Converge

Sometimes a lot of different things converge at the same time. This was one of those weeks.
For months I have been working on assuring that the imposed implementation of a set of consular services by an outside contractor works for our post. It has been challenging and I am grateful for the help of a great colleague in Jakarta who was great about remembering the needs of our small post throughout the process. We are the customers to some degree but it effects our customers for visa services and we want it to be done right. This entailed going over everything that was proposed and making sure that it was as much as we could before it launched. Part of the service includes a Web site for making appointments for visa interviews. The experiences I had in my previous job were very helpful for managing this and also seeing the mistakes that were being made. But after months of delays, it launched this week! Very exiting, but now we still have a lot of work trying to figure out how to make it work for us and pass on lessons learned to others who have not yet made the change.
We also had some trainers in this week to refresh and update us on the consular computer applications we use every day. They are still working with us but have done a great job so far helping us use the applications better and more efficiently.

Meeting with students at a school after a presentation

On Saturday I worked at an education fair promoting education in the United States. We had a great turnout. I got to stand at a booth representing the consulate and answer questions. I was joined for a few minutes by another colleague of mine, and the Consul General herself, and even for a few minutes with the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia who was visiting Surabaya! I had some interesting questions and felt like I said, "I don't know," quite a bit. "What is the best university for a masters in accountancy?" "What university is the best for a degree in aquaculture?" "How long does it take for me to get an immigrant visa?" "How can I get a scholarship?" That last one was asked dozens of times. 4 hours, hundreds of people, routine and crazy questions. Pretty fun. I also got to speak for 45 minutes about how to get a student visa. Seems like a pretty dry subject to me. I tried to spice it up, but really couldn't think of a good way to do it. It's a little like math, do this and this to get this. Necessary but hard to love unless you love technicalities. (I love technicalities, so I get into it a little but I know not everyone shares the love.) There were probably 100 people in the room listening to my presentation. It was standing-room only! I struggled to find a few minutes this week to put things together for this and some other presentations I needed to do next week that were cancelled or postponed at the last minute. But it all came together in the end. You will probably be able to take a look at information and pictures from the fair on our consulate Facebook page very soon, http://www.facebook.com/Surabaya.USConsulate.
I think I have to thank my previous job for a lot of experience in many of the things I did this week. That certainly made it a lot easier and less stressful than it could have been otherwise.
I guess in a way that means even my previous job converged into my week. And it seemed to work out.

Still warm

Rice Fields near Poso

Last week I went on a business trip to Central Sulawesi, one of the provinces of Indonesia, and visited the cities of Palu and Poso. I had some interesting experiences there, met lots of people, had fun visiting some schools, met some U.S. Citizens living there, and met a family living there who are the only members of my church in Palu. Sometimes in our church we think it is challenging to have a demanding church calling, a lot of church activities, etc., and it is. But it is also a big challenge to not have any other church members to do anything with and always just being on your own. It was good for them and for me to meet.

Drying cocoa beans by side of road

The whole area has beautiful thick forests, high mountains and the sea. The part of the province near Poso has tons of cocoa trees, rice fields, and fish. There were goats, chickens, some dogs and cats, and people wandering around on almost every street. It was great.
I didn't write about it when I got back because our internet was down all afternoon and evening Sunday when I have time to do it. Then during the week I was sick. I don't like being sick especially since I feel sick enough not to feel like doing anything but not sick enough to not actually do anything.
I gave another talk in church yesterday, but the time was pretty well out by the time my talk came up so I had to cut things down and just share a little and do my best in Indonesian. It's a little more challenging to do that in another language, but luckily a week before I had spent a whole week in Central Sulawesi listening to and speaking with people in Indonesian. My usual daily interactions in Indonesian are much shorter and less in depth so this was a big boost to helping me communicate. The talk worked out fine.

Cool Mosque in Palu

I must be out of practice blogging because I'm having a hard time writing. My apologies to any who read this.

Veggies!

River near Poso

Boats off the shore

Homes over calm water

Rats!

The exiting thing last week was that we found out what has been making noise in our ceiling for a couple of months. We all had our guesses: a mouse, a bird, a lizard, a gecko, nothing. But we had a trap put up there to catch whatever it was (someone went up before that to take a look and told us it was a small tikus, which could be a big mouse or a small rat). Anyway, as you may guess by the title, it was a small rat. The great part about it is that it does not wake us up at night anymore and we don't hear anything scratching around up there anymore. The bad part is that it sat in a cage in front of my house before someone came to take it away and kill it! The bad part about that is that I went to look at it and I thought it was kind of cute in it's own way. It definitely has beady eyes! Anyway, that was about the most exiting thing to happen around here and is still a topic of conversation for us.

