing I will gain this year is some new skills in volleyball. I have no doubt we will play again many times before the year is up.

Our bule team

The local competition

Not prepared for what we are getting ourselves into.

I am so bad at volleyball it's pathetic.

Let's mix it up!

Some new friends look on.

Everyone gathers for a group shot.

We stood around talking and laughing afterward, mostly at how bad we were.

Sumur {well}

2010-08-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is the simple things in life that we take for granted. Or perhaps not even the simple things but the basic things.

We have been having ongoing water issues at our house this past week. Our well that provides water to our house (and keeps us from having to pay any sort of water bill) has been having one issue after another.

The afternoon before the first day of school I arrived home to find our landlord standing by the front door, waiting impatiently for one of us to turn up. He quickly informed me that we do not have water and should find a friend in Kota Baru who does and go bathe there. I smiled and listened while he filled me in on all the details of the problem, not understanding 90% of what he was saying. Later my roommate came home and got the complete story. She firmly insisted that we needed to have water to bathe the next day as school was starting. So he brought us some water from his well and we gave up on the idea of hot water showers for the first day of school. Unfortunately, the water we did have was a bit murky. I kind of felt dirtier after bathing in it than if I had not bathed at all. He spent all the next day working at our house and it seemed like everything was fixed. We enjoyed a couple days of normal working water.

The next night, my roommates and I were sitting around upstairs when all of a sudden mati lampu, all the power went out. Not just in our house but the whole neighborhood. We scrambled around in the dark to find flashlights and went our separate ways to bed. There is not much you can do once the lights go out, especially when it is already late and an early morning awaits the next day. As I lay in bed the sound of a guitar playing softly drifted in through my window. My neighbor, also having nothing to do with the power out, was sitting outside playing the guitar and occasionally singing along. I lay there for awhile, unable to sleep, serenaded by the music.

Yesterday we were back to the same water problems- none. We had a couple buckets left over with water so we bucket bathed. This time all the dirt had settled to the bottom and the water was a bit cleaner. I was not in the mood for a cold shower so I heated some of the water on the stove to mix in, creating at least lukewarm water. This evening the problem persisted so our landlord stole everyone’s hoses in the neighborhood, connected them all together, and ran it from his well to our back porch- filling half a dozen buckets full of water.

So for all of you out there with running water and power that does not randomly die, be thankful today for the consistency of these things. They are so easily taken for granted.

And tonight I am thankful for a very kind neighbor who is so eager to help, even if it might mean he gives us all the water he has from his well and is left with none.

Mekar Pananjung

2010-08-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my neighborhood.

Each kampung has a gapura (or gateway) marking off the area,
telling its name, and the number associated with it.

The name of my kampung is Mekar Pananjung.
Our house is right next to the gapura that you go through to enter.
There is one main road, with many house sprouting off from it.

I don't actually have an address. No street name or house number.
Just find your way to Mekar Pananjung and ask for the bules (white people).
You'll be able to find me.

Lots of motor bike traffic. Everyone trying to get home to break fast at sunset.

The same road going the other direction.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Ramadan

2010-08-08T22:57:00.001-07:00

Well, I am back at work and have quickly realized that summer is over. After getting here and settling into my house, I spent time soaking in the last days of summer and LOVING it. Sleeping in, staying in my pajamas til 10, sometimes 12, reading, hanging out with friends, long dinners filled with much laughter. But all of that ended yesterday when all the teachers went back to work to start getting ready for the students to come. School starts again on Monday, August 16th.

The fasting month, called Ramadan, also started yesterday. For the next thirty days most Indonesians will be fasting, both food and water, from sunrise to sunset. This means that they get up really early to eat a big meal before the first call to prayer. They also gather after the sun sets at 6pm to "buka puasa" or break fast together as families and eat another large meal.

These cultural traditions have never been so real to me as they have over the past couple days now that we live in the kampung. Our neighbors, who I can hear crystal clear through my bedroom window, began the first day of Ramadan by shooting off fireworks, making lots of noise, and calling for everyone in the neighborhood to get up so that they could make sure to eat before sunrise. After being awoken by all of this, I looked at my clock and it was 3:30am. I was tempted to go out and join them but opted to just lay in bed, awake and unable to go back to sleep.

Last night I was awoken a little after 2am, not to noise outside my window, but to the realization that my bed was shaking and quite hard. It took me a few seconds and then I realized that we were having an earthquake. It felt like it lasted a long time and as soon as it was over I could hear all my neighbors pouring out of their houses (which is a typical response for Indonesians to have to an earthquake) and begin chatting in the street. Then just a couple hours later they were all up again, calling everyone to start their day and eat.

It is going to be an interesting month. Please pray for good rest for me, especially as the school year gets started so soon. And pray for us as we respond to our friends and neighbors during this month of fasting.

Rumah Baru {new house}

2010-08-07T02:33:00.000-07:00

The day after I arrived back here, my roommate and I went to the paint store, had my room painted, and hung curtains. A week after arriving, we already had the whole inside of our new house painted with a fresh coat of paint. Now two weeks later, we are all moved in and settled in and I am loving my new house. I thought I would give you a tour so you can have a picture of where I live.

This is the road that I live on. At the very end is my house.

Here's my lovely little house in the kampung.

