Short

The power went out today for 3 hours. It has rained really hard a couple of days this week for a couple of hours and filled up our courtyard with water more than an inch deep. There have been earthquakes and volcanoes but not close enough to us that we have even noticed anything at all, thank goodness. I went to Malang for the first time this week. We went to a consulate Halloween party and my wife and I borrowed a costume from some teachers at our kids' school and went as breakfast: toast and bacon. I also carved a couple of pumpkins for it. We also went swimming at the kids' school in the Olympic-sized swimming pool on Saturday. It really is huge. We all tried out flippers. Believe it or not, it was the first time for me. I have always wanted to use them. It was awesome how fast I could go underneath the water. My son and I would throw out a diving toy to the middle and swim like super-speedy submarines to pick them up. It was fun.

Two weeks

One difference the last two weeks has to do with driving. It is this: I now drive my family to church myself on Sundays. When we first got here, another member of my church who also works at the consulate came and drove us to church. My wife and I both remember him saying that it really isn't too difficult and we would learn how to get there pretty quickly. We thought he was a little nuts for saying that since it seemed to us like traffic was going everywhere and we turned a hundred times. Then we hired a driver to take us for a few weeks. We got used to it but only after assuring my family that I really know the way and having them ride with me driving on a few shorter drives did they consent to letting me do it. Well, so far we have made it safely there and back two weeks in a row. I plan on taking us every week unless there is some unforeseen problem. I like this arrangement much better anyway for a variety of reasons. One is that I was having some issues with feeling a bit restricted, lacking freedom to go where I want to go. This arrangement helps me feel better about that. Another reason I like this better is that I really did not like the idea of paying someone to work taking us to church if I could avoid it. (Didn't quite sit well with my sense of keeping the Sabbath day holy, except that it really was necessary for a while and so very justified.) Another is that in our branch the total number of cars driven by members to the church building each week is like 3 or 4, including us, and we may have been the only ones with a driver. I just felt a little out of place, more than I already am, having someone drive me when some can't even afford public transportation to church. I feel like some distance has been closed since I drive my own family now.
Whew, that was long. Anyway, now you know what I think about when I don't have anything else to think about!

The last 2 weeks I have been able to watch "The Amazing Race" on television, and "The Amazing Race: Asia!" I don't know why I like that show, but it makes me feel good.
The last 2 weeks my mom has called me on my Google number. The first of my family to do it, and I have been there to answer. Thanks, Mom.

Not me, but this is batik

There have been school fairs and parties at homes of co-workers the last 2 weekends. We spent a lot of time outside, eating different things, talking, and we also got to see fireworks and I bought a Batik shirt!
For work we had inspectors for one of the two weeks. They come every five years or so and make a lot of good suggestions that we are processing still. I am starting to get used to my new workplace and the routines there and hopefully getting a handle on all there is to do. A new consulate is being built, which will be an interesting change, if I am still here when it's done. I got to see the progress this week and it will be nice for a lot of different reasons.
That's probably enough. There is more, which is why I shouldn't skip a week in the future. What will the next 2 weeks bring?

Long

This last week was a long one. We had quite a bit to do at work and my supervisor was out of town the last two days of the week, which sort of increased my load. I fell asleep on the floor at home on Thursday night at 8:00pm. Even though it was very uncomfortable and I kept waking up, I just couldn't get up enough strength to wake up and get off the ground of the family room and go to bed!
After the week it was great to have a long weekend. I get Monday off because it's a federal holiday. On Saturday we took a look around the harbor area of Surabaya, where we haven't been before. It was pretty interesting to see. On Sunday, our branch was watching the General Conference Broadcast from Salt Lake City in Indonesian, so our family stayed home and watched it in English on the internet. We had a guest over, a former federal court judge and his wife who are members of my church and are visiting Indonesia to meet with officials here. And today, my wife and I got to take the kids to school together, go shopping together and visit the Arab quarter of the city together. It was fun to have a long date together. I even met a new friend while we were there!
I am glad for long weekends. I especially like Monday holidays.

