Patience, patience, patience

Hi everyone!!!

I've gotten a few requests to explain what exactly I'm doing in Indonesia.  I am doing the Darmasiswa Scholars Program, which is a scholarship program funded by the Indonesian Government.  They fund study of either Bahasa Indonesia, or one of Indonesia's original art forms at a university in Indonesia for 6 months or 1 year.  I am studying Bahasa Indonesia for 6 months at the University of Lampung, which is the biggest university in the province of Lampung, Sumatra's southernmost province.  The University of Lampung is in the city of Bandar Lampung, which is a city of about 1 million people.  It is right across the ocean from Jakarta, only a small straight separates the two.  In between the southern tip of the island Sumatra (where Bandar Lampung is) and the Northwest tip of Java (where Jakarta is) is the famous Krakatou volcano.  So, hopefully it won't erupt while I'm living in Bandar Lampung!  Or any of the other volcanoes for that matter.  

Dinner at Pipit's
On Saturday night (one week ago) I was invited by text message from "Pipit" saying she met me at church, did I remember? to dinner at her house.  I didn't remember.. I had met about 40 people at church the first week, but I of course accepted her invitation and was later picked-up by her husband on a moped.  At their house live Pipit, her 2 younger sisters, her mother, her husband and their baby, and her husband's sister.  Again, the home was very modest, we all sat on the floor while they asked me question after question.  Pipit and her husband are the staff workers for Campus Crusade for Christ on the UNILA (University of Lampung) campus.  CCC has a different name here, but I can't remember it, but they kept saying "CCC" anyhow.  They showed me pictures of when they used to live in Medan (North part of Sumatra) and the ministry they did there.  It was pretty awesome.  It was also amazing that God gave me the language to be able to have that entire time effectively communicating with them and understanding everything that was going on, a miracle!!  It felt like the first time I had been able to talk to people in a few weeks!  And it was definitely God, because since then, I haven't been understanding anything..once again.  They invited me to their desa (village) for Idul Fitri.  I'm not sure how far away it is, but it would be cool to see where their family comes from and see life in a more rural setting.  Plus, they are just wonderful people.

Life here
I don't have much to write about because not much has really happened here.  Classes, they just decided, now start on September 1st, but we're going to have makeshift class every day until then anyways (whatever that means?).  The majority of what has been going on here is basically frustrating stories of trying to get information from the university/program about what is going on, so I'll spare you.  Things move very slow here, which has been quite hard for me.  I remember feeling that way in Spain too, and Indonesia is that times three.  The slow pace has been a blessing in many ways as well.  I've been able to spend more time with God than I've been able to in a long time and it's been really awesome.  He has been growing me in patience more than anything.. it's not very fun though, because I'm very bad at it and it's very hard.  Luckily, God is very good at it and helps and teaches me.  I just started reading "The Good News About Injustice" by Haugen yesterday and I'm already almost half way through the book.. which hasn't happened since Harry Potter.  haha.  Soo.. it's reeeally good, and perfect to be reading while I'm in Indonesia. 
   A couple from Poland arrived about a week ago (some fellow "bule"!).  The guy, Yan, has been in bed the whole week.  The first day here his leg swelled up to twice its size and had huge welts, blood, and disgusting stuff all over it.  Then it started on his other leg a little and then by his eye.  The doctors here don't know what it is, but luckily today he started getting better!  Scary!!  Another Darmasiswa student from Turkey/Germany just got here yesterday.  She's going to be living at the same rumah kos as myself and the couple from Poland.  There is one Darmasiswa student that is still on their way.  He's from Madagascar, and will be here next week.  So that makes 9 Darmasiswa students total, (as well as 9 international students at UNILA total :)).  Hopefully I will find a travel buddy soon!

Good day.

Thank you everyone for reading, your prayers, messages, thoughts, and support!  It has really helped me feel connected and supported in these last few weeks.  I'll talk to you again soon! 

Here are a few photos from my time here so far: 

The first week at church giving a speech to the Church.  Standing next to me is Mas Wawan.

This is the rumah kos where I live.  My room is the furthest right - the furthest right holes in the grey concrete at the end of the building. 

Hello Indonesia!

Hello,

Yes, I decided to start a blog.  If you read it, let me know so I know that I maybe decide to continue writing.  It will be good for memory sake anyhow, I suppose.

The Arrival
So...Indonesia.  I really don't know where to begin.  I arrived in Jakarta after 30 hours of traveling very late on Tuesday night (about a week ago).  There I was met at the airport by 6 other Darmasiswa students (1 Romanian, 3 Russians, and a couple from Hong Kong).  We were all taken to a hotel in Jakarta for the night.  I talked mostly with the Romanian.  We had a nice breakfast.. it was hard to not respond to him in his accent, since I am so used to speaking in Romanian accents (ha, but seriously).. it took a lot of self-control.  Around 10am we were picked up by a huge bus full of Darmasiswa students to go back to the airport to fly to our respective universities/islands.  I waited in the airport with one of the Russians and a Slovakian (whose accent was even harder to not copy!) and we had a good conversation over lunch.  Their flight was before mine, so I waited in the airport/was stared at for about 4 more hours.  I finally arrived in Bandar Lampung on the island of Sumatra around 6pm.  I was picked up by Mas (Mr.) Dedi and taken to a temporary housing place.  No one I met on the trip or once I arrived at my housing spoke English.  The housing was about what I expected - out of my comfort zone, but bearable.  A large snail was in the middle of the walkway when I went out to find someone to help me with a large (or what they call "medium-sized") spider. 