This is the first room that you see when you enter. It's very Indonesian to have a
front sitting room where you can host visitors. This furniture is also very Indonesian. :)

There is a door that shuts off the front sitting room from the rest of the house.
This is what you see next as you enter through there- a more casual living room.

Going out the back door you'll find our back patio. Our landlord put lots of plants-
because we are women, he said. Also, back here is a small guest bedroom
(to the right) and very small bathroom (to the left).

Here's my room, which is downstairs and the largest room in the house.
My window faces the street so the curtains are imperative for privacy. :)

Our house has two levels. Here is the view of the living room/dinning area from upstairs.

Here's our kitchen and a view of the stairs, along with our beautiful chandelier-
also very Indonesian. :)

Going upstairs, there are two small bedrooms.
This is the upstairs bathroom that my roommates share.
The big basin is normally filled with water and local Indonesians would bucket bathe
from that. As you can see we had a normal shower installed and a hot water heater,
along with a western style toilet to replace the more common squat pot.

Our upstairs "study"- We transformed this small room into a little sitting area.

Outside from that room is our balcony/upstairs porch area.
It's perfect for sitting and admiring the beautiful view.

It also doubles as a laundry area.

This is Pak Ian's house. He is our landlord and neighbor across the way. He has been great so far at helping us get settled in and is our regular "fix-it" man.

Oh, ya and a motor bike passing by- a very frequent occurrence.
If you look closely there is a family of four on it.

Just a normal day?

2010-07-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Wedding Fun

2010-07-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my sister and new brother-in-law!

Sarah and Scott McCulley were married on June 26th, 2010. Their ceremony was held in the same chapel that my parents were married in almost 30 years ago. I was blessed to stand beside my sister in support of this big step and new season in her life. The reception was held in a lovely backyard in Arcadia. The weather was perfect, the decore was gorgeous, the food was so yummy, the dessert was the best- frozen yogurt, the atmosphere was one of celebration and fun.

Here are just a handful of the hundreds of photos that their amazing photographer Marissa Maharaj took.

Field Day

2010-07-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

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.

So cute!

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

2010-07-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

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.

We finally arrived at the small ocean town of Pangandaran.
I love this man and his load of coconuts on his bicycle.

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.

BAIS Talent Show

2010-06-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

This might be my favorite night of the year.

All year I have been working with Student Council as their staff advisor. To be honest it was a new role for me that I found quite challenging. Questions like "how do you challenge students to step up as leaders?" and "how do you develop student leaders with vision and character?" plagued me all year. The group learned a lot, but I think I learned more from working with them.

All year we worked on various projects and put on different events. Our last big project for the year was putting on a talent show to help raise money to put air conditioning in our Multi-Purpose room. As the event drew near I was nervous to see if we were going to be able to pull it off. There were lots of details to sort through and a lack of communication amongst the students at times. However, on the night of it all came together and was fabulous. I loved watching my StuCo kids unite together and work as a team. Each person had a different role in making it all happen- someone ran the lights, another the sound board, another was our emcee; a couple people were in charge of the curtain, a couple people sold tickets, others were stage hands, and someone had the special job of making sure each act was lined up and on stage when they were supposed to be. It took everyone coming together to make it happen and they did a great job!

Here are a few pictures to show some highlights, although it cannot nearly compare to being there in person, hearing the music, and appreciating the various talents at our school.

Bora, one of the 10th grade class reps, helps emcee along with Laura who works in the office.
They were hillarious and made frequent references to how hot it was so people would be
inclined to give money to the AC.

This precious Preschooler opened the show doing hoola-hoop.
We had a wide variety of acts as this picture displays.

We also had staff participate. Here Laura, Molly, and Adam sing "Man of Constant Sorrows,"
with costumes and dance moves to go along.

We were surprised by performances from students who displayed hidden talents.

The Spanish 2 class presented a skit in Spanish.

The Mandarin 2 class followed suit and performed a song in Mandarin.

We had some solo performances from high school students.

As well as group performances from different high school bands.

Our High School principle even joined in and performed a song.

To close the show a group of high schoolers and a couple staff members danced to "Thriller."

They had secretly been practicing and wowed the crowd with their performance.

Here they are again, still in character.

A group of high school girls danced to a famous Korean song.
While they danced a large part of the audience sang along.
Here's the group after the show.

Lastly, this is a shot of me with the group that made the whole event happen-
student council. They rock!

High School Banquet 2010

2010-06-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

The next big event was the high school banquet. This year's theme was "Purple Like Jazz." The night included pictures, dinner, a special power point with pictures of the seniors over the years, speeches to honor the seniors, dessert, and time for more pictures. The Junior class is in charge of this special night to honor the senior class. They spent much of the year planning and getting things ready and did a great job pulling it off. It is always a fun night, where everyone gets dressed up and celebrates the ending of another year.

The Junior class wanted to make it a special night and did a great job serving in various roles.
Some people were in charge of making special welcome drinks, others served them to you as you walked in, while others showed you to your table. The boys all wore bow ties and the girls wore purple flowers in their hair.

This is Chan Yang, one of my favorite students.

I know they tell you you are not supposed to have favorites, but I cannot help it.
He cracks me up.
I believe in this pictures he is supposed to be helping but really looks lost.

This group of girls gathered on Tuesday nights for high school girls' bible study.
We bonded over the semester and will miss those graduating and leaving us.

