24 May 2007 – Thursday

Wow the days just whiz by it seems – already the weekend is almost upon me. The best news of the day is Mary seems to have shaken her illness and that makes her very happy. We got great letters from Tyler and Taylor – both of them seem to ready for school to get out and have lots of plans for summer. It is always great to get letters from the family.

At the office we work on our English classes. We received a couple of calls from people who do not speak enough English that I can communicate with them. I give it my best shot but it does not work. In at least one case I believe they wanted to come by the office but I could not tell them enough about where we are. I gave them Sam’s phone number but they did not call him. Frustrating to say the least.

After the office we come home and rest until it is time to go to Tangerang for district meeting and English class. I told Mary I think it is time to change classes – she can entertain the young children and I get to teach the advanced class. I do not think she is buying it – maybe later in the summer we can switch.

At district meeting I once again talked about the need for the spirit when they teach. It is the only thing that will change a person’s life and without it we are just selling the Gospel. I said that if they did not feel the spirit burning in them when they were teaching, they could not expect the investigator to feel it. I certainly felt the spirit as I said this to them and I hope that they did also. I think at least some of them did. I am afraid that they all know exactly what to say but I am not sure they all know how to invite the spirit.

We had only 2 at our English class – both of them were from Mary’s class. But that was OK because all of the Elders went in with them and they had a good time. I spent my hour reading from the Kitab Mormon and Alkitab – I am encouraged by how much of it I can read. It helps that I know most of the stories so once I get an idea of what is going on, I can do some good guessing.

Usually when we get home from English class we are ready to drop into bed but tonight I turned on the TV and the movie ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ was on. It was basically the story of the 1913 US Open and they young 20 year old amateur – Ouimet – that won it in a playoff with two of best British golfers of the time – one of which was Harry Vardon. The spiced up the story some but stuck to the basic facts including using a young actor that was a dead ringer for the 10 year old caddy that carried his clubs because there was no one else who would. Ouimet went on to be called ‘the father of American amateur golf’ and his caddie went on to become a multi-millionaire.

Mary watched the whole thing and I bounced in and out of the room as I had some other things to do. Unfortunately the movie won out over reading another hour from the Kitab Mormon. We will need to read more tomorrow to make up for it. One fo the things I did was to look at Olivia’s blog. It shows how she has changed over the last two years – from a chubby little baby to a thin young lady. One thing has not changed – her ever ready smile.

The famous ant that Mary had to have – it is about 2 feet tall – and so we had it wrapped so we could carry it on the airplane. The other one is a picture of a Muslim wedding that the Kanes went to. Very traditional and according to the Kanes the most beautiful wedding they ever attended outside a temple sealing.
23 May 2007 – Wednesday

When to bed late and slept in this morning. It felt good.

Yesterday we got pictures from Cindy and a great letter from Tyler. I find it hard to believe that Taylor and Tyler are getting ready to graduate from high school. It seems like yesterday that they were born. I will always remember hearing Taylor, long before we got to see her. She was born with a good set of lungs – as we all know! And Tyler is learning to drive Arthur – I remember buying Arthur for Cindy so she could get around in Provo while going to BYU.

Unfortunately Mary has caught some kind of bug that keeps her attached to the kamar kecil. Sam says that every missionary gets it twice so you might as well get them out of the way so you can enjoy the rest of the mission. I am not sure Mary would agree with him at this point. Hopefully it is a passing thing – no pun intended – and she will soon be feeling 100% again.

We continue to read from Kitab Mormon – each day is a revelation of some kind. I find things that are new and exciting – after 50 years in the Church I continue to find new things that make it exciting and helps me grow. I think one of the reasons the Prophets keep reminding us to read the scriptures is that it is a way to bring new light into our lives and keep the Gospel new to us. As I have often said – when I was young I thought I knew all the answers. As I grow older I am just starting to know the questions.

