Bali

I love vacation.  I know, who doesn't, right?  But I really, really, REALLY love vacation.  I dream about it.  I plan for it months in advance.  I rip articles out of magazines and save them in file folders as fodder for future vacation fantasizing.  I know I spend way too much time thinking about and pining for vacation.  Part of it is my over-active imagination, and part of it is a by-product of living on a little spit of an island that seriously lacks in the diversions department.  I know that to hear we live on an island in the tropics conjures up all sorts of images of white-sand beaches, crystal clear water and pina colodas, but to quote a former MAF teammate, "Tropical island it is; paradise it ain't."

We live in a small typical Asian town - noisy, hot, dusty - and for most of the year we don't travel outside of a 5-kilometer radius around our house.  Every other week we make the long (10 kilometer!) drive out to the beach, or pool, and that's it.  No road trips, no trips to the next town over for dinner, nothing.  David gets to fly to the jungle interior a few times a week, but for me and the kids, most of the time our world is quite small.

All that to say, I was really looking forward to our trip to Bali.  I once visited Bali years ago when I was about  8 months pregnant with Luke to attend a women's conference, but we'd never been with the whole family.  And to make it even more wonderful, my parents flew to Tarakan and spent two weeks here with us before we all traveled together to Bali.  I got my love of traveling from my dad, who is a master at it and makes any trip fun.

One of the best things we did in Bali was to rent a car and ride around, getting lost in the lush countryside.  We saw rice fields and volcanoes, and I ate about a kilo of one of my all-time favorite fruits, the mangostein.  We hiked to some Buddhist stone carvings that pre-date Hinduism.  The place had an ancient, other-worldly feel to it.

We enjoyed a day at the water park, and a trip to the Bali Bird and Reptile Park, where we got to hold some different birds.

When my parents were in Tarakan, Dad got to fly along with David and had lunch at a village interior, where he was fed monitor lizard.  At the reptile park in Bali he got to see what he it was he ate:

The hotel grounds where we stayed were just lovely, and I enjoyed seeing several of one of my favorite types of trees, the sea fan.  I would love to have one of these growing in my backyard.

So all in all, Bali lived up to my vacation expectations - lots of playing, relaxing, and eating.  Dad left from Bali to go back to Georgia, but Mom came back to Tarakan with us and will be here another week.  It's so nice having her around.  

Sampai nanti,

Natalie

Mother's Day

The past few weeks have been about as crazy as this picture of Zoe in a bucket!  This time of year always seems to bring a flurry of visitors and activity.  Not that I'm complaining.  Life on an island can be a bit dull at times (no, really!) so a change of pace is welcome.

My Aunt Mary and Uncle Harvey paid us a visit around Easter.  It was their first trip to Indonesia, and we tried to pack as much into their week here as we could.  They celebrated Easter with us at church and at a brunch with our MAF teammates, Uncle Harvey rode along with David on a medivac flight, we visited all the local tourist spots (all four of them!) and took a two-night trip interior.

In the picture above, Mary and Harvey try out fried chicken feet.  They were very adventurous and we had many laughs, especially over Mary's introduction to the Indonesian squatty potty.  

I was also proud of how Aunt Mary braved the rickety bamboo bridges we frequently crossed on our hike interior.  Looks easier than it is!

Carter is always catching critters - he caught this skink at our friend's hut near their rice field interior.

On our hike, our friend Pak Ajang took us to a place where in the old days of Dayak headhunting, they used to store the heads.  There was only a depression in the earth, and the heads are long gone (to Luke's disappointment).  

In the photo above, Pak Ajang is demonstrating how his ancestors in years past would prove their bravery by leaping off this stone over a spear that was stuck in the ground.  If they cleared the spear, they could call themselves brave.  If not...well, I guess they called themselves severely injured, at best!

 There was a tense moment when a kerbau (water buffalo) got between us and the trail.  They are docile creatures, but none of us wanted to get any closer to those horns than necessary.  

Zoe, however, didn't mind getting up close and personal with this kerbau, under Pak Ajang's watchful eye.

Here we are after a trip to the Tarakan beach.  It's always fun to see Tarakan again through a newcomer's eyes, and experience the culture anew.

A few days after Mary and Harvey left, we had a party for Grace's 10th birthday, a few days early.  Then we were off to family conference in Balikpapan.

