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!