Us with brother and sister Limbong. The Limbong family.

A couple of pictures of things we saw as we slowly went on some of the smaller streets of the city at night. There are small stores everywhere. The middle picture is the back of a truck that was right in front of us for longer than we wanted. I think it tells a lot about its life and also the lives of those who work with it. Motorcycle loads still surprise and amaze me – color, shape, and amounts vary – notice the very large bag that he has between his knees.

21 May 2008 – Wednesday

Woke early enough to study Indonesian before going to the gym. After breakfast we read from the A&P and then neaten the apartment so the cleaning lady had a chance. But it turned out that she did not get our message to come early today.

At 10:00 the Sisters showed up to play tennis for an hour. Sister Findlay has been trying to do this for weeks and today it finally worked. After getting them signed in and playing I got my camera and came back to take some pictures of them in action. I ended up hitting a few balls to sister Findlay – very poorly I am afraid – and worked up another good sweat. I do not think I will take up tennis as a sport anytime soon. I did have a tennis class when in jr. high and did terrible. I could not ever learn how to serve.

After they were through we invited them to shower and Sister Findlay and Coleman was happy to do that. It is the first shower with really hot water they have had since they came to Indonesia. They also got to use Mary’s hair dryer and then we gave them Magnum ice cream bars before sending them on their way. Both sisters said it was the best P-day they have had. I just wish we had been more diligent it doing this earlier.

Sam came while the sisters were still here and loaded up the last of our packages that we are going to ask the Wisers to send for us. We also are giving them our little present in thanks for their support and help. I hope we get to meet them again some day.

After dropping the packages off at the Wisers we went to the office to turn in our Kitas so they can change our visas before we leave. We also dropped off some pictures that we had taken throughout the year of the staff. It still does not seem real that we have less than two weeks here in Indonesia.

When we got home we had about 2 hours before we were to leave for a dinner appointment with Anny’s family at their university/home. I worked on pictures – I really must stop taking so many – and then tried to take a short nap.

The trip over to their place was easy and we had a great time. I was surprised to find that Anny’s brother and mother spoke much better English than I had thought they did. We had a typical Indonesian meal – at least a typical middle class one – of rice, chicken sate, roasted chicken and vegetables. We had some interesting table talk and we found out more about how the parents got together. Anny’s brother, sister-in-law and their daughter were delightful. The little girl is beautiful and we have a number of pictures of her.

After dinner they gave us a beautiful traditional Batak weaving from Sumatra that is worn over the shoulder and across the chest. We gave them one of the angel Moroni plaques we bought in Jogya. It was a nice evening and we will take that memory and their friendship with us.

The trip home was twice as long as going but I managed to fall asleep so it did not seem all that long. It was amazing how the traffic had changed. All the streets were packed with cars and the intersections were a mess. The police did not seem to even be trying to keep a good flow going. But it is Jakarta and so it is best to be patient and go with the flow. At least I do not have to drive.