Mary decided not to go to work today – we were worried that we would get caught in a traffic jam at the wrong time. So she stayed home to work on TOEFL and other things and I went to the office. On the way we stopped and dropped off some printing that we needed done. I will have to take a picture of our favorite copy shop – it is not Kinkos. I doubt if any piece of equipment in the shop is under 5 years old – and that is the new pieces. But the cost is less than a penny a sheet so it is hard to complain about the equipment.

I spent most of my time in the office working on e-mail. I did have Sam call one of our patrons about a job I found in the paper today. I try to keep an eye open for those jobs that I think some one who has contacted me might be an opportunity for them.

Agus and Lukito came in about 12:30 and we had our monthly ERS meeting. We made all our plans for the workshops over the next month or so. We will not be going to any of them for at least a month – the English class will take care of that. We talked about the need for more information about placements so we can make a fuller report. This is going to take some time to get through to them, but hopefully by the time we leave there will be some real progress.

While this was going on Sam took the seamstress over to the apartment to give Mary her new things and to take orders for others. She is going to end up with a great wardrobe. She was disappointed in the dress she got and sent it back to be re-worked. Mary thinks she does some things – blouses and skirts – better than others – dresses and jackets.

After the meeting I closed up the office and we went to the mall to buy some books for the English class and to get some printer cartridges refilled. One of the biggest office expenses we have is printer cartridges and paper – I would guess we do a lot more copying than the Leishmans. The mall was not crowded but busy – it is always busy. I meant to take some pictures to show what a middle class mall looked like, but I of course got busy looking at things and forgot.

The evening at home was quite normal. Mary seems to be getting better and that must be a real relief to her – I know it is to me because I was starting to worry. I had lunch off the street – way too much food – so I was not very hungry. I settled for a bowl of rice with green beans – not that different from what I had for lunch. We struggled through two pages of Kitab Mormon – we had a very hard time working out what was going on. It was one of those sections where things are compared one to another and Indonesian is not really good for that. Especially not deep theology and philosophy. I am becoming impressed with the words that are used in the Book of Mormon. We have decided that while the thoughts are complicated in English and Indonesia, they were simple – that is they did not take many symbols -  in Reformed Egyptian and that is why they were used.

While Mary watched a movie and crocheted, I wrote in my journal and caught up with some of the news – I also watched the movie in bits and pieces which did not take a lot from it because the plot was not all that difficult. As it ended I decided that I had seen it before but it obviously did not make a big impression.

I continue to try to increase my Indonesian vocabulary. I know that it is increasing and more and more words are sticking in my mind, but at other times I find myself forgetting simple words that I should know because they are used all the time. Depat, dengan, and datang (can/able – with – to come) are three words that I have struggled with for months – I can usually remember two of the three but often I have to stop and think really hard what they mean.

When I finally learn this language I am going to do all I can to never forget it. Once we get home I plan to listen, read and try to speak Indonesian as much as I can. Maybe I can help out at the MTC. There is no use wasting all this effort after we are released from here.

Primary Choirs are the same everywhere – this one is from Tangerang 2 and includes a number of our regular English students. A big, colorful load – not heavy but very wide. My Indonesian Giraffe that Mary bought for my birthday.
22 May 2007 – Tuesday

The start of a new work week. Most of it will be dedicated to trying to figure out what to do with a group of English students for a full month. We have a number of TOEFL study guides to go through and to decide how we are going to go about this thing. It is going to need a lot of study, thought, work and above all prayer. As I mentioned before, I think I now know what Nephi must have felt when the Lord told him to build a ship. Or maybe more like Bill Cosby’s Noah when the Lord told him build an ark – “What’s an ark?” “How big is a cubit.” In my case it is “What is a particle?” I suppose I am going to be mumbling about this English class for the next 5 weeks. I need to remember it isn’t raining rain, its raining opportunities to grow.

Regular morning at the ranch. We read through 3 pages of the Kitab Mormon and Mary suggested we stop. This does not happen very often. Usually it is me who calls a halt to our reading. The problem was that she was falling asleep as we read. So I had her lay down and take a short nap before Sam came.

