Gosh Weekend Already??????

Friday ~ 

Wow - are we spoiled......yes we went by Beppie and Elisha and had a wonderful cup of coffee and then Beppie asked what kind of coffee we drink - well instant right now.  She offered us her french press to use AND this wonderful coffee - 

                                                                   um hm good! 

                                                    Look what it says?????!!!!! 

Yes... would you believe it..... this coffee is from the town my father was born in "Bandoeng" and it even has the old Dutch spelling of the town on the package! (now spelled Bandung) And further - look....on the left side written in Dutch a little word of instruction..cute or what?????

......and best of all....it is a delicious cup of coffee!  Thank you Beppie - you spoiled Nick & I! Heerlijk gewoon weg! 

THE ELECTRICAL BOX ~

You say - why is Ellen showing this to us??????  This is a new thing for Nick & I......maybe for you too?

This electrical meter box is out on the  front porch.  The way it works is this:  you go to the local convenience store and you give them the rupiahs and they give you a number code to type into it......

 and Lo & Behold.....

..... your bill is paid and you have electricity for another month!

Nice huh?  Yes you can buy as much as you want - and not hassle with is each month - you decide!  Very very reasonable!

  

It rained a lot today...on and off but throughout the day.  So we hung a line in one of the rooms - ala!  

We are pretty fond of the geckos around here!  The 'big" loud one in the backyard 

well so far we haven't seen him YET...but ...we hear him loud and clear!  The "tokeh"  (toe-kay) sound is something else!  

 Then the little ones that crawl on the ceiling in the evening - well they are the cutest...and doing a good job keeping us free from the little bugs!  So a man knocks at the door selling these - and now we have a real decoration on our wall here in the house!  This one hopefully will be able to go into the suitcase ~

One experience the other evening was - .... I opened the cabinet in the kitchen and I must of scared one of these little guys - so he jumped towards me - like right at me and bumped my shoulder coming at me....YIKES! Now that  I don't want to have happen again...no way!  So I hope to be a little nosier in the kitchen to prepare him/her  so'   he/she can vanish BEFORE I open the cabinet door!
                         No flying gecko's for me!!!! 
Nick is taking a snooze -he looks pretty comfy - I must say!

This evening we joined a group of friends for songs & fellowship.
There was about 18 of us and we so' enjoyed it!  How great it is to make acquaintance with so many new people and make friends!  Sweet!

 It was raining this evening as we headed home - but Nick is careful and we had someone to follow - leading the way back to our Kampung.  What fun - riding on the scooter in the rain!

Tomorrow we are invited for a pancake breakfast that will be held at the little cafe restaurant at Beppie & Elisha - we think we might just do that & join in....could they be those "Dutch" ones by any chance?  Which are more like a very thin crepe????  Hummmmmm...we will see....  i n   t h e   m o r n i n g!!

Good Night - sleep tight - Welterusten!  Salamat Tidor! 

A Collage of Pictures ~ This and That!

A few weeks ago when we had just received the key to this house -but did not have the scooter yet - we had to do some shopping of items for the house and with too much to carry - we found a Dokar to get us home....

How fun - all the bags and we loaded them up and the horse took us down the little roadways - oh my what a load for the horse...3 people and then all the groceries too! Poor horsie!!!!!

 No mirrors in the house - so we are 'so' into plastic - cheap and it takes care of the need!


The water jug on the kitchen counter - to do all our cooking and drinking with!  One jug is 50 cents - yes 5000 rupiahs.  They are delivered to us by motorcycle - the delivery person has one on both side of his bike - so heavy a load!

At the front of the house the pillars have this cactus growing - again something I have not seen before.  It clings to the pillar!

 There they go......Nico is very careful and takes good care of both his passengers! Ha! You do have to watch out - for there is cars and motorcycles going all kinds of directions left and right!

 But we enjoyed our ride to Ambarawa last week - just driving through the countryside is so relaxing! We look forward to doing that again!

 Hey lookie here.......Wow a toko named after me....of all things!

Pretty sights to share with you!  

A new home being built around the corner of our house ~ 

Nick notices things like how the houses are built...cement poured and how with wooden forms the pillars are erected -  and then to level things with a string!  The people  are very resourceful and the homes end up looking very beautiful.

Just fun to share with you!

Last evening we heard a loud sound again - There is that Tokeh sound again - I have not yet seen one but this kind of gecko is LOUD!

