Thursday, December 18, 2014

A Christmas Open House with the Nursing Students

Last night I opened my home to celebrate Christmas with the nursing students before they head home on Christmas vacation. A teacher hosting a event like this is not exactly cultural as teachers are respected (and sometimes feared) by their students here in Indonesia. The opportunity to get to know them better outside of the classroom was too good to pass up, though as we took pictures and laughed together. We took a lot of pictures, so here we go...
The house is decorated. 

The food and drinks are ready to go. There are 157 students and most are teenagers, so they can eat a lot of food! 

Here they come. (people take off their shoes before entering a house here)
 It took awhile for the first group to come because it was raining and I am sure the students weren't quite sure what to expect. Finally, three freshmen students showed up. Then they started coming in larger groups...

We enjoyed singing together with this group.  
And we took pictures everywhere. 





The chocolate cake was quite the hit! 


Having fun talking and laughing

Someone in the group has some good photography skills, because I didn't take the next couple of pictures but they are good! 



They came in waves. A group would be ready to leave just as the next group came. 

And with each one they would take pictures in groups and alone. 

And then I would get added to the group. 



There were cameras and cell phones taking pictures everywhere



So this introvert needs to take a day (or two!) to recover but it was a lot of fun. They students head home to their towns and villages today and tomorrow. Praying they have a safe trip and a fun Christmas with their family and friends. We will all be back in the classroom on January 5th and final exams for this first semester are the last week of January.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

A Wedding in Pictures

Apparently this is a good weekend to get married because I have not one but two weddings to go to. One was very easy as it is held in our local church as part of the Sunday morning service and the reception is held in our hospital chapel. The bride is a nurse in our maternity unit and the groom serves with our village health department. 

Most of these pictures however are from the wedding held on Friday. Pak Yahuda is a local pastor who has worked in our mission office for many years now helping with our visas and keeping the books. He is officially retired but still works many hours helping us out. He is also the pastor of the Baptist church about 20 minutes away. His oldest daughter, Nosi, is a nurse in our pediatrics unit. She attended our nursing school and was one of my students when I served here previously. On Friday she married, Juliadi, who serves in our village health department. They were married in the village church where her dad is the pastor. 

About a week (or sometimes only a couple of days) before the wedding you get your official invitation. This invitation is actually for a wedding on Sunday but you get the idea. 

Before you go, you need to get your gift ready. People don't give appliances or household items here but instead you give money in a small envelope that can be used to help pay for the wedding and to help the new couple start their lives together. 
The church is all decorated and ready to go. All of the decorations here are rented. Most of the time you rent a set package that includes clothes (like the wedding gown), decorations, etc. There are six chairs in three sets. One at the center for the bride and groom and then for the parents on either side just slightly farther back. 
Our first glimpse of the bride!
Here come the parents of the bride and groom. The moms are carrying the candles they will use to light their family candles. In this case, the groom's dad had passed away, so an uncle stood in for him. I should mention that smiling during formal events is not the norm here. 
And here comes the bride! She is absolutely gorgeous with beautifully done hair, dress, and jewelry. Most if not all of it is rented. 
While the dress may have been more suited for a wedding in a cathedral than one in a small village church it was beautiful. Because it is rented, it is important to keep it as clean as possible and not damage it. Two women (like bridesmaids) are in charge of that. 
Even though this wedding was held on a Friday morning, it was just like a Sunday morning church service with worship music and taking an offering. 
There was also a special music selection.  
Then came the sermon - on Matthew 7 - about building a firm foundation for your house. 
Then came the wedding ceremony. Here the pastor is reading the wedding proclamation. Both the bride and groom and their families have to agree they feel no pressure to get married. In this picture the bride is sneaking a peak at her parents - who I am pretty sure were shedding quite a few tears. 
Then came the vows. They had memorized them, which is different! 
The rings - ready for their big moment. 
And the exchanging of rings. 
Then a blessing and a prayer. 
Then the moment everyone waits for - the revealing of the bride. 
I love this picture! The bride has just been revealed and she is blushing. 

But then the "paparazi" got in in my way for the big shot - the kiss! It is on the forehead and not on the lips!! 

Then came the lighting of the unity candle. 

And it is tradition here for the new couple to give their first offering together during the ceremony. 

And don't forget to sign the marriage certificate :)
Then came the moment that brings many to tears - the bride and groom spend time with their parents saying thanks and being blessed. 

With the groom's family. 

Typically the cake is cut at the reception but this cake had been specially prepared by a family friend and decorated by the bride. 
Then the bride's family says thank you and invites everyone to their house for a reception. 
The house is decorated and there is a meal prepared. First you sign the guest book though. Sometimes you give your gift here and other times you put it in a small box near the bride and groom. I always ask that they not open my envelope and write the amount of money I am giving in the guest book. 
This was a Dyak family - so the main dish was pork. They had killed 5 pigs and several chickens for the event. There is also a special area for those come who are Muslim and don't eat pork - their food is prepared separately and they eat in a different area. Most people take a large heaping plate because they don't get big meals with lots of meat all that often. For those of us with more sensitive palates and stomachs though it is best take small portions because you don't know how spicy things will be! Coming early also helps because the plates and silverware weren't just recently washed and not had a chance to dry. 

Then comes picture time. The happy couple are flanked on either side by their parents and you go through and shake all of their hands and then depending on how well you know them, you take a picture with them (or in my case as a westerner you almost always take a picture). 