Me with Joy, one of the 11th grade students.

A view of the beautifully decorated room.

The seniors up on stage to present their "Senior Wills"- a time to give away special things
to students younger then them to continue their legacy as they leave.

This year they decided they wanted to have a "best dressed" contest.
Doowon won for the best dressed male. They gave him a sash and everything.

Class photos:

Senior class

Junior class
(the group that planned and hosted the banquet for the seniors)

Sophomore class

Freshman class

Eighth Grade Banquet

2010-06-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

First event in our end of the year celebrations was the Grade 8 Banquet- a chance to celebrate the end of middle school before the students transition to high school next year.

The banquet was held at a nice restaurant and was followed the next day by a class trip for a couple nights to a beach about 6 hours away.

First the banquet:

Me with one of the few girls in the eighth grade class.

Here is me with all of the girls in the eighth grade.
Yes, out of 22 students only 4 of them are girls.

Me with Paivi, our music teacher.
Her and her family are from Finland and are leaving us this year to move to New York.
She was a good friend and I will miss her.

Class photo.

A goofy one.

Throughout the night each set of parents got a chance to get up and share something for their student. I love this picture because it so embodies middle school. Here Aaron's parents give him a giant huge while he resists it with everything in him.

I love middle schoolers!

At the end of the night the whole class got up and performed a few songs for us. Some students played instruments while others sang. They did a great job and are a very talented group.

Then the next day we set off for the beach. After a long bus ride, through mountainous, curvy roads we arrive. (I would love to say without incident but one of our students got sick along the way and threw up all over himself, his seat, and the floor.)

The kids jumped in the water and played and played all day long.

Here me and Karen, two of the five chaperones for the weekend, watch the
students play in the water.

The waves were huge.
I do believe some of the students in this picture are running away from the water because of it.
They were some of the biggest, roughest waves I have ever been in.

The kids went back and forth from the pool to the ocean all day long.
I loved watching them enjoy themselves and play together.

I love this picture.
It fully represents eighth grade boys and reminds me why I love middle school.

Emma was the only eighth grade girl who chose to come on the trip. So her and I roomed together and spent a lot of time together. It was fun. I am glad we at least had each other. :)

And we all returned home exhausted from the fun.

On the way back our bus broke down three times and I was worried we might not make it.
But we did- all accounted for and all in one piece.

End of the Year Madness

2010-06-18T12:04:00.001-07:00

So the school year has come to a close, in typical fashion- absolute madness. The last month or so was so crazy, overwhelming, stressful, fun, and memorable. I am back stateside now and hanging out with family. I am loving being home and the chance to just relax.

Over the next several days I want to take some time to go back and fill you in on the last few weeks of the year. I am just now getting a chance to sort through the pictures and sit down and write about it all. Thanks for your patience. More to come. Stay tuned.

Sea Tribe 2010

2010-05-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

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 did some dancing.

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

2010-05-09T16:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-06T05:46:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

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.

School Life

2010-04-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Also in March our school had "student-led conferences," where the parents come to school, not to conference with teachers, but their child. The students meet with their parents and lead them in a conference about how they are doing and what they have been learning. The students prepare a portfolio of work to show and also tour their parents around the school. It is a fun time to step back and see how far our students have come since the beginning of the year.

Here are a few pictures someone snapped that I thought I would share so you could get a taste of what goes on in school life here:

She's just too cute not to include :)

It's Been Too Long

2010-04-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

Hi there friends,

Sorry it has been so long since I have really updated this blog. I have been thinking of you all, whoever it is out there in this big world who reads this. Life has been busy, which means there has been lots I have wanted to share but no time to do it. I am going to go all the way back to March now and give a little recap. We celebrated quite a few birthdays involving:
A women's brunch and tea party (well... actually more like latte party). :)
A group adventure hike to a local waterfall.
A very wild and crazy watermelon party.

Silly!

uh oh... one shoe lost in the mud

Yes, I did fall in the mud, that's why I look so covered in mud.

opps backwards... she's turning 25

SO excited!

Laura could not wait to dig into her watermelon cake-
she started eating before we could put candles in and sing. Luckily we had this really
cool fireworks candle to keep the excitement going.

Molly and I pose in watermelon pink and green.

Birthday coloring... fun for all

Glorious

2010-04-23T03:18:00.000-07:00

This past week after school I was outside with some students working on a project. The sun was beginning it's decent and went behind a huge, white cloud. This is the display we saw:

I only have one word for that: GLORIOUS!

The Heavenly Man

2010-04-13T02:54:00.000-07:00

I have not yet read this book, but it is sitting on my shelf.
I bought it over Christmas break and intend to read it one of these days...

After today I am more inspired and motivated than ever. Brother Yun came to our school and spoke. He is traveling around Indonesia right now and took a morning to stop by and speak to our students. All of our middle school and high school students, along with our teachers and some interested parents, gathered during 3rd period to hear him speak. He told the beautiful and awe-inspiring story of how he became a believer. He told of how he got the call to be a messenger of the Good News. He told of a miraculous escape from prision. He also brought a message of hope that the church in China is alive. He said the church in China is growing by a million believers every month! Staggering.

