And the to-do list gets longer...

I cannot believe it has only been three weeks since I arrived back here in Bandung. Life has been pretty busy here in the tropics, but I love having a full to-do list. Last week I told you about the Open Houses that Jennie and I were in charge of planning. Just for a recap: Bandung Alliance International School is in the process of building a new campus about 45 minutes from its current location. It is a slow process so far, but it is coming along. We have outgrown our current campus, and this new one is going to be wonderful!
The New Campus team has had a couple booths at local malls in Bandung to promote the new campus and recruit new students. They have also scheduled three open houses, two here at the school and one in Jakarta. Last week they gave those three open houses to Jennie and me to plan. We worked hard to get the staff excited to help, and to make the event look nice and professional. Wednesday was the first open house. Jennie and I joked that it was kind of like planning a wedding…you spend all this time planning it, and then it is one three hour period of time. It turned out great! The booths were awesome, the set up was really nice, and we had about 15 families show up, three of which started the registration process. Saturday’s also went well, we had about 40 families come. I have really loved planning and organizing these events.
Next thing on the list is Week Without Walls. This outreach event is school wide and will happen next week. The students will participate in various projects all over Bandung. Our project is planting 50 trees on the toll road on the way out to the new school. Jennie, Aaron and I are the leaders of this team in charge of planning. We have been working through details since December, and are pretty excited. Especially now that we have trees to plant! The government donated 200 trees (25 of which are durian trees). The president’s wife wants to plant one million trees in Indonesia to help fix the deforestation problem. There is a group of 15 students that we’ll be working with along with a group of about 15 students from a local Muslim school. The three day project will be full of building relationships and working hard for the Lord. It’s gonna be a little outside the comfort zone for a lot of us, seeing as how there isn’t going to be a bathroom or water, or really anything out there. I’ve never had to use a hole in the ground before…can’t wait for that one:)
As you keep me in your prayers please remember to pray for Week Without Walls next week, for safety, for successful planting, and that lives would be impacted through all the projects.

Congratulations, Molly, you're now an adult...

My lack of posting should give you a hint of how crazy my life has been since arriving back in Indonesia. I was able to enjoy a couple days of playing and relaxing before school started. The morning after I arrived Jennie, Aaron and I visited the orphanage we had taken presents to in December, and the culinary adventures once again commenced. The head guy was raving about this fruit that he claimed was worse that Durian. As he was telling us about it he asked one of the kids to run up the street and buy some for us to try. It wasn't nearly as bad as durian. It is called Jenkol and tastes kind of like a turnip. It leaves a terrible taste in your mouth for hours after eating it. We were warned never to eat too much because it would cause kidney stones...yikes!
Emily's birthday was on the 10th, so last weekend we celebrated by racing go carts at the Bandung Super Mall. It was so fun, and I actually didn't do so bad...turns out the Grandma Boat (my Buick LaSabre back home) was good practice for speed racing. I got third place. This mall was pretty amazing, there is a whole carnival type thing on the top floor with a roller coaster that only costs a dollar to ride. It was really fun. We then went to a Sundanese restaurant, that also turned out to be a culinary adventure. It was set up buffet style where you pointed to the foods you wanted to try. The fun part was that none of us really had any idea what we were choosing to eat. Special items included cow skin, salty fried squid and snails. The cow skin was jiggly and salty, and not very good. I didn't try the salty fried squid, but I heard it was hard and very fishy tasting. I was excited to try the snails, because I had passed up the opportunity when I went to France about 12 years ago. They weren't bad at all, in fact, they tasted fine. Not sure I would choose to eat them again, but they weren't nearly as bad as I would have thought. No worries though, we were able to cleanse the palate with some yummy cappuccino cheesecake afterwards.
This week I started my first real job. I teach two classes a day: high school ESL first period and middle school ESL seventh period. I have ten students total, nearly all of which are Korean. They are a lot of fun, and I am learning a lot...the English language has quite a bit of rules:) On Monday I was worried about having enough to do during the time that I am not teaching, but that problem was quickly solved. BAIS is moving to a new campus that is currently under construction. Right now, we are in the process of recruiting new students as well as developing a plan of attack for the big move out there. On Tuesday, Jennie (my roommate and one of the high school science teachers) and I were given the task of organizing the three open houses that will occur this week as well as that plan of attack. Our evenings and free periods have been full of developing a plan for these open houses and getting enough people to help and making sure that it all comes together on Wednesday and Saturday. This has been quite the challenge, but also really fun to be a part of something so important for the school. I have learned a lot about how to best utilize the organized/perfectionist/linear/practical side(s) of my personality. Luckily, Jennie and I work really well together. The big productions will be Wednesday evening, Saturday morning and next Wednesday afternoon. Please be praying for these open houses: that they would come together, that people would be come to them and that ultimately God would be glorified through them.
I feel like I arrived in Bandung and hit the ground running here this second semester, and God is constantly teaching me to trust him in all things. Thank you for your prayers as I continue on my teaching adventure here in the tropics!