Friday, December 5, 2014

A Week of Refreshing and Thanksgiving


 
I love my busy days here in the jungle for the most part but it is also essential that I get out for periods of rest. I know this month of December will be a busy one and since I am the only missionary here this Christmas, I will need to be present at as many of the Christmas activities etc as possible. So instead, I decided to take a week of vacation during the week of Thanksgiving. I headed out to visit my good friend Jenn and her family in the town of Salatiga, where I did language study. Being away from friends and family during the holidays can be tough but hanging out with these two cute (and very active!) little boys is the perfect cure for that! Plus some good talks and movies in the evenings helped too. 


 I also had fun getting together with the group of ladies I did Bible Study with last spring and get caught up on what is happening in their lives and sharing with them what is happening with me. That morning also included a birthday celebration for one of the women.


I also enjoyed a lunch (and two hours of talk time!) with some of my other friends. It was such a blessing to talk in English and be able to share some of the joys and struggles of ministry. 


And then came Thanksgiving Day - it is a normal day here with school and work etc because of course it is not a holiday here in Indonesia. But after Jenn and the boys got back from school we worked on getting the Christmas tree up and decorating it. Not exactly your traditional Thanksgiving day activity but it was a lot of fun! 


Then for dinner we headed to a restaurant that is owned by an American. There they prepared a traditional Thanksgiving dinner that even included real turkey!

While it wasn't Thanksgiving at home, it was a special time of blessing. And thanks to some good internet, I did get to do a video Skype call with my family and grandparents too! I hope your Thanksgiving was also a special celebration with family and friends. 

The Package

Along with a little Christmas decorating, I am playing catch-up on the blog this weekend! Here is a post that should have been written back in early November. 

It took almost 11 months and many friends but a Christmas package sent by my sister, Kara, in December 2013 has finally arrived! Even more amazing it was unopened and undamaged (minus a little rat nibble)!! 

It was late one afternoon in October that I started getting several weird text messages and notes on Facebook. It took me awhile to sort it out but apparently a package had arrived at the house where I had lived in Salatiga during language study and it was addressed to me. Now I had moved out of that house back in March but the people who had moved into it were also expats and knew the fun a package from home can bring, so they had put a message on a Facebook group for all expats living in Salatiga asking if anyone knew who Callie Yates was and how they could get in touch with me. Several of the people in that group are my friends and so they all started contacting me. 

There is a unique system here in Indonesia that I call the titip system. Basically, if you have something you want to send somewhere and you know someone going to that place (even if they don't the person you want to send that something to) you can titip it with them. This works even if it has to use several connections to get somewhere. For example, we sometimes have things delivered to a friend of ours who owns a Christian bookstore in the city five hours away. He will titip it with someone to the home of the parents of our surgeon in the city of Singkawang (a town an hour away from the hospital). The surgeon's parents will then titip the package with the school bus driver who takes the kids from our village into the school in town 6 days a week. The school bus driver then leaves it with the guard post at the front gate of the hospital who calls you (or flags you down as you walk past) and lets you know you have titipan to pick-up. The crazy thing is that the said item almost always gets to where it needs to! 

So using the titip system my package was sent with a friend who is from Pontianak but goes to university in Salatiga when she came home for a break. From there it was given to friends of hers who are also friends of mine and the next time I was in Pontianak they delivered it to me. So 11 months later here it is... 

The presents inside are still wrapped, so I think I will just leave them wrapped and open them this Christmas :) 

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

I am the only Westerner at the hospital right now, so frequently when I am at the hospital or visiting the nearby town of Singkawang to shop, I hear a lot of comments about how different I look. There are definitely days I wished I could be invisible but there are also days when I just have to laugh about the comments and questions I get asked. It usually starts with...

Orang barat - literally person western
Orang putih - literally person white
Bulai - can technically be translated albino but tends to have a bit more negative connotation than orang barat or putih. 

Then come the comments about the things that fascinate them about me - my size and my nose. It is not unusual for them to ask  how many kilograms I weigh or some of the old grandmas to try and pinch a bit of arm. My favorite comments though have to be the ones about my nose! My nose is a different shape than their noses - quite large and straight while the typical Indonesian nose is small and squashed looking. They love my nose! When I am in the OB ward It is completely normal for people to ask me to give my nose to their babies. Elsewhere they frequently wonder or ask how I got it so straight. Frequently these comments are made in Indonesian assuming that I can't understand them, so it is always quite a shock to them when I respond to them. 

And then there are the ads that show up on my Facebook or other web pages. Here is a picture of a recent one advertising a tool that will make your nose longer if you wear it regularly.



All in all I have learned that it is best to laugh if possible, instead of be irritated, although I will admit there are days that is harder than others. 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

A Container Full of Good Things

In Serukam, West Kalimantan, Indonesia in four rooms filled with boxes like this...

I finally found 3 action packer crates packed in March of 2013 in Hood River, Oregon... 

Inside them were treasures from home - my dishes, family pictures, kitchen utensils, etc... 
 
It is so good to have a some little pieces of home packed with love so many miles (and months!) ago arrive without any damage to help me create my home here in the jungle. 


The ventilators, vital sign monitors, ultrasound machine, and anesthesia machines etc located in all those others boxes, will also be very helpful at the hospital :)