Me and Indonesia
I probably have never been more out of my comfort zone before.  I couldn't NOT fit in more.  I'm stared at/beeped at/shouted at - "bule" (meaning white foreigner) - from about 3 blocks away at all times.  I have not seen one other white person nor met any Westerners here yet - in the city of  Bandar Lampung, that is.  I never thought I'd say this in my life, but I sort of wish I were in a more touristy city.  It is cool that I can see how people live here, but there's no way I can blend in and be part of it, at least not that I can see thus far.  It is too dangerous for me to go places alone after dark, and it gets dark here surprisingly early (6pm).  I also can't go places on this island alone or to villages or any places that aren't very touristy alone.

So much has happened already, I don't know what would be best to say here.  I'll start with some things that surprised me/are different:

• There are lizards everywhere.. approximately 4 in my bedroom at all times.  But they are scared of me, so that's a relief.

• The bathrooms here are... well let's just say everytime I use the bathroom I consider it a victorious success and thank God for helping me through it.  Half because of the bugs and half because of the actual bathroom itself.
• I saw the biggest spider I've EVER seen before in my life 2 nights ago on the wall of my rumah kos (boarding house= where I live w/others.. similar to a shared living-apartment).  The body of the spider was about the size of a baseball.  I was locked out of the rumah kos at the time and it was dark out and my ride had just left.  I was like 6 feet from this spider, I almost cried. 
• There is Muslim prayer 5 times/day.. each time for about an hour.  The first time is at 4am, and it always wakes me up because they do their praying-wailing over loudspeakers so the entire city (and probably the entire region) can hear it.  Since the city is 98% Muslim, you can imagine how many wailing voices are on loudspeakers at pretty much all times throughout the day.

The Church
By Saturday I was starting to get a little worried because I still hadn't met any Christians and I hadn't seen any churches on any of our trips into the center of town.  I continued praying that God would provide a church and a family of believers for the following day.  Later that day, my friend Tayuko from Japan said she was a Frontiers volunteer with a guy who now lives in Bandar Lampung and is a Christian.  I was very excited and asked if I could go to church with him.  She talked with him and said he would pick me up the next morning.
    So Mas Wawan picked me up the next morning and I rode on the back of his moped (thats how you get everywhere.. there are entire families of 4 who ride on one moped together.. impressive).  The church was very small and the people were very inviting. I can't explain how awesome the service was.  I didn't understand the majority of it, but the worship songs were amazing (similar to ours but in Indonesian), and the church was definitely filled with the Spirit.  It felt like I was finally home in this strange country.  During the last worship set, Mas Wawan all of a sudden handed me a microphone and told me I was to give a speech about myself to the congregation.  It was horrible, I couldn't remember any of my bahasa Indonesian...I made it short and sweet, but it was very embarrassing.  After church, Mas Wawan invited me to have lunch at his home.  I ate with him, his wife, his daughter and their niece.  There were about 30 chickens/ducks running around and little lakes everywhere for them.  The house was very humble but nice.  I was the only one who sat on a chair while we ate, and we werent able to eat in the same room.  It was a little difficult talking with them becuase they spoke a mixture of Javanese and Indonesian, but I tried to maintain conversation.

The Bookstore story
    The next day Mas Wawan picked me up on his moped and we went to a Christian bookstore.  When he picked me up he gave me a small devotional in Bahasa so that I could learn to have conversations about God and understand the sermons.  He wrote a nice prayer on the inside cover as well.  The bookstore was very interesting.  I ended up only buying a map of Bandar Lampung.  As I was searching for maps, a young man was sitting in front of one of the shelves, so he moved so I could continue looking.  Then he asked me a question.. I forget what, but his second question was "Are you a Christian?"  and then to Mas Wawan, "And you are, too?"  We said, "Yes."  He said he was too and that he preached the gospel over the Christian radio station of Bandar Lampung.  Mas Wawan seemed to know his voice and they talked for a bit.  I asked how he had known I was a Christian.  He said, "I could tell by your smile.  The face of a child of God shines with His inner beauty."  Hmm... well, that's never happened to me before.  God is awesome, and I'm glad that in this place of few believers, God can be seen through His people.  :)  It's also crazy he even said that... because Christianity is seldom spoken of here, so for him to ask if you are Christian right away like that is a very strange thing to ask.

I'll put a few photos up next time hopefully, the connection is too slow here!
Selamat sore!