sakit

means “sick” in Bahasa Indonesia. In Tagalog (my parent’s language) it can also mean “pain.”  I feel both today, so I stayed home from work to rest.  There is never a good time to get sick, and it’s really humbling because you can’t do what you want to when you want to.  I feel achy all over but despite the pressure I feel in my head due to congestion (mampet), my brain is still racing, thinking about everything that still needs to be done, work-wise (school my workplace, and school my two online classes that I’m taking).  

Everything started setting in on Saturday, with a runny nose and that feeling that you’re pre-sick.  So I started drinking Energen-C like it was my job, to avoid getting sick.  Sunday, I woke up with a sore throat, cough, and congestion.  Today, my cough has escalated to the point where it hurts in my abdomen to cough.  I have been drinking Obat Batuk cap Ibu dan Anak (Cough medicine for women and children), at the suggestion of two of my ministry team members.  It seems to be helping, but the congestion is still pretty bad. 

So is it okay for guys to take the Cough Medicine for Women and Children? haha

On Sunday, it seemed like there was no end of things to do: I was teaching for the second week in a row at Building Blocks, preparing for my Hospitality Team meeting after Sunday Celebration, and had to take care of the powerpoint since the guy who usually takes care of it was starting up another ministry team for that Sunday and wouldn’t have the time work on it that he normally does.  

I really think that lately, with everything to do on my plate, I have had a real sense of joy with doing things.  I gave up coffee and tea for Lent, and I think it is exposing just how dependent I am on caffeine to fuel me, rather than depending on God.  I think that’s why I am so tired and run down these days.  Anyway, being sick is showing me that it’s easy to do things when you have energy, strength, and resources.  It’s not easy to do things when you feel spent, weak, and have nothing to offer. 

Sunday, with everything to take care of (not to mention the homework due today that I hadn’t touched to that point, or my lesson plans for this week), I think I could have had a real sense of joy doing what I was doing, had I not been…sick.

I was both snappy and crabby throughout the morning, stressed out about the amount of things to be done.  At the end of the day, once everything I had to do had been taken care of, and even throughout the day, I realized just how ugly my sin is, the sin that is subtly lying beneath the surface of my enjoying things.  And it got exposed with being sick.  

I think it makes the words “surely He bore our infirmities, and by His stripes we are healed” all the more precious.  So, I’m sakit… and I need Jesus. 

Springfield Kindy Chinese New Year 2013

This is my third Chinese New Year at Springfield International School.  We have 6 classes of K1 students (ages 3-4) and 6 classes of K2 students (ages 5-6).  Instead of having twelve performances, we decided to combine classes so we had a total of 8 performances.  I collaborated with Miss Kesthi from K2B to teach some K2 students a dance to Jay Chou's song "The Cowboy is Very Busy" (posted below).  Since I am not a form (home room) teacher, I helped Miss Poppy with her K2A students with costume changes and carrying water bottles.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, I have attached 7 - along with 3 videos from this year's performance.  Silahkan menikmati (please enjoy)!

K2A students wearing cheongsam

with Belle

K2A boys ready for their Wu Shu dance

Getting ready to go upstairs for the performance!

K2B students wearing cheongsam

Ribbon Dance girls ready to head upstairs

Miss Poppy and her K2A students

K2 students dancing to "The Cowboy is Very Busy" (this is the one that Kesthi and I taught the kids!)

K1 boys Wu Shu dance and Kung Fu Fighting

K2 girls in the finale, Jay Chou's "Qing Hua Ci"

Ojek Payung

Feeling my writer’s twitch these days.  I just got home from the mall.  Outside you can hear the constant steady flow of the rain hitting the pavement.  

I was just out studying and meeting up with people, and afterward planning to watch “Little Women” with some friends this afternoon since I had to read the book for the Children’s Literature course I’m taking this term.  

Sidenote: I had watched “Little Women,” based on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women years ago when it first came out.  I loved the music as well as the story.  I also found out through my literature course that she wrote it based on the members of her own immediate family.  I laughed and cried like a baby over her writing, so you can imagine how I have been itching to see this movie.  I wanted to wait the rain out but it has been raining for a good hour, and I was determined at all costs to get home.  

Besides my incredibly handy Eddie Bauer rain jacket (from the last post) that I remembered to stuff in my bag, I needed another option for a way home.  The rain has been pouring down in sheets and of course today would be the day that I chose to wear a white skirt.  As I was walking to the exit, I found a group of rag-tag kids hanging out with their golf-sized umbrellas, pleading with customers leaving the mall to rent their umbrellas.  Ojek payung, we call them.  I am not sure what the word ojek means, but I have the feeling that it has to do with rental, because we use the term ojek for motorcyclists who rent the backseat of their motorbike to willing riders.  Payung means umbrella (it also means umbrella in Tagalog, which is what my parents speak at home).  

I was trying to figure out which willing soul I would choose to take me home in the rain.  Normally when the umbrella is rented, the renter holds the umbrella for themselves and the child walks behind.  I used to really pity these children, and in some ways I still do because I can’t believe that they would subject themselves barefoot to the elements (the rain and the cold).  

At the same time, time has allowed me to see that these children do have a choice.  They choose to be out in the rain and they are little business people in the works, choosing to be industrious and make some money when the opportunity presents itself.  

