in pictures

I haven't been posting pictures lately because my camera freaks out every time I plug it into my computer - or any other computer, for that matter. Courtesy of Rachel Lee's computer, I was able to grab pictures off of my SD card (the only impetus being that I gave a presentation about my work and domestic workers, at Sekolah Pelita Harapan at a class for one of my Life Group members - Mr. Eric - and I wanted to share with the students some of my pictures with the TKW from work, that I also show below). And now without further ado, I give you, in no particular order, glimpses of my life here, in pictures:

::September babies:: Karissa and I at our Team dinner on my birthday. And the candles on my cake really do confirm my age in my heart - five years old. (Oh, and the awesome red bag on my right is from my dear roommate, Ruth Gao).

Post-karaoke. L-R: Yumiko, Anita, me, Frency, Sam, Irene, and John
Yumiko is an Accounting student at UPH, and our neighbor from 15B. Anita was connected to us by Frency, who works with my roommate Rachel at Sekolah Pelita Harapan.

My LCG Lea! I found out over dinner one night that she and I were born in the same year, four days apart. Lea teaches Bahasa Indonesia at SPH, and has been helping me to learn more of the language here. We have been going deeper into the Word each time we meet with one another. I am learning so much from her about culture and character, and I praise God that our paths were able to cross here in Indonesia!

::Game Night:: I love this picture because everyone is laughing hysterically. To be honest, I can't remember why, but I love seeing the enjoyment experienced within the community.

::teman-teman baru [new friends]:: Ika (far right) was one of the first people in the library to share vulnerably with me about her life. She flew to Hong Kong in the middle of September. It's so hard to say goodbye to new friends, but a joy to share life while they are here, and to wish them the best as they go on their way. I feel challenged by people like Ika because she is my age, and is brave enough to go overseas and do menial work, all in the pursuit of seeing their dreams for a better life come true.

Praying during our Inaugural Sunday Celebration

One of my favorite pictures here, ever. Notice Irene peering up at Sam like a creeper. This was taken at Ace Hardware, while we were looking for Christmas lights. The sign says "Terima Kasih - Anda sudah berhati-hati diarea ligthing" [Thank you in advance for your caution in the lighting area] except the most significant word on the sign to us that day was "diarea." (Yes, we are very mature).

Planning for Operation Campus Reach at Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH), at apartment 6F (also known as Home Sweet Home)

Irene and I at Viper (Villa Permata), for a team dinner. In front of us is a fried, flying fish - which was subsequently devoured. And yes, it was very delicious (enak sekali) (and I can't figure out how to rotate this picture, sorry...)

Hotel Indonesia Traffic Circle, Central Jakarta. I saw a picture of this once before moving to Indonesia and I love seeing for myself things I thought I would only dream about seeing. This picture caught the fountain at a moment when traffic was just ahead of and behind our car - otherwise, Jakarta is always traffic, traffic!

Sam, reading to us before starting life group on Wednesday. I love this picture because I realized after the fact that in it are our three target groups (L-R): (1) expatriates living and working in Indonesia (Eric, a teacher originally from Montana, working at Sekolah Pelita Harapan); (2) Indonesian nationals (Iwan, a P.E. teacher at SPH); and (3) Indonesians who have studied abroad and returned to Indonesia (Grace Liu, Michigan Alum '08)

::Sharing life:: At the canteen, with the TKW. The two women on my right, Dwi and Daisy, flew to Hong Kong yesterday to start their new two year contracts and I miss them dearly already. I used to cry as I was learning more about the plight of Indonesian migrant workers overseas, and I think that the things that they experience are important to know about (see links in upper right-hand corner of this blog). But when I see these women and hear their stories, I have been challenged to hope the best for them rather than pity. Dreams are their inspiration for bearing through the menial work, "for my future," they always say.

