Miscellany

I'm somewhat behind my self-imposed schedule of posting every Sunday.  That's the beauty of self-imposed schedules - they can be disregarded on a whim. 

I'll start with the main event of February.  The Moores and I had to make a trip to Singapore to renew our visas.  (Chad Moore is one of the three teachers here this year.  He is here with his wife and two kids. Great family by the way.)

Singapore is wonderful.  It is clean, very cosmopolitan, has a great public transportation system and tons of things to do and see.  The highlights for me were eating at Subway and Chilis and shopping at IKEA!!  Here are a few pictures.

 

One of the many interesting places to visit is Gardens by the Bay.  Two huge greenhouses and many of these "trees".  The ferris wheel in the background is currently the largest in the world - 541 ft high according to Wikipedia.  I understand a larger one is being built in Dubai, to be finished in 2015. 

 

Moving right along, we head to Chinatown.  Not sure what a medical hall is.  I just thought it was interesting and amusing.

 Maybe that medical hall sold 100% crocodile oil. 

 

All good things must come to an end.  So we must return to Tarakan.  But you know, the saying "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home," is very true.  I was glad to get back to my "home" in Tarakan.

 

While we were gone, we gave the students a reading challenge.  If the entire school (3 teachers and 11 kids) read a combined total of 5555 minutes, we would have a party.  Of course, we met the goal and had our party - pizza for lunch (courtesy of the moms), a movie and water games.  Here are a few pictures:

 

No, she isn't about to smack the kids on the ground.  This is a Pinwata - a black trash bag filled with water.  The children on the ground volunteered for the dowsing they got when the bag started breaking open.  Great fun!  :o)



 

All the kids lined up, ready to start the water balloon fight. 

Aunt Mary right in the thick of it.  She's a lot of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Here's an idea for Pinterest.  :o)  Cut the end off a water bottle, wrap a piece of terry cloth over the hole and secure with a rubber band.  Dip the terry cloth in soapy water; blow through the mouth of the bottle and make bubble snakes. 

The kids had a fun day.  Of course, what kid doesn't enjoy getting a half day off of school, right? 

More about our school next week.



What is that?!?

This is rambutan.  Rambut is the word for hair in Indonesian.  I think you can see the connection.  Actually, it tastes pretty good.  The picture below is what it looks like when opened.  Inside the white "meat' is a seed about the size of a grape.  Looks bad; tastes good.  

 

 

 

Lovely bits of debris found inside the bag of sugar I recently bought.  I thought about throwing the whole bag away but couldn't bring myself to be that wasteful.  So instead I spent twenty minutes going through the sugar picking out whatever the stuff was.  Some of it looked like rocks.    But don't feel sorry for me, :o) since fortunately a bag of sugar only holds about 4 cups. 

 

 

 

 

I still don't know what these things were.  The only thing I recognized in the mess were wings.  Ugh!  Below is  a closer look.  Thought you might enjoy that. 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheechuck (gecko) poop on my scooter!!  Those cheechucks are everywhere!  Below is a close-up for your viewing pleasure.  :o) Notice also the raindrops on my scooter - had to ride home from church in the rain. 



It's the little things that make life interesting.  :o)



 

 

 

Trees

Catchy title, huh?  :o)  I knew everyone would be dying to read this one.  Blame it on Corrie (my daughter).  I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have anything interesting to write about.  She suggested I just go out my door and take pictures of whatever is in my yard.  And... that's what I did.  I took pictures of the different kinds of trees in my yard. 

Mango (mangga) tree

 

We'll start this walk around the yard here at the mango tree.  It actually had a lot of mangos on it.  One of the boys picked up several and ate them with the  juice dripping down his arms - really the only way to eat a mango.  Kathy (the missionary who lives in the house in the background) said unfortunately most of the mangos have worms inside them.  :o(

 

 



 

 Papaya tree

This papaya tree unfortunately was planted too close to my house.  Its top grew up into the eaves of the house.  Someone came a long and snapped it off in the middle but, as you can see, it has grown back.  All of that growth has happened in less than seven months.  Things do grow fast in the tropics. 

