Halloween 2008

Yes, we all had a fun Halloween here in Jakarta. I think we hold closer these familiar activities when we're living in an unfamilar land. It's fun to share our American traditions too; Carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating are foreign activities for many of the girls' classmates and friends.

The girls carved pumpkins on several occasions. Sara's best friend, Aina, was leaving home for Malaysia on the 25th, and was able to carve during their one last sleepover. Her favorite was the pumpkin seeds. Tia's best friend, Nicole is from Australia, and Tia was able to convince her that the "pumpkin guts" were the most fun. Half of Sara's Brownie troop wasn't too keen on the "guts" but they all ended up proud of their jack-o-lanterns anyway. The American family population within range of the schol organized themselves for trick-or-treating and over 150 kids came to our door. More than we'd ever had in America!The girls did their own trick-or-treating with a group of children in a housing development where we could walk from door-to-door. A little safer than the typical Indonesian streets with the motorcycles everywhere.

I hope all of you in America had a terrific Halloween and the kids got lots of candy. :-)I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of some great costumes.

UN Day

The JIS UN Day celebration was on Oct. 30th and 31st. As with most International Schools, JIS really celebrates UN Day in a BIG way. The JIS grade school student body comes from 60 countries. Many students claim two countries as their "home" as their parents come from separate countries.

All the students dress in their home country's traditional clothing and most everyone participates. WOW! Some of those outfits were really beautiful. The Flag Parade serpentined through the campus with each country flag followed by the students from that country. Some smaller countries such as El Salvador were represented by just the one student holding the flag, and other countries were more largely represented. More than 30 students followed the American Flag.

The ceremony concluded in the theater where groups from several countries performed. All the countries with parents willing to help organize participated. I led the American group and it was pretty simple. The kids all sang along with a recording of several traditional American songs and we made up some fun motions to accompany. Another Mom collected photos from the families participating to put together a slide show of our home state, and it played on a screen behind the kids while they sang. We only had one practice but it went quite well- everyone already knows... Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,

I've Been Workin' On the Railroad,

Row Row, Row you Boat,

The Hokey Pokey, and

This Land is Your Land....

Student brought a food item traditional to their home country and each class shared their lunch from around the world together. Mmmm! Tia and Sara each brought chocolate chip cookies. The Students had a super day learning about each other's cultures. It was fun to watch them appreciate both the similarities and the differences; amazing how many countries have their own version of "fried rice".

Girl Scout bandanas

Hi Family and Friends

My Mom just reminded me I hadn't sent any picture of the girls in their Girl Scout activities lately so here's a couple. The 1st graders and 2nd graders meet on every-other Wed but usually have very similar meeting plans. (easiest for their leader- me :-)

They recently learned a little bit about camping. Bed roll relay, brainstorming list of items one should bring on a campout, etc. Each girl practiced tying knots with their new bandana and as you can see, Sara's group were very creative in their chosen style. :-)

Some of the girls joined the Girl Scout organization on an overnight camping trip at an Animal Park last weekend but Tia and Sara missed out. Lucky they get to go camping and do fun outdoor activities in the Sates. Some of the girls had never slept outside before!

Tia's had Dengue Fever once already and a second bout is supposed to be much more serious- often requiring a trip to Singapore for proper medical treatment. Sadly this nasty disease is transmitted by mosquitos here in Indonesia and we decided to not take the risk of camping at an animal park where mosquitos are more numerous.

It's Definitely a Frustrating part of living in Indo, to be "afraid" of mosquitos but I've got the girls pretty well trained to apply repellant every morning before school and again after school if they're heading outside. So far, no problems.

Love ya, Paula

Indonesia continues to Suprise and Entertain

I have a few new items to add to our long list of interesting and entertaining experiences here in Indonesia.

Yesterday evening we went to the locall mall, Pondok Indah Mall. It's our standard destination for getting out of the house, doing a little window shopping, letting the girls play on the various jungle-gyms, and eating at some of the 30+ restaurants and stalls in the food court.

