Miles and I have purchased 2 motor bikes. The used one Miles drives we bought from an "Expat" family. The one that I drive is brand new. They are both Hondas. It is very nice on a hot day to drive to the mall and get somewhat cooler. The helmets here might not be up to the safety stndards of the US but they are required. Many Indonesians however don't use them. It is difficult for me to see small children standing on the seat with their hands on the handle bars. These "family" vehicles will carry the small child like that, a second child behind the husband, the wife is next, and yet another child on the back. If only a wife and baby, the wife sits side saddle carrying the baby. The good news is that we rarely get out of second gear due to all the traffic so we don't move very fast. I however, still would not want to meet up with the pavement even at these slow speeds. Another site to see is how much "stuff" they can load onto these motorcycles. They will put a rack on the back that goes over their heads and load it up with produce to take to the pasar to sell. I love the entraupeneurial spirit here. It seems many people just set up a table along the side of the street and sell whatever, usually produce. They don't seem to mind that there are 5 other tables selling the exact same thing side by side with theirs.
One of the things the guys in the hangar do each Monday is to have a chapel in Indonesian. Then all the other days of the week they begin the day with prayer also in Indonesian. Fridays they try to have everyone speak in English and they dont have to wear their uniform. Most of the guys Miles works with are believers so the need for evangelism is not a big part of what he does. Miles gets the awesome responsibilty of allowing the nationals to practice thier English with him everyday. Miles make a point of staying and having lunch with them even though he doesn't understand all they say. Miles has invited 3 of the single Papuan guys home for
Thanksgiving dinner.
We finally found an Indonesian tutor. He also teaches at the school. He comes to our home on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings for an hour. His children attend an Indonesian school and they have school on Saturdays. He is a widower so he gets his 5 children off to school then comes over to our house. He and several others will join us for our Thanksgiving dinner next week. He is helping us to understand cultural issues as well. We laugh and enjoy his classes each time. It is nice to know that when we go into the store we have a few more words and can get along better than before. Miles and I split up to look for coffee filters one day at the market. I found him entertaining the troops trying to act out what a coffee filter does. The young stock girls were giggling and the young men were just watching in awe! :) good for Miles for putting himself out to find what we needed. The funniest part of this story to me is that he never did find filters but he did buy more coffee so that the ones helping him didn't feel bad that they were unble to decipher his charades.
On Saturdays we catch up unless there is an event like last week. Saturday we attended a wedding that was an all day event. It started @ 9AM and continued until around 1PM, there was a break and we had lunch with another family. We had to be at the reception at a different site by 3PM. We were exhausted by the time we got home @ 5.
We have been visiting an Indonesian church for the past 2 Sundays which is why we got an invitation to the wedding. Prior to that we have been attending a church which most of the Expats go to. It is in English and we do have trouble understanding the Indonesian service, but the singing is great and they sing many of the same songs we do. This actually helps us to learn Indonesian as we know the tune and the words so we can compare it to Indonesian with little trouble.
Prayer requests:
That our Indonesian vocabulary grows and that we will retain it.
That we will not get overloaded with "things" to do but find the right group of natives to help aside from what we do with MAF.
Miles and Gertjean have begun to meet for prayer on a weekly basis. Pray for others to join them.
Expat friends who are going to Jakarta then Singapore for multiple family members medical needs.
Traveling mercies and Dr. Wisdom.
Continued good health for Miles and I. There are folks getting Malaria and Denghi feaver all around us.
Health issues for my dad (Dion) He has been in and out of the hospital for the past 2 years. Wisdom for the Docs and a possible referal to Mayo clinic in Phoenix.
