The view out my window

I commonly zone out when grading which usually means I stare out the window. For many years, this is what I saw out of my Room 3 window at Rehoboth (never mind the fact that in the past 3 years it was dark most of the time as I suffer from insomnia and was often in my room somewhere between 3- 5 AM):

This picture was taken by a former student from a cell phone and emailed to me and it is now the background on work computer in case I experience "enchantment fever." I never knew a picture of a parking lot could be so calming. :)

This year, I have gone from Room 3 and the picture above to Room J307 (third floor) and the picture below:


Lots of comparisons could be spent on these two pictures. While both beautiful (as far as scenes out of High school classrooms go), differences in geography, perspective and color could be made. Then there are elements of how typical these pictures are of the places they represent. What’s behind the trees, buildings and mountains? What does it look like when you rotate 45, 90 or 180 degrees?

However, after all the wondering is done… there is still the knowledge that God’s beauty is everywhere, and God’s calling is here(wherever that may be) and…

that there is still a stack of papers to grade.

sweeda

Bogor

The road to Puncak

Jakarta is surrounded by volcanic mountains, or so we had been told (you can’t really ever see them because of clouds and smog). Enjoying a holiday weekend, on Sunday, December 7 we rented an 11 passenger van and thought we would check them out on this 180 mile round trip. We went with the White family (fellow new family to SPH from Vancouver Island, BC).

Janet at in front of Presidential Palace

Our first stop was Bogor and the presidential palace botanical gardens. Besides the beautiful gardens (see picture above), the memorable event was the Flying Fox (largest bats in the world). We saw a tree full of these giant bats (wingspans of around 2.5 feet) after something had stirred them up and they were swirling around above us. This was truly eerie as they look a little like pterodactyls. You can see more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fox . We also looked for dead dutch relatives in the graveyard there. No luck, however.

Eric, Neil and Matthew White with tea plantation in background

Following Bogor, we drove to Puncak, which is a mountain pass of 1500M (over 4500 feet). Along the way, we stopped at a traditional marketplace, outlet mall and a tea plantation. We also enjoyed the 10 to 15 degree cooler weather.

One of many rams tied up along the side of the road

Through out the trip, we were reminded of the holiday (Eid al Adha), as we saw goats and rams tied up to posts. To commemorate Ibrahim’s (Abraham) obedience in offering Ismael (not Isaac) as a sacrifice and God’s provision of a ram, Eid al Adha sees the sacrifice of thousands of rams and goats, which are tied up to posts a day or two in advance. The meat is then shared with family and friends. There should be no shortage of goat and ram meat as we saw thousands of goats and rams tied up along the road.

Look forward to hearing from you,

sweeda

KFC dinner plate made of real dinner ware, not plastic (notice Colonel Sanders cartoon on the top of the plate).

I'm considering a set for her for Christmas :)

Life in the Kampung (village)

The suburb of Jakarta that we live in, Lippo Karawaci, has now changed its name to “Lippo Village”…. Ironically enough, the town we moved from I believe is changing to the name “Rehoboth Village”. There must be a joke in there about the village idiots who have inhabited both places.

As for Lippo, it originally wanted to have the name Lippo Village but in 1993, when it was founded, names of towns could not use “foreign” words so the name Lippo Karawaci was used instead. That restriction seems to have faded as housing developments today (which are springing up all over the place) almost always use foreign words. Names such as “Serenade Lake” and “Country Woods” abound and often have big billboards advertising advantages to living there. The billboards often have pictures of white people engaging in blissfully suburban activities (playing golf or riding bikes for example). These planned communities aren’t quite planned enough and actually have a negative effect on the city of Jakarta. The link below describes the effect of these housing developments on the metro area of Jakarta (and is a great example of market failure for IB Economics students at SPH):
http://www.rics.org/Knowledgezone/Researchandreports/jakarta_141108_research.html

Just over a week ago, we gathered for our 1st annual Lippo Village Thanksgiving dinner (organized by Janet and her friend Delenea Meyers). We had a great dinner and over 60 expats showed up, as you can see below in the picture.

Maybe some developer here will use it on a billboard :).

sweeda

Model United Nations

Lean back and look at the camera

This Thursday- Saturday 6 SPH students and 2 teachers(me included) participated in Model United Nations at Jakarta International School (Tim Stuart's school, for those who know him). Model United Nations (or MUN for short) take place all over the world and offers High School and University students the chance to simulate the diplomacy and problem solving (or lack thereof) that takes place at the real UN. Every school is given a number of countries to represent (Georgia, Jordan, and Thailand for us) and then tries to faithfully model their interests during the event.

SPH student caucusing during a break

The whole event was impressive as schools came from all over Asia (Manilla, Beijing, Bangkok and Hong Kong, for example) and wowed us with their oratorical and debate skills, not to mention their knowledge of history and current events. For first timers, our students did well and were able to present 3 resolutions before committees.

The best part of the whole weekend is all the grading I caught up on as they did their simulation:)

sweeda

Bali Bombers and The Mentang Kid

In stark fashion, two contrasting news stories have dominated the news here the past few weeks…providing interesting and divergent thoughts on pluralism, rule of law and forgiveness:

Last Sunday morning, the Indonesian government executed 3 men for their involvement in the 2002 terrorist Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 people. The execution led to stepped up security measures following urgings by the prisoners for people to avenge their deaths. Following advice from the U.S. embassy, we “laid low” last weekend to avoid potential mobs of angry people. The mobs seemed to be contained to the bombers home villages.

Less than two weeks ago, the U.S. elected Barack Obama as new President. Policy aside, President elect Obama represents the best of what America stands for to Indonesia: opportunity, achievement, equality, change and diversity. Add to that the fact that he lived in Jakarta for 4 years as a young boy and that his half sister is Indonesian and you have Obamamania. In fact, he is known as the Mentang Kid here (Mentang is the neighborhood he lived in Jakarta).

sweeda

Tris and Kim's Blog

Here is an interesting story from our friends' blog regarding Janet. Warning: if you are squemish about snakes, you may want to skip this!

http://trisandkim.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-day-and-its-only-11-am.html


Go to the November 6 entry.

Bulan Bahasa

Eric and I blending in with the locals

This week SPH celebrated Bulan Bahasa, the equivilent to Heritage week in North America. A chance for everyone to immerse themselves in all things Indonesian: Language, culture, food, music and dress. Some highlights:

• The canteen sold exclusively Indonesian food. My personal favorite for this week was Sate (pronounced sat-ay) which are skewers of grilled chicken with peanut sauce along with rice wrapped in banana leaves. (I'm also a fan of rendang which is curry and chili sauce over rice and beef or chicken). On the weird side, people here love congealed things in their drinks. It's rather disturbing to get a slimy ball of jello in your mouth as you are drinking fruit juice.


• The kids had competitions in Bahasa (language) which included debate, music composition, dance, and monologue. The week concluded with a large assembly showing off all the winners of the competitions.


• Friday was Batik day when students were allowed to wear traditional batik shirts, dresses and skirts. Eric and I joined the fun, as you can see above.

Talk more later,

steve