07 November 2007 – Wednesday
It is the last day of classes for this IEC. We are torn between feeling sad that we will not be teaching these fine young people any longer and the relief of not needing to prepare and give the lesson each day. I do not think we taught them the idiom ‘Bitter Sweet.’
The only activities of the day are opening exercises with their last reports – well for some their next-to-last report or talk since some will speak tonight at graduation – and the taking of the Michigan Test. Mary handled most of the opening exercises and I took over for the test. Which meant I got to sit for 75 minutes reading the Ensign and the Kitab Mormon. After the test we bid them goodbye until tonight. Sam then took us to Carrefore for a few things we needed for refreshments and then we came home.
We expected that our cleaning lady would show up at 1:00 but she did not. We are thinking she will be here at 4:00 which means she will only have an hour before we must leave for the church. We need to write down the date and time when she is to next come. She never did come. So we spent the afternoon reading from the Kitab Mormon, PMG, cleaning the apartment and taking naps.
The graduation went well and we had the Marchants, the walkers and their drivers as guests. It is too bad some of the English branch does not come, but they give us lots of help during the month so that is good. We had the students write thank you notes to all those who helped in any way. President Marchant gave a nice talk about how with hard work he overcame some early learning problems to be successful in school and life. He said they could do the same with English. Daisy had earlier talked about how it was up to them to continue to improve their English. The President handed out the certificates of completion and we took pictures of him with each student. We then had our refreshments and – after more pictures – we had everyone out the door by 7:30.
By the time we got home we were both exhausted. I think as much mentally and spiritually as physically. We kind of numbly watched something on TV – I think it was Law and Order – and then went to bed. I read some from PMG before turning off the light.
It was a good day with lots of blessings and tender mercies. Hopefully some of the students did well enough in the Michigan Test that they will continue to work towards going to BYUH. Rudi mentioned that his boss wanted him to thank us for teaching him English. During the afternoon Daisy was called to be a part-time Family History Missionary where ever she ends up living. I am most worried about Wawang who is staying in Jakarta on the hopes that we will be able to help him find a job. I am not sure that is a good idea, but we will help him as much as we can. Puji knows just what she wants to do. Rudi will probably go back to working in construction and hopefully get more education. Femmy will become a famous hairstylist. Ronald will be a solid member of the church and hopefully find a young lady to marry. I certainly hope he gets this job in Bandung. It has been a good, if tiring, month for us. We have been blessed with good health, inspiration, and happiness. I think we also learned more about what is needed in this program so the next one will be even better.