Bali sunset

Ahhh Bali...what's not to love?

Spudlyness confirmed

It is confirmed that LC is a spud. I checked C's baby book and he weighed 15 lb 8 oz at his 6 month visit. LC weighed the exact same at his 12 week visit. Definitely spudly.

J's parents arrived safely on Saturday and weren't even too exhausted. They have been busy, busy getting their fill of grandsons. C isn't giving them much of a break and I suspect they will be ready for a vacation after their vacation. Both boys are trying their darnedest to charm the pants off of their grandparents and I'm pretty sure they're both smitten for good. Of course, I can't blame them.

The cheeky pair

Photos of my cheeky monkeys. The kid in the punchbowl is C when he was 6 months old. The other photo is of LC taken just today, at 13 weeks. They are wearing the same shirt, and you can tell that LC isn't going to fit in it much longer. The shirt is for 3-6 month old babies, and yet he's going to outgrow many of these clothes in a matter of a few weeks. He's such a spud. But a very cute spud.

Very cool website

So a friend of mine passed this on to me because she thought it was "so up my alley". Well, she's very right. This is a great idea for both giving and receiving gifts. If you're like me, at this point in your lives there's little that we need or want that fits in that gift giving price range or that you couldn't buy for yourself. So, what better way to avoid just accumulating more "stuff" - how about having that money go to a worthy cause instead?!

Check it out, especially when considering Christmas or Hanukah gifts this year.

Ramadan revisited

We are one week into the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, when Muslims refrain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset. They therefore have to wake early to pray, eat and drink before the sun rises, and then wait 12 hours before they can even drink a glass of water again. Frankly I don't know how they do it. They tell me that they are so used to fasting one month every year since childhood that it isn't as great a hardship as we'd imagine. Although, I have noticed they are VERY eager to drink and eat as soon as the mosque announces that it is time at the end of the day.

The first night of Ramadan we were awoken at 2 a.m. by drumming coming from the street in front of our house. Fortunately we were warned this would happen. Evidently people came around drumming the first few nights to help wake people up in time to cook, eat, drink, and pray. We were quite worried because we find this neighborhood to be pretty noisy, and were afraid the drumming would be intolerably loud and would go on and on. We're already being woken up enough with an infant in the house, we don't need any more disturbances! Fortunately, even though the drumming woke us up, it didn't keep us up and honestly the sound of drumming reminded me of Mali. On a side note, why they would need to get up almost 4 hours early is beyond me. I don't know when they sleep!

The only other time I've lived in a country where Ramadan was widely observed was in Mali. However, I don't remember the routines changing as drastically as here. I suppose they got up earlier, but I remember hearing women preparing breakfast at horribly early hours all year long. And there certainly wasn't any drumming at 2 a.m. to wake the village up. Perhaps since rural life tends to wake and sleep according to the sun anyway, the month of Ramadan doesn't alter the schedule as much.

Other than hearing the mosque announcements more often, the drumming and a slight disruption to our evening routine, it has affected us very little. Most of the restaurants are still open for lunch, school is in session, etc. My mother will likely remember her experience in Mali riding the bus back from Mopti when the bus driver didn't want to stop for lunch because everyone on the bus was fasting. I became a typically rude American and demanded that we stop, pointing out that not everyone on the bus was Muslim. If I remember correctly it took some convincing though, and it was at a point in my experience when my tolerance level was at a low point. And plus, we were hungry! My husband will attest to the fact that I become quite crabby when I'm hungry. In any case, I suppose that might happen here as well. I don't know. I won't be taking any long bus rides any time soon.

Eid ul-Fitr marks the end of the month of Ramadan, which will happen in mid-October. This is a very important holiday when everyone who is able will go to their home villages to be with their families. The holiday is celebrated with festivities and lots of eating and drinking throughout the day. It's like Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled into one. From what I hear Jakarta will become like a ghost town. In some ways it would be a good time to be here. The streets will be empty and the town quiet. This year we won't be here though. We are escaping with J's parents (who arrive in only 6 days!) to the mostly Hindu island of Bali.

I really enjoyed this holiday while living in Mali. Everyone was joyful throughout the day, there was lots of music and conversation and good food. I roamed throughout my village visiting my friends and eating with them. Everyone donned their best outfits and gifts were shared. There was a big celebration with drumming, kora playing (similar to a guitar), and dancing. People from the surrounding small villages and compounds came for the celebration. I know that our Indonesian friends are looking forward to this holiday just as our Malian friends did.

