The family around the hotel -- at the pool, waiting for a taxi, and watching a show.
Millers in Shanghai
Monday, November 7, 2005
Photos: Taman Sari, Yogyakarta 2 November 2005
After the bird market we walked through a tunnel to a place called Taman Sari, which is a swimming pool used by the Sultan and his family.
Photos: Bird Flu Market, Yogyakarta 2 November 2005
These first three shots are from our stroll through the Bird Flu Market.
We saw tons of people on the streets of Yogyakarta on Wednesday making little containers out of coconut or palm leaves for Idul Fitri. Apparently they boil rice inside the containers for about 5 hours and then eat it.
Sunday, November 6, 2005
Photos: Kraton - Yogyakarta 2 November 2005
These photos are from the Kraton, which is the Sultan's palace. It wasn't the most lively place (as you can probably tell from the expressions on the boys' faces) but it was interesting enough.
Photos: Yogyakarta, 1 November 2005
Mallory in the airport lounge before our flight to Yogyakarta.
After checking in to the hotel, we went to the pool for a couple of hours. Of course, the boys took advantage of the opportunity to work on new poses for these photos. 
The Hyatt hotel has a great waterslide. Above and below are shots of the boys at the top of the waterslide, which is patterened after the Borobudur temple.
On Tuesday afternoon we went to Prambanan temple, which is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia, just 30 minutes from the hotel.
Each of the 6 temples had a room in it with a statue of one of the Hindu gods.
Photos: More Yogyakarta 1 November 2005
A couple other photos of Prambanan.
After seeing Prambanan it was pouring rain. We had dinner at a restaurant right by the theatre to see the Ramayana play.
Photos: 31 October 2005
This is just a photo of the boys swimming in the pool in the rain. They are using the large palm leaves that fall from our trees as umbrellas.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Letter: 30 October 2005
Dear Family & Friends,
School Break
Ramadhan is winding down and will be officially over on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday of next week are holidays, and most Muslims go home to their villages to celebrate the holiday with their families. The boys don’t have school for the entire week, and our household staff has the whole week off, too.
It seems like people have been crawling out of the woodwork to ask for a “Lebaran Bonus.” (Lebaran is another name for Ramadhan, and by law major employers – including Ford – must give their employees 1 month’s salary as a bonus). We gave our staff their 1 month’s bonus, which we expected, but then other people kept asking us to pay them a Lebaran Bonus, including our security guards (who are compensated by their company, not by us directly), the pool man, the bottled water delivery guy, and the neighborhood security / garbage man. We ended up giving at least a token bonus to most of these people because we figure it is better to give them $10 or $20 and keep them on our good side than to have them mad at us for the next year.
On Saturday we went with our friends, the Willis family, to a go-kart place by the mall, then just before the rain started we went into the mall to eat a late lunch and then to see the new “Zorro” movie. I just talked with my parents and they saw that movie yesterday, as well. Some movies open here at the same time as the US and other movies take months before coming to Jakarta. Movies are not in the theatres very long, though – only 2 or 3 weeks, so if you want to see a movie in the theatre, you’ve got to go as soon as you see it advertised.
Mallory’s Walking
I think we are officially ready to say that Mallory is walking now. She took about 4 steps one day this week, then each day she has gotten more and more confident – I think she is up to about 8 steps on her own now. Sometimes she is braver than she should be, I fear. So far she hasn’t fallen too badly, but sometimes Mallory is so excited to try walking on her own that she starts walking even before she has her balance. It is cute to see how excited she gets when she does it – she usually claps for herself and gets us to clap for her, too.
Halloween
Heidi took the boys out trick or treating around Pondok Indah on Thursday night. The school had arranged a list of homes to go to, so Heidi went out with the boys and I stayed at home with Mallory and handed out candy. It was fun to see these American families here and how they decorated their front gates. One of the greatest things was seeing all the Indonesian staff and security guards of these homes and how much they go into it, as well (at most of the homes, they were the ones who handed out candy). You rarely went to the door of the home, most of the time you just stopped at the gate to get the candy.
