September 29, 2008 - Burnt Bowl

I have to be honest with you. We have 18 bowls here in the hostel and one of them is cracked and has a burnt spot on it. I can’t stand that bowl. It drives me crazy. Yet I always get that bowl. I put it on the bottom of the stack and yet many mornings when I get up to have cereal and reach for a bowl-that is the one I get. It keeps creeping up to bug me. I know it is only a bowl, but it still has a mind of its own.
I have been thinking about that bowl today. There is a lesson it is trying to teach me: like how when I don’t deal with a problem, but instead push it aside, it will come up again and again. My attitude and my lack of patience are two good examples of me not dealing with things correctly. I did awful in that area today. I had a bad attitude and was quite impatient. I will tell you about it because it is proof that I am quite human. For the meal on Sunday, I decided to make Chicken Fettuccine because I found some fettuccini noodles at Hypermarket and thought I could splurge on them. Now when I say I “found” something, I don’t mean I was taking a walk outside and a box of noodles fell from the sky. Let me explain what I mean. We have three stores here that we can get stuff from: Hypermarket is the nice one with air-conditioning, and the big wide aisles. Aneka Mas is the store to go to if you want cheese, or streaky bacon. Victory is the store that has chicken and shampoo but not conditioner. So whenever we are out I am always looking to see if there is anything new. Every once in awhile there will be new things, like Doritoes, or Jif peanut butter, or canned cranberries. If you see it and think that you might want to use it in the next few years, buy it because they may never have that item here again. So when I found the fettuccini noodles I grabbed them. I always cook the Sunday meal for everyone and so I knew this would be a yummy change in menu. Well, it was delicious-once I cooked the noodles, made my own sauce, and cooked and deboned all of my chickens. I try to make enough for leftovers since Sunday dinner is “eat whatever is left in the fridge night.” One of the dorm girls came into the kitchen at about 5:30 to get something to eat, took the container of leftover fettuccini out of the fridge and then dropped the whole container all over the floor spilling the contents everywhere. I can tell you right now, that my initial reaction was not one of grace, nor was I putting a comforting arm around her shoulders and telling her it was alright. My head knew that it was an accident, but my impatience told me that I had a right to make her feel bad. She wasted a ton of food and money by not being careful. I wanted to ream her, but instead I walked away. I knew that she knew I was mad-I kind of wanted her to know that. But it wasn’t right. I know it wasn’t. It is like that burnt bowl popping up again to remind me to deal with the situation-don’t just put it aside. So after I calmed down, I went back to her and told her that I knew it was a mistake and I forgave her. I know she was grateful.
You know, I make mistakes all the time-far worse ones than dropping noodles-I yell at my kids, I talk with a sting to my husband, I judge or gossip about someone that I don’t like…how do I want God to forgive me? Do I want Him to walk away in a huff and hold it against me until I prove I am sorry enough? NO WAY! I want Him to forgive and move on. That is what I need to do, too.
O.k. time for breakfast. I wonder what bowl I will get today…
Love,Rachel

September 28,2008

The girls wanted me to paint their faces-

Emma's stands for Best Friends Forever Lexie and Emma

and for some reason she wanted a snake and a mouse

Sophie wanted a cat to be like Gypsy

Emma and I were feeling homesick
Yahoo!!!! A package from home!!!!!

This little girl's name is Misty. Her Mom is trying to learn English.

Look at those eyelashes!

Emma waiting for Lexie to come
Sophie writing her own story

Emma made Cale a hat
Saying goodnight to Sophie

September 23, 2008

Girls Boys
Cale dreaming of being a motorcycle driver

Doing dishes-always doing dishes
Emma dressed Cale
My girl (she is growing up way too fast)

Cale and Daddy went to visit the tower

Two dorm girls- Maike and Elizabeth

The penjagas and Agu cutting up coconuts
I love this tree. It is right on Lake Sentani.