As we wandered around the mall, there's always lots of opportunity for people watching. Ladies dressed in jillbobs and long draping Muslim garments, teens dressed in skimpy Western style clothes, spoiled toddler ever shadowed by an attending Nanny, and of course plenty of Expat and Indonesian families out for their evening stroll. (Remember- there are NO parks here in Jakarta)

We tried an Asian (Japanese/Chinese/Indonesian??) restaurant where the chef prepared our meal right in front of us. I was thinking it might be a "Benny Hannaah" style, but of course Indonesia loves to twist and turn anything they copy-cat from the West and we ended up a very entertaining interpretation of Benny Hannaah. The poor chef knew how to slide food around with his two little spatulas but that was about it. Definitely no eggs tossed in the air to be deftly cracked on a spatula edge. The meat was so tough he had trouble cutting it up, his hot metal cook top was barely lukewarm so he covered everything with a lid to get it to cook, and he used the same sauce for every dish- chicken, beef, shrimp, seafood and something else we couldn't exactly identify. My favorite was the tortured cringed face he made whenever steam rose from his cooking. :-)

Needless to say, the end product was barely edible but at least Tia and Sara had fun watching.

Later in the Mall, I was approached by four very polite and conservatively dressed teenage girls. They shyly asked if I was from an English speaking country and if they may interview me as part of their English homework assignment. I cautiously agreed and they proceeded to introduce themselves as students from a local Islamic High School and took turns reading some simple English questions they'd written on a student notebook. "How old are you?, What's your favorite type of music? Do you think Indonesia is a beautiful country", etc. Cute experience and another one to add to our list.

I almost forgot to mention one of my favorite sights showing how Indonesia likes to take foods from other country and add their own little twist. America has hot-dogs, and Japan has sushi, so why not sushi rolls with hot-dogs in the middle Sushi Dog! A booth at the grocery store I frequent has a booth advertising Sushi Dogs though I've yet to see anyone eating there.

Gotta love Indonesia. :-) Paula

Sambolo week

We just arrived home from our week long vacation at Sambolo and it was great.

Sambolo is a string of beach bungalows surrounding a sandy cresent shaped beach. Each bungalow is, literally, only a stone's throw from the ocean with tide pools for hermit crab hunting and clear waves just big enough for body surfing and boogie-boarding, Several other families we knew and newly met were also staying in the other bungalows and since the units were all full, we welcomed one of my friends to join us in ours with her hubby, 2 children, and parents from New Zealand. Lucky they brought a tent. :-)

Tia and Sara spent ALL their time enjoying the sand and sea with their friends. We adults mostly relaxed but two separate afternoons, Quyen drove us to the markets nearby to buy some fresh seafood. Mmmm... we ate well. Monster prawns on the BBQ, squid cooked two different ways, and steamed fish cooked by my favorite chef and hubby.

The week long vacation was to recognize the end of the Muslim fasting month, Ramadan, and Wednesday was Idul Fitri. Most all Indonesians travel back home to their Kampung (village) to celebrate with relatives for a week and many travel to vacation sites such as the surrounding beaches over the weekend. Luckily our beach was private so we were only treated to fireworks each night, and a special all-night "call to prayer" Tuesday night broadcast from the adjacent Muslim mosque. Only children completely worn out from beach play could sleep through that. :-)All the public beaches were PACKED and the resulting traffic was gridlocked.

We drove home early in the day Saturday so had no problems but did we see the crowds headed the other direction. Hundreds of motorbikes, many of them carrying families of 4, buses overloaded with to the point people were hanging out the door, and of course, cars, cars, cars. Crazy. :-)

This was our fourth Sambolo vacation and I think we'll try to head somewhere in another country next time, but who knows.... :-) Wish everyone was closer so they could have joined us!

P.S. Our house helper, Ibu Anis, just finished telling me about her 11 hour return bus ride complete with no AC, crying babies, and only one seat she shared with her nephew while they took turns standing. I guess it's kinda like all the craziness we Americans go through at the airports to be home for the holidays. :-)