The Long Road Home

It began on May 31 with a seven hour flight from Papua to Jakarta. We booked a room at the transit hotel "FM7". The idea of a swimming pool with a nice place to eat sounded wonderful. The pool area had three different pools- a freeeeeezing cold one, a not so freezing cold one, and a hot tub. There was also a sauna, which we didn't go into but enjoyed wathching others come out and go straight into the ice pool.

From here we left on our 11:40 pm flight to Seoul, South Korea. We stepped off the plane and began the hunt for the shuttle bus to the transit hotel. **Note to self- while in SKorea, look for the yellow question mark when calling for the hotel shuttle. The hotel desk looked at us like we were nuts. The weather in SKorea was windy and chilly! We had our sweatshirts out though. We arrived around 10:30am, went straight to the hotel, and crashed for a few hours. We woke up hungry, confused on the time, and cold. We set out to find some food or Dr.Pepper- no DP but we found a fun Mexican food place, which unexpectedly had good food.

Our next flight left at 9 pm on June 1. I think. The SKorean airport has this really neat room with chairs that are reclined and comfy. It was a nice place to hang out. They also had DP and subway! So SKorea, your airport was fantastic!

Somehow we made it to Honolulu, Hawaii at 10:30 am on June 1- how did that happen? For real, we left on the night of June 1 and arrived on the morning of June 1- whaaaaaat? Thanks alot, International Dateline. Needless to say, our bodies were soooo confused on the time of day or date that we didn't know when to eat or sleep. We wanted to eat at weird times, and when the clock said we should be hungry our bodies just weren't hungry. It's been a wonderful place to adjust and keep the cranky, jetlagged monsters at bay.

Tomorrow we'll move on for our final leg of travel for now. We'll leave around 10pm and arrive around 6am. **Note to self- for future travel try to avoid night flights. seriously.

Here are some photos :)

A Photo Journey of Lives Changed

A Glimpse of Life

We live in a pretty unique situation. Our neighborhood is made up of three streets, with houses that all share walls. We share walls with the neighbors that surround us. Because of that we have a fairly small yard... ok "fairly small" doesn't do it justice, it's a patch of grass.

Many families in our neighborhood have children that have no playground, so their playground is the street. That's right, folks. They rule the street. Sure, they will give permission to the occassional car/motorcycle to pass by, but if their bike is parked in the street in front of your driveway, chances are you'll be the one to go around before they move it. :) So here's a glimpse into their lives (and our's too) when I joined them on their playground.

















These kids live all around us. Some of these kids help run a small shop out of their home. A few of these kids stay home during the day and do not go to school. It dawned on me as I was taking these photos, these kids don't have cameras. They were asking for the photos, because they don't have pictures of themselves through their years. They are very sweet and always say hello to us... always is not an understatement. Every time we walk outside there is a greeting exchanged. Sweet kids. I think we're kinda lucky to live near them.

-Amber

T O U R

Most of my adventures in Sentani, Indonesia, take place in the classroom at Hillcrest International School. The school has about 200 students from K-12 grades. I teach 6th grade math and language arts, as well as 5th grade math. Sixth grade consists of six boys, and fifth grade is totals out at 19 students. It's quite a difference :) Here are some photos of my classroom... be careful, after viewing God could place the desire in your heart to teach MKs at HIS :)

This is the view from the door.


This is the back wall of the classroom.



This is the Critic Corner board. After students read a book they create a two-part paper. It includes a brief summary of the book and a recommendation. They also design an alternative cover. These are their opinions of Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli.


This is the side wall. This wall is our "Word Wall". Each week we study 10 words and their origins. We look at their Greek or Latin roots, research other words that fit into those categories, and get very familiar with our dictionaries.


Here's a close-up of our "Word Wall".


This side wall has three windows that over look Mt. Cyclops, here's two shots from one window. Sangat indah (sahn-got en-dah: very beautiful)!




