Pictures of Vietnam

Our family enjoyed 8 days around Saigon, Vietnam over Christmas. Enjoy this vacation with us through our pictures!

Hope eats tropical fruit on a boat on the Mekong river

 Eric and Neil cooking at our homestay on the Mekong delta

Christmas day in the Ocean!

Eric shooting an AK-47 at Cu Chi tunnels

Hope bids farewell to Vietnam. She is wearing an Ao Dai (traditional Vietnamese dress)

 

Riverside at our homestay on the Mekong delta

 Hope in a trap door to the Cu Chi tunnels 

Open letter to HCM

Asian totalitarian despots used to provide for much of the world’s misery (think Pol Pot, Mao Tse Dung, Hirorito, Ho Chi Minh, Suharto and around 100 million killed in the last 75 years). While many of the regimes of these losers have faded away, some, such as North Korea, China and Vietnam still remain. In the case of Vietnam today, it is hard to believe this country is still communist and authoritarian as life seems quite free and good for the citizens as you walk around. While I am sure this is not always the case and there are still real examples of despotism in Vietnam, I thought I would make light of my perceptions of the many improvements in Vietnam in the entry below.

Dear Ho Chi Minh,

I feel the need to inform you regarding the alarming condition of your country after visiting the largest city in it which also happens to be named after you.
I am sure you were ecstatic following the triumph of your communist forces over South Vietnam in 1975 and the removal of all Imperialist (religious and capitalist influences) elements from your country with violence and wholesale re education of all those deemed threats to your new utopia.

When I first visited your country in 1990, things seemed to have slipped a bit. While still a rigidly and dogmatically a communist country, there were small scale businesses popping up everywhere, so much so that my professor, who had traveled to almost every communist country, was amazed at the entrepreneurial spirit of Vietnam and the tolerance of it by your government.

When I returned this year, I found even more un communist influences. On top of small scale industries, foreign multinational companies now exist everywhere—Toyota, Ford, Pizza Hut, Yamaha, Sony, etc….). While I was there, the local communist english newspaper even interviewed the Japanese trade minister and criticized his country’s companies… for not investing enough capital, I mean CAPITAL, in Vietnam!

Also unlike 1990, religious life seems vibrant. When I visited in 1990, the group I was in had to smuggle Bibles and a keyboard into the country for Christians there, who were in hiding. Other religious influences were not present. Now, religious things seemed everywhere. Buddhist shrines were at almost every business, catholic saints were spotted on the dashboards of many cars and mass was conducted at churches. The largest statue of Jesus in Asia, which was completed in 1993, even stands over the city of Vung Tau. I believe it is even larger than any statue of you in the country!

Christ of Vung Tau

I hope you know that if this continues, your legacy is in doubt.

Just thought you should know,

Sweeda

Signing on the bottom line

Janet and I are both indecisive, compliant youngest children and it’s interesting to see our lives in hind sight. Most people fitting this description end up as mousy homebodies who never make it out of our parent’s clutches, much less out of our home towns. For me, branching out included 4 years of Calvin, a first job in Florida and a summer job in Washington D.C. For Janet, it meant college in Chicago, a summer in Germany and an early career in the U.S. Navy. After marriage, things seem to settle down in Rehoboth (my home town), but since 2007, something hit us and we first found ourselves in Lithuania for a summer and now in Indonesia. This continues as we now have signed on for our 4th year in Indonesia (school year 2011-2012).

However, we still remain who we are. If you doubt this try to find us at 9 PM on a Friday or Saturday night (in bed) or watch us try to decide as a family where to eat out on a Sunday noon (and laugh at the comic indecisiveness of us and our children). Regardless of who we are and what we will be called to do, we know as we start a new year “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Happy New Year.

Typos

In 1994 Soccer World Cup, Orlando (where Janet and I lived at the time) hosted a group that included Dutch national team.  Orlando vendors were ready for the onslought of Morrocan, Dutch and Belgian fans.  Unfortunately, the vendors assumed that the Dutch team would use their national colors (red, white and blue), rather than the national soccer team color of orange.  It's good to see that ignorance regarding the World Cup isn't isolated to America (and in this case the manufacturer also needs to learn how to spell Holland).

Dutch hat on display with other World Cup Countries

Our last night on the island Lombok for our holiday, we needed to find a restaurant after the place we had hoped to go to fell through.  We ended up at a nice cantina-type restaurant with a full menu.  After sitting down to order, we realized this place decided on the phrase below as its motto (the waiters and waitresses wore shirts with the same phrase complete with misspelling).  Regardless, the food was still pretty good.  



Lombok

The Economist magazine has a fun way to measure Purchasing Power Parity (how much buying power the equivalent of a US dollar has in different currencies). It is called the Big Mac Index and it basically compares the price of a Big Mac at McDonalds’ in different countries. The prices for Big Macs range from $1.90 (Hong Kong) to $7.20 (Norway) in the latest index (http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/?CFID=142952265&CFTOKEN=66843563 ).

