Dear Family,
I can’t believe we’ve been here a month already. Time is going by so quickly. We are adjusting just fine and enjoying the different things about living in Jakarta. The weather is hot, but not nearly as bad as I had imagined. Mind you, it’s very warm, but I thought it would be unbearable and it really isn’t. Maybe I’m getting used to it.
We have spent the past few weeks trying to keep ourselves entertained and also continuing to get settled by having several pieces of furniture made. The sofa, loveseat and computer desk we had made were all delivered this week. It’s fun to start feeling like this is our home and not some place that feels very temporary. We went and looked at the furniture for our Family Room and our sitting room yesterday. They make the frame and put the padding on and then have you look at it, sit on it and test it to make sure you like it before they put the fabric on it. It’s funny to see furniture without the material. That furniture should be finished in about three weeks. We also went and ordered a carpet (like American carpet) to be cut and bound for our living room.
We are all hoping our sea shipment comes in the next couple of weeks. We have been informed that it is supposed to be at the dock on the 6th of August. We’ve heard it usually takes a couple of weeks after that for it to clear customs and then get to us. The boys are anxious to get their bikes and rollerblades and some of their other toys.
We spent the morning yesterday at a place called Ancol. Sea World Indonesia is there (not affiliated with the Sea World in the states) and there is also a water park, amusement park, and several other attractions. It is on the coast, but there aren’t really any beaches (most of the coastline near Jakarta is for commercial use - shipping, fishing, marinas, etc.). It was fun to see everything and be somewhere besides the city. At Sea World Mallory especially liked seeing all the fish and she loved the shark tank. When one of the sharks would swim by her she would get so excited she could hardly contain herself. Her little legs would start kicking and she would make as much noise as possible. She’s funny. We also took a gondola ride that goes above several of the attractions, then along the beach for a while. We enjoyed looking out over the ocean and seeing some islands just north of Jakarta (part of the Thousand Islands – which number approximately 150 in total, not 1,000). By the way, they put Thousand Island dressing on everything here.
I took the boys into the clinic to have their x-rays for TB. They have to have them for school. It was interesting. The clinic is nice, but they just do things a little backwards -- something I need to get used to. The boys got a lot of attention (they usually do whenever we go out) when they all filed into the x-ray room.
We met Creed at the office on Friday night and then went further downtown to a huge mall. It’s really nice with very upscale stores. We ate at the Hard Rock Café and really enjoyed having nachos (something I had been dreaming about) and hamburgers and Creed had his dream meal, fajitas. While we were there, the people sitting next to us asked to hold Mallory and to take pictures with her. She usually doesn’t mind, she just smiles and charms them. I’m glad she’s so easy going about the whole thing. We still get people asking us if she is a boy. No, the pink shirt doesn’t give it away. Apparently they don’t use the pink for girls and blue for boys thing here.
We asked our maid to cook some Indonesian food for us on Monday night. She said she was going to make BBQ beef (what they call BBQ beef, anyway). It smelled good enough, but I really couldn’t eat much of it and neither could anyone else. It was funny, all of us sitting around the table with our maid around the corner at the kitchen sink doing dishes and we’re trying to cover up the fact that we didn’t like it. We were able to tell her nicely that we didn’t like it. She laughed and apologized. They eat a lot of noodles and veggies here -- I guess I should have told her that’s what we really wanted.
There are a lot of perks living here. Having furniture custom made for cheap is great. We have really enjoyed picking things out. Being chauffeured around town is nice, as well. We also love having a household staff (7 people are at our house, besides our family, all the time). Things just seem to magically happen. Tonight, I noticed the kitchen trash was getting full. A little while later, I went to throw something away and realized it had been emptied. Okay, I didn’t even notice Kandar (our gardener) come in the house, let alone empty the trash! Things like that happen all the time. Sundays are a reminder at how much work they all do because it is our housekeepers’ day off (a husband and wife) so we have to take care of everything just like it was in Michigan, only no dishwasher. Our maid even takes the plastic grocery bags and wraps them up into tiny little shapes to save room.
While there are many perks, there are things that are difficult, as well. Despite our best efforts at keeping the kitchen counters clean, there are constantly a dozen or so ants roaming around (not to mention the ones that are on the floor). We also have been finding dead (or dying) bees in our house. We had a mosquito net installed in Mallory’s room this week to cover her crib because she has so many mosquito bites on her tiny little body. In addition to the bug infestation, the pollution in this city is horrible. The air quality is so bad you can’t see very far when you get into the city. Luckily, it’s not as bad here in Pondok Indah. The rivers are horribly polluted. People just throw trash out their windows and dump it anywhere they want. I kind of chuckle when I think about all the environmentalists in the US. They would freak out if they saw what people were living in here. Creed and I were talking the other night about not understanding why people don’t strive to have better lives for themselves here. They don’t seem to care that they don’t have many green spaces or that their children don’t have any place to play. The poor areas of town (just behind all the buildings on the streets, you don’t have to look very far) make us all sad. The houses are just built out of whatever people can find. It has definitely opened all of our eyes. As much as people in the states complain about how things are, things really are good there. Living here just this short time has made us grateful for what we have been blessed with and also made us aware of the world around us and the need to help.
