Activities

On Monday, in addition to our usual Preparation Day errands and ironing, we went to see a movie.  Don't worry about the mission rules; that is totally allowed for senior couples (some even have a date night every week).  But the Indonesians tend to like horror and action films, and the new "Fantastic Beasts" movie was the first movie that interested us at all.  Because of the time window we had available for viewing, we ended up paying more and going to the "Gold" theater.

Elder Porter is enjoying the recliner.  But we were frustrated with the table in between us, which facilitates serving food but stopped us from being able to consult about plot.  And this super-deluxe theater only cost $5 USD per person.

On Tuesday, we got up early.  The president of the branch Young Women (wearing red in the middle of this photo) offered to cook lunch for this outing.  But they live an hour from church and don't have a car, and she had all those bags and bundles to bring.  So Elder Porter left our house at 6:30 a.m. to pick up her and her three teens and the food.  I ordered a car and (after getting lost once) picked up our driver's son and daughter and headed to church.  Our car did not have enough room for the entire group, so we had to hire a bus to take us out to Berastagi, in the mountains about 2 hours from Medan.  There was a great park, a surface of rolling hills but perfectly trimmed grass.

The entrance fee included a plastic rug to roll out.  We sat on the rugs, and had a great lunch, a spiritual program and fun.  Elder Porter brought one of his parafoil kites from the Smithsonian gift shop, the one he always kept in the back of the car, just in case there was ever wind:)  Everyone had a good time.

Actually, we nearly missed the fun part...at the end of the spiritual program it started raining, so strong that the youth wanted to skip the closing hymn.  Elder Porter said the closing prayer, and asked that the rain would stop.  It did, and we enjoyed another hour in the sunshine.  But we were up so far into the mountains that it was not hot--very pleasant afternoon.

Prior to this trip, we had the young people fill out a form with contact information for themselves and their parents, so that they could be reached quickly if there was a problem.  This seems obvious but was not being done before.

When we got back to church, we got to meet the new missionaries who replaced a sister who had gone home and one who was transferred elsewhere.

On Wednesday after English class, we did the last of our Thanksgiving shopping and found decent rolls and vanilla ice cream at the nearby Hypermart, as well as a cake from Clover Bakery.  Of course the best part of the meal was having our district join us for the Thanksgiving meal, but it was also nice to provide a generous luncheon.  I made chicken thighs and legs to try to create enough of the brown bits to make a decent gravy, but then had white meat as well (which made great sandwiches as leftovers).

We worried about having enough plates to serve:  We only own 7, so one of us used a disposable plastic plate.  And we filled in with plastic silverware.  We also don't have enough serving dishes, so we borrowed a platter from church, as well as four folding chairs.

When making a big meal, I always write out a schedule, but thinking through the workflow was particularly important with only two pans, a small rice cooker and a microwave.

The night before, I prepared and washed the green beans and carrots, as well as steaming a batch of rice (because the Indonesian and Filipina missionaries do not feel that they have eaten a meal without rice on the table).  The next morning, I headed to the gym early and started cooking at 8:30 a.m. We found some genuine Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup for only $2.35 a can, so we made a green bean casserole in the rice cooker.

I made the gravy with cornstarch and the pan drippings, as well as some chicken soup base.  It was pretty yummy over mashed potatoes.

I don't have an oven to make a pie, but we found apple tarts and bought a cake with blueberry topping, and served that with ice cream and chocolate sprinkles.

Our only expat USAmerican neighbor told us about a place that was serving a Thanksgiving buffet that night, but Elder Porter had a meeting with a church leader from Jakarta, and Sister Porter had to prepare her Sunday assignments, both a sacrament meeting talk and a Young Women lesson.

On Friday afternoon, it was our last lesson with a group of kids who live near the sister missionaries.  One of the grandmothers let us come into her house for six weeks.  These were lessons that we had prepared for other venues so it was not a lot of extra work, and good public service.

Echoes from the past

We started the week on Sunday with a "Penghiburan," an informal ceremony where everyone who was available from church visited a family who had lost a loved one  for a program of music and comfort.  This was the same family with whom we attended the funeral two weeks ago.