 

 Coconut tree

This is the spiritual tree in my yard. It reminds me of Psalm 92:12.  "The uncompromisingly righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; be long-lived, stately, upright, useful and fruitful. "

 

  Coconuts

 

Bayan tree

This tree is a favorite of our school kids.  They swing from it, climb all over it, hide in it and find lizards in it.  We teachers, stand in its shade during recess duty.  An interesting feature of this tree is its "aerial" roots.  Roots run from the branches to the ground. 

 



 There are more trees in the yard but after about three hours of trying to get these pictures downloaded, I think I'll just post these. 

Until next time.

 

 

 

 

 

MAF's work in Kalimantan

MAF-Tarakan's newest Kodiak, built by Quest Aircraft, taxis up to the hangar at the end of its ferry flight from Papua, Indonesia.  This Kodiak was donated by an anonymous benefactor. The Tarakan fleet now consists of two Kodiaks and three Cessna 206's.  I have been fortunate to be in Tarakan for the arrival of both Kodiaks. All of the MAF staff - the missionaries and their children and the national staff - encircled the airplane and had a time of prayer dedicating the airplane for Kingdom-building. It's a big deal here to have a brand new airplane arrive, because airplanes are the tools MAF uses to minister to people. Here is the MAF mission statement: Sharing the love of Jesus Christ through aviation and technology so that isolated people may be physically and spiritually transformed. 

I'm including just one pilot's account of his typical day: *(F.Y.I. Pak roughly translates Mr.)

Today I flew almost 6 flight hours,with 12 landings in the Krayan region. This involves many short 10 to 15 minute flights that greatly serve the people living in these villages. Here are some highlights of my day:

- I flew an evangelist, Pak* Jeffry from the city of Tarakan to Long Bawan for his ministry

- I flew another Indonesian pastor to the village of Paupan.

- While in Paupan I got reconnected with another local pastor who is based in that village.

- I flew people home from a cultural festival from Binuang. There were more than 75 people wanting to leave Binuang. After two flights I was able to help 9 of them.

- I flew almost 900 pounds of crop treatment to the village of Long Layu so that their harvest will be healthy.

- I flew some government workers to Malianau so they could further do their jobs.

- I picked up and flew five young seminary students to the village where the CMA seminary is located.

- I flew a young girl back out to medical care who was very sick and may have died without the flight.

All in all I flew 40 passengers and 2860 lbs of cargo. This is a typical day for our pilots. All in a days work. Praise God He allows us to serve him in this capacity.

Nativity

I miss my collection of Nativity sets.  We actually have a Christian book store here and they sell Nativity sets.  But they look very "American" and cost $36.  I might pay that much for a set that looked Indonesian but I won't pay that much for a set that looks like I bought it at Walmart.  So I decided to make my own.  Those of you that know me, understand how that could be quite a joke.  But..... I found instructions for a paper set in my favorite magazine Life:Beautiful.  I will put in a plug for the magazine right here.  It is a beautiful Christian magazine.  I found it a couple of years ago at Walmart, of all places.  I love it. 

 



















The instructions for the Nativity were pretty easy if I can do them.  I just had to photocopy the patterns, trace them onto cardstock and cut them out.  I haven't made the "stable" yet.  It's a little more complicated.  I'll have to work up some umph before I tackle it. 

I was relieved not to have shepherds, wise men and angels to make also.  That might have been too daunting a task for me. But I managed the main characters. 

 

Well, that's all from me for this time. Hope you are enjoying decorating for the holidays.  Enjoy the cold weather for me, ok?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street vendors

Two Sundays without a post.  Did you notice?  :o) Excuse #1:  Last week the power was out when I got home from church and stayed off til five.  Excuse #2: The week before that.... hmm, don't remember.  Laziness perhaps.

Last Saturday, I spent some time at the Underhill's home.  I hadn't been there long when I heard some kind of whistling noise outside.  I asked about it and was informed it was the man who sold some rice concoction.  I don't remember the name for it right now. 

Since the Underhills were going to buy some of these rice things, I got a chance to have a cultural experience. 