Natural Blond

I saw a funny shirt today on an Indonesian woman that said “Natural Blonde.”
If you are eating food, skip this paragraph and read it later. Last night during dinner, Garth noticed that our cat, Gypsy had a cecak (lizard) in her mouth. I went over to pick her up and throw her outside. Well, as soon as I picked her up she bit down and severed the tail, which made me drop her. So there is the tail, on the floor, moving around and the cat ran under the table where we were eating and tried to eat the cecak. The problem was that every time she let go of the cecak, it would run and flop around under the table which was freaking and grossing out all of the girls, for sure. And me and the kids. Disgusting. Our appetites weren’t quite the same after watching that.
Some of our boys are involved in a community basketball league against other Indonesian teams. So far the team is undefeated in their tournament and if they win tonight then there will be a big final game in Jayapura. Yesterday they had to wait 4 hours because the Indonesians don’t think ahead and didn’t have things set up or gas for the generator so they sat in the dark waiting…UGH. Tonight’s game is supposed to start at 8 in Jayapura ( an hour away) but probably won’t start until at least 9 so that means they won’t be home until at least 12. If tomorrow’s game is earlier I might go with Wyatt.
I was listening to a DVD yesterday and the speaker was talking about the group of scientist, or ecologists, that built a biosphere dome a few years ago. They thought they had everything in it that they would need for 2 years of life. However after a very short while they realized that it wasn’t going to work. They were missing two important things-oxygen and wind. There were trees in there, but without the wind, their roots weren’t going down deep into the ground. Trees need the resistance that wind gives in order to develop good, strong roots. We are the same way. Even though it is easy to gripe and complain during difficult times, we need those times to make us stronger. The speaker in church on Sunday said that, “Affliction is designed to make us seek God harder.” Think how arrogant we would be if we had a life with no problems. I wouldn’t want to live with myself-that is for sure. We already take credit for things that we think we did, when in reality, without God it never would have even been possible. It is funny how when something good happens we pat ourselves on the back and think about how great we are, but when something bad happens we blame God and think it is all His fault.
There is a song that has been in my head the last few days called “All of my Days.” Some of the words go like this:

“And my eyes they look unto You always,
And I am captured by Your majesty,
All of my days I will sing of Your greatness,
All of my days I will speak of Your grace,
All of my days I will tell of Your wondrous love,
Your love in my life, Your love.”

I am so glad I have His love in my life!
Gotta go-
Rachel

Some of the kids that live by us
Would you want water from his bucket?

Crazy me, trivia, and goals

Yesterday I did a crazy thing. I was having a very realistic dream, and in that dream my youngest son Cale, 2, was crying out to me, “Mommy! Mommy!”. Not realizing it was a just a dream, I jumped out of bed and ran into his room, waking him up, at 6:15 a.m. Later in the day, he was laying down on the couch with Emma and she said, “Are you tired, Buddy?” And he said, “Yes, Mommy woke me up this morning.” Unbelievable! We could have slept in for another hour if it weren’t for the crazy voices in my head! Ha Ha. Don’t worry. He took a good nap.
o.k. – I have a little trivia for you. WITHOUT looking on the internet, see how many of these you can get right.
What do you call a group, or bunch, of:
1. Butterflies
2. Elephants
3. Penguins
4. Lions
5. Kangaroos
Walking around Sentani the other day I again saw some interesting T-shirts in “English”. I already told you about the lady wearing jeans that said “Brain Power” on the rear, then, I saw a shirt that said, “Jack and Girl,” one that said, “Raise your hands and give live,” and “Beaches are for cartwheels.” Then I walked into the store and heard “Endless Summer Nights” by Richard Marx being sung in a language that was more like Indonesian English. I haven’t heard that song since High School.
I am really working on my goals. I find it is easier to (1) relax and not get all out of whack the more I do it. So I am trying to keep reminding myself to take a deep breath and cool off. Having more patience, was part of my first goal, and is something I am continually working on, but it seems the more I relax, the more natural it is to be patient. And in the long run that does tend to make me more (2) happy. I also wanted to be more (3) disciplined with my time. I am finding it easier to make the time to spend with my family, and with God, but I am not doing well in balancing out my dorm kid time. I haven’t been spending as much time with them as I should. How are you doing with your goals? Write them out and post them in places that you need them to be to remind you. Some of you have mentioned wanting to lose a few pounds, so post notes to yourself in food locations that tempt you. I have notes by my bathroom mirror where I help the kids get ready for bed, because that is where I tend to be impatient.
Well, I need to go spend some time with Cale.
Love to you all-
Rachel

Ramadan

We are in the middle of the month of Ramadan here in Indonesia. Ramadan is an entire month of fasting for our Muslim neighbors and happens to be the exact month of September this year. The Muslims cannot eat, drink or swallow your saliva between sunrise and sunset. Sentani isn’t quite as strict as other parts of Indonesia, but we still try to be respectful and not eat or drink anything when we are out in public. We make sure Cale doesn’t bring a juice or snack out to the stores as well. Eating in front of people that can’t eat is rude.

