I Love It! Skills put to use...

Something I thought as I sit here making up an English lesson to teach a group of kids tomorrow is "how the heck am I qualified to do this??" Well, the answer is, I'm not really at all. I don't have an education background or any ESL teaching experience(yet...). But, the fact that I'm a native English speaker, always causes people to ask if I will teach them English. On Saturdays, I help at an after-school center for street kids, helping them with homework. Last week they asked me if I could start doing English lessons a little bit each Saturday. The kids were so excited for it! I told the leader that I don't really know how to teach English, but she still asked just if I'd go over something basic. And, here I am, planning a little lesson to do with them tomorrow :)
One thing I love about living here is that any little skill or knowledge you have can be used to serve others. As it is with English, I've found the same thing with my knowledge of dance. Yes, I've danced for years, but I've never taught it or considered myself qualified for such a thing. But, even with the skills I have, it's being used to serve a group of girls as I teach them ballet. I've seen them really develop in their dance skills, creativity, and social skills too. It's been amazing to see how much they've learned over a year. And, they love it!
I've learned that it doesn't matter how skilled you are at something...the fact is there are things that I have knowledge and experience in that can be shared here. I've loved being able to take what I know and be able to utilize it here and I'm so grateful for how it's opened up ways to connect with Indonesians.

A TK Field Trip

Last week, I went with all the kids from the TK on a field trip. We went to a park for the kids to play and swim at. I guess the term "swimming" can be used loosely...more like them climbing on me :) Some of the kids think they're funny and call me "pohon" which means "tree"(because I'm so tall if you didn't catch that one..) and they love climbing on me. That happened even more when we went swimming! :)  It was fun to go outside of the classroom with the kids and just get to play with them. There was so much for them to do, and we squeezed it all in before it started downpouring!!

We started out by celebrating one of the kids' birthday with cake and singing.

A few of the kids playing on what looked like a giant hampster wheel. I secretly wanted to go on it!

Bintang and Adi ready for the train ride...love these two.

Latif and Rama...too cute!

I didn't take any pictures in the pool(since I was in it the whole time), but I did catch these two! :)

Me with some of the kids' moms. It was great that most of their mothers came along, too!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Ok, well maybe it's not looking/feeling like Christmas at all here. But, at the Pierce's house it is! The other night I went to Lisa and Danny's house to help them decorate and get into the Christmas spirit...thanks for including me guys!

While Mary was busy decorating the tree...

Luke was busy...eating mango :) At least he took a break to say cheese for the camera! haha

Lookin good guys!



Lisa helping Luke put up his ornament :)

We even made some yummy hot chocolate(just the thing you want in 80 degree weather right??). Luke didn't exactly get it all in his first sip :)

 

A Unique Thanksgiving

This is my favorite time of year...when the holidays kick off with Thanksgiving and I can finally listen to Christmas music without being judged! :) Holidays here will always be unique because, well, I live in Asia! Thanksgiving this year was especially unique. My friend, Faith ended up taking a last minute trip to a hospital in Singapore(a lot of people go there for more complicated medical care because it's so close and the care is so good). I decided to accompany her so she didn't have to be up there alone. Praise the Lord, she is much better now and we were able to meet with a great doctor up there! I was very impressed with the hospital there...
Since we were there for Thanksgiving day, we made the most of it and fixed our own Thanksgiving dinner.