I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing during the coming month. As I mentioned, J's parents arrive next Saturday and we'll be in Bali for 10 days of their stay. I imagine we'll be pretty busy so I'm not sure I'll be posting too much before November (not that I've been blogging all that much lately anyway...).

Fun guys

Orphanages

The last couple weeks have been filled with getting involved and rekindling old friendships. It feels good to get out of the house more and to start doing some of the things I've been wanting to do since before even coming to Indonesia. And an added bonus? More interesting things to write about! I'm still tired, but LC is having more good nights than bad nights so my energy level is improving. And my to-do list is still unbearably long, but I'm whittling away at it little by little.

Last week I was able to catch up with an old friend. When I was in high school I was an exchange student in Australia for one year. The program (AFS) organized us into groups so that we'd have a group of other exchange students with whom we could share experiences and lean on. There were 7 of us in my group: a Venezuelan, Japanese, Thai, Italian, French Canadian, Dane, and me. I've kept in touch with a few of them, have visited a couple of them (in Caracas and Montreal and Milan) and been visited by a couple of them (Venezuelan and Japanese). My Japanese friend now lives in Bangkok and had to come to Jakarta last week for business. She generously braved the Jakarta traffic to come to dinner at our home, meet J and take a peek at my sleeping boys. It was great to catch up with her and hear about her family and her life now. Thailand is very high on my list of places to visit so I'm sure I'll be seeing her again in Thailand.

Last week I also attended a meeting of the American Women's Association (AWA) Social Welfare Committee. This group grants money to different social causes in and around Jakarta. For example, they give money to several orphanages, provide scholarships for children to go to school (public school here is not entirely free - you have to pay for school uniforms, workbooks, pens, school fees, etc.), give money to mentally and physically disabled homes for adults and children, etc. Some of these places receive money from the government, but of course it's never enough. And some of them are started by generous and philanthropic individuals or churches (I'm not aware of us working with any mosques but we may) to meet the needs of their communities. To help them make ends meet these places make an application to the AWA, for example, which is reviewed by the committee and funds are awarded (or not). The committee gets its money from membership fees and the majority from corporate donations. It was a very interesting meeting and I'm excited to become part of this group of women who are doing some really wonderful things in the communities.

Part of the committee's responsibility is to visit the group that has submitted an application for a grant, and to make follow-up visits to ensure that the money is being used for the stated purposes. This morning I went with a group of women to visit an orphanage and home for pregnant women in Bogor. This place was started by an Australian woman (doctor I think) and doesn't receive any government funds because it is Christian (I asked if it is the same for Muslim sponsored places but they didn't know the answer - I suspect not). The pregnant women are single or married women who do not feel comfortable or safe remaining with their families. There were 4 women there at the time. While staying in the home they are taught a skill like knitting, and while they are there they make various crafts that are sold in the community or at bazaars.

The orphanage had about 8 children under 1, another 15 1-4 year olds, and about 10 preschoolers/kindergartners. They teach the older children themselves in the orphanage because its actually cheaper to hire a teacher than to pay school fees and related costs for all of the children. Many of the children in the orphanage are not actually up for adoption. This is quite common in Indonesia and in many other countries. The families bring the child to the orphanage because they can't afford to keep them at that time, but hope to be able to afford to later in their life. And families do sometimes take their children back when their financial situation improves. But other times not. And unfortunately some families only take the children back when they're old enough to work. I suppose in most cases this is fine because realistically not all the children would be adopted anyway. However, I hate to think that there might be children out there who are desired by other families but their biological families have them on "reserve" until they're old enough to work. I also heard that it's difficult to adopt a girl from a Christian orphanage because there aren't enough up for adoption (they're in higher demand). You can only adopt a child from an orphanage of your religion, so a Muslim can only adopt a Muslim child, and a Christian can only adopt a Christian child.

The place I visited was quite well run and evidently one of the nicest ones I will see. It was very clean and the children had their own beds and it was spacious enough. There are about 20 staff so the staff don't seem too overwhelmed, although they welcome volunteers. The toddlers seemed to have quite a few toys to play with and they were reading books when we came. There was a backyard and it was in a very quiet, nice neighborhood. And most importantly, the children seemed happy and the staff very loving. It was nice to learn that the vision in my head of what orphanages must be like is not always true, and that sometimes the children are actually in a better situation in an orphanage than they would be in a home. However, I know they aren't all as nice as this one and that there are others I will see that will break my heart.