We actually had two visitors today at the office. One was a patron who we helped a week or so ago to fix up his resume. Today we added his picture which should mean he gets more interviews. He is such a nice man and very good at what he does. I certainly hope he gets a good job. The other was a real surprise. It was brother Basuki, the branch employment specialist from Semarang. We had met him when we went there for a Career Workshop. The Bennetts are working with him to help people find jobs. He was in town for his work – he sells insurance – and he dropped by to see us and to meet with a customer. He is the father of four boys – the two middle ones are twins and are serving their missions. One of them is in our district and is as cheerful as his dad.

We got started on looking through the English books we have. There is certainly plenty of information and things to teach. The hard part is going to be choosing what the students need and teaching it in such a way that they become good enough to pass the TOEFL or Michigan test if that is their goal. I do not see any problem with those who just want to improve their English. I am sure we can teach them to speak, read and write English well, as well teaching them ways to keep up their English after they leave the class.

After office hours we went to the mission office to meet with Elder Subandriyo about the English class. He has decided that he would really like all the class to be returned missionaries so he wants to see if he can get a couple of returned sisters to come the class instead of the two young ladies from Bogor. If he can not find them by Friday we will tell the Bogor sisters to come. I am rather hoping that he does not find any since the two young women seem to me to be the strongest candidates and I would really like the pilot to have some strong English speakers.

We also talked some about the mushroom project. I am going to ask the Kanes to buy 10-20 packages of fresh medium and let us try to grow mushrooms in different parts of Bogor and Jakarta to see if it can be done. I am hoping that even if we can not grow mushrooms down here we can get the medium to fill in and in that way we could at least sell it for people to grow in their own homes for food or even to make a few extra rupiahs a month. A kilo a day would provide about 7000 R a day which would mean about $24 US a month. The difference between surviving and doing OK.

After reading another three pages from Kitab Mormon, we watched ‘Letters from Iwo Jima.’ Although it was pretty well done, I must say that it was not the quality I have come to expect from Clint Eastwood. The human interest was good but the true ugliness of war did not seem to come out. Also the Americans looked much too clean – the pictures I have seen of what soldiers looked like after a month on the lines were that they were in rags and looked haggard from keeping their eyes open for the enemy.

When I went to bed I started to re-read the Kitab Mormon sections that we had read earlier. As I read again the part where Alma is explaining what he has learned about the resurrection, I was touched by the fact that Alma states that part of what he is telling his son is definitely true because he had a spiritual witness to the facts. However he also gives his ‘opinion’ about some ideas or questions that come up in a discussion. In this he differentiates between a testimony ‘I know’ and an opinion ‘I think’ and shows that the source of real truth lies in the witness of the Holy Ghost. The section also shows that when we really want to know if something is true, we can sincerely ask God and he will answer our prayers.

These are all the couples who are now serving in Indonesia. Most we know well and they are now close friends.
21 May 2007 – Monday

Up early to study some Indonesian – I went back through some of the verses we read yesterday in the Kitab Mormon and picked out the words I still did not know. This – as usual – led to me digging into the roots of the word and then expanding that to look up words used in the examples the dictionary gives and then… So it ended up – like so much of my study does – in not getting very far with what I started to study but way off on a tangent. It like when in Sunday School class the discussion starts out talking about Eternal Marriage and ends up talking about the beginning of the practice of polygamy in the Church.

After breakfast and a quick trip through the paper – corruption continues to be part of every front page – I finished yesterday’s journal and got it posted. I noticed that the number of posts continue to grow each month. I am glad I do not have to read it all.

It is P-Day so we do the laundry, clean up, and then Sam picks us up to go shopping. First it is we stop at Carrefore to get supplies for our English class. Then it is up a few floors to get TOEFL books so we can have lots of different tests to use in the classes also a couple of books on teaching that we hope will help in the Intensive English Class that starts in about a week.