Okay, enough of the serious talk. The boys are thrilled to start school in a week and a half. They will go this week to have their evaluations and to look at the school. I’m excited to have them start, as well. I can’t believe Luke is going to be in Kindergarten. He is really looking forward to it.
Our branch has grown by leaps and bounds. There have been 4 pretty good sized families (including us) that have moved in this summer. It is nice to see some more children. We were thrilled that one family has children the same ages as our boys. We are going to have them over this week to swim.
We hope you’re all doing well. We miss everyone.
Heidi (and Creed)
Millers in Shanghai
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Photos - July 31
Mosquito netting for Mallory's crib.
One of the benefits of having household staff: they fold up your plastic grocery bags.
The new desk & couch.
Photos: July 19 - July 31, 2005
As far as we can tell, Mallory is the cutest little girl in Jakarta. 
In the US, this is known as a dish-drying rack. In Indonesia, this is also known as a fruit & vegetable drying rack. After the process of cleaning fruits & vegetables with the special soap solution, we rinse them in bottled water. The dish-drying rack seems to be a convenient place to put fruits & vegetables, as well.
We arrived home one night and found a huge snail on our front porch. Our security guard found another one and brought it over to our front porch, as well. Apparently snails this size aren't very common because the security guard, Cartim (our driver), and Ajis all thought they were interesting, too.
Sea World / Ancol - July 30 Photos
A sea horse bench at Seaworld Indonesia.
Luke liked the fish trash cans.
Grant and Luke reaching in to touch manta rays and sharks.
The family after visiting Sea World - you can see Grant's and Luke's shirts are still wet.
Grant, Creed, and Mallory on the gondola ride.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
July 17th
Hello again,
We have made some progress this last week in getting our house feeling like we are a little more settled in, but it will probably take a good 6 weeks. Our air shipment arrived last Thursday (quicker than we expected), and it had quite a few toys for the boys, a lot of our kitchen dishes, pots, and pans, and Mallory’s crib and dresser. Our sea shipment will not arrive for another month, though.
This week Heidi went to an interior decorating place and ordered some family room furniture (sofas and chairs) as well as a couple of chairs for our bedroom. Later that day, the same decorator came to our home to measure our windows for window coverings. The sofas will be finished in about 5 weeks and the window blinds will probably take 2 weeks. Having furniture custom made in Jakarta is very reasonable compared to the US (probably half the price in the US). It will be nice to get some furniture in our house that looks the way we’d like it to look and to replace the rented sofas in our family room.
Here’s something for the embarrassing file. We found out that we’ve been saying our housekeepers name incorrectly. We’ve been calling her Wasiah, when her name is really Warsi. We feel badly that she hasn’t told us we’ve been saying it incorrectly. She always just smiled and answered when called. It is probably like calling Nash “Nick” or something.
On Saturday (yesterday) we went to a place about 40 minutes south of Jakarta called Sentul – a city / housing development in the hills on the way to the mountains closest to Jakarta. For work we had arranged an event for the employees to test drive the new Ford Focus being launched here in a couple of months, as well as compare it to the prior version of the product and to competition. It was great to get out of the city and to see Indonesia outside of Jakarta. It is really beautiful here. The whole family went to the test drive event, then afterward we took the boys to an equestrian center and had them go on a pony ride (see Grant’s description in his note, as well as a picture or two).
Yesterday afternoon Heidi and I went to the mall so that we could do a little bit of shopping and so that I could get a haircut (long over due). My barber in Canton took about 15 minutes – including washing my hair at the beginning. At the place I got my hair cut yesterday it took over 45 minutes. 3 different people worked on my hair – one to wash it at the beginning (that took at least 15 minutes), then a different guy cut my hair – 1 millimeter at a time, and 1 hair at a time. After he cut my hair, another person rinsed my hair off. I hope all haircut places in Jakarta aren’t like that one – it took way too long.
It has rained several times this week (though the rainy season doesn’t start until November, we hear). Traffic here is bad enough, but when it rains, traffic is even worse. After shopping at the mall and the eternal haircut, we called our driver, Cartem (pronounced char-team), to pick us up at the entrance. It took him more than 30 minutes to get from the mall parking lot to the place to pick us up. It was raining so hard that the traffic was backed up to get into and out of the mall, and things were moving slowly. It was quite frustrating.
Here’s another observation – we see all sorts of American restaurants here: Outback Steakhouse, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, even Sizzler. But the American restaurants we see the most are A&W and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I am sure there are more of those two restaurants per capita in Jakarta than in Detroit. It is so funny to go into those places. For the most part the menu is the same (but they add rice as a side order alternative to French fries, as well as a few other Asian menu items), and if you eat in the restaurant they serve it on stoneware plates. It is fast food, like the US, but they put your food on a very heavy plate.
