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Pool and Pool

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This and That

Selemat Pagei (Good Morning),

I am not sure when you are reading this so my greeting might not fit.  I just wanted to show off some of my emerging Bahasa Indonesian language skills.  We are working to pick up some of the local language.  It is not a very hard language to learn and what is nice is that words are spelled like they sound.  That makes it easier to learn.  The school's driver, Deddy (don't call me Daddy), is a great resource when it comes to helping us learn our Bahasa.  He helped us learn the phrase that is used for us the most, "Gila Bolle"= "Crazy White Person."

We made it through the first full week of school and things are going well.  We have started to get into a routine with getting ready in the morning and when and where things are.  One thing we tried to do this week was take the kids after school down to the swimming pool to play.  On Wednesday, Kathi and the kids walked down after school while I rode a bike down to the gym to hop on the treadmill with my buddy Mr. Austin.  Kathi and the kids no sooner got to the pool and it started raining with thunder and lightning.  When it rains here it absolutely dumps water.  About this time Dave and I were riding back from our workout.  We are both soaked to the bone with no rain gear at all.  At least it is a warm rain.  We ride by the pool and see the Getzinger clan waiting outside looking a little dejected.  I was not stopping because my bike was not going to fit all of them on the handlebars.  Now being that Kathi and I have been married for some time I realize that me not stopping can be interpreted two different ways. Option one; she realizes me stopping will not help their situation so "keep on truckin" or option number two; "John you are an idiot. Why didn't you try and help us?"  So just in case Kathi has deemed my drive by as option two, I sped home and ran to the school to get someone to take the school van down to get them.  Deddy is my man so he was ready to help.  We hopped in the van and ran downtown to get my family in need only to pass them on the way down.  Luckily my actions were looked upon with favor and I was allowed to have dinner with the family.

So after a failed attempt to head out for some fun on Wednesday, Thursday we planned for the whole family to go to the pool.  About the time school gets out the skies cloud up and rain ensues.  We quickly change our plans and decide to go bowling instead.  The Getzingers and the Austins all head down to the bowling ally for some good old fashion Midwestern fun.  When we get there we are told in Bahasa (good thing I am studying) that we can't bowl because it is Indonesian League night.  There we were, ten strong with nothing to do. We were stuck so we asked what was in the back room of the bowling alley.  We saw that there was a billiards room.  So we played some rather interesting games with the kids revolving around the pool tables.  Luckily the kids still had a good time.  

On Saturday night we had the biggest thunder and lightning storm since we have been here.  Normally the rain, thunder and lightning lasts about 10-15 minutes at a time.  This one started about 11:00 pm and lasted until at least 2:30 am.  It was so loud that at one point Kathi and I had all three kids in the bed with us.  Our power even went out for about one minute.  That is the 1st time we have lost power here on camp.  The problem with the power going out is that you have to go around and turn back on all of your air conditioners.  Each room has an air conditioner or two and we really started to notice about 30 minutes after the power went off.  Man did it get hot!

Today (Sunday) we did make it out to the pool.  Sydney and her friend Sarah were learning how to dive into the pool.  They did very well.  Kade decided he would dive off of the diving board (he doesn't yet know how to dive).  Take a look at the pictures, as you can check out the result of his landing.  Good Times!

The Rumor Mill

Today we heard some potentially great news. Our principal emailed us today and said that she was informed that we could possibly be getting our shipment from the States in 7-10 days. Now nothing over here is set in stone and we are aware that things can be delayed for a myriad of reasons. This however was huge news for us.

Normally people have received their shipments anywhere from the end of September into the middle of November. This could be some sort of record if the date holds. That shipment has some great stuff for the kids, Kathi and I. Stuff like bikes for the kids, more clothes for all of us, teaching supplies, games and toys as well as a couch, love seat and our beds from home. Not to mention our food that we stocked up on from Costco.

