So Long Ordinary

The week is already half over and I'm just barely getting a chance to tell you about our busy Sunday! Our original plans for Sunday included a relaxing day and a visit with friends for some worship and listening to a sermon together but our friends wound up with a sick kid...so, our day ended up looking quite a bit different than we expected! We went to downtown Salatiga as a family for the first time. I wish I could express to you what a trip downtown looks like here. What it feels like and smells like and sounds like. We didn't bother bringing our camera along for this first trip - it was stressful enough just ensuring that our three children were accounted for! Our trip started with a 10 minute walk up the hill to catch an angkota - basically a van with bench seats that serves as public transportation here. We stuffed ourselves into the available seats on the Nomor 9 angkota and held on for the ride. It was hot, stuffy, smoky, but a nice slow ride. The other passengers...

Please pray for a new friend of mine. Pray a lot and pray hard. I won't give many details here at the moment, but.... this is a matter of eternity. When I think of what God could do with this situation to glorify Himself and draw my friend to Himself, I get goosebumps - let's pray He does just that!

Funny how to us it seems we barely brought any toys at all, while to the little ones next door we have the most amazing and exciting things to play with. It's all about perspective.

So, we've been in Indonesia for a grand total of 4 weeks. Or close to it, anyway. And some of the initial excitement and newness is wearing off. We've had our fair share of frustrations and mishaps already. A man I didn't know (I don't think!) came by the house yesterday afternoon when Sean was gone on his drive up the mountain. He seemed nice and was saying something to me but I wasn't catching one word that he said. So I stood there looking dumb and finally sputtered out something along the lines of "I'm sorry? Once again?" (in Indonesian) What followed was one of the most awkward moments I've had in Indonesia so far. He didn't repeat a thing or try to say anything more. Just stared dumbly at me while I stared dumbly at him. We're not talking about a few seconds of awkward staring, we're talking minutes of standing there looking at each other with stupid looks on our faces. Finally, he just shrugged and turned around and lef...

How about a little home tour? This is our home in Salatiga. We live on Jalan Abiyoso....If you were to stand on our street and look to the east, this is what you would see. The neighborhood mosque is about a block away and there are several others within a few more blocks in every direction. Being that it is Ramadan (a holy month set aside for fasting during daylight hours) this tends to be a pretty noisy time. I have to say, though, that living in Latin America across from a bar really prepared us for the noise here. Honestly, I find it much quieter here than anywhere we lived in Latin America! We've learned that having the fans on is very helpful in muting the sound of the 4:30 a.m. call to prayer - I don't even hear it any more! This is our front room. According to local Indonesian culture, this room is reserved for hosting any guests that come to visit us in our home. Our dining room The Kitchen. The kitchen is very small and so we had these neat shelves put in for...

Somehow, life is much more busy here than it ever was before. I'm devastated after realizing that Sean is well ahead of me with the blog posts. He's just had lots of good pictures to share with you! I have to admit, I look at those pictures, and even though I'm seeing the same thing in real life, I have a hard time believing we really do live in such an exotic and foreign place! It is truly that beautiful here. And that foreign! We're into our third week in Salatiga, our fourth in Indonesia! It really feels like we've been here much, much longer. Sean and I get frustrated when we can't communicate better in Indonesian - and then we realize we've only been working at it for two weeks. Phew! In light of that, we really are doing okay. We can sure dig ourselves into a hole quickly here. I've been known to attack a more complicated sentence or explanation only to realize a few words in that I do not know the word for green or tall or far away. Doh! ...

Geckos? I don't mind them at all. Ants? All part of the life. Cockroaches? Learning not to freak out when I see them. (Which I manage about half the time, now!) Skinks ? No Deal. No. I don't like them. Who needs a snake with legs, I ask you? Who? Not me.