Moving into the Jungle

Our friend Joanna hanging out at a "jungle water park" with tribal kids

Following is a copy of an email from one of the missionaries we studied language with.  She is preparing to move into a tribe to begin language and culture study.  Kubili is her co-worker.  We really enjoy her spirit and sense of humor (which is almost required to live in a third world country).  

As for house planning stuff…at times it has all the excitement of beating one’s head against the wall! J  The excitement of being to every store in a 60 mile radius to find something and never succeeding!!!  My favorite “adventures” have been in the area of mistakenly trying to get people to special order the 101 things we are looking for that seem to have mysteriously  vanished out of every store in (region). J  I am looking for these “Onyx” plastic dishes that they have all over this country…but there is no complete set in one design pattern to be found for the life of me. So instead of just accepting that I am going to have world’s most random collection of kitchenware…I get all anal and try “problem-solving”  by thinking…..”if I could just get a store to order what I want……….it would save me a headache and how hard could that be….”  So I attempt to put this plan into action …like ten people are called to try and help the "whitey" with her “too far outside the box” idea…..until finally they have the guy  who can REALLY help me.  So I start all over again…explaining my cool plan….and to my “delight” he says…“Oh yes,  we already ordered just what you are looking for……..we just don’t know when it will arrive…maybe besok (tomorrow)!”  I manage to verify with a straight face that he has miraculously already ordered the design and type of dishes that I am looking for and he insists that yes indeed he has! J  See…now THAT is truly customer service. J  Mind reading and special ordering weeks before I even go shopping in that store…. Apparently I had finally driven my poor little store friends to have to resort to the big fat lie approach. J Kubili and I do laugh and agree that if nothing else it is quite effective.  I mean it shut me up.  What else can I say to that…….well, plenty I could say I guess  but that didn’t fall into rude category like  “Liar, Liar Pants On Fire....:J  And the good news is that we don’t actually believe their blatant customer lies …I won't be wasting any more trips to that store to see if my dishes are in yet. J 

 So after that long diatribe of mine…you can now truly share in some of our “excitement and joy” when you keep sending bushels and bushels of "help" to (region) for building funds. J  And just so ya know the “success” of finding things and buying them is that much more festive!!!!  Like getting the last two LPG tanks yesterday.  I thought Kubili was gonna hug the guy….:) 

So, thanks for your part in making these memories possible! J

If you think of it, please pray for them as it can be quite frustrating at times to try to find things you need.  Beyond that, it will be a challenge as they will have to build a house in the tribe (I would think the other coworkers would help as much as they can, as well as tribal men they can hire to cut the wood for the house, etc), then make it as usable as possible for an office and living area while they start spending time with the people in order to learn their language and why they do the things they do.  I believe they will also be spending time in the gardens with tribal women and will have to learn to eat many of the staples that the tribal people rely on.  Their tribe is mainly accessible at this time by heli so every trip in or out is very expensive.  This is a great undertaking made possibly only by their reliance on the Lord to be their strength!  We greatly appreciate these women!

Conference

Feb 11-16th was the Regional Conference for our organization.  As Josh and I are part of the admin team here in town, we were involved in the planning and implementation of the event.  We also got to attend! :)  It was a crazy few days leading up to the event, coordinating "duties" for each colleague to make sure all the needs were met for the 80 people attending.  We had some guests, but most were our colleagues and their children.  We enjoyed worship and teaching times in English as well so updates from those who work interior.  It was great to hear about their joys as well as their struggles and to be able to pray together for them.

Prayer time - a different team gave an update and were prayed for each morning

We enjoyed lunches and suppers together.  Lunches were ordered in packets - usually rice, a veggie (usually a steamed green or raw "coleslaw" or cucumber) and a piece of meat.  We had rendang (VERY GOOD), yellow rice (delicious), and so on.  One of the lunch times we invited our colleagues from Germany (2 couples) to join us at our home.  We all brought our box lunches with us, and then I fried up some Mennonite Farmer Sausage (which we'd smoked in our backyard smokehouse) for them to enjoy.  Sausage is a part of their diet in Germany which they'd been missing since good sausage is very hard to find here.  We were so thrilled to watch them enjoy it!  

Adding a Mennonite side dish to local food - YUM!