Currently we are eating on Chevron plates and our cook is using only the spices that can be purchased here. Having a full complement of dishes and cooking supplies will really help. We We also have been using the Chevron furniture which is a kin to doctors office furniture circa 1977. Needless to say we were all very excited by the news. In fact it almost elicited tears of joy from Syd. We will be keeping hope alive for the next week or so.

Good Weekend

The weekend is now over but it was a very nice break. Friday nights here they play Ultimate Frisbee with Chevron employees. We had a great turnout as we had 18 players. It takes place on the school soccer field. The families come over and visit and play on the playground equipment. Yo-Yo and Kathi stayed home because right now she has a ton of mosquito bites on her. Last time we went she got a bunch also. We decided that we should let these ones heal before we had a new round come and get her. She and Kathi seem to be their favorite flavor. The kids and I really don't have too much trouble with them as long as we get bug spray on.

Saturday we were able to sleep in which was great. We just hung around the house. The kids went and played at the neighbors houses. The best part was that Kathi and I were put on the schedule for massages from Fitri, a massage therapist, who works on the camp. Many of the teachers here use her on the weekend and she came highly recommended. She comes to our house and her fee is $12.50 per hour. It was very relaxing. We were feeling bad about the price she was charging because we know how expensive it can be to get massages in the states but when we did the math she makes about four times the standard pay that our school assistants make.

About 4:00 in the afternoon some of the kids from school and some of the Dads had a pick-up flag football game. Kade begged to play so he and I went over to check it out. I am so amazed at how all of the kids here play so well together. There were kids from 2nd to 7th grade playing together. There were no fights and the kids were so nice to each other.

Kade has never played football and as much as I try to get him to sit on the couch with me on Sundays to watch football he would rather be outside. All of this led to his background about how to play football quite lacking. There we two great moments that stood out. The first was when his team got the ball and they ran a play he went to the kid guarding him and pulled off their flag even though they didn't have the ball and he was the one on offense. The kid just looked at me as if to say what is Kade doing? Funny! The second highlight was the first time he got the ball he started running. That was good. The problem came when the defense started to come toward him he started to back pedal and proceeded to throw the ball to a teammate, like any good point guard should do right? Well needless to say the assist was not registered. To Kade's credit he did start to get it figured out and did much better after some on the job training. The best part is that he said he wants to play that every Saturday.

Saturday night we went to some friends house for some great Thai food. They had a few of the teachers over and we had a very nice time. The kids all played well and it was a lot of fun.

Those are the highlights. Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Back to School Photo

First Week of School

Well we almost through our first week of school. All that is left is Friday and so far things are going great. Kathi is loving the 3 kids she has in Kindergarten. They are very sweet. One of the activities they do every week is cook or bake something in the kitchen. Today they made cookies for pretty much the entire school. They were very tasty.

Sydney is in 5th grade and that is considered Middle School here. She gets a locker and gets to switch classes which is very grown up. She has homework every night but she is a great worker and gets it all done. (so far) Kade's 2nd grade class has 5 kids. His teacher, Mrs. Krueger, is absolutely awesome. She is the perfect teacher for Kade. He adores her. He should have a great year. Brooklyn has settled in to the preschool very nicely. It helps that her teacher, Mrs. Pannu, is our next door neighbor and we have spent a lot of time with their family since we have been here. Her day starts at 8:00 AM and she goes home for the day at our lunch time; 11:45.

My class of eleven 3rd and 4th graders are a very fun group. Compared to my 30 last year I feel like I am living the dream. It is refreshing to get a chance to know kids quickly and help them on a more individual basis.

Probably the best thing about the school set up here is the hour long lunch you get to have at your house. Everyday we get to walk home as a family and eat a lunch together. Obviously the fact that the lunch is made by Ibu Yati, (Ibu=Mrs.) and is ready when we walk in the door makes coming home for lunch that much sweeter. It is an awesome opportunity to spend time with each other. Kathi even gets to put Brooklyn down for her nap before we have to go back to school. The rest of us don't get a nap, but some much needed down time as an opportunity to start the second half of our day without feeling rushed.