Lessons in Trust

I am back safely in Bandung after 48 hours of travel! We left from Flagstaff at 5 in the morning in a blizzard snow storm that lasted for about thirty miles down the hill. The weather was pretty much horrendous all the way to Phoenix consisting of snow, rain and fog. God was good though and got us to the airport in plenty of time. My flight out of Phoenix was on time, and I got to sit in the emergency exit row to soak up all the leg room I could get in preparation for the lack of it I would experience on the very long flights.
When I got to L.A. I had to get my bags and book it from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4, thank goodness for those carts, otherwise it would have been impossible with the two very large suitcases I brought back. I successfully checked in with China Airlines. I took my bags to the xray machine where I was hassled by one of the security guys who was maybe attempting to flirt or give me a hard time, but was mostly a jerk and kind of put me in a bad mood which only worsened as I approached the very long line to security. It was going slow and the security people were getting frustrated with the non-English speaking passengers who couldn't figure out how to take their laptops out of their bags or make sure they shoes off. After about a 25 minute wait I was finally at my gate waiting for my flight to Taipei. I hadn't even started the longest leg of my journey and I was done with traveling. The 14 hour flight to Taipei went well, the movies were working and the seat in the middle was empty so I had a little extra room. I have to say though that Cathay Pacific has better food that China Airlines. China Airlines had the typical airplane food--plastic in taste and unidentifiable in appearance. They do know how to do coffee though--nice and strong! It wasn't until we were about to land that I checked my ticket to see how much time I would have before my flight to Jakarta. I thought that I was landing at 8:30 pm and leaving at 9:30 pm, but I had read it wrong. I would not be leaving for Jakarta until 9:30 am, which meant that I would have to stay in the airport. I did have the option of staying in a hotel, which I kind of regret not doing. Instead I headed to the departure hall in search of a nice bench to rest. The entire night the airport got more and more empty, quiet and creepy. I could hardly sleep because I was paranoid about keeping an eye on my stuff or getting in trouble for staying in the airport. It was really awful. I have never been more lonely in my life. I think I got a "solid 40 minutes" of sleep. In the morning I went searching for a ticket counter to check the time of my flight because it wasn't showing up with the other departures. On my search I ran into Alyssa, the second grade teacher at BAIS, who had also had to stay the night in the airport. We were both so relieved to see a familiar face. She was on my flight to Jakarta, which was fortunate because she had the gate on her boarding pass and I didn't. Not sure what I would have done if I hadn't run into her. The flight to Jakarta was great, although they made me check my carry-on because it was too heavy. I got to sit in the front row with extra leg room and an empty seat next to me. I had a terrible fear about all my luggage arriving in Jakarta, but after making it successfully through customs, we only waited about 15 minutes and all my luggage had come through.
Jennie had ordered a taxi to take me home to Bandung that was supposed to meet me. What I didn't know was that Donna, the preschool teacher, was arriving a little earlier than me and had taken my taxi, after calling Jennie and Donna, we had the guy turn around and come and get us. It took about three hours for us to get home, the traffic was awful.
Emily comes home tonight and Emma comes home tomorrow. I am so happy to be home, and I am doing okay with the jet lag so far. It is good to be back with my roommates, catching up on the exciting things that happened over break. Through the 48 hours of craziness I endured I was forced to trust that God was going to get me home. He provided everything I needed from extra leg room to a travel companion. At the end of the day I had to praise Him for getting me through this trip. God is good!
School starts on Monday, so I will be spending some time this weekend getting ready for my first week of being a real teacher...ahhhh!
It was so good to see you all while I was at home. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement while I am over here.