Conference is always a highlight of the year.  A group of ladies from MAF headquarters came out to do the VBS and they all had a wild and fun time.  Kevin and Linda Swanson, whom we know from our Tennessee days when they worked at a counseling center and later when Kevin served as MAF CEO, came to be our speakers.  They did a fantastic job speaking on the topic of joy.

Here's our MAF Kalimantan team.  I love these people!!! 

Grace's actual birthday happened when we were at conference in the big city of Balikpapan.  So we were able to celebrate by going out to Pizza Hut and have J.Co doughnuts - which are just as good, in my opinion, as Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  A very special birthday, indeed! 

I can't believe Grace is 10 already.  Seems like she was just this size the other day.  This is Grace with my grandmother, Mamaw.  On April 24th it was two years since she passed away.  We miss her so much!

The day after conference David headed off to the U.S. to be trained to fly and instruct in our new Kodiak aircraft.  I'm glad he has the opportunity to go but we sure do miss him!  Just about 10 days to go and he's home.

Natalie

Every other Tuesday a few friends and I teach an English class to a group of Indonesian kids.  This class started out as more of a preschool storytime, but as word got out that we were teaching English, more and more elementary-aged kids started coming.  We now have a group of about 25 regulars who come for singing, games, and crafts.  It's been fun to get to know some of the kids in our neighborhood, as well as their moms who come and sit in the back and learn the Hokey Pokey and other silly English songs with their kids.

A few months ago, when an influx of older kids started attending, I was a little surprised when they all started taking my hand when we were saying goodbye, and touching it to their foreheads.  I have seen Indonesian kids show this sign of respect to their parents when being dropped off at school - and I've even jokingly tried to get Carter and Grace to do it when I drop them at school - but I was unprepared for our English class kids to start doing it to me.

Tegar bids me farewell

Now, here is something I just noticed after looking at this picture closely.  It appears that on Tegar's shirt is a skateboard with an attitude, giving us the middle finger.  It's a bit ironic, isn't it, that Tegar is being so polite (and he is one of our nicest students) while wearing this crazy t-shirt that he probably doesn't even realize could be offensive.

We are very glad to have our friends the Forneys back from their furlough.  Carter and their son Britton are big buds, and they relished the opportunity to dissect a cow bone recently.

Science was never something I was enthusiastic about doing when I was home schooling the kids, so I'm very, very thankful to have our teacher Lynne.  She has been a wonderful teacher for our kids, and we're really going to miss her when she heads home at the end of May.

A few weeks ago Grace and Zoe went to their first dance class.  I never would have imagined they would have the opportunity to take ballet on our little far-flung island.  An Indonesian friend arranged the class with a local aerobics instructor, and while it isn't the kind of ballet class I grew up with, the girls don't know any better and really seem to enjoy it.  Zoe mostly goofs off, as you can see in the picture below.

We are off to the island of Derawan this weekend for a snorkeling trip.  It's a three-hour boat ride away, and I am looking forward to laying on the beach with my book (Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - it will be hard to imagine the ice and thin air of Mount Everest while relaxing in a tropical paradise - but I'll do my best).

Sampai nanti,

Natalie  

 One of my favorite things to do here, as I've probably said before, is to take trips interior.  It's such a different world interior than where we live in Tarakan, and it's always a welcome break from life on the island.  Two weekends ago we went to the village of Kampung Baru, located in the Krayan area of East Kalimantan.  David was invited by the head of the Bible school there to speak for their opening services for the start of the new semester.

 From the airstrip in the village of Long Bawan it was a 15-minute ride by motorcycle to Kampung Baru.  I felt rather conspicuous, riding through the village, part of this long motorcycle caravan, all of us clutching bags and backpacks, trying to hold on to the bike without actually having to wrap my arms around the guy driving it.  Afterward I felt like I'd been for a ride on a bucking bronco.

The Bible school is named for John Willfinger, an American missionary who was killed in the Krayan during World War II.  You can read more about him here.  The school, which has about 50 students and a dozen or so instructors, teaches Bible and theology with an emphasis on evangelism.  The campus consists of a few clapboard buildings such as the one pictured above, set in a beautiful mountain valley.  The Bible school is low on funds right now, and the instructors (pictured in the top picture by the plane) have not received any salary for several months now.  In spite of that, they are a joyful group of people serving God in a remote place, and we really enjoyed spending time with them.

 

The evening service started about at about 9 and went for about two hours.  Different groups sang, and then David spoke.  After the service we got the kids down for the night then joined another service, which was just for the Bible school teachers and their wives.  It went very late, but was a good time of fellowship.  I wasn't sure how my stomach would react to rice and boiled pig at 1 a.m. but it was actually pretty good.