Let me try to briefly explain what happens.  A gentleman brings his "store" with him on the back of his motorcycle to a neighborhood.  The whistling sound, which attracts customers, was the steam coming from his "stove."  (A lot of  " " in this post.)  The procedure:  he scoops a bit of green rice from his drawer and stuffs into hollow bamboo tubes.  A layer of "brown sugar" goes in next topped with another layer of green rice.  He sets these bamboo containers onto  a little hole on his "stove" so they will steam.  Once he thinks they are done, he takes them off and pushes the rice cylinders out with his handy stick.  He tops it off with a generous sprinkling of coconut and voila - green rice things.  I made myself eat one - I reasoned that the steaming surely would kill any germs, right?? It actually wasn't bad and I didn't end up with dysentery .

 

 That's all for this Sunday.  Grading and lesson plans are calling my name. 

My pembantu

I have a helper.  Don't judge me.  :o)  I had helpers in the States too.  I just didn't realize it.  I had a dishwasher, a clothes dryer, one stop shopping at Walmart; I didn't have to soak every single fruit and vegetable in bleach water, I didn't constantly fight ants, or mildew.  I'm not complaining; just stating facts that lead to the conclusion that I am okay with having a helper.  She comes twice a week for two hours.  So I still have to wash my dishes, make my bed, pick up after myself and cook if I want to eat.  :o) 

My pembantu's name is Elin.  (pembantu=helper)  I've accepted two invitations to her house on the occasions of Eid el Fitr and Eid al Adha.  I met Elin's mother at Eid el Fitr.  Her mother is a dukun.  A dukun has powers for healing given to them by a spirit.  (Read between the lines.)  Her mother has also been on the Hajj; the pilgrimage to Mecca which is one of the five pillars of Islam. 

Elin always brings one of her twin sisters to help.  She told me that she gives them part of her salary to help them pay for school. 

Elin is married and has two young children.  She doesn't see her husband very much.  He is off for months at a time working.  This seems to be a very prevalent way of life here in Tarakan.  Husbands go off to earn a living and only come home every three months or so for a few days and then they are off again.  A hard life - if you like your husband. 



Elin is on the far right.  The little girl is her oldest; the young boy is her brother.  The twins are her sisters.  The lady in the background is her mother. 

Pray for me:  that in all my dealings with Elin and her family that I will live a life that gives an accurate picture of what God is like.  

 

This 'N That II

I spent some of yesterday making granola and yogurt.  The stores here do carry cereal - Cornflakes and some chocolate flake cereal.  Since I am picky, I don't like either of those, therefore, I must make something I will eat in the morning.  I did see a box of Special K with almonds when I was in Balikpapan.  It cost over $6.00!!  I didn't need it badly enough to pay that price. 

Yogurt we can't get here.  So I make my own like most of the other ladies here.  It is actually pretty easy and tastes so much better than yogurt from the grocery store in the U.S. 

I mix the milk and yogurt starter in the insulated container and after it has set, I transfer it to the jars.  Two and a half jars will last me a while.  Yogurt takes the place of sour cream (which we can't get) and also tastes yummy with jam and granola.  I usually make granola every two weeks. 

Oh, yesterday morning I also washed the fruit I bought.  I wash everything in bleach water. 

See the papaya?  I will squeeze some lime juice and honey over it and it will be delish.  ;o)

It's not just fruit I wash.  I wash my Coke cans and milk boxes. Everything in the stores comes on ships from some other island - probably Java.  And who knows what critters are crawling all over the stuff before it gets unloaded at Tarakan's dock.  I'm just taking cautious preventive measures. 

Now, take all of the above tasks and multiply them four or six times and you get a glimpse of what the moms here do to feed and to care for their families.   

Joy Forney (look her up on the MAF website) told me about my new favorite drink.  It is TEBS - Tea with Soda.  For those of you who have lived in Brazil, it tastes quite a bit like guarana.  It's not the same but it is close enough for now. 





































This little packet contains ayam penyet.  I know that ayam means chicken but I haven't found out what penyet means.  When I put it into Google Translate, nothing came up.  Oh well.  It tastes good and everyone here eats it without anything going awry. 