Beyond just the stories he told, I was struck by his visit because nearly 1/3 of our school population is made up of Indonesians. But they do not consider themselves native Indonesians or local to this area. They all are from the upper class here and consider themselves "Chinese Indonesians." When he asked if anyone in the audience had ever been to China, a large percentage of these kids raised their hands. And some of the parents of these kids who came for the event speak Chinese as their native language. I think some of them were listening more to Brother Yun speak in Chinese than they were the English translation. I was reminded again of what an international place BAIS is and of the family of believers we have around the world.

Math Olympics

2010-03-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

A Day to Celebrate Math...
(and as the math teacher that means I am in charge of it)

This year's plan- "Mini Measurement Olympics" for all grades- preschool all the way up to 12th grade.
The little kids made up their own units like tiles and counting. Older elementary did metric units (which is easier for our students here and comes more naturally to them). Secondary students did US customary units to make it more challenging. When I told them that we were not doing metric but instead customary units there was some groaning. It was challenging for them because they do not think in terms of those units normally in their everyday lives. (I did hear some kids throughout the day asking "how many inches are in a foot" or "how many inches are in a meter.") We had a fun day and ended it with an all school assembly where we set up the game show "Hollywood Squares." We chose staff members to be the celebrities in the squares and continued our theme of measurement by asking questions like "How long is the school building?" and "What is the population of the world?"

Here's a bit of a recap of the day.

A beautiful day to be outside and participate in a "mini measurement olympics"

First event- "Paper Plate Discus"

Students had to throw the plate. Then estimate how far they threw in inches.
Then measure the exact distance and see how close they were.

Some discussion amongst the groups

Hmmm... how far would that be in inches

Next event was the "Drinking Straw Javelin"
Students had to throw the straw. Estimate and measure.

Next event was "Left-Handed Sponge Squeeze"
Students had to estimate how much water they could squeeze out of a sponge in fluid ounces.
This was really hard for them; they did not know fluid ounces at all.

Matt the other math teacher looking to see how much volume it is.

Next event was the "Big Foot"
Students had to estimate how many square inches their foot is,
then trace it on graph paper and calculate the actual amount.

The last event I don't have a picture of but it was the "Right-Handed Marble Grab"
Students had to grab a handful of marbles and estimate how much they weighed in ounces.
Then they measured it on a scale to find out the actual weight.

Calculating the difference between their estimate and the actual measure.

This picture cracks me up because there is something about 8th grade boys and climbing...
no matter how many times I told them to not get on this thing they just couldn't stay off.

In the busyness of it all I don't have any pictures of our assembly and Hollywood Squares.
Here's the only thing I do have to show you. These are our squares and celebrities:

Love it! :)

Good Morning

2010-03-15T06:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday morning to you.

The sunrise out my bedroom window one morning last week.

I love mornings.

I don't especially like waking up, but I do like being up early. I like the quiet that
the morning holds before the rush of the day and all the troubles that it brings.

And especially Monday mornings. It feels like they hold so much promise.
Promise of a new start with a new day and a new week upon us.

Lamentations 3:22-24
"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.'"

Weird Things

2010-03-14T06:38:00.001-07:00

Ever since moving to this foreign country I have found myself intrigued by the many bugs and insects that find their way into my world. To be honest I never really grew up around critters. We had the occasional ant and rolly-polly bugs, but nothing like you can find here in the tropics. After two and a half years they have become part of daily life. They don't really freak me out anymore, but they do still catch my attention every so often. We just have such interesting and weird creatures all around... and all the time.

All of these pictures come from around my house or around the school.

And this is my favorite. This frog has been living on my window sill for the past 3 weeks.
My classroom is on the second floor so I have no idea how he got there or why he stays.

Just a few insights into daily life here.

Krakatau {updated}

2010-03-09T05:49:00.000-08:00

Our most recent trip: Krakatoa- the famous volcano.
The volcano is known for its epic explosion in 1883. The eruption was heard as far away as Australia.
This explosion pretty much destroyed the volcano, but a new island is slowly
growing up in the same location- they estimate it is growing about 5 meters a year.
It's called "Anak Krakatau" or baby Krakatoa. Since 1927 it has continued erupting
and mostly recently had erupted just 10 weeks ago. So it was too hot for us to hike
to the top, but we did get out and hike around a bit.

I haven't had time to put together my own Picasa album of pictures from our trip,
but here's the link to the album Aaron created.
He compiled everyone's pictures into one spot. It pretty much sums up our adventure
(which I have a hard time finding the right words to describe).
http://picasaweb.google.com/ads548s2/KrakatauVolcano2010#

Purple Party

2010-03-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

A night out on the town. Friends. Bowling. Motor bikes. Lots and lots of rain. Getting lost. Excitement. Dinner. Cold Burgers. Yummy shakes. Napkins on fire. Silliness. Photos. 24 things to do while 24. Laughter. Theme = Purple.

Happy Birthday Kim!

Fishing in the Swimming Pool

2010-02-26T06:42:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember that last year we turned the area that will eventually be our school's swimming pool into a rice field.

This year our Indonesian workers turned it into a fishing pond.

