Happy New Year

Over the new year holiday both last year and this year we spent time on the beach and time in the rain. But this time it was a lot warmer and less family. This year we went to Bali over the weekend and had some fun as a family.

We went whitewater rafting, rode elephants, swimming, boogie-boarding on the ocean waves, eating at a lot of different restaurants, going to church with a very small group of members of our church, visiting an organic restaurant we had to walk through rice fields to get to, playing games together, talking, watching a Balinese play at night, seeing a man fire walk on burning coconut shells, walking, riding in the car for hours, and taking short plane trips to and from as a family.

View from organic restaurant

Fun and memorable, along with a little fighting, yelling and missing other family and friends. We couldn't even get on the Internet much at all and so couldn't call people, text, Facebook, Skype or anything. Sorry.

Some of my best memories from the weekend are the times we spent eating together talking and playing 20 questions as we ate. Some of the places were quite an adventure. At this one place that had Mexican food, and barbecue ribs, you had to fight for a place. Not sure how to describe it except that at the front of the restaurant it is just open to the sidewalk and street like no wall or door or anything on that side. This is not too uncommon around here as so many things within walls and under a roof are open to the outside too. But it was very crowded the first time we tried to go and just as crowded the next time and people waited in line for 1/2 hour or more just to get a table. To me this said that it must be pretty good and worth trying for. So we started standing in line. Well it's a little hot and the kids are getting tired and the everyone is antsy to get a table and we're right next to the barbecue where they're grilling ribs which is at the front of the restaurant and it's a bit of a challenge. In order to eat you have to wait in the aisles near the tables and when someone finishes their meal you better hurry over and sit in their spot, even before they're dirty dishes, etc. are cleared off the table or you will be waiting a lot longer. So we stood in lines and kind of schemed, helped some, watched others, and kept a close eye on everyone eating their meals of burritos and BBQ spare ribs in order to get our turn. I spotted some people who were finishing up at a table that would be perfect for our six but it was in the other aisle and a man who started waiting at about the same time was standing near it. I had moved over closer to that one and we both did a sort of slow dance getting closer to the table so I decided to ask him how many people in his group, not wanting to give up what would be a great spot for us and thinking that I could be helpful to him to also get what I want. He wanted the same big table and the big one next to it for his group of 16! I protested that his whole group of 16 was not here before our group of six and some of them may need to wait. (The restaurant probably only holds about 35 at a time.) I think I got him on that one and he was civil enough that he allowed me to hustle onto the bench a couple minutes later when the people there stood up. He got the larger table next to us at almost the same time, but that left some of his group standing. They got lucky and were able to order first, and they ordered enough for the whole group! Oh well, at least we were sitting and it wasn't too long before we could order. As happens all too often, some of what we ordered was "out" but we got most of it, avoided being in the downpour of rain that started while we were waiting in line, and enjoyed eating it. It was an adventure in eating, for sure.

Inside Mexican/Ribs place with random people

In Indonesia, people smile and say hi and seem friendly, but when it comes to driving, getting off airplanes, and getting a place in a restaurant, they have a unique way of both going with the flow and getting what they want even if it means edging you out. For us to go with the flow we also have to squeeze in, push to the front, jump out first or whatever it takes, but smile as we do it. Then no one things anything of it and it's all good. It's  just a different kind of polite than we're used to.

Happy New Year.

Puzzling

It's been another crazy couple of weeks.

Making mango hard tack candy

My supervisor was out of town the last couple of weeks, so it was just me in the consular section to manage all of the interviews, U.S. citizen services, managing the consular section, etc. My days were very full as many people were trying to get visas to go to the U.S. for the holidays and U.S. citizens trying to get their passports renewed or extra pages before traveling for the same time period. One day last week so many people were on vacation from our small post that I was technically the one in charge of the whole consulate. Good thing everyone pretty well knows their job and nothing really exciting happened. I mostly just had to sign more papers than usual and remember combinations and passwords. On that note, I counted up in my head today something like 17 passwords and/or codes I have to know just for my work. That doesn't count my own personal passwords and codes for my own Email and bank accounts and so on. After 4 months I pretty well know most of what is essential for me to know and I'm starting to work on really doing it right and well and more quickly. Sometimes things don't go as I would like and people complain, but sometimes I do things exactly right and people complain! It's been fun in its own way to be the only one I can go to and to have to just figure it out. But it will also be very nice to have my supervisor back to take a little of the pressure off.