The next stop is SoGo and BreadTalk – we are still too early for a good selection. I guess Mondays is catch-up day and they had not caught up yet. We will have to try it at about 2 p.m. next time. Our final stop of the day is the mission office where I drop off a bill and talk to Elder Subandriyo. He says it is a go for the English class – he seems to feel that we need to find a place for the students to live. I guess that everything but supplying the money for housing and food will be our responsibility. We talk briefly about the mushroom project – I do not think he is ready to spend much time on this. If it is to work I am afraid we will have to do much of the start up work.

Once we are home we eat some lunch and then watch a movie. We then do a final clean-up before the maid comes. Why does that word some wrong – cleaning lady sounds so much less pretentious. I was surprised to find that one of the members that was visiting the Tangerang branch had nannies for their children – I had never really thought about a member having nannies. Of course there is nothing wrong with that and it does provide a couple of people some work, a good place to live and food to eat. I imagine if we were living here with our young children and could afford it, we would hire nannies, maids, etc. For $250 a month you could hire – 3 to 4 people and they would all love to have the job.

The maid comes we are reading from Kitab Mormon. She gets to hear some of the gospel in our poor Indonesian. I am hoping that it will make her curious about what we are reading. As we have just read – the Lord does great works with small things. After we read, I fall asleep on the bed – Mary wakes me to get money to pay her. She puts in her full three hours because Mary asked her to clean the refrigerator – it really needed it.

I was just thinking about the mushroom project. If it worked a single system could provide 3 families about $200 a month which is a good level of living for a family here in Indonesia. It would be exciting if we could provide enough projects to help 30 or 40 families to earn enough that their children could go to good schools. I feel that there are other things like that which we can start that will do the same thing. I trust the Lord will point me in their direction when I have the time to do something about it.

I am tempted to watch another movie, but I feel that I need to be obedient to trying to learn the language so I spend the time re-reading from the Kitab Mormon and trying to get the words I do not know to stick in my mind. While looking for a pad to write down some of the words, I found some notes I made about the last day we were home . We did a lot of things – including almost getting stuck in the driveway, almost not getting a flight to Las Vegas, and almost being to late t catch our plane to Korea. It was an exciting day to say the least. I wrote that the two hours between when we finished getting ready and Brooke Alexander showing up to take us to the MTC seemed like two of the longest hours I have ever lived. Little did I know how great of a spiritual adventure we would be going to.

This a flower that I have not seen before and no one could tell us what it was called. Sam only knows what a rose is, everything else is ‘a flower – like dat.’ This woman collects sticks of wood in the tea plantation to sell and to use.

20 May 2007 – Sunday

It is our early Sunday so we do not have time – or perhaps it would be better to say we do not make time – to read from the Kitab Mormon. I do take some time to study vocabulary.

The best part of going to church is meeting the members. I still can not remember many of their names, but I keep trying. I hope to learn at least one person’s name each week but it does not always work. Of course I can not remember peoples name in English so it is not a great shock to realize that I can not remember the Indonesian names.

President and Sister Jensen came to our branches so we got to hear the president speak twice and sister Jensen once. He does very well speaking and for the most part we could basically understand what he said. I still do not hear the native speakers well enough to know what they are saying – more individual words are becoming clear but not enough to follow a talk even when I know what it is about. But while it can be a little discouraging, I am not discouraged. Only more determined to learn the language. In fact after seeing president Jensen carry on conversations with the members, I am more determined than ever to become at least adequate in the language.

We went into the Gospel Principles class and Elder Smith taught. He is struggling with the language and I was glad that the president came in for the last half of his lesson so he could listen to him. Right after the class, the president interviewed him and his companion Elder Widodoe. Since missionaries are not supposed to be left alone, I stayed outside with one while the president interviewed the other. Elder Smith got a much longer interview. It was interesting trying to communicate with Elder Widodoe – his English is not very good but it is a lot better than my Indonesian – even simple ideas were almost impossible to be discussed.