The little girl who is walking toward us came over and felt my legs.  This happens a lot, because they are fascinated with my white legs!  Indonesians have the perfect brown coloring for their climate, but some of them use white facial powder or wear whitish stockings.

On Wednesday, we found out that one of our best English students may be leaving town.  He has no choice.  He is an immigrant from Afghanistan, under the auspices of the United Nations immigration agency, and he has to follow their rules as to where to live.

So immigration is a challenge all over the globe.  But we are glad he is safe and wish him all the best in his English studies.

A while back we got a visitor from the church offices in Jakarta.  He was here talking to the Batak tribal authorities about digitizing some of their genealogical records.  But he also works with the immigration paperwork for missionaries, and when he saw Elder Porter's name he got very excited.  He told us that Elder Porter had baptized his mother.

Elder Porter was dubious.  He didn't remember her name.  But it turns out that he didn't teach her, just performed the baptism shortly after he arrived in Solo.

This good brother provided pictorial evidence of the event.  Yes, that is definitely the young Elder Porter with his thick curly hair!  What a blessing to know that what we do has effects far into the future.

We forgot to mention that Sister Porter had the lead letter to the editor in the Gainesville Sun on USAmerican Election Day, November 6, encouraging people to vote.  We were able to mention the name of our church and where we are on mission!

We finished the week by attending a piano competition where one of the young people in our congregation was performing.  He scored well.  He already plays piano in sacrament meeting, although he is still in Primary.

40 years

Our wedding was on November 10.  This year it falls on a Saturday which is a busy day in the church building.  Seminary starts at 3 p.m. followed by Institute at 4, which lasts until 6 p.m.

We are not really party people, but felt strongly that we should share this day with our church family here. So the party started Saturday at 6 p.m.  We sent out invitations to folks outside of church, and two of our English class students came, as well as some non-member friends.

 The menu was eclectic.  We offered cheese and crackers, oreo cookies, and a wide variety of fruit including grapes (a big hit!), pineapple, apples, and two kinds of watermelon.  As it happened, Sister Porter cut herself while slicing  watermelon right before the party, so she had the finger wrapped tightly in a paper towel the rest of the night.  One of the young sister missionaries took over with the watermelon cutting.  We also had potato chips and Indonesian crunchy snacks at that table.  It was a big table because it was really half of the ping-pong table that Elder Porter had resurrected.

We had a second table with nuts, dried fruits and black olives.  The Indonesians loved the nuts but did not like the black olives at all.  Someone explained that they expected them to be sweet. Most had read about olives in the Bible, but had never actually eaten one.

Indonesians do not use a flat sheet as part of bedding, but we brought some along, and ended up using them as tablecloths (after washing and ironing), because we couldn't find any disposable party tablecloths.

The wood table with paper and pens was for people to write their well-wishes.  We will bind them into a book.  Although at the end of the night we received an amazing book with greetings from members of the branch!!

 Our invitations had promised cake and ice cream.  We spent a lot of time angsting over how to provide ice cream, since there is not a refrigerator at church.  We thought about renting a freezer, and found out about a service  that will deliver ice cream to a party.  It turns out that a grocer not far from church carries 8-liter containers of ice cream, and we thought that if we sent missionaries to buy it right before the party and wrap it in towels that the mass of the ice cream would keep it cold until we started serving cake, about half an hour into the program.

Our family in the U.S. were kind enough to send congratulatory videos, which we played for everyone. Then we talked about the importance of temple marriage.  We shared a slide show of photos from throughout our marriage including recent trips to Indonesia.

We had the matching skirt and tie made for us, in a common pattern of the Batak tribe.  Sister Porter brought three solid-colored shirts to Indonesia, with the intention to have batik skirts made.  But we've been so busy that I haven't had time for any clothes shopping!

We had four cakes made at our second-favorite bakery, because this bakery offers a shorter cake that was perfect for our purposes (good size to serve with ice cream).  These three were decorated with our years, our names, and the phrase "For time and all eternity" in Indonesian.

That was the term of our marriage, and is one of the doctrinal differences about our church:  We believe that a marriage can last beyond the grave into the eternities.

