The Indonesian Way

The college course that I took in order to try to learn the language is called The Indonesian Way.  Since I started living here, I have gained an appreciation for what that means.  When living in a foreign country, is very important to accept the way things are in that culture and not compare or complain.  It is how things are done here:  different, without judging better or worse.

Elder Porter decided that the lock to the gate at the church was not secure, and determined to buy a new lock.  About 7 keys would be needed for all the branch leaders.  It only came with three keys, so we went to get new ones made.  Not to a shop, where someone uses a machine, but to this stand out in the hot sun, where a true artist made the keys using calipers and a metal file.  The keys didn't look exactly like the originals, but they worked because he knew exactly what he was doing, for 72 cents a key.





We love these green beans.  They are tasty and have lots of fiber.  And look how long they are!  They were folded in half for packaging at the store.  We see people carrying bunches of them on the back of a motorcycle, straight out and covering the back of the seat.  It is actually easier to trim them than smaller beans.  We never quite know our schedule and when we will be able to eat, so I cook up a bunch of veggies and then we reheat as needed.

We  needed to buy pencils for our advanced English class and discovered that pencils here do not generally come with erasers.  People here use a separate eraser like this package.  And the erasers are all oblong like this one; we haven't seen any of those erasers that fit on top of a pencil.  At various stores, we inquired about pencils with erasers and got a lot of stares.

However, we opened a package of made-in-China pencils, and they had erasers as if they were made for a North American market.  They weren't labelled as having erasers, and we can't remember where we bought them!



We were walking through a neighborhood, a "gang" that was too narrow to reach by car, and saw this.  Whereas USAmercans might have a doghouse or rabbit cage, they had built a great little covered shelter for their pet monkey.








This is the master bathroom. The green thing on the floor to the left of the sink is a squeegee to clean the floor after showering, since there is no door or shower curtain.  The grey tube under the sink leads from the washing machine in the kitchen, draining the used water into the shower.  There are water bottles on the shelf above the sink because of course we don't drink water from the sink.  We have a large clean water dispenser in the kitchen.  We shower off every night, and since I exercise in the morning I shower again after that.  There is a nice swimming pool right outside the exercise room in our building, and I want to start swimming at the end of my morning exercise, which would also save on laundry, but my 1-piece "mom" swimsuit is too immodest for the social norms here.  The Muslim women wear a full long-sleeved wet suit with a head covering, but even the other women wear a suit that includes shorts.

First Hospital Visit, First Talks

Last Wednesday, a church member offered some small green mangoes to us.  Elder Porter accepted three of them, and carried them in his hands up to our apartment.  He then ate one of them, which clung to the seed and had to be eaten with one's hands right off the seed.  I ate one the next day, and it was very tasty.  But on Friday, the skin above and below his eyes was swollen.  It seemed to get a bit better during the day, but that night I was concerned enough to check our health insurance recommendations for providers in Medan.  For a week, we had been looking out the window and seeing the glowing "Columbia Asia" sign on this building, but no idea what kind of business it was. Now I discovered it was a highly rated hospital, with a walk-in "Family Care Center." Elder Porter has a well documented allergy to poison ivy, and both cashews and mangoes are related.  On Saturday, his entire face was very swollen and he could barely open his eyes.  We walked across the river to the hospital where they graciously directed us to the correct clinic, gave him a shot and two prescriptions that were filled at checkout.  It took less than an hour and he total cost for all treatment and medications: $14.

It was great to get the healing started, because Saturday was a busy day for us:  We were meeting with the branch president, and then our mission president was going to arrive.  Unfortunately, a big rainstorm came in, and with most people traveling by motorcycle, the branch president had to cancel our meeting.  It was great to see our mission president again, and Elder Porter asked the branch president to give him him a blessing, which also helped with the recovery process.  We used the car to pick up the mission president's wife in time for dinner.  The young elders chose the spot:  a steak place with a fun name.  The menu looked great, featuring steaks from the U.S. and Australia.  But as so often happens here, some of the items that were our first choice were not actually available.