 These guys are supposed to be pretty big - and when you hear their sound "tokeh" it is loud!

But this little guys (very cute and tiny - they crawl up on our ceilings all the time~ eating little bugs - mosquito's - which we like!  Thankfully there is not many mosquito's around and somehow they don't come into the house - but the little gecko's do a great job of keeping the buggies out!  We sit in the living area and then see something moving up on the ceiling or wall!  They must have good suction on their feet!  Sometimes though they do fall ~ but not often! And I would NOT like it if they fell while we were sleeping - !!!!

Today we went by dear Paulus & Indah and family (the kind person who gave us a lift from the airport when we returned back from Singapore....remember?) Anyway - we went by to visit them and just wanted to let them know we are doing well - we found a house to rent -we now have a scooter to get around on - and we wanted to let them know how much we appreciated their hospitality and friendship!
It was a nice visit with mother Indah and daughter Herlina!  We will see Paulus and brother San San and Fiona again soon we hope!  They are such gracious people and sweet Indah had a lovely lunch for us - such a nice visit!

We drove home in the rain ~ Nick pulled out his plastic poncho that came with the scooter tucked into the seat compartment and we headed home - and we made it home just fine!

Monday Morning November 11th ~

Good Morning You All!

Weekend has come and gone and we are into our 2nd week here in the house on Jalan Antasena Salatiga in Java Indonesia......and having a wonderful experience every day!

We enjoyed sweet fellowship at church yesterday - wonderful worship and a good and encouraging WORD from the Lord! We also had a potluck

after service - which was a wonderful blessing for Nick & I meeting more people and just taking in our 'life' right now..... in our new surroundings!  We feel so fortunate to experience so many precious people!

On Saturday I had the ladies from the hotel come....Yanti and Tia and they brought

another friend with them....Ana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow - so much fun and I feel so privileged to have them and they said they too are so happy for our time together - they learning English and I learning Indonesian!!!!! 

Then today - Monday we met again because they had a day off - 

Here is Bunga with Momma Kiki and Tia and Yanti and Ana....my new friends!

We spent a few hours together laughing, speaking two languages and just having a wonderful and very special time together!  What a JOY!  I ask questions about pronunciation because putting the right tone and the right sounds to the words is ever so important!  

While running around in town either people connect with us with a smile on the street because we have said it the right way - OR - we get this BIG question mark look!  

Oh I have good teachers now and they are patient with me!

The tough part is this:

our English letter 'a' is spoken 'a' like we when use the explanation 'ah!' 

our letter 'e' is spoken & pronounced as our English letter 'a' 

our letter 'i' is pronounced here with our English version  'e'

So you get it?  Pretty hard ~ 



Kiki from the other hotel too had wanted to come and so today Kiki had her day off from the hotel and so she was able to join our little group.  Bunga her daughter came along with Momma!  Bunga means beautiful!

The garage with full of bikes~ 

 Lessons are over - time to head home!

Bye Bye Kiki and Bunga - see you next time!!!  

Thank you for the nice snacks you brought us!!! So' kind!

Down the little road they go - back to house and families!

I had mentioned to the gals how we are having trouble finding the "good stuff" that we love so much.....Sambal Badjak.....and Ana says oh no problem I will bring you some!  Well today she spoiled Nick & I with freshly made sambal badjak and it is really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I did my wok special with our veggies and we so enjoyed it Ana!!! Thank you!!!!

It is 9:20 pm - and it is pouring down hard on this roof.....glad I had already taken down the wash!  

Oh if you guys could hear the hard downpour...so loud and so much...really!

Time to call it a Day - you all!  

Gosh it is November and that means Thanksgiving Day coming up - always a special time of the year!  Will be thinking of you all!  

Hugs again!!!!!  

1 Week Today in the house on Jalan Antasena (yes we had previously received a wrong address!)

Hi All! Gosh we are now today 1 week in this house and settling in nicely!  Today we purchased a phone line - for the flash drive with connection to a cell tower - well it works at times (here on the front porch) but no skype, no magic jack, no blogging...and that is NO FUN!!!!!  

We paid for the hook-up and the installment people will be coming within the next 3 days to install it bringing the modem & phone along as well! So soon .....very soon we hope to be able to call, Skype, blog again - so longing to do that!!

