19 January 2007 – Friday

I slept well and long. Probably because I was wiped out last night. I did wake about 4 something and got to hear part of the first call to prayer, but managed to go right back to sleep. That does not happen very often. Woke to the alarm at 5:30. Unfortunately Mary did not sleep get to sleep in – she was awake before 5.

At the gym I did my short routine with 20 plus minutes on the bike – it says that I use as many calories as 40 minutes on the treadmill but I am thinking that it out of wack. Also did 55 sit-ups. Unfortunately I did not do any time on the treadmill because by the time I was finished with the bike they were all filled.

As I was getting on the scales a 50ish man with an Australian accent started to talk to me. I mentioned that it was hard to get any weight to come off and he said that he was reading that when we got into our 50’s – then he looked at me and added – or 60’s. This made me chuckle to myself and realize that I was obviously looking my age. The scale was not any kinder – but I will just keep plugging along with exercise and watch my calorie intake a little better and perhaps some day it will start to work.

We went with the Leishmans to a large hospital to see the Humanitarian project that they had been working. The Church provided an incubator and 10 baby cribs for the neo-natal unit. The hospital was huge with people coming and going in a constant flow. Although it was not up to US standards it was clean and orderly – or as orderly as a hospital that must take care of 3000 patients a day can be.

We had a very interesting talk with the doctors who were over the unit. They told us that at times they had up to 50 babies in need of an incubator. Today was a quiet one and they only had 26 in incubators. That meant they did not have to double up and babies. All of these are of course premature children as healthy babies are seldom born in a hospital because it costs too much.

The doctors who work there – it is a government hospital – make about $150 a month. They supplement that with a private practice that brings their income up to about $500 month. Nurses make less than $100 a month in a government hospital but some may also work in a private hospital to make more. Most of the nurses in neo-natal are not University trained but are trained by the hospital. To become what we would call a RN they must go to school for 5 to 6 years and then they might make $300 a month between private and government pay.

We also got to see the new floor where the neo-natal unit will move in a month or so. It is large, open and has lots of light from the outside. Everything seems to be first quality construction – at least for Indonesia. The only problem is that they still need about a dozen incubators to handle the peak times. At $2K each it is unlikely they will get them anytime soon. I am thinking of writing to the Edgemont 11th ward and suggesting that they sponsor another incubator but that is not the Lord’s way – it should come through LDS Charities – so I doubt if I will.  But even one more incubator might save up to 50 babies a year. The unit at this time has a 45% mortality rate.

Another interesting thing is that there in no such thing as a parent’s waiting room. So if your baby is in the unit, you sit and sleep out in the hall until it is ready to come home.

After that we went to the office where I learned more about reports, worked on some things about the English class and read from the scriptures. Mary worked on English class preparation and sent a long email to Cindy. It is great to have some way of contacting the family again. I am not sure that sister Leishman approves but until we get our internet connection at our new apartment it will have to do.

After office hours we all went to a very upscale mall – it had 8 floors with a couple being reserved for different food establishments. They really seem to eat at malls. Everything was quite expensive and we did not buy a thing. I am sure we will go back and get some glass pieces and take more time looking around. But it really is not our kind of mall.

When we got home we started watching TV and had dinner. Mary made fried rice and we order a couple of servings of sweet and sour chicken from the restaurant in the complex. It was not as good as the other times we had it, but it still was better than most things we have eaten here. The total cost of dinner was under $5 including a tip to the delivery guy.

Mary is still watching TV and I am about to start studying Indonesian. I think the real challenge of this mission will be learning Indonesian. The rest will be simple compared to that.

20 January 2007 – Saturday

I slept well last night but woke about an hour earlier than I would have liked. I used the time to study Indonesian. I am re-reading the early part of 1 Nephi and trying to remember what the words mean. I hope that some of them will stick in my mind so I can use them in making sentences. I helped open the gym and put time in on the bike and treadmill. I think I lost some weight but I will not really know until I break through 83 kilos.

The last couple of mornings the city has been very overcast – perhaps foggy – in the morning. I liked it better when the sky is clear and blue. It means it will be hot but the view is much better.

We spent about 30 minutes reading the Kitab Mormon. As usual there were lots of words we had to look up. We are at the point where Lehi is explaining his dream about the tree, path and the iron rod. I decided to write down the words we had to look up – after 7 or 8 verses we had collected about 20 words or expressions. During the day I will try to learn at least some of them. There was one verse where I was happy to see the word pohon – tree – because it was one of the few that I knew.

We went to a special event today. President and sister Jensen were made members of two Indonesian families. It would be impossible to describe everything that went on in any detail but I will give a brief summary. We got to the University where it would be held about a half hour before it was to start. There was a red carpet from the entry to the elevator and from the elevator to the banquet room. We were treated as very honored guests because we were in the President’s party.

When it was time to go into the banquet room we entered under an honor guard of naval officers with cross swords. The ceremony went on for about 2 hours. Much of it was taken up with each male head of a household discussing if they should accept the Jensens into the family. This seemed to be a rather old tradition that probably goes back to when a new person would be accepted into a tribe. Anyway there was a lot of talk that none of us could understand because it was in a dialect that is used on Sumatra and there were no interpreters who knew the language. But it was a lot of fun because some of the men were really loud and talked for a long time.