Last weekend they invited our staff out to join them. It's common here to see small ponds that locals stalk with fish and charge a small fee for people to go fishing in them. So our Indonesian staff blocked off an area of the field that used to be planted with rice and filled it with water. Then they bought a bunch of fish and dumped them in. I asked one of the guys in charge how many fish they had put in and he told me around 150. You would think with all that fish in such a small pond it would be no problem to catch something, but in the whole time with all of us there only 3 fish were caught! One of the Indonesian staff scaled a couple of the fish and barbecued them and insisted that we try. It was delicious.

What a beautiful afternoon. It was so nice to be outside. I loved being with our Indonesian staff and letting them teach me how to fish their way, with their poles. Shortly after we finished it started pouring rain, one of the biggest rains I have ever seen.

I think they all spotted a fish... everyone's pointing

From BBC News

2010-02-24T03:48:00.000-08:00

Search continues for Indonesian landslide survivors

Dozens of people are feared dead after being trapped under piles of mud when a landslide hit a village near the Indonesian city of Bandung.

Heavy rain forced rescue efforts to stop for the night but they resumed after lifting equipment arrived. At least 15 people are known to have died.

Karishma Vaswani reports.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8533729.stm

BAIS 2010

2010-02-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

Each year our administrators from the school go back to the States for an administrators conference with NICS and recruiting new staff for next year. When the are there they show a video to update the rest of the group on our school. It's also used in recruiting, to show people a little bit of the school.

The video for 2010 is kind of artsy. It was made with our theme for this year in mind- with a focus on the arts and specials areas.

I thought I would try to post the video here. I've never done this before so I don't know if it will work. My internet is slow here so I am hoping it will work much better wherever you are... assuming you have faster internet than me :)

Kite Making

2010-02-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

Indonesia is known for it's kites. Normally during dry season you can look up into the sky and see dozens of kites being flown in the sky. It's my favorite. You can also often see dozens of kites stuck in trees or on power lines as you drive around the city. If you have ever seen or read "The Kite Runner" you might have a picture in mind of kite fighting. That also takes place here in Indonesia.

Given the rich culture of kites in Indonesia, I decided to incorporate them into my Geometry class. As we finished up our unit on Quadrilaterals in which we study kites and their properties, I decided to have my class try to make and fly kites.

One of our Indonesian staff is known for his expertise in making traditional Indonesian kites. His name is Pak Oo. I invited him into my class to teach the kids about kites and help us make them. It was much harder than I imagined it would be. According to Pak Oo everything had to be just right, down to the detail of how we tied our knots and where we tied the bamboo together.

It took us a couple of days to make the kites and then we finally got to fly them. That day was a beautiful day, sunny and windy, just right for kite flying. So, so fun.

To view the whole gallery of photos (we took lots!) click here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/KiteMaking#

Otherwise, here is a brief version:

The first step is to tie the two bamboo pieces together.
Just to make sure we had it right Pak Oo marked for us where they should cross.

Getting closer for a better look at how to do the tying.

Pak Oo with the students.

A true international student.

Time for flying... good thing Steven's done this before so he could teach others.

A beautiful day.

Pak Oo made this giant snake kite and then gave it to me when we were done.

I now have it hanging up on the wall in my classroom.

Where did my kite go?

Sang Eun looks like he is having fun.

I think the students enjoyed it... I know I loved seeing them make and fly their kites.

Sisters

2010-01-31T05:06:00.000-08:00

I miss this girl so much!
And maybe the yogurtland a little too ;)

And did I mention I miss this girl also. ;)

I wonder what they are both up to today. I wish they weren't so far away.

"Remember that time we spent all Saturday painting the school?"

2010-01-28T05:34:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if you can say that. I know I can't about my high school years. But my students can.

Last weekend we spent almost the entire Saturday painting the second floor hallway of the school. We had about 30 kids show up to help. With not enough brushes we were not able to keep them all busy. Nearly 6 hours later we only had a small group who endured to the bitter end. They worked hard, had fun, and best of all it looks great. The goal was fading blue- starting light and going darker down the hall. Just one side though. We hope to use the other side to hang class murals... coming soon of course.

A little disarray...

Getting to work...

Lots of blue...

Careful up there Caleb...

Can you see the fading effect?

Not only did they do a good job painting but they did a great job cleaning up.
It took almost an hour to wash all the brushes and pans and mop up the paint that
had gotten all over the tile floor.

Bora on the left was our main Student Council member in charge of this event.
She did a great job and we were able to accomplish a lot in one day.

Our dedicated group that stayed til the end.

I told them to choose their favorite wall and they chose this one.

Birthday Celebrations

2010-01-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

We celebrated my birthday like 13 times this year. Even though my birthday was January 10th it feels like the partying just kept going and finally ended last weekend. Despite all the different celebrations that happened I think this is the best picture I have from my birthday this year:

Or perhaps this one?

But at least we had a cool view at a very fun Vietnamese restaurant:

Despite not having very many pictures of it all, I had some lovely times celebrating with friends here.
I think 25 is going to be a good year :)

Beginning Again

2010-01-19T05:55:00.001-08:00

A new semester is upon us.

I love a new start. Don't you?

It felt like it came so quickly and has been full. Days are filled with the usual lesson planning, grading, copying, meetings, more grading, tutoring kids, giving make-up tests and quizzes, handing out the occasional detention, planning for a student council retreat and sea tribe meeting and of course more grading.

In between the many mundane and routine tasks of teaching lie moments that need to be captured. Teachable moments of speaking blessings on others, building responsibility in middle and high schoolers, challenging my group of leaders, listening to hurting people, and encouraging students and fellow staff members.