Here is the package opened.  Chicken, rice, tempeh and tofu, cucumber, cabbage and some kind of greens all on a banana leaf.  Looks yummy, huh?  :o)  Actually, it isn't bad at all. 

 Well, that's all for this week.  Tune in next Sunday for more stories. 
Thanks for reading my blog.
(P.S. I don't know enough about computers to get rid of those two big chunks of white space. Grrr.  Oh, to be young again. :o) )



Balikpapan and Eid Al Adha

I didn't post last Sunday because I didn't get back from Balikpapan until late afternoon.  I was exhausted and also had to take care of some school work before Monday came around.  Balikpapan is a city about an hours flight away from Tarakan.  It's an oil town so it has a lot of Westerners which means a lot of stores cater to Western tastes. 

I went with Holly Underhill and Angela Moore.  The weekend ended up being a marathon shopping trip.  Holly is a shopping queen.  She knows all the places to go for good deals and great buys.  And we hit them all.  On the way to Balikpapan we each had our carry-ons tucked into our regular suitcases.  On the way home, we had carry-ons and checked bags stuffed to the gills.  What did we buy?  Holly and Angela were buying Christmas presents and all of us were on the lookout for American foods we miss.  For example:  Parmesan and Cheddar cheese, cranberries and cranberry sauce, Snickers, almonds, black olives, salsa, lunch meat, bacon, and we even hauled a 13 lb turkey home.  We'll eat him at our MAF Thanksgiving meal. 

 There is a McDonald's in Balikpapan.  I usually don't eat at McD's in the States but I did there.  The hamburger tasted so good, we ended up eating at McDonald's twice.  :o)  Here is a picture of us ready to return home with loaded baggage. 

Angela, me, Holly

 

 

Friday was a Muslim holiday here.  It is one of the Eid festivals.  The "greater" Eid is Eid al Fitri which comes at the end of the month of Ramadan.  The festival this past Friday is the "lesser" Eid - the Eid Al Adha.  Not sure what the Arabic means, but according to Islam, it is the celebration of the time Abraham almost sacrificed his son Ishmael.  No typo there.  That is what they believe happened.  You can google it.  Hundreds of cows or goats are slaughtered during this festival in commemoration of the event.  And the mosques sound the prayers from seven to ten on the eve of the festival and then from four-thirty to seven-thirty on the morning of the festival.  I'm attaching a video of a mosque call to prayer.  There isn't anything to see because I took it at night.  Envision this "call" going on for three hours.  

 

 

 

We MAF'ers live in a predominantly Muslim culture.  Friendly, kind, generous Muslims.  We try to live exemplary lives among them.   You can pray that we succeed.  

Play, pouring rain and power.

You will remember from last week's post that we had standing water in the school due to an overflowing tank in the attic.  One casualty of the flood was the large bean bag that sits in the library - it got soaked.  Holly (one of the moms) suggested we dump its innards out onto a tarp so the sun could dry the styrofoam pellets and hopefully remove the moldy stench.  But the tarp was dirty.  So we had a slip 'n slide day during P.E. last week to "clean" the tarp.  The tarp didn't really get very clean (Chad and I had to wipe it down after the fun) but the kids had a good time and thought they were being helpful at the same time.  

Aunt Mary, at the top of the hill with the hose; Uncle Chad at the bottom of the slip 'n slide taking pictures.  


Every Thursday night the MAF team gets together.  Some nights we pray, some we just sing, others we study a portion of the Bible or we have a team meeting.  Last Thursday, I was riding my scooter home from one of these get-togethers when it started to rain.  Not just rain but rain in torrents!  By the time I got home, I was soaked.  And I am not just using that word for effect.  I was dripping water.  I was able to wring water out of my clothes.  I would have taken a picture of my drowned-rat self, but the electricity was off and without lights it would have been too dark a picture for you to really get a good laugh.  I actually was laughing by the time I got home.  It was just so, so,....  I don't know - ludicrous?  It was either laugh or cry.  I decided to laugh! :o)

The electricity being off brings me to another aspect of my life here.  We have been having regular power outages.  Not an uncommon thing here in Tarakan.  For a variety of reasons, there isn't enough power to supply the entire town with electricity all of the time.  So neighborhoods take turns having their electricity shut off.  Like today - the electricity was off from around noon til about 3:00, which is actually a very short outage.   BUT - just last week, a generator was installed at my house because my house is also the school.  It is very hard to concentrate on your school work when your are dripping sweat.  So our wonderful base manager (Brian Underhill) brought the old generator from the hangar and got it up and running for the school.  How lucky for me that I live at school! 

