Mum's big bath

On Friday the 7th of September mum did something very strange! She stripped to her underwear, wrapped herself in a sarong and was bathed in front of our house in full view of a big crowd of spectators!

This event is the Sundanese version of a baby shower called a tujuh bulanan (7 months celebration). Basically this is what happened. Our helpers, along with some of our neighbors, spent the whole day cooking and preparing food for the neighbors like fried chicken (ayam goreng) and yellow rice (nasi kuning) and a special food called rujak, which is a mixture of seven types of vegetables which are sweet, sour, hot, and salty in flavour.

The event started about 3:30 in the afternoon and was lead by a local lady who is called a praraji (a traditional midwife). Mum had to go into the bathroom and come out wrapped in a sarong, she tried to wear a t-shirt, but they sent her back in the toilet to take the t-shirt off. Mum also invited some teachers from language school who have experience in this type of thing. One of them gave a short talk from Psalm 139 and another prayed for mum, they seemed quite well received by all the people who are not believers. They also helped mum avoid some of the rituals which we were not too sure about. One involves a little mirror, a piece string, and a little knife all used to ward off evil spirits - mum didn't do that part.

We then went out the front of our house where mum sat on a little stool and a whole crowd of people surrounded our little house. She then had water poured on her seven times by seven different people, and the water had been collected from seven different wells in the area. Dad gave her the first washing, and then mum had to put on a new sarong. When she had a new sarong on, someone else washed her until she had been washed by 7 people and had changed the sarong 7 times. The water was mostly warm, until the last one where she was washed in cold water that contained 7 types of flowers of seven colours and the water also contained a fish! Dad was meant to catch the fish but he wasn't quick enough! The idea is that the birth will be something like a slimy fish - smooth!

After all the washings mum went inside to get dried up a bit and then dad had to chop a coconut with a machete. Dad had to draw a face of either a boy or a girl on the coconut and then chop in one go! After all this we sold the rujak to all the children and visitors, they loved it! After all that we ate dinner together. It was an amazing experience, I can't wait to meet my little adik (Indo term for younger sibling).

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!