I am blessed and challenged by each and every day. Please pray- it's going to be a whirlwind of a semester.

Radical

2010-01-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

: returning to the root or origin.

That is what I did.

Christmas break was lovely and while I was back in America I "returned," as you might say, to the "root." I had the opportunity to meet up with some friends from college in San Luis Obispo, my college town. It was a beautiful time of remembering where I had come from, my roots, and what God had done in my life in college. We went to the beach and watched the sunset. We swung on the swings while watching the waves come crashing in and then going out again, just like I used to do in college. We ate at some favorite restaurants. We enjoyed frozen yogurt and wandered around downtown, window shopping all afternoon. We hiked my favorite mountain, letting the view take our breath away and the cool wind rejuvenate us. We stayed up way too late talking and catching up on all the things that have happened since we left that small town to venture out into the big, big world.

I'm stealing this quote from a friends blog. Yes, I'm one of those. But it so perfectly summed up my feelings about my time of returning for the holidays and especially my time of reflection that weekend I spent back in San Luis Obispo.

"In a sense, it’s the coming back, the return, which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we’ve come back to where we were. Only, where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become, which is, after all, why we left." –Bernard, Northern Exposure

San Luis Obispo

Hiking Bishop's Peak

Lots of laughs and lots of chatting

Enjoying a beautiful sunset with good friends

I love swings. I had forgotten how much.
Sometimes it's the simple things in life.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T00:15:00.000-08:00

Goodbye 2009. What a year.

What will 2010 hold?!?!

I can't wait to find out.

Selemat Tahun Baru!

Lots of Laughs

2009-12-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas was filled with lots of laughter... the way Christmas should be.
I was blessed to be able to fly all the way back to Pasadena to be with my family for the holidays.
Christmas Eve was spent with my dad's side of the family.
Christmas morning was spent with my parents, sisters, and my sister's fiance.
Christmas evening was spent with my mom's side of the family.
And the evening ended with a white elephant gift exchange. A new tradition that I missed last year since I had stayed in Indonesia for Christmas.

This year's white elephant exchange spurred lots of fun and lots of laughter. Here's a taste:

Gathering around the tree and fireplace to open presents. My sister and her fiance.

My cousin Steve enjoys his white elephant gift- a funky hat. My sister with her "Cat-A-Pult".

Someone ended up with the Bumpit, but I can't remember who because everyone had to try it on.

My sister and cousin with their white elephant gifts. My uncle tries out the head massager, quite the gadget.

My little cousin John took over the head massager and gave everyone a chance to experience it.

My little cousin Steve is really into Harry Potter these days. Isn't he cute?

Hope you too had a little bit of fun this Christmas!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T01:00:00.000-08:00

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness has not understood it.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

Merry Christmas to all! Many blessings to you and your family!

Christmas is Coming

2009-12-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

While most of Indonesia does not celebrate Christmas, we sure still do at school. This month we are finishing up first semester and with that comes final projects, tests, and of course exams. But this month we are also doing lots of celebrating. Last weekend we had our school's annual Christmas concert. We heard lots of Christmas music and got to see students from Kindergarten all the way up through high school perform. Last weekend we also had our annual staff Christmas party. We enjoyed visiting together, eating some snacks, and singing Christmas carols. Student Council has been busy at work decorating our school hallways and bringing some Christmas cheer. They also encouraged students to come dressed in red and green for Christmas spirit day. These small things are the reminders we have that Christmas is coming. Otherwise it would be easily forgotten, as you do not see reminders of it when you are out and about around Indonesia.

Thanksgiving Recap

2009-12-07T02:42:00.000-08:00

I know it's already December but we did have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I haven't shared it with you yet.

Turkey

, cranberry sauce, and homemade stuffing. A yummy salad just like my mom's. :) Great conversation. Coconut drinking and a coconut throwing contest. Swimming in the ocean as the sun set. Fireworks on the beach. "The Great Durian War of 2009." Slaughtered rams. Lots and lots of games. Reading and relaxing on the beach. 18 friends, 18 places around one big table, 18 Pilgrim and Indian hats. A very memorable Thanksgiving.

Happy December

2009-12-06T02:45:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe December is already here and well under way at that.

As I sit here typing a mosquito is buzzing around me and I cannot seem to kill it. Despite how much it does not feel like winter or like Christmas is coming, we are attempting to remind ourselves that this is in fact true. This past week we got out the fake tree and other various decorations and transformed our living room into a winter wonderland. We listened to Christmas music and sipped hot chocolate. My roommate asked the 4th graders to make snowflakes and then put them up all over our wall and even hung them from the ceiling. So it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house. How about yours?

White for Harvest

2009-12-02T07:21:00.000-08:00

"Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together."

Loveology

2009-11-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-22T03:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T07:35:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-10-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

On Friday I took the 10th graders on a class trip to the hot springs. I felt like they needed some bonding time as a class so I arranged for us to leave during lunch and miss 7th and 8th period on friday. The drive was an hour and a half up some windy roads (and I felt very sick by the time we got there). We arrived and some of our group went paint balling while others just walked around the large resort area. Then we spent some time in the hot springs. The water was so hot I could barely stay in it for more than a couple of minutes. On the way home we stopped for roasted corn on the side of the road before driving a little further and stopping for dinner. We went to a local favorite and ate chicken and rice. It was very fun to have the whole group of 24 people all around one table. So many fun memories together. I think we might have bonded.