Developing Country
Not that I need a reminder or anything, but I have had two conversations recently that reminded me that we live in a developing country. Last week I was speaking with someone at work about sports (everyone from work got together to play volleyball one night last week). She said that in addition to volleyball, she really likes swimming. She then said she has liked swimming since she was a child. She said that she grew up in Kalimantan (the Indonesian province on the island of Borneo), and that her family lived by a river, so she and her siblings always swam in the river. She then told me that her house was actually built on the river, meaning that part of the house was built on poles or whatever, actually over the river and that it was very convenient because the bathroom didn’t need plumbing – it was just a hole in the floorboards that went straight down into the river. I confirmed with her that this was the same river that she and her friends always went swimming in.
The second thing that reminded me that Indonesia is a developing country is that Cartim (our driver) told us that when his brother goes to his village this week for Idul Fitri (a 9 or 10 hour bus ride from Jakarta), he is taking a TV to his parents. Cartim told us that his parent’s village got electricity only last year.
Trip to Jogjakarta
Well, we are really looking forward to our trip to Jogjakarta next week. It will be nice to get a little bit of a break from the hectic pace of Jakarta and to see some interesting Indonesian cultural and historical sites. We’ll let you know how it goes.
School Break
Ramadhan is winding down and will be officially over on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday of next week are holidays, and most Muslims go home to their villages to celebrate the holiday with their families. The boys don’t have school for the entire week, and our household staff has the whole week off, too.
It seems like people have been crawling out of the woodwork to ask for a “Lebaran Bonus.” (Lebaran is another name for Ramadhan, and by law major employers – including Ford – must give their employees 1 month’s salary as a bonus). We gave our staff their 1 month’s bonus, which we expected, but then other people kept asking us to pay them a Lebaran Bonus, including our security guards (who are compensated by their company, not by us directly), the pool man, the bottled water delivery guy, and the neighborhood security / garbage man. We ended up giving at least a token bonus to most of these people because we figure it is better to give them $10 or $20 and keep them on our good side than to have them mad at us for the next year.
On Saturday we went with our friends, the Willis family, to a go-kart place by the mall, then just before the rain started we went into the mall to eat a late lunch and then to see the new “Zorro” movie. I just talked with my parents and they saw that movie yesterday, as well. Some movies open here at the same time as the US and other movies take months before coming to Jakarta. Movies are not in the theatres very long, though – only 2 or 3 weeks, so if you want to see a movie in the theatre, you’ve got to go as soon as you see it advertised.
Mallory’s Walking
I think we are officially ready to say that Mallory is walking now. She took about 4 steps one day this week, then each day she has gotten more and more confident – I think she is up to about 8 steps on her own now. Sometimes she is braver than she should be, I fear. So far she hasn’t fallen too badly, but sometimes Mallory is so excited to try walking on her own that she starts walking even before she has her balance. It is cute to see how excited she gets when she does it – she usually claps for herself and gets us to clap for her, too.
Halloween
Heidi took the boys out trick or treating around Pondok Indah on Thursday night. The school had arranged a list of homes to go to, so Heidi went out with the boys and I stayed at home with Mallory and handed out candy. It was fun to see these American families here and how they decorated their front gates. One of the greatest things was seeing all the Indonesian staff and security guards of these homes and how much they go into it, as well (at most of the homes, they were the ones who handed out candy). You rarely went to the door of the home, most of the time you just stopped at the gate to get the candy.
Developing Country
Not that I need a reminder or anything, but I have had two conversations recently that reminded me that we live in a developing country. Last week I was speaking with someone at work about sports (everyone from work got together to play volleyball one night last week). She said that in addition to volleyball, she really likes swimming. She then said she has liked swimming since she was a child. She said that she grew up in Kalimantan (the Indonesian province on the island of Borneo), and that her family lived by a river, so she and her siblings always swam in the river. She then told me that her house was actually built on the river, meaning that part of the house was built on poles or whatever, actually over the river and that it was very convenient because the bathroom didn’t need plumbing – it was just a hole in the floorboards that went straight down into the river. I confirmed with her that this was the same river that she and her friends always went swimming in.