So far things are going well and we are hopeful that they will stay that way. We are hoping all of you are having a good end to your summer. Thanks for checking in!

"Lost" and Farfiegnugen

Kathi and I enjoy watching the television show "Lost." We were loyal followers, if we couldn't be home on Wednesday nights we would DVR it so we could keep up on all of the plot twists and turns. Well ever since I told my friend Pat about our move to the jungle he has made reference to the fact that it seemed a little like we would be joining the Dharma Initiative which is a major part of the show. Now if you are not a fan of the show you may want to skip the next paragraph and just check out the last paragraph.
So Saturday night our staff was invited to a once a month get together at one of the Chevron families homes for a camp wide get together. We all met at Andrew and Diana's house which is another teaching couple here. We were told that they had a van that could take us all to the party. When I laid eyes on the 67' VW Bus I laughed out loud at the fact that here I was in the jungle riding around in a Dharma Initiative vehicle and all I was missing in order to be an extra on "Lost" was a one piece grey jumpsuit that had my name on it. Pat if you are checking this blog these pictures are for you.
Off of the "Lost" topic and on to the experience of the VW. First off we have a staff of Five teaching couples and our Principal and her husband. We were told that they could take three of the couples over at a time. Kathi and I were in the first group to leave along with two other couples and Andrew and Diana. We get into the van and realize they only have one three person bench seat in the entire van. This means that the boys are sitting on the bench and the girls are on our laps. No problem except...First the van won't start because it had not been driven all summer. Once we get it started the headlights won't work. All the while this is going on it is 80 degrees outside and the windows are fogging up inside the van. The girls makeup is starting to run and a few of us guys have to go to the bathroom. We haven't even left the driveway. We decide that headlights aren't really all that important for driving in the dark so now we are ready to get this thing out on the open road. One problem. The clutch is going out an we can't get it in reverse to get it out of the driveway. After about ten attempts to get it in reverse, each time inching closer to the back of his house because consistently he was finding 4th gear, and several offers of those sitting in the German Engineered sauna in the back that it was really ok to walk to the party, Andrew was finally able to get it into reverse. Once moving Herbie's love child ran like a top and had us to the shindig in no time, albeit with no headlights. The party was great and the return trip was much less adventure filled and he even got the headlights working.

Earthquake

Yes, an earthquake hit Sumatra. We are all fine.  We actually never felt it.  It was in West Sumatra.  We actually only heard about it when we saw it on the news.

Elephants

Elephants

This morning we were lucky enough to get to go to the elephant preserve that Chevron supports. The preserve is about 35 minutes from our house. We went with a large group of people from the camp. There were about 40 of us in all. It was a really good time for the kids as they were able to experience the elephants up close and personal.

The show started with the elephants being brought in by their handlers and then all bowing for us. After a few tricks including playing soccer, walking across a balance beam and some other really cool balancing tricks. We were told to bring pineapples, bananas, watermelon, or sugarcane for the elephants so after the show they brought them up to the kids and we were allowed to feed them.

Brooklyn was wanted to feed them but was a little leery of the trunks wrapping around the food in her hand so she was more of a cheerleader. Kade and Syd on the other hand, were loving it. They were handing out food left and right. Those elephants ate like kings on this day.

After the feeding we were allowed to go on rides on the elephants. Kade and Syd went multiple times with Kade the record holder at four rides. Brooklyn wanted no part of being up on an elephant. In fact they had a little statue elephant at the entrance to the trainer’s shed and it was all we could do to get her up on that for a picture.

This was another really cool experience where we were able to see animals out in their native habitat. The things we have been able to do in these first few weeks have been such great life experiences for the kids as well as Kathi and I. Again we can just see how blessed we are to get to be here and try all of these amazing things.

