tourist attraction

We had a super fun weekend!  It started when we went to the airport to pick up our friend, The Rev. Dr. Tan from New York by way of Singapore.  We waited and waited, but Dr. Tan was no where to be found.  As it turns out, a driver with a sign that read "Mr. Tan, Singapore" took him in his car and drove off.  Dr. Tan decided that he should give Jim a call to let him know he was en route only to make the shocking discovery that he was being driven to some other destination.  The driver than got a call from the other Mr. Tan who was looking for his ride.  Thankfully we had Silvia with us and she was able to talk to the driver in Bahasa Indonesian and straighten everything out.  The driver returned Dr. Tan to us and we all had a great laugh at the mix up!

 We took Dr. Tan to the colonial Dutch tourist spot in the city to visit some museums and the famous Cafe Batavia.  The museum was interesting with a lot of beautiful, intricately carved teak furniture from the era.  However, about every 15 minutes, we were stopped by school kids needing to interview English speakers and take pictures with them.  I thought getting to talk to these kids was even more enriching than the artifacts from the museum.  The courtyard was full of entertainment, food vendors and trinkets sellers.  My favorite was the improvised carnival ride shown below.  There were actually little ones sitting in the baskets going for a ride.  My kids wanted a turn, but I thought the better of it.  We ended up buying them some bubbles to take home and play with.

We were able to tour our apartment again and it looks like it is almost ready.  The only thing left to install is the kitchen.  We are going to have lots of room for visitors!!!  Hint Hint
On Sunday, we were invited for lunch and a swim at our friends townhouse.  The kids just had a blast and it was so relaxing.  We loved being outside for a change.  The sun is hot hot hot when it breaks through the smog, but if you find the shade, you can usually catch a nice breeze and it is quite pleasant.  I was treated to a delicious grapefruit green iced tea.  My new favorite!  I have been craving citrus and that really hit the spot. 

shopping spree!

One of the parishioners from the Mandarin congregation invited me to her wholesale clothing store today.  I was escorted by a couple from our group and we had a great time!  This store was not at the typical American type mall that I'm used to shopping at here.  Imagine one of those inside antique malls but times 1000 with stalls selling everything from purses and clothing to watches and jewelry, toys and linens...everything under the sun!  We were treated to a very generous take of tops and pants and skirts.  So very kind of this woman.
At the mall, I remind you not the modern mall we all know and love, I came in contact with my first "squat toilet."  After getting instructions from my friend, I managed the situation - indeed very thankful I had worn a skirt and had a couple of tissues in my purse.
We stopped by a store to pick up a few groceries and my friend noticed that I was purchasing two bottles of fabric softener.  She pointed out that I might want some detergent and I was confused.  I hadn't realized that for a month now, I had been washing our clothes in fabric softener!  No wonder they smelled so good. 
Our first piece of mail arrived today addressed to Mary!  Molly Olsen from Millbrook sent a sweet card to her hoping that she was feeling better.  What a wonderful surprise!  It looks like the card took about two weeks to get here.  Pretty quick, I think.
Jim is feeling better.  Thank you for the prayers.  Jim's friend and colleague, Pastor Tan, will be visiting this weekend.  We look forward to a familiar face and to seeing some new sights with him.  Anna loved her Batik making class that she took after school today and George got his Tae Kwon Do uniform.  Please pray for Anna.  While she has made a friend or two, she mostly feels lonely during the day and overwhelmed by the unfamiliar.  The speed of the math class has her a little lost as well.  She brought home her first test in Indonesian with only one mistake.  I asked her when she studied for that and she said she just learned it in class.  Hopefully this means she has an aptitude for languages.
If you hadn't heard, (or maybe you don't want to hear) I have been sleeping with a pair of panties over my head to keep the mosquitoes from biting me during the night.  Last night, Della joined my in bed and said "oh, you have underwear on your head."  She jumped up and said "I'll be right back!"  She came back in with her own pair of panties and put them over her head and snuggled right up next to me.  A moment I will not soon forget!

