REBUILDING AND STARTING ANEW

Early in the week we received approval for more humanitarian funds to be used for relief of the fire victims we mentioned last week.  I (Russell) was anxious to respond quickly and promptly made a call to the local community leader we had met earlier, Pak Udin.  My limited Indonesian language capabilities are strained under normal conversation conditions and over the phone it only got worse.  As long as I was directing the conversation and he was just responding affirmatively or negatively things were fine.  We had intended on buying sleeping mats for the families displaced.  I suggested that to Pak Udin, but then asked if he knew of things they might be more in need of.  As he responded, the conversation took off in another direction and only one of the two participants had any idea where.  I had to get a local friend to call Pak Udin back.  It turns out that what Pak Udin asked for was wood to start the rebuilding process.  They were in need of approximately 600-700 meters of footpaths within the small village as they are building everything about three feet above the ground level (see attached pictures).  The wood planks are put on top of a bamboo pole foundation.  The cost of the wood was not expensive.  I think Pak Udin was hoping I would get him a couple of hundred meters worth of wood.  Wood for 700 meters could be bought for far less than the sleeping mats I had suggested that we could buy for them.  He however, was focused on: (i) quickly rebuilding before the rainy season starts in October; and (ii) avoiding contention among his people if there were not enough sleeping mats to go around.  It was inspiring to see someone so focused on helping his neighbor and performing his unpaid community stewardship.  In addition to helping them obtain the wood they asked for, I will make sure that when we deliver the sleeping mats this week that there are enough for each family. 

Haggling with the wood vendors over prices was kind of fun.  Lumber yards here are a bit different than in Centerville.  Business is conducted right on the side of the road, a road about one half the width of those in my neighborhood back home.  While I went to the lumbar yard, Eileen found her friend with the newborn baby, passed out balloons to the kids, and sang songs with them.  She found one woman who was sewing sequins on a blouse.  It turns out the blouse was produced at a factory close by and the woman was paid to attach the sequins in her home.  The label on the blouse was Fashion Bug.  It didn’t mean anything to me but you would think Eileen had been instantly transported back to Kohls and was bargain shopping again.  The people got a kick out of seeing Eileen trying the blouse over her clothes. Eileen declined their offer of a “fitting room”.

One of the songs that all the kids know here is “Di sini senang, Di sana senang . . .”  It roughly translates to “(we’re) happy here and (we’re) happy there . . .”  To hear children sing that song while living under a tarp on a dirt floor just a few meters from the burned out remains of their homes is thought provoking.  I might look at the situation and find the singing of the song ironic or sarcastic.  They, both children and adults, were enthusiastically singing and probably meant every word of the song.  The same attitude that I find at times less sensitive among many locals also seems to provide to them a resiliance to adversity that is remarkable.  Eileen and I have talked about this and decided that we need to learn from their example.   We are going to try harder to be “senang di sini” and do as someone once suggested, “bloom where you are planted.”

BEFORE WALKWAY IS BUILT

MAKING WALKWAY THROUGH ASHES

BUILDING WALKWAY

REBUILDING

RUSSELL WITH PAK UDIN (RT) BUYING WOOD

UNLOADING WOOD

LIVING AMONG THE ASHES-THE ONLY WAY TO GET THERE IS BY WALKWAY

THIS LADY SEWING SEQUINS ON A FASHION BUG BLOUSE

SHOWING EILEEN THE BLOUSE SHE IS WORKING ON 

HAPPY AMID THE ASHES

LIVING IN THE DIRT

WORKING HARD TO KEEP CLEAN

OBTAINING WATER FROM THE WELL

THIS KIND WOMAN INVITED EILEEN EAT WITH HER, EILEEN DECLINED 

EILEEN BLEW UP LOTS OF BALLOONS ON THIS VISIT

EILEEN TEACHING KIDS WORDS IN ENGLISH

BABY "MOHAMMED" GROWING MORE EACH VISIT

KIDS BEING KIDS

JAKARTA STILL BURNS

As I (Russell) mentioned last week, there have been a large number of fires in Jakarta this summer/dry season.  Locals tell me that while the number is high this year there always seem to be more right around Lebaran when many of those living in Jakarta are out of town visiting relatives.  Go figure!

This week we revisited two locations.  The first was a fire in North Jakarta which left approximately 1,200 homeless.  This neighborhood was less well off than the one in Central Jakarta that we first saw three weeks ago.  You can tell in part by what was left after the fire.  Rather than cement walls and floors remaining, here there were just cement footings and a few walls and floors.  Many of the houses must have had dirt floors.  When we first visited this site we asked the Red Cross what the people needed most.  There were a number of  mothers who were listening to our conversation and chose to offer their input.  At the top of their list were school supplies and uniforms so their children could resume their activities at school.  Next on their list were basic hygiene items.  The blankets, sleeping mats and baby supplies that were requested and were delivered at the first fire, were farther down their list.  I was impressed by their desire for their children to attend school.  They could not have known that they were appealing to someone who adamantly believes that education is the only way out of poverty.  

