Ties and Tires

On Monday we went shopping for new ties for Elder Porter.  He is literally wearing out some of the ties he brought due to wearing one every day.  We didn't go into a department store; instead we went looking for a shop that sold batik cloth and would make it up into ties.  The younger missionaries wear trendy ties that are rather narrow, but we decided on a width that is wider than those the young elders wear but narrower than what Elder Porter wore back in the 1970s.  This shop, recommended by the young elders, makes only clothing for men, so we need to find another shop that will make us a matching set of skirt and tie.

We were invited to join the neighborhood worship service of a man we have been teaching.  His family and all these neighbors are of the Batak tribe.  They meet on Sunday night.  You can see the pile of scriptures and hymn books in the foreground, with hymns in the Batak language.  This visit was a particular pleasure because they had chairs for everyone to sit in.  Very luxurious.  They were very nice and asked questions about our family, how long we would live in Indonesia, etc.

One sister in our congregation lost her mother a few weeks ago, and now she is back from her island of origin, the branch members went up to visit her, sing some songs and express comfort.  Elder Porter told about the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how His friends were impacted.  Elder Porter spoke with great simplicity and power; my heart was touched.  After the program, we were all served an excellent dinner.  Really great food.  The chicken was a flavorful curry that was not too hot, and in my hand is not a doily but a huge cracker.  There was watermelon and bananas for dessert.  While there were some seats in the background, most everyone was sitting on the floor so we did, too.

We have been having sunny days, but rainy nights including magnificent lightning shows and a great
deal of wind.  Up in the kampung Aloha where we teach English to children every week, a family lost half of their roof.  It was picked up in the wind and carried away.  So Elder Porter spent a morning assessing the damage, and then another morning with a work party of men from church.  They tracked down the remains of the roof that blew away, then worked on the pieces, removing nails and smoothing bent metal.  About a third of the metal sheeting and a good bit of wood can be recycled.  The family decided they want a new roof, but certainly a neighbor can use the materials.  Unfortunately, two of the elders found leeches on their feet and a lot of blood on their socks.

We were excited about going out to the kampung to teach on Thursday afternoon, but our driver kept feeling a vibration in the right rear of the car.  He finally realized that it was the tire, that had a rather large bolt in it.  We immediately took it in for repair, and unfortunately the attempt at a plug did not work.  But then they did a great patch job for about $3.50 while we waited.  We were late, but made it and had a good class.

Another project this week was looking for a new television for the branch.  Ours was broken a few months ago and the quoted cost to repair was high compared to the cost of a newer model.  So we spent some time shopping for televisions as well.  I was listening to them because I often use music in our English classes.  So I was very much impressed with this noise-cancelling promise.  Not sure if I had ever seen mosquitoes referenced in an ad in Florida.

Merdeka! MERDEKA!

Everything last week was building up to Friday's celebration of Hari Kemerdekaan, Indonesian Independence Day.  This year the Republic of Indonesia is 73 years old.  We went shopping at the local grocery store earlier in the week, and they were playing patriotic pop music, with workers in the store were humming along.  Then Thursday night we heard the spirited singing from the street as a military parade passed by.

We had a big party at church that started with a formal ceremony where they sang patriotic songs and recited the Pancasila, the founding document that ensures religious freedom. Whenever someone shouted "Merdeka!" It was met by an even louder, "MERDEKA!"  (Freedom.)  If the flag looks something like the flag of Poland, yes--but the red is on top with ours.  "Sang merah putih!"

We were talking with an Indonesian this week who reviewed the history of Indonesia.  First being colonized by the British, then the Dutch, then occupied by the Japanese in World War II.  But he went on to list the Chinese, who currently exert a great deal of economic power in this part of the world.


We gave our driver the day off, and when we got on the ride-sharing app to find a way to church, the map showed cars with little red and white flags.

Of course the church event was a party, so after the solemn patriotic part, everyone headed outside for games.

Elder Porter and I both were urged to participate in this game.  If it looks familiar, at home it would be with doughnuts.  Here they used krupuk, a fish-flavored cracker, kind of crunchy like a cheese puff is maybe the closest USAmerican analog.  The game was surprisingly difficult because the wind was blowing and the cracker was curved.

At home the church has gotten away from having real competitions with winners and losers, but here they had definite winners that were awarded prizes. I was honored to present these awards.

[Unfortunately, after they were done marking the prize packages, someone left a permanent marker out and a child doodled all over the sacrament table.  I was grateful for my mother's teaching that rubbing alcohol removes permanent ink if it hasn't been set by heat or water.  So I grabbed out my hand sanitizer and tissues, and we got most of it off.]

Sisters from our congregation dressed in red and white.  I never did buy a red shirt, but I had a red flowered top in my closet.  I had the opportunity to give a short message for the family home evening at the end of the evening.

An excerpt from the program:

Choices

This week we faced a choice about whether to fly to Jakarta. We looked at potential buildings for the church, from which a new chapel will be chosen.  And we voted in the Primary elections back in Florida, thanks to our Supervisor of Elections' ability to send a ballot by email and accept return by fax.

