Crazy Weekend

Happy Sunday! Just a quick note here. Hope you all are having a great day! Ours was full, though not what we expected.

I had to miss most of class Friday because I had some strange bug. I was weak and nauseous and flat to bed all day. (Praise: It was a 24 hour thing!) After feeling well all day on Saturday, we went for a walk as a family after dark and I twisted my ankle when my foot slipped of the paved edge of the road. Thankfully, there hasn’t been too much swelling, and I’m able to walk on it a bit, though not as much as normal. Because of that, instead of going to the local Church this morning (for the first time, as we had planned), we had church at home as a family. Also, I had plans to go to the Ibu-Ibu meeting today, but had forgotten about a small group meeting that was taking place at our home at the same time. So I’ll have to wait until next month to join the Ibu’s for the meeting.

Prayer Requests:
1. Quick healing for my ankle (Praise- we have the bike and don't have to walk to school)

2. Tomorrow Josh is to play the special number on his guitar in Chapel. I’m not sure which Christmas Carol he’s chosen. Please pray for him – he hasn’t had too much time to practice. I’m sure I’ll wake up tomorrow to the sound of him practicing.

3. Also, please pray for Spencer - he seems to have some sort of bug, too. Might be parasites, though, so we all took a treatment. Hope he does better tomorrow. He was pretty miserable tonight. No fever, normal body functions but just felt yucky, didn't want to eat and only wanted to lie around. So, we'll see tomorrow how he's doing. If this treatment does the trick, great, if not, we'll take him to the lab for some tests to see if we're missing something.

Thanks for upholding us in prayer - we couldn't do this without your partnership!

A First For Me

Today I had a "first" experience you might be interested in. I was invited to join a Women’s Bible Study that met this afternoon. The invitation came by way of a photocopied notice left on our porch furniture yesterday afternoon. The person who left it would have known for sure that I was a believer, or it wouldn’t have been left.

The study took place in the home of a lady who lives a five minute walk from our house. I didn’t know her name (the invitation said “Ibu ______’s house - no address) so Josh checked with a friend of his who is a believer and he said his wife would stop by and pick me up on her way there. We walked in the rain, each carrying our own umbrella.

It started at 4:30 with women arriving and shaking hands when they entered the home of the hostess. Everyone shook everyone else’s hand. Each time a person entered the room, they went around and shook the hands of everyone already present. After a while, the lady who was leading it started (in the local language, of course). The study was about grace and the reference was Ephesians 1: 3-8. (I only know that because the leader was a western lady who’d been living in the neighborhood for 8-10 years, and as the ladies were gathering, she told me what it would be about.)

After she was finished, an hour later, we sang a number of songs from books the ladies all had a copy of. There were no musical instruments – there were just numbers above the words and they all followed the tune. Someone prayed, then some women shared testimonies, maybe related to the lesson (?) (I know because I know the word for testimony and it sounded like the ladies were telling stories about their experiences – also they used “normal” words.) Then more songs, some prayer requests (they wanted me to pray but I only know the basics – thanks for this day and please help us to learn - from school – so I declined) and then they passed an offering plate – a bowl covered with a towel. Only, I didn’t know it was an offering plate – I thought it was communion or something so I peeked under the towel. When I saw cash, I put the towel back (I hadn’t brought any money– didn’t know what to expect at all) and passed it on. Then there was more praying.

After that they brought out a snack – not sure what it was – it was flat and circular and had some egg/greens or something with a side of very hot peppers that the ladies were all casually eating. The egg thing tasted good. The pepper was too hot for me. There were also some lovely cakes which I declined, having already experienced their style cakes – pretty but mostly flavorless and somewhat dry – not sweet really. There was also a side of salak – which is snakeskin fruit. Ladies mostly put those into the bags provided and took them home to their families.

It was over after 6:00. Most of the time that this study was going on, there was a terrific thunderstorm going on as well. Sometimes it was so loud I could hardly hear the speaker – wait, maybe that was also because they speak fairly softly here! In all, there were 12 local ladies  and 2 westerners in attendance. I was able to understand about 30% or so of what they were saying – but the trade langauge was mixed with the local dialect, so that’s not surprising. Also, I haven’t gotten to the unit in school where they teach you “Spiritual Vocabulary”. I did write down some of the words I heard a lot so I can look them up!

Itu pengalaman saya. (That was my experience.)