With the help of the bishop and several members of the Jakarta 2nd ward, backpacks filled with school supplies (purchased by our church) were assembled for each school age child.  In addition, hygiene kits  (also paid for with humanitarian funds) for each family were assembled.  When we arrived the next day with the supplies we were a little unsure of exactly how we would distribute the material.  The Red Cross had left the site two days prior and chaos can easily takeover in an unstructured environment.  Fortunately what we found on site was a tent wherein the local civic leaders were conducting an orderly distribution of goods brought by others.  I was impressed to see their lists of names noting each person under their stewardship.  After talking to the leaders and a policeman that had been posted there, we felt comfortable giving them the goods/kits and having them conduct the distribution.  

We both enjoyed visiting with the people.  Eileen particularly enjoyed seeing a one week old baby  named Mohammed that she had seen during our first visit shortly after the baby’s birth.  While the setting/scene of several women, including Eileen, making a fuss about the newborn in a sweltering tent was different than a baby shower/party would be back home, the mood and conversation were not.  It was as if for a brief moment the poverty and fire were forgotten, and the joy of a newborn baby was being experienced.

Three weeks ago when we delivered goods to the Central Jakarta fire (first fire) location, several of our church members from the English speaking Jakarta 3rd Ward came along with us.  Afterward they decided that they would conduct their own project to provide other needed goods to the fire victims.  We were aware of their project but stayed out of their way.  It is nice to see others performing good humanitarian efforts on their own.  The only help we offered was on the day of delivery.  The Red Cross and other agencies had long since gone but we knew where one man (Yoyoe) lived who had taken us on a tour of the site three weeks earlier.  Yoyoe and his family were no longer living where we had last met him but due to neighbors, cell phones and whispers of "the Bules are back", he was found quickly and came to meet us.  This was the third time we had met Yoyoe.  We felt we could trust him to see that the goods were properly distributed.  Afterward, we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses.  Hopefully we will meet again.

The last fire location we visited was in East Jakarta, not far from where several members of our church live.  This fire occurred the day before the fire in North Jakarta.  It displaced about 500 people and took out a couple of factories.  Although it had been a week there were still large piles of embers still smoldering hot enough to cook over.   At this location there were very few dislocated people remaining on site.  The local leaders told us that no rebuilding was going to be allowed and that almost all had found new housing with elsewhere.  Life here had quickly moved on.

RUINS OF THE FIRE

ALWAYS HAPPY WITH FRIENDS

RUSSELL AND IBU MAI (PMI) DISCUSSING RELIEF SUPPLY NEEDS

THIS LADY SEEMED HAPPY DESPITE HER CIRCUMSTANCES

THIS FAMILIES LIVING QUARTERS

THIS BABY WAS 5 DAYS OLD

PLAYING SOCCER WITH THE SHELTER TENT BEHIND

PROTECTING HERSELF FROM THE HOT SUN

THIS LADIE'S HOME PARTIALLY REMAINS-PROBABLY DUE TO THE FACT IT IS NOT MOSTLY WOOD

BOYS LOVE FINDING STUFF, THEY WERE PLAYING AMONG THE RUINS OF THE HOMES

REMNANTS OF A HOME

MISSIONARIES AND MEMBERS OF JAKARTA 2ND WARD FILLING SCHOOL KITS

EILEEN WITH TOLIET FACILITIES AND WATER TANK NEARBY-OTHER FIRES DID NOT HAVE  TOLIET FACILITIES

ONE OF THE LITTLE GIRLS-BURNED OUT OF HER HOME

YOU'VE GOTTA COOK SOMEHOW

TRYING TO STAY COOL UNDER A TARP-90 DEGREES PLUS HUMIDITY OUTSIDE

THIS MAN WAS PROUD OF HIS BAJAJ-HIS SOURCE OF INCOME

DELIVERING THE GOODS

EILEEN LOVES HER BABIES

EILEEN, LENA, YOYOE AND RUSSELL DELIVERING GOODS FROM JAKARTA 3RD WARD

THIRD LOCATION IN EAST JAKARTA-SIGN STATES NO BUILDING HERE

REMAINS OF SOMEONES HOME

STILL SMOLDERING FIRES AFTER ONE WEEK

RESPITE

This week was supposed to be one beginning with a holiday and finishing with a trip to Singapore.  Both sound restful and in a way they were.  As Eileen noted in her posting on Monday night, a 10 year-old girl drowned in the pool at our apartment complex.  Her name was Srikandi.  She passed away the next day around noon.  The whole experience was very difficult for Eileen.  I was proud of her efforts and that of our mission president as they tried to save the little girl.  In all her years of nursing this is the first time Eileen has lost a patient that was currently under her care.  Perhaps it was harder on us as westerners than it was for the locals.  Life is significantly harder here as premature death and significant injury are far more common.  Eileen seems to be slowly coming to terms with Srikandi's passing.  For me the whole thing still seems surreal.  I have never held someone as they were dying before.