On Sunday, Elder Porter was sustained as second counselor in the branch presidency and we both spoke briefly.  I had a sweet experience during the sacrament:  As I was sitting pondering, the talk that I had written rolled in front of my eyes, giving me assurance that I would remember it when the time came.  In reality, I got very nervous in front of everyone and had to look at the piece of paper to get started. And because the language is different here, I apparently said that Jesus was our big sister. but oh well.  Another nice thing was that the Relief Society discussion was about Elder Uchtorf's talk from last fall, and that was the first talk I had understood in Indonesian and subsequently studied several times, so I could actually follow along.  I was asked to say the closing prayer, in Indonesian.  After the meetings there was a baptism, and this picture was taken while they were waiting for the folks involved were changing into white clothes.

Our district meeting on Tuesday was the last meeting for one of the great elders who are serving here. He shared some of what he learned on his mission, with a bottom line of, "DON'T WORRY, JUST WORK."  This was good advice for a missionary of any age.  We brought brownies to celebrate his return with honor. Because district meeting is at 10:30 a.m., we take our driver out to lunch before continuing with the day's activities.  He is a great local guide and took us to this restaurant that has a salad/fruit bar before our rice dishes came.  The hard thing for me was that the fruit was served in a hot red glaze.  The veggies were great and I ignored the dish of red sauce there.  Elder Porter enjoyed all of it, of course.

Arrived in Medan

We have arrived in our new home in Medan (MAY-don) in the northern province of the island of Sumatra.  Sanford had served on the island of Java before, so it is a shift to make the change to a different culture.  Medan is a city of 2.5 million.

It has an international airport because tourists come from all over to visit attractions in the area such as the unique Lake Toba  (a volcanic lake with a large island in the middle), the orangutan preserve at Bukit Lawang, and  the beautiful mosques in Banda Aceh--all of which are only a few hours away from us.

While overall 95% of Indonesians are Muslim, almost a third of the residents of Medan are Christian.  Our church has a nice little building, but the lease is up at the end of the year, and a new building will be found.  They are hoping for a spot on a main street to improve visibility and make it easier for visitors to find.

The branch president is an incredible returned missionary who is 25 years old.  They offer English classes twice a week and have a seminary and institute program.  There are a lot of young singles who are students at the the colleges in town.  Our district includes four elders and two sisters.  Yes, we work under a 21-year old district leader.

It has been two years since an older couple was sent here.  Last week we were able to visit a family who lives 45 minutes away by car, which they don't have, and thus they do not make it to church much.  Elder Porter was able to speak to them in the language.

This is a view of the outside of our building, one of the yellow-and gray towers.  The church tends to put senior missionaries in high rises because of the safety and mosquitoes.  The church has certain requirements:  Hot water in the bathroom (but not the kitchen); a stove with two burners (but not an oven); air conditioning in the bedroom (blessedly, ours also has one in the living room--they work with remotes). We are on the floor labelled 12 but in facilities that cater to foreigners, any possible unlucky number is omitted, so no 13 (American) and no 4 (Chinese) etc.  It might be the 10th level.

This photo was taken out of the back window of our car, which is driven by a local professional.  Friends from home will smile at this because Colleen was always the weird lady who walked or bicycled to church (including 8.5 miles to stake conference).  But here with the crazy urban traffic and motorcycles darting here and there, it makes walking a perilous adventure.  Also, church is a few miles away.  But we are the only ones in the congregation with a car and hope to use it for good.

The joy of getting WiFi in our apartment cannot be overstated. When the installers looked out from the balcony, we thought they might need to send someone over the side to hook in a cable, because our internet at home comes in that way.  But this device is a small dish that brings in the signal.  We had heard internet was cheaper in Asia, but ours is only $12 a month less than our outrageously expensive cable internet at home, although it includes rental of the dish and the modem/router.

