Summer!

Summer is finally here! One of the perks of being a teacher almost anywhere in the world are the breaks. At HIS, we get almost 3 months of summer vacation, a month for Christmas break, four days to celebrate Easter, and many more holidays throughout the year. By the way, HIS is in need of teachers :) But, seriously, summer break comes with many mixed emotions. Friends leaving, friends returning, and a chance to build better relationships with those that are here. Here are a few things from my "hope to do" list.

-I hope to start running again.
-We hope to move into a new house next month.
-We hope to make new friends.
-To do the above, we hope to be bold to ask people to hang out or have families over for a meal or game.
-I hope to get to know some of the highschool girls that are here this summer a little better.

I'm sure that list will continue to grow as I get further into summer.

We returned from a week vacation in the beautiful, world famous, Bali. If you're on the other side of the globe, chances are you have never heard of this place. Don't feel bad, we had no clue what it was when we got here. It was great! We stayed in a hotel, ate at western restraunts, watched two movies in theatres, ate ice cream at mc donalds, went to a bookstore that sold books written in English, and read those books by the hotel swimming pool. It was fantastic! No, we didn't do very many touristy things. No, we didn't go to "waterbomb" (the waterpark that all my 6th graders said that I HAD to go to!). I started thinking about what a vacation is. Is a vacation where you run around trying to squeeze all the sights in during your stay? Is it going swimming every single day, all day long like it was when I was a kid? Is it relaxing by the pool reading a good book? Is it doing nothing at all or is it doing everything you want to do (which might be nothing at all)? Is it a time for renewal or refreshment? Yes, to all of the above. Vacations can be all those things or none of those things.

So, we returned to Sentani on Sunday afternoon. Josh went on a flight today. His summer is shaping up to be a busy one. He is busy with work and partnering with our potential new landlord to design and build this house. He's doing a great job and working really hard.

This summer I'll be a helping hand wherever I'm needed. I started scanning some of the stories that have been translated into Indonesian that teach about health issues like providing sufficient food for a baby. It's really cool to read some of the stories and see the pictures.

So I leave you with this- Take a vacation for whatever reason you want to. It'll be good for you :)