School starts on Tuesday. The teachers have to work on Monday but the local staff will not be working as it is Indonesian Independence Day. The streets of Pekanbaru as well as some National’s homes here on camp are proudly displaying the Red and White flag. I am not sure if there will be fireworks ala Fourth of July but I can always hope. (Jimmy and Chris if fireworks are a part of the festivities I will pencil you in for a trip to visit next year so you can partake. I know the joy more bottle rockets and parachutes would bring you.)

Three Little Pigs

Tropic Thunder

Today we got to see the rain in rain forrest. The day started off pretty normal; hot and muggy. About 1:30 the skies opened up and we had rain coming down harder than I have every seen before in my life. At school we have metal roofs which do a great job of letting you know when it is raining. It started off pretty slow but just kept picking up intensity as it went along. Imagine someone filling a five gallon bucket of water and then dumping that on the ground all at once and you will get a picture of how hard it was coming down. We live right across the street from the school but waited for a car to take us home so that we wouldn't be wet rats when we walked in the door of our house. It was that crazy.

I was truly in awe of the weather today but not just the rain. When the rain comes we get these huge, and I mean huge, thunder and lightning storms with the rain. Well after the rain had stopped we were just getting everyone settled before we were to have dinner when all of the sudden there was a huge flash of light and a sound as if a bomb had just gone off outside our house. Now back in the good old U.S. of A. one might immediately assume that this was a lightning strike. Here in Indonesia your thought process changes a little bit, especially after getting a security briefing by the head of Chevron Security the day before.

Here is a transcript of the experience:

[Flash of light and deafening thunder.]

Sydney: Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, What was that!!?

YoYo: Arhhhh!

Kade: Huh?

Kathi: They are bombing us! John get the kids together!

[Kathi grabs the kids and takes them into a bedroom with huge windows, Why? We are not sure.]

[John, startled and bewildered stops getting into the shower to make sure that everyone is alright and check out the "bombing." He first tries to get shorts on]

John: Kathi, I think it was lightning. I saw it in the sky outside the house as I was getting in the shower.

[Kathi and John then go look out at the gate of the school, or as we had feared the site of the attack, and breathe a sigh of relief when we see the guards outside the school no worse for the wear. We all laugh uneasily at our new respect for Tropic Thunder.

A moment that took my breath away

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First Day on the Job

Last night our principal hosted a dinner at her house as a chance to have the returning staff meet the newbies. It was a nice chance for us to put some faces with the names we had been hearing about and corresponding with via e-mail for the last several months. It was also a great opportunity for us to sample a local pizza joint which delivers called Papa Ron's. I am not quite sure if trademark protections extend to Sumatra but Ron seems to be avoiding litigation. It reminds me of MacDonald's in the movie "Coming to America." The pizza was good so I guess it all worked out.

Today we had to be at school for meetings and to get our classrooms ready for the start of school. Everyone we have met has been very nice and there seems to be a sense that everyone helps one another out. One amazing thing about the school is that every class has a full time assistant that works with the teacher to help you with whatever is needed to make class run well from making copies and getting bulletin boards in order or working with students individually during the day. Early last week we hired two new assistants and since one of them was to be my new assistant I was able to sit on the interviews.

While you would think that it may be hard to find qualified people to work here in Sumatra that is not the case. In fact the quality of candidates we interviewed actually had me taken aback. The two assistants we hired were absolutely overqualified for these jobs. My assistant works teaching English to adult students in Pekanbaru and just recently returned from Iowa where she studied for two years at a college there on a Fullbright scholarship. The assistant we hired for the art class graduated from a graphic design college in Melborne, Australia. I am amazed that our children will be surrounded by so many highly qualified and dedicated individuals.

Cheese anyone?

Can you say communication breakdown? John and I tried ordering from a bulk food store. We thought we were getting a Costco size block of cheese. We ended up with a 44 pound block of Mozzarella. It is a good thing we like cheese and have lots of freezer space.