Well, that’s about it for now.
Adios,
Creed & Heidi
We have made some progress this last week in getting our house feeling like we are a little more settled in, but it will probably take a good 6 weeks. Our air shipment arrived last Thursday (quicker than we expected), and it had quite a few toys for the boys, a lot of our kitchen dishes, pots, and pans, and Mallory’s crib and dresser. Our sea shipment will not arrive for another month, though.
This week Heidi went to an interior decorating place and ordered some family room furniture (sofas and chairs) as well as a couple of chairs for our bedroom. Later that day, the same decorator came to our home to measure our windows for window coverings. The sofas will be finished in about 5 weeks and the window blinds will probably take 2 weeks. Having furniture custom made in Jakarta is very reasonable compared to the US (probably half the price in the US). It will be nice to get some furniture in our house that looks the way we’d like it to look and to replace the rented sofas in our family room.
Here’s something for the embarrassing file. We found out that we’ve been saying our housekeepers name incorrectly. We’ve been calling her Wasiah, when her name is really Warsi. We feel badly that she hasn’t told us we’ve been saying it incorrectly. She always just smiled and answered when called. It is probably like calling Nash “Nick” or something.
On Saturday (yesterday) we went to a place about 40 minutes south of Jakarta called Sentul – a city / housing development in the hills on the way to the mountains closest to Jakarta. For work we had arranged an event for the employees to test drive the new Ford Focus being launched here in a couple of months, as well as compare it to the prior version of the product and to competition. It was great to get out of the city and to see Indonesia outside of Jakarta. It is really beautiful here. The whole family went to the test drive event, then afterward we took the boys to an equestrian center and had them go on a pony ride (see Grant’s description in his note, as well as a picture or two).
Yesterday afternoon Heidi and I went to the mall so that we could do a little bit of shopping and so that I could get a haircut (long over due). My barber in Canton took about 15 minutes – including washing my hair at the beginning. At the place I got my hair cut yesterday it took over 45 minutes. 3 different people worked on my hair – one to wash it at the beginning (that took at least 15 minutes), then a different guy cut my hair – 1 millimeter at a time, and 1 hair at a time. After he cut my hair, another person rinsed my hair off. I hope all haircut places in Jakarta aren’t like that one – it took way too long.
It has rained several times this week (though the rainy season doesn’t start until November, we hear). Traffic here is bad enough, but when it rains, traffic is even worse. After shopping at the mall and the eternal haircut, we called our driver, Cartem (pronounced char-team), to pick us up at the entrance. It took him more than 30 minutes to get from the mall parking lot to the place to pick us up. It was raining so hard that the traffic was backed up to get into and out of the mall, and things were moving slowly. It was quite frustrating.
Here’s another observation – we see all sorts of American restaurants here: Outback Steakhouse, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, even Sizzler. But the American restaurants we see the most are A&W and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I am sure there are more of those two restaurants per capita in Jakarta than in Detroit. It is so funny to go into those places. For the most part the menu is the same (but they add rice as a side order alternative to French fries, as well as a few other Asian menu items), and if you eat in the restaurant they serve it on stoneware plates. It is fast food, like the US, but they put your food on a very heavy plate.
Well, that’s about it for now.
Adios,
Creed & Heidi
Cecak Photo
Here's a picture Heidi took of a cecak last night -- we'll try to take a better photo later and post it, but they are pretty quick. This one was on the roof of one of the balconies. It is about 4 inches in total length - head to tail. Their size ranges from 2 inches to 6 inches. The one that fell on Luke's head the first night in our house was about 6 inches.
Grant - July 17th
Dear family & friends,
It has been really nice living here. The house is great. My room is really tall. It has windows about 25 feet tall. It has also has a balcony. The pool is FUN!! It has a waterfall.
I went to Singapore for fun. I went to a fun aqaurium that had really cool animals. I saw sea turtles, sharks, starfish, jellyfish, and big, ginormous fish. I also saw some really wierd animals.
Yesterday I went horseback riding in the forest. The horse went over a log. The horse was going too slow, so the guide to me to kick the horse. When I kicked the horse it went faster, and I went ahead of Nash, then I was in the front. After the ride I fed my horse carrots.
It has been really nice living here. The house is great. My room is really tall. It has windows about 25 feet tall. It has also has a balcony. The pool is FUN!! It has a waterfall.
I went to Singapore for fun. I went to a fun aqaurium that had really cool animals. I saw sea turtles, sharks, starfish, jellyfish, and big, ginormous fish. I also saw some really wierd animals.
Yesterday I went horseback riding in the forest. The horse went over a log. The horse was going too slow, so the guide to me to kick the horse. When I kicked the horse it went faster, and I went ahead of Nash, then I was in the front. After the ride I fed my horse carrots.