The second thing that reminded me that Indonesia is a developing country is that Cartim (our driver) told us that when his brother goes to his village this week for Idul Fitri (a 9 or 10 hour bus ride from Jakarta), he is taking a TV to his parents. Cartim told us that his parent’s village got electricity only last year.
Trip to Jogjakarta
Well, we are really looking forward to our trip to Jogjakarta next week. It will be nice to get a little bit of a break from the hectic pace of Jakarta and to see some interesting Indonesian cultural and historical sites. We’ll let you know how it goes.
Photos: 24 - 30 October 2005
A few photos from when the boys were still trying to figure out what to be for Halloween. These boys of ours give us so much good material. At some future point when we need to embarass them, it is going to be difficult to decide which photos to use.
The above shots are from the night the boys went Trick or Treating.
For lunch today Luke made himself a sandwich -- just your standard cracker, carrot, and cheese sandwich. In case you can't tell, it is supposed to look like a face. And yes, he ate most of it.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Letter: 23 October 2005
Dear Family & Friends,
Here are a few of the things that have been happening recently here in Jakarta:
Rainy Season
It is Sunday afternoon and it is absolutely pouring rain outside. The rainy season has officially begun. Jakarta has two seasons – rainy and dry. The rainy season lasts from the end of October / beginning of November until about March. The thunder and lightning are incredible. It stays the same temperature all year long, though.
Ramadhan
This month is the Muslim fasting month, and it lasts until November 2nd, followed by 2 days of celebration called Idul Fitri. It has been very interesting for us to experience how Ramadhan is practiced here in Indonesia. During the first week of Ramadhan, while we were on the way home from church we noticed about 10 guys on motorcycles with matching jackets. Our driver explained that they are a group of extra holy Muslims who go around to restaurants and nightclubs to make sure that they do not sell alcohol during Ramadhan (alcohol consumption is forbidden in the Muslim religion, but during the holy month of Ramadhan, some extreme Muslims try to make sure that it is not available to anyone).
As you probably know, during this month Muslims fast between about 4:30 am and 5:45 pm. They post the exact times in the newspaper every day (not sure exactly why it changes each day) if you don’t happen to hear the “call to prayer” being broadcast over the loudspeakers of one of the thousands of mosques in this city.
One night last week our company met together for a short prayer service then for Buka Puasa (breaking the fast dinner). We have had to make sure we are extra careful about what and when we ask our household staff do things. We need to make sure we don’t ask them to do anything between 5:30 and about 6:00 pm so they have time to pray and then go eat. Heidi says that the staff does their normal work during the morning hours, but that for most of the afternoon they are pretty lazy – the effects of getting up early to eat and then not eating the entire day.
One other Ramadhan comment – last week I was talking with some co-workers and we were joking around about something. One guy suggested that the other person should say something untruthful (not anything serious – he was just kidding around about something). She (also in a joking way) said that she couldn’t do that (tell this untruth) because she is fasting and Muslims aren’t allowed to lie while they are fasting.
Mallory
Mallory is still the cutest girl in Jakarta. Her bottom two front teeth finally broke through (after one particularly long, sleepless night). She is standing up on her own now, and has added a few words to her vocabulary (it is really cute to hear her call for Nash – if we are downstairs and yell upstairs for Nash, she will mimic us and call out her version of “Nash”).
Halloween Costumes
This is Heidi now. I went to the Jakarta Women’s and Children’s Clinic this week. I had read that the women there sew Halloween costumes to sell to Americans. The money they earn goes to supplement their family’s income. I decided to go to see what I could find. They had the cutest costumes -- not a huge selection but we ended up getting a super hero costume, two cowboy outfits, and we ordered a long scientist’s labcoat for Nash to be a mad scientist -- they took his measurements and said they’d make it this week.