We also had a fourth cake with simple blue frosting, and two roll cakes--all were eaten or taken away by the end of the night.

The logistics of the party preparation had taken up much of our time and energy during the last few weeks, but it was a joy to share our day with our friends in Indonesia.

Our branch president and executive secretary prepared a special duet for us, "You Are the Reason," in English.

Everyone pitched in to clean up afterward.  They were wonderful that way, and made it very easy for us. 

wedding and funeral

On Monday, we spent our Preparation Day doing a variety of errands.  I got a haircut, we bought batik material to have a matching skirt and tie made for our anniversary party, we went shopping for supplies for the party.

On Tuesday, we were surprised when our driver showed up with his face covered by a cloth mask.  It turned out that he had suffered an accident on his motorcycle the Sunday before.  All week we fussed over him, young missionaries gave him a blessing of healing on Tuesday, and by the end of the week he could eat solid food again.

On Friday, we attended a wedding, with relatives of our driver, people of the Batak tribe.  They
served pork and watermelon in the main hall, but it turned out that their Muslim friends upstairs were served halal chicken box lunches.  They were also doing karaoke upstairs and people were very disappointed that we didn't sing, but we sing so very badly, we didn't want to inflict that on them.

Downstairs they also had live Batak music, which I enjoy.  They use a wooden flute and drums, and the sound seems to have a similar flavor to the music of the Ecuadoran Raices group that we picked up in New York City.  Amazing how musicians on opposite sides of the globe can share some commonality.

I have gotten to the point where I always love attending weddings because I know what to do:  I can smile the entire time, move to the music, and try to eat whatever is in front of me.  We have figured out about dropping off an envelope with a contribution.  This time we noted a lovely tradition.  A lot of the women brought a colorful woven bag, and they each dumped the contents into two larger bags at the front.  I did not see the contents but assumed it was beras,* uncooked rice.  Much more practical for a young couple than throwing food around.

Throughout the week, we made various visits to people, including a stop by the hospital where a sister's mother was quite ill.  She had died by the end of the week, and we were invited to the funeral.  It was a joy to view the body, and see how peaceful her face was after months of suffering.  The lady who died was not a member of our church, but we were there to support the daughter.

Their family reflects the diversity in Medan.  The lady who died was from India, but she had married an Indonesian.  At the funeral, some wore the Batak ulos, the traditional sash that is a sign of respect.  Others wore a bindi, the Hindu dot on the forehead

About a dozen of us church members came at the beginning, sang a hymn and Elder Porter said a prayer.  There were about 60 plastic chairs provided and an awning put up for the formal funeral service.

Some of us had to leave at that point, but Elder Porter and I and the young sister missionaries continued to the cemetery.  The family had arranged several angkot, the local mini-busses, to transport the funeral party.

This was a cemetery that we had visited before (a reflection on the nature of our work) and we were grateful that it was dry this time.  Our previous visit found several inches of water between the graves and walking was treacherous.  Of course, graveyards also have a lot of mosquitos due to the vases with standing water, but we used repellent.

On the way back to their home, we missed the last angkot and ended up in the hearse, sitting in the space opened up by leaving the casket behind.  This is one of the lady's grandchildren.  The hearse, which also doubles as an ambulance, ran all the way back into the city with its siren going so we arrived before some people who had left the cemetery before us.

When we returned to their home, there was another prayer service, and then they served dinner.  We had arrived at 2 p.m. and left at 6:30.  However, for some reason we had trouble getting a car home.  Not sure if it was a bad internet connection or what.  It took us three tries.

For the next few weeks we are teaching two groups of children.  A sister who accepted work in Hong Kong has three kids in this after-school program.  They are a very bright group and the teachers who work with them are very devoted.

We are also teaching in the neighborhood where the young sister missionaries live, to a group of girls.

We got our general election ballots sent in last week.

We were amused that this candidate actually took the effort to send a campaign postcard to us at our expat address, at a cost of USD 1.15.

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!


*like the adage that Eskimo have so many different words for snow, the Indonesians have several different words for rice: padi in the field, beras in a sack at the store, nasi after it is cooked.