The Gift of Mobility

Originally Posted Jan. 26th 2007

Dear friends and family,

It is Friday evening and another remarkable week has flown by at lightning speed. Last Saturday we headed off to Jakarta with the Sister missionaries in tow, to attend a formal adoption ceremony for the Mission President and his wife. They were being adopted into a prestigious family in Java that dates back to the last Javanese King , who died in a battle with the Dutch in 1907. We were told that it would be formal but we didn't know what to expect.

The drive into Jakarta was atypical and we made it to the university in record time. We got there in less than an hour as it was a holiday because it was the Muslim New Year and the traffic was relatively light. As a consequence, we had time to visit the precious stone market in Jakarta before we went to the ceremony. The place was filled with precious an semi-precious jewels as bargain basement prices. Our driver used to be a precious stones trader and was great fun to have along with us. We bought 4, I/4 carat faceted cubic zirconium stones for about 25 cents each.

The head of the university is the person responsible for the adoption of the Mission President and his wife, who were being adopted in as a full brother and sister. We were told that it would be a formal affair but had no idea what we were in for. There was an Indonesian Navy Honor Guard and everyone was dressed to the 9s, including President and Sister Jensen, who were in special costumes, made for the ceremony. No expense was spared for the event. There was a live band, a troop of the most beautiful Indonesian classical dancers in the world, great food and a non-stop unfolding of local customs that made for a great afternoon. It was an extravaganza and all of the adult missionaries and the mission home missionaries were treated like dignitaries. The heads of the families, their direct families, the Mission president and his wife and the senior missionaries were all part of the entry procession. We all had to follow the Indonesian dancers under the drawn swords of the honor guard, with the beautiful Indonesian flute and folk music playing as we entered the grand hall. It was not something we ever imagined doing on our mission.

The formal wear is very impressive, especially for the women, who were all decked out in fancy Indonesian dress; except for the nannies, whose job it was to look after the children in their care. Watching the nannies look after the children in this formal environment was very interesting. Each child from the family had their own nanny, who stuck to them like glue. There was a relationship between the nanny and the children that was fascinating. The children and the nannies never seemed to make eye contact, yet the children were very quick to respond to their direction. Whenever the nannies intervened, it was always from behind the child. It seemed clear that there was a close bond between them but an unusual one for our western culture. Except for being so out of place by reason of their ordinary clothing, the nannies could almost have been invisible and hardly a word ever passed between the nannies and anyone at all, including the parents. Everyone seemed to just know what needed doing with never speaking about it.

Most of the traditional music during the event was fun, except for one irritating reed instrument that was hard on a western ear. It bleated and didn't seem to have a lot of rhythm or clarity. The western style music was impressive but Elder Tutau ( A handsome skinny Tongan - I didn't think there were any skinny Tongans but there he is ) stole the show. He is a gifted entertainer and would have been the star of the show even if he had stuck to an English repertoire. It was when he broke out with an obviously famous and much loved Indonesian song that he turned the crowd into putty in his masterful hands. He is a tall dark and handsome young Elder that comes alive in the spotlight and he shone like the star he is. However brilliant Elder Tutau's performance was, it could not outshine the impression left by the Indonesian dancers. Each one was as beautiful as a fairytale princess and dressed identically in the local costume. They danced in the most dignified asian style and dazzled the crowd.

The Indonesian food is spiced exactly to our taste and we seem to love most all of it. The only real surprise was when they brought in the roasted head, skin, legs, hooves, and tail of the water buffalo; eyeballs and all. It was brought in on a ceremonial tray It was part of the ceremony when the host gives a part of the carcass to the visiting families. Happily the westerners were not included.

As the festivities bore on, President and sister Jensen sat patiently in the middle of a raised platform, with their hosts on either end of the platform. They were eventually outfitted with woven wraps ( made of elaborately woven material shaped like blankets ) and head-dresses. The process was surprisingly similar to some western Indian ceremonies I have attended. They were quite a picture when it was over. The whole thing was covered by a TV crew and the highlights of the party were shown on national television the following evening.

The last person to receive this honor was the governor of Java in 1979. The relationship between ranking members of government and the church in Indonesia is very long standing. President Jensen was eventually called upon to speak . It was fun to hear how he blended in the eternal principles to the audience. A wheelchair was given away to an aged recipient and the ceremony came to a close after all of the visitors from the mission ( including us ) were given beautiful woven wraps. It was a great event.