The women get up about 3:30 am and cook a very hearty breakfast and everyone eats as much as they can before there is any light at all. (by 4:30 am) Then, an absolute fast until 6:40p.m. when an alarm goes off, kind of like a distant tornado siren to let everyone know they can break the fast. According to Muslim tradition, if you do a “perfect fast” (30 days without flaw) you can erase 1000 months of sin.
I believe quite differently. I believe that Jesus is the only One that can forgive my sins. He died on the cross to pay the price of my sins so that I would have a chance to get to heaven by believing in Him. The Muslims are bound by the laws here and feel that they can control the forgiveness of their sins by being good enough. They work so hard to try and be good enough to enter heaven, but in the Bible Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” How free they would feel by believing the truth instead of a lie.

Off to the market
Rachel

Es buah-Es means ice, buah means fruit

Es buah - it has the craziest things in it.

Like coconut, juice, ice, papaya, something that looks like caviar,

avacado and a bunch of other things that I don't know

It is good. I like it. I am taking my Dad to try it when he comes.
Going down the slide

They took a ride with Daddy. Do you
like Cale's purse?

September 12, 2008

Cale watching me draw
We had a shirt made for Cale at a local tailor

At our wonderful grocery store-we only have one,

and it is great.
My little baby
Sophie getting ready for church

Broccoli fruit juice

Today when I was walking into the store I was behind an Indonesian woman that had the words BRAIN POWER written across the rear of her jeans. ( Majority of the English words written on clothing here don’t make sense and are not understood by the Indonesians. However, they find English words and print them anyway.) So, then I walk into the store and hear a chorus of workers saying, “Hi, Cale,” and hear a song on the radio, IN ENGLISH, that says “You’ve got nothing but the radio on…” I then proceed to the juice aisle. Let me tell you some of the flavors they have: Broccoli fruit, spinach juice, Mixed fruit and vegetable juice, carrot/fruit juice, purple carrot and mixed fruit, aloe vera juice, and kiwi/grape with kiwi pulp. Which one would you like to try? I did try the kiwi one, and it had lots of kiwi pieces in it, but it was pretty good.
I am having a bit of a problem with one of our pembantus. She wanted to borrow money, I told you all about that, and we said no since she had already borrowed rp900,000 from us and hadn’t paid it back. Well, she got mad and walked off and then didn’t show up for work for 9 days. Well, she came in today and had an attitude. Then at 12:30 she left. Come to find out she says she is going to be leaving everyday now at 12:30 to go to college. They are supposed to stay until everything is done and that is usually around 2ish. So then we had to take one of our laundry girls and ask her to work in the kitchen so that everything would get done…that means there is only one other girl left to do the laundry of 15 people…so we have to decide by tomorrow what we are going to do. Along with that we are getting very low on water. We seriously need rain, please pray for rain so we don’t run out like we did last year.
Enough about my problems, how are you all? We are well right now. The hostel is healthy and happy because they had a half-day of school. YIPPEEEEE!! Although a half-day on Wednesday makes it feel like Friday and that messes up your thinking.
We are getting ready to have a dorm meeting. We do that every Monday and Wednesday at 8 p.m. Tonight we are going to play a fun game called “Elephant starts.”
The internet was out today, but just popped back on for a moment, so I am trying to type fast so I can get this sent out before it goes out.
Love to all-
Rachel
P.S.- Enjoy your cool nights-I am longing for them. It was very hot today-close to a hundred.

Check out the fire we had on the hill.

We had another fire

The fire raged right outside our fence
The fire men trying to keep the fire from our property
It was burning from way down on the left at the bottom
of our hill and up along the top of the hill as well

The military came with branches to "beat" the fire out

They successfully put out the fire-Yahoo!