My favorite restaurant here is a place called The Tamani Kafe. It has a delicious drink there called "Orange Freeze." I love it.
From,
Grant
Nash - July 10th
[I am posting this today, July 17th, but it is excerpts of an e-mail Nash wrote to a friend on July 10, 2005]
Hi everyone,
It doesn't feel like I moved. The plane ride was great. Even though I was tired at the end. We stayed at the JW Marriott in Jakarta which is a five star hotel. To get into the hotel we had to go through a security check. When we got to the hotel entrance a bellman opened the door for us and took our luggage. I didn't expect that. Then we went through a glass hallway into the hotel. It scared me that there were three men with machine guns at the front gate. When we got into our rooms I was amazed at the size of the rooms and how nice it was. It had a garden and a playground. It also had a nice pool. When we were leaving the hotel to get on the flight to Singapore we had to wait for my dad to check out. Meanwhile, the staff talked to us alot. Then our driver took us to the airport.
After we got to Indonesia, we had to go to Singapore to get some paperwork done for our Visas. We went to a hotel when we arrived in Singapore and there were no guards because Singapore is a safer place. I think that this hotel was better than the first one. That night we went swimming and found out that the Singapore palace was right next to the hotel. When a man was doing our paperwork, we went to Sentosa Island and we went to the Merlion which is a giant stone lion that is also a mermaid. We saw pink dolphins (the host of the show said to the crowd in a strange voice "this is a magical moment to meet the pink dolphins") and walked around some more. We had lunch on the beach. We also saw huge sea turtles and a lot of other sea creatures.
We came back to Indonesia and went to our house. It was very late. Although I was tired, I was amazed at the size of our house. That night was the first night I slept in my bed here. I have been swimming so much here, sometimes 4 times a day, that I got swimmer's ear. I have a huge infection in my ear and it hurts really bad. Now I cannot swim until it gets better. My dad took me to a clinic on Sunday and I got some medicine. It still hurts a little, but it's getting better. It has been the worst pain I have felt in my life. Today it still hurts, but not as much.
I am adjusting well. Our househelp works a lot and is nice. Kandar, the gardner, is very humble. He only asks for $90 a month and to see his family a week every three months. He is not from Jakarta. His wife and children live in a different village.
Talk to you later,
Nash
Hi everyone,
It doesn't feel like I moved. The plane ride was great. Even though I was tired at the end. We stayed at the JW Marriott in Jakarta which is a five star hotel. To get into the hotel we had to go through a security check. When we got to the hotel entrance a bellman opened the door for us and took our luggage. I didn't expect that. Then we went through a glass hallway into the hotel. It scared me that there were three men with machine guns at the front gate. When we got into our rooms I was amazed at the size of the rooms and how nice it was. It had a garden and a playground. It also had a nice pool. When we were leaving the hotel to get on the flight to Singapore we had to wait for my dad to check out. Meanwhile, the staff talked to us alot. Then our driver took us to the airport.
After we got to Indonesia, we had to go to Singapore to get some paperwork done for our Visas. We went to a hotel when we arrived in Singapore and there were no guards because Singapore is a safer place. I think that this hotel was better than the first one. That night we went swimming and found out that the Singapore palace was right next to the hotel. When a man was doing our paperwork, we went to Sentosa Island and we went to the Merlion which is a giant stone lion that is also a mermaid. We saw pink dolphins (the host of the show said to the crowd in a strange voice "this is a magical moment to meet the pink dolphins") and walked around some more. We had lunch on the beach. We also saw huge sea turtles and a lot of other sea creatures.
We came back to Indonesia and went to our house. It was very late. Although I was tired, I was amazed at the size of our house. That night was the first night I slept in my bed here. I have been swimming so much here, sometimes 4 times a day, that I got swimmer's ear. I have a huge infection in my ear and it hurts really bad. Now I cannot swim until it gets better. My dad took me to a clinic on Sunday and I got some medicine. It still hurts a little, but it's getting better. It has been the worst pain I have felt in my life. Today it still hurts, but not as much.
I am adjusting well. Our househelp works a lot and is nice. Kandar, the gardner, is very humble. He only asks for $90 a month and to see his family a week every three months. He is not from Jakarta. His wife and children live in a different village.
Talk to you later,
Nash
Merlion Photo - Sentosa Island, Singapore
This is the Merlion statue on Sentosa Island, Singapore, that Nash metioned in his note.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Our First Two Weeks
July 14, 2005
Dear Friends and Family,
We have been in Jakarta for two weeks now. We thought we’d write a list of a few of the frustrating, funny and fabulous things we’ve learned about Indonesia in this short time.
1- If you’re important you can own any animal you desire and keep it in your house. Our driver showed us a home in our neighborhood that is home to a tiger. Why, we asked? Well it’s simple. He wanted a tiger and he’s important so he can have one. On our house hunting trip our real estate agent showed us a house that had a monkey. We could hear it as we were driving!