Indonesians appear to be heavy smokers and there was no smoking allowed in the banquet hall. That was certainly not the case in the foyer outside the hall, where a secondary feast was underway. All of the drivers and servants of the wealthy people inside the hall, along with all of those who just needed a smoke, were having their own party and you could have cut the blue smoke with a knife. After the party we headed off home to Bogor and went out to diner with the Lee family.

Sunday was a quiet day. We took a taxi to church because the Lee family was off on a church assignment. At church we met a fine young man from Afghanistan that joined the church and can never go home as a consequence. He is now an international refugee waiting for some country to accept him. In the afternoon we rested and studied Indonesian.

Monday started off with our Bahasa Indonesian teacher coming here at 7:30 for our first one hour lesson. Our Bahasa vocabulary is still limited but we have enough to be able to begin saying simple sentences and asking very simple questions. The hour flew by and Janet ( or teacher ) seemed to enjoy it and it was a great help to us.

One NGO partner ( Leanny ) sent over a truck to pick up 11 wheel chairs at 8:00 AM. We picked up Leanny at 9:30 took the wheelchairs to the homes of extremely needy people. Most of them were aged adult stroke victims. One was a 23 year old young woman that had suffered severe harm from a fever two years earlier. She could not stand. She moved around in a squatting position by walking on her hands and feet. One elderly woman had been bedridden for two years and had not seen sunshine or been out of her bed. You could see that it was painful for her to be in the chair as she had lost all flexibility in her back. One ten year old child was severely crippled by polio that struck her down two years ago. She was small for her age when the polio struck and now she was even further behind in her development. Another young man had been crippled from birth. It was quite an experience as we wound our way through the labyrinth of tiny cement walkways and streets and jungle paths of the poorest parts of the outskirts of Bogor.

One poor neighborhood that we visited was in a small spot directly between the wealthiest neighborhood in Bogor and the wealthiest cemetery, where people spend a fortune building elaborate burial sites for the dead parents. It had a strange feel to it.

For me the most tragic scene of the day was seeing the little 10 year old girl hopelessly crippled by Polio, a preventable disease for which inoculations are provided by the Indonesian government free of charge. Many of these poor villagers are barely literate and don't know about the inoculations or don't trust them. It is tragic.

This wheelchair distribution process was somewhat different from the experience of last week. It is hard to know exactly how or why. It was raining and that changed the whole feel of the day. We visited with several Luras ( the head of the area ) and their staff as we never give out wheelchairs except with the approval of the local authorities. Perhaps we were in a bit of a rush and we may have been less relaxed and limited in our capacity to enjoy the full spirit of the work in which we were engaged. It did seem that the people we visited were somehow less prepared to receive the wheelchairs. It struck me that the attitude of the receiver has a significant influence on the experience of the giver and I reflected on how much more joyful the experience of giving is, when there is a spirit of gratitude demonstrated. I thought about the sacrifice of the Savior and those prophets that have given their lives and how casual we can be about it all. I thought of the inoculations that we have been given to protect us and our families from the ravages of deadly and crippling diseases. I thought about how much we just take it all for granted and show such limited gratitude or appreciation.

We stopped briefly at a cottage industry that had been helped by Latter Day Saint Charities by way of a micro-loan ( we were advised that the loan was about $ 110.00 ) that had been given to them several years ago for materials and basic equipment such as scissors. The business seemed to be booming and employed about 5 - 6 people. The loan had been repaid. It was not the kind of work that we would aspire to but they seemed to be fully engaged and had broad smiles for us. We promised that we would return to the area and review more of the cottage industries.

We then stopped by an area where there was a request to have a portion of a creek covered over in one district. As it turned out the request was from Leanny's boss at the university, who lives beside the creek. It seemed to us that very little would be accomplished by this investment other than to enhance the value of the boss's property. We advised him of that as politely as possible and left. I had asked Tauffic ( our architect and water expert ) to come with us to look at it because On the way home Leanny admitted that the only reason that she submitted the project was because it came from her boss at the University and it would have been awkward for her to say no. She was satisfied that the right decision had been made and that she could now go back to her boss and report that she had done her duty.

We met with Tauffic in the evening and scheduled a visit to the Cikidang water project next week. We also scheduled a visit and hike to the mountain tops to see the cleanest water in the area.

On Tuesday we had out language lesson and then for fun we looked at a magnificent Bali style house in our neighborhood that was selling for $ 220,000.00 ( US $ ). It is the stuff that dreams are made of but not at this time. We tracked down a copy of Microsoft office 2003 and installed it on our computer and can now prepare the project submissions. We went grocery shopping and paid bills. We bought malaria pills for 20 cents a pack of 4 to take before we go out to the water projects next week. A pack of 4 in the US cost $ 60.00.