The Halloween thing has been very interesting here. They obviously don’t celebrate it, but a couple of American Moms have set up Trick-or-Treating here in Pondok Indah for all the kids that go to the school so on Thursday I will stay at home and hand out the candy and Creed will take the kids around to the houses that signed up.
I had to try to find some Halloween candy and that was a trick, not to mention it cost me a small fortune! I found some imported bags of candy but they were $7-9 per bag!! I’m hoping we don’t have too many kids come or I may have to start handing out some of the boys’ toys.
Primary Program
The Primary program was today. All the children had to give their own talks and then we put the music in-between. I was thankful I brought the chimes so we had a little variety for the music. Everyone did such a great job.
A Little Culture
The Branch had a progressive dinner last night. We split up into 3 groups – our group met at one home for appetizers, our house for the main course, then the all 3 branches met at one house for dessert. It was someone’s 40th birthday so her husband had us all sing happy birthday to her and then he opened the door, turned on some music and in came some traditional Indonesian dancers. It was something else. We were amazed at their movements. The costumes were amazing. The culture in this country is really amazing.
Here are a few of the things that have been happening recently here in Jakarta:
Rainy Season
It is Sunday afternoon and it is absolutely pouring rain outside. The rainy season has officially begun. Jakarta has two seasons – rainy and dry. The rainy season lasts from the end of October / beginning of November until about March. The thunder and lightning are incredible. It stays the same temperature all year long, though.
Ramadhan
This month is the Muslim fasting month, and it lasts until November 2nd, followed by 2 days of celebration called Idul Fitri. It has been very interesting for us to experience how Ramadhan is practiced here in Indonesia. During the first week of Ramadhan, while we were on the way home from church we noticed about 10 guys on motorcycles with matching jackets. Our driver explained that they are a group of extra holy Muslims who go around to restaurants and nightclubs to make sure that they do not sell alcohol during Ramadhan (alcohol consumption is forbidden in the Muslim religion, but during the holy month of Ramadhan, some extreme Muslims try to make sure that it is not available to anyone).
As you probably know, during this month Muslims fast between about 4:30 am and 5:45 pm. They post the exact times in the newspaper every day (not sure exactly why it changes each day) if you don’t happen to hear the “call to prayer” being broadcast over the loudspeakers of one of the thousands of mosques in this city.
One night last week our company met together for a short prayer service then for Buka Puasa (breaking the fast dinner). We have had to make sure we are extra careful about what and when we ask our household staff do things. We need to make sure we don’t ask them to do anything between 5:30 and about 6:00 pm so they have time to pray and then go eat. Heidi says that the staff does their normal work during the morning hours, but that for most of the afternoon they are pretty lazy – the effects of getting up early to eat and then not eating the entire day.
One other Ramadhan comment – last week I was talking with some co-workers and we were joking around about something. One guy suggested that the other person should say something untruthful (not anything serious – he was just kidding around about something). She (also in a joking way) said that she couldn’t do that (tell this untruth) because she is fasting and Muslims aren’t allowed to lie while they are fasting.
Mallory
Mallory is still the cutest girl in Jakarta. Her bottom two front teeth finally broke through (after one particularly long, sleepless night). She is standing up on her own now, and has added a few words to her vocabulary (it is really cute to hear her call for Nash – if we are downstairs and yell upstairs for Nash, she will mimic us and call out her version of “Nash”).
Halloween Costumes
This is Heidi now. I went to the Jakarta Women’s and Children’s Clinic this week. I had read that the women there sew Halloween costumes to sell to Americans. The money they earn goes to supplement their family’s income. I decided to go to see what I could find. They had the cutest costumes -- not a huge selection but we ended up getting a super hero costume, two cowboy outfits, and we ordered a long scientist’s labcoat for Nash to be a mad scientist -- they took his measurements and said they’d make it this week.
