Semi-Recent Happenings

Here are some photos from some things I've been up to recently.  There are many cool activities I'm not including.  I will very soon upload those photos though! I feel like my English is getting bad again.  All the sentences I'm writing right now sound really weird to me.

Anyways, everything has been going pretty well here.  Everything seems to be progressing slowly but surely: language, friendships, cultural understanding/acceptance, etc.  I had a really good day today.  After I volunteered at the orphanage, I went to the young ppl's worship at my church and I had a really good time there.  Mainly, God helped me understand a lot of the frustrations that I have been going through here lately and he gave me encouragement and love for his people.  So, not very coincidentally, after the worship I had some of the best talks I've had since I got here with the other students that were at the worship meeting.  It was really nice because it has been really hard for me to feel at ease at church.. or anywhere in this city because of how different I am here, but after worship God seemed to take that burden from me.  I felt fully relaxed for the first time since I've been here and felt as though I was talking to peers - my friends, brothers and sisters in Christ - rather than an American talking to Indonesians (or trying to). 

The following 2 photos are from a spelling bee that Valorie and I judged last Saturday. 

This was the final round for the Elementary schoolers.  Whoever buzzed first had to spell the word outloud.

First round, they had to write the words down.

This is Tika, my best Indonesian friend, and I at Conversation Corner, the English learning school that the American family here is running for University students and teachers in BL to improve the education system here, which is quite bad.

This is a typical outdoor "warung".  I eat most lunches after classes at different warungs along the road.  That is Andry and Tayuko sitting at our table.

Andry and Tayuko eating.  We also got Es Buah (Fruit Soup) from the warung next to this warung, so it was a yummy meal.

The front of the orphanage I teach at.  Those are some of the silly boys.

I went with the orphanage on their fieldtrip to a park in Bandar Lampung and did this while I was there.

The pool in the park.  I was basically dragged down (and up) slides and through the water for about 2 hours. :)

Monday night worship/Bible study.  My favorite time of the week.  On the far left is Valorie, then Tika, then Risty, then some girl I just met and forgot her name.

All of us Darmasiswa students decided to go do karaokee on Thursday night.

We went and did woodcarving on Friday in Metro, which is about an hour away from BL.  There is Tayuko and I working on some elephant carvings.  Sitting next to us is the university's traditional dance professor, who took us to the carving place.

At first I was just doing it because everyone kept nagging me to "just tryy it", and then, as I feared, I got really into it and couldn't stop until I had fixed the gouges in the elephant's leg.  It was pretty fun I guess.

okay, that's all folks! 
haha, okay that made me miss looney tunes on saturday mornings.  weird.
ignore that comment.