::Lunch at Supermal Karawaci with our new friends::

L-R: Joe, Irene, Hendry (Karawaci Life Group), John, Alex (JKT Life Group), Lucas (Karawaci Life Group), David (JKT Life Group), Darvin (JKT Life Group)

Hendry returned recently to Indonesia after having studied in the States. Alex is from Bekasi, just east of Jakarta and is a singer. Lucas also returned recently from studying abroad, in Vancouver. David works for ASEAN in the Singapore Embassy. Darvin studied at the University of Texas at Austin, and returned to Indonesia a few years ago. He is currently doing theological studies here in Jakarta. It really is all about connections and relationships here in Indonesia. Here's a (hopefully) simple diagram about how these people were connected to us:

Hendry - Amelia (Grace Liu's colleague) - Grace Liu - JKT Team

Alex - Sassha (David's friend from church) - David - Grace Liu - JKT Team
Lucas - Grace Liu - JKT Team
Darvin - David - Grace Liu - JKT Team

I walked outside to write some e-mails during lunch one day, and ended up having an impromptu photo shoot with some of the women - many of them who attend our Friday Bible study. This is just after they were sharing their impian [dreams] with me (one wants to start her own business, a car wash; one wants a beautiful house and a car; one wants to continue in her studies). Dreams I might have ordinarily considered simple, things I took for granted before... Challenges me to be thankful for everything I have experienced, to see that the best things in life aren't really things - and how special to have community, no matter where one is in the world!

Thanks for looking/reading! More next time...

randomness

7 Oktober, Hari Rabu [Wednesday] ::season of mists and natural disasters:: Keats would probably be horrified with my replacement of the “mellow fruitfulness” part of his famous verse – but it isn’t so mellow here as I’m sure most, if not all, of you are aware of the devastation wrought by the earthquake last Wednesday in Padang, West Sumatra and the Tropical Storm Ketsana (Ondoy) in Luzon, Philippines so I won’t pretend to be a news source, because I’m not. Initially, it was easy to feel detached from both incidents, as life went on as usual [biasa] here in Jabotabek (Jakarta-Bogor-Tangerang-Bekasi). We are on the island of Java and were spared from the tremors that resulted in the demolition of entire villages and loss of life in our neighbor to the west, Sumatra.

While we were driving to eat Padang food (cuisine famous throughout Indonesia for its spiciness) for lunch, the thought of overwhelming sadness finally registered as I sat processing the many stories I have read and heard and the pictures I have seen over the past week. After that spice-tolerance increasing makan siang [lunch] the sobering thought occurred to me: do I really need earthquakes and typhoons to feel broken for people who are dying in droves? Or is my heart burning for people dying inside their hearts, natural disasters or not?

3 Oktober, Hari Sabtu [Saturday] ::Rp. 35,000 sepatu-sepatu; or, on the absence of personal space:: After my first adventure almost alone into Jakarta (hopped on the Lippo Bus like a big girl all by myself but was joined randomly by my teammate John Eom, who was also going into the city…) I met up with my LCG (life change group) accountability partner Deborah. A young twenty-something from China, she has lived in Jakarta for two years, teaching Mandarin at one of the international schools here. Our rendezvous point was the Plaza Semanggi – one of the myriad shopping malls that take up space in the Jakarta skyline. As we ambled through the mall, I saw a pair of adorable grey patent flats selling for Rp 50,000 ($5.00 USD) – but I think since moving here, I have been developing enough self-control regarding my ridiculous shoe fetish to recognize that those shoes were a want rather than a need. Shortly afterwards, we saw these signs at another shoe store: “SALE: Rp. 35,000 ($3.50 USD).” One reading this can only imagine the sea of jilbab [Bahasa Indonesia term for hijab, or head covering worn by Muslim women], the different colors worn by the women who were swarming the sale.

Deborah and I endeavored to enter the shoe store, and I felt myself being fairly pushed in by the women behind me eager to coba [tʃo’ba] (try) on the sepatu-sepatu murah [cheap shoes]. Deborah somehow managed to get to a corner of the store, where she was had enough elbow room to pass yours truly flats of almost every color and style imaginable in a span of 5 minutes. I was a willing recipient because I was caught in the very middle of the store, surrounded on all sides by women going crazy for the cheap shoes. Literally, I could not move because of all the women with their backs to me, pushing and shoving while trying to find shoes of the right size and color. Having grown up in the land where individualism is king, I have grown up valuing my personal space – so it’s easy to get frustrated regarding the violation of my personal space. And while I was caught in the middle (envying Deborah, who was smiling as she passed shoes to me over the jilbab sea), my mind went to the multitudes that Jesus stared out at with compassion in his heart, and thought about whether or not I could still love the crowds like Jesus did when I am caught in situations like this – and I am finding this crowdedness to be an increasingly common situation as I get to know Jakarta better. It’s actually not such an easy question to answer, but I want my answer to be yes…) (oh, and I didn’t end up buying any shoes – yay self-control!)

