Hey there, All!
My last days since posting have taken a surprising upswing, which I know is largely in part because of the prayers and encouragement I've received from you all- thank-you SO much!
I believe my last post was on Saturday, the day that we celebrated Nicole's birthday with a surprise party at Pizza Hut. It was the highlight of last week for me, and that we successfully pulled off the surprise element (despite language barriers, and having to go about making arrangements in indirect ways) made it even better! I think Nicole may have even shed a tear or two of joy, and that made all the planning worth it!
After lunch, Major and Karen dropped me off, along with the bike that I was using in Salatiga, and will get to keep for the year. The atmosphere of Semarang is quite different than Salatiga- namely hotter and busier- so we'll see what use I get out of it. I have always enjoyed biking, but I came to LOVE it in Salatiga, and I really hope I'll get some chances to keep it up here.
Sunday was church. Church services go from 8-10AM, and then again from 6-8PM. My host family generally only attends the morning service, but as I will be teaching Sunday School every other week (which runs during the morning service), I will be going to church in the evenings two times a month. That brings my total time at church on Sundays to somewhere between 5 and 7 hours, depending on the week. It's substantially more than the 1.5 hours I'm used to spending at home, but that time is broken up between Sunday School, an hour of eating and visiting, and youth service. In all honesty, I get very little out of the sermons (learning day-to-day vocabulary is enough of a task before adding church vocabulary to my repertoire, and I cannot follow fast talkers yet), but I've found church to be an awesome opportunity to really get into reading the Bible. My host family gave me an Indonesian-English NIV, and it has served me quite well in the last week and a half. I've gone from being horribly antsy after an hour and a half, to almost- almost- being disappointed when it ends. Two hours certainly doesn't feel as difficult to sit through as it did a few weeks ago.
I've found that the different circles I am involved in- TK, Compassion, Share N Care, and Music- overlap in that the same people can be found in more than one. Church sort of ties it all together, and it is amazing how quickly I have come to recognize people. I am not learning the names as rapidly as many here wish I would, but as of today, I know the names of everyone in both offices I spend time in, all 27 of the kids in TK B, and about 8 of the 14 kids in TK A1. I don't think that's too bad for a week and a half, especially considering that many names are ones I've never heard before.
On Saturday night, I asked my host family if, at some point this year, we could see the ocean, since Semarang is right on the coast. Sunday afternoon, I found myself in the car, heading toward the Marina (there are no clean beaches in Semarang). It was not exactly Bali (in the sense that there was not even a speck of sand to be found...) but it was great to see the ocean, and to know where it is.
On Sunday night, we went out to celebrate my host grandmothers' birthday at a Chinese restaurant. The food was really good for the most part! Eating crab with the shell (as in, you eat the shell too) and shrimp with the eyes still attached were new experiences for me. Earlier this week, I also tried frog, and found that I really enjoyed it! Another new food was buffalo satay, bringing my satay meat count up to 6- chicken, beef, pork, rabbit, goat, and now buffalo. The only one I refuse to eat is "satay anging", or dog satay, for reasons of conscience. A tradition in Chinese culture is to eat noodles on your birthday (something about their length and its relation to your life- Scott, Adrie, or Chris, you may know more about this than I do), so noodles were another part of the meal. It seems that most of my host family was born between October 20 and November 20, so I was informed that we would be eating quite a few noodles between now and then. That's fine with me!
Monday began with helping in TK B. I still feel like more of a burden than a blessing in the classroom, and I know that I am not exactly helpful right now, but in keeping with my desire to learn patience, I am allowing myself to just enjoy the time to observe without many responsibilities. Based on how this week has gone- with more and more plans being made for my life this year, from people in the various areas of my life here- I will likely have more than enough to keep me busy in the coming months. I was also thinking back to orientation, when Eva told us that it is best to simply hang back at the beginning; establish relationships with the teachers and the students, and make every effort to understand their methods of doing things, before implementing ideas of your own. I am viewing these weeks that are filled with a lot of sitting and watching, as part of the Learning that SALT so strongly encourages.