Our trip to Singapore was for a follow-up colonoscopy to one done six months ago shortly before we left the U.S.  That procedure was not a regularly scheduled check-up but one prompted by feelings that Eileen had.  It turned out to be fortunate they she went in as they removed a rather large precancerous tumor.  The doctor insisted that she have a follow-up colonoscopy six months later to make sure the tumor had been completely removed and was not growing back.  It had only been two years since her last procedure and if it had gone the full five years previously anticipated she probably would have had a significant problem after we returned from our mission.  We are both grateful for God's promptings to have the procedure prior to our leaving and for the clean bill of health that Eileen received in Singapore.  As you can imagine this was quite a relief for me.  Having watched my mother suffer for almost a decade with colon cancer I have no desire to relive that experience.  Overall the few days in Singapore were a welcome respite both physically and emotionally for us.

On Friday, when I opened the paper in Singapore, there was a picture of another fire in Jakarta.  It seems there have been over 60 fires in Jakarta which have displaced families since the summer began.  More on that next week.  No pictures this week.  Neither the scene of the little girl by the pool or the pictures of inside Eileen's colon are ones we want to keep.

A HEART BREAKING DAY

I (Eileen) would like to share a very personal experience with you.  We have a lovely complex including a beautiful  air conditioned exercise room and a swimming pool that would rival that at any resort.  We can see the magnificent swimming pool from our balcony.  I have enjoyed swimming laps daily early in the morning, usually about 6 a.m, while Russell works out in the exercise room. Normally the only other person that ever uses the pool at that hour is Elder Beaman who is a good friend of ours.

During the month of Ramadan our  pool has been quite empty.  Our mission president and wife normally travel quite a bit and we have been trying to get together with them for some time to come over and enjoy a swim and get a little rest and relaxation.  Junior missionaries can't swim, but senior missionaries can.  Today we were able to make arrangements for President Groberg and his wife to come over.  We knew the pool would have more people in it since Ramadan was over. Still, as the office was closed today, an official holiday, we thought it would be a nice break.

We swam a little and then were in the shallow end talking.  The deepest end of the pool is 5 foot deep.  All of a sudden we heard a girl crying. We looked over and there were two girls shaking a young girl on the side of the pool. We rushed over to her side. President Groberg is a pediatrician who actually came to Indonesia in the 1990s to teach neonatal resuscitation.  As a pediatric nurse I have been through many classes teaching how to do CPR, but have actually never done full blown CPR on a person.

The little girl who was 10 years old (the age of my oldest grandchild) wasn't breathing, but did have a pulse for just a few minutes.  I started doing mouth to mouth while Pres. Groberg was monitoring her pulse and then started chest compressions.  Russell and Sister Groberg tried to position her neck and help.  The girl threw up copious amounts of food while I was doing mouth to mouth.  I would roll her and do it some more, not really caring about the hygenic conditions, but rather thinking about her mother, who by this time was sitting across from me crying.  We asked several people to get an ambulance.  President Groberg speaks Bahasa Indonesia,  so requests were made in the native language. A girl came up and said she was a nurse.  We asked if there was an ambu bag or mouth piece anywhere that we could use to help the girl breathe. Eventually oxygen with a nasal cannula came which would be great for a person that was having an asthma attack but not a drowning victim.  I begged for an ambulance multiple times.  Several people were watching, observing. I didn't see anyone trying to comfort the mother.  The local nurse at one point looked at the girl's pupils and said no good.  I was taught to never give up on CPR, until you are too exhausted to go on any further or until a doctor pronounces the patient dead.  I was not about to let this girl die on my watch. I didn't realize how difficult CPR would be to do, especially while someone was laying on cement and we were leaning over the top of her.  President Groberg and I would switch places, once even Russell said tell me what to do as he could tell I was exhausted and gave the girl a few breaths.  It took 45 minutes for an ambulance to come 2 miles.  As it was a holiday there was no traffic today. I am not sure what the hold up was.  I just knew the little girl needed to get higher level medical care.