 

A yellow generator is a thing of beauty forever.  I had lessons on how to get it up and running.  Not as hard as you might think.  In fact, not hard at all.  Kind of like starting a car. 

 

Well, that's all for this week.  Tune in next week.  I'm going to Balikpapan (an hour flight from here) for a little  R and R.  Maybe I'll have some interesting stories from that trip.  Talk to you later.

It Could Have Been Worse

This past week I was wondering what I would blog about this Sunday.  But Friday came and gave me something to write about. 

Friday evening I was invited to dinner at another MAF family's house. ( BTW, the food was delicious!  The ladies here are such good cooks.)  Anyway - when I left the house, the electricity was off.  (Just so you know, we are currently on a one-day-on, one-day-off power outage scheule.  The power outages last about 5 - 6 hours.)  Back to the story.  When the electricity is off, usually there is no water in the house because the pump is electric.  But whoever lived here last year rigged some kind of gravity tank so that there would always be water.  This tank is in the attic right outside my bedroom door.  Too many details; you're already bored.  I'll just cut to the chase.  While I was gone, this tank started filling up but never stopped filling and yes, you guessed it - started overflowing.  I'm not sure how long it ran but when I got home water was pouring out of the ceiling and down into the basement.  It was pouring through the basement ceiling into Chad's classroom and the library.  There were about two inches of standing water on the floor of the classroom, the library and the hallway. 

I frantically called our program manager and he came to my rescue.  While I waited on him to arrive, I was dashing about like a chicken with its head cut off.  I didn't know what to do first.  I didn't have a clue how to stop the flow of water; there were so many places it was pouring out of that getting a bucket didn't even cross my mind.  I just kind of dashed hither and yon fruitlessly. 

Long story short - we got the water turned off, several people came over to help sop up the mess and by 11:30 we had most of it cleaned up. 

Now the real work begins.  Finding out why the tank ran over and what to do about it.  Thankfully, not my job. 

I didn't get any pictures because unfortunately my camera got a little bit wet.  It's fine now.  So I took a picture of the big hole that is now in my celing.  You can just see the infamous orange tank in this picture.  It is sitting on a platform which I hope is a sturdily built platform.  If that tank should ever come crashing down out of the attic - Good-bye cruel world. 

 

This is the spot where water was pouring out onto the bookshelves. 

 

 

 Water-logged books drying out in front of the fan.  

 

 

I'm just thankful it wasn't worse and that I didn't have to clean up the mess by myself. 

 

Until next Sunday!





Class addition and my house

Yes, yes, I know.  I've already posted several school pictures.  But this one is different you see.  It has all of my students in it.  See? Different.  :o) Britton Forney is the latest addition.  He brings my class to a total of five students which is all I will have this year - barring some unforseen change in plans. 

From left to right:  Taylor and Caleb Moore, Issac Underhill, Britton Forney, Hattie Underhill. 

 

 

I thought you might like to see some pictures of my house 





 

When I step out my bedroom door and turn right, I see the door of my classroom about three steps away.  Now that is a short commute.  :o) 

 

 

This is my living room and dining "porch."  The floors look a lot nicer in this picture than they are in reality.  They are pretty indestructible.  My helper mops them with soapy water every week. 

 

 

The kitchen; the yellow propane bottle peeking out beside the stove is its source of gas.

 

 

The outside of my house. 

 

School playground. 

The kids play a game called "grounders" here.  Have you ever heard of it?  Me either.  I think they created it themselves.  Grounders is the current recess game. 

 

 

 

Pictures may be worth a thousand words but they don't do justice to the real thing.  You could visit me and see it first hand.  :o) 

 

 

Til next week.  Blessings!