Once back home, we ate some lunch and then took a nap. After our naps we read an hour from the Kitab Mormon. Later we read for another hour so we caught up for the day. We are reading where Alma is telling his son about the experience of his repentance. The vividness of his story shows how it was etched into his soul. He uses the story as Paul does to emphasis the fact that the Lord will forgive almost any sin – he likens his rebellion against God as murdering those who believed his anti-church campaign – if people truly repent and then spend the rest of their lives serving others.

They have huge Koi here – these were at the hotel we stayed at for Couples’ Conference. The next is a shot of my garden – slightly smaller than the one at home. Another different motorcycle load. They cut the grass and then take it home to feed their animals. At least if this one fell over, nothing much would be damaged.
19 May 2007 – Saturday

It is going to be a long day – I woke at 3:30 and Mary at 4:15. I could not get the English program out of my head long enough to fall back to sleep. I am not sure what was Mary’s problem. Her eye looks about the same except for some reason this morning the eyelid is quite red. It does not hurt, it only looks a little strange.

I spent much of the morning studying Indonesian. If we get nothing else from this mission, we are going to be able to read Indonesian fairly well. Hopefully we will also be able to communicate. Today was a good day – I managed to remember most of the vocabulary I learned yesterday. We read from the Kitab Mormon and found that a section of a verse is completely left out of the Indonesian version. Mary thinks it is because it was translated before the new scriptures came out with some corrections.

We had a normal Saturday at the office – that is no one came in and so we took the time to write and study. Mary did have a diversion when a sister came in to have a piano lesson. She is a real beginner so she has a lot to learn.  I wrote to Elder Subandriyo about the Intensive English Class and the Mushroom project. Hopefully we will move ahead with the first and later the second. Mary started a long letter to be sent to our family and friends. We read from the Kitab Mormon for an hour. Alma and Amulek teaching the Zoramites.

When 2 came around we were ready to head home. The rest of Saturday was very quiet. We studied some – another hour from Kitab Mormon – and Mary finished her letter. Before we knew it, it was time for bed.

One thing that is very positive for me is that I feel that my prayers are drawing me closer to God and Christ. Whenever I feel a need to talk to my Father in Heaven I just stop and let my prayer run through my mind and I feel His presence. It is wonderful feeling to sense that God and Christ are so close and ready to hear my voice asking for their help. I think this is such a special time in our lives – to be here in Indonesia serving Them by serving the people of Indonesia. It is a shame that more couples are not taking this great opportunity to do so much good. I am already looking forward to doing it again for as long as our health allows us to serve. I know why Ron and Anne Jamison and other go home for just long enough to re-connect with their children and grand children and then go out again.

It is definitely time to let you know that we are still here and doing well in Indonesia. We have had a very interesting week and are learning more and more about the Indonesian people.
 
First, Indonesians celebrate any and every holiday that is available. Thursday, May 17, was Ascension Day, the day Christ ascended into heaven. It was a national holiday. The post office was closed, The Jakarta Post did not publish a newspaper, the schools were closed for the weekend, and except for stores and restaurants, most businesses were closed.
 
On Wednesday we drove up to Bogor which is in the hills south of Jakarta. It was a very easy drive with little traffic and only took about 45 minutes. There we drove further up into the hills with our friends Elder and Sister Kane to visit an orphanage. The Kane’s are Humanitarian missionaries and became involved with this orphanage through a project in which the  Church paid for an autoclave for the orphanage. It is used to sterilize the medium in which mushrooms are grown. When the medium is sterilized the mushroom spores are introduced and then it is kept until the mushrooms are ready to grow. At that point it is sold producing money to run the orphanage. We were interested in observing this project to see if it is something that we can recommend to older women who need employment. Most employers here in Indonesia are looking for employees who are in their twenties. It is very difficult for anyone over 35 or 40 to find a new job.
 