President Groberg and I jumped in the ambulance and continued CPR, this time with a mask that was for the size of an adult, no oxygen in the ambulance.  The mother was slumped in a corner, I was doing compressions.  When we got to the hospital, the President continued working on the little girl while the medical staff there intubated and gave medications to her.  An Indonesian man that lives in our complex came to talk to me. He thanked me for my help.  I asked him if there was any water any where that I could rinse my mouth out.  When he came back I think I was in shock. Even though he was speaking English to me I mumbled that it was 45 minutes and that she would be dead.  He did something very unusual for a Muslim man to do.  He hugged me and let me sob in his arms.  Russell and Sister Groberg had yet to come.  I thought how could this little girl be playing with her friends just a little bit ago, and now be unresponsive despite our best efforts?  He was kind and asked me to sit down in the waiting room. Eventually I pulled myself together and went back into the ER.  The Mom of the little girl was sitting within feet of where her daughter was being resuscitated.  The mother's hands clasped in prayer, looking to see what was going on.  I knelt beside her and put my hand on her arm.  She immediately recognized me (complete in my swimsuit and flipflops).  Fortunately I had put a coverup on.  She stood up and hugged me and started sobbing.  We hugged each other for a long time, both of us crying and I kept saying I am sorry in Indonesian.    

I left the hospital, discouraged and sad.  At that point the girl had a pulse, but wasn't breathing on her own. We estimated that she was without oxygen for an hour.  My heart was sick for a mother whose life had changed dramatically in just a few short minutes.  I have 6 children and 11 grandchildren. I know the suffering a mother goes through when they are concerned about their children.  I also know the love of our Father in Heaven has towards each of his children here on earth.  If this little girl dies she will be brought into the arms of a good and loving God, where she will see loved ones that have passed on and be in a place of peace and happiness.

I feel for the family of this darling little girl.  Regardless of your race or religion, will you please join with me and pray for a little 10 year old girl in Jakarta tonight that will be fighting for her life?  Pray that her family might find peace and comfort.  I feel a personal connection with this mother and daughter and I think my life will be forever changed as a result of the events of this day.

MERDEKA AND IDUL FITRI

I think in previous postings we have noted the congested Jakarta traffic and challenge of commuting to and from the office.  The  3.4 mile distance in a cab usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.  Our shortest and longest commutes were 10 minutes on a holiday when there was no traffic, and over two hours and 15 minutes ( I have no idea why).  Yes, it would have been faster to walk but more about that later. After four months we decided something had to change as too much time was wasted sitting in traffic.  And those who know us well know just how patient both of us are.

Last week we started working three days a week from our apartment.  This necessitated my buying a computer and printer.  Eileen loves her Apple Mac and iPad but I needed a real computer to be able to work quickly after decades of prior experience with a PC.  On Wednesday I bought both and took the new laptop into the office to transfer files onto it.  I was late leaving the office and was not able to catch a cab.  Fortunately Eileen was not with me as I walked home.  It really was not that far and only took 50 minutes  However, I was soaked by the time I arrived and it was not raining!  I think to effectively commute here you really do need a motorcycle, in our case one with a sidecar.

The two biggest holidays of the year occurred this week.  On Friday (August 17th), the country celebrated 67 years of Independence/Freedom (Merdeka).  On Thursday there was a party in the office and on Friday a commemoration/celebration at the church.  See pictures below.

Today marks the end of the Muslim month-long fast known as Ramadan.  During Ramadan food and drink are not consumed by fasting Muslims during daylight hours.  The end of Ramadan is known as Idul Fitri or Lebaran.  On a comparative level it is like Christmas and New Years rolled into one.  Last night there were fireworks and "singing the Takbir" or prayers from the mosques all through the night.  Muslims celebrate the day by making amends and asking forgiveness from those they may have offended.  Many return to their hometowns to celebrate the holiday.  It is estimated 16 million people will have returned home in Indonesia, 8 million leaving the greater Jakarta area.

At church today Sister Steffi Subandriyo attended sacrament meeting.  This was just 12 days after receiving a kidney transplant.  We thank God for her recovery and her brother Chris for his donated kidney.  This is an answer to the prayers of many on her behalf from all over the world.

TITIK AND ATIN WITH INDONESIAN FLAG

FOOD FOR CELEBRATION , TITIK AND ELDER SUBANDRIYO

EILEEN AND ANA WERE THE CHAMPION BALLOON DANCE/RACING CHAMPIONS

ARIE, SUJUD, TATOK, HENDRO

RAMA REENACTING PRESIDENT SUKARNO'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

ONE OF MY FAVORITE LITTLE GIRLS

YOUNG ADULTS

YOUNG ADULTS

ELDER JOHNSON WITH NEW CONVERT

SUN SETTING OVER JAKARTA

FIREWORK VIEW FROM OUR APARTMENT

THIS REALLY ISN'T THE BUILDINGS EXPLODING-JUST FIREWORKS

MISSIONARIES AT OUR HOME FOR DINNER