25 September 2007 – Tuesday
Today I felt much better – not well but good enough to think about doing something useful. Also not enough to do any exercise. But we had a good time reading from the Kitab Mormon – Mary pointed out that my voice sounded strange which is something I can not explain since that was not the direction my problem took on Sunday and Monday. We read in Alma about Moroni offering to stop killing the Lamanites if they would promise to not attack again. I was surprised that Zarahemnha refused to promise because he knew they could not keep the vow. The Lamanites are portrayed as lazy and cunning so it would seem reasonable that a leader would think nothing of giving an oath he knew he would break. After all the American government did it to the native Americans – many times.
We went to the office where I kept busy writing e-mail about the new Intensive English class and creating some things for the Kanes. Mary was happy to see the sister who sews for her waiting for us and she gave her a pile of material for new clothes. We had enough work to do that the time rushed by – I was tired but good.
We thought that Mary had an English class to teach – the one that was cancelled yesterday – but as we were pulling out from the church we called just to make sure and found that someone was supposed to have called to tell her that there would be no class. So instead we came back to the apartment to rest for a while until it was time to an appointment with the elders.
The appointment was an adventure – more for Mary than me. First of all the traffic was terrible and it was not helped that we were involved in a fender bender. It was minor but it took about 20 minutes to get straightened out. Luckily it was just a love tap and most of the damage was cleaned up by a good polish job. However that put us way behind for the appointment so we called the elders to tell them we would be late.
To make a longer story short, we picked up the elders and got the appointment. I had decided to stay in the car because I did not think I could take sitting in a home. It was a good choice because the appointment ran almost two hours – part of which I managed to sleep. Mary felt the meeting was good but in listening to her comments I am afraid the woman is more interested in having someone visit than the church. I hope that I am wrong but she has not read any of the Kitab Mormon or been to church. Mary did get a good dinner from it – Sam passed and came out and kept me company.
While we were waiting I got to watch the world of what seemed to me a lower middle class area. Lots of motorcycles going by – many with children and women driving – with only an occasional car in the mix. I decided that children do not think it is at all strange to ride as a family on a motorcycle because they start doing it almost as soon as they are born. They have no fear and are comfortable to ride between, in front of or behind their parents. It is just what they do. There were more people on bikes than you see in our area. It was good to see kids on bikes. Then there the walkers – mainly children and women because the men either were riding motorcycles or were still at work.
Everyone was clean and smiling – especially the children – as they walked along the dusty street. I could see a yard that seemed to be part of a stone business. There was a young boy – probably 5 – 6 but I am terrible with ages here – in a shirt that was two or three sizes too big – that was playing by himself having a great time. He swooped like an airplane or a bird with the long red sleeves of his shirt flapping like too long wings. It was a very enjoyable experience to see and absorb the sights of that area. I feel I learned much about Indonesia while I waited for the others to come out. It made for a good day.