Since 2 days now we have our cute little Yamaha

motorcycle and so that has been such a blessing too these past 2 days! 

Yesterday, Nick & I took a little outing - we took a drive out to Ambarawa and Banyubiru

 We are planning to go back with some more information we have found - but at least we got this~

This is an old Dutch warehouse now being used as a administration building.

This is the town where Nick, Cecile and their Mom, and Robert & Peg and family too were interned ~ we tried to find the camps but Nick found a large gated area that is now a commando post for the army - and that just might be the place!!!!!  We hope to do a little research online soon and try to find more information on it - and we are asking local people (older ones if they can recall)  - maybe Peg or Robert or Cecile will remember something!  Do you guys remember anything at all - do email us!!!!

It was so sweet to drive through little villages with scooter - the Sun was shining but a cool breeze was out - going in and out of the little towns is so enjoyable - and relaxing!  It was an hour out to Ambarawa.  We stopped at a little cafe called 
"de Coffee" and decided to stop there - for a break!  Your bippy gets kind of sore after about an hour on that motorbike....anyway...ha!

We enjoyed meeting a family there who runs the shop: Edy & Sri, father & mother, with daughter

 Dewi and son Dedi (Dad called his son right away to swing by because he can speak English!) and we had a nice time of sharing with them!   Dedi also got on his motorbike and showed us where the Train Museum was where the old Dutch locomotives were all parked - regretfully

Can you imagine these old locomotives being brought by ship from Holland - my! 

While Nick & I were snapping pictures these cute little ones were checking out 'these tall people' and I got this cute shot of them!  Sweet huh?

They were laughing and giggling among themselves! We wished we could understand what they were saying!!!!

The museum was closed and under renovation - but we enjoyed looking through the fences!  

Then on the way back we came across old Dutch warehouse now being used as a administration building.
Oh it was such a pleasure to be on the scooter again - now being able to go off and do and see things again! YEAH!!! 

 It is good to have a set of wheels under you - 4 months without that is so' weird!!!!!

It was a great day and we enjoyed zipping through the villages and saw beautiful mountain scenes and lush green rice fields -very relaxing and we feel so blessed too!  

Oh yes in the morning, I ordered sms (text) 2 water bottles - it went like this: "Salamat Pagi - 2 air botels trimah kasih adres Jl Antasena Ramah Merah hari pagi ini." he answered "oky" so I know someone got it AND MOST IMPORTANTLY UNDERSTOOD IT....on the other end!!!

To translate = "good morning - 2 water bottles please address Jl Antasena house red -today this morning"

How do you like them cookies huh?  Yep Ellen the Indo...ha! 
We are studying every night a little bit - trying to catch words to use in different situations.  This afternoon - I received a sms from one of the gals we met at one other hotel who also wanted English lessons - I told her come!  That is a great way to learn back and forth..don't you think?  "Kiki" wants to learn to speak better English and Ellen & Nick are wanting to learn better behasa (language) Indonesian!    

As I am writing this on the front porch - there are chicken's and roosters walking into our yard - they live across the street - with

 the 8 dogs - and because our gate is open they are walking in, pecking, and cackling! Gosh - a new thing huh?  

Can't picture that one on Kim Lane in Bend!!!!!  


Oh yes - one last thing - the house does not have (as far as we know) a house number - the previous family who are now in Papua also said there was no house # although the next door neighbors have a #23 on theirs - (oh and by the way Nick said the house on the opposite side of us is #22....oh oh???) so that is why we say "house red" when we tell people where we are! Got it?

 Nick connecting the "old" way with the flash drive on the porch! 

Signing up for internet!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!

Learning new things all the time!  Hugs to all and do know we are hopefully SOON more reachable!!!!

Love ~ 

Touching Base This Monday Evening!

Nick worked this evening on the lap top and got it going again - he ran a virus scan and a clean up - and now this flash stick is working again....so thankful!  Yeah!

So while the blog is working I am going to type away here!

Today was a great day - so many wonderful things happened...may I share it with you all?????!!!!


You betcha I will!

We woke up to  phone call - yes someone had a motorcycle to lend us for the next 2 months!

Oh all these blessings - just keep coming our way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You gotta have some wheels to get around - even though we love to walk - you all know that....but in 30 degree C weather with 70-80% humidity - similar to Hawaii - you can imagine how a motorcycle would feel!