Now back to the orphanage, which is an amazing operation. It is run by a young woman and her husband. They are parents of three children. There are 40 orphans there. Seventeen are true orphans. The other 23 still have at least one parent living, but for one reason or another they are unable to support them. They finance the orphanage through a variety of projects. They rent party supplies and cater parties. They have a sewing business. They run a kindergarten for neighborhood children. They manufacture rough boxes for carrying fruit and now they have the mushroom project. I have attached pictures of children at the school, the owner by the autoclave, and mushrooms growing out of the small plastic bags containing the mushroom-growing medium. This is truly an example of what can be accomplished by one young woman who has a vision and a desire to help others. She has gone out and found a need and learned how to make her dreams a reality.
 
We then visited a Textile School to see if we could recommend it as a good place for PEF Students to study. They have a first class operation. They train their students in manufacturing and merchandising. They finish as qualified line supervisors for garment manufacturers or are  qualified to work in merchandising. Some students never finish school because they are hired away before the end of the course!
 
When we left Bogor we had a very easy drive back to Jakarta but then ran into one of the infamous Jakarta traffic jams. We got off the Jalan Tol (Toll Road) at about 5:15. It should have taken about 15 minutes to get the rest of the way home to our apartment. It took two hours! This was one of the worst we have ever been in. You never really know what the cause of a traffic jam is, but this appeared to be caused by the fact that the next day was a holiday and everyone was just trying to get somewhere else! Usually if there is a traffic jam on the main roads our driver, Sam, is able to turn off onto a small (just barely two cars wide) road which winds through a kampung and avoids the worst part of the jam. This time it was a major mistake. When we got about a block down the side road we came to a dead stop. Everyone else was trying the same thing! We finally got home at 7:15.
 
Last week we attended a birthday celebration for a School for the Blind. It was established 34 years ago. Each student there is blind and has at least one other handicap. Many of them are deaf and some are mentally handicapped. This school is supported by a board of people who raise funds for it by looking for donations. It is supported mainly by Christian churches, but many of the students are Muslim. The parents of the students who can afford to send their children to the school pay some money, but those who have no money are not turned away. One of the students there was found on the streets of Jakarta being used as a beggar by other people. She is an orphan and now lives at the school.
 
The birthday celebration was a delightful experience with several of the students singing and performing. The performance by the band and the bell choir was outstanding. Everyone was very enthusiastic and had a great time. We even learned to sing a few Indonesian songs. We were invited to the celebration because last year Elder and Sister Leishman, whom we replaced in the Employment Office, oversaw two projects where the Church paid for a new larger water tank for the school and a new stove and cupboards for the kitchen, allowing them to be able to feed lunch to all the students each day and to have clean water for everyone.
 
On Thursday we attended a branch outing with the Tangerang 2 Branch. We took buses up to a Tea Plantation near Bogor.  We went on a five kilometer walk through the tea plantation and then had lunch and watched everyone sing and play games. The highlight (or lowlight) of my day was falling down because of a loose rock in a pathway after I had completed the five kilometer walk. Luckily the only damage was a small cut near my eye (no stitches needed but enough blood to worry everyone) a bruise on my chin and a couple scratches on my knee. No other problems at all. While we were there we figured out how to take movies with our camera and we have a fun one of the kids chasing bubbles and a hilarious one of the adults and teenagers playing a game. They are running around flapping their arms and “cheeping” looking for the rest of their bird family. Everyone was very tired on the way home.

As I reflect on these experiences and others, I think about the many problems facing the country of Indonesia and know that somehow they will meet the challenges. There is great poverty here but there are many people trying to fight it. For over 300 years they were treated as second-class citizens in their own country. Now they are forming a new identity. They have been thrust into a new industrial world with its related problems of traffic, over-crowding, trash, etc. with nothing in place to deal with these things. It will be interesting to see the solutions they come up with. One suggestion put out by the government to alleviate part of the traffic problem in Jakarta is to abolish the sale of new cars in Jakarta. That will be really interesting to see what happens if that takes place. Right now during parts of the day on some streets only cars that have three people in them are allowed. As a consequence, you have people standing near those streets waiting to be hired as a passenger.