At 10:00, Pak Paul (a man who works in the GKMI Synod and who understands more than anyone else I've met how I must be feeling as a foreigner) picked me and a bunch of youth up to head to Ungaran for the day. We were scoping out potential locations for a retreat that will be held in the middle of November. While I was unable to offer much input, I enjoyed the trip to see the various places. I saw my first durian tree, laden with the... unique fruit, and drove through a bamboo forest that was lined with people carving and whittling the bamboo into bird houses and other objects. We stopped on the way home for soto and perkedel, and then again for lumpia. Lumpia are a type of spring roll that are commonly found here, particularly in Semarang. They are absolutely delicious!
We were back by mid-afternoon, and the church told me to take the afternoon off rather than go to Compassion, as they thought I might be quite tired. One of the most common questions asked here, particularly to us foreigners, is "capek?" or "tired?" I'm still a bit confused about that one, because I'll be asked at 10AM, which is only a few hours after I woke up, and I don't think I look overly tired! I wasn't feeling too tired in the afternoon (I'm still used to the busyness of my life in Canada, and the pace here is quite a bit slower), but I really appreciated their concern for my well being, and took the break as it was offered.
I have found that my well-being is at the top of many peoples' priority lists here- my host family, the teachers at the TK, the people who work in the church office, and some people who work in the Synod, not to mention MCC. I was talking to Karen today about the differences in how we as North Americans would demonstrate our desire to make a foreigner feel at home, versus the methods that I have encountered here. I hesitate to say that Indonesians as a whole would all act the same way towards a visitor, but I think it is safe to say that most people here want me to know how free I am to eat- and eat, and eat, and eat! Food-related issues are my most commonly encountered struggle here. I find myself always trying to balance between eating what makes people happy (both in the choices I make, and in how much I eat of it), and keeping myself feeling good. It seems that there is a connection drawn between my size (I am comparatively quite a bit larger than most people I've met here) and my potential for food intake, and I find that to be frustrating at times. Nonetheless, the good intentions behind the actions are what need to be taken into account first and foremost, and I have been able to see that kindness and generosity as more and more of a blessing in the last few days.
My afternoons in general have quite a bit of free time in them. I am still a bit at a loss as to how to use that time. I find myself holed up in my room quite a bit, working on school stuff some of the time, but not always using the time most wisely. I don't know whether it is my Penner mentality (the one that says that if you're resting, something's not getting done that should be getting done- thanks mom and dad!) or my love for being around people as often as possible, that make this down time so difficult for me. I also feel guilty spending time in my room when I could be interacting with people. Who those people are, I'm not sure (which is why I have not yet broken the cycle of heading to my room between lunch and dinner), but I think that it would appease both my desire for being with people, as well as my guilty conscience, if I started seeking out activities to fill this time. It would also be a way to learn the language more quickly, which everyone here is eager for!
One cool thing that I've had to do lately is constantly leave google translate open when I am at my desk. I have made enough friends here now (and facebook and texting are widely used here) that I often receive texts or facebook messages in Bahasa Indonesia, usually filled with words I don't understand. Being a visual learner, it is probably my favourite way to learn new words, and I feel SO successful when I can communicate an idea, or understand what is said to me, entirely in Bahasa Indonesia. There have been some awesome people here who have taken me under their wing(s), and have really made an effort to befriend me despite the language barrier. It takes people with a heck of a lot of patience to do that, and I am grateful for all of them for that!
Tonight, a new friend is picking me up for Share N Care, which is my favourite event of the week! I have been told that on Friday, we are going to see a dolphin show with TK. I think I'm more excited than the kids are!
That's all for today! Thank you again for your words of encouragement and your prayers- I can feel them! Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day in your various places throughout the world :)
Love,
Ellery
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