The Halloween thing has been very interesting here. They obviously don’t celebrate it, but a couple of American Moms have set up Trick-or-Treating here in Pondok Indah for all the kids that go to the school so on Thursday I will stay at home and hand out the candy and Creed will take the kids around to the houses that signed up.
I had to try to find some Halloween candy and that was a trick, not to mention it cost me a small fortune! I found some imported bags of candy but they were $7-9 per bag!! I’m hoping we don’t have too many kids come or I may have to start handing out some of the boys’ toys.
Primary Program
The Primary program was today. All the children had to give their own talks and then we put the music in-between. I was thankful I brought the chimes so we had a little variety for the music. Everyone did such a great job.
A Little Culture
The Branch had a progressive dinner last night. We split up into 3 groups – our group met at one home for appetizers, our house for the main course, then the all 3 branches met at one house for dessert. It was someone’s 40th birthday so her husband had us all sing happy birthday to her and then he opened the door, turned on some music and in came some traditional Indonesian dancers. It was something else. We were amazed at their movements. The costumes were amazing. The culture in this country is really amazing.
Nash: 23 October 2005
Jakarta is very different from America. I am now used to the junk on the side of the road and many vendors trying to sell things to us.
My school campus is very big. It has about 25 classrooms in 7 buildings. Mr. Behse is my teacher. He is sometimes strict and stubborn. I have after school activities at my school. I was lucky to get the 3 activities that I picked, which are: computer class (Wednesday), Mad Science (Tuesday), and strings (Monday & Thursday). I play the violin. I am now comfortable enough with my violin hold that I can hold it without any hands – with only my shoulder and my jaw. In Mad Science we do many experiments, like making crystals. Me and my friend, Rish, are the only people who answer the questions. Everybody else is there for the explosions, not the knowledge. I love baseball. I am going to start being in one of the JIS little leagues. Grant is in the machine pitch league and Luke is in the t-ball league. I am not very good at pitching and I didn’t even hit the target board on the tryout test. On the machine pitch test, the ball came hurtling out at 50 mph with great force. One of the balls hit my finger on the bat, even though my hands were not too high on the bat. My finger started to swell and it turned purple. It really hurt! I am excited to start baseball and I hope to get better at it.
Rish came over last Saturday and he brought Crazy Frog. I doubt that you know what Crazy Frog is, but it is a band that plays “mixed” dance music. We bought the CD at Pondok Indah Mall.
I love to play computer games. Luckily, at Ratu Plaza (which means Queen Plaza), they have a computer store where they sell cheap computer games. For my birthday I got 2 computer games – one was Railroad Tycoon and one was Moon Tycoon. However, when I opened “Moon Tycoon,” it was actually Airport Tycoon. And Railroad Tycoon can be installed, but when I put in the disk, it says “Please insert disc 2” and when I insert the other disc, it says “Wrong Disk.” I don’t know what’s wrong with it. Airport Tycoon had problems on my computer. Those problems were: the mouse would not move when I opened a window and I did not understand the game because it was so slow. Luckily, downstairs on Mom & Dad’s computer, it works!!
I am adjusting well to this new life and hope to see you all when I visit you or when you visit me.
My school campus is very big. It has about 25 classrooms in 7 buildings. Mr. Behse is my teacher. He is sometimes strict and stubborn. I have after school activities at my school. I was lucky to get the 3 activities that I picked, which are: computer class (Wednesday), Mad Science (Tuesday), and strings (Monday & Thursday). I play the violin. I am now comfortable enough with my violin hold that I can hold it without any hands – with only my shoulder and my jaw. In Mad Science we do many experiments, like making crystals. Me and my friend, Rish, are the only people who answer the questions. Everybody else is there for the explosions, not the knowledge. I love baseball. I am going to start being in one of the JIS little leagues. Grant is in the machine pitch league and Luke is in the t-ball league. I am not very good at pitching and I didn’t even hit the target board on the tryout test. On the machine pitch test, the ball came hurtling out at 50 mph with great force. One of the balls hit my finger on the bat, even though my hands were not too high on the bat. My finger started to swell and it turned purple. It really hurt! I am excited to start baseball and I hope to get better at it.