It took four steps to arrange: a call to our property manager, a visit from functionaries to choose a plan and make an appointment for installation, a visit from three cheery installers, and another visit for creating a billing account and checking on the installation.

Having WiFi throughout the apartment feels like such luxury, because when we lived in Brasil, we didn't even have internet in our town. We had to dial in to the town down the road, so we had to wait until 11 pm each night to download and send emails.  We learned to love the sound of dial-up connecting, because it meant linking to the outside world.

We were so happy that first day as we linked in most of our devices.  Three days later, I needed to add a laptop to WiFi, and we realized that neither of us had written down the password--and could not remember it.  I recalled the rhythm of the syllables and the numbers at the end, but we had to make a phone call to fix it.

Our apartment is furnished and has drinking water, and the young missionaries had stocked it with basic foodstuffs like milk, eggs, bread, corn flakes.  But we were told to buy a smoke alarm and CO2 detector on the first day.

Where to go?  It turns out that Ace Hardware has a huge presence in Indonesia, and although we visited two different malls to find what we needed, it was pretty much laid out like a USAmerican store and took a credit card.  We have bought a lot of household supplies there. 

Yogjakarta: Misi Couple Council

On Sunday, April 1 in the afternoon we caught a flight for Yogjakarta (Yogja), a city in the middle of the island of Java that is rich in the local culture.  All nine missionary couples in Indonesia were getting together for a council, a rich opportunity for us to learn from the experience of others, and an event that only happens once or twice a year. 

chapel in Yogja

We were in awe of these brothers and sisters.  Each of them found a unique way to serve, using their particular talents.  Some teach English, some teach piano, some teach family history and all of them visit people and minister to various needs. And they are also very interesting people. 

The first morning, we met at the church building in Yogja, and had a program in which each of us was assigned a topic.  Elder Porter and I spoke about what we learned from the MTC.  For snacks, a local restauranteur brought in fried bananas, rice balls wrapped in banana leaves, lumpia (egg rolls) and fresh fruit. 

I hadn’t slept the night before, so in the afternoon when they went out to Prambanan temple, we caught a car back to the hotel for a rest.  There are taxies here, and several ride services similar to Uber.  I had already seen that temple twice, but I wanted to rest because that evening we were going to the Ramayana ballet which I had not seen, preceded by a traditional Javanese meal. 

The dinner was wonderful and the show was very good, with amazing choreography of both dance and fights, and impressive special effects.  It also only lasted about 75 minutes rather than the 3-4 hours of some traditional performances.  Afterward, the lead actors invited us to come up and take a picture with them.  The Ramayana is actually a Hindu legend, also well known in India but integral to the culture here.  The theater was open air, so a breeze went though occasionally and some birds flew across the stage.  Obviously not air conditioned but they gave us a bottle of cold water as we entered.  

The next morning we left early for the famous Buddhist temple of Borobudur. We had great views of Mount Merapi, a volcano that had erupted shortly after our visit in 2010 and is still emitting smoke.  Many schoolchildren came up to us to take a picture or practice their English with us. 

Then we went to visit the hydroponic gardens and restaurant operated by the same person who brought snacks the previous day.  She is an amazing entrepreneur.  They also grow fish, and have a chicken farm at another site. 

After the garden tour, they were setting up a lunch buffet and then announced that one of the sisters was celebrating a birthday.  I thought, “Oh, someone has the same birthday…”  and then they brought the cake to me!  They sang an Indonesian birthday song (we need to learn it!) and I had to blow out the candles  They also made a beautiful heart-shaped jello mold filled with flowers made of fruit.

Apparently Elder Porter had colluded with the mission office staff and the mission president to create this yummy surprise.  And yes, it is a black forest cherry torte.

