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.

Flight to Bias

The other day I was able to fly a national language helper into his home village called Bias. Bias is located in the interior of Papua. It is about 90 miles directly south of the airport we are based at. The Reynolds family from the States recently started the process of learning the Yetfa language in Bias in the hopes of translating the scripture one day into the native Yetfa tongue. The process has just started, but the Reynolds already have a home and they are making friends and quickly learning this new language.

This is a picture Of Sion. He is the Reynolds national language helper. He is a native speaker of Yetfa and is fluent in Indonesian.



Some of Sion's buddies that came along to Bias.



Proof I was there:)




Some fair weather rain over the mountains just to the North of Bias. My camera doesn't do justice to the beauty of contrasting the heavy rain against the blue sky and green jungle floor.





We are required to overfly all interior runways before landing so that we can verify the surface conditions. This is an overhead view of Bias.




Here is a picture out of the left and right side of the airplane from the pilot seat. Nothing special, but this is pretty much what it looks like when I land at an interior runway. Some villages are a little more animated than others, but the plane is always greeted by someone.







The Reynolds weren't in the village, but here is a picture of them in Bias at a different time.

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 :)