Hi, everyone,
In no particular order, here is what has been going on over the last couple of weeks since we last wrote:
Last week was the first week of Ramadan here in Indonesia, and it has been interesting for us to see it first hand. On Tuesday night, the night before it officially started, several employees from the office came in to see me to ask my forgiveness for anything they had done (they were going around talking to everyone in the office, which is apparently one of the things Muslims are supposed to do before the fasting month begins). I decided to forgive them this time.
Early Wednesday morning most Muslims woke up early (2:30 or 3:00 am) to make and eat a big meal before the first Morning Prayer of Ramadan. The only other main thing that we have noticed so far is that traffic isn’t quite as heavy in the morning on my way to work. Someone told me it may be because people sleep in and go to work later than normal because they have gotten up early to eat and pray, then they go back to sleep for a little while.
A week ago I went to Medan (the largest city on the island of Sumatra – population over 2 million) with 3 other people from the office for a work event. The Ford dealer in Medan had invited about 500 people for an event to introduce the new Ford Focus we just started selling here. I gave a short speech, then a couple of other people made speeches, then there was dinner, “entertainment,” (which was a group of 10 people dancing to various pop songs from the last 3 decades – I thought it was rather funny), the official dramatic unveiling of the Ford Focus, etc. We returned to Jakarta the next morning before the sun was up. It was a quick trip, but good to get out of Jakarta and to see another city and to get to know the dealer up in Medan a little bit better.
I’m not sure what to say about the Bali bombings you have all probably read about. The son of one of our Ford dealership employees was one of the 25 fatalities last week. I guess I would say that it has been a reality check for us – both at work and at home. At work we are making sure that we are all up-to-speed on our emergency procedures. Additionally, we are having our international security consulting company come to our house tomorrow (it was already planned to take place this month) to train our household staff and guards and to evaluate the security of our home. I went to the US Embassy on Friday morning for a briefing by the US Ambassador and the RSO (regional security officer). It was interesting to hear their reactions to the events of the past week and to get a general reminder of the precautions we need to take.
Two monkey sightings for you in the neighborhood: About a week ago our driver and security guard pointed to a tree across the street & river from us. High up in the tree was a monkey. We think it stayed there overnight, because the next day one of the boys saw it from their classroom windows. And then yesterday morning while Grant and I were on a bike ride in the neighborhood we saw a monkey at someone’s house. It was chained to a tree, though, by a leash.
Also on Saturday I took all 3 boys to the school to sign up for baseball – it is a community-run league that practices and plays at Jakarta International School. The boys haven’t played on a team before, but they are all pretty excited to get their uniforms and to start practices and games. Right after baseball sign-up our friends, the Willis family, came over. We left the kids at the house and Heidi and I went with Dave and Jenny to our favorite restaurant, Koi, for lunch, then we went to a Batik show at the Jakarta Convention Center. We picked up several inexpensive Batik items – a skirt and sarong for Heidi, a couple of table runners, and a plate, etc.
The boys had parent-teacher conferences this week, plus a half-day off Wednesday, then full-days off Thursday and Friday. I am told they spent most of the time with friends from church or school, including swimming quite a bit, of course.
Well, no photos for you this time. I just checked the camera, and the only new photos taken since the last time we posted are of the boys’ Lincoln Log creations. I think I’ll just leave it up to your imagination.
Mallory still has yet to sprout teeth. She loves to show her gummy smile to anyone that will look. She is 11 months tomorrow and we are all looking forward to her big 1year birthday next month. The boys can hardly wait. She is still the most popular person around. The house help all love her and smile and laugh at everything she does. Our maids walk endlessly around with her holding her fingers. She loves it. They are so good to climb up and come down the stairs over and over with her. She is in heaven when they do that with her. She has discovered that she likes to take out the matchbox cars from the bin and then if she puts them away we all clap so that’s her favorite thing right now. She’s just getting over a bad cold that wiped her out pretty much all week last week. It’s her first bad cold, so no complaints.
I (this is Heidi now) went to institute this week and taught the lesson. We just started having it since there are more women in the branch. We meet at someone’s house every other week and everyone takes turns teaching. We are studying Joseph Smith. It’s wonderful to study his life and realize what an amazing man he was.
I also went to parent/teacher conferences. There was a very glowing report about our family from Luke’s teacher. She kept saying how kind Luke was and how amazed she is that my boys all take care of each other. She nearly had me in tears. She said she can’t believe how much Grant watches out for Luke and that they actually want to play with each other when they have recess at the same time. She was very impressed and said some very kind things. It was a good ‘pick me up’ for me. She kept asking me how I’ve raised such kind boys. I so badly wanted to say, “Let me tell you about this church we go to.” But it really didn’t seem like the appropriate time. I hope to get a chance one of these days.
I was just watching Fox news and saw a report about the scare of the bird flu. We need to get on the waiting list for our flu shots here. I was told it’s pretty long. We are trying to take precautions but it’s hard when chickens just roam freely on the streets. The school does not serve any chicken at all and I’ve stopped buying it. We just have to keep praying that we’ll be protected. That’s the story of our lives here. Lots of prayers.
We are thankful for all of your prayers and we miss you all dearly. The boys talk about their cousins and grandparents often. We are already looking forward to seeing everyone this next summer. Happy birthday to Grandma Miller and Rosemary this week. I’m sure I forgot someone else’s birthday….if so, I’m sorry.
We love you,
Creed, Heidi, Nash, Grant, Luke, and Mallory