Finally, here's the most comfy corner of the whole room, my desk. It's actually some what clean and organized right now. Just for those of you who are sitting in disbelief, this is ACTUALLY my desk. It's hard to believe that, I know, due to the fine organizational skills, but it's true. Pinky Promise.


Here's another bulletin board. I won't metion exactly how long it's been up there. :)


It almost felt like an episode of "Cribs" on MTV or "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", without all the flash.

I pray that this post will plant some dreams or stir hearts to seek what the Lord has in store for us. Who knows? It might be teaching overseas at HIS. I hope so, it would be great to have you on board! If you are interested in knowing more, please contact me! I would love to tell you of the amazing things that are happening here! :)

What's for dinner? Seriously...

I think I ask myself this question almost every single night. The meat in Sentani is mainly chicken, beef, fish, tofu, and more chicken. Our dinners are mainly chicken and rice, and when we tire of that we switch it around to rice and chicken. :)Not really, but sometimes it feels like that. We eat pasta, Mexican food, and pizza too. Tonight I went through a "drive thru" (insert imagination here). It was almost like KFC or Churches Chicken.

This is called a "Kaki Lima" (Kah-Key Lee-Mah). It literally means "5 Legs".



Vendors will push the cart around town selling their goodies. If you count the legs when the cart is stopped, you'll count five legs including the two legs of the vendor. This car is stationary, so it might be missing a few legs... The guys in the back are the vendors. They have a huge vat of oil which is used to fry the chicken. They then set the chicken in the window and sell it to people that walk up to buy it. Fried chicken (ayam goreng "eye-yam gore-ang (like angle)") is a popular dish.



We have to be very careful with the foods we eat if it isn't cooked in our home. Fruits and veggies have to be washed and dried very carefully, killing all of the harmful bacteria that can make us very sick (in both directions... if you know what I mean, either way not pretty). A good rule of thumb that we use is- if it's freshly fried, it's just right. So buying food from a kaki lima can be harmless if the food has recently been fried. This kaki lima offers fried chicken that is freshly fried around 5:30. The price is only 7,000 rupiah (roo-pia or rupes if you're local), that is about $0.81. What a bargain!

So ayam goreng, that's what's for dinner

*Ants*

*TOTALLY*RANDOM*BUT*WAY*COOL...I just learned this from a friend today that if you put * around your words in facebook chat your letters would be bold. amazing.

Today our bathroom was attacked for the second week in a row. Maybe it was our amazing towels that have the Texas stars all over them, or possibly the floral scent of the fabric softener.

Here's the scene:
We have two towel racks in our bathroom. One, which happens to be mine (Amber), is directly under a window which allows a little bit of sun to come into the room. This is where the army of ants made their entrance. The came down and attacked my towel from Texas. Oddly enough, they left the local towel virtually untouched even though they were right beside each other.

I carefully and delicately grabbed the towel and put it in a laundry basket. Our sweet helper calmly took the towel outside and shook it out. I figured it would be unwise for me to keep the other towel there that had a few stragglers on it. So I shook it out. This all took maybe five minutes. When I returned to the upstairs bathroom to spray those ants with bug spray, they had disappeared! Maybe only a couple were left... I let them live, showed some mercy.

But, seriously, if they decide to attack my Texas towel again... they're going down.

Here's the photos:









Returning about 5 minutes later:





I guess this goes to show that everyone, even ants, love Texas :) OR they don't and like to aggravate those who do.

These Days...

These days I'm missing home more and more.

These days I'm watching new movies with new friends.

These days I'm wondering when and if Kraft mac and cheese will ever come back to Sentani.

These days I'm wondering if I'll go home before my last stick of deodorant runs out.

These days I'm more thankful for the rain.

These days I'm pondering what it means to have joy in all situations.

These days I'm resting in the Truth of God's word that He is faithful.

These days I enjoy laughing with my six 6th grade boys (no girls).

These days I don't seem to mind walking in the rain.

These days I value family more.

These days I hope to update this blog more often... no promises, but no excuses either.

These days will soon be those days, but I hope these lessons will always be things I'm pondering.