Moving Day

We visited a family that lives in a lean-to next to the railroad tracks.  Eventually the train will be on a concrete elevated track, but right now we must walk across the tracks to visit.  A surprise this time:  there was a pet monkey.  It is tied to the shelter so it doesn't get to run into a trains as they pass.

We helped a family in the branch to move.  We put a lot of blankets and boxes into our car, but the refrigerator, TV, and wardrobe cabinets (lemari) were put into a becak.

It was also a reminder to us that we need to be prepared to move in only a month, with only two suitcases and a carry-on each.  I am giving away a lot of shoes and stuff, but Elder Porter has a collections of rocks from every mountain he climbed and volcano that he visited.  That all adds up. :-) We got out our suitcases and weighed stuff this week and it looks like we will still make the weight allowance.

After moving, the family served us a wonderful luncheon.  Then we raced home to shower, made another visit to a woman expecting a baby, then on to church for a devotional broadcast with a visiting counselor in the general Young Women President.

This is the view from our rooftop to the south.  The brown-roofed building on the bottom of the photo is a school.  I hear them singing, especially on Friday mornings.

So it was fun to find out that we knew one of the students!














Below are two videos.  (If you are reading this in an email, you may need to click on the blog title to make the videos live).

The first is our shopping cart coming out of the Lotte store, which is in the basement of a big shopping mall.  We can take a shopping cart up to the parking lot because the cart wheels engage magnetically with the angled moving sidewalk.

The second video is of some youth playing on the ping-pong table that Elder Porter worked so hard to resurrect.  That is one of his lasting gifts to the branch.

Hari Kemerdekaan (Independence Day)!

For weeks, red-and-white decorations have been popping up all over town.  This is the entrance to our apartment building.

They call the Indonesian flag, "Sang Merah Putih" or "The Red and White."  The order of those colors is important because if the white accidentally ends up on top, it is the flag of Poland instead!

But the party was not until Saturday.  We had a busy week before then.  The young sisters have been moved away from Medan, and the contract on their rental house will be up in a month or so.

Because the church building is hopefully moving, it makes sense to find a new house for the sisters closer to the new location, when it is finally approved.  (Today we spent quite a bit of time cleaning up our current building from flooding after a rainstorm, so we are looking forward to a new rainproof building.)

Emptying the sisters' house was a group effort of two members driving becaks, the four young elders, and Elder Porter with our driver.  Fortunately, the house where the young elders live has a huge front room that isn't full.

We will send some of the smaller objects back to Jakarta in our car when it is transported.

We brought a cake to a young man who shares a birthday with our son Phillip and his uncle Calvin.  This young man is turning an age to where he will receive the Aaronic priesthood in January, if he continues to attend church and remain worthy.

We gave him a lesson about what it means to hold the priesthood and serve in that way.

A recent convert who has been ill for some time finally had surgery and we visited her at a hospital quite near the church.

During Friday's English class, we had the class recite The Pancasila, a foundational document (similar to our US American Declaration of Independence) that is commonly recited on 17 August, only our class said it in English.

As we were getting ready for English class on Friday, we heard someone singing a hymn outside.  We could look down and see that there was a funeral going on.  Funerals here are typically held at the home.  The blue awning is over the street, and while there is usually a fair bit of traffic, the cars are turning around when they see the awning ahead.

The large sign in the lower right of the photo is made of paper flowers and probably expresses condolences at the death.

The youth received four different colors of t-shirts at the recent youth conference (For the Strength of Youth).  They were encouraged to wear red or white on Saturday.  They were singing a song during the program, and that little girl in blue just decided to join them:)

One of the traditional games on this holiday is who can eat the krupuk (puffy cracker) the fastest.  The Primary kids get ready to gobble!  I was a judge, along with the woman at the bottom right of the picture who is wearing a Batak ulos over her dress.

Below we have posted two videos, one of the branch singing the national anthem and one of Elder Porter participating in the krupuk contest.  (If you are not seeing the videos, be sure to click on the title of the post.)

Motorcycles in Medan

This week was pretty productive; we made several visits and taught various lessons.  Not all our activities lent themselves to photos, so Sister Porter decided to share part of her motorcycle photo collection.

On every trip to Indonesia, we are fascinated at how they use motorcycles (sepeda motor, or kereta here in Medan) as the usual form of transportation.  Sister Porter made a promise to not take pictures of people on motorcycles for the first year that we were here to avoid the distraction.

This first shot is a mom taking her three kids to school.  The kids do not have helmets.  It is a very common sight.  When Sister Porter sees a young family on a motorcycle like this, perhaps even with a baby, she often says a prayer for them.

Many of the motorcycles have baskets or racks to allow a lot of baggage. This one has three racks with foam that perfectly fit three large water bottles, like water cooler bottles in the U.S.  Since the tap water is not drinkable, replacing and lugging those bottles is a necessary part of life here.  We are fortunate to use our car for that task, but few people have that luxury.










