We are now back from the New Year dinner celebration with a local family and it is peacefully raining....again. This is the rainy season or getting near the tail end of it but perhaps it will help our water issue....
This afternoon's introduction to the family Chinese New Year celebration was when we were at the ticket agent's home to pay for our flights. I am sure that the process is not Western in that much time was spent before we paid and then after. We are working on patience and realize that we certainly are not in control! We sat in this very basic room on wooden chair/benches (rarely upholstery here due to humidity), cement floor, a few pictures hung almost along the ceiling and a collection of traditional cookies - all small and beautifully shaped on a coffee table before us. We tried all 7 or 8 of them, this didn't take much encouragement and they were very good. One was almost a Scottish shortbread; and we had our first coke in weeks. Alex speaks good English so we were able to talk a little bit and let her mother know how much we enjoyed the cookies. It is still difficult to get my mind around the fact that we counted out 5,640,000 Rupiah. Those zeros keep getting in the way.
Earlier I did attend church with Hotlin while Jim and Okto, the driver, sought out the ATM and attempted to buy coffee. No luck on the later due to everything being closed. This was a church in the Presbyterian style (according to Hotlin) and could they sing! Half the service was in song and some of the time I sang along. I could read the words, even though I had no idea what they said. The choir of 5 women wore matching dresses and ALL of the people were welcoming.
Tonight's dinner, which came after we had left overs in our house and we were filled :>) was in a Chinese family's store on the main street. Hotlin knocked on a metal door...I would have sworn the place was completely closed up. But the door came open and we walked through the little shop and then through a long corridor with side rooms absolutely full of supplies for his store. We later learned that he supplied other stores as well as through his own shop. The family was sitting in what is their living room around a center coffee table, concrete floor, plastic chairs, cases of beverages stacked 2/3rds up one wall, with a TV playing a broadcast by Joel Osteem on one end. Eight of us were affiliated with ASRI with another family also as guests. This time there was an entire meal followed by the same cookie options along with the Chinese traditional orange and a tropical fruit mangosteen. It was an enjoyable time and came just as we were feeling a little cranky about being sweaty once again with no good water supply. The people continue to amaze us with their willingness to include us and are always welcoming.
That is it for now. I will send more pictures tomorrow...at least that is the plan. I have another report to write and possibly the clinic will be busy. Over the weekend a young MD from the community died and doctors in a neighboring area are on vacation. The young Indonesian Docs. told Jim that they were going to be gone and that he and Jason, the resident from Stanford, were going to be really busy. Then they smiled.
All for now.
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