Originally Posted 3rd of February 2007
Dear friends and family,
I am resending the weekly report as we have ben informed that many of you could not open the document we attached to the last e-mail message. In the meanwhile I seem to have fugured out how to paste it into this e-mail message. Sorry for the inconveneience if you have received it on the previous message and you were able to open it. This meaasge is the same only it doesn't have any pictures attached. The flooding in Jakarta continues as does the rain herer. It is now 1:15 PM on Sunday 4 February. Sister Kane did not go to church today as she came down with a serious head cold and just wasn't feeling up to it. I went without her and bore testimony in Bahasa Indonesia. Apparently I only made one error which I was able to happily correct immediately. As in english there are many words that sound very similar. Instead of telling them that I wanted to share a message with them I was in the process of telling them that I wanted to become a pig. I'm glad I recognized the error and got it out correctly or there would have been many confused faces.
It is noon on another Saturday as the rain pours down and Bogor earns its reputation as the " Rainy City " . We have had a lot of rain over the course of the week and all of the rivers in this section of Indonesia run towards Jakarta, which is flooding as I write. We have had one day ( Tuesday ) where it did not rain at all up in the Highlands; and that day happened to be my birthday. We were taking a tour of a water project that is under construction in a place called Cikidang. It is a magnificent area very high in the back country. It is the kind of place we would pay a lot of money to be able to hike in and we were there as part of our mission. We walked about 8 Kilometers over the course of the day and we enjoyed every step. The sun was very strong but at that altitude the temperature was perfect and there was a god breeze all day. It is the stuff that dreams are made of and we will send a few pictures along with this message.
I am now officially 60 years old and it feels quite odd to say that. I pray that I can use my " golden years wisely.
Our daily scripture study is guided by one of the greatest publications of the church, " Preach My Gospel " and it really makes scripture study wonderful. We have also really enjoyed our morning Indonesian lessons, which we had every day but Tuesday as we were off to the high country early in the morning. Learning Indonesian is a real agony/ecstasy experience depending on what you focus on. When we look at how much we have learned it is wonderful. When we look at how much we have learned compared to how much there is to know, it is frustrating. Our teacher is kind and patient and we have a lot of laughs and the lessons are well structured and you can really see the progress, if you can remember the vocabulary. Up to this point, the grammatical structure of the language is very simple so it is all about vocabulary, and there is a lot of it to know. Tomorrow is Fast Sunday at church and we have made a commitment to bear testimony in Bahasa Indonesian. I hope that it goes well.
Following our meeting with the landlord last week we decided to take a good look at the rental market before we extended our lease as the price that the landlord wanted seemed high relative to the market. As time was available over the course of the week we looked at places. It seems to us that most of the houses in Indonesia have been constructed and designed to keep the sun out, which tends to make them appear a little dreary. The tropical environment seems to be hard on paint and varnish and the general appearance of many houses seems to be below standard for our taste. We were able to find one home that is acceptable and we put a deposit on it and the landlord was supposed to sign the lease yesterday but got trapped in Jakarta because of the floods. We hope that this gets rectified soon as we have served notice with our landlord.
The location of the house we are leaving is excellent and the place we are moving to is a little further out ( Bogor Lakeside ). It is a very large residential area with wonderful places to walk. It also has a very classy golf course and swimming pool, if we are ever in the mood. The Mission President gave us permission to take in the occasional round of golf and swimming as opportunity permits.
The new location got us thinking about transportation on weekends and we decided to buy an older car while we are here and we can drive it on weekends. The mission President advised me on the process of getting a drivers license and we will do it as soon as possible.
Last Saturday was great fun. Ghezine came over and picked us up at 9:30 to take us to her school. Ghezine is a woman who started the school at her own cost and runs it with donations that she gets from corporate sponsors. It is fairly close to our house and we have been asked to teach there. We attended their Saturday morning " Sharing Meeting ", where the young men and women ( around 18 years old ) gather and talk about issues under the direction of a teacher. As fate would have it Ibu ( Mrs. ) Faisal was leading the discussion when we got there. She is one of our NGO partners, and was influential in getting the mushroom projects going at the orphanages. She is a really an impressive woman, who is kind, joyful, very well educated. She speaks outstanding English. Her husband did his Masters degree and PhD in agriculture in American universities and she lived in the US for many years while he was in school. She teaches moral values and her strategy is to try to help the young people understand that Gods commandments liberate us instead of control us. It is a great goal and a significant challenge as all of these smiling youth come from very difficult circumstances. We were introduced to the group and we were asked questions that led to a discussion that we enjoyed. The group then put on a " Cave Man " dance that was great fun to watch and you got a picture of them earlier in the week.
In the afternoon we went shopping for a birthday cake and took an encot to and from the shopping centre and we bought a cake and some tomatoes that Sister Kane used to make her famous bean dip. It was a big hit later in the evening. We went out to diner at a fancy restaurant with the Lee family and Tauffic and his family and we had a fun evening. There were 9 of us at a fancy restaurant and the total bill came to about $ 60.00 Canadian.
The distribution of wheelchairs last week was covered by a newspaper article that I read this week ( after translation ) The wheelchairs were distributed under the influence of our most active NGO partner, who uses her remarkable network with the Luras ( heads of the villages ) to identify needy candidates. The Luras are involved in a ceremonial " handover " of a wheelchair before the actual distribution begins in their area. Leanny's network with the community structure is a mixed blessing that must be handled delicately. Her political profile has blurred the clarity of the role of the LDSC in the article. The local newspaper article did not even mention the name of the church. We had been unaware that any newspaper coverage had been arranged. Even if we had known about it we were not sufficiently experienced to have been able to ask the right questions or direct the matter appropriately. The same mistake will not be made again. Leanny has been a powerful and positive influence on the humanitarian work in the Bogor area in the past and still has great capacity to be of service but she needs to be more tightly controlled.
I finally figured out how to get the Project Proposal process going and have initiated discussion and examination on the proposal to provide MCKs to a group of people that have been displaced because of landslides. The ensuing discussions led to the arrangements for a meeting with the Indonesian Directing Council for Humanitarian Projects that will happen soon, as will a meeting with the Country Director. I believe that we have made a few " Rookie errors " in the administrative process and I am hoping that these meetings will help us learn.
On Thursday we taught two different English classes at two different locations and had our District Meeting. We took the encots home after the last class under the experienced guidance of the Sister Missionaries. It poured rain en route and our fold - up umbrellas were just not up to the task. I'm not convinced that even an extra large golf umbrella would have been sufficient. From our knees down we may as well have been standing in a river. It is all part of a great adventure.
We are thankful to be alive and part of this great work. We love the people here and we are becoming increasingly comfortable in our capacity to move around effectively on our own. We pray that we can be effective in all we do.
Elder and Sister Kane
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