Today's Vistors

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Chinese Market

We bought a clothes hamper here. They make these baskets and furniture by hand
The market had some interesting smells including that of an open air fish market.
$0.50 gets you a pineapple.
Live crab, shrimp, and crawdads were all on display.
Fresh fruits and vegetable stands were all over. We have a lot of new fruit to try.

Immigration Day

Our outing today involved a trip to Pekanbaru to the Immigration office to get our fingerprints taken. This will allow us to get our proper work visas and the paperwork we will need in order to get our shipment out of customs. We were very glad to get this over with because our appointment there had been rescheduled about 4 times. This was due to the constant power outages they are having in Pekanbaru. They tell us the outages are due to low water levels in rivers. In fact our scheduled appointment today was at 9:30 AM but as we were on our way we received a cell phone call that our appointment had been changed to 1:30.

This change gave us a chance to get a few things done in the city which we needed to do. We were able to pick up a few groceries as well as a cable in order to get cable TV here. We actually get some decent channels including Disney, Nickelodeon, Discovery, and Animal Planet.

Anyway after we picked up a few things we met up with the other teaching couple, Joe and Aroma and family, to have some good old fashion Original Recipe from the Colonel at KFC. They had a small playland that we knew the kids would enjoy so that got the vote for lunch. Now I am not all that certain that here in Indonesia they didn't take some creative liberties with the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices. I am guessing that they bumped it up to about 14 or so with one of them being cayenne pepper. Now I love the hot stuff, so for me this was great. The kids and Kathi on the other hand were trying to get copious amounts of water consumed. After the first few bites they stuck to the sticky rice and fries which came with the meals. I however ate like a king.

After lunch, since most of the crew was still al little hungry from the lack of food, Kathi sent me across the hall to a great little coffee and doughnut place called J-Co. I picked up a doughnut for everyone, an iced coffee for me and on Kathi's orders, an iced tea for her. They had four types of tea and so I decided to go with the Thai Tea, assuming it was somewhat like Chai Tea. Well let's just say the only thing those two drinks had in common was the hai tea. I thought I could be in trouble when they handed me a drink with 3 levels. Black on the bottom, white in the middle, and orange on the top. Kathi's face upon first taste was awesome. Picture someone's first taste of mud pie. Not the Cheese Cake Factory Mud Pie, but the one you made in your back yard when you were 6 years old. Upon my sampling of it I was able to detect a strong creme flavor, paired with a tea taste trumped by the aftertaste of carrot juice. Yum!

This picture was one of the many Mosques we passed by but was by far the most decorative. I hope to next time we get into Pekanbaru take some pictures of some of the government buildings which are pretty cool. They have a beautiful building for their library but we couldn't stop in the middle of the road to get a picture. We will get to it next time.

What kids do when they have no toys?

What do the Getzinger kids do when all their toys are sitting in Singapore. Well, of course they say, "Super Powers activate; form of Animal Girl...form of Puppy Boy....and form of Under Water Girl" of course.

I was lucky enough to snap of a photo of the newest Sumatra Super Heroes. The little one is Animal Girl. Her super power is she is able to turn into any animal including a slug, her personal favorite. Puppy Boy can call on all his dog friends and is able to track bad guys with his super smelling capabilities. Last, but not least, is Under Water Girl. She can call on the Sea Creatures and can swim underwater like a whale.

We all feel a little safer knowing there out there.

Pigs and Monkeys and Snakes, Oh My!

Today we went in for our orientation with Camp Security. It was quite informative and actually gave us the sense that we really are being well taken care of here. There are multiple layers of security and they take safety very seriously. One of the things they talked to us about was the wildlife we would want to take note of. There are 4 types of monkeys we can see around, as evident by the photos posted. (more on those later) Also we are to be aware of the wild pigs that come and forage at night. The boars could charge if threatened. Not to leave out the snakes that you may see around. There are some spitting cobras to be leery of. They say we most likely won't see any but that we still need to be aware. They did tell us that there have been no tiger sightings for a really long time which is a nice thing not to have to worry about.