2- Sleeping habits change drastically in Indonesia. With the sun setting and rising early everyday, we have found that our bedtime is usually around 9:00pm and we get up at 6:00or 6:30am everyday. Things are up and running by 7:00am. As a matter of fact, the boys are asking for lunch at 10:00am everyday.
3- If the sun doesn’t wake you up at 6:00am, the many sounds of the street vendors passing your house will. Each has their own sound and rhythm. Some hit a gong, others a bell and some hit a hollow wooden block. Then, just in case you feel like having an ice cream at the crack of dawn, the ice cream man peddles his bicycle by playing music. The boys get a kick out of it.
4- Our favorite past time at night is finding cecaks in the house (small gecko like lizards). The boys get so excited when they spot one in their rooms or on their decks. We like them because they eat all the bugs. The first night in our house, one fell on Luke’s head as we opened the door to the bathroom!
5- Things take forever in Indonesia and nothing is very organized or logical. We have had to keep a good sense of humor in this aspect of living here. The Uninet guy (internet company) was supposed to meet the cable people here on Sunday between 11:00am and 1:00pm to hook up the internet. Now in the states, this is done fairly quickly. Not so here. First, our security guards didn’t tell us he was here so I looked out our kitchen window and saw some man sitting with the staff watching TV. Now since our staff is instructed not to have friends visit without our permission, I wondered who this man was. After awhile, I went out and asked. He told me he was with Uninet and was waiting for the cable people. Needless to say, he waited for hours! The cable people didn’t come until that evening and the internet man waited the whole time -- just sitting in the garage with our staff, watching TV. Back to the unorganized issue, the streets seem to be just haphazardly placed and so that makes getting to things difficult.
6- Going to the immigration office and state police in a third-world country is an experience. We had to go to these places this week to get finger printed and registered. Interesting! The places were so dirty and the stench in a couple of the waiting rooms was disgusting (we tried to be discreet about the fact that we were all gagging or plugging our noses, but I think it was pretty obvious). After fingerprinting us at the police station, some soap was poured into our hands and we were told to go to the restroom to wash. Hardly a restroom! There was a sink in the women’s bathroom, but no faucet so I had to use the faucet that was just sticking out of the wall. Then after our second set of finger prints at the immigration building, they told us to wipe our hands on this huge, dingy, gross wet sponge sitting in an open briefcase! FAT CHANCE! It looked like it had some sort of mold growing on it. Luckily (because of Mallory’s diaper bag) we had wet-wipes. BLAH!
7- Asians love little babies and children with blue eyes and blond hair. We get lots of looks and gawks as we walk in public places. People are always coming up to Mallory and squeezing her cheeks, touching her hands and some have even attempted to take her out of my arms. One woman succeeded because she did it so fast, I didn’t know what happened. As she started to walk away with Mallory to show her to some friends, I said, “NO, NO, NO!” and got her back. One Indian woman in Singapore made her friend get out of the seat next to her on a crowded bus just so I could sit by her with Mallory. She was very friendly and held Mallory and even asked if she could have her picture taken with Mallory. I thought it was pretty funny.
8- You learn to bargain in Indonesia. We have learned this the past week when looking for furniture and area rugs for our home. We have talked people down quite a bit and are excited about a couple of wood pieces of furniture we are having made.
9- The people are warm and kind. Our staff is wonderful and greets us when we come home with smiles and willing hands. They open our doors, bring in anything we bought and even put the groceries away. They are always respectful of us. We are very happy they are here. They have helped us a lot. What will I do when we’re back in the states without a driver, gardener, security guards and two housekeepers?
10- We are really going to like it here. While there are things about the states we miss terribly, we have found things that we love here as well in the short time we’ve been here. We ate at Outback the other night at the Mall Pondok Indah and felt like we were in Canton again -- complete with cheese fries and a Chocolate Thunder. YUM!!!
11- Will I ever get use to bugs in the house and yellow water coming out of the tap? There are ants in the house all the time and we have been finding other interesting bugs in the house as well. I just ask one of the staff to get them out and they do. The boys were very excited to see their first cockroach scurrying across the parking lot at the Mall the other night. I’m trying to get use to it. One person told me I’d feel like I was camping while living here. It’s true. We went to give Mallory a bath the other day and while Creed was filling up the tub he noticed the water was yellow. Is that what we’re showering in? We bathed Mallory in bottled water. I don’t think she liked it much because it was cold.
12- People write things in English that might make sense to them, but they sure don’t make sense to us. We saw some graffiti on a wall that said “Eyelids Tragedy!” Have you ever had an eyelid tragedy? Last week on the way to church we saw a motorcycle with the words “SPONG BOB” hand-painted on the muffler (spelling is optional in a foreign language, of course). And we saw a truck with the words “Fear Factor” painted on the side.