I have included with this letter a picture of a monkey which lives across the street from us. His owner sells carvings which are not very good. I think the monkey is his principle model.

Well, enough for now. This has taken all day to write. Bill just said that he is sure Gone With The Wind was written in about the same time. We love you all and welcome lots of letters. It’s always good to know that home is still there and all is well. Please let us know what is happening in your families.

Our friend the monkey – lives on a fence in front of a cemetery.
18 May 2007 – Friday

A good morning. Mary slept well and does not have a black eye. The cut is clean and hardly shows but the bruise on her chin is quite evident. Her stomach has also quiet down so all in all she is in good shape.

I spent most of my free time catching up this journal and going through pictures we took over the last two days so I could put some of them in the blog. I am getting better at that and now it does not take as much time to get the pictures posted. We read in the Kitab Mormon and are now waiting for Sam so we can go to District Meeting.

I forgot to mention that yesterday we found our good young friend Elder Roper had developed a hernia and had been sent home to have surgery. His father agreed to pay his way back to Indonesia so instead of spending the rest of his mission in the States, he will come back in a month or so. Mary asked for his e-mail address so we could send him our best wishes and tell him to hurry back. I find it interesting that the Church medical people did not think that either Singapore or Hong Kong had good enough doctors to operate. Either that or they felt that since he will need a month to recover, that it would be better to do it where his parents could watch over him.

The rest of the day was normal with a visit to the mission office for district meeting – on the way there we stopped and Mary took some pictures of the monkey we have seen so often – and lunch followed by a quick trip to SoGo for necessities -mainly from BreadTalk. We found an alternate source for Mary’s Rye bread so it was a great success.

The Peterson’s invited us out for dinner so we came home and rested until it was time for them to pick us up. We had a great time – decent Mexican food and lots of good talking. It was celebrating my birthday. The Petersons are great, down-to-earth people who are always full of the spirit. But that is how we have found all couples we have met here.

We managed to get in our hour of reading before Mary headed off to bed and I sat watching TV until I was tired enough to join her.

On looking back on the last three days, they at first do not seem to have been very productive. However each of them fit in with what we are doing here. Wednesday we gain important information that will help us in the future – especially the mushroom project. We helped the Kanes come up with a program for teaching about the family. Thursday helped cement our relationship with one of the branches we work with. We got to talk to a lot of people and see them outside of church. Friday we learned from the district meeting and I think we also gave the missionaries an idea or two that might help them as they teach. On all those days we studied from the Kitab Mormon and each day improves our ability to read Indonesian. Hopefully it will eventually lead to us being able to communicate in Indonesian.

Tea Pickers – Mary with Band-Aid – A view of the valley above Bogor
17 May 2007 – Thursday

We were up at 3:30 and out the door at 4:15. The trip to the pick-up point was very quick and we were worried that there would be no one there yet. But when we got there, the bus and some of the people were already there – it turned out that the bus would leave at 5:15 and not 5:30. We were in the bus with Agus, Catherin, and their family. Almost everyone around us spoke good English. I managed to sleep about half the way there so the trip went very fast.

The tea plantation was started by the Dutch back at the turn of the century and stretches for what seems like miles in every direction. The day was perfect – at least the morning was. Clean and bright but not too hot because we were so high up in the mountains.

I am not going to write much about the day. The walk through the plantation was about 5K or just over 3 miles. It was up and down over a trail of what was once a paved road but over the years has become a rough trail of rocks. Mary did not have an easy time because she had to be really careful about where she walked so as not to slip. Even though it was much cooler than Jakarta it was still hot and I worked up a very good sweat. We were in the first group to leave but by the time we were finished we were the last couple back. We would have been way behind everyone except a very nice couple kept behind us to make sure we were not lost or hurt. So we took our time and enjoyed the walk – at least I certainly did.