There is a zone conference in Jakarta this upcoming week.  However, they wanted us to arrive there on Wednesday, leave on Saturday.  Friday is Indonesian Independence Day, and one of the big social occasions in our branch.  Since our assignment is Member & Leader Support, we felt we needed to stay here.

Decorations in red and white (the colors of the Indonesian flag) are popping up everywhere and our young missionaries even decorated their bikes.

At last week's ward council it was announced that there is a "dress code" for Friday's festivities, and people should wear red and white.  Hmmn.  I left four red shirts in the closet at home thinking that was too wild for a sister missionary.  I'll see what I can find.

Because we were looking at buildings during the day, we left home earlier than usual and had to eat lunch out, every day.  We usually have our big meal of the day before we head out, at home with lots of veggies.  This is Indonesian fast food:  This place has a limited menu, so they get food to the table quickly.  They start out immediately with soup, which calms the hunger pangs and is also poured over the rice.  The pork is wonderful.  And it is nice to have these vegetables included.

Later in the week, I also enjoyed a coconut curry sauce that was not toooo hot, and I ate the entire meal including rice with my hands.  But another day everything was covered with red and just inedible to me.  Oh well, I had an apple packed in my bag.

One day as Elder Porter was eating, he accidentally dropped a piece of chicken on the floor.  I said, "What a waste." but it wasn't because he made a new friend who was glad to get the chicken.

Eating out more meant more interactions with locals and more mistakes as I tried to use the language.

At one restaurant we had asked for a second Badak soda, and I wanted to be sure it got added to the bill.  But I said, "Dua batak" rather than "dua badak."  Batak are the predominant tribe here, while badak is the name of the popular soda, which literally means rhinoceros, as you can see from the orange picture on the label.

Another time I wanted to mention the important principle of free agency, the ability to choose that each of us enjoy.  Only I said "hal pilihan" instead of "hak pillihan."  But people are patient and this person kindly corrected me.

I was the confused one when I used Google Translate to figure out a term from the Book of Mormon.  I finally looked up the English version, which said "furnace of affliction," not the "mushroom furnace" that Google Translate had suggested.

It is really hard learning a language at this age!

We were not directly affected by the earthquakes of the last two weeks, which happened far to the east of us.  Our church is sending humanitarian relief as are many wonderful organizations.  One interesting thing is that the experts interviewed on CNN kept referring to PMI this and PMI that. PMI stands for Palang Merah Indonesia, a literal translation of "Red Cross."  And the headquarters of the PMI for our island is right down the street from us.  In fact, the name of the street where we live is "Jalan Palang Merah." 

Hunting

First, we want to acknowledge the 90th birthday today of Elder Porter's mother, Lois Porter.  She was the first one we talked to about the possibility of serving a mission, and she was very supportive in many ways.  Happy birthday, Mom!

Thanks to Sanford's brother Calvin and all the Florida Porters and her friends for making this a special day for her. The luncheon will happen around 3 a.m. our time, so we will call tomorrow (Sunday night Florida time) to hear all about it and offer our wishes as well.


We started the week out on Monday with a preparation day (P-day) trip to the Rahmat Wildlife Museum.  It reminded us a lot of the Bean Museum in Utah: a rich guy who likes to shoot animals turns his hunting collection into a museum. However, the museum also included a surprising amount of the little stuff including insects, shells, and mice.

As is typical, for museums here, they had two tiers of entrance fees, one for Indonesians and another (3x) for non-Indonesians.  However, usually the Indonesian fee is allowed for legal residents.  Here it was not, so we had the opportunity to make a generous contribution to the museum.

Sanford was entranced when we entered the Insectarium.  They had specimens of the largest ants in the world, Camponotus.

We spent much of the week hunting for a new building for our church.  None of the buildings we looked at during the previous week seemed acceptable for various reasons.  It has to have a larger meeting room than we do now, and it has to be on angkot (bus) routes. Hopefully it will be located most closely to the direction where most of our members live, not farther away for them.  So we spent a lot of time driving around looking....Our district leader flew to Jakarta for the Missionary Leadership Council, so his companion, who is from Surabaya, accompanied Elder Porter on a hunting trip and was invaluable in speaking with one of the property managers.

Sister Porter has been consistent about exercising every morning.  One of the challenges is some guy from India who is often in the exercise room and plays his music loudly rather than using headphones.  Well, last Friday he was on the treadmill and listening to the Learning Indonesian podcasts that had helped Sister Porter learn the language. So she was struggling to listen to lesson 53 through the headphones while he was blaring out lesson 5.

Of course he is younger so probably he will be on the same lesson soon....I finished them before we left Florida, but review with the last parts of the last few dozen lessons.

Elder Porter has been concerned about the impromptu lake that has developed in an open field near the home where we teach English class to the kids on Thursday afternoon.  Of course we are all aware of the dangers of mosquitoes after one of the young elders was recently hospitalized, and there are other concerns as well.  It turns out that there is a dike at the end of the neighborhood that prevents drainage.  One of their neighbors had a few inches of water in his house.  Elder Porter brought gym shoes, but was offered the use of boots.  Which worked really well until they did not come off:)