I ended up singling out the smallest boy, holding an umbrella that used to be white, with black lettering on it.  His friends rushed at the sight of my advance and I shooed them off with my arm.  When they saw the boy that I chose, some taunted him.  One had the audacity to kick him so that he fell and hit the pillar close to where he had been standing.  You can imagine my indignation, and I pulled out my “teacher”and stared daggers at the culprit.  “Jangan,” (Don’t) I said, staring him straight in the eyes.  He smiled at me like I was joking.  Except he couldn’t know how wrong he was.  “Bilang ma’af” (Say sorry), I said, still staring at him.  “Ma’af,” he said, still smiling like it was a joke.  I wanted to “box his ears,” like Louisa May Alcott might put it.  But I also wanted to get home.  So off we went.  

I made my new little friend walk with me under the umbrella, probably to his surprise.  “Umurnya berapa?” I started out (How old are you?) “Sembilan,” he said (Nine).  I wanted to ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, but I couldn’t remember how.  I was also concentrating on how to wade home carefully through the ankle high puddles that we encountered.  “Namanya siapa, kamu?” (What’s your name?) He said that his name was Rendi.  I had a student named Rendi for two years in K1 and K2 so I told him that.  I also asked him “Suka hujan?” (Do you like the rain?) and he said that he did.  “Punya saudara?” (Do you have brothers and sisters?) and he told me that he did and there were too many to count.  

I wish that there was more that I knew to say to him.  But I was thankful that this little boy was willing to take me back to my home, where I am writing from now.  He was shivering and I didn’t want him to go back out in the rain, but I knew he was happy to go back to it.  The going rate from Supermal to my apartment is probably anywhere from Rp 2000-3000 but all I had on me was a Rp 20,000 and I never meant to ask him for change.  

It’s 4:09 PM now, and Sassha is here now (for those of you who know her; and for those of you who don’t, she is a friend we know from here).  We are waiting for Jennifer, my colleague, to come with the movie we have eagerly awaited for.  It’s not raining anymore.  I hope that Rendi can dry off soon now that the skies have cleared and that he’ll put that money to some industrious use.  Thanks for reading.

Rainy Season

I just made my way home in the rain from Taman Sari, a collection of outdoor food vendors across the street from my apartment.  

I was just meeting up with one of my life group members ,who lives in Karawaci, for dinner.  When I met her, I started griping about the things I am annoyed about these days - including one of my colleagues.  I would identify her as a mooch.  Any time she knows that I have something in my desk that she craves, she asks me for it but it’s more of informing me that it’s my responsibility to give it to her since I have it.  In so many words.  It’s really annoying.  I don’t think she realizes that she’s like this.  

I made a comment later on during dinner that during Lent I hope that God can help me to understand his grace more deeply.  After that, it started raining.  Once we finished eating, I looked at the clock, thinking it would only be another ten minutes till the rains let up.

But it hasn’t stopped since it started about two hours ago.  

I decided I’d make my way home, like a crazy lady in the rain, because of my trusty rain jacket that I bought back in Ann Arbor nearly four years ago.  And then I realized that I took my raincoat out of my backpack to use it on Saturday.  As my friend and I were leaving the restaurant, one of the waiters picked up a large rainbow umbrella and asked me if I would like to be dropped off at my place.  Even though my apartment really is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Taman Sari, I took him up on the offer.  

I was glad that I did.  The puddles that accumulated to that point were high enough to reach my ankles and with each step, splashed up onto my pants.  There are children who actually come out with their large golf umbrellas to the malls and public spaces when it rains and they let people rent their umbrellas and walk behind the people in the rain until they have reached their destination, where the renter pays Rp 2000-3000, depending on the distance (less than $0.30 USD)

I stopped at the gate to my apartment, hoping to compensate this young man for his kindness but when I offered what little I had, he said, “Nggak usaha” (no need) and offered to walk me all the way inside.  I told him I’d just run.  I felt bad that he too was wet and would have to spend the rest of his shift not only wet but cold, because it’s cold when its evening and when it rains here.   

I did run to my building, and got even more soaked than I already was.  I realized as I was splashing through the puddles that I became the mooch this evening, too.  That man didn’t have to offer me the temporary shelter of an umbrella, but he did anyway.  And he didn’t ask anything of me.  

It’s funny, I have been learning about hospitality here in Southeast Asia and trying to learn how to do it through my ministry team here at church.  But it’s like, I see that in coming here to try to do something, I am actually on the receiving end a lot more than I expect to be.  “You fed me when I was hungry, you gave me a drink when I was thirsty, you visited me when I was in prison, you clothed me when I was naked.”  “Lord, when did we ever do those things to you?” “When you do it to the least of these, you have done it to me.”  I didn’t imagine that I could also be the “least of these,” on the receiving end.  

You can’t give what you don’t have.  If you don’t understand grace (and by you, I mean me), you can’t show it to others.  If you don’t know need, you can’t have compassion for those who are in need.  And so, I share this as a way of being thankful that God has given me a quick and tangible answer to my statement about understanding grace more.  I don’t know that I’ll be so eager to interact with that colleague that I mentioned, just because change takes time.  But I hope that God broadens my heart to love her, just because I am just like her.