So we can rent this motorcycle and would you believe it - it is only 1 year old ~ Yamaha scooter - so' cute.  It belongs to someone who is willing to share it with us for the 2 months~ Oh we are ever so delighted you guys!  Can you believe it - in the house for 5 days - and we have a table, 4 chairs, 4 stools, a washing machine a frig and now a scooter too!!!!!!

We are tripin'!!!! 

And then this afternoon - receive a sms message from a young gal from one of the hotel we have stayed at and she text me and asked "can you teach me English lessons?" so I said YES! So she arrived with another girl from the hotel Yanti & Tia and together we sat on the porch  - and did some talking and sharing together!!!! So wonderful!  "saya tanggul di Salatiga sadah dua bulan" I have been in Salatiga already 2 months.  That is my lesson - back from them!  So you see it goes both ways - they help me/us and we/I help them!  And they are both adorable!  One other gal Kiki from another hotel also asked with such sincerity "please Ibu Ellen teach me speak English?" So now that we are in a house - Kiki too will come for a hour lesson!  How fun is that!  Exciting and this is what it is all about!
They are tickled pink that Nick was born in Palembang and lived in Salatiga his first 6 yrs and that my father was born in Bandung - so we have a sweet connection and feel blessed to have this opportunity to settle for a while and help!!!!!!!! PTL!!!!!!!

So then another sms/text comes in ....two friends from church Jessica who is this smart cookie and cute as can be - who speaks English really well and who gave "Opa" Nick & "Oma" Ellen a warm welcome on that first Sunday ~ and also Albert our Dutch friend - came by to see where we lived!  Wow - we felt so blessed - making new friends and just having special time together...wish we could share it all with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then on top of all  this - I was invited to a ....hold on now.....YES..... a Beth Moore bible study on the book of James! With wonderful women - surrounded by so many blessings! Young women - some teachers-  mothers - with little ones...oh Ellen was totally blessed -!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hearing Beth Moore on TV here in Salatiga Java Indonesia - sitting in a living room - what an amazing God we serve!

So you can imagine - how it was a little right?  I think so - we are so thankful!  And yes I did the wash - watched that agitator turning -what a blessing to see that...ha! You then rinse out the soap and fill the washing machine again with water to get all the soap out of the clothes and put the clothes manually into the spinner and oh man it spins it very "dry" and then hang it out to dry...you guys - well you ladies - can you imagine how thankful I was to even start my day doing that??????!!!!!!!!!

The wash is done - and it smells good from the Sun - and outdoors and I am sitting typing away with you AND yes Nick is stretched out on the "couch" we now have to loaner couch!

It is 9:30 pm and time to wrap things up!

Please do drop us a email - you all have our personal email still?  Would love to hear from you!!!!!

Thanks for allowing us to share with you - and thank you for praying for us when you do~ we are so trusting the Lord to do whatever He would have us to do!  We are being stretched - in so many ways and learning to trust Him a day at a time - a moment at a time!  And He is Faithful!!!!!!!

3rd Day in the House ~ Getting Settled!

Hi All!  Well have lots to tell you and I must say all this is so new and foreign to us -  We have slept here now 3 days and it is getting a little more familiar!  First we were able to find a 2nd hand frig - and so nice to fill it with some groceries - there is a grocery store close to the High School that sells some items that are familiar to us visitors - ha!  I was able to get some items that we needed- raisins, oatmeal, pickles, they have wonderful juices here - and with all the fruit available - we enjoy drinking mango juice in the morning!  In the restaurants they also serve carrot juice - would you believe it?

Water from the faucet is not good - so we order water bottles to drink from - everyone has them in their homes.  Had to buy the stand too which we put up on the kitchen sink.  

Little by Little we are picking up items - simple, cheap and the bare basic's! We started with some stool's to sit on and now using a box as a table - but today we picked up some more chairs - more like lounge chairs - definitely more comfortable for the bippy! 

The living area looks pretty big but is not ~ with it being bare like that it seems like it is!

We are both sitting under a ceiling fan - there was a rocking chair left behind in the house - so we are enjoying that and take turns sitting in it! Ha! Luxuries!

Oh yes - for the Dutchies - we found some Dutch cookies - just had to pick those up at the store! With us now being able to make our own coffee - well a little cookie is just the right thing of course! yeah!!!!!

