CHICKENS AND THANKSGIVING

Two weeks ago we visited an old water project with a man named Taufik.  Taufik knew our prior Bishop Leon McCarrey when he served here.  The area was several hours away from Jakarta, in the mountains above Bogor and very beautiful.  When we arrived near the location we realized that it might be dangerous to take the van down into the village as the road was quite steep and slick from the previous night’s rain.  The men hiked down to the village while I (Eileen) found a very primitive looking restroom.  Later I decided to join the men and hiked into the village by myself.  It was obvious that a white woman walking around was quite out of place.  I might as well have been an alien from outer space.  I tried to talk to the women in Indonesian and they looked away. It wasn’t until I started talking to them about the fact that I had 6 children and 11 grandchildren that I heard whispers about my family.  Eventually I was guided to the spot where I found Russell and the other men looking at the spigots where the water came in from the mountain.

 We were then taken into a house where we were invited to sit on a rug on the the floor and a meal was spread for us.  I was a little out of my comfort zone as the man in charge ripped the chicken apart with his hands and asked me to partake.  We were supposed to eat in the typical Indonesian fashion, which meant no utensils just with our hands.  I had left my hand sanitizer in the car and I am fanatical about using it before eating, especially after shaking hands.  We were fed a huge meal despite the fact that it was only 11a.m.  After lunch, Russell was presented with two live chickens as a gift.  When we climbed the hill to get to our car 3 more chickens arrived as presents from other villagers.  Since we are not allowed to have animals in our apartments, by the rules of our apartment complex and our own love of pets, we then gave them as gifts to the other men in our car.  They were thrilled to get them.  I sat in the back of the car on the way home and listened to them peck at each other and try to get out of their box for the 3 l/2 hour drive.  Again, a little outside of my comfort zone.  I hope they made a good dinner for someone.

During the week of Thanksgiving we met together as couple missionaries and had a conference.  We each had topics to present.  We had the topic of “Because I have been given much”.  I made a slideshow of all of the humanitarian projects we have been involved in. I also put music with it, and slipped in some pictures of the families of the senior missionaries.  I was presenting on the morning of Thanksgiving and there were many moist eyes as the missionaries thought of their loved ones back home. I will post a link to you tube below so you can see the slideshow if you would like.

Last Sunday we presented at the Coordinating Council Meeting for the Church leaders of Indonesia an Emergency Disaster Plan.  While their plan had many aspects to it, we focused on encouraging the leaders to find the contact information for those on their church rosters so in case of an emergency they could quickly assess the damage to member and their households.

This week we presented hygiene puppet shows to over 600 students at pesentrens.  Pesentrens are Islamic boarding schools for children.  Our church has been building toilet and bathing facilities at several schools.  Our hygiene presentations focus on good dental care, hand washing and antismoking.  Currently Indonesia has 60 million smokers.  At one school I taught at I asked how many children had a father that smoked.  Out of about 75 children, every child raised their hand.  We were asked if we would include antismoking in our presentation by the health department of the Islamic organization.  The children seemed to enjoy the puppets.  Afterwards we gave each child their own hygiene kit complete with towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and shampoo.

WATER METER AT VILLAGE

SPECIAL LUNCH MADE FOR US

WOMEN WHO MADE LUNCH

RUSSELL ACCEPTING GIFT OF ONE OF FIVE CHICKENS

MOUNT MERAPI (USUALLY COVERED WITH CLOUDS)

COUPLES CONFERENCE

BORABUDOR

BORABUDOR

OUR PUPPETEERS SANDI AND JONATHAN

AT THE PESENTREN

WITH THE GIRLS AT THE PESENTREN

PICTURE FROM A 20/20 SERIES ON SMOKING IN INDONESIA