Here's a recap!

Bye bye school

Yay! Skipping out on the end of the day...
what else would get all twenty 10th grade students there.

Let's go!

Some of our guys (and a couple girls who aren't pictured) went paint balling.

A beautiful sunset

The guys played poker for awhile around the pool...

and bet push ups.

Hanging out in the hot water

Shhh... don't tell him I'm here

Getting pushed in

Jumping and splashing and having fun

But most importantly, hanging out together.

Time to head out. Here are most of the girls from the class
(with one boy who snuck in there).

A quick stop to enjoy some roasted corn

Dinner time!
We ordered two different kinds of chicken- ayam bakar and ayam goreng.

And we ordered lots of each! But ate it all- so yummy.

All of us gathered around one table.

And then we walked out of the restaurant and I noticed this hanging up. I just
couldn't resist taking a picture with it. Where else would you see something
like this hanging outside a restaurant. Only in Indonesia!

And where else would you get to hang out with such great students and get to
take a class trip like this. Only in Indonesia!

Creepy Crawler

2009-10-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I was walking around a really cool garden. It was cool and quiet and there was a small stream running through it. I was following the path and then turned to continue along toward the stream. I was passing this tree when all of a sudden I realized this giant spider was in my face (and about the size of my face)! It made me jump back, startled. Before moving on I whipped out my camera and snapped a quick shot. Indonesia has the strangest creatures.

Class Photos

2009-10-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

Each year on picture day the classes get to pick where they want to take their class photo. Classes are getting more and more creative with their class photos. Sometimes elementary classes just do something simple like take it out on the playground or take it in a special place in their classroom.

This year the 8th graders chose to go to the Kindergarten classroom and pretend they were Kindergarteners. The 12th grader took their photo out on top of the large dirt pile where they are building the soccer field. The 9th graders took a couch out to the middle of the road and took theirs there.

This year I am 10th grades class sponsor. My class decided they wanted to re-enact the earthquake that we had earlier in the year for their class photo.

When the earthquake happened they were in English class with Mr. Schaffer. Apparently all sorts of funny things were said and they had a bunch of inside jokes from this bonding event as a class. As they felt the earthquake start the students climbed under the desks but then a student jumped out and started yelling, "Guys it's just a simulation." Another student right away called his mom and told her to send the car and driver. Apparently Mr. Schaffer, still new to our school and to earthquakes, climbed under his desk with the evacuation/emergency flip chart and was frantically flipping through trying to read what the proper procedure was for responding during an earthquake.

So for the photo they made funny signs of all these things and posed for the camera. They are so fun. I really enjoy them and look forward to working with them this year.

Now just a silly one.

And of course a serious one.

Hope Amidst the Rubble

2009-10-14T03:36:00.000-07:00

Some of you who are up on current events may have heard about the earthquake that happened in Indonesia at the beginning of November. Some have even been asking if I'm ok. I am sure by now you assume you would have heard something if I wasn't, but just to clear the air I am alright.

The earthquake measured 7.6 and hit the island of Sumatra (a different island than the one I live on). I don't know the exact stats (and strangely couldn't find it when I did a quick search online) but last I heard they were estimating up towards 1000 people have died as a result of the earthquake. Many more were injured and many people lost their homes and businesses. Efforts are still being made to dig through the rubble and help those who have been hurt. The largest city near the epicenter is the city of Padang. Padang is the capital and largest city of West Sumatra (located on the coast). The landlord of the house we live in actually lives in Padang. After a couple weeks we finally heard from him and he is alright, but his store collapsed and was destroyed.

While we have not been directly effected here (we are way too far away to have felt the earthquake), there are indirect effects that are reaching us. Several of the dads of my students are in Padang right now helping in the relief efforts. A few of them drove all the way there and took supplies and donations to give away. At church and school we are collecting clothes and other items along with money that might be given to those who are without basic necessities because of the earthquake. If you would like to give to the relief efforts that are happening through the expats that live here and are seeing the needs first hand, send me an email and I can get you information on how to give.

Here's just a few pictures to bring the devastation to life:

(Photo taken from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33085687/)

(Photo taken from http://www.theage.com.au/world/second-quake-hits-
sumatra-as-death-toll-soars-20091001-gd43.html)

And some photos sent back from one of the dads in Padang right now:

In the midst of the rubble these children are laughing.

Helping those who are injured and sick.

He drove his truck (filled with goods to give away) all the way to Sumatra.

Nearly 25 schools have been destroyed. Here's a temporary school
building set up by some of the relief workers.

Another truck load of goods to be distributed. Apparently the
Spanish government sent some representatives to give away a million
dollars. Somehow this dad got connected with them and has been
helping them with translation and distribution of donations.

hope amidst the rubble

Penang- Malaysia Trip Part 3

2009-10-05T02:46:00.001-07:00

And finally. Last but not least (in fact probably my favorite).