Cheese Puzzle - difficult!

We got any of our last minute preparation done for Christmas in time to make it enjoyable and memorable for our children. Thanks to my wife and on-line shopping, she pretty well had it all organized and under control. We just had a bit of a scramble for a couple of gifts that were taking a little more time to figure out and we had some unexpected visitors over this weekend. We planned on having the missionaries from our church who are serving in our church branch come over and also my supervisor who was just getting back from out of the country on Christmas Day. They came, which was great, but we found out that the President of the Indonesia mission of our church was going to be in town for a change in our branch presidency. We couldn't imagine them having Christmas dinner by themselves in a restaurant so we begged them to join us for dinner and they accepted. We had a good time talking, eating turkey, potatoes, coconut cream pie, and so much more. That was on Christmas Day. Earlier that day, I had an interview with the mission president and, probably luckily for this branch and my family, was called as the 1st Counselor in the branch presidency and not the president. The president has been the president of this branch a couple of times before and the other counselor has been the branch president as recently as about a year ago. We'll have fun doing our best to build up the leadership in the branch and reactivate people.
Our children were happy with their presents, we played games, watched videos, made candy, ate candy, put together puzzles, went to the mall, played Christmas songs on chimes, and had a good time. One of the best things this last week since my children were out of school was that one of them came to lunch with me every day last week. It was fun to introduce them to "Es sop jambu merah" which is a bowl full of shaved ice and strips of red guava on the bottom. Very refreshing in the 90+ degree holiday season weather. Yeah, the temperature really doesn't change very much around here except that it's a little more rainy right now. Anyway, I really enjoyed eating lunch out with them and showing them where I work.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Mall Week

Let's hear it for another 4-day week! Tuesday was a holiday, (Islamic New Year), so it felt a little like I had two Mondays this week and two Saturdays. Made for a little disorientation, but I can certainly live with it. For some reason this week was mall week for me. I was there a couple of days this week and several hours altogether. On Saturday, my oldest son and I were there from about 10:00 until about 1:00 and then we went back for a couple of hours that evening! We looked around, ate, got haircuts, got lost, discovered places and stores we didn't know existed. We thought we had entered another dimension or something. We even decided on a whim to try a little fish therapy place in the mall. For less than $3 each we put our feet in a pool for 15 minutes that had ultraviolet light shining in, and the best part, hundreds of little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. I was the first to put my feet in and within 2 seconds my feet and legs were completely covered in little brown fish who were literally nibbling at my toes. I almost couldn't stand it because it tickled so much. It was decent entertainment, that's for sure. And I'm not sure I've ever cared about this, but I think my feet really are softer and more beautiful like the signs promised! The only troubling thing about it is that I couldn't help get an image in my head of piranhas and how grateful I am that these fish aren't larger, have bigger teeth and like live flesh.

Fish therapy - yummy dead skin!

Okay.
In other news, today I gave my first talk in church in Indonesian. I was assigned to speak for 15 minutes. After writing my talk out and making the Indonesian sound reasonable, I had no idea if it was that long and didn't have time to do anything about it. I only had past experience to go on knowing about what needs to go into a talk to make it that length. I was a little worried when I saw that I was the last speaker since I don't feel I am quite to the level of being really good at flexible with my talk in Indonesian yet. But in the end I had almost exactly 15 minutes to speak--just what I was assigned. And the best part is that my talk with a couple small items added in finished just in time! What's even better is that I think that they even understood me.

Starting the holidays

I wasn't feeling very well last week and must have fallen asleep before posting anything. In fact, my wife and I have talked many times about how since moving here we feel tired and go to bed earlier than we used to. I'm not sure all the reasons, but some of it, I'm sure, has to do with the timing of day and night. Every day, all year, the sun comes up and goes down at just about the same time. It comes up around 5:30 in the morning and goes down around 5:30 at night. Every day. I think I already said that. I remember in winter time at home in Utah, when the sun goes down earlier it just felt like time to go inside and when it's dark and when it was dark and I was home it was so easy to get sleepy. And when I was on my mission in Russia it was hard not to feel sleepy in the wintertime when we rarely saw the sun. So that's one thing, but really it starts getting light even earlier. Now we are getting up before the sun comes up, like around 4:30 a.m. to exercise, study scriptures, eat breakfast, and so on and then, for me, get to work by 7:30 a.m. You might say, "duh," when I say this might also be part of the early evening sleepiness. But I still think it has to do a little with the sun since it comes up so early.