As we got back to the main area, we had a little trouble finding just which way we needed to go. When we finally were close to where the group was gathered for games, disaster almost struck. I was about 10 feet in front of Mary as we walked down the last path to the steps when a rock she was stepping on twisted and she basically fell flat on her face. She hit the rocks, cut her head just above her left eye, twisted her glasses, hit her chin and skinned her left knee. People came from everywhere – especially from our group to help her. All she really wanted to do was catch her breath so she asked them not to try to pick her up. She was really bleeding – she remarked that head wounds always bleed a lot – but a lot of tissue and some water soon cleaned it enough that they could put on a coagulate – they came with a fully prepared first-aid kit and someone who knew how to use it – and a band-aid and the bleeding stopped. After she had caught her breath we got her up – not an easy task because she could not get her knees under herself and walked her back to the meeting room. I gave her a couple of Aleve and she sat and recovered. I think she was more embarassed than anything else.

I found it interesting that the tea pickers expected us to pay for taking their picture. Unfortunately I did not have any small money so I ended up looking like a ugly American. Later I took a couple of pictures of a woman who was gathering up dead branches to either sell or use in her cooking. I found that I had a few coins in my pocket and gave them to her. When you are a survivor you do what you have to, to make a living.

I finally learned how to take movies – something I wish I had learned earlier – so we have a couple of short movies showing the people enjoying themselves. The children had a great time blowing bubbles that they bought from a peddler. He probably had one of best days in a long time selling to our group with a lot of children.

The rest of the time was spent playing games, eating lunch, and then having a discussion of physical, mental and spiritual health. This last part was not very interesting to us because it was all in Indonesian. But I was surprised how the adults all seemed interested in discussing this subject. I can not imagine a group of US LDS having a big ward outing where after fun and games they would sit around and discuss such a meaningful subject.

The trip back to the gathering point was different. Since it was a holiday, there were lots of people up in the mountains so there was a sting of cars, buses and angkats winding their way down the two lane road that runs through small town after small town. We stopped twice so people could buy fresh fruits and vegetables from larger traditional markets. But even with this we made better time than I thought we would in getting back. Once we got to the main road the traffic was light. The only problem was that it had started to rain – the dry season obviously is not all that dry – and by the time we got to the drop-off point it was pouring. Lucky for us we had won a prize – I think it was for the last group in but I am sure they called it something else – the prize was a nice big umbrella. So while Mary tried to keep at least a little dry, our friend Agus and I hailed a cab. He told the driver where we needed to go and away we went. He could have been taking us anywhere because for a half hour we had no idea where we were. He took nothing but surface streets that wound in and out of areas we had never been. Finally we came out on the street that had the big stadium and I knew approximately where we were. Mary had been saying that we had been going in the right general direction – her sense of direction is much better than mine. The end result was that we got home in good time – well before I expected – and the total of the almost one hour taxi ride was $6.50 – I gave the man $9.50 and hoped it made his day.

We were again beat when we got home. Mary said that she did not hurt but was very tired. So we  each found something that was easy to fix for dinner, read from the Kitab Mormon and then Mary went off to bed. I expected Sam to bring the car back so I tried to stay up. But about 9:30 I fell asleep on the couch and at 10 woke up enough to get myself to bed.

I think that the fact that we went with the branch and got to know the members better, to understand their culture better, and to see them as families was very important. I had a nice conversation with the member we thought had gone inactive because he did not get a job in Squaw Valley. He came out and seemed to enjoy himself. I wish either he knew more English – he does quite well – or I knew more Indonesian because I would have enjoyed learning more about him.

I had a nice talk with president Gjarot about education in Indonesia. He pays a lot of money to send his children to good schools. Up to $3000 a year which is a lot of money here. But they will end up being well prepared for life. I also spoke with brother Basuki, one of the attendees at the Solo Career Workshop who now has a great job as a management trainee in a bank. They will spend 9 months training him before sending him to his first real assignment. It is such a good training program that other banks pay to send their people to learn.