Indonesian Football

Boy Scout Camp Out

What camp out would be complete without smores!
Learning to build a fire

Tying Knots

Valentines Day

Valentine's Day was very special this year. This year our whole staff along with two of the Chevron couples went out for a very fun evening. There is a little back story here so here goes:

Every year our school holds a Student Council fund raiser to support our Community Service Fund. It is a dinner auction which features some great items such as hand made furniture, quilts, art and much more. One of the big items has typically been a special dinner the head of Chevron here in Rumbai. This has been an awesome item over the years that always brings in some big money. Well this year that item was not on the auction block due to circumstances beyond our control.

We needed to replace that big ticket item somehow. That meant that we had to come up with something. We decided that we would put a "Night Out with the Teachers" up. Our motto was "Bid High, Set Your Expectations Low." We made a little video to promote it that was that.

The lucky winners got to only pick the evening of the event and a couple to bring along. They were left to wonder what was going to take place that night. The pictures are the result of our evening. By the way this experience went higher then we expected.

It started with a dinner at a nice hotel here in Pekanbaru. They serve a very good steak. First they put an apron on you to keep you clean. Next they bring out to you a "hot stone" with your rare steak on it. You proceed to season your steak and cook it on this super heated stone at your table in front of you. Imagine a fajita coming out but you get to do the cooking. As you can see in the picture this creates a lot of smoke. Now imagine 11 of those steaks all cooking at roughly the same time. We only set off the smoke alarm in the restaurant once. We were really getting some looks from the other patrons for sure.

Next up was a Karaoke Session at a local Karaoke establishment. Karaoke is big here as it seems to be all over Asia. It is not like back in the states where you would go to a bar and sing in front of the whole place. Here you rent a room based on the number of people in your group and it is a private affair. Our room was actually very big and even had it's own bathroom. We all had a good time singing along with all sorts of music.

The final event of the evening was a prank of an unsuspecting house here on camp. I think we did a great job of decorating. Luckily they have a gardener to clean up the mess.

Next year will be even bigger and better I am sure!

Smoke em' if you got em'.

"Sweet Caroline...bum, bum, bum."

This picture doesn't show the cool lawn art that was purchased and placed in the grass. Think Indonesian Lawn Gnomes.

The lucky winners of "A Night Out With the Teachers" down in front. We had special shirts made for the guys and tiaras for the girls.

Chinese Dragon Dance

They're back. I.S.R. again hosted a group of Chinese Dragon dancers to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was only about 3 weeks late. They do a great job with the dance and the kids have a ball watching the performance. They had some new dragons this year and they were much more colorful than last year.

We have always called Brooklyn our little dragon and now we have proof!

Mmm...Chocolate

Kathi, Brooklyn and I took a quick trip to Kuala Lumpur this past weekend. We took the 45 minute flight out on Saturday morning and came back on Sunday afternoon. We were low on groceries that are unavailable here on the island. As you can see from the suitcase we were able to replenish our supplies. It looks here like all we got was junk food but the real reason we wanted to go was to get our hands on some real Cheddar Cheese and Pork. Ah, yes. Pork; the other white meat.

It was a trip that saw us spend pretty much all of our time in grocery stores and malls so not what I would call exciting stuff. The part that was great was that we were able to spend some quality time with just Brooklyn. She loved that she got all of our attention. She did say though that she missed Kade. We asked if she missed Sydney too and she showed off her comedic side and told us that, "No, Sydney would be ok without her." For some reason Brooklyn always sells Syd down the river. Whenever she draws pictures of our family she puts smiles on everyone but Sydney. Her standard look for Syd is either a frown or she draws her in a jail. She always shows Syd her drawings to loud fits of laughter. She thinks she is pretty funny.

Outside the KL towers

A Chinese New Year decoration at the airport.

Happy Valentines Day!

Heart Stripe Red Valentine's Day Card

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Valentines in Hawaii

Middle School Loves Hawaii!

I can Fly!

Brooklyn jumping off the diving board.

Esti our hulu teacher

Smoothie Bar

Brooklyn teaching Dylan what she learned in Hulu class.

Saturday was the annual ISR Valentines Party. This years theme was "Valentines in Hawaii". It was so much fun! When ISR parents plan a party they think out every little detail. Each boy received a custom made Hawaiian shirt, and the girls were all given hulu skirts and lais. And what Hawaiian party would be complete without hulu lessons and a smoothie bar.

Thanks to Brooklyn's pal "Mr. Pablo" she decided to top off the afternoon by jumping of the diving board. Brooklyn doesn't like heights but with a little sweet talking from Mr. Pablo she gave it a try and LOVED it. She must have jumped off the diving board at least a hundred times.

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

On a routine trip to the commissary here on camp to pick up some milk and toiletries I had a unique experience. I was at the cash register and no one was there to help me. Finally the checkout girl comes running up to the front of the store to help me. Another worker runs to the front of the store and through a door to the back carrying a long pole with a duster on the end of it. I asked the girl what was going on and she told me that there was a big animal loose in the back of the store.

I asked her what kind of animal. She told me that it was a crocodile. Now I have been in camp for almost two years and I have never heard of a crocodile around camp. So I asked if could go back and check it out. This should be something to see. So I headed to the back of the store to see what a crocodile was like here in Sumatra. I saw one of the workers on his hands and knees with the aforementioned pole poking it under a cabinet. After a minute or so out pops a 5 foot long monitor lizard. He ran down a long hallway at top speed. Instead of taking a right out the door he took a left into the expired product section of the back area. He again hid under some things. The workers all were standing on the top of bags of rice with their mops and brooms trying to prod him out from under the items. He finally came out and ran right by me out the back door. I thought that was a rather unique experience.

Chinese New Year in Pekanbaru

Brooklyn dresses in her traditional dress along with jeans to ward off the mosquitoes.

Kade practices his drum skills.

There is a significant Chinese population in Pekanbaru. This means that Chinese New Year is celebrated here by a few days of ceremonies and parades. On Wednesday we decided to head into town to take it in. We went to China Town to see what was there for us. We found an area that was celebrating. There were hanging lanterns as well as traditional drums and statues there for all to see. We made sure we dressed in red for the event. It was very neat to see all of the people out celebrating. The people there told us that the next day there was going to be parades and ceremonies all day. Unfortunately we had school so we couldn't make it back. Still the kids had a good time and we got to see some cool things.