As for the monkeys in the pictures, that is a troupe of pigtailed macaques. They are the second most common monkeys seen in camp. They are the most aggressive if they feel threatened but there has never been an injury from one on camp. While we were eating dinner Sydney saw them out the window. We all went to the window and there were no less than 50 macaques right outside. I mean walking through our yard. All of those pictures were taken in our yard and on the street in front of our house. In fact one climbed a bamboo tree in our yard and jumped on top of our roof. It was an amazing sight to see.

Yesterday we went to a different settlement on the camp called Minas, which has a pool. The pool there is better than the one here in Rumbai because the water is cooler so it is a more refreshing swim. The ride to Minas was beautiful. It was the first time we were able to see the jungle with nothing else around. The scenery was awesome. We never thought we would be able to see the things we have seen just in the last week. God really has blessed our family.

Tomorrow I will be taking in the scenery of the local golf course. I am looking forward to seeing what that will be like. Maybe going to another part of the world will help my golf game. I doubt it.

Anyone have a monkey wrench?

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Can you name the fruit I ate today?

The answer to yesterday's picture is a pair fruit. How about this fruit?

Guess this fruit I just ate

Shopping: Indonesian Style

So today we were able to leave the kids with the house help and head out to the city here just off of the camp. (Pekanbaru) Our Principal took Kathi and I as well as the other new teaching couple to several points of interest regarding shopping. Kathi was thrilled because the first stop on the list was a mall. So was the second stop. This was not starting out well for me. I thought I left the States to get out of shopping trips to the mall but apparently that is not the case.

The first mall was very nice and seemed very Westernized, think the Cascade Mall in Burlington. There was even an Oshkosh store in there that Kathi thought was very nice. Also of note was the DVD/CD store that had DVD's priced according to how high the quality was. The fewer people walking in front of the screen while it was being filmed in the back row of the theatre the more expensive. Between $2-$6.

The second mall was a little less Western but had an ACE Hardware. It was very well stocked and so we bought a bunch of cleaning supplies and kitchen essentials. Our third stop was a late lunch at an A&W. Kathi had the Paket 4 and I had the Paket D. Both burgers but mine had curly fries with it. I was surprised at how good the burger and root beer float was.

The final stop was Hypermart. That's right the Indonesian version of Wal-Mart. We spent about an hour there getting groceries. They had to grind all of the hamburger we were buying which for the amount we were getting took about an hour. About 10 lbs. of hamburger was apparently quite the order. All of this time was good as there were very few items that had English spellings on them. Trying to ask for things in English didn't get us very far. But everyone tried to be helpful and everyone always had a ready smile for us.

The best part was when I was trying to find the saran wrap and aluminum foil. Trying to mimic using saran wrap got lots of laughs and bewildered looks from the many who I asked. Finally there was a gentleman who spoke some English and he took me to it. It was in the glassware section. "Of course, that make perfect sense," I told him as I thanked him for his help. All told our bill was 1,600,000 rupiah. It is like playing with Monopoly money. The exchange rate is about $100 US=1,000,000 rupiah.

The best part of the trip came when I bought a DVD player at Hypermart. When you buy one they pull it out of the box and hook it up to make sure it works for you. They popped in a Michael Jackson DVD and so I did some dance moves for the employees which got big smiles and clapping. They wanted to see the Moon Walk but I had to tell them I had on the wrong shoes. Maybe next time.

Photo of the Journey

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We Made It!

Well we finally made it to Rumbai Camp, Sumatra, Indonesia. It is extremely beautiful, looking as if we are actually in the jungle, because we are. We have bamboo trees as well as starfruit trees and Kade was floored to learn that he has his very own coconut tree. In fact we saw 5 monkeys walking in front of our house today not 30 feet from us. It is all still sinking in that we are really here.

