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.