Our dinner was complete with stuffing, cranberry sauce and turkey(well turkey deli meat...but still turkey!! We don't have deli meat in Indo, so this was actually really special haha) 

Me and Faith at dinner

Throughout the day on Thanksgiving, Faith and I were talking about family traditions and things that we loved to do during the holidays. One thing I love about celebrating holidays here is that the memories I have about holidays and family become magnified and cherished more. There are some things that I always took for granted or never thought twice about while I was in the U.S., like watching the Macy's parade, cooking with my mom and sister, going for walks after dinner, seeing friends, etc. These are things that aren't really "traditions" and I never really thought much about until they were absent from my holidays here. It makes me appreciate those moments much more and thankful to have had them!
I am so thankful for all that God has blessed me with, for all the memories with family and friends to look back on, and the new memories being made with friends here. :)

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."~1 Chron. 16:35

On another note...Singapore is a crazy city! I didn't get warned before going there that culture shock might happen. It's so close to Indo, but so different! It's such a developed city with great public trans, highways, hospitals, and it's a really pretty, clean city--there was so much green space everywhere! It almost felt like I was in the U.S.--a really strange feeling. Below are a couple pictures of what I got really excited about(keep in mind, we mostly stayed in the hospital area haha. it's the little things in life, right??):

Yes, that's a water fountain! In Singapore you can drink the tap water...I had to google it before I could believe it!

It was Christmas EVERYWHERE!! The city was already decorated all out for Christmas...made my heart happy :)

That's an Oops...

I've definitely had my share of language mishaps since learning Indonesian(heck, it happens to me in English sometimes...it's inevitably going to happen in a foreign language haha). I've wanted to make a point to write down different times that I embarass myself in front of Indonesians, but usually I forget to write it down(or maybe I just don't want to document it :) ).
A couple weeks ago, I was in Jakarta for a training and was trying to make conversation with the taxi driver. When, he started talking about his family, he mentioned he had 3 kids. Well, in Indonesia, there's a common phrase used to promote keeping families small: "2 cukup," meaning 2 kids is enough. Somehow that phrase got mentioned and I tried to be smooth and say "maybe 2 is enough, but having 3 is a blessing." Instead I confused the word "berkat" which is blessing, with "berbakat" which is talented. So, I ended up saying "well, maybe 2 is enough, but having 3 is talent." I realized I confused the two words as soon as it left my mouth. Talent in what, Leslie? Oy vey! Well, the good news is I probably won't confuse those two words again!

New Food Friday...Gorengan

A popular street food is called gorengan(fried food). It's cheap, quick and easy to make and delicious...I mean who doesn't like anything deepfried? There are vendors that sell gorengan all over the place, but there's a woman I go to down the street from my kost. I swear anything can become "gorengan". She sells fried banana, potato, sweet potato, tofu, tempeh, mixed vegetables fritters and a couple things that I am still unsure of what they are :)
My favorite kind of gorengan is the mixed veggie fritter that kind of tastes like an egg roll. It's a flour mixture with carrots, bean sprouts and cabbage. In Indonesian it's called "Weci", which makes me laugh every time I say it, because it's pronounced like wedgie. haha

It's how they roll...

The main form of transportation here(and most other countries in S.E. Asia) are motorbikes. Because cars are so expensive, most people have motorbikes and they are everywhere! Since this is what people use to get around, you see people carrying almost anything on their bikes...whatever people buy, they have to carry on their bikes! I've seen mattresses, bicycles, animals, etc. Every once in a while, I'll take a picture with my phone of what I see. Unfortunately, all the pictures are from the back. I wish I could have taken them from the side, but you still get the idea!



Sometimes I'll see things piled so high on bikes...I have no idea how they balance sometimes! One gust of wind and I feel like I'd tip over!



This guy just happened to be carrying a ton of balloons on his bike...you'd think he'd float away!

This is the "lowrider" motorbike style hahaha It made me laugh especially seeing 3 adults on it!



I've seen people carry all sorts of animals on their bikes. This goat looked like he was trying to escape the whole time!



A lot of people hook up their business on the back of their bikes. This was the first time I've seen a sewing machine on one!

This guy has everything he sells on the back. How he uses his rearview mirrors, no clue. :)



And, of course, you can always carry more difficult stuff with a friend on the back. It makes me nervous sometimes seeing people carrying poles on their bikes...I can imagine that going bad very quick!

What I learned from this post? I definitely don't utilize my motorbike to it's max capacity! :)