 Perhaps another interesting indicator using the same restaurant would be the McDonalds availability index. It would measure the number of McDonalds per million people as a way of gauging the assimilation of the country or area into “the world”. For example if New Mexico has 50 McDonalds and 2 million people, it would have a McDonalds availability index of 25 and if Jakarta has 35 McDonalds and 12 Million people, it would have a McDonalds availability index of 2.9.

Lombok, an island adjacent and similar in geography and population to Bali, became our latest tourist destination for 6 days. We were told to “visit it now!” and see it in its traditional state as the Indonesian government has targeted it to be the next Bali and is building a new international airport and has invited in big tourist resort corporations from Dubai etc… to develop large resorts around the island.

Here’s what we currently found in Lombok:

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  Great mountain waterfalls

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  friends at a Sasak Village (Sasak is the main tribe of Lombok)

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  great beaches and snorkling.  Exotic sea life spotted included giant turtles, parrot fish, clown fish, flying fish, angel fish and tang fish.  Unfortunately I lost my wedding ring (again).

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  great mountain vistas after a 6 mile trek through the rain forest (only Eric, Neil and I did this). The mountain in the background is Rinjani (around 10,000 feet) and the caldera below contains a huge lake and smaller cinder cone (google Mount Rinjani images for truly amazing pictures).

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  trash on our Rinjani Trek, which is ironic as Indonesia is hyping Rinjani treking as part of it's eco-tourism development.  Apparently they forgot to tell their guides, who throw trash everywhere.

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  traditional Lombok weaving and clothes.  Hope and Janet did this while I was trekking

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  giant insects

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  Quite by accident, Janet and Hope also found and ate at the only McDonald’s on Lombok (population 6 million), giving it a current McDonalds availability index of 0.16. I bet that index will be much higher the next time we visit.  I just hope the index for all the beautiful traditional things on Lombok remains as high or higher too.





Independence day

This was the image today on Indonesian google http://www.google.co.id/ for Independence day  The red and white letters mimic the Indonesian flag, the flowers are orchids and the woman is a balinese dancer.  For some reason, I liked it and it gives me a great excuse to write a bit about my day off from school.  Not only did we celebrate with a BBQ, but I caught up on work and got to play sports with Neil.  Eric skateboarded all day with friends and Hope went swimming with Janet.  No fireworks for us tonight though.

Tomorrow at school we have a mandatory flag ceremony (for over one hour) in which Eric and the band will play the national anthem followed by some whole school games. All this makes this week very different.

15 minutes of fame...but maybe that's not such a good thing

Billboard in Lippo Village (photo by Kim White)

Neil is the latest Tropical Weeda to enjoy his time in the limelight.  Included are the billboards and presentations he has been included in.

Neil likely has a "kick me" sign taped on his back

New house and new year

first day of school

Janet Reading (View of Living room from top of stairs)

(Kitchen and Dining room)

Backyard

Living room with view of stairs up to bedrooms

Outside (street view)

By the numbers

By the numbers… Our trip back to Indonesia for year 3.

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1- Number of laptop computers brought from America for our first year teaching in Indonesia in 2008.

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2- Number of laptop computers brought from America for our second year teaching in Indonesia in 2009 (a new laptop plus an old one which had a accompanied us both ways).

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3- Number of laptop computers brought from America for our third year teaching in Indonesia this summer (a new laptop and netbook for Janet, plus an old one which had accompanied us both ways) bringing our total number of laptops in the house to 4. My financial planner hopes this trend doesn’t continue in the future, but as our family depends on computers more for work and school (as well as for a stereo and telephone), two additional new computers makes sense.

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4- Number of the worlds oceans (out of 4) seen on our recent trip from Grand Rapids to Jakarta. While this may seem impossible, here is the explanation. Leaving Chicago to Hong Kong, our flight proceeded due north (see abbreviated flight path below) in which we traveled close enough to Hudson Bay (connected to the Atlantic Ocean) to see it. After that, we continued north flying significantly over the Arctic Ocean which was very iced over (see picture). Then as we approached Hong Kong, passed over the Pacific Ocean. Finally, as we swung over Jakarta (West Java), the Indian was close enough to view.

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5- Number of jet lagged members of the family. 19 hours of in flight time. It’s now 3 days later and we are still exhausted.

