A Top 5 List

I love living at our hospital in the jungle for the most part! I am definitely a country girl instead of a city girl, so I enjoy waking up to the sound of birds and chickens instead of cars and calls to prayer. There are however times I love to "get out" of our little spot in the jungle and go to the big city. Getting out for regular rest times is part of the plan for making sure I stay healthy too. Here are just a few things I love about getting out of the jungle...

1. Internet: Fast enough that I can even watch a few YouTube videos if I want but most importantly fast enough that I can Skype with a few of my family and friends. I can also make a few phone calls to people like my grandparents and expect a good enough connection that we can actually understand each other!

2. Time with friends: A chance to relax and enjoy just chatting with friends is a wonderful blessing, especially if they are fluent in English. My favorite places for this is a guest house run by New Tribes Mission in our provincial capital of Pontianak (about 5 hours away by car) or in the town where I did language study and have some good friends, including Jennifer (previously served at Bethesda too) and her family.

3. Hot water and plenty of it, with an extra bonus if there is a bathtub. I do have hot water at my house but it doesn't last long and the water pressure leaves a lot to be desired. There is also nothing like a good soak to relax a girl, especially my feet which are always dirty because we wear sandals all the time and most of our roads are dirt.

4. Shopping: This one is a given but a place where you can get butter, cheese, pasta and things like tomato paste are very exciting when they require a trip of at least 5 hours. We are getting a new mall in the town about an hour away and it will be interesting to see what kind of stores they have and how well they stay stocked.

5. Eating out: There is nothing resembling a restaurant for at least an hour away from the hospital, unless you count the canteen where you can get a great plate of fried rice. It is especially nice when the brand names of the places you are eating are familiar like Pizza Hut, KFC (but no biscuits sold) and Dunkin Donuts, which are a 5-hour car trip away. The really funny one though is McDonalds. I am totally not a fan in America but here it requires a 10-hour road trip or a one-hour plane ride to find one and somehow it tastes a lot better here!

A New Class

We have 45 new students at our Nursing School! They will be our incoming freshmen class, starting classes in early September.

There is an official process to prevent cheating and keep the system fair. On July 15th they took their entrance exam. We had 67 students signed-up and 59 showed up on test day. There are four subject areas: Math, Science, English, and Indonesian. There are 100 questions total. Once they take the tests the answers sheets are coded and the student's name removed. We create the answer keys by cutting a hole on each correct answer (A-E). Think of it as a homemade Scantron machine! Then each answer sheet is graded by at least two people, and if there is a disagreement by a third. Finally, all of the data is entered into a spreadsheet.

There is not a minimum pass level set, instead each year they review the grades as a whole and based on how many students we are able to accept (ranges from 40-50 based on rooms available in the dorms) we choose a passing level. This takes quite a lot of discussion as we want the standard to be fair, easily explainable and it must be agreed upon by everyone on the committee. Here in Indonesia (as in many places around the world) corruption is an ever present risk and concern. Finally, after that we match the code with the student's name and we find out who the new class will be. We try to post the results the same day, so that those from far away can either go home or if accepted stay for the following couple of days of paperwork and physical exam etc.

Then comes the (mostly!) fun part of watching the students (and many parents) see who was accepted and celebrate. The next three years they will live together and learn together and it is fun to get a glimpse of who they will be. There are of course always a few tears from those who didn't get in and this year that included one mom who really showed off her dramatic flare but for the most part it was fun to watch. I will be their teacher and mentor and I look forward to introducing you to many of them over the next months as I get to know them better!