For suppers we only served those who don't have a home in town, so the numbers were somewhat lower.  I, along with 2 colleagues, planned, prepared and served dinners.  Since there were less people to serve (around 45) we opted to go with more "western" fare - sandwiches.  We actually were able to have some deli ham sent out from the capitol with a guest, so we did sandwiches two days.  We made some pickles (also a "special treat") from dill we special-ordered from the capitol to add to that.  

Enjoying fellowship while sharing meals!

Sandwiches are a treat!

 On the 14th we had a Valentine's banquet with the evening session taking place at a restaurant in town.  The place was pretty booked up and we ended up in a tiny room up some winding stairs overlooking a large open room.  The open room was being used by a birthday party for a child - they had LOUD kareoke going on while we were trying to hear what our speaker was saying!  They finished just in time for us to hear the closing prayer!

Karaoke - taken through a window - see the stage with the lady and girl on it?

One of the many delicious dishes at the banquet.  The basket is made of fried sweet potatoes - I think...

Sweethearts... :)

On the 15th there was a special Ladies Tea which we held at our home since it was close by.  We had a short talk from our guest speaker's wife and a time of sharing.  It was nice for us women to all be together (no kids!) and chat a bit.

Andrea made delicious desserts out of some waffles and served hot chai and iced friendship tea.

The kids really enjoyed the children's sessions which were facilitiated by some colleagues from another region.  They had lessons as well as a lot of time to play organized games, do crafts, etc.  The last night they sang a number of songs for the adults.  Evenings were nice and low-key with the leaders reading stories to the kids in two groups - little kids and bigger kids.  

Younger kids activity time

Older kids activity time

Story time - see Mitchell in the green!

All in all it was a lot of work but a fun change.  I wasn't able to attend all the sessions as Katrina is still napping and since we live close to the facility where we held the conference, I just took her home.  

Katrina played well during sessions when it wasn't nap time!

Josh was part of the worship team and had very sore fingers since he doesn't play guitar much these days.

How Hot is HOT?

Recently someone from our church got in contact with us for the first time, and she had some questions for us.  I thought you might be interested...

 An interesting thing about where we live:  we don't get a lot of wind here, in fact, even breezes are a treat!  In reading one of our boys' books on oceans, Josh found out that where we live is considered the "doldrums"!  Like when a sailboat is stuck out in the ocean because there's no wind.   It's flat here and very humid (humidity ranges from 70-90%).  Our annual rainfall is around 106 inches compared to 33.8 inches annually on average in Milwaukee.  The temperature during the day is high 80's to high 90's even if it rains.  A couple of days of rain can  bring the temp down to the high 70's (and when that happens we break out the hot chocolate!).  It doesn't often get below 80 degrees even at night.

You asked about power and using a generator: The power here fluctuates on how bad it is.  When we got here in March '07 it was very predictable - the power was out 1 full day and one half day each week.  Then it got worse and was a pattern of being out for an 8 hour stretch each day, on for around 6 hours and then out for about 4 hours.  An angry group of nationals held a demonstration of sorts at the house of the person in charge of the power here in our city, and then it was on almost all the time again for several  months.  We had several weeks where it was bad but they had a broken generator (the city did).  When they replaced it the power was stable again but took a couple of week to get it.  Lately it's been getting worse and worse again. 

We do have a generator and can run one air conditioner with it, but even with that it's hard to get cool some days!  Josh has to quickly start the generator each time the power goes out to avoid shutting down his computer--less of interruption if he doesn't have to reboot!  We do have a UPS attached to Josh's computer and it gives him around 10 minutes to get the generator started before the computer dies.  It's a bit of an interruption to have to shut down the (desktop) computer several times in a day when the power goes out.  Sometimes the power is only out for 10 minutes at a time, several times a day.  Part of what takes so much time is that when the generator runs we can't run more than 1 A/C, so we have to go shut off the "big" one (which is not energy efficient and came with the house), turn off the fridge, the water cooler, etc - anything that draws a lot of power so that the generator can get started.  The fridge can generally then be turned back on once the generator is stable.  

Hot weather means grilling out a lot - right?  

Not here! - this is the BIGGEST grill we could find!