On other notes, my favorite holiday came and went. It was a little different from other Thanksgiving Days I have had, but it was still good and much better than the last one. (I had "swine flu" over last Thanksgiving and really missed everything and felt like I was dying.) This Thanksgiving my wife made pies and I made the turkey. Thanks to my mom sending an oven bag, the turkey was still nice and moist and tasted pretty good. All of the food tasted good. We had the missionaries over and I think they enjoyed having a traditional American Thanksgiving just as much as we did. Even the missionary from Canada enjoyed it; he said they have pretty much the same there.
I finally got my bike tire fixed and have been able to ride it a few times. I even rode a little with my two youngest who just learned how to ride a couple of weeks ago! My oldest son and I have gone two Saturdays in a row exploring around on our bikes. We rode over to a nearby neighborhood where there are a few cattle and goats out in the empty spaces where homes haven't been built yet. The last time we went for a ride we were very hot, since it's always around 90 degrees, and it felt nice to cool off with a swim in the pool near our home.
Is it really December already?

24?

The airport tarmac

Man playing the musical instrument

Another busy week just flew by.
I went to work for a couple of hours on Monday morning then took a couple hour flight to the island of Timor for work. The distance from where I live is like Salt Lake to Lincoln, Nebraska or maybe Chicago to New York, something like that. Anyway, it's not very close and it feels pretty far away, too. The climate and plants are different. The air is dry, things look a little different and there are some unique cultural things like this interesting musical instrument and hat. I had to get a picture. The instrument has strings, (I think it's 24?), around a cylender and then the strings are plucked like a harp and the shell in the back can be expanded to magnify the sound, except the one in this picture is plugged in to an amplifier! When I traveled up into the mountains I saw near so many of the homes these little huts where people hang out. Some had the grass roof all the way to the ground and some just a couple feet above the ground. Some things are the same as where I live and this is still Indonesia, but these are things that are not the same.
On my trip I got to visit the home and graveyard of one of the former kings, (I think there were 24 on the island). The king's descendants still live there and carry on the tradition though they have no real governmental power anymore. I think the influence of the king and all his relatives, which are many, are still felt in the community, however.

Welcome to the home of the king

The road up was winding and narrow and interesting with all of the hills, villages, and views. I liked the airport also with it's one runway. The plane lands and then turns around to drive back to where it can drop everyone off on the tarmac. Then a plane drives down to the end of the runway, turns around and takes off. One thing I didn't get a picture of was all of the goats for sell for the holiday on Wednesday, (which I had off since it's a national holiday). They were on practically every main road in temporary set ups. I heard that many families buy a goat and then kill it and eat it on that day. All I did was go swimming with a couple of my own children and some boys from our branch (congregation)!

Elder Pratt

There are only a couple other news items for the week: the doctor was in town from Jakarta so my wife and I went to get our remaining immunization boosters, my daughter and I seem to be getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, she even gets them feasting on her all night despite her mosquito net, we swam more on Saturday, and we had our district conference for our church on Saturday and Sunday with a visiting general authority, Elder Carl Pratt and his wife, who happen to know a cousin of mine very well.
Are there still only 24 hours in a day?

Typical hut

View from hotel room in Kupang

Island hopping

This week I was able to do some different things, some firsts for me.
I went on an assignment for a few different things to a couple of islands in Indonesia. I visited Bali for the first time and went to Lombok on a second visit. The best part is that my wife was able to come along and spend some time with me there since Thursday was a holiday (Veteran's Day).
On Wednesday I had a few different things to do and was able to spend some time at the Consular Agency we have in Bali and with the staff there. It's small, but they are very good and handle a big amount of consular services for Americans compared to their size. It was good to see where the people I work with are working and meet them face to face. Friday I went to Lombok for work and then back to Java that evening.
One of the things that the U.S. Government does for its citizens abroad is visit them if they are incarcerated for any reason to find out how they are doing and keep in communication. This was one of my tasks for my trip and something I am happy to do. Luckily, from what I've seen, there are some things that people in prison can do here that make life a little easier such as have food and reading material brought in for you, and in some cases even use your cell phone freely. They are able to take care of things that need to be done if they have a friend on the outside and keep in touch. This usually makes things a little simpler on the visit since sometimes I have even talked with the person on the phone to let them know I'm coming.

