Whew!!!

Whew, we have been busy!  Papa Touchdown and Cathie arrived just over two weeks ago and since they have been here we have...

Journeyed through Jakarta...

Been to Bali...

Visited Vietnam...

And Trekked through Thailand!

There is much more to come about all of our adventures!

XS Village

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE INDONESIA.  The longer we live here, the more I find to complain about, but the more I fall in love with it; And every day I get to meet another amazing person.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, a group from Emilie's school (and a group from neighboring Singapore International School), meet at a trash pickers' community called XS Village and hold a preschool for the kids of the community.  XS Village is another community/organization highly supported by Emilie's school.   The XS project is an organization that has taught trash picker communities to recycle their goods into items that can be sold.  The proceeds are put back into the community in terms of scholarships for the children.  Emilie's school helps to support this organization in many ways.  One of which is by purchasing recycled items from them.  I know I've mentioned that every student in her Middle School and High School is issued a MacBook Air to take home and use through-out the school year.  With these laptops, all students are issued laptop cases made from recycled products and purchased from the XS Project.  There are even places you can purchase their products in the states!  

These are the carts pushed through the streets of Jakarta and used to collect trash.

A cart full - ready to be added to the pile where it will be sorted.  Some things will be sold, others recycled and the remaining will be burned (you can see a little of the smoke in this picture).

Sorting Trash

On a good day, they hope to make 50,000-70,000 rupiah ($5-$7USD)

Two expat women, one from Korea and another from America, saw the need for a preschool in this community and created it.  (Have I mentioned how amazing all the people I have met are?)  Just like in the States, public school does not start until kids are 5-6 years old, but I have been told that often times, kids will be turned away from the public school until they are able to read and write...how crazy is that?!?  Now imagine trying to teach your child to read and write (so that they can go to school) when you may, or may not, know how to read or write yourself.  The preschool program at the XS Village was started by two moms who saw the need and jumped in. There is no funding for this program (other than the TREMENDOUS amount of support JIS has given them).  Nobody is being paid to be there and all of the supplies have been donated.  

Twice a week, the garbage is pushed aside and a tarp is put down for the preschool. (The tarp was donated by one of the preschool founders)

The kids LOVE it!

The ages range from babies to about 8 years old plus Moms and Dads!  Everyone participates; Even the Moms and Dads have fun singing and learning in both English and Bahasa Indonesia!

All of the kids have been given a notebook and pencil (provided by donations from JIS). Everyone comes prepared and ready to learn! 

The easel was donated by a volunteer and the kids love to demonstrate how much they have learned! The next goal is to find some little dry erase boards for all of the kids to use at the same time!

Making Valentine's

I have had so much fun meeting the kids (and adults) of this community.  I look forward to spending a lot more time learning from them!