We would love for you to pray for us.  There are the usual things to pray for - like health (dengue fever is a risk here) and safety (traffic on the roads is quite random - cutting people off is "normal driving").  Also please pray that we'd put our walk with the Lord above our ministry and family life - it's a struggle each day as I believe that the evil one does not want us to be faithful.  Pray for patience and stamina as there are days that the power goes out numerous times.  It's SO hot and SO humid and sometimes it's hard to cope.  

We'd love prayer for decisions we need to make in the near future - like our planned trip home for 11 months beginning in fall and potentially returning in summer 2010 as longer-term workers.   It will be an opportunity to reconnect with supporters, friends and family whom we haven't seen in 3 years.  If we are able to return, we will need additional monthly financial support (sponsors) to function at the recommended level of support.  

I hope this peek into correspondence with a new prayer partner gives you an idea of what life here is like.  We've had incredibly hot, dry weather for the past few weeks, and suddenly we've had 2 days of rain!  What an incredible blessing!  I'll be sleeping well tonight!  Not only is it cooler but the SOUND of rain is SOOO relaxing...   Ahhhh!

Pets

Katrina enjoys cruising around the backyard in her walker!

On Christmas Eve morning, Josh, his mom and his sister Jodi went for a walk.  They happened upon 2 baby kitties on a burlap sack and took them home to see if they could help them.  Jodi fed them with a syringe (similar in method to a dropper) until she left about a week later, then Josh and Spencer took over.  For a while there it looked like they were going to make it.  They were getting perkier, and every time I turned around they were in my kitchen.  They were scampering around the backyard, chasing each other and anything that moved. 

Cocoa in her last days, didn't really fight the daily baths she got.

 Then one day Josh noticed a big stray cat leaving our backyard.  A little later when I went out I came across one of the kittens in a corner, whimpering.  When she tried to walk it was obvious her front leg was broken and she was in a lot of pain.  Long story short, by the end of the day Josh had to put her down.  Shortly after that Cocoa started going downhill.  She wouldn't come out of her bed, didn't want to eat, her fur looked all scraggly etc.  She got worse and worse in the weeks following (one person who'd had experience with it said that she had distemper) and eventually died.  

Josh doing a feeding 

(and a necessary bath - Cocoa wasn't "going" in the litter box).

For me, it seemed like they were too much work to be worth the time invested in the kittens, and originally I'd objected to them being brought home.  (I'm not really a pet person anyway, so that wasn't a high priority for me.) Josh thought it would be a good experience for the kids to be responsible for the kitties so they stayed.  I was sad that the kids didn't really have a chance to snuggle and cuddle them and play with them.  They were always too little or too sick.  When Cocoa was dying and we knew it was just a matter of time, we told the kids they could say goodbye to her.  It totally broke my heart to see my Mitchell sobbing as he sat and watched her struggle to breathe.  I think as a parent it's normal to want to shield our kids from as much pain as possible for as long as possible.  

What did our kids learn from this experience?  Maybe that life is short, that in the animal world survival of the fittest is the rule of the land, that there is pain in loss.  What I learned is that it's worth it to get my kids a pet - a healthy one this time - for them to enjoy, love on, and most of all, help to train and be responsible for.  Josh was right - and I won't let my lukewarm feeling towards owning a pet stop my kids from enjoying what I enjoyed throughout my childhood - the devotion of... a  DOG!!! Cats don't really go for the adoration thing, unless YOU're adoring THEM! :)

No pictures yet, but our colleague's dog had puppies around mid-February so we should be bringing "Pepper" home around the 18th of March or so.  We went as a family to pick this puppy from a litter of 7.  He's white with black spots and some brown on the head as well - the mama was red and named Ginger.

Fun In The Sink

I had a great time shooting these photos!

Katrina suddenly realized there was a baby beside her and tried to reach out!

She's not real talkative, Mom, but she's friendly!

I think we're gonna be friends!  What fun!

Christmas/New Years Celebration

A few weeks ago our tribal church celebrated Christmas/New Years together.  Normally a lot if not most of the people that attend our church go interior to spend Christmas with family so they're not around over the actual Christmas/New Years time.  That's why we have this celebration a few weeks into the new year.  

Here are some photos we took of the service as well as people hanging out between the service and the meal.  With juggling getting food for the 3 kids and Katrina needing to be fed, the photos of the meal time didn't turn out well - maybe next time!