Our flight plan from an IPhone app showing our improbable route over Hudson Bay and Arctic Ocean

Ice sheets over the Arctic Ocean

As cool as our flight path was... it didn't stack up against what Hope discovered in the Singapore airport transfer lounge. Check it out and put it on your Christmas list!

snapshots of a summer

Our summer holiday in 10 pictures:

watering flowers at Grandma's house

4th of July Bike parade

Swimming at Aunt Mary's

Glass sculpture a Meijer Gardens

Tubing with the Zylstra's at Big Star lake

Campfire with the Pikaart's at Paradise Hollow

Finding a Geocache near Rehoboth

Summit of Pyramid rock

Sand dune near the Crevice

Not My Own

Photo by John Van't Land

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own but belong--

body and soul,in life and in death--

to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

The catch phrases of Heildelberg catechism Question and Answer #1 (see above) are “comfort” and “belonging”—two great concepts. However, for some reason, the phrase “not my own” has resonated with me the past few weeks as I considered about what to write for this posting. Truly understanding and living that I am “not my own” is tricky for educated 21st century people who want to and think we can control everything in our lives.

A Sunday ago, Neil publicly professed that he is “not his own” but belongs to his faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

Know it…

and struggle with what it means for your life, Neil. I still do.
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What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own but belong--

body and soul, in life and in death--

to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

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He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,

and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way

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that not a hair can fall from my head

without the will of my Father in heaven:

in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

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Because I belong to him, Christ,

by his Holy Spirit,assures me of eternal life

and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready

from now on to live for him.

End of the year

Two Grade 12 students and I at the reception of the SPH "farewell" ceremony (graduation)

After enduring countless PowerPoint slide shows of pictures of the past year set to Christian Praise songs in chapels, graduations, proms, assemblies, staff meetings and homerooms, I am happy to announce the school year is complete! I put up with most of the sappiness as I got to enjoy the kids I teach as well as the kids I fathered move on to bigger things.

Neil at the Grade 6 "Thanksgiving" Celebration (Graduation)

Hope at the Kindy "concert" (Graduation) where she dressed in a dutch costume

In a cruel twist of fate, Eric, who would have enjoyed an 8th grade graduation in the U.S., was the only Weeda child to not graduate this year. In lieu of a graduation or presents, maybe I'll make him a nice PowerPoint :).

Complete Weekend

We celebrated another holiday here this past Friday. Waisak is referred to as “Buddha’s birthday”, although the day really celebrates Siddharta Gautama’s (Buddha’s) birth, enlightenment and death, which apparently happened on the same day on different years. Even though the day celebrates many other things for Buddhists,the unifying theme of this holiday could be summarized as “completeness.”

I celebrated it and the weekend by being “completely" busy.

Hope and classmates at ballet concert. She is in the back.

Mountain Biking in Sentul

Thursday night started with a ballet concert for Hope followed by a sleepover with one of her friends (at our house). Then Friday morning at 5:15 AM, I loaded up our new mountain bike, drove to Sentul (a suburb of Jakarta just near the slopes of local mountains) with two others and biked all morning. After returning as close to 12 noon as possible (8 minutes late), we attended not one, but two holiday BBQ’s (sorry, no pictures here). I think I also drove Hope to and from a birthday party somewhere in there too.

At the Volcano Tangkupan Parahu

On Saturday, 14 of us from our church went on a day trip to Bandung, which is a large city about 100 miles away from Jakarta. Besides sitting in terrible holiday traffic for hours, we drove to the top of a volcano named Tangkuban Parahu, attended an amazing cultural show (based around the Indonesian instrument called an angklung), squeezed in a little shopping and had two fantastic meals. We returned near Midnight.

At the end of the cultural show, performers invited us to the floor to dance with them.

Following church today, I will be grading lots of exams I have put off the rest of the weekend.

During the weekend, I also learned that my uncle, Les Dykhouse, passed away on Friday (Waisak). He found his eternal completeness, not in self enlightenment or in extreme busyness, but in a life of Grace and Gratitude, in that order.

May we know and live in that Truth.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:11

Train to Jogjakarta

Java is the most populated island in the world with over 100 million people on it. It's always been easy to believe this living in Jakarta (likely over 10 million). Our travels on Java have always been to other big cities (Surabaya, Jogjakarta and Bandung) and have either been by plane or along busy roads. To see the rural side of this island, we took our four day weekend and trained from Northwest (Jakarta) to South central Java (Yogjakarta). You can check out our route on the following train map of java here-- http://www.happychap.eu/travel_info/indonesia_2008/java/railway_map.htm

(we took the route through Cirebon).

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Waiting for the train in Jakarta

(I'm actually a little more excited than I appear:)

Hope enjoying the spacious seat.

We took the "eksekutif" train, complete with A/C, comfortable

seats and few stops.

Terraced rice fields along the way through a very dirty train window.

Eric and Neil complained that the scenery never changed.

Proof that Eric and Neil were correct.




Enjoying a becak (bicycle taxi) in Jogja along with other

activities for 2 days following the train ride.

We cheated and took a 45 minute flight back to Jakarta on Saturday!

(It cost the same as the train ticket)