We attended the Bogor Rotary Club meeting at 6:30 PM. The group was very small, with only 5 members present but they are doing great things, one of which is to provide free corrective surgery to those babies born with hair lips and cleft palates. It is a marvelous thing that they are doing.

On Wednesday we had our language class and Sister Kane is really struggling with the vocabulary, which is entirely foreign. We had a District meeting with the other Bogor missionaries and enjoyed it. We loaded up five wheelchairs and took them over to an NGOs home and participated in a large organization meeting for an event that will be providing free medical and dental check ups for the poor on March 5. They have 20 doctors and dentists lined up to provide the services and they expect over 2000 people to come. They asked the church for some support in the registration process and we will see what I can do to be of assistance. While we were there we another German woman who runs a free school for the poor in Bogor. We will tour the school with her on Saturday. She wants us to have us teach English there once a week and it would be nice but we need to be cautious about our time.

At 5:00 PM we met with the landlord to discuss the lease for our house and we were informed that the lease would cost us 80,000,000 ( $ 10,000.00 Canadian ) Rupiah for the duration of our mission, whether we stayed for 16 months or 18 months. We asked for one week to consider it and we will have a look around as we really do not need such a large house. If we could find something smaller it would be fine with us. If we cannot then we will pay the money and get on with it.

Thursday was a long but gratifying day. We had a wonderful morning out delivering 5 wheelchairs. We went to two different areas of Bogor. We gave two wheelchairs away at the public service office in the area with lots of civil dignitaries present and it was a memorable experience as we heard these Moslem civic leaders speak so kindly about the work that the Latter Day Saint Charities has done in their area and in Indonesia overall. The church has a surprisingly significant public profile in Indonesia and seems to be well known and highly regarded everywhere we go. The wheelchair recipients there were both disabled from birth. The handover ceremony was brief and moving and full of pictures and smiles. I actually practiced my very limited Indonesian and said a few lines. I had the same opportunity at the three other homes that we went to deliver wheel chairs, one of which was a little girl that appeared to have suffered from polio, although the mother didn't know as it had never been diagnosed. At every home the immediate community gathered and I stammered out a few more words in Indonesian. It is a small start to a very long process. It was a joy to be able to thank them through the interpreter and to comment that we were all players on Gods team to serve the needs of the needy and that we could all feel the joy in our hearts as payment from God for our contribution.

Indonesia is a culture that is very comfortable discussing spiritual things openly and every civil servant that spoke at the gatherings asked that Gods blessing would be poured out upon us as a consequence of our work here. It is a world full of poverty, modesty, humility, and amazing smiles. It is a culture of kindness and gentleness. We are privileged to be here. One of the interesting qualities on Indonesia is that it is free from any overt signs of pornography, anywhere.

In the afternoon we looked at a house that we might rent and bought some groceries and I bought a typical Indonesian batik shirt and we both got hiking shoes for the water projects. In Indonesia a long sleeved batik shirt is considered to be very formal attire, suitable for weddings and high society events. In the evening we taught another English class at the chapel and enjoyed it.

Today began at 7:30 when our Indonesian teacher arrived and started her lesson. We find her coaching to be helpful. We ended the class a little early as we needed to be off to the International Garment Training Centre for their graduation exercise. It was a really impressive event. The garment business is a significant part of Indonesia's export trade and is a large part of their economy. The school was originated and is run by one of the German Expats from the Rotary Club, who retired from the garment business after a successful career. He sold his companies 7 years ago and has been doing this since. He works for free and is a keen believer in what he is doing. The school has several hundred students who live in residence, most of whom come from the Ache area that was the hardest hit from the Tsunami. The graduating class of 39 was entirely supported by scholarships from private sector contributors. The graduation exercise included an impressive fashion show with models and clothing created by the graduating students. It was great fun and we have been asked to consider teaching some courses there. The graduation exercise went until almost noon and we then headed off the school where we teach English. We met with Maman at the school from 12:50 until the class started and he agreed to help teach the teachers using the curriculum and text book that we gave him. It is a great asset and he will benefit from it very much if he just commits himself to the process and the material. We will continue to go there every two weeks and they will have three lessons a week from Maman, which we will review when we go there. We love teaching there.
We are privileged to be able to be of service here and pray that we will be effective in all we do. We pray for ongoing guidance and for our friends and family at home.

Elder and Sister Kane