Long time no write

Trying to find a moment to write down some of my thoughts and experiences.  With Della climbing all over me, it is not easy!  Some errors to correct from my previous blog:  the kids go to STB-ACS International School, the fruit we enjoyed has a different name than I thought (but I can't remember the correct name) and we applied for our Kitas (not Kitsas.)  Speaking of Kitas, what a time getting those.  We had to be driven to the government office, even though it is across the street.  Nobody spoke English and the workers were rather grumpy.  At the end of the application process, the government official pushed four tokens across the table to me.  I thought they were souveniers for the kids.  He motioned to three boxes a couple of feet away and I realized that we were supposed to rate the service we had been given.  I quickly encouraged the children to drop the tokens into the box with the smiley face on it to ensure that we would indeed get our kitas!
Anna and George started school and have been tired from the long days and commute, but otherwise adjusting well.  They are each making friends and Anna's new friends met Mary and Della today and fussed over them and carried them around.  An American teacher introduced himself.  He is from Texas but has lived in Indonesia for 16 years.  He married here and has boys in each of the kid's grades.  Everyone has been very friendly and it seems they even have a Friday morning Bible Study at the school for Mom's.  I really hope I can work that one in.
Indonesia is the land of fried chicken!!!  Thankfully that is one of our favorites.  We have had KFC, Kenny Rogers, traditional Indonesian, A&W and Japanese.  Jim's favorite is A&W, which I did not get to try.  My favorite was from a Japanese restaurant.  It was juicy, crispy and de-boned!  Yeah!  Fried chicken makes up the bulk of every fast food menu, along with a scoop of rice.  I have to say, when you order fries, they are always good too!
We are going to open up a bank account tomorrow.  I hope it is not too complicated!  We are excited to have dinner tomorrow night with a parishoner from Queens.  She was in the states for a couple of years and lives back in Jakarta now.  How cool is that?
I was introduced to a grocery store that sells Dr. Pepper!  I saw many Westerners shopping there and found lots of products from home.  When we move into our apartment and I have a full kitchen, I will be stocking up!!
Jim surprised me yesterday with a bouquet of beautiful purple roses for our Anniversary.  Very sweet.  Unfortunately, he is still not feeling great (tummy trouble.)  Hopefully the end is in sight and it does seem that he has lost a few pounds!
As far as ministry goes, we have been meeting a lot of people and Jim has been spending time with the seminary students.  Lots of meetings to see how things run and to get to know everybody.  People are always dropping of groceries or gifts or checking in to see how we are doing.  It really makes it much easier to adjust to a new country/culture.  Time to get kids to bed...I'll post again soon!  Love to everyone!!

The fog has lifted!