My next great "first" experience will be… Sunday afternoon. I have an “ibu-ibu” meeting – that would be “Mrs-Mrs” in English. Yes, a ladies meeting – all of the women in our neighborhood get together once a month on the 10th at 4:30. Will let you know what I experience!

The day my kids flew...

This afternoon I took Spencer with me as I ran some errands on the motorbike. (No worries - we wore helmets and I can't usually get over 40 km/h here anyway as traffic is...very different than home! I do enjoy driving the bike.) I spent some time in a fabric shop (toko kain) as well, talking with the ladies there.

As you know, each morning we have to do a “pengalaman” or an oral report of our experience from the previous day. This morning my pengalaman basically consisted of a run-down of what I did yesterday – after school and lunch, I studied and then decorated the house and a small Christmas tree. I went on to say that when the kids woke up, they were excited to see the decorations – but I misspoke. Instead of saying “when the kids “bangun” – which is “wake up”, I said, - when the kids “terbang” which means, “when my kids FLEW”. Actually, the teacher didn’t catch it, probably because he was writing down some other word I used or pronounced incorrectly, but Josh caught it and whispered it to me when I sat down! We had a good laugh over that one!

Prayer request: Mitchell is running a fever of over 101 degrees. Not quite sure why as there are not really other symptoms other than a headache. Please pray that it resolves itself quickly or that we’ll know what to do if it doesn’t. Thanks!

Blah Day

Good morning to you all. Thanks for your prayers! Julia was a happy and healthy little girl today, so that was an answer to prayer.

On the other hand, I was not as happy. I felt kind of down today and struggled through the morning. It may have been related to the fact that it was overcast and though it was humid, it hadn’t rained in several days. I had no energy and no enthusiasm for what I usually enjoy. By noon I just wanted to go home (I mean HOME – to the US). We had some rain this afternoon so that was nice.

I decorated (sort of) for Christmas this afternoon. Some friends loaned us a 2 foot tree and I brought a few decorations. I hung up the stockings and set out the few snowmen I brought from my collection. The kids were very enthused about the decorations when they woke up from their naps. After supper we took a walk together and now the kids are in bed. I’m heading that way soon.

Anyway, please pray for me as the Lord brings me to your mind. I know I learn better when I’m excited about what’s being taught, plus it’s a bummer to be down. I know this is where the Lord has me, and I’m counting on Him to be enough for me even when I’m homesick (which may also be the case). Thanks!

PS - The book worked out well this morning! I only had a few corrections!

The Lady With The Alligator Purse

We started Unit 3 on Thanksgiving Day. This unit will focus much more on grammer, so we'll see how I do. They don't have tenses at all - you can say "I drink tea" and it could mean that you did drink tea, that you will drink tea, that you always drink tea and so on. It all depends on the context. They have many prefixes, suffixes and affixes though, and sometimes with those, the meaning of the word completely changes. Also, (this is fun) for some things, if there are more than one, you say the word twice - like, "anak" is the word for child, so if you want to say "children" you say "anak-anak".

We tried out a new pool for the kids on Saturday - it's on the fourth floor of a newly remodeled hotel in town. Not sure we'll be back to swim, unless they put some heat in - it has a roof over it and the water was FREEZING! It was a nice place to go for coffee or something, though. It had a great view of the surrounding area and they offered binoculars to take a look. It would probably be cool to check out the surrounding area at night!

This evening we met with some of the other language students with our organization and sang choruses for a hour. At the conclusion of the hour, Julia threw up. What a mess! I had to take care of her, so 3 or 4 of the ladies there took care of the mess for us. How humbling to have others clean up a mess of that sort for you. Thankfully it was on the tile floor. One of the ladies took out a clean disposible diaper and absorbed the moisture! How enterprising! Julia mostly lay around for a few hours after we got home, but wanted to eat before we put her into bed. We'll keep an eye on her until we go to bed.

Now, on to The Lady with the Alligator Purse. This book has been the source of many giggles in our family. Now I'm taking it to the next level. Each morning in class we have to do an oral presentation. At first it had to be about our experiences. After two months of this, they're probably getting bored with "After class I went home. I ate lunch. I studied. I went to bed." Now we're allowed to expand it more and tell a story - true or false, from our childhood or past experiences or whatever we want. (One classmate told a story about a purse snatcher on the bus who tried to steal her purse. She said she punched him in the face. Then he started sobbing and asked her to pray with him. Then she admitted it wasn't true. BUT she did learn new vocabulary so it was OK!) Anyway, to mix it up a little, this evening I translated the book "The Lady With The Alligator Purse". I doubt our instructors have ever heard THIS story!! Can't wait for "pengalaman" time!