The front porch serves as a nursery - but doesn't keep the church from hearing the child's noises and the mom can't really hear the sermon! This was taken after the service. The lady beside me is a coworker who also had her baby here just a few weeks after I had Katrina.

As you can see, dress for church is a range from jeans and t-shirts 

to skirts and heels and of course the traditional batik on men and women alike.

Motorcycles continue to be the main form of transportation!

Thrush!

2 weeks ago we had some indications that Katrina had thrush.  We were glad to find out that one of the western doctors from a mission hospital near here would be in town and arranged for him to stop by and check things out.  

He did so and prescribed medicine for both of us.  Katrina's (Nystatin) was easy to get - I just went to a store and picked it up, no problem.  Mine was a bit more complicated and involved this doctor having his hospital's pharmacist contact their supplier who then came to our home to drop off the medicine that I needed.  Unfortunately he only had 13 days worth of meds for me, not the 14 days I needed.  

They arrived in these 14 boxes: 

And this was the sum total of the contents of the boxes:

Part of the routine of having a baby with thrush is making sure she doesn't get reinfected from the things she's chewed on.  It's been a bit of a pain to boil anything that has made it into Katrina's mouth - toys, pacifiers, medicine droppers, spoons from her cereal, sippy cup lids, you name it.  After this (toy-wrecking) round of boiling for 20 minutes, I put away a lot of the surviving toys and now she's chewing on the hardiest of the lot!

Katrina responded quickly to her medicine and was thrush-free in just a couple of days.  Pray with us that we'd be able to get more of the medicine I need - I didn't respond as quickly to my medicine (fluconazole) and now need another 3-4 days worth minimum!

Life is never dull here!  And God is faithful to heal us, provide the medical help, medicine, etc.  We're so thankful!

Some Katrina Milestones

Last weekend - trying to figure out sippy cups!

First 2 teeth - early January

No specific milestone but we're always glad when she's happy!

She LOVES chewing on watermelon rinds!

First tub bath

Sitting Up late Dec/early Jan

When you need medical care...

I often gather my meds and stuff onto one tray so it's not scattered everywhere.

Today is day 4 of Spencer's fevers.  He started Friday afternoon with a temp of over 103 degrees. I've been keeping a journal of all of the times I've taken his temperature, all of the medications I've given him in the amounts he received.  This is helpful when we need to talk to a doctor OR to see if his fevers are cyclical (which could indicate malaria or worse).  Last night I emailed 3 docs back home but none of them are probably at work since it's the weekend.  Tabs that are up on my browser this morning include how to effectively do the saline nasal spray, one on fevers, one on Ibuprofen dosages, and one google page on which antibiotics are used for sinus infections in children.  (Just doing the research...) This morning his fever was still going at just under 103 which has been normal for the past 4 days so I decided to call a doctor.  There are 2 western doctors and a nurse with a ton of experience in our region so I tried all 3.  I could reach NONE of them, so I called my mom.  

As I was Skyping with her, one of the docs I'd tried to call called me back!  I gave her the history and she said we should try antibiotics - not that there were any guarantees and in fact there were indications that it WOULDN'T work, but there isn't really anything else left to try.  SO - I gave her Spencer's weight (in KG and in LBS- info I try to keep current so that I don't have to weigh them in the middle of the night when they're feeling awful) and she told me which medicine I needed to get and the range of mg of meds he needed per kilo per day - divided by 2 dosages.  

Armed with that information, I headed off to the drugstore.  I approached the counter and told the lady what medicine I needed.  She looked like she understood and headed to the back.  She returned with a box, inside was a sealed bottle with white powder in it.  She showed me on the label where it said how to reconstitute it to the correct strength.  It didn't look like it would make a lot of medicine - so I used her calculator to figure out that if he needs 500 mg of the medicine 2 times a day, he needs 7000 mg in a week.  She and I did a number of different "figurings" on her calculator, then I paid the 67,000 Rupiah (just over $6), took the bottle and went home.  

When I got home, I started the calculations again - and realized that the bottle she sold me would only give Spencer 3 doses - a day and a half of medicine - and that I am going to have to go back and get FOUR more bottles - if she will sell it to me - since I don't have a prescription, only directions from my doctor friend that I scribbled while we were on the phone.  The saga continues...

