My students

Quiz on Students at SPH.

In an attempt to be Teacherly (sic), I have prepared a short quiz about students at SPH. It will be a fun way of telling you my perceptions of them (which after only one month, may be way off).

True or False.

___1. Students here sport the latest Kobe Bryant and Lebron James basketball shoes

___2. Public affection between males and females is common.

___3. Because of uniforms, dress code violations are minimal.

___4. In class, the front seats are the most coveted seats.

___5. Students here are more talkative here than at Rehoboth.

___6. The writing abilities of my students are better than anywhere else I have taught.

___7. Students here are "gadget freaks", and often have the latest camera, IPhone, or MP3 player.


(see answers below picture)

My homeroom (grade 11)

Answers:

True- Members of the basketball team all have the latest expensive Kobe, Lebron, ect… shoes.
False- Haven’t observed this at all and don’t think I will.
False- Uniforms only add an element of challenge in the drive for individuality. Even though boys have to wear white shirts, red ties, blue pants, white socks and black shoes, they still forever push the boundaries (top button undone when it should be done, pants sag way down when it shouldn’t, shoes with markings of white instead of pure black, ect…).
True- Students complain when I put them in the back. I finally arranged my room to have 8 desks in the front row instead to 6 to accommodate more students.
True- These kids all LOVE to talk. Unsupervised classrooms, chapels and hallways are loud with talking (in Bahasa) and laughing. In my quest to find a culture where teenage girls don't giggle, yell and scream, I have failed miserably.
False- So far, I have not been impressed with the students writing ability here. Although, because English is their second language, it shouldn't be too surprising.

True- Ipod touch, Blackberries, IPhones.... I can't keep them all straight... but the students sure do.

I hope this gives you a bit of information about the kids I teach without stereo typing them too much. Please write or comment if you have questions.

sweeda

Churches

A common email a few years ago was this:

Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?

Answer: Princess Diana's death.

An English princess, with an Egyptian boyfriend, crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car, with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, chased by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; was treated by an American doctor, using medicines found in Brazil. This is sent to you by an American, and you're probably reading this on your computer,that use Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers, in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....

Here is my attempt at the same joke… about the Global Church.

Question: What is the truest definition of Christian Globalization?

Answer: The church we went to in Indonesia the first week we were here.

The church service was led in English (through a thick Dutch brogue) by a Hollander (named William Hekman), who spent 30 years as a missionary in Papua. The sermon was preached by a German citizen of Middle East extraction (Lebanese, I think). Worship was lead by Chinese Indonesians and a men’s chorus of young African men (young Nigerians and other West Africans who got to Indonesia by unscrupulous agents who promise them large professional soccer contracts here only to take their money). The service was attended by a mix of Native Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians, Africans, Canadians, Europeans, Americans and Australians.

Following a promise to truly experience as many different churches as possible before settling in to one, since week one, we have made the rounds to many different churches. Here is a sampling:

* A Reformed fellowship led by a Chinese Indonesian Billionaire turned hardcore Calvinist (google James Riady to find out more—he is also the founder of SPH)
* Two truly Pentecostal services (speaking in tongues ect…)
* An Assemblies of God service where the music was so loud Janet said she just wanted to “run away”
* A non denominational service at a Bank building in downturn Jakarta
* A Saturday night service where people sit around tables (to discuss the sermon)

Next week we hope to attend All Saints Anglican Church which promises to be a completely different experience! Below are just a few thoughts on churches here so far:

* While Church buildings are around, most new churches meet in convention centers, country clubs, banquet halls, to avoid unwanted attention from a majority Muslim country. In spite of this they still are very outreach oriented (by bringing friends and neighbors ect.). Many churches have security guards (see picture below).

Security gaurd outside Church service

* All but one of the churches we have attended consist of mostly Asians (Chinese Indonesians)
* These churches are all less than 20 years old showing the growth of the church in Asia.
* Most churches here are very “intentional” in style. What I mean by this is that personal piety (showing your faith) is important. Therefore dressing up for church is important, as well as getting into the service through loud singing and heavy emotions, not to mention fasting which many churches do. It is ironic because in North America, for better or worse, our churches seem to be getting away from “intentional” and moving towards “authentic” worship (feeling comfortable, not putting on false pretenses).