The boys and Mallory seem to be adjusting fine and so are we. We know this is a lengthy letter and we apologize for that. Things are very different here, but a lot is the same. We like the very small branch we attend and the church building is pretty nice. Primary is quite different for the boys. There are so few children that they have all of them together. Who knows what we’ll do when Mallory is of nursery age. The weather isn’t too bad and we’ve had a couple of torrential rain storms. They are fun to see. The boys can’t wait for school to start. They are getting bored. Grant has had two cases of something. His stomach is bothering him today and one day last week he was quite sick. He seemed to bounce out of it quickly though. Creed loves his job. He isn’t home as much as we would like, but the traffic is bad so even when he does leave at a decent time, he still gets home after we’ve eaten.
Our life is different here, but good so far. We all have our days, but this week has been good, so I’m sure we’ll all adjust fine.
Love,
Creed & Heidi
Dear Friends and Family,
We have been in Jakarta for two weeks now. We thought we’d write a list of a few of the frustrating, funny and fabulous things we’ve learned about Indonesia in this short time.
1- If you’re important you can own any animal you desire and keep it in your house. Our driver showed us a home in our neighborhood that is home to a tiger. Why, we asked? Well it’s simple. He wanted a tiger and he’s important so he can have one. On our house hunting trip our real estate agent showed us a house that had a monkey. We could hear it as we were driving!
2- Sleeping habits change drastically in Indonesia. With the sun setting and rising early everyday, we have found that our bedtime is usually around 9:00pm and we get up at 6:00or 6:30am everyday. Things are up and running by 7:00am. As a matter of fact, the boys are asking for lunch at 10:00am everyday.
3- If the sun doesn’t wake you up at 6:00am, the many sounds of the street vendors passing your house will. Each has their own sound and rhythm. Some hit a gong, others a bell and some hit a hollow wooden block. Then, just in case you feel like having an ice cream at the crack of dawn, the ice cream man peddles his bicycle by playing music. The boys get a kick out of it.
4- Our favorite past time at night is finding cecaks in the house (small gecko like lizards). The boys get so excited when they spot one in their rooms or on their decks. We like them because they eat all the bugs. The first night in our house, one fell on Luke’s head as we opened the door to the bathroom!
5- Things take forever in Indonesia and nothing is very organized or logical. We have had to keep a good sense of humor in this aspect of living here. The Uninet guy (internet company) was supposed to meet the cable people here on Sunday between 11:00am and 1:00pm to hook up the internet. Now in the states, this is done fairly quickly. Not so here. First, our security guards didn’t tell us he was here so I looked out our kitchen window and saw some man sitting with the staff watching TV. Now since our staff is instructed not to have friends visit without our permission, I wondered who this man was. After awhile, I went out and asked. He told me he was with Uninet and was waiting for the cable people. Needless to say, he waited for hours! The cable people didn’t come until that evening and the internet man waited the whole time -- just sitting in the garage with our staff, watching TV. Back to the unorganized issue, the streets seem to be just haphazardly placed and so that makes getting to things difficult.
6- Going to the immigration office and state police in a third-world country is an experience. We had to go to these places this week to get finger printed and registered. Interesting! The places were so dirty and the stench in a couple of the waiting rooms was disgusting (we tried to be discreet about the fact that we were all gagging or plugging our noses, but I think it was pretty obvious). After fingerprinting us at the police station, some soap was poured into our hands and we were told to go to the restroom to wash. Hardly a restroom! There was a sink in the women’s bathroom, but no faucet so I had to use the faucet that was just sticking out of the wall. Then after our second set of finger prints at the immigration building, they told us to wipe our hands on this huge, dingy, gross wet sponge sitting in an open briefcase! FAT CHANCE! It looked like it had some sort of mold growing on it. Luckily (because of Mallory’s diaper bag) we had wet-wipes. BLAH!
7- Asians love little babies and children with blue eyes and blond hair. We get lots of looks and gawks as we walk in public places. People are always coming up to Mallory and squeezing her cheeks, touching her hands and some have even attempted to take her out of my arms. One woman succeeded because she did it so fast, I didn’t know what happened. As she started to walk away with Mallory to show her to some friends, I said, “NO, NO, NO!” and got her back. One Indian woman in Singapore made her friend get out of the seat next to her on a crowded bus just so I could sit by her with Mallory. She was very friendly and held Mallory and even asked if she could have her picture taken with Mallory. I thought it was pretty funny.
8- You learn to bargain in Indonesia. We have learned this the past week when looking for furniture and area rugs for our home. We have talked people down quite a bit and are excited about a couple of wood pieces of furniture we are having made.
9- The people are warm and kind. Our staff is wonderful and greets us when we come home with smiles and willing hands. They open our doors, bring in anything we bought and even put the groceries away. They are always respectful of us. We are very happy they are here. They have helped us a lot. What will I do when we’re back in the states without a driver, gardener, security guards and two housekeepers?