After lunch we visited a Muslim boarding school where our church has been building some new dormitories for the students.  They played music and invited us to come up and participate, and some of the missionaries were very good at following the beat and having fun.  One of our sisters who plays piano even tried the gamelan.

The next day we were back in Jakarta by noon, and had the afternoon to prepare for our move to our mission area.

First Week in Indonesia: Jakarta

 Our first flight left Salt Lake City at 7:20 p.m. on Monday, Mach 26.  We arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday, March 28 at 1 p.m.  It wasn’t all travel; with Indonesia being 13 hours ahead, we simply lost a day.  We went through Hong Kong which seems longer than the Taiwan  route we had take before, but we didn’t have to reclaim luggage in Hong Kong.  Carry-on baggage did have to be re-scanned but we had a decent layover.

Nobody checked the luggage when we went through customs in Jakarta.  Senior missionaries don't get transferred like young missionaries; they generally stay in one place the entire mission. So I opted for lighter-weight soft sided luggage including the rolling duffel bag we had taken to Iceland filled with camping supplies.

Presiden Subandriyo and Sister Steffi picked us up—and promptly dropped the Presiden off at the domestic side for a flight elsewhere in the mission.  We went to the mission office and met Elder and Sister Jensen, the incredibly competent office couple who made us feel welcome and provided all sorts of advice and information.  Sister Steffi prepared a welcome meal that was so bounteous that the service center staff were also invited to help finish the food. 

For the first few nights, we stayed in another apartment in the same building as the Jensens.  It was so wonderful to take a warm shower and climb into clean American-style sheets.  Sanford went to the grocery store with the Jensens and brought back breakfast food. 

View from temporary lodging in Jakarta

 On Thursday morning we went to a clinic to have our Japanese Encephalitis immunizations.  In Indonesia we were able to take the Imojev vaccine, which is better than the version available in the US for several reasons:  It is good for 5 years (rather than 3), only requires one injection and has fewer reactions.  It also cost only a fraction of the inferior vaccine available stateside.  We were grateful to our mission president for making that option available.

On Friday morning we attended a baptism, which was such a great reminder of why we are here.  The brother being baptized is a refugee from another country and he talked about seeking for the truth of Christianity.  As a plus, both the bishop and the dad in the host family (the baptism was in their swimming pool) remembered our daughter and son-in-law from their time In Indonesia. 

Still rainy season here.

Friday night we went to observe English lessons taught by the young elders at one of the local chapels.  Although we had been to that location in 2015, we couldn’t quite remember the exact directions and the taxi driver was not very helpful.  This is one of the chapels that is built in an industrial park in order to avoid problems with obtaining neighborhood approval.  The elders were very enthusiastic and the sisters in the class were charming.  But we had a hard time getting a taxi back home, found ourselves crossing one of the biggest streets in Jakarta without a light to help us, and were super-relieved when a taxi pulled up.  We enjoyed talking with the driver, and were embarrassed that we underpaid because I am not yet accustomed to the money:  10,000 rupiah is just 75 cents, so one easily is dealing with hundreds of thousands and it gets confusing, particularly in the dark without the color-coding as a confirmation of the numbers.  We were so glad that we were chatting outside for a bit and he came over to us so that we could make it right. 

Saturday was all about getting a local phone number so that Colleen can begin her work with missionary health care needs.   This proved to have many requirements that we did not anticipate; for starters, they wouldn't sell us a SIM card without an identity card or passport, so we had to go back to the apartment for the passports.  Then many other steps.  

Sunday we went to the local congregation that we had attended with our daughter and her husband back in 2015.  Some people remembered us!  We got to show them pictures of the baby that wasn't yet born then.  People were very complimentary of our son-in-law, and one lady explained, "He was one of us."  

At the baptism, I had noticed a young sister missionary who had been companions with a returned missionary who helped with our language training.  I sent her a picture of the sister, and her response was humbling:

"I love Indonesia with all my heart—take care of it for me!"