Some of the goodies we got at the gem market.
The loaded Bajaj is not a common site in Jakarta. This one shows real planning in placing and securing the load. The large white building was at the end of the parking lot for the gem market but is not part of it. It is so Jakarta – it seems to me to be kind of cobbled together without much planning. As if the builders kept thinking of something else they needed a space for and added it on. Or perhaps a section got done and they ran out of money for a while and by the time they had more they had a new idea of what they wanted.
10 May 2008 – Saturday
I can not say that this has been our most productive day as missionaries. In fact it may be one of our least productive. But it was not all our fault. It seems the fates just ganged up on us.
But it started well with our reading from the A&P before heading to the office. Along the way I stopped to drop a grammar book off to be copied. At the office I finished another set of vocabulary exercises and started another. Mary worked on her afternoon English lesson.
We had made plans to go with the Guttormsens to the gem market. They go regularly and is well known. He also knows the prices that we should pay for stones. We had some trouble finding the right parking lot, but we still arrived minutes before they did. Then for the next 90 minutes we had a great time looking and buying semi-precious stones. The most expensive one we bought was a piece of jade for $3 – most stones were 30 to 50 cents. Mary did buy some things for $2 each and I did buy some pendants at $2.50 but that included a silver-plated holder. It was a lot of fun and we will probably go back one more time before we leave. Joel and Judith are great people and we have been blessed to know them. They were our best supporters for the Intensive English classes.
After our gem tour, we went back to the office so we could do more work. Unfortunately when we got there we found they had cut the power to the plugs in our section of the building so they could work on something out in the yard. That meant we had no computers and without them we could not help Hani with his school work, nor could I work on my vocabulary. So I spent my time cleaning up and putting away some of the things we brought from our apartment that belong at the office. Most of it was to do with teaching English.
When it was obvious that the power would not be back on for a while, I decided to go to Sogo to get some things for the weekend. Sam and I were also going to make a stop at the mission home to pick up some flyers for Jakarta Raya, but when I called to make sure they were ready, the office Elders said they were still working on them, so we did not need to stop. Hopefully they will find some way to get them to Raya because the fireside they are to announce is next week.
When we got back to the office the power was still off and no one had come for Mary’s English class so we decided we might as well go home where at least we could work on some things and read from the A&P. That and working on this journal and pictures is what I have been doing for the last 3 hours.
I forgot to mention that yesterday I got a call from Barnard – the non-member who came in on Tuesday and was looking for a job. I had him interviewed by the Pages for their cook’s job, but they did not use him. I also gave him the address of the cleaning/catering company where brother Bautista is a VP. I figured with all of his cooking experience they might have a place for him in their catering department. It turned out that they offered him a job teaching French and Spanish to some of their people. He was really excited and thanked us for our help. It is good to help someone get a job. After all that was why we were sent here.