10- We are really going to like it here. While there are things about the states we miss terribly, we have found things that we love here as well in the short time we’ve been here. We ate at Outback the other night at the Mall Pondok Indah and felt like we were in Canton again -- complete with cheese fries and a Chocolate Thunder. YUM!!!
11- Will I ever get use to bugs in the house and yellow water coming out of the tap? There are ants in the house all the time and we have been finding other interesting bugs in the house as well. I just ask one of the staff to get them out and they do. The boys were very excited to see their first cockroach scurrying across the parking lot at the Mall the other night. I’m trying to get use to it. One person told me I’d feel like I was camping while living here. It’s true. We went to give Mallory a bath the other day and while Creed was filling up the tub he noticed the water was yellow. Is that what we’re showering in? We bathed Mallory in bottled water. I don’t think she liked it much because it was cold.
12- People write things in English that might make sense to them, but they sure don’t make sense to us. We saw some graffiti on a wall that said “Eyelids Tragedy!” Have you ever had an eyelid tragedy? Last week on the way to church we saw a motorcycle with the words “SPONG BOB” hand-painted on the muffler (spelling is optional in a foreign language, of course). And we saw a truck with the words “Fear Factor” painted on the side.
The boys and Mallory seem to be adjusting fine and so are we. We know this is a lengthy letter and we apologize for that. Things are very different here, but a lot is the same. We like the very small branch we attend and the church building is pretty nice. Primary is quite different for the boys. There are so few children that they have all of them together. Who knows what we’ll do when Mallory is of nursery age. The weather isn’t too bad and we’ve had a couple of torrential rain storms. They are fun to see. The boys can’t wait for school to start. They are getting bored. Grant has had two cases of something. His stomach is bothering him today and one day last week he was quite sick. He seemed to bounce out of it quickly though. Creed loves his job. He isn’t home as much as we would like, but the traffic is bad so even when he does leave at a decent time, he still gets home after we’ve eaten.
Our life is different here, but good so far. We all have our days, but this week has been good, so I’m sure we’ll all adjust fine.
Love,
Creed & Heidi
Thursday, July 14, 2005
July 10th Photos
On our first Sunday afternoon here in Jakarta I took the boys on a walk in the neighborhood. Behind them is the school they will attend starting in August -- Jakarta International School.
I think the humidity gave the picutre a blue hue. The boys have been known to swim up to 4 times per day. Nash had to take a break, though, because he got an ear infection (likely because he had been swimming 3+ times per day for a week).
One popular feature of our pool is the "waterfall" at the deep end. You can see Luke all geared up ready to snorkel in this picture. He loves snorkeling from one end of the pool to the other. He'll be the most prepared of all of us for snorkeling in the ocean -- we have heard there are some great places to go snorkeling pretty close to us.
Singapore Photos
The day after we arrived in Jakarta, we took a flight to Singapore (only 1 hour away) to stay for a day and a half. We gave our passports to someone to take to the Indonesian embassy in Singapore to make arrangments for our visas. We spent the day at Sentosa Island in Singapore while we waited for our visas.
At the beach in Singapore -- we wish we had brought our swimming suits because it was blazing hot that day.
Going through the glass tunnel in an aquarium.
Grant and Luke pretending to be cold in the room in the arctic sea life room at the aquarium.
At the beach in Singapore -- we wish we had brought our swimming suits because it was blazing hot that day. 
Going through the glass tunnel in an aquarium.
Midnight Snack
June 29, 2005Luke and Grant wide awake at 2:00 am in the hotel room on our first night in Jakarta. They were starving because they slept through dinner, so we gave them the only food we had -- half a bag of chex mix and an apple. Heidi and I took turns with them in their room while the rest the family tried to sleep in the other room.
In-Flight Entertainment
June 28, 2005
Luke playing video games on the flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong.
Nash, Grant, and Mallory keeping busy on the flight.
Coney Island
June 27, 2005 - Our last meal in the USA, at a Coney Island (a diner, for those unfamiliar with the term) at Detroit Metro airport.
Detroit to Jakarta
June 29, 2005
Dear Family,
Just thought we'd drop you a line and let you know that we have arrived in Jakarta. We're all very sleepy and worn out, but other than that, we're great. The flight was basically uneventful, as far as a 23 hour flight goes with 4 children. I think the most excitement we had was Grant and Luke falling asleep so hard on the flight from Detroit to LA that we couldn't wake them up to get off. The entire flight was empty and the flight attendants were just waiting for us.We shook them, yelled their names, everything and they wouldn't even open their eyes. Somehow, we got them to stand up and start moving. However, Grant left the Gameboy in the little seat-back pocket and so poor Creed went all the way back to the Northwest terminal (about a 15min. walk) and was able to get someone to go back on the plane and find it for us. Grant was about in tears when he discovered he left it so Creed was his hero. Other than that and a small orange juice spill by me, all the flights went great. The boys had plenty to keep themselves entertained and they all slept for quite a while. Mallory did great. She had her own seat so we put her in her carseat and she slept. Needless to say, we are all very grateful to be here and that things went well. Thanks to all of you for your prayers.