Event popular . . . that shouldn't miss!

"Event popular Malaysian Style fragrant spices chicken curry that shouldn't miss!"

That was the description on the menu for a Malay Chicken Curry dish that I ate on Saturday. What does that even mean? All I know is that it must mean that it's good because it was. I also had a drink called "Ambula" that I had no idea before I got it or after I tasted it what it was made of. To me it tasted like a cross between a green pepper and the skin of an apple in the form of a thick juice. Pretty refreshing actually. I found out it is made from a fruit of a different name. I am including a couple of pictures from an interesting food Web site that has a recipe for it.

There were a few other things this week that I would also classify as "Event popular, that shouldn't miss!"

Some of you will be happy to know that I finally got a haircut. I was really concerned about getting one here because I like it a certain way so it has been since the beginning of August. It was long and bushy, but now looks nice and trim again. This young, hip-looking Indonesian guy who was wearing a side bag with his cutting equipment in it cut it for me and did a good job. Oh, and they washed my hair at the beginning and the end of the haircut. Nice.

This week for work I got to go to Jakarta for a couple of days to make connections with people in the Embassy and take a look at how they do things there. I always love to get to know a little about a new place. Jakarta is a huge city and it takes a long time to get anywhere. I was glad I got to go do consultations there. I saw a lot of people I know and met others I only had heard of. I stayed in a cool hotel and had dinner with some friends. Definitely "that shouldn't miss!"

Another big thing was hearing back about my next assignment. I will be going to Moscow for my next post with a couple of months training back in DC. I and my whole family are excited about it. In a way it's kind of nice (and fairly unusual in my line of work) to know where I am going to be for the next 4-5 years. We don't have to think about that much at all and can enjoy this post and Indonesia for all it has to offer and know that we are going to get a different experience with the next post.

Any of you who were thinking of visiting us, please don't wait until Moscow. Visit us both places!
We will try to make sure it is event popular that shouldn't miss!

Mangga

I love mangoes. In the states one of my favorite snacks or lunchtime additions was Philippine brand dried mangoes. Mmmmm.

Since I have been here in Indonesia, I am even more in love. I have fresh mango for dinner most every night and I can hardly even think about the rest of the food, I just want to eat all of the mango pieces. It is so good to me I'm saying "mmmm" to myself as I'm writing this. When the fruit at our dinner table does not include mango, I have to admit that I'm disappointed. But luckily this does not happen very much.
On Saturday, after visiting a factory where they roll cigarettes by hand, faster than humanly possible, we went out to eat. (And just in case you are wondering, no, I haven't taken up smoking but just though it would be interesting to see hundreds of workers rolling tobacco into paper and packaging it by hand. It was.) Anyway, we went to eat at an Italian restaurant. (Yes, they have some in Indonesia.) They had several kinds of gelatto (Italian ice cream) there and I, of course, tried the mango. It was very good.

I have wondered aloud a few times since I've been here if mango has some kind of addictive something-or-other in it. If it does have it, I wouldn't be surprised since I think I'm a mango addict. In Indonesian it's mangga, so maybe I'm a mangga addict. Can you eat too much fruit? It's too good to care. I'm just going to keep eating it.

All day

There are only a couple new and different things I can think of about this week, besides desperately needing a haircut all week long and not getting one.
One big one is that for a couple of days my supervisor was out of town. This means that I was the only officer in my section for those days and responsible for everything that goes on there and an increased workload. Not like I haven't had plenty to do already, but I had plenty to do! It is pretty fun, though, to always have something going on and to be hopping the whole day long. I would much rather have that than sitting all day long with little to do or just one thing all day long. That can get pretty boring; I know since I've had that at times before. Most days now I am going full tilt from about 7:15 am to 5:15 pm or later and I still have plenty left to do.
So at the end of the day it's nice to come home and have dinner and watch the kids run around and sit for a little while. But then at nights I'm so tired, and since the sun always goes down at around 5:30 pm, by 8:30 or so at night it seems so late and I have a hard time staying awake. Today is Sunday, and definitely not as demanding as other days, but as I sit here typing just before 9:00 pm I am feeling tired and my wife is yawning from across the room. I'm used to the sun going down late in the day when it's hot outside. But here it goes down what seems like early and it's still 85 degrees at 9:00 pm. I am getting used to it, but it still feels a little weird.