I wish I had a picture to post of the night sky in Kampung Baru.  There were so many stars that we had a hard time picking out constellations.  It was just gorgeous and the kids said it was a highlight of their weekend.  Seeing the familiar outlines of Orion, Plaides, and the Dippers always makes me feel not so far away from home.

Luke, who has like .02 % body fat, had a hard time staying warm and huddled by the fire a good bit.  He also had fun playing with one of the village kids' toys. 

Who needs Toys R Us?

 At the Sunday service David spoke, and afterward had a chance to speak with the man standing in the middle in this picture (that's Tim Maynard, our mechanic, on the right).  This man, whose name I forget, was born and raised in the Long Bawan area, and he has the distinction of being the very first medivac patient that MAF ever carried out from that area.  He was a young boy when he contracted typhoid and had to be flown out to a hospital in Tarakan for treatment.  He is now a police chaplain and has a ministry to inmates as well.  Our guys do several medivac flights a week, and it's cool to think how this aspect of MAF's ministry is having an eternal impact on lives.

 

I was able to spend some time chatting with some of the instructors' wives.  Veronica, pictured above, is expecting her second child.  She had such a sweet spirit about her.  There was another wife who was expecting as well, and the week after our trip we got word that she had delivered her baby, and decided to name it Holsten!  I'm not sure if it's a boy or girl, but with a name like Holsten, I'm hoping it's a boy. :-)

We totally switched gears last weekend when we celebrated Chinese New Year with our Chinese friends.  A highlight was watching the barong sai or lion dance.  Tarakan has a championship barong sai group and it's always fun to watch them perform.  Luke got a little freaked out so while we watched he waited in the car.  The guys in the costume are so good at what they do they make the lion seem like a real animal.  

Another exciting day for us recently was seeing this huge python at the hanger.  The man on the right, Pak Nelson, caught it in a nearby garden and brought it to the hanger for everyone to see.  We were kind of bummed to hear that it would be consumed the next day.  David tried some of the meat and said it was sort of chewy.  Our budding herpetologist Carter finally got a replacement snake for the one that escaped - a lovely little python that he has named Sophie - that just doesn't seem to fit a snake, does it?

Sampai jumpa,

Natalie

Fly Along

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly along with David in the MAF Caravan.  This was the first time I have flown in the Caravan, and what a different experience it was from flying in a 206.  It was like trading out a Go-Kart for an SUV.  The Caravan was smooth and had all sorts of cool instruments on its dash board (or whatever the pilots call it!).

It was a stormy day when we headed out, but armed with weather radar we were able to dodge the dangerous areas.  David was actually a bit gleeful to have some weather to work so he could make use of the radar and the IFR guidelines the guys use for flying through the mountainous areas of Borneo.

We did eight take-offs and landings in four different villages.  I enjoyed watching David interact with passengers and airstrip agents.  This older couple below were so cute in their funky t-shirts and solemn expressions.

The man below was quite a character.  He had a hat on that said "Indonesian veteran" on it and told us he fought in the border wars with Malaysia (back in the 40s or 50s maybe?).  He was at the airport to say goodbye to his younger brother, who was going back to his village to die since the local hospital couldn't do anything to help him.

It was touching to watch the two brothers saying goodbye, knowing that this could very well be the last time they see each other in this life.  Then later when we landed at the sick man's village, it was heart-rending to see the somber crowd gathered to welcome him home.

 

Contrasting that scene was this man on the other side of the plane who was downright giddy receiving one of our "passengers" - a pig in a poke!

The weather continued to be an issue through the afternoon but we were able to make it to all our scheduled stops.  Rice harvest had started in several of the villages and from the air we could see men and women wearing conical hats beating out rice stalks on woven mats in the rice paddies.  One of our passengers was a pastor who was returning to his village after helping his wife start the harvest in the village where they used to live.  He was leaving her behind to finish the harvest, and David and I had to laugh about that because this pastor is a very small thin man (think Jack Sprat) and his wife is a beefy lady who could easily beat him in a wrestling smackdown. She was definitely the better choice for finishing out a physically-demanding rice harvest.

At the end of the day I couldn't believe how tired I was - and all I did was sit in the co-pilot's seat and look out the window.  Every time I fly with David I have a renewed appreciation for what he does and why he's so tired at the end of a flying day.

 

Another happy MAF passenger

Sampai nanti,

Natalie