Waterfall in Bali

Choosing fish to grill for dinner

The monkey fell asleep sitting up

Terraced rice fields

The view of the volcano while drinking watermelon juice

Because Thursday was a holiday, we arranged for my wife to come. We had a good time together Wednesday night, Thursday all day and Friday in Lombok after I was done with business. We saw so many different things that I can't even begin to list them here. It was a lot of fun. We saw tourist sites, artists, volcanoes, lakes, the sea and beaches. We ate by candlelight on the beach, breathed fresh sea air, relaxed watching the scenery, and were thrilled and maybe a little scared by the fast driving down narrow streets just missing dogs, motorcycles and ladies with baskets on their head as we zoomed through. In Lombok we saw so many rice fields and horse-drawn carts as well as amazing beaches, mountains and views. In Bali we got a full dose of the musical, dance, carving, and other handicraft artistry that is part their culture. After that and a full Saturday, I fell into bed about 9:00 pm and couldn't get up until late the next morning.

Lombok near Malimbu

I'll have to do it again soon. My wife and I checked out places we will want to go in the future and with our children. I would love to hike a volcano or two, spend some time on the beach and swimming in the sea, see the monkey temple again, ride elephants, and ride in one of those horse carts. Both of these islands are less than an hour plan flight from us. Anyone want to join us?

Stuff

At our consulate we have dubbed this month "Education Month" and have made plans for extra efforts to promote education in the United States. I have been asked to help coordinate this effort which is why I am thinking about it and writing about it. There are so many little things, plus a couple of bigger ones. One of the things we like to do is go to talk to students about the benefits of studying in the United States of America, what the process is, etc. We're making an effort to get to many more schools and students over the next couple of months and trying to get all of the Americans at the consulate to go out to a local school every month. This month is the kick-off of this effort. We also have a photo contest about what education is like for the students here, plus there are some film screenings, radio talk shows, and a bunch of other things. It's a good thing and a bit different than what I usually do every day.

On Wednesday I got to do something a little different because I was asked to go to the Consulate General's residence to watch the election returns from the U.S. (As the Tuesday night polls are closing in the US it was Wednesday morning here.) It made it really convenient to invite Indonesians from the local government, university officials and students to watch it and ask questions to learn more. It was pretty fun to answer and ask questions. One student was a little shocked to find out that I don't drink alcohol as he assumed that all Americans do. He also kept asking me about the vote on marijuana in California. A lot of them asked me if I thought the president would get reelected in 2 years, which, of course, I have no idea or even care to speculate at this point. Pretty fun.

But the two biggest pieces of news come last.

The first one is very exciting and made the second one possible. After a very long time, we finally have our own things again! Most of it we have not seen for over 14 months. We have our own plates and cups and books and games and pictures and it's awesome. We also got a bunch of food that my wife was smart to buy and have sent to us. I just hope we don't use it all up too fast! There are so many boxes and paper in our garage right now. Everything came on Friday in big wooden shipping crates much bigger than the picture here but similar. Inside each crate was all of our things in cardboard boxes and paper. We still don't have everything organized but have put a lot of things away. It has made our place feel a lot more like our home.

One of the things that came was our bikes. We have not seen them since we left Utah in the summer of 2009. That summer we had not really pushed the two youngest to ride bikes without training wheels. The youngest was just a little young and not really interested and the older of the two was certainly old enough but we knew we wouldn't be seeing our bikes for a while and maybe there was a little fear there too so we didn't feel like it was something we needed to push. But both of them on Saturday learned how to ride bikes, starting, turning, stopping, everything all in just a few minutes! It was awesome. They probably rode for a couple of hours straight. It was so much fun and made us feel great that our stuff arrived just before a weekend so they could have some time to ride while it was light outside.