The motorcycles on their own are impressive, but the real workhorse is a becak.  In Solo, central Java, a becak has seats for two people, an open front, and a bicycle pushing from behind.  In Jogja they have started using motorcycles but from behind.

On our island, the motorcycle is to one side.  Some becak have seats, and people use vinyl advertising banners, perhaps from an old election or sale, to repair their roof.

Others are a flat bed, designed for transporting equipment and goods.   Which doesn't stop people from using them for transport as well.  These are some church members heading home.

They can be used for moving furniture.  And really, this lemari or cabinet would not have fit in our car.  It was really an effective way to move it.

It is amazing how much stuff they can pile up on the becak.

This one filled with plants passed in front of our building last week, and really brightened the street.

This might actually be a portable flower shop that the driver will take to a street market.  People load an entire mini-restaurant onto their motorcycle or becak, because if you can operate out of your vehicle, you don't have to pay rent.

Here is a guy that rides around town with a bicycle-mounted sewing machine, offering to do repairs wherever.  Of course it is a treadle-operated vintage machine.  We've seen a LOT of them here, and they are still used.

People here may be different from USAmericans in the way they get around town, but they are all children of our Heavenly Parents and they share many of the same hopes and dreams for their lives and their children.

Jakarta: Chiropractor and More

Sister Porter had been in a lot of back pain for a few weeks.  Usually we go to the chiropractor when we are in Jakarta for a zone conference, but that would be a few weeks away and she didn't think she could last.  Also, because the chiropractor is only open certain days and times, we would have needed to stay in Jakarta for most of a work week....so we just decided to ask for permission to go.

Sister Porter had a dentist appointment on Monday. When she mentioned she had back problems, our wonderful dentist recommended a pain killer with enteric coating.  Before coming here, we had no concern about pain pills because Ibuprofen was available.  What we did not understand was that it does not have enteric coating, and it turns out that Sister Porter's stomach gets really upset without the coating.  The lack of pain killers/anti-inflammatory meds had contributed to her ongoing pain.

We arranged for young missionaries to teach our Friday English class, and we left early Thursday.  The mission president and his wife graciously offered to host us, which was wonderful to partake of the spirit in their home and also because the chiropractor's office is quite close.  It is a reasonably safe 25-minute walk, which allowed me to stretch out the back a bit before the treatment.  [By contrast, many places in Indonesia are geographically close but not safe to walk due to crazy traffic and lack of sidewalks.]

The mission president's wife invited us to dinner, and to witness a "big reveal" ceremony.  This is when the young missionaries find out where their first assignment will be, and who is their trainer.  Both of those we saw were out of town, so they were given their flight information at that time.  One elder had to fly alone, but his new district would meet him at the destination airport.

This also meant enjoying a wonderful dinner with the missionaries.  At the mission home, they have a lot of things we don't in Medan, such as a toaster and oven and safe salad greens.  There was salad, with ranch dressing!  And freshly baked brownies and ice cream for dessert!

Sis. Porter has been seen by Dr. Dennis Laoh at Senopati Therapy Center since July of 2018.  He is the president of the Indonesian Chiropractic Association.  He has been great for several visits, but when he examined Sister Porter, he looked grim and said that we should visit every morning we were in town, instead of the usual 2 treatments.  The manipulation he did was really painful but the back overall was better by the next day.

This garden room was on the ground floor of their building.  It is apparently a smoking room but we used it many times to sit and figure out what we were doing next.

On Friday after our appointment, we were able to meet with the mission president and his wife to talk about steps we should take to ensure continuation of what we have been doing in Medan.  It was very productive and we learned a lot.

Friday afternoon, we went shopping, getting the last items on our list for Christmas presents for the family.  This was our last trip to Jakarta, so we were glad to have that opportunity.

We shopped at two stores across town, and chose the order because the food court in the basement of Pasaraya is pretty good.  I was really looking forward to gado-gado (which is too spicy in Medan!).  But while we were trying to eat, they shut everything down and ordered us outside!

We walked around the shopping center heading for the street, and were really fortunate that a BlueBird cab pulled up.  The driver did not know why the chaos, either.  He suggested terrorists  We were back to the mission home within minutes.  When we walked in, the mission president was on the phone, checking in with all the missionaries after there was a deep earthquake about 150 miles away (magnitude estimates vary from 6.9 to 7.4).  Maybe being in the basement spared us; others did feel it, but honestly we did not.  This photo is from Reuters and captures the scene that we experienced.

We raided the frig at the mission home, which had tons of yummy leftovers for us to enjoy for dinner.

That night we were contacted by folks in Medan.  They were planning a movie night on Saturday, but needed a computer to play it on.  Would we be back in time to help?  Yes, we would and we did.

Church public affairs sent this sign to celebrate a half-century in these islands (although only 24 years in Medan itself).