Have a great day and thanks for praying for us. Please pray the Julia feels better in the morning!

PS - One side effect from this immersion is that we are having a very difficult time writing in English anymore. Also, half the time, the local language comes out of our mouths instead of English, without prior thought. (Example, On Saturday Josh was in the other room and he called my name. My response? "Apa?" It means "What?") Guess that's good but it's been funny trying to type in English and having our fingers do strange stuff!

Every Evening

We get to see this incredible sight. Enjoy!


























Sometimes we also get to see this! (Last night waiting for friends to come over!)

Opor Ayam

Opor Ayam is the name of one of our family’s new favorite comfort foods. We had it for lunch today and mmmmm! What a treat! I’ll give you the recipe to try on your own. You should be able to get most of the ingredients, if not all of them, at either the grocery store or at your local Asian market. (Milwaukee has a number of places you could get these ingredients. If you need directions, let me know!) We love chunks of carrot and potato in the broth as well. The way we eat it is: we put rice into our bowl, then add the broth and vegetables and chunks of chicken. I usually take the chicken off the bone post-cooking so that it’s easier for the kids to eat.

Opor Ayam (Chicken in Coconut Milk)

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)
1.5kg (3lb) roasting chicken or chicken pieces
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1½ teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
3 kemiri or brazil nuts, finely grated
3 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground fennel
½ teaspoon laos powder (optional) (or 1/2” of galangal, peeled)
4 tablespoons oil
2 medium onions, finely sliced
2 cups thin coconut milk
6 curry leaves
1 stem lemon grass or 3 strips thinly peeled lemon rind
5cm (2 inch) piece cinnamon stick
1½ cups thick coconut milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice or tamarind liquid
extra salt to taste

Divide chicken into serving pieces. In a small bowl (food processor or mortar & pestle), combine garlic, salt, pepper, ginger, nuts, coriander, cumin, fennel and laos (if used). Mix to a paste, adding a little of the oil if necessary. Rub paste well into the pieces of chicken and leave for 1 hour.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan and fry the sliced onion slowly until golden brown. Drain from oil and set aside. Add remaining oil to pan and fry the spiced chicken pieces gently, just until they start to colour. Add thin coconut milk, curry leaves, lemon grass (or rind) and cinnamon stick. Stir until it comes to the boil, then cook uncovered for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender. Add thick coconut milk, stir thoroughly and cook for a further 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and season to taste with extra salt. Remove whole spices. Garnish with fried onions (can use French's onions in a can - we use shallots fried crispy) and serve the chicken with white rice, vegetables and sambals (hot sauces).
Enjoy!

My Desktop Photo: Missing Fall

I would never show you a picture of my actual desk's top – I actually can’t see it myself. We have yet to buy a filing cabinet so we’re using the stacking method of organization. (OK, I admit, I use that method with or without a filing cabinet!)

Anyway, I love the picture I have on my computer desk top and wanted to share it with you. (Josh took it early in the morning last November out our back window - see the sunrise?) I showed it to our helpers this afternoon, and they thought that the colored stuff on the tree was flowers. They were amazed when they saw a close-up shot and saw that they were leaves!

All of this happened because I made sugar cookies shaped like maple and oak leaves and finished them with orange icing – I gave them each one and they had no idea what it was! How fun to share a bit of what’s familiar to us with people who have never heard of it!

::Raindrops Are Falling On My Head::

Remember that song?? The Carpenters. I was singing that song the other day...

It’s fixed now (not sure for how long…) but… the other day I was outside enjoying a storm – they’re incredible here. The kids were in and out and at some point I thought I should go in and check on things inside. We’d had a leak in the kids’ bedroom (right over Spencer’s pillow, no less) a couple of weeks ago, so I wanted to make sure the computer was covered, etc. I walked into the kitchen and found it raining inside!! There was about a centimeter (1/2 inch or so?) of water all over the kitchen floor. Rain was running off my kitchen counters and even dripping off the light bulb overhead! Enjoy the pictures (see the splashes on the floor?)!

Over the Top

On Friday I received delivery of a couple of shirts (I’d ordered) from the seamstress. (I can’t buy clothing in this country – most westerners can’t cause we’re so much bigger than the nationals here.) I was thrilled to have them because I need them for school, but disappointed that they didn't fit right. I emailed all the westerners in town and asked if anyone had a sewing machine that I could borrow. To my dismay, no one has one. (I left mine at home in the U.S.) I didn’t know what to do – I couldn’t wear them that way – and I didn’t have time to get back to the seamstress' place, which is a ways away.