Our Beach Vacation

Family shot (I was there - taking the photo)

Monday around 12:30 our family (along with Josh's parents and sister visiting from Venezuela and California, respectively) piled into the minibus with all of our "stuff" and headed off to the beach.  We anticipated about a 4 hour drive.  Mitchell mentioned "in passing" (for real) that he'd thrown up that morning in school.  I thought, "Hope that was a one-time deal!"  

Julia looking pretty in Mommy's hat.

Literally as we climbed into the vehicle, it began to rain.  Surely, I thought, it can't be raining at the beach - after all, sometimes when it rains here it doesn't rain at my helper's house and she doesn't live that far away.  About 15 minutes into the drive, Julia suddenly threw up all over herself, Daddy and Grandpa.  We pulled over and I jumped out in the rain to do damage control.  That done, I stepped into the nearest warung to see if I could buy anti-motion pills (which I'd opted not to bring from home) for the kids - but they were out.  Surely we didn't need them anyway...    

Sandcastle time!

Not sure how much time passed, but while the rain continued and the traffic was stop and go, we had a good time in the car, listening to music and chatting about the various aspects of life we were seeing from the vehicle.  THEN - someone from the back said, "Mitchell is throwing up! Stop the car!"  So Josh found a place to pull over beside a rice paddy.  Mitchell was using a bag, so there was no mess.  Jodi simply tied the bag up and placed it neatly beside a tree with everyone in the nearby house having come outside to watch.  Jodi and Mitchell got back into the car, we waved and departed once more, the rain continuing.  

Jodi riding the waves in.

Jodi being "dumped" on the beach by the waves!

We made pretty good time and arrived at the beach at 4:00, 3 1/2 hours on the road so we made good time despite the barf breaks, one potty stop (short since no one really wanted to use the squatty potty at the gas station) and one VERY close call with a bus.

Trying to find a place where the waves were better...

We unloaded into the 3 rooms we had reserved (waiting for the rain to let up a bit first) and made plans for dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Once dinner was over, we settled in some more and bathed the kids and got them to bed.  We had to do a last minute switch since Mitchell was running a fever around 101 degrees and I wanted him in with us for the night. (The fever didn't come back after that night - nor did he throw up again.)  Suddenly the lights went out!  I got out my cell phone and Josh did too and continued using the built-in flashlights.  The power wasn't out long, probably 15 minutes.  When Josh and I started getting ready for bed, I noticed as I rinsed my toothbrush that the water was not coming out as quickly as before.  By the time Josh wanted to rinse his brush, the water was gone - no showers for us!  He did let the front desk know and there was water again in the morning.

Enjoying some fried rice and fried noodles for breakfast on the beach.

We had water the rest of the time at the beach.  We also had random power outages the rest of the time, both day and night but none lasting VERY long.  The hotel didn't have a generator so they provided one candle per room to give us light. 

Julia jumping over waves as they came in.

One night I sprayed the room for mosquitos so Katrina wouldn't be bit up at night.  Josh had to clean up 12 dead or dying roaches.  I stopped spraying after that.  

Check out the trash behind the boys - 

there was more trash on the beach closer to the hotel.

Early morning building sandcastles with Grandma.

Basically it rained almost the entire time we were there, with the exception of mornings before 10:00.  We took walks in the mornings and the kids were up early each day so Grandma could take them down to the beach.  Afternoons and evenings were spent reading and playing cards. 

Spencer trying to get to the "sweet spot" to catch the wave.

Thursday we celebrated Josh's mom's birthday and had managed to smuggle a cake, candles and gifts along with us.  We drank a lot of tea, Dad read a lot of stories to the kids, they played many rounds of "Trouble" and WE played a lot of rounds of "Gang of Four".  

My wonderful husband and children!

Holding up the boogie board

The LAST morning the sun was shining!!!  We played on the beach all morning, stopping to pack around 11.  We left for home around 1:30, after a brief "snacky" lunch.  The trip home was much nicer with no throw-ups, no close calls and good fellowship in the car!  Katrina slept most of the way home so that was a treat!

Grandpa being the mobile holder - 

keeping the kids occupied while it was raining outside.

Katrina just kicked and kicked when Josh put her feet in the water. 

PS- Jodi also posted on her blog about this vacation - for her take on it and MANY more pics - click here!