My Goals

I have picked my three goals. Have you? If you don’t know what I am talking about I will tell you. I thought it would be a good idea to pick three things to work on between now and Thanksgiving. Any three things you want-silly or serious. Here’s mine: (1) To be more disciplined with my time- time with my own kids, time with dorm kids, time with Garth and time with God. (2) To relax more (in regards to my personality) to not get in a dither when things get messed up or don’t go my way (3) to be happier.
Don’t let my goals influence yours. If you want to pick finding a long lost relative or mastering the art of karate-go for it. You can do it.
I have been spending more time in the kitchen the last few days since we are still short one kitchen helper. She left early on Monday and hasn’t come back. She is mad at us for not loaning her more money so she isn’t coming in. I have enjoyed being in the kitchen and it has been good to spend that time with our cook, Poppi. I have asked Poppi to make the lunch meal and then I have been making the dinners. Our absent helper has until tomorrow. If she doesn’t show up we are going to hire someone else. Last year it seemed like most of what I made didn’t turn out. This year I am having more success, so it is not as frustrating for me. Tonight we had 4 friends over to the hostel for a real American meal of pizza. I even brought some pepperoni here from the States so it tasted great. You know, cooking here is so different. Let me give you an example of the meal we cooked yesterday-hamburgers. First, the meat. We had an Indonesian friend come over to call Abeh and order for us 10 kilos of ground beef. If the grinder is working, the butcher will grind it for us, otherwise we have to bring it home and grind it ourselves. It took ten phone calls over a course of three days to get the meat. Garth then drove 40 minutes to the meat store. Once we got the meat, we had to divide it up into smaller containers to freeze. Then we made the dough for the buns. We went to the local pasar (market) to get tomatoes and cabbage (since there was no lettuce), then on to the one store that sells cheese. Then we had to go to another store to get oil to cook the meat in. And finally, home to get everything ready. Easy peasy Japanesy. By the time the lunch meal is all made and eaten and cleaned up, it is about time to start thinking about…dinner!!!!!!!!!!
I am sure it sounds crazier to you than it really is. We have come to realize that things are not done the easy way and hardly anything here gets done quickly. Once you realize that-it is easier to accept all of the hassles.
See that is why I said goal #2-to relax when things don’t go the way I want them to. I am working on it.
Well, we have the Junior class in the kitchen making 8 cakes for the Friday night meal tomorrow. They just came and got me because the oven was full of smoke. It will be interesting to see how these cakes turn out-they used 16 cups of flour, 16 cups of sugar, 16 eggs, and 16 cups of oil!
I need to go check on them-
Talk to you soon-
Rachel

September 4, 2008

A fire that started near the school (This is looking out our bedroom

window)-It looks awful and had me quite frightened.

But luckily nothing was damaged

Cale cooling off
Donuts- Indonesian style
Dunkin' Donuts
staff

Waiting the day away in Jayapura

when we went in for fingerprinting

Garth downloaded a SpongeBob onto his ipod
Cale loved it

Emma lost a tooth

Emma explaining to Cale that some teeth fall out
She is telling him that sometimes it hurts

Spider

Yesterday at 5:50 a.m. we were woken up by this lovely spider!
Emma loved it

Fire and donuts

What a long day…and it is only 2:00. Garth and Cale and I left this morning at 8:00 for Jayapura to get fingerprinted (it is just a technicality that Indonesia commands you to do), and we finally got through at around noon. It is always so much sitting and waiting in a dirty, hot room. Garth was wearing jeans and yet he kept sticking to the couch. Cale was all over the place, on the couch, on the floor, outside in the dirt…Praise the Lord for Germ-X!
Garth had to take the other kids on Thursday for fingerprinting ( Cale and I couldn’t go because Cale was sick), and they had to wait 4 hours to get seen, so I am thankful that it wasn’t any longer.
We ate lunch at the KFC there ( a nice reward for all that patient waiting- and even though we ordered three French fries with our meal but only got one, it was still good), and then we bought the hostel donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home, got a few groceries, and just arrived back to put Cale down for a late nap. Now I have an hour before the dorm kids come back from school, and Garth goes off to volleyball practice.
I guess in my last email I forgot to mention what sport the kids are playing at the Friday night games. Sorry. It is volleyball. There are 3 school team sports here-volleyball, then soccer, then basketball. Each Friday night one of the high school classes is in charge of the meal. They provide the food for people to buy and all the money goes toward their class. We play against Indonesian teams so it gives all of us a good chance to mingle.
Right now as I write, I am happy to tell you that it is raining!!!! We have been “a dry, and parched land.” Two nights ago at 11 p.m. I looked out the window and saw a fire down by the school. It was quite large and made me nervous, so Garth and I went down to make sure it was under control. We saw that there were some of our security guys already down there taking care of it. I am not sure if it started because everything was so hot and dry or what happened but I couldn’t sleep until I saw it go out.
We have been having some problems with one of our kitchen helpers. She has been borrowing money from us (culturally it is allowed, so we let her do it. She is only allowed to borrow as much as she makes in 1 month). Well, today while we were gone she went to a friend of ours asking her to ask us if she can borrow 3 juta from us! That is like $300. So this friend of ours called us while we were in Jayapura to ask us and we said no because she already owes us money and can’t borrow anymore. Well, she was very upset and walked out while our friend was talking to her and then when we returned today she was gone. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. It would be really hard if she quit, but she hasn’t been very reliable lately. She missed three days one week and three days another week.
I will talk to you later-
Rachel