Today the 3rd day we picked up those lounge chairs - and I found some popcorn - and so our first batch of popcorn - yum!!!!  Yes they also had "extra virgin oil" at the special store!  And balsamic dressing! NICE!

As you can see I am online! Oh my goodness what a treat to be in the house and have internet!

We have purchased this Flash Drive with a phone chip in it that is connected to a cell tower~  Now it isn't the greatest - and we might still decide to get a faster land line connection = but at least we are now online!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh I must tell you about our shower situation ~ you will probably be laughing~  But this house did not come with a hot water heater - so only cold water out of the shower head....brrr!

So we boil water in the evening and mix it with the cold water and put it into the pail - go to the bathroom and rinse/lather/and rinse using a scooper to scoop out the water to wash with!  Oh my goodness - it's like camping the old fashion way!

We might be able to rent a hot water heater - but for now - this is working - oh how we appreciate everything - when you think of the comforts we are accustomed to at home!!!!!!

So do remember us when you are taking your showers! Ha! 

We purchased a bed cover - Ellen is doing the "wild thing" - the colors are bright and "cheery" here - you probably will laugh when you see the bed cover -

....................but it works and we just needed something - simple.  Colorful huh?  Wild!!!!

We headed out this morning and walked up to the main street - walking past the homes here in the kampung.  Nice to greet the people along the way!  Everyone is friendly and always give a kind nod when passing by!  Salamat Pagi! Good morning!

There is a mosque close by the house every kampung has one it seems ~ calling people to prayer.  We get through out the day prayers on the loudspeakers - starting at 4 am - and then again at 12 noon and probably 4-5 times a day.  They are devoted to prayer - and we can certainly learn from their dedication!

Also there is a  crazy rooster in the neighborhood that begins to crow about 2:45 am - and gets other rooster going like crazy in the distance This "guy" was must  be loco or something - he is totally off track in his business!  His business is to wake us up at dawn right???????

People greet us from their homes - busy doing their wash in the morning.  Because of the dampness in the air (all the time) it takes a whole day to dry - so early morning washing is good!

We might be able to borrow a washing machine and a couch soon!  That would be nice because our wash is stacking!  We have always done it at the hotel laundry's dept but sometimes it comes back smelling like softener - very very strong.  So it will be nice to do our own washing - and hang it out to dry!

Anyway - we walked up to the major street in our area and caught the angkot # 9 to town (mini bus) and then when we got to the address for the flash drive - it was the wrong place - so off we went with another bus to the completely opposite side of town!  There we found the cell phone store to buy the flash drive - success!

We then caught another bus back to shopping area and ended up having to walk some blocks - the bus didn't quite get us there but we were close enough to where we needed to be!  We then walked the main street looking for some items we still needed: some lounge chairs, a faucet (ours is leaking) and we came across the Saturday morning market!  Many people were doing their shopping - fresh vegetables and fruits stands - all the meat - cut and sitting on tables - out in the market place - yes - chickens, beef, pork, chicken feet, ducks you need it - it is there!  Oh my goodness - we kind of stay away from the meat section- still not accustomed to that...and when I see that - well glad we don't need meat - just not ready to buy it that way...no way!  Ladies sitting side by side selling their vegetables from their gardens - and each one seems to have the same things - but I finally did find the onions & cauliflower I wanted - yeah!

We tried to find some Lumpur - but ended up with loempia's instead!  It seems that lumpur (stick rice with a chicken paste inside) is not a common treat anymore!  We have to know where to buy it!  But the loempia's are good! (kind of a egg roll but with veggies in it!)

We grabbed a taxi to get home - we had headed out early 9:05 am and now headed back at 1:15 pm and it was hot out there! Here we are at 2100 feet elevation and yet it still gets really hot!  So we are realizing it is better to get things done early - of course when we find a motorcycle to rent/purchase we won't have to do so much walking!  We are putting the word out that we are looking to rent/purchase a older bike - they are available...!

The taxi driver turned on Country music in the car! Oh my goodness Nick & I chuckled - the driver put thumbs up - he liked to listen to it - but we think he might of done that for us!  Cute huh?

So back to the house - Nick set up the flash drive and as you can see - (that is - if you are reading this blog!!!!) then the flash drive is working!!!!! Oh I do hope I can get it online!

Tomorrow Sunday - yeah back to church!  Looking forward to it!