This Is My Life: Today I bought birthday presents
I've been encouraged lately to do more writing about just plain old life. I realize this may be incredibly boring to some (okay most) of you, but this is the kind of stuff I want to remember and that I want to share with my Mom back home but never seem to remember when we talk - just those random, everyday moments that make up my life here in Indonesia. So, it's just a story. There's no message or purpose other than my own entertainment...just a little description of a part of my day that is actually pretty boring but kinda fun...in a blah, blah, blah sort of rambling way....Thanks for humoring me. I'll probably start doing this more often. Because it's my blog and I can.
It took us a while this morning to locate a store that had anything worth buying for a birthday present.
Brooklyn is invited to two different birthday parties next week. Normally, finding something for a little girl the same age as my girl would be easy peasy lemon squeezy. But here, it's a real treasure hunt...or a hunt for a needle in a haystack made up of cheap "Made in China" toys that aren't good enough to send to the Dollar Stores of the West.
I had about given up but I spotted the Christian bookstore on our way out of downtown and Sean (who was so not enthused about my quest for the perfect gift) obligingly pulled our borrowed scooter up there.
Inside, I found a few more "Made in China" wonders but also some treasures - Monopoly Junior and Uno Stacko (with only Spanish printed on it). I glanced also at many interesting Christian books from other areas of the world translated into Indonesian and I may or may not have drooled over the latest Hillsong worship cd. I almost bought some Crayola markers (seriously? Crayola in this country is a treasure) but I wound up standing in front of those games again, somehow drawn to the wonder of games that look familiar with instructions I can understand...even if one of those games only came with instructions in Spanish. No worries! One of the girls celebrating her birthday has parents who know Spanish. This can work.
And I totally understood that Spanish on the Uno Stacko box! Though, I'm pretty sure that "stacko" is not a real Spanish word. Anyway, still being able to read and understand Spanish kinda made my day.
I picked up the games and some wrapping paper - it comes in sheets here, not big rolls - and carried it to the girls at the counter. They asked if I wanted them to wrap the packages and I said "ya" (which is what you say here in Indonesia when you want to answer in the affirmative and that is convenient because I also say that in English). So they proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes carefully folding and taping and cutting until I had two brilliant masterpieces to give to two little girls next week. We struck up a conversation about where I lived and how long I'd been in Indonesia and I inwardly cringed at my still-halting language while they pretended to be impressed.
It struck me as odd, that moment. I stood there with sweat dripping down my back, having this conversation in a language I hadn't even heard of until a few years ago, reading Spanish in the last place I ever expected to see it, while Sean stood outside telling the random man on the street that he didn't really feel okay about paying for that man's daughter's education since they were strangers, and listening to the clip-clop and ringing bells of horses and their carts passing by alongside the diesel trucks and motorbikes on the street outside.
Does that sound like an odd moment? Or maybe it isn't, because honestly, if I hadn't been forced to wait for those masterfully wrapped gifts to be done, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all....
It took us a while this morning to locate a store that had anything worth buying for a birthday present.
Brooklyn is invited to two different birthday parties next week. Normally, finding something for a little girl the same age as my girl would be easy peasy lemon squeezy. But here, it's a real treasure hunt...or a hunt for a needle in a haystack made up of cheap "Made in China" toys that aren't good enough to send to the Dollar Stores of the West.
I had about given up but I spotted the Christian bookstore on our way out of downtown and Sean (who was so not enthused about my quest for the perfect gift) obligingly pulled our borrowed scooter up there.
Inside, I found a few more "Made in China" wonders but also some treasures - Monopoly Junior and Uno Stacko (with only Spanish printed on it). I glanced also at many interesting Christian books from other areas of the world translated into Indonesian and I may or may not have drooled over the latest Hillsong worship cd. I almost bought some Crayola markers (seriously? Crayola in this country is a treasure) but I wound up standing in front of those games again, somehow drawn to the wonder of games that look familiar with instructions I can understand...even if one of those games only came with instructions in Spanish. No worries! One of the girls celebrating her birthday has parents who know Spanish. This can work.
And I totally understood that Spanish on the Uno Stacko box! Though, I'm pretty sure that "stacko" is not a real Spanish word. Anyway, still being able to read and understand Spanish kinda made my day.
I picked up the games and some wrapping paper - it comes in sheets here, not big rolls - and carried it to the girls at the counter. They asked if I wanted them to wrap the packages and I said "ya" (which is what you say here in Indonesia when you want to answer in the affirmative and that is convenient because I also say that in English). So they proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes carefully folding and taping and cutting until I had two brilliant masterpieces to give to two little girls next week. We struck up a conversation about where I lived and how long I'd been in Indonesia and I inwardly cringed at my still-halting language while they pretended to be impressed.
It struck me as odd, that moment. I stood there with sweat dripping down my back, having this conversation in a language I hadn't even heard of until a few years ago, reading Spanish in the last place I ever expected to see it, while Sean stood outside telling the random man on the street that he didn't really feel okay about paying for that man's daughter's education since they were strangers, and listening to the clip-clop and ringing bells of horses and their carts passing by alongside the diesel trucks and motorbikes on the street outside.
Does that sound like an odd moment? Or maybe it isn't, because honestly, if I hadn't been forced to wait for those masterfully wrapped gifts to be done, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all....
Hi Becca!
ReplyDeletePlease continue sharing these stories about "just plain old life" . . . they are so interesting! I love to hear about your daily lives and you share it sooo well! Hey, I can speak Indonesian, too! (At least the affirmative part! Ya!)
Love and miss ya!
Aunt Anita