In the end they agreed that the president should be allowed in and there was a major ceremony that included giving of fish, rice and water to the Jensens.

Then the same thing had to happen with a second family because the ‘parents’ – that is the chief and his wife – were from different families. So a shorter discussion was done by the men in that family and they were again offered fish, rice and water.

Also during the ceremony the Jensens were given a number of ceremonial blankets. These were beautiful things and the patterns seemed to mean something. After all of this was done, they lined up all of us who were members of the president’s party and we were given special blankets that commemorated the event.

Then there was some singing that was followed by one of the longest closing prayers in history. We were then offered a buffet of interesting food – most of them quite Western – with lots of desserts.

The only problem was that while we were eating, there was entertainment going on and they had huge loudspeakers cranked up to about 200 decibels. We were sitting rather close to the biggest array and it was impossible to talk without shouting.

After eating it was time to leave. We gave our thanks to the chief and his wife before leaving with the other senior couples. I must say it was an amazing experience and if it had been about an hour shorter and there had not been speakers beating music into our brains from a few feet away, it would have been even better.

The Petersens, the Kanes and ourselves went to the Ranch Market. This is a market that pretty much caters to Westerner and well to do people. I think that the Petersens like it because it has a lot of American brands and they do not care what it costs. The Kanes and ourselves are not into buying expensive food just because it comes from the US or Australia. Elder Petersen said they only buy Australian beef that costs about 40% more than Indonesian beef.  I am sure it is because they are worried about health issues and I understand that. However I think as long as it is cooked properly it does not matter.
21 January 2007 – Sunday

This was our early Sunday to be at Tanggeran by 8 we had to leave the apartment at 7:15. I had a real good night sleep – 7 hours or so with the alarm waking me at 5:30. The strange thing is that when it was time to leave I was once again sleepy. I think I am not use to that much sleep in one stretch.

I was somewhat disappointed because I did not hear as many words this week as I did last in Raya. I think part of it is that the Raya chapel has a better sound system. But I do think I am going to get my ears checked. I have been saying that for a couple of months now but I have been too lazy to do anything about it.

About the only constructive thing I did in 5 hours of meetings is to get the English classes and the Career Workshop announced in Priesthood. I stressed the fact that they were for Non-LDS and they should tell their neighbors about them.

After the last meeting, Agus met us and we talked about coming to the chapel on some Saturdays to be available to the members to help them with finding a job or finding a better job. He thought that was a good idea. Of course we could only do that on weeks when we were not holding a Career Workshop somewhere else in the mission.

I am determined to make the Employment Office more available to the people in the district. I would love to turn the Career Workshops over to Agus and Lokita so that I could go to the branches and work with people.

We had a real lazy Sunday afternoon and evening. After a simple lunch of watermelon we took a nap. Then we read from Kitab Mormon – we are at the part in 1st Nephi where Lehi has his dream about the Tree of Life. There are lots of words that have not been used before and so it takes a lot of time to figure out how the translators came to use some of the words. I can only take so much struggling and then I want to stop.

After the nap Mary got a call from Sister Jensen about a class for pianists and choristers in the district. She wants Mary to help with it. Earlier today Mary was asked to play the piano while the relief society sisters practiced a song they will sing next week. She will not be here for the actual performance so I guess they have someone else who will play. She was also asked to substitute today as their pianist for the regular meeting. We guess they knew she could play because they saw her play on Wednesday night at the Fireside. I would guess she will get to use her talents any number of times while we are serving here.

Dinner was omelets – it is about the only thing we actually cook. I imagine once we get to the new apartment and have more pans, cookie sheets, etc. we will do more things but I doubt if we will ever do much. We find that simple meals work fine for us. When we want something else, since it is so inexpensive, we go out to eat.

The ceremony from yesterday was on the TV tonight. We both were on a number of times including one where we were right in the forefront of the picture for a long time. It was when we were being presented our commemorative shawl. The same scene was used as a background for the credits so we got a lot of air time. But the important thing is that president Jensen was able to talk about the Church and give it a good plug. I am sure not very many people watched this particular documentary but even in 5% did it would be millions of viewers.

To top off the night Mary watched ‘Junior” with Thompson and Schwartsnegger (sp?) while I read from my Harry Potter book. It is surprising how much of ‘The Half Blood Prince’ I had forgotten.

It has been a month since we landed here in Indonesia – actually 4 weeks and 3 days – and it seems like we have been here much longer. That is we are pretty comfortable with our mission, the country and the people. I am sure we will become even more so later as we spend more time on the street – something we are determined to do – and as we get to know individual Indonesians better.

I have mentioned that for a city of 12 million with lots of poverty, millions of cars, and obvious air pollution, that it is amazingly clean, the people seem very patient and happy, and they drive with almost no accidents or anger. For pedestrians it looks like a nightmare. There few corners with lights so everyone just walks across the street slowly and hoping that no one runs over them.

We have had some spiritual experiences – today I felt the spirit as a woman spoke about children and the love she had for them and her Savior. Also when sister Leishman spoke about her experiences here. I feel that I have been inspired in my proposal for a new way of teaching English to soon to be released missionaries. Also in the idea of doing more to get non-LDS to English class and Career Workshops. I feel we are here to plant more seeds, tend the growing church, and to be examples to the members and those missionaries who come after us.

We will now do some more Indonesian before turning off the lights. I hope I sleep as well tonight as I did last night.