I was looking forward to the boys seeing all the sights on our drive out of the airport, but they all fell asleep. As a matter of fact, it's a quarter to nine and they are still asleep. I've never seen them so wiped out. I tried, unsuccessfully, for over an hour to keep them awake, but I gave up. The bellmen were all laughing at them when we arrived here at the Marriot because Luke and Grant could hardly keep their eyes open.
Getting off the plane was funny. I felt like Mallory and the boys were celebrities. People reached out and touched Mallory's face and smiled. Mothers grabbed their children and pointed at us so their kids could see the blond children and a baby with blue eyes. Everyone smiled and pointed. It was funny. I'm sure that will get old after awhile. The people here are generally very kind, happy people and they smiled and cooed at the kids. Mallory seems to be very popular.
Creed and Nash took all of our (12 pieces!) luggage to the house this afternoon (except for the suitcases we packed for Singapore). Creed said the rental furniture was all there and in the rooms and the security guards were there. We leave tomorrow afternoon for a two day trip to Singapore to process our visas and then when we come back on Friday night we can go straight to our home. That will be nice. Well, I will write more later.
Our preparations for the trip on Monday were horrendous. We realized several things we forgot to get and pack but oh well. Our entire family room was full of things to be put into suitcases. Frankly, I'm surprised we fit it all! I realized quickly that we should have sent more of the clothes by sea. Chalk it up to experience.We really appreciate all your support. This is a big move for our family and comes with some obvious apprehension, but we know that the Lord wants us here and that it is His plan for us. We know that for sure. We are excited to start this new chapter in our lives. While it was very difficult to leave family and our dear friends in Michigan, we know that soon we will have dear friends here and this will become our home. Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. We need them.
We love you,
Creed, Heidi, Nash, Grant, Luke and Mallory
Dear Family,
Just thought we'd drop you a line and let you know that we have arrived in Jakarta. We're all very sleepy and worn out, but other than that, we're great. The flight was basically uneventful, as far as a 23 hour flight goes with 4 children. I think the most excitement we had was Grant and Luke falling asleep so hard on the flight from Detroit to LA that we couldn't wake them up to get off. The entire flight was empty and the flight attendants were just waiting for us.We shook them, yelled their names, everything and they wouldn't even open their eyes. Somehow, we got them to stand up and start moving. However, Grant left the Gameboy in the little seat-back pocket and so poor Creed went all the way back to the Northwest terminal (about a 15min. walk) and was able to get someone to go back on the plane and find it for us. Grant was about in tears when he discovered he left it so Creed was his hero. Other than that and a small orange juice spill by me, all the flights went great. The boys had plenty to keep themselves entertained and they all slept for quite a while. Mallory did great. She had her own seat so we put her in her carseat and she slept. Needless to say, we are all very grateful to be here and that things went well. Thanks to all of you for your prayers.
I was looking forward to the boys seeing all the sights on our drive out of the airport, but they all fell asleep. As a matter of fact, it's a quarter to nine and they are still asleep. I've never seen them so wiped out. I tried, unsuccessfully, for over an hour to keep them awake, but I gave up. The bellmen were all laughing at them when we arrived here at the Marriot because Luke and Grant could hardly keep their eyes open.
Getting off the plane was funny. I felt like Mallory and the boys were celebrities. People reached out and touched Mallory's face and smiled. Mothers grabbed their children and pointed at us so their kids could see the blond children and a baby with blue eyes. Everyone smiled and pointed. It was funny. I'm sure that will get old after awhile. The people here are generally very kind, happy people and they smiled and cooed at the kids. Mallory seems to be very popular.
Creed and Nash took all of our (12 pieces!) luggage to the house this afternoon (except for the suitcases we packed for Singapore). Creed said the rental furniture was all there and in the rooms and the security guards were there. We leave tomorrow afternoon for a two day trip to Singapore to process our visas and then when we come back on Friday night we can go straight to our home. That will be nice. Well, I will write more later.
Our preparations for the trip on Monday were horrendous. We realized several things we forgot to get and pack but oh well. Our entire family room was full of things to be put into suitcases. Frankly, I'm surprised we fit it all! I realized quickly that we should have sent more of the clothes by sea. Chalk it up to experience.We really appreciate all your support. This is a big move for our family and comes with some obvious apprehension, but we know that the Lord wants us here and that it is His plan for us. We know that for sure. We are excited to start this new chapter in our lives. While it was very difficult to leave family and our dear friends in Michigan, we know that soon we will have dear friends here and this will become our home. Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. We need them.
We love you,
Creed, Heidi, Nash, Grant, Luke and Mallory
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