Then Josh had an idea. He’d met a girl and her boyfriend on one of his walks with the kids, and remembered that her mom was a seamstress. She lives a short walk from our home. We took the kids on a walk this afternoon and her mom had time to fix the shirts right away. I took 2 home with me, already fixed and will pick up the other two tomorrow afternoon after school and my session with my tutor.

So, it's a relief to have it taken care of. (Total cost: $2 USD) My t-shirts have been washed at least once a week since we got here and are looking pretty worn. I also can’t replace those here, so I didn’t want them completely worn out the first 6 months! To "top" it off, I’ve made a new friend and had about an hour of “live language” time in the home of a neighbor! I am so thankful!!

As Long As They're Big It's OK...

OK, here’s a real missionary story. We’ve lived here for 3 ½ months, and we have seen roaches in the house many times. Generally this is how it goes: I see a roach by the back door or in the kitchen area, I grab the Raid Max and spray the horrid thing and it dies. Then I proceed to spray all the screens and drains and we find another couple of dead ones in the morning, all big ones. (I was told on my first week here that as long as they’re big it’s OK, cause that means that they’re not having babies in your house.) OK, I can live with that.

Anyway, on Friday we got a dresser from another missionary’s house – they didn’t need it and the one the boys were using was falling apart. When I went to open to drawers to put clothes in, a roach was in it. He ran for cover – in my direction. I screamed when I felt him run down my capris and my bare calf. Josh came running and killed the roach. We sprayed down the dresser and left the room for a bit. When I came back in there was a smaller roach also dead and another one had escaped from the room and was running around drunkenly – it was just a matter of time.

Fast forward to this evening – let me just say that until this time there hasn’t been a roach in the bedrooms or in the dressers, nor in the food or anywhere in the kitchen besides the floor. (I did find a scorpion on a pair of pants I’d left on the floor once, but I found it before it found me.) This evening I opened the cutlery drawer in the kitchen to find a roach scuttling about in the serving spoons. I called for Josh and he took the drawer outside, chased the roach out and killed it. Then I proceeded to boil water to pour over all of the contents of the drawer and the other two drawers as well. When it got to boiling, I poured it over, then realized I hadn’t let it boil for 5 minutes, so who knows if that was safe. By that time I was calmer and I decided that was all I was going to do about that – besides tell you all. So that was my adventure for the weekend.

I will get out that recipe for powder you put in hard to reach places to kill roaches. (Pray that I find borax at the store!) I was hoping I wouldn’t need it but obviously I will. I am thankful that I can get up at night and not have roaches scuttling in all directions like my parents had to deal with in PNG. That might about do me in (or I’d never get up at night!).

Thanks for your prayers for us. We do so need them every day! It’s sure not boring living here, though a trip to Target or something sounds pretty exciting to me now! :)

Typical Saturday

This morning Josh got up at 6:00 and was at a friend's house by 6:30 to go for a bike ride (bicycle). They drove for approximately 2 hours. Josh said that he was able to see one of "our" mountains from the other side from the place they decided to turn around.

While he was gone, I was sleeping and the kids were watching a Looney Tunes DVD (thanks, Jodi!). When he got home, we were eating breakfast. Then we "called" Nana & Papa (my folks) on Skype and talked for a bit.

When we were done, we took public transportation to the pool and did some swimming practice with the boys and Julia. Spencer is doing really well with swimming, and Mitchell started "paddling" with his hands today! Yay! He was kicking really well but still sinking a lot. The deep end is 4 feet deep or so. Julia is mostly fearless in the water, so we'd love for her to start to swim soon too!

We came home for lunch and now they're all down for a nap. Might do some homework today so I can relax tomorrow. I also bought some butter the other day (expensive here but available some places) to make some leaf-shaped sugar cookies. I know fall is mostly over at home, but we can't tell here, so I'm still going to do it!!

Anyway, here's a picture of Josh and a classmate role-playing the day's text. One of our pelatihs (pronounced "pilates", translation:instructors) are standing by explaining something.

Unit 2 - Halfway Through!

Hello! In case you all got a bunch of emails from us - sorry - I was cleaning up the blog. I wasn't sure if it would send them or not.
Anyway, it's a hot & muggy afternoon here. It looks like rain, so I hope Josh remembers to pick up ponchos for himself and for Mitchell, who went out with him on the moped to run errands.

