Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Tidak Apa Apa (no worries...my favorite phrase)

Eye of an Elephant


He is faithful. Always. The time we have been given here in Southeast Asia has been profitable. I look forward to the remaining time we have to live in this place. I'm thankful to be here and to be here with the people that I have been blessed to live among.  This includes my dear friend Rebekah, our supervisors and their friends, our soon to be roommate Rachel and all the nationals that we have been getting to know this past month.

As I mentioned in the last post, we have continued language learning since recovering from Dengue Fever. Rebekah and I have a private tutor that comes to our home each day for class. There are two teachers that rotate teaching us. This has been a good way to learn the language and culture as they have become our friends as well. However, our sickness delayed our studies of the language a little more than two weeks time. Therefore, since we have now continued, we are able to perform all the means of practice we wished we could have done when we first arrived. For example, we are now able to practice our language with our house helper, Mbak Ria. This is good as she is a national who speaks little to no English. She is in the home everyday. We also practice the language by visiting our neighbors. Our country offers a very communal sense of living so all of our neighbors are welcoming to us. There is one neighbor in particular who is aware that we are beginning language students. She is very good to work with as she is patient with us in our time of continual learning and practice. Another great way to practice language is by using the public transportation system. The name of the public transportation system here is Angkot. Riding an angkot is a wild experience in of itself! Great cultural encounters!

It is now time for our homestay to come to a close. We have greatly enjoyed our homestay family during the past forty days we have lived with them. They have taken good care of us as well as offered us wonderful and numerous cultural experiences. However, the best part of living in their home has been the conversations that have taken place around the dinner table when we spend time together in the evenings. We enjoy and are thankful for this time. He is good. We fully intend on maintaining contact with our homestay family for the remaining time we have in country. As we now prepare to move out of their home and into another later this week, we do greatly look forward to this time as well. We are excited for our move as we will be living with another friend of like-mind that arrived in country several months prior to Rebekah and I. We believe both living arrangements we have been given here has and will be great but it is a different aspect of greatness that is offered in each.

 


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