Rish came over last Saturday and he brought Crazy Frog. I doubt that you know what Crazy Frog is, but it is a band that plays “mixed” dance music. We bought the CD at Pondok Indah Mall.
I love to play computer games. Luckily, at Ratu Plaza (which means Queen Plaza), they have a computer store where they sell cheap computer games. For my birthday I got 2 computer games – one was Railroad Tycoon and one was Moon Tycoon. However, when I opened “Moon Tycoon,” it was actually Airport Tycoon. And Railroad Tycoon can be installed, but when I put in the disk, it says “Please insert disc 2” and when I insert the other disc, it says “Wrong Disk.” I don’t know what’s wrong with it. Airport Tycoon had problems on my computer. Those problems were: the mouse would not move when I opened a window and I did not understand the game because it was so slow. Luckily, downstairs on Mom & Dad’s computer, it works!!
I am adjusting well to this new life and hope to see you all when I visit you or when you visit me.
Grant: 23 October 2005
This is Grant, I want to tell you a poem. It’s called WORLD, WORLD.
This is how it goes
The world is very different here,
But you don’t live very near.
I like my school it’s true,
Our colors are white and blue.
I miss having parks around,
I only have the school playground.
The food here is very weird,
And no one has a beard.
My friend Haneef is from Malaysia,
That’s another part of Asia.
My ceramics class is almost through,
A lot of my things were painted blue.
I miss you all very much,
Please remember to keep in touch.
Written by Grant with a little help from Mom.
This is how it goes
The world is very different here,
But you don’t live very near.
I like my school it’s true,
Our colors are white and blue.
I miss having parks around,
I only have the school playground.
The food here is very weird,
And no one has a beard.
My friend Haneef is from Malaysia,
That’s another part of Asia.
My ceramics class is almost through,
A lot of my things were painted blue.
I miss you all very much,
Please remember to keep in touch.
Written by Grant with a little help from Mom.
Luke: 23 October 2005
This is Luke. I love school. In two weeks I get to go all day. I can’t wait. I started my swimming class last Monday. We are learning to write. I got to bring home Tim and Sam (stuffed Dalmatians) and they have been doing things with me all weekend. I get to write about it in the class book. My best friend is Abbi. He is from Indonesia. I like to help Mallory walk and play. She has two teeth now. My Mom has an itchy rash on her arm. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting today for the primary program. I’m going to go trick-or-treating on Thursday. I had character dress up day this week. I dressed as a cowboy from the book about Bubba. I like that book. We had a book fair at school and I picked out five books. That’s all.
Photos: 23 October 2005
Grant and Luke reading one of the books they bought at the school book fair on our Javanese bench.
Grant dressed up as a cowboy, as well, for the school book character dress-up day.
Grant and his friend, Jonathan, having fun in the pool.
Mallory, smiling in her crib, right after waking up from a nap.
Luke is in the middle of the picture dressed as a cowboy and holding his book.
Photos: 23 October 2005
Luke brought home two stuffed dogs from his classroom for the weekend. He wanted to take them on a bike ride, and he insisted that we strap the dogs to his body using a belt. Luke, Grant, and I rode around the neighborhood for a while Saturday morning with Luke toting the dogs. Yes, people stared at us. Oh, and Luke decided to make himself a wig out of paper. You can see the tape he used to keep it on his forehead. You know, if Luke ever goes bald, all he needs is a piece of paper, a crayon, and some tape and you'd never even be able to tell.
House Photos: 23 October 2005
Some people have been asking about what our house looks like, so we took some photos of the kids around the house today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)