::laundry day:: After breaking the news regarding the Olympics to my roommate Sarah, a native Chicagoan, on Saturday morning, I undertook the task of washing the sheets of the king-sized bed that Ruth and I share. I seriously think that laundry here should be considered an Olympic sport. Here in our apartment, our washing machine capacity is large enough to fit our king-sized comforter and nothing else – hence any other sheets on the bed and pillowcases must be washed separately. Since our apartments did not come furnished with a dryer, you will probably laugh at imagining that the women of 6F have become increasingly resourceful when it comes to drying things! For example, I draped our damp comforter over four chairs in our living room to let it dry during the afternoon, when Ruth and I would be in the city, and started the second load – the sheets and pillowcases. I was thinking as I was carrying the wet and cumbersome comforter that I would have loved to throw it and our sheets and pillowcases into a large washer and dryer just one time and then finish everything within an hour, hour and a half…

Thoughts of large capacity washers and dryers made me think very hard about my life as I knew it back in the States. I think God wants us to have nice things, but I feel challenged when I think about the people of Indonesia who live in the villages, and even here in Jakarta, who make only Rp. 5,000 ($0.50 USD) a day – making do. Do they have enough for their physical needs? And once those physical needs are met, do I care about their spiritual needs and the condition of their hearts? How is it that I deserve to have access to everything I have ever needed or wanted, just because I was born somewhere else in the world? Thinking about them has challenged me to be thankful for what I have, or as the sticker on my dad’s rear-view mirror says, “contentment.” Whenever I go back, I will have access to everything I need and more than I want. It’s funny to think of the things I appreciate more now that I am here – from paper towel, to hot showers, and drying machines. When those things are more readily available to me, am I just going to forget the things I am learning here or will the lessons really go deep down in my heart?

5 Oktober, Hari Senin [Monday] ::engagement:: No, I am not talking about the kind where an important four-word question is popped, and in fortuitous situations, the answer is in the affirmative and subsequently results in nuptials at a later date. (And no, I am not engaged in that way.) (This morning I learned the phrase, “it’s not the right time” in Bahasa Indonesia [bukan waktu yang tepat] from my colleague Elvy in the Cashier’s Office. I was there because I had to make change and get smaller bills, since I think our denominations are outrageous. Hard to get change from our taksi drivers in the morning, as was the case today). I am talking about the kind where one is engaged in the physical realm, as well as the spiritual realm – at the same time. Can I make and analyze reports for Jeffrey (e.g. best friends with Excel), while praying continually and having that oneness of fellowship with God?

5 Oktober, Hari Senin [Monday] ::falling in love:: I saw a boy and his mother on a bike this morning. He had to have been anywhere from six to eight years old. He looked so small in her arms, in a white collared shirt, eyes wide open to the world. She rang the bell on the bike, and he seemed delighted at the sound, even though she couldn’t see his face. It was like I could hear the wind at his mother’s back as they biked on, oblivious to everything – even me, staring at them from the taksi window. As I watched them disappear from my sight, I thought back to the words of a classmate of mine, who I last saw in Ann Arbor when he returned there for a wedding last year: “I know you are going to fall in love with the culture, fall in love with the food, and fall in love with the people – maybe that one special person…” And after three months here I can say that (with the exception of the last item on his list) he was spot on.

::the rains came down:: It’s rainy season here. Sarah thinks that with the season change came more spiritual battle. Lately, I am especially sensitive to how much I am ruled by my emotions and get frustrated when I cannot fathom how I can go from being very happy to the point of humming and dancing (yes, the people in my department think I am crazy...) to feeling sad and depressed within the span of an hour. As you are thinking about us and praying for us, pray for a Spirit of unity among our team members, for our protection, and so that we can be in step with the Spirit – that we get the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, to know the heart of God better and that the eyes of our hearts are opened to the things unseen in the spiritual realms.