The actual rat, and a random snail friend in the corner.

Now the only thing we hear in our ceiling is an occasional drip from the rain. It's rainy season here right now, which does not mean that it is cold. The temperature is pretty much the same as always. The difference is that usually every day it rains for a couple of hours in the early afternoon, maybe again around sundown, and then often during the night. The ground is always wet and mud is abundant. Sometimes we have floods when the rain is particularly heavy which makes traffic even slower. It took me 1 1/2 hours to get home from work a couple of times last week. If there isn't much traffic, like on a holiday, it only takes about 1/2 hour for me to get to work. Most of the vehicles on the road are motorcycles and the rain doesn't stop anyone from driving them. They just put on their rain gear, take off their shoes or sandals and sometimes even drive with their feet up high on the stem  of the bike below the handle bars. Motor bikes still get around faster than the cars since they weave in and out of traffic and cars, not just down the lane between cars but also between the cars as in the tiny space between the back of one car and the front of another until they're at the front of the light. Many of them then don't even wait for the light if there is one and just go if there is any break in the traffic and they think they can make it. It's pretty cool but also a little scary to watch sometimes.
Church is sometimes a bit challenging too. Today none of the Elder's Quorum presidency showed up (it's been weeks since they've been to a priesthood meeting). Today is supposed to be the lesson taught by the presidency. Since I conducted the opening of the priesthood meeting I felt like I should help out. I asked if anyone had been asked to teach and no one (out of the 5 in attendance) spoke up. I was pretty sure that no one had been asked so I started a discussion about something that seemed relevant. It seemed to go okay, but I did get a lot of looks like they were really concentrating to try to understand me. I wish I could speak this language better, and I'm sure they think the same thing!

Surprise

Kind of a long week this week for some reason. By the time it was Wednesday, I couldn't figure out why it wasn't Friday. And that was despite the fact that I had Monday off work for Martin Luther King, Jr. day!

But, the beginning and the end of the week were the best part of the week for sure. Amy and I went on a daytime date on Monday since the children were in school and I had the day off. We went to lunch and saw a movie together. It was fun. And the end of the week we celebrated my wife's birthday by opening presents, going out for banana splits as a family (same place as last blog post), and going out to eat a meter-long pizza as a family. We had a good time.

Mmmm . . . . Mango Gelato

My wife was happy that I finally surprised her with a present thanks to a good friend. She is very hard to surprise for a few reasons. Usually since I always come home after work if I can help it, if I try to go anywhere to shop she wonders where I am and what I am doing not coming/being at home. If I order on-line she might get the Email receipt of the shipment or it goes to our house and she gets it before I do. She usually gets the mail before I do. She can see if anything has come out of the bank account and where it's gone to. This year things are a little different since our mail and packages are delivered to my work twice a week and I access the bank accounts from my computer at work. Add to that our friends willingness and suggestion to do the shopping for me and ship it to me and I have the perfect way to overcome my previous challenges with creating a surprise. My wife has been talking for months (if not longer) about having an iPod to listen to while walking and running that is not so bulky as her phone and she can pick the songs more easily than my old one she's been using. Surprise! Happy birthday. I hope you enjoy it.

It's fun to surprise people. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but I have loved it for a long time. I remember when I was young leaving things for people at their doors or surprising them with some kind of service. I try to find ways to do this at work also. The best things are not things that people expect you to do, but little things that they are not expecting. Just doing something unexpected for the benefit of someone else gives me a thrill. I am not always the best at doing this. Some people I know are practically experts at noticing something small someone else needs and doing it. I admire them a lot and wish I was better at this because it is one of the joys of life. Is this just me or do you enjoy this also?

Short post

Not sure I have a lot to talk about this week. Things were pretty normal and work was not overly busy. A lot of people missing at church this week; maybe they're all sick? It is still about the same temperature it was when we arrived, just more rainy. The couple of times a day it downpours cools the temperature a little - to about 90 F. I conducted our church meeting in Indonesian today, also. But not much out of the ordinary.

Anyway, one thing I can say for certain is that I love it when my wife comes to my work to have lunch with me. This is one of the unexpected benefits of my wife choosing to be a stay-at-home mom and having all of our children in school. It means that sometimes she can come to my office and have lunch with me. It's the best. This week we went to a place where we have been before called Harvest that has good sandwiches and calm American music playing in the background. We ordered our own sandwiches and we ordered one banana split to share. If you're not really specific about things here you can be surprised. This time was no exception. We ordered our meal and dessert and a few minutes later a huge bowl of bananas, ice cream of different flavors, shavings of chocolate, and whipped cream showed up, . . . before the meal. We both looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said at the same time, "Well, I guess it's dessert first!" It was delicious.

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!