Keep in touch,

sweeda

Funny T- Shirt

Neil contemplates purchasing funny shirt and

hopefully NOT future career options.

The kinds of shirts found above are common in Indonesia as well as all non english speaking countries. English words, no matter what they say, convey modernity, youth and Western fashion. Right before we saw this shirt in a store, we spotted a man wearing a t shirt with the Intel logo which said "Insane Inside" (instead of "Intel inside"). In fact, there is a whole web site dedicated to these absurd t shirts and signs (www.engrish.com).

The next time you buy something with Asian lettering, you may want to find out what you are saying :)

Misc. Facts

Interesting things about living in Indonesia

-Fried Chicken is extremely popular. (KFC and Popeye’s are in every mall, A&W as well)
-Indonesians love LOUD pop music (old and new). Even while shopping in upscale department stores, prepare to be serenaded by Boys II Men or Gwen Stefani. Food Courts usually have large video boards with someone singing.
-People drive on the left side of the road here. I’m not sure where this came from since Indonesia was never a British Colony.
-Bahasa Indonesian is an easy language to learn. It is very phonetic and has no past tense.( I shouldn’t admit this since I still haven’t learned much of it)
-Indonesian currency (the rupiah) exchanges with the U.S. dollar at around 9100 to 1. Therefore a 1,000,000 rupiah equals just over $100. Eric and Neil are both quite proud that we are now millionaires.
-A popular fruit here is the Durian, a large spiky fruit (see picture), which smells terrible (think gag reflex). While locals love it, Fear Factor used it successfully on one of their shows. Every super market sells it and it makes the whole store smell.

Durian

- Much to Neil’s dismay, Supermarkets sell live turtles for eating .
-Cell phones (called hand phones) are every where and cheap. Even Janet and I are talking and texting, especially Janet. LOL (laugh out loud)

Janet texting with ease

-Indonesia has an amazing number of cultural influences. European influences from Dutch and Portuguese colonization, Arab influences from Islam, Asian influences from Japan, China and India (in art and architecture) and finally, American influences through media. All these are subtle but around.

- I once saw this bumper sticker in the states and thought it was quite funny, but I would have to say that there is more cheap crap here. Much of the stuff we initially bought (toasters, irons, TV’s, Phones) has already broke. It came from a store, aptly named Hyper-mart (evidence of American culture listed above). We had our first bad experience with food.

Hope this past week got sick with salmonella from undercooked chicken (she ate a bit before we realized it was undercooked). We will be more vigilant in the future.

ttul8r (talk to you later)

Margins

Margins

Indonesia, like all developing countries, exists on razor thin margins. Despite its incredible progress economically, the margin between safety and injury is measured in centimeters, not crash test ratings (see picture below). The margin between mob rule and rule of law is one financial crash away (as happened within the last 10 years), the margin between life and death is a mosquito bite (our maid is gone for a week to bury a brother killed by Dengue fever). The margin between freedom and persecution in worship is a few miles (Last Sunday a seminary in East Jakarta was burned down, injuring dozens).

Traffic in Jakarta on a Sunday afternoon (taken from a taxi)

Margins in our lives are now different. In some ways, we have wider margins (higher economic status relative to the rest of this country, more respect in society, more purchasing power with our money, a very safe part of the city) but in some ways, we have the same razor thin margins listed above.

About a half a year ago, Pastor Rob Byker preached on gleaning, with one of the points being that God calls us in the blessed parts of our lives to cuts our fields wide, therefore leaving lots of grain in the fields for those in need.

We pray that where we have wide margins in Indonesia, we can cut them wide providing Light and Truth to those around us and we also pray that were we have thin margins we will trust in God’s providence to care for us.

First Day of School

Hope's first day of school- wide brim hat is an Aussie school tradition

Thank you Meester Stephen



Titles are important in Indonesia-- It stands for who you are. Therefore it is very important that all Expatriot men are addressed as Mr. (pronounced meester) and all female expats as miss (pronounced mees). In the same way Indonesian men are titled Pak and females are called Ibu (ee boo). It is also extremely important that students are courteous to their teachers (whom they address with their first name). This all led to the statement above (Thank you Meester Stephen) which was the most common thing I heard today-- the first day of school.