Yes, we finally have wheels - 2 wheels total! We bought a Yamaha moped last week. Another step in blending in and living like local people (we can't do anything about Josh's height or coloring). It's incredible to us to see all of the bikes everywhere! They outnumber cars and truck by far!! And what's even more funny is the amount of people they fit on just one bike!! We've seen up to 4 adults, or 5 people if it's a family (the mom holding the baby in her arms). Josh has taken all 3 kids out at the same time but I don't plan on trying that for a long time. The kids are really cute in their helmets. As for me, I don't like the helmet much (so hot to wear), though I do wear it. It's already got makeup all over it, but the other day when I was driving in a downpour I was glad for the visor. (Too bad the visors don't come with windshield wipers! The downpours are like taking a shower!) I haven't gone too far from home on the bike yet, but I'm becoming more and more comfortable driving it. I still have to think about which side of the road I should be on when I take turns.

We are already halfway finished unit 2!! We continue to learn an incredible amount of vocabulary, though we're into grammar now as well. (More of a struggle for me as I was never good at grammar in English - but Josh is in his element!) Each morning we have to give an oral presentation. It used to take quite some time to prepare them, as we had to look up many words in the dictionary. Now we are not allowed to read them, so rather than prep, we just get up to the front of the class and improvise. It's good in that it helps us to think on our feet.
Anyway, I need to get studying. A classmate is coming over later to study vocabulary with me so I have to get my homework done this afternoon! Have a great day and thanks for praying for us. Overall we're doing well, with a little homesickness here and there. Thanks to all of you who send notes. We love to hear from you!!

Unit 1 Update

I just realized it's been almost a month since we updated the blog, so here's an excerpt from a letter I sent to a friend last weekend...

We're doing well here. We have completed the first 2 weeks of Unit 1 in language study. I have really been enjoying classes. I missed 2 days the first week due to some parasite (we think), so it was good to be able to attend them all this week. I've been cataloging the vocab we've learned and we're at over 500 words in 2 weeks. Josh and I have been quizzing each other, but there are a lot of words that aren't in our "instant recall" yet (nor are they expected to be)! We do a lot of text role-play and drills in class.

In our unit we have 3 Koreans, an Aussie and 3 Americans (including us). They split the Asians and the Westerners up as we have different challenges in learning the language. Our class has a lot of fun together, but we're very diverse. Josh is the only male student, then there's a 29 year old single lady from AZ, a mom of older teens (the Aussie) and me.

So that's the current situation. We have 2 more weeks in this unit and then we have evaluations. I'm looking forward to seeing how the pilates (instructors) think I'm doing. Thanks for your prayers for us during this time. It would be easy to be overwhelmed but so far we're not, and we're so thankful.

TPR - Total Physical Response

We went to the pasar (market) Thursday and had some TPR - Total Physical Response time on Friday - basically we point at a picture we took during the cultural excursion and ask the helper "Apa ini" or what's that? Then they say what it is. We ask a number of times and just listen to the national person say what it is. Then they say in the trade language - "Point to the ....." and then we point to whatever they say. Then they say, take the ....... and put it (on top of, underneath, to the right of, to the left of) this item. So we do that, Josh and I taking turns to follow the instructions. So far we are not expected to try to say the word - they just want us to get used to hearing the language. But we do say the words when we practice at home - at least in our heads if not aloud. We also take time with the language helper to record their voice saying each item correctly, so we listen to that over and over at home. We've learned a lot of words this way already. The main topics so far have been transportation and things related to transportation and the market and food you'd find there.

We have one more week of this National Culture & Language Acquisition (NCLA), and then on Fri. Sept 15 we have language school orientation. The following Monday we start our first unit.

Josh and I have been walking to NCLA every day and back home again - 15 minutes each way. Church this morning was a short walk. We're not allowed to drive for several months for various reasons including the different traffic patterns here, so we have to walk, have someone drive us, take Josh's bicycle or take public transportation (which is safe and convenient but doesn't run after sunset (around 5:45) and sometimes is quicker to walk).

There are 3 mountains surrounding our town here. We can see 1 or 2 from our front porch depending on how hazy or cloudy it is - we haven't had too many clear days. It's hard to get a good picture of the mountains from this distance.

OK - tried twice (at 15 minutes each) to post pics, so will skip that for now and put the kids down for their naps. Thanks for your prayers. We continue to be encouraged and excited to learn the language here.