Hari Merdeka

Today we had a big celebration for the independence of our country. The actual date of independence is the 17th of August, but the celebration was held on the Sunday the 19th because the 17th fell on a Friday and people wanted to pray more than have a party!

The celebrations actually were going all weekend with some events on Friday and videos and music being shown at the local volleyball field every night. On Sunday we joined in a big parade which marched around the neighborhood. Each section of the community had built a small replica house which they filled with food and carried around the neighborhood, dancing and singing and when they finished the route they all ate food together. It was great fun, with loads of music and dancing. There were also many strange bearded ladies dancing around! Aunty Paula's section of the community actually won because she got up on stage and danced in front of the whole community!

After the parade there was more singing and karaoke contest in the afternoon. They also played lots of games for kids and adults like eating a kerupuk (a large prawn cracker) held from a string and sack races and tug of war and the even had a greasy pole and men tried to climb it but kept on slipping down.

Bath

One of Caden's new words is bath (barf)! He loves the bath and takes every opportunity to take off his clothes and jump in the water!

On our way back from Singapore, he looked out the window, saw all the clouds and the ocean and it must have looked very inviting as he was looking out the window, nodding his head, and saying "barf, barf!"

Singapore

After our time in Chiang Mai training we had a wonderful few days in Singapore organising our visas, Here are some photos of me playing with my friends!

Chiang Mai

After mum and dad finished teaching in Cipanas we drove to Jakarta and spent a night there before we jumped on a plane and flew to Chiang Mai. After a 3 hour flight we arrived in Bangkok and then changed planes to Chiang Mai. We stayed in a guest house which was really nice and mum and dad had some training while i played with my friends. It was particularly wonderful to see my friend Liliana from Australia who I met at OC in Singapore about 8 months ago! We had a great time playing together and visited the night market together and enjoyed Thai food! Mum was very happy and kept on going on about Pad Thai and Roti - she was very happy!

After a week of training at that place we then had the main conference for our organisation at a nice resort also in Chiang Mai but a bit further away from the centre. It was really nice with loads of food and two swimming pools! A fifty meter pool for the big people and a kiddies pool for all the kids. I was just able to stand up in the kiddies pool and had some great swims until i got a bit of a cold and started coughing and producing green snot! Mum and dad keep on wiping my nose with a tissue - it is so embarrassing! Mum and dad said they learnt alot and felt greatly encouraged to get back into language study again! The other funny thing was that the conference was called DAL - everyone had dad's name on their name tag, it was very confusing!

Dad was particularly excited by these geckos which were about 25cm long and climbed up the walls, he wanted to catch one but he was a bit slow!

encouragement

dad wants to tell you about how he was encouraged by the students at the college...

The month or so of helping with the English program at the college has been a wonderful opportunity which we have been so glad to have been a part of. We had 23 keen students who were always keen to learn and grow. Each day was relatively full. The students led an English devotion each morning and then we split into small groups and spent time working through the gospel of Mark. We then spent some time talking together and learnt basic grammar. We then had a time were we read together some articles in small groups. The college provided lunch and dinner everyday so we didn't have to worry about food. In the afternoon we had a break and then usually played sport or had time in the library. At nights we had a series of bible studies from Mark which they enjoyed, but they particularly liked the games we played which would often end in chaotic laughter. We had to implement the 'silent clap' in order to try to keep the noise down so that Caden wouldn't be woken up! We also had a day trip to the local animal safari which the students loved! Squeals of delight as they saw animals and roaring laughter as we watched a show together - Caden as usual disappeared with the students throughout the day, he had a great time roaring at lions, neighing at zebras, being splashed by the seal at the seal show...
The most enjoyable part of the time was just being able to chat with the students and beginning to hear their stories. Many of them were from small islands with churches but no pastor to look after them. A few students came from an area where one pastor looked after 22 churches! Others came to be trained up for cross cultural ministries in their own country. One girl told us that she only goes home once a year, when we asked he why she told us that she lived a weeks travel away! She had to catch a boat for 2 days, then take an 8 hour bus ride, then catch a car for a while, then catch a small boat up a river for 5 hours and then a five hour trek over the mountain to her village! She was one of the keenest students we met. We were also greatly encouraged to see them growing in their understanding of English even in just a few weeks. Corinne and I helped the lower class and were greatly encouraged as all of them made great leaps forward in their confidence and reading and speaking! They were all motivated as they are aware that most of the books that they will need to use for their studies are in English, unfortunately if they want to study they have to learn English because the books are just not available in Indonesian!
I think that is enough for Caden's blog. We have had an amazing time and feel very blessed to have had this opportunity. If you are interested there are opportunities like this every year in many different towns across the country. We actually met 6 young guys from the UK who had done the same thing in another college and all came back having had great experiences (although some were difficult) and were seriously considering what their next step would be! It is amazing that they would travel some 18 hours at a large cost to come half way around the world - i was asking myself where are the Aussies? This is our closest neighbor and is so close for us and relatively cheap to travel here, C'mon Aussie!

Sunday school

in Cipanas i went to sunday school every week and which was run by some of the students from the college. I learnt lots of new songs in Indonesian - i particularly like the one about king kong with a big body and small legs... i am not too sure of the point of the song but it is fun. Here is a photo of me with my friends and with one of my teachers!

some new friends

Uncle Harry and Aunty Olive came all the way from Australia to help mum and dad teach english at the college. I had great fun with them and they always looked after me!The college that mum and dad were helping at was just across the road from our house so the students often took me away and we played together. We also had horses and carts (sado) always parked out the front of our house - we even rode in one and i learnt how to make a noise like a horse neighing and a horse walking!

just down the road we have a big housing complex which is used by people from Jakarta who come up here every weekend. Inside the housing complex they actually have a huge swimming pool with a three waterslides and rides and boats and cars and everything! Dad and me had some great times riding in the car, although he didn't quite fit!