...no, I don't mean the smog over Jakarta!  The last couple of days, I was so tired, I could hardly function. It may have been the lack of caffeine and sugar from my once daily Dr. Pepper.  They have Pepsi, Coke, Sprite and Orange Fanta so I'm not going to miss out on soda altogether.  Anyway, today I was able to grab a Starbucks while grocery shopping at the mall and found the energy to scrub the bathrooms!  I really feel much better and the fact that we found Krispy Kreme donuts didn't hurt any either.  You can pretty much get anything you need here, it is just a matter of being able to get a ride.  The church has a car that we can use to get the kids to and from school and then we will share it with others, but we don't have a driver yet.  We borrowed a driver today and were able to get groceries, etc...  The grocery stores are part of these huge malls and you can push your grocery cart through the mall with you.  Very nice.  We brought Anna and George to their school today for entrance testing.  The school is beautiful and I think they will adjust well.  They both were remembering Millbrook today and all their friends back home.  It looks like they might get to start class next week and we will hope to have a driver by then.  If you want to see pictures of the school, you can look up ACS-IBS International School in Jakarta.  Shout out to my Thirty-One extra large carry all bag!  I use it to do laundry and grocery shopping and also to lug beach towels and snacks.  Loving it!  We are all getting a little testy around the apartment.  The space is small and the kids are over the "fun" of all sleeping in the same bed.  They bought us a toaster today, so that will be a nice change of pace.  The mosquitoes have been attacking while we sleep and I have bright red dots all over my face.  If it doesn't improve in our permanent apartment, I think I will get netting for my bed.  Last night we were treated to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, conducted by Dr. Tong.  Amazing!  When the full choir joined in with the four soloists and the orchestra was at its peak...oh it just resonated to the core of my being!  The kids made it through the concert without a peep and it was over two hours!  Ok, so Della was asleep for most of it, but my prayers were answered!  Dr. Tong is 72 and conducted brilliantly.  I don't know the man well, but I have seen that he is supernaturally gifted and has energy that could only come from above.  He dropped in for an unexpected visit after the concert and the kids were so happy to see him.  He is like a Grandpa to them already!  He left early this morning for a week long crusade to one of Indonesia's many islands.  A very sweet lady dropped off some native fruit for us today.  I think it is called Jampur Air.  The are about the size of a golf ball and shaped like a bell.  You peel the brown skin off and eat the segments inside.  Very crunchy and sort of sweet and kind of reminds Jim of a large chestnut.  The days are dry and the sun rises at 6am and sets at 6pm.  The sun usually doesn't get super hot as it is filtered by the smog.  Probably a good thing or we would be scorched.  Sunday's service and sermon went well and we look forward to seeing how God is going to use us here.  We met a couple from Brooklyn that now live in Bandung, a couple of hours away from Jakarta.  They have started a classical school there and we would like to try and visit sometime if we can.  I'm learning bits and pieces of Indonesian like "chair" is "kursi" and "kamar mandi" is bathroom!  Some words like "cup" are the same as in English.  Go figure!  We are off to the government offices tomorrow to get some more paperwork taken care of.  I think we are getting something called a "kitsas" which I think gives us residence opportunities like opening up a bank account, paying local prices at tourist attractions and so forth.  After our outing, I'll get started on some more laundry.  The washer is just down the hall and you hang everything to dry in a big room with a fan.  The clothes dry in a day which is great as I can usually hang two loads per day.  Anyway, I should get to bed now.  I miss everyone so much and wish I could show you everything that I'm seeing and have you experiencing it here with me.  That would be just perfect.  Love to all and prayers, too!

One week today

It is hard to believe that our first week here is over.  We have seen so much and met so many new friends!  It is Saturday morning and Jim is attending the 6:30am Chapel service for the seminary.  I guess Saturdays won't be for sleeping in!  He will then attend a meeting with Dr. Tong and many in ministry here at 8:30am.  Tomorrow, Jim will preach for the first time and we will attend the Jakarta Symphony's performance of Beethoven's Ninth.  Anna and George interview for school on Monday and will start soon after.  Hopefully, with each passing day, we will feel more and more at home.  Time to clean and do laundry and get dressed for the day.  I almost just hit the delete button thinking who is going to want to read this....but "maaf" (sorry) I will write something more interesting later.

On a trip to the mall

stories as promised

So I am up and it is 2:45am Jakarta time and Mary is sitting next to me in the dark.  I'll tell you the memorable stories leading up to our departure.
Jim decided he needed to finish his last can of fish that he had been saving instead of eating the breakfast his mom had prepared for us.  I had just put on my outfit that would have to last me through the long trip.  Della decided that she wanted a bite of fish.  As Jim reached over me with the fork, all the oily, smelly fish dropped onto my sweater and into my lap!  If you know me, you know I was not a happy camper!  Now I had to strip down and get my clothes washed and dried in one hour.  I was not going to smell like fish the entire flight!  I decided that I would look back and laugh some day.

On the car ride to Queens, Anna was expressing that she was a little scared of going on the plane.

 Della reached over and took Anna's hand and said "Don't be scared, Anna, I'll take care of you."  It was the most precious thing ever.

Yesterday, we were treated to Kidzania at the mall in Jakarta.  You buy a ticket to go into this mini town where the kids dress up like doctors, scientists, hairdressers, etc.... and are given a job to complete and get paid pretend cash.  The parents watch through the windows and I was able to have great conversations with two different families.  Many people are curious about Mary's hair and if we are in town for holiday.  One family is headed to Houston next week on a business trip!  It was great fun, but Jim ended up carrying Della for three hours as she slept on his shoulder!  We got home and the kids went straight to bed, too tired to even eat dinner.  They want to go back and try some more jobs next time.  Grocery shopping today and safari tomorrow.  We are enjoying our "honeymoon" week.  Pretty soon...work work and more work!  Trying to post pictures.