Joel in Indonesia, Home Again

I'm home! My last week in Sentani was interesting, to say the least. Tuesday I went to my last staff meting and tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn't get too anxious about Joel's arrival on Wednesday. Mike was able to take me right onto the airstrip, so I met Joel as soon as he got off the plane. It was so wonderful to see him again! He was easy to find....he was one of the only people wearing shorts. ;) Mike got his paperwork going and gave us a tour of the MAF base before we headed up to the school. I didn't think we'd have time to go to the school since we were supposed to leave for Wamena at 10, but things went faster than expected. Our first stop was the 5th grade classroom....the girls were so excited to meet Joel that they squealed! We prayed with them, and then made the rounds of the school. Everyone loved Joel, as I knew they would. We ended up not going to Wamena at all on Wednesday. The elections were on Thursday, so that affected a lot of different things, including the domestic flights. It was a nice blessing, actually, because then Joel got a break from traveling. We were able to go to Ifar for a picnic supper with the WASC team and some teachers.

On Thursday we were able to go to Wamena in the interior highlands. Shortly before our flight landed, a cargo plane crashed, and the 6 crew members on board died. Since it was election day, our guides (friends of Mike & Eve) weren't able to show us everything they wanted to, but we still had a good time. Joel liked that it was much cooler in Wamena than Sentani. :) We walked around and saw the town, had a fabulous lunch of cap cay (a typical Indoesian food, like stir fry), rice, and Wamena shrimp (like crayfish). We saw some great views of the Baliem Valley, and had supper with an MAF family. We left early Friday morning and made it back to Sentani in time to go to the Good Friday service with Mike. There was a hole dug in the middle of the sanctuary (dirt floor), and they buried a coffin, representing Jesus's death. It was pretty powerful. Joel and I took Mike out for lunch at the Manna House before resting in the afternoon. We went to the mall with Charis, and we found Joel a sweet pair of sandals, complete with fringe on the back. We had supper at Papa Ron's before going to the hymn sing at the school.

Our beach plans for Saturday got canceled because of tension from the elections. But we made the best of it....Charis and Barb took us to the pasar so Joel got to experience the sights and smells. You really can't get the full pasar experience without smelling it. It was extra-busy since Easter was the next day. We got snakefruit and jambu to try, and a coconut for coconut milk. We went to the mall with Joyce and got some more souvenirs and had some markisa (passionfruit) juice at Dunkin' Donuts. Joel played ping-pong with Rich while I made banana bread for our party that night. We had a Mexican potluck with Rich, Barb, Charis, Joyce, Annika, Kevin, and Scott, and then we played some games afterwards.

Easter Sunday started with a potluck breakfast at the gym, followed by an Easter service at Newman Chapel. Joel introduced himself and received several shouts and woots and lots of applause. We sang lots of old hymns and the speaker talked about the joy, security, and hope we have from Christ's resurrection (1 Peter 1:3-9). We enjoyed an Easter meal with Rich and Barb, their son's family, Joyce, and Charis. It was so wonderful to spend the holiday with them. I thought it would be hard to be away from family on Easter, but I was with my family in Sentani. Charis took some pictures of Joel and me in our custom-made batik outfits, and then we started packing. I acquired more stuff than I realized. Joel did a great job of making it all fit into our suitcases. We had a supper break, a krupuk break with Joyce, and then made time to play cribbage with her, too.

Charis drove us to the airport on Monday morning, and Mike already had our boarding passes ready for us. They both waited with us until we had to board the plane. We made it to Bali around 2 pm. We had enough time to walk along the beach, do some shopping, and eat supper ($5 for grilled chicken breast and grilled marinated vegetables) before we had to head back to the airport. Joel flew to Tokyo via Osaka, and I flew through Seoul, so we had different flights, but we got connected again in Tokyo and were able to spend the 11-hour flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis together. We slept during most of it, which made it go by relatively quickly. We spent some time with Joel's sister and her family when we got to Minneapolis on Tuesday afternoon, and then he drove me to Fargo on Wednesday. My mom met me there, and we did some wedding dress shopping while we were there.

Since I've been home, I've been helping with flood reconstruction. I helped un-sandbag and clean up the yard from the yucky river muck, replaced the insulation that got wet, put plywood up to replace the sheetrock we had to cut off (about 3 1/2"), and my mom and I are painting the basement this afternoon. I had an allergic reaction to something (I'm guessing the insulation), so I have itchy red, welty bumps all over. I went to the doctor and am taking prednisone, but the itching is driving me crazy! My dad had surgery on Good Friday to remove the cancer on his bladder. They found some other abnormal cells, which will require a TB treatment so those cells "slough off." Since the treatment involves a live vaccine, he'll have to do things like pour bleach down the toilet after every time he uses it so my mom doesn't contract TB with her baby immune system. It's a 2-month treatment, but it won't start for another couple weeks because he's still recovering from surgery. It's driving him crazy that he can't lift things....so basically he hasn't been able to do much with flood clean-up. I'm home til Monday to help, and then I'll head to Madison, SD to start my internship at the hospital there. It will be a busy summer, but a good one! Thanks for taking the time to read about my experiences in Indonesia, and for your continued prayers for me and my family.