Time just keeps going by. Things are going well for us. The adjustment hasn’t been too bad. We all have our days, but at least they usually aren’t all at once and they are getting far and few between. I feel that we have been blessed in this aspect. It has been a relatively easy adjustment for all of us.
I had an interesting experience figuring out how to pay all the bills last week. It took me two hours to drive from bank to bank. Things aren’t easy here. Each bill had to be paid at a different bank. I asked everyone if there was an easier way to do this and everyone said no. The phone company is supposed to send you your bill, but apparently, they only do it if they feel like it. You’re supposed to call a number and find out how much you owe and then get it in before the 15th or they’ll cut off your phone immediately. I tried for 8 days to get the total and the number was always busy. Finally, I asked my driver to call for me. He called a totally different number and found our total. Luckily, I can send him to pay our phone bill and our water bill. That helped me a lot. It was interesting.
School started last Thursday, the 11th. It was a very happy day in this household. Nash was so excited he could hardly sleep the night before. We had gone up to the school the day before to see who their teachers were and where their classrooms were. That was a relief to Nash. He was most concerned about finding his class. We walked around a bit so they would feel a little more comfortable.
School starts at 7:30am so they were all up very early. Creed and I had a new parents’ meeting that morning so we took them to their classes, met their teachers, and looked around a bit. I went with the driver at noon to pick up Luke and I couldn’t find him. He apparently had told his teacher I was going to pick him up in the office. He misunderstood me. It made me a bit nervous when I couldn’t find him. He had had a great day and made some new friends.
Nash liked the first day as well. He’s happy to be in fifth grade and is thrilled to have a male teacher. He had his first swimming class today and really liked it and also had technology. He said it was kind of hard because they just learned keyboarding. I told him he will be so happy to be able to type faster on the computer.
Grant loves second grade. He was so happy to find out his teacher is from the UK and speaks with an accent. He said a new boy just moved in today and is from Finland. They are meeting people from all over the world. He has made quite a few friends and is really enjoying things. He likes all the classes he can take and really likes seeing Luke sometimes. His classroom is just above Luke’s.
We went to a place called Taman Safari Indonesia on Saturday. It was great! It is about 90 minutes from Jakarta as you head up into the mountains. In the first part of the park, you can drive your car through and the animals can get really close. The zebras and lamas and deer would come right up to your car. Mallory was going crazy. She could hardly contain herself. She loves animals. She was bouncing up and down and her whole body was just tight with excitement. We saw camels, bears, lions, tigers, elephants and all sorts of monkeys. After the safari ride, we went into the more traditional zoo area. They allow you to hold baby animals! I’m not talking about cute cuddly little things. I mean baby lions, cheetahs, tigers, pythons, and the best of all, orangutans! We will attach pictures. It was amazing. We went on a few country fair-type rides, and we also saw a ‘Wild West Show,’ which was quite hysterical. It was funny to see their perception of an American Wild West show. We also walked a little bit further to a trail that leads to a waterfall. We saw several other animals that are only in Indonesia. It was really fun.
Our sea shipment arrived today and I feel overwhelmed at the task I have before me. If I had places to put everything that would be different. We don’t really have closets besides the ones in our rooms. We have no basement and not really anywhere to store things. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the holiday decorations because if I store them in the huge room that is attached to the staff quarters then they are subject to a lot of heat and humidity. I’m afraid they will get ruined. I’m regretting bringing so much, but I keep reminding myself what life was like during those short two months we knew we were coming. It was just impossible for me to go through everything. Of course, there are a few things that I’m kicking myself for bringing, like the three boxes of videos and nothing to play them on! They don’t even sell VCR’s here. Soooo, we boxed them all up and put them at the top of Luke’s closet. Our staff has been helping me unpack all day. I’m so grateful to them.
Here’s this week’s odd thing about Indonesia. The telephones don’t just ring here. They play songs. For example, our home phone plays, ‘Oh Suzanna’ ‘Dixie’ and one other song. Our cordless phone plays ‘The Rocky Theme Song’, ‘We Will Rock You’ and a couple of pop songs.
On Sunday afternoon we went to a monthly branch potluck dinner, right after the regular church meetings. It was at the home of one of the members here. It was good to get together with everyone and get to know them a little bit better. We can tell that it is a really close group. The boys had fun playing with their new friends, of course.
Heidi