Here's part 3:

Penang

Penang is a small island connected to the rest of Malaysia by a bridge. We took a very nice bus from KL to Penang. It took us about 5 hours of traveling before we arrived, but they served us Subway sandwiches and supposedly had wifi on board (although none of us had a computer to test it out). I think we all thoroughly enjoyed this leg of the trip as the bus was nice and it gave us a chance to just relax. Here's the closest thing we have to a group photo (everyone except Krystle):

We stayed at a great hotel on the beach. We enjoyed a beautiful ocean view.

Even though it was beautiful we didn't end up spending much time on the beach. We stayed pretty busy trying to fit other things in while we were there. We enjoyed going to the top of Penang Hill, the highest point on the island. We took an old and very slow cable car up to the top. I think it took us about 30 minutes and we had to change cable cars half way up. They crammed a lot of people in together which made for quite a clastrofobic and uncomfotable trip. As you can see below we were the only white faces in the crowd. There was a great view from the top of the whole island.

Of course while we were in Penang we enjoyed some good food. We had a great dinner at an Indian restaurant one night with some staff from the international school in Penang that we met up with while we were there.

I think one of my favorites was the wet market that we went to for breakfast. It's a market with a bunch of food stalls that is only open in the mornings. We went because it was recommended by some friends that used to live in Penang. It was so good we had to wake up early the following morning to go back again before we headed to the airport to catch our plane. At the wet market we found a great Indian family. The husband fried the roti (bread) and the wife made the coffe and tea. Here she is pouring the thick, strong coffee out of her home made strainer. Then she adds sweeten condensed milk and pulls it to cool it down before adding ice to make it ice coffee. Oh so good! I want to go back just to get some more of it. :)

And lastly, we enjoyed an afternoon at Penang's butterfly farm. It took us awhile to get there and find it, but eventually we did (just a long bus ride and 3 km walk). Once we were there we saw a bunch of beautiful butterflies. But the highlight was getting a chance to hold some cool insects. Somehow I picked up quite an afinity for bugs and so I was excited to hold the different creatures they brought out for us.

Kuala Lumpur- Malaysia Trip Part 2

2009-10-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

Continuing on in the stories from our trip.

Here's part 2:

Kuala Lumpur

The hotel we stayed at was quite sketchy. It kind of made me feel like we had entered haunted mansion at disneyland. It wasn't so gross that we felt the need to leave, just had a bit of a creepy feel and made us want to stay up late and make a horror film.

The hotel from the outside, my roommate Kim waiting for the very old elevator, and the leaky roof plus rain caused the need for buckets throughout the hallways.

A very scary looking bellman helps us to our room, the girls hanging out, and the boys dig doughnuts out of the trash (because the breakfast food at the hotel was just that bad).

Some cool sights around the city- a couple very tall towers (neither of which we got to go up) and a busy night market.

Navigating through public transportation (we figured out the metro system and took it often... we saved a lot of money by avoiding taxis and doing this instead)

One of our days in KL we spent at an amusement park an hour outside of the city. We had to take a 30 minute gondola ride to the top of the mountain where the amusement park was. We enjoyed the cool weather up in the clouds. We did not enjoy all of the long lines and fighting our way through the crowds from the holiday weekend.

Traveling- Malaysia Trip Part 1

2009-09-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been wanting to share our trip to Malaysia with you but wasn't sure where to start. So I kept putting it off and putting it off. In an attempt to try to tell you some tidbits about the trip I will break it up into parts.

Here's part 1:

Traveling.

We had a week vacation for Idul Fitri this year. I love vacation and traveling. Usually with just a couple days we take a trip within Indonesia but because we had a whole week I thought it would be fun to travel to a different country and see some things outside of Indonesia. We chose Malaysia for the destination. There were 9 total of us who were up for the adventure (Molly, Kim, Krystle, Jennie, Laura, Scott, Aaron, Joel, and I). This is kind of a big group to take on such a journey. With our bags packed, plane tickets in hand, and hotel reservations made we set out to see what cool things we might find.

We took a car from where we live in Kota Baru to the airport in Bandung. I thought it would be more fun if we all squeezed into one car for the first leg of the trip. With all of us and our luggage we barely fit. I am in there somewhere.

Once we got to the airport and checked in we were walking to our gate when we encountered this sign. It kind of looks like choose your own adventure. If you choose Kuala Lumpur go to the left. If you choose Singapore go to the right. I guess those are the only two options. Choose wisely.

Next we hung out in the Bandung airport waiting for our flight.

Finally we got to board. Here's our gang walking to the plane.

Off we go. Once boarding we got a special upgrade and were asked if we would like to move to the emergency exit seats for extra leg room. Yes please.

Lastly, after landing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia we took a bus from the airport to the center of the city. This trip took about an hour and was filled with some chat pack questions and the start of some inside jokes.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Kuala Lumpur.

Mohon Maaf

2009-09-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

Ramadan came to an end last night. The local people stayed up all night praying. And when I say praying this is not a private, stay in your own closet kind of thing. Praying here is very much a public, communal affair. All the people gather at mosques to pray together. And those not present can still join in because they make sure to blare it all over the loud speakers. So as I lay in bed last night trying to get some sleep, I was constantly reminded that I was not there participating with them. And when I woke up this morning they were still going strong- sermons and chanting blaring outside my bedroom.

But all of this also means Ramadan is over, to which celebrating should be given. And a group of us are taking off for vacation since they gave us a week off of school. We will be going to Malaysia. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures and stories to share when I return.