As beautiful as all of this is there were a few times yesterday that I was unsure if getting here was really going to happen. Our day started off by leaving our Hotel in Singapore at 7 AM which sounds good except jet lag had the Getzingers up at 3:30 AM. At least we were ready to leave on time which isn’t always the case with us. Next came getting 16 pieces of checked bags loaded into a vans which can take some doing.

After we were all loaded we went the Singapore airline to get on Garuda Indonesian Air. A little different set up then say, United, who we flew to get to Singapore. First we get to the check in for baggage and the girl’s face was priceless when we said that we had 16 bags to check. Now here is where the day starts down the wrong path. First out bags were 50 lbs. per United Airlines requirements. In Asia the amount allowed in 44 lbs (20 kgs) In the US you are allowed 2 bags for each passenger so we had to pay for 6 bags extra out of Seatac.

Well now they are telling us that because we were in Singapore for more then 24 hours we had to pay again and not only that, because we would be going from an international flight (Singapore to Jakarta) and then switching to a domestic flight (Jakarta to Pekanbaru, Sumatra) we would be paying again once we landed in Jakarta. Now the real kick in the pants is that for a regional flight on Garuda Air (which includes Singapore to Indonesia) you are only allowed one 44 lb. bag per passenger which means we are paying for 11 extra bags not just 6 bags we paid at Seatac, as well as the 6 lb. over per bag ($2,200 in all)...TWICE! Well my expression must have been priceless as well because our Principal who met up with us in Singapore said, “Well that is just not acceptable!” and put in on the school’s plastic. She has been amazing this whole time making sure that things are taken care of and helping us through the travel difficulties.

Next up we get to Jakarta for a solid 4 hour layover. It was good that we had it because we had more difficulty with the luggage as we had to clear customs and then get all of it to the check in counter. I don’t know how she did it but Lory, our principal, was able to talk them out of having us pay again. Our 4 our layover became 5 hours as our flight was delayed.

Now I haven’t mentioned this, but picture our day of travel with not just Kade, Sydney, and Brooklyn, but also with our principal and her husband, the new principal and his wife heading to our sister school and another new teaching couple with 3 kids of their own ages four, three, and one and a half. All of the kids did really well (even Brooklyn) but it was a long day for all of us.

Finally we get out of Jakarta and on to a plane bound for Pekanbaru. Our airplane was a Boeing 737 circa 1981. Kade’s tray table would not lock into the fully upright and locked position when we boarded so I had to take a seat in the back of the plane all by my lonesome while Kathi and kids sat up front. The planes interior looked like that of 1976 AMC Pacer and was in about the same condition as you would expect of such a finely manufactured piece of machinery this many years later. A boy actually pulled of the armrest of the seat across from the isle from me. No lie.

Once we set the “Spirit of Jakarta” down on Sumatra and I kissed the ground that we made it off of the plane in better shape than that armrest, we are met by another couple from the school and Chevron and we board a tour style bus to head for home. They even had Diet Coke on the bus waiting for us. That was a little slice of heaven right there!

When we got all of our suitcases in the house the bus went on to the next house to drop of the next couple. We were finally home. Our cook had stayed late and had a great dinner hot and ready for us even though we were 2 hours late. After she left we took stock of our house and it is very nice. Tile throughout and extremely high ceilings. Kathi has already put up new curtains and is working to make it our own.

There is more to tell and Kathi will get up pictures soon. Right now she is asleep as we are still getting adjusted to the time change. Most of all we want to thank you all who have prayed for us as we have started this adventure. We have truly seen God working throughout this trip to make sure that we were able to arrive safely and with a sense of sanity. Please continue to pray that our family will adjust to our new surroundings and that this will be a great experience for our family.