Another week has blazed by and I am concerned that it is time for another update. I worry that our friends and family at home have become bored with the lengthy weekly reports and I will make every effort to be brief. Our lives have fallen into a pattern and I will try to focus only on those parts of the week that are unique.
One of the more interesting things that happened this week was the theft of Sister Kane's purse while we were shopping for groceries last week. She left her purse in the shopping cart while she turned to sort through a pile of oranges that she wanted to buy. It was not nearly as traumatic as I thought it might be as she didn't have much money in it. It was a real nuisance however as we had to cancel our credit card and replace the copies of the official documentation that we have to carry with us here. We never carry originals.
We were able to finally get our electrical and plumbing problems resolved. We finally just got the names of trades people from friends and called them. We paid for it ourselves and we were promised that we would be repaid by the owner. It is really amazing how inexpensive labor is in Indonesia. The electrician that we used spent a few hours buying parts and installing them and his labor cost us less than $ 4.00 Canadian. The parts cost us about $ 6.00. We had three plumbers over with a truck that they use to vacuum out septic tanks. They vacuumed out the septic tank, the plumbing lines and rebuilt the toilet for about $ 30.00 Canadian. I had some work done on our car this week and they replaced the two ball joints, put in a stabilizer kit, replaced a wheel bearing, and replaced all of the rubber bushings where the body attaches to the suspension points and it all cost about $ 200.00 Canadian. It really amazes us. The toughest part of getting things done here is finding someone you can trust. That is where your friends in the community come in.
We enjoyed a great Family Home Evening with the Lee family and four of the other missionaries last Monday evening. It was a great meal and a fun and spiritual evening. We also moved the missionaries into another house on Monday and it was a lot of work.
We attended a special seminar put on by the Cultural Attaché from the American Embassy at Pakuan University. We were invited to sit with the Rector and his wife and we were acknowledged as high profile guests throughout the proceedings. The Cultural Attaché gave a very interesting talk followed by a question and answer period.
I was able to get the e-mail addresses of some of the Rotary Clubs in Calgary and I sent a message of to them on behalf of the Bogor Rotary Club suggesting that the Calgary Clubs link up with the Bogor Club for some projects. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it.
We went to the Mission Home in Jakarta and got some information critical to our ability to provide meaningful reports on the projects that we are responsible for and we had a number of other meetings. We made the mistake of trying to get out of Jakarta at 5:00 PM and had to grind through the misery of the traffic. The reason that we left so late was we stopped at a special crafts mall. It is a really remarkable place with some of the most interesting and beautiful handicrafts in the world.
I managed to complete my talk last Sunday and I have been asked to speak at a missionary foreside tomorrow and I will do it in English as I do not have time to prepare in Bahasa Indonesia.
We had lots of English lessons to prepare and to teach and our favorite part continues to be teaching at Cipoko. I will attach a picture of a special catus flower that is rare and the bloom only opens at night. It was around 8:00 PM when this picture was taken and it will not have been in full bloom until around 11:00 PM. It operns and closes every night while it is in flower.
One of the more interesting things that happened this week was the theft of Sister Kane's purse while we were shopping for groceries last week. She left her purse in the shopping cart while she turned to sort through a pile of oranges that she wanted to buy. It was not nearly as traumatic as I thought it might be as she didn't have much money in it. It was a real nuisance however as we had to cancel our credit card and replace the copies of the official documentation that we have to carry with us here. We never carry originals.
We were able to finally get our electrical and plumbing problems resolved. We finally just got the names of trades people from friends and called them. We paid for it ourselves and we were promised that we would be repaid by the owner. It is really amazing how inexpensive labor is in Indonesia. The electrician that we used spent a few hours buying parts and installing them and his labor cost us less than $ 4.00 Canadian. The parts cost us about $ 6.00. We had three plumbers over with a truck that they use to vacuum out septic tanks. They vacuumed out the septic tank, the plumbing lines and rebuilt the toilet for about $ 30.00 Canadian. I had some work done on our car this week and they replaced the two ball joints, put in a stabilizer kit, replaced a wheel bearing, and replaced all of the rubber bushings where the body attaches to the suspension points and it all cost about $ 200.00 Canadian. It really amazes us. The toughest part of getting things done here is finding someone you can trust. That is where your friends in the community come in.
We enjoyed a great Family Home Evening with the Lee family and four of the other missionaries last Monday evening. It was a great meal and a fun and spiritual evening. We also moved the missionaries into another house on Monday and it was a lot of work.
We attended a special seminar put on by the Cultural Attaché from the American Embassy at Pakuan University. We were invited to sit with the Rector and his wife and we were acknowledged as high profile guests throughout the proceedings. The Cultural Attaché gave a very interesting talk followed by a question and answer period.
I was able to get the e-mail addresses of some of the Rotary Clubs in Calgary and I sent a message of to them on behalf of the Bogor Rotary Club suggesting that the Calgary Clubs link up with the Bogor Club for some projects. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it.
We went to the Mission Home in Jakarta and got some information critical to our ability to provide meaningful reports on the projects that we are responsible for and we had a number of other meetings. We made the mistake of trying to get out of Jakarta at 5:00 PM and had to grind through the misery of the traffic. The reason that we left so late was we stopped at a special crafts mall. It is a really remarkable place with some of the most interesting and beautiful handicrafts in the world.
I managed to complete my talk last Sunday and I have been asked to speak at a missionary foreside tomorrow and I will do it in English as I do not have time to prepare in Bahasa Indonesia.
We had lots of English lessons to prepare and to teach and our favorite part continues to be teaching at Cipoko. I will attach a picture of a special catus flower that is rare and the bloom only opens at night. It was around 8:00 PM when this picture was taken and it will not have been in full bloom until around 11:00 PM. It operns and closes every night while it is in flower.
We pray that you are all well. We are incredibly thankful to be in Indonesia as missionaries and pray that we can use our time effectively.
Love
Elder and Sister Kane
P.S. We are forwarding this on at Sister Kanes request. Please have a careful look at it.
http://egg.d21c.com/egg.swf
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