The Year of the Snake

During the 6 months we have lived in Indonesia, we have seen 3 New Year's Celebrations (Al-Hijra or the Islamic New Year on November 15th, the Calendar New Year on January 1st and the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year on February 10th).  Thank goodness I only had one birthday throughout these three new years!!!!  We were excited to learn a little more about the Chinese New Year, but I am ashamed to admit that I haven't learned nearly as much as I had wanted to.  Decorations are all over Jakarta.  The color red is everywhere and we got to see the amazing Barongsai (Lion) Dance.  We learned that, traditionally, Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival. We also learned that Chinese New Year is a little like Valentine's Day.  We were told that single women will write their phone numbers on oranges and throw them into the rivers in hopes that a single man will pick it up and they will find true love!  Next year, we hope to learn even more about the Lunar New Year and hopefully we will find somewhere to experience the traditional Lantern Festival!  For now, here are a few pictures from the Barongasai Dance!

There was a huge crowd of people to see the performance.  We were on the third floor and had to fight for a spot! Most people were wearing red.  Check out one kid's lucky red shirt below!

These dragons were manned by two people.

They danced and jumped around on these poles.   All the while, keeping time with the drums and music! 

After the Barongsai Dance, we found a group singing traditional Chinese New Year songs.  I was super impressed when Emilie started singing along (in Chinese) and even more impressed when she could translate what they were saying!

Selamat Tahun Baru!

Dustin is 4!!!

D-Man had an awesome birthday!  He started the day surprised by all the balloons covering his bedroom floor and banners all over his door.  He was happy to show us how much he grew overnight and he was even more surprised by all the presents sent from friends and family!

After his choice of breakfast (cinnamon toast), we headed to Kidspace for a fun morning! Kidspace is a little known gem in Jakarta.  Dustin had the run of the place all to himself and had a great time!

They have sand tables!

They have a little ball pit with a slide, buckets, and pulleys!

We all LOVED the water table area!

We built with legos, did some tumbling and...

went to the moon!!!

Daddy's favorite was the giant foam lincoln logs!

After Kidspace, Dusty got to chose ANYTHING he wanted for lunch!  He chose his favorite Indonesian restaurant - Kentucky Fried Chicken (He had never been to KFC before moving to Indonesia, so he assumes this is an Indo thing!)

Then it was home for a little present opening.  We ate dinner downstairs where Dustin has become a celebrity.  They brought him cake and sang happy birthday and he got to open even more presents!

All in all, it was a GREAT day!  Dustin is already counting the days until he turns five!

Full Circle

2003

Several years ago, the company Chris was working for bought a brand new plane.  It was a very big deal and we all went down to the airport to take a look at it.

Emilie 2003

Fast forward 10 years and 10,000 miles...As it turns out, the company Chris was hired to fly for in Indonesia purchased this EXACT SAME airplane (it probably even has Chris' initials carved somewhere in the cockpit).  A couple weeks ago, we took Dustin down to the airport to check it out.  

D-Man 2013

Gerakan Kepedulian

Thank You JIS For The Construction Of Our Pavilion.

I was lucky enough to spend another day with this amazing organization. This time, we went to visit one of their "completed" communities.  One of the things I think is so great about GK is that they stay an integral part of each of their communities even after it is "completed."  They have an office there and a couple of members of the community have become full time employees of the organization.  These employees help to make sure the community is running smoothly.  When we arrived, they were in the middle of  teaching a preschool class. This was great to see because in most cases in Indonesia, the members of these communities would not be sending their kids to preschool (it costs far too much).  The community we visited even invites kids from the neighboring communities to participate in this free preschool program.  We brought snacks for the kids and had fun passing them out after their class was over.  Children, in all of Indonesia, are taught to respect their elders.  They take your hand and either place it to their forehead, their cheek, or give it a little kiss.  I have seen them do this to say thank you, but also as a simple greeting.

The teachers are members of the community.

Eager learners wearing JIS t-shirts!

GK, with some help from JIS and the community members, built these homes.  They painted everything in bright colors and added little touches like flowerbeds outside of the homes.  The families were so excited to have actual floors to sleep on (tile vs. dirt), they didn't want to sleep on their mattresses when they first moved in so they slept directly on the tile.  I was also told that before the new community was built, one family of eight was forced to sleep in shifts because there wasn't enough floor space for the entire family to sleep at the same time.  These little things we all take for granted every day.

Beautiful Colorful Homes!

Beautiful potted plants line the community.  They have also planted lots of lemon grass as a nyamuk (mosquito) repellent.

The 10 Rules of Healthy Living are posted in each house.  These include things like eating healthy fruits and vegetables, getting daily exercise, and not smoking in the house; Numbers one and two are about delivering babies with a medical specialist (doctor or midwife) and breastfeeding for healthy babies - After all my work with the March of Dimes these two struck the biggest cord with me.

Not a single piece of garbage to be seen

The community has a pavilion for gathering, a sports court for exercise, and a garden where they have been taught to grow some of their own fruits and vegetables. They are able to sell the excess food for additional income.

The women use paper products from the trash they have collected to make recycled paper.  They get paper orders from a company in Indonesia.  One women showed us the process she goes through to make the paper.  It was nice to see that not only were they able to use the garbage for recycling, but they have learned a new skill to improve their income.  One of the parents that went with us was even talking about going back to teach them how to make more decorative papers using flowers and leaves.  She thought they would be able to sell the decorative paper for a little more money.  

Showing us her paper making skills!

 

Finished paper.  Ready to be sold.

Once again, I was blown away by what a great organization GK is.  To see the way this community has been transformed was amazing.  The people of the community had a pride in their community.  They were excited to show us all that they were able to accomplish.  They had pictures up of the community build throughout the area.  I was impressed with the systems they had in place to keep the community running smoothly.  They had a schedule posted for the different things like security rotations or who was in charge of cleaning the community bathroom this week.  

The community restrooms - one for the girls and one for the boys. 

The display board had artwork as well as the chore rotation schedule

This gentleman was so excited to show me his photo on the wall, I couldn't resist taking a photo!

The links below are a couple of short videos showing this community being built as well as the handing over of the keys. It's inspiring to see the JIS students, parents and faculty working along side GK volunteers as well as the members of the community to see this project through.

May 5, 2012 - GK Cisadane Community Build

May 19, 2012 - GK Cisadane Community Hand Over

Currently, GK is at various stages with several communities in Jakarta.  

• Cisadane-18 families. This is the complete GK village I was able to visit with homes (built May 2012) and various programs running.

• Dumpit-30 families. Children are members of GK Scholarship & CYD (Child & Youth Development) Programs since 2010. We have an empty land which have been donated and where home & community facilities may be built.

• Rawacana-20 families. Children are members of GK Scholarship and CYD Programs since 2008. Residents are formerly from Dumpit but forced to relocate nearby in Feb 2012. 

• Ciliwung 1 and 2 - 85 families. 2 water systems and a learning center has been built. CYD Programs & Scholarship Programs started this year.  (This was one of the communities I visited on my previous GK trip.)

• Pekayon 1,2 and 3 total of around 300 families. A pre-school program has been started in June 2012. Productivity programs are planned to start this year. (This was the other community I was able to visit on my previous GK trip.)

I am excited to continue learning more about GK and helping in whatever capacity I can.  Honestly, I feel that I am gaining so much more from this experience and learning so much more from  these people than I can ever give back to them.