Wow did we ever have a very special event this Saturday afternoon! Remember - Nick & I attend weekly on Saturday a do an English conversational meeting with neighbors?
Well - the group who organized this weekly meeting - is a group of ladies who belong to the "Ibu Professional" group. These are women that want to be better women in all areas: interacting, relationships, both at home as a wife, parent, & neighbor. working together and reach out to those around you in need! This organization is gaining more and more awareness as it reaches women - all are welcome from any race, religion background. There is a book printed and it seems to be reaching many women in Indonesia & Malaysia too.
So this group of ladies here in our neighborhood started this language meeting - they local people learn English in school but only the grammar part of it - yet no application! So with Dukuh having many expats from other countries...they invited us to come and help them...we speak English and in turn they can help us with bahasa Indonesian! This has only been going on for about 8 months now - but it is growing "word by mouth" to the point that we can not sit in the house anymore! They put out a tarp for us to on and so we are now all outside - weather permitting!
Ibu Professional, these ladies decided to reach out to all of the people that live here in Dukuh - and approached the "RT" which is the person who is the head of this particular kampung (compound or neighborhood) and he in turn signed & stamped his formal 
approval on it to make it official! These invitations where printed and passed out to all the people who live here and let them know & invite them to come to the Grand Opening of the "Language Club" The local mosque close by also announced it for them (on the microphone where we also hear the prayers broadcasted daily)(special events, death or marriages are also announced broadcasted like this) so with all this said...the ladies did a fantastic job! The rented a tent so that we would have covering (it is pretty HOT out there now!)- and tables were set out and chairs. We were all asked to bring a food dish to share! If possibly something American or Dutch whatever your country was.
Well the turn out was great! I was so very proud of our friends and all their efforts! Gosh look at these pictures:
Here is Dewi welcoming us - with a BIG smile! "Hi Dewi! Wow this is wonderful!"
Everyone signed in -
On a black display they had pictures of the the previous meetings so that our new guests would get an idea of how it works!
Here's Joy sitting with a group ~
So every Saturday from 3:30 - 5:30 we sit together like this in small circles sharing back & forth!
Announcements were made to explain to the guests what it was all about!
There is Endah with Muhammad with daughters Karina & Diva! And another friend gives us a Big smile! It was all very officially done - many of our friends wore their coverings because of the special event.
The ladies had an opportunity to speak a little about their ladies group Ibu Professionals and how it all got started here in the kampung. It was birthed 8 months ago - a desire to reach out to the community to bring a bridge & connection - to help one another!
Joy was available and helped from the beginning - so she was honored & asked to come forward! Joy & Luke are leaving for Papua soon - they are almost finished with their language school training - a 9 month course to learn the language of behasa Indonesia. Ryan grew up in Papua with his parents - and now as an adult he is coming back to join them after finishing college - so he is speaking bahasa Indonesia really well and also taking a refresher course at Imlac school. So he too was asked to come forward because he is a great help to this group on Saturday's!
Ryan is going back to the States at the end of the year to marry his sweatheart "Mandy" who is finishing up her nursing school there! Wow what wonderful and exciting plans ahead!
Here is the "RT" of this kampung - who officially announce and welcomed everyone! How well everything is organized and how respectful things go!
Here is Wawan & Nanik who's house we come to and who have brought this all together with the heart to reach out to this community! Ibu Nanik has a special testimony to share how this all came about in her life! They are a sweet couple with two boys Derby & Darren!
We think it was the RT birthday and so he was presented with a Indonesian gift - a platter with a rice stack in the middle - then different types of food around it - it is a tradition here and I also received one from friends on my Birthday last November! I must come up with the name...
Prayer was said and that was spoken in bahasa Indonesian - a blessing over the event I think~
Little paper plates with a napkin stapled on for the finger food were offered & it was time to enjoy the variety of snacks! Gordon & Deborah are experiencing lots of new things - they have been here now over 2 months from Kentucky! They just purchased a bike and are now zooming around town - we are proud of them!!!!!
These are delicious coconut snacks - sweet & tasty!
We were entertained by a band from the university close by Stain 2 - the guys did a good job and we enjoyed the music -
We ended by letting the ballons go for the grand opening! off they went!
Happy smiles - we all had a great time! Wow - what a great response we had! We hope word gets around and many more people will come and join us on Saturday's ~ it will help them to better connect with their foreign neighbors and as we are all learning to speak the language to - we are helping one another and becoming great friends in the mean time!
Did a wonderful job!