Anyway, on a different subject, yesterday we went swimming again and to the mall and watched our first movie at a movie theater here. The seats were very comfy and the movie was 3D and in English. I didn't love the movie, but had fun watching it. I also had this really interesting thing for lunch. It was a couple of pancakes with a piece of crispy fried chicken on top along with some spicy sauce and veggies. It was actually really good. And it was totally a work of art. The kids had pancakes with whipped cream and baked bananas with chocolate sauce and ice cream. Also very good. The restaurant says it's Australian, but, never having been to Australia, I wouldn't really know. I would definitely go back, though. And I will never think of pancakes in exactly the same way.

Variety is the spice of life

Monday was Labor Day. Since I work for the U.S. Government I get U.S. holidays off work. We took advantage of the day to go outside of town to a park "Taman Safari" where you can have a Jurassic Park-like experience driving through electrified enclosures with wild animals wandering all around. The one with the very dangerous animals like bears, lions, and tigers had double gates, electric wires we drove over, and signs letting us know we should not roll down our windows or get out of the car. I couldn't help but think about the movie and all of the problems that happened when they got out and the animals mixed that weren't supposed to and I wasn't arguing. It was a really fun experience. After that we even rode an elephant and a camel, watched white tigers eat chicken while we ate, got pictures with live animals, and saw a couple of shows including one where some owls swooped down to scoop up live mice and eat them.
Tuesday and Wednesday were work as usual, and usual has been very busy lately. I stayed extra late one day to try to get some things done and only took a little chunk out of it. On Tuesday night we had two of the full-time missionaries for our church over to have dinner with us. It's great to have them over.
On Thursday I got to fly to a nearby island to visit an american in jail to make sure all is well, make contact, etc. It was awesome to be able to do this. I expected to just go in and meet with him for a while and maybe talk a little with the police, but shortly after I got there I was sitting in the office of the head of the police with about 5 others from the force like the detective and investigator, the american and a friend of the american. Then they all just turned to me to start. I had to come up with something fast. They were very nice and accommodating. Part of the fun of it is the challenges along the way. We had a couple of power outages, the places to eat near the police station were closed because everyone else was fasting for Ramadan, there was a huge rainstorm that made it nearly impossible to hear the person sitting next to me and the storm also caused a delay for my flight home causing me to leave at about 9 pm instead of 5 pm.
On Friday and Saturday I got to relax with my family since I didn't have to work because it's one of the biggest Indonesian holidays of the year. I drove, yes I drove, our family to the mall. (The driving and steering wheel are on the opposite side from the U.S., traffic is heavy and they don't really look at lines.) Luckily, the only issue was whenever I went to turn on my blinker I flipped the left side which made the wipers go on. We went for a tiring, sweaty walk in the heat of the day to a restaurant that ended up being closed but made it good by picking up some ice cream at a little store near our home. We played a couple of games of Monopoly. We also went out to the school field near our home at night to play tag, a modified version of capture the flag, and have skipping races around the track. We had fun.

Sunday was also a little different since I was sustained to be the Young Men's President in our ward. Later I was set apart, which is the first time I have been set apart to anything all in Indonesian. And I went to the YM meeting. Luckily the outgoing president was willing to still teach the lesson he had prepared. I might be in trouble very soon since my Indonesian still leaves a lot to be desired. I am just relying on the blessing during the setting apart that my Indonesian would be smooth so I could do my calling.
I've always said I like variety and this week certainly had it.