Sudah Habis

Here's the kids in front of our house right before we got in the car to go to the airport.  Good bye Jakarta!

Pancoran

The road we took to get to church was extremely interesting.  I had plans to walk it one morning to take pictures, but it never happened.

Both sides of the street were lined with people selling all kinds of fruit, vegetables, and meat.  Most of the time, the vendors would just throw down some newspaper on the ground and cover it with whatever they were selling.  They use the balance scales like you see in Bible movies.  And the chickens lay out on newspaper too, in the sun, accompanied by flies.  There were also live goats and sheep to buy.  There was a lot going on.  I'll miss that drive.   

There was also that statue in the picture above.  He pointed the way to church.  I always looked for him, especially when I was driving myself.

Here's a better picture of it.

All In A Day

Since I didn't take a picture of the girls on their first day of school, I took one on the last.

BA and her bus.

She went to middle school this year.  It was a good year for her.  She had a favorite teacher, and he made grade six a great experience for her.  She made a lot of great friends too.  

Rhon enjoyed being in grade five and ruling the whole school.  The highlight of her year is probably having her best friend, Manu, right by her the whole year.  She will surely be missed.

Dare also enjoyed her year.  Grade three was all fun.  She really like her teacher, and had a friend everywhere.

She was emotional that morning mostly because of a clothing misunderstanding, but I think she (along with everyone else) was a little out of sorts.

I didn't take a picture of the boys, but they were home schooled this year.  I decided to keep Mads home for grade one, and G just came along for the ride.  It was a hard decision, but in the end, I thought it was best.  We had a great time.  I didn't do all the things I had planned, and it was more challenging than I thought.  I'm not making excuses, but it would have been a lot easier if I had a Michael's or Target down the street.  Well, maybe I am making excuses, but there you have it.  The boys were able to hang out all the time, and their relationship is so strong because of it.  So I call it a success.

***** 

I had one of my last tennis lessons that day.  This is Frankie.  He taught me how to play!  He had to of gotten bored with me, but he never stopped hitting me balls for about a year and a half.  He didn't have great English, so it was mostly quiet between the two of us.  But every once in while, he would shout things at me like, "Top spin.  Please!"  Maybe he thought by saying please I was more likely to comply.  Little did he know that I was trying to do a top spin every flipping time.

He also gave the girls lessons.

I did not get a picture of Max, but he gave the boys lessons.  He is Frankie's shorter, older brother.  He had great English, and he was awesome with the boys.

*****

Rhon and Dare had a going away party.  I made them combine their parties.  I couldn't have handled two.  They swam, ate pizza, made lip gloss, and watched a movie.  Swimming went well.  Pizza was great.  Thanks to Chelisa (again!) for lending us her projector, the movie was fun.  But the lip gloss was kind of a disaster.  Picture 15 girls, oil, and food coloring.  Messy to say the least.  But they all had fun. And it's over.  Those are the important details. 

Panic

Mads finally lost his first tooth.  Eleven days after his 7th birthday.  His teeth lasted longer than any of the girls.

We ate satay that night, and he accidentally bit the skewer.  It was a pretty dramatic start to the tooth coming out.  He cried, and there was blood.  But it got it pretty loose.  Then by the end of the night, it was so loose that I told him it needed to come out.  He said, "Okay," and pulled it out.  Simple.

He was so excited.  Mads is a pretty laid back boy.  He doesn't get too emotional about anything.  But that night he couldn't stop talking!  It was hilarious.  He smiled a lot.  He even wanted to keep the tooth.  I think mostly because he wanted to poke Griffin with it to "get revenge!"  He decided he wanted to save all his teeth.  But we lost it right after he put it under his pillow.  I'm not sad about that.

*****

It was also BA's birthday.  She turned 12.  It is a big deal!  I took a picture of her for Instagram, but I just realized that's the only one I took.  She went to Young Women that night.  They made beady bookmarks.  She liked it.  She's excited.

She requested pineapple granita for her dessert.  We had it that night.  But since she went out on her birthday, we celebrated another night.  And because we had no stuff, we went out to dinner.  We had burritos at the mall.  Caliente at Lippo Mall.    

They Took My Shar Pei

One day, eight Indonesian guys came over to pack up our stuff.

They were fast and efficient.  It was a bit surprising based on everything else there.

Crating it up for the boat.

The guy who is waving was friendly.  There was another guy with a big, swollen, bloody toe.

Beijing!

Always barefoot.  Always.

In fact, I remember seeing a guy welding once.  Barefoot.  He was squatting just like most Indos do, and welding barefoot.  He had a cigarette in one hand, and a blowtorch in the other.  He was also wearing a super loose long sleeve shirt.  The sleeves could have caught fire very easily.  And to protect his eyes, he was only wearing flimsy sunglasses.