Pictures of the Week

I love this family!

Training for the next semester

This past week all the staff for the learning center came together to discuss plans for the new term. In the picture above: Helen - a volunteer who has been helping the staff since we were in Australia; Brian - the computer and English guy; Tri - the lead teacher for most activities (besides Wenny).

The staff will continue on this next week with their prep. Our family is skipping off to Bali for ten days of meetings. It's a great place for a conference! I'll try to get some pics posted during the week. But if I can't, then I'll get them up when we return.

Guests in town to open new school on another island

Last week, the Kegg family was in town to get their visa through our educational foundation.

(By the way, just as a way of helping you see the connections - I've been teaching English for this educational foundation since 2000. They are the sponsors for our visa to stay in country. Before that, they were the ones who sponsored our student visas so Kim and I could study the language. It is through this educational foundation that we were able to set up the P-town learning center in 2006.)

Since the end of last year, we've been working with Joshua and Natalie to set up a similar educational foundation on another island. They've been able to rent a building, hire staff, and are now moving through the process of gaining official permission from the Department of Education and the Department of Labor. They will temporarily be on a visa through our school, with a letter that allows them to live on another island, until they can get theirs up and running.

Ah, the life of a TCK (Third Culture Kid). You make friends only to have to say goodbye in a very short while.

What's a mud flood?

Here's a little bit of news from Indonesia.

Have you ever heard of the mud flood? It has affected over 10,000 Indonesians for two years, displacing them from their homes and jobs. It's also affected our travel between Malang and Surabaya (where the international airport is and where we often go for vacation or for meetings). The main highway was flooded soon after the flood started, and from time to time the main road we use now gets cut off by the sludge breaking through the dikes (or because of angry demonstrations that block the already narrow roads). One time last February, it took us six hours to get back to Malang (normally two hours) navigating through windy, mountain roads. On that same day, it took friends of ours eight hours to get back.

So what's the mud flood?

It is a mud volcano that erupted in the middle of a packed community and

"Since May 2006, it has spewed millions of barrels of heated sludge, blanketing an area twice the size of New York City's Central Park. Villages have disappeared under the mud, 60 feet (18 meters) deep in places, and 10,000 families have been forced from their homes." (read the rest of the article from National Geographic here).

This picture posted by the Boston Globe shows the crater of the mud flood. Keep in mind, when this started, this area was all rice fields, communities, factories. The huge dikes you see were not there. They have been man made all around this area to keep the flood at bay. Companies from countries around the world have tried to figure out how to stop it. There is no end in sight.

Just today, the Jakarta Post released news that a US company is working on plans to build a geothermal power plant out of the mud flood.

Pictures of the past two weeks

I'm catching up on posting a few pictures from the past couple of weeks. I haven't been consistent in taking the camera around with us. It's not exactly the size I can slip into my pocket and whip out at a moments notice. I'm looking into a cell phone (we call them hand phones over here - or HP - which with Indonesian pronunciation is Ha-Pey) with a camera on it mainly so I can post more pictures about our life. We'll see. Here are a few recent pics.

Four years old and not a single haircut; We just couldn't bear to see Delaney's curls cut away. But, Kim decided it was time to take her into the salon. Fortunately, the curls are holding up.

Oma sent Delaney and her baby matching dresses for her birthday. As you can see, she didn't like it that much. :)

We were able to talk Delaney out of wearing her dress to bed, but baby had to keep hers on.

Ethan is very happy to have his swing. Mom and Dad are very happy too.

Ordering home school curriculum and pulling an all nighter

For our kid's education, we've been mixing together home school, local school, and electives at the international school. As I'm sure most parents would say about education choices, it's all been a learning process of what works best for our kids. Some days we feel like we're failing. Some days we have huge success. This past year was a lesson in endurance and steadfastness when it came to home school. We had to patch together lessons, either when Kim could handle moving around, or when I could get into the classroom, or when a friend from New Zealand took over for a couple of months, or when grandparents came into town. We somehow made it and feel like it was a job well done. But we're still nervous as we approach the end of July, when Brienzi will take her first ever standardized test. Brienzi is okay. Mom and Dad are a different story.

Our Australia adventure put us behind a bit in ordering books for next year. As well, we were figuring out how to get all the materials over here, until just a few days ago. That's when we found out that friends of ours were coming to Indo next week. NEXT WEEK! So on Wednesday night, Kim and I acted like college kids and stayed up most of the night trying to get our orders in on the internet (okay - I know we can't complain too much. I am very thankful for the internet age . . . when it works!). With a little bit of home made chocolate pudding, and a few neck rubs, we got most of it done.

Independence Day in Indo

"We are the national military. You are free!"

We started our 4th of July by recounting the story of Ingrid Betancourt and the 14 other hostages who were freed by the Columbian military a few days ago. The kids were wide-eyed and then cheered with excitement at the ending. It was a great reminder about how freedom brings joy. It's also a good reminder of how we eagerly wait for the freedom/redemption of our bodies . . . that day when the Father says, "I'm your Father. You are free!" Woohooo! And it's a reminder of what we are about as we await that day . . . being a part of bringing eternal freedom to others.

Later on that day, we had a few friends from the US over for a good old fashioned cook out. Someone brought a portable grill, so we had BBQ'd burgers and dogs. I forgot to get pictures so you'll just have to imagine what it looked like. We didn't have any sparklers or bottle rockets, but we made up for it in just having good fellowship together.

Dancing Ethan

10 weeks old and already dancing. It's so much fun to have a new born and watch him discover and delight in the simple things he can do.