( Istriku Menulis )
VILLAGE TRIPS
Last November, I went again to a
neighbouring island to do medical clinics in the remote villages. This time we had a team from Australia joining
us so technically I (with my 2 other friends) went in a ‘translator’ role
rather than running the clinics; but thankfully we are all flexible as we
ending up playing both roles.
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Part of this team was a dentist and 2 x dental
assistants. Although at first there was MUCH
fear of him and very few patients, but the word soon got out that he was a good
dentist and gentle…. From then on he was inundated with patients and regularly
had people coming to the house to look for him.
Sadly on
the rare occasion locals have travelled to find a dentist, the dentists
(according to their stories) seem to be more like butchers and extremely
rough…hence the fear. Many beliefs of
‘if you get a tooth pulled you will go blind’ or ‘after tooth pulling you
become sick and vomit for a couple of days’.
Thankfully no such horror was caused by our Australian dentist.
2. Who’s
itchy??? 2.5 years ago when we
first started going into this area ALMOST everyone was itchy ... scabies,
fungal infections of the skin or masses of tiny wounds from unknown causes. 2.5years ago on our first visit around 80
people were treated for scabies and this last time in November there was LESS
than 20 people treated for scabies J
One of the
main leaders in that area shared his story to us. 2.5years ago everyone in his family was
itchy. Since then, each time we‘ve
visited we have treated them and given simple education on how to prevent and
stop the spread of scabies. Earlier on they would get healed but then after a
few weeks or 1 month the scabies would return. BUT each time they would stay healthy a bit longer before the scabies
came back. Last November he was PROUD to say that after 6months since our last
visit he and his family were STILL ALL HEALTHY!
3. Our dear friend who has had the large open wound on his
thigh for over 2 years…. HE IS ALMOST 100% HEALED!! There were many religious
ceremonies at that time and I first met him in a neighbouring village. He came up to me with a BEAMING smile and sat
beside me. He then very quickly (so others did not see it – it was previously
it was a cause of great shame to him and he’d not been allowed to attend prayer
or ceremonies as he was considered ‘unclean’) lifted his traditional sarong
to show me his leg. He had only 2 small open areas remaining about 1.5cm in
diameter. It was AMAZING to see the
wound so small and even more GREAT to see him walking normally again.
(…… or Ripleys Believe It or Not) J A HOUSE plus more
Have you ever wondered? ?
a-
if there is a time when “the
blessings of God actually become a ‘not blessing’?”
OR
b-
Been so overwhelmed with the
speed that blessings arrive that you almost wish they’d stop?
But then you realize how
stupid it would be to pray that, so instead you pray “God can you please slow
down a bit? I need time to catch my
breath.
Both of these were a first time experience for me last October - Within 3 weeks Agung & I received
* a large amount of furniture and household items
* we were offered a great house, at a great price … in which we are now
living!
* a large financial gift to cover a yearly leash on a house
Blessing #1 - A LOT
of Furniture - A friend of Agungs had to return to the States unexpectedly and decided
rather than trying to sells everything within
2 weeks he would give it away and be a blessing to others who needed
things. Agung & I were special in
that he wanted us to have a number of things as ‘our early wedding gift’ from
him. Huge blessing for us! We had very little furniture & not a lot
of $$ to go shopping with. BUT the STRESS comes when there is a
time limit and NO WHERE to store
anything!!! At that time Agung was back
studying for a short time living in a dorm and I was in my single rented
room. WHAT,WHERE & HOW??? The stress of it all almost became too much
…hence it began to feel like a ‘not blessing’; but we managed to divide
everything between a number of friends till December…pheww!
Blessing #2 – the HOUSE- At this point we decided we really needed a house
NOW and not 3-4 months after marriage as originally planned as we had been asked
to house-sit for friends till March this year. But why live for free when you have to find
& pay for storage?
The day we collected the furniture, the dining table/chairs were
designated to live on my front porch covered in plastic to protect from rain. That night as we gave thanks for the food a
one sentence request was added, “God you
know we need a house, please help….we have no idea”. Agung has a more childlike faith then I, ‘God
&/or Bible says, we pray & it will happen’. I’m a little more cynical/logical so to
speak…’things don’t always happen overnight, we’ll need to spend some time
praying before the answer comes’. Haha
we are both learning from each other…. and
Ouch… I had a gentle reminder again that God doesn’t need us to do more or
prayer more before He gives us things, He gives because He loves us and like
any good Father delights in blessing His children.
The very next morning I step
out of my room the owner of my room is wildly gesturing me to come. He just heard from his daughter that we
needed a house; and there is a house just up the hill next to his son. J We looked…a nice house, 2
rooms, dining, kitchen, living area, a cool roof area and a GREAT price
(16million rupiah per year).…. But we had no money to pay a year up front as required.
Blessing #3 – A lot of rupiah - I’d just paid for my
visa etc so was penniless and Agung had 1 million….HMMMMM house hunting with no money makes you feel
kinda foolish, but again I had felt God say ‘how can I give you a house if you’re not looking’. Then about 1.5weeks later I get a Txt message
from an Indonesian lady I know saying this “I
have just transferred 25 million rupiah to your account. I hope you receive it well.” A large dose of shock and then some
rejoicing…and no my first words were NOT ‘thank you Jesus’ J hehehe but my second phrase
was ‘oops sorry God, did I just say
that??….and thank you’.
– Regarding the 25million rupiah. This amazing woman as she obeyed what God
spoke to her has enabled us to start our married life DEBT FREE! The only other
way possible for us to get a house was to borrow and then pay back; and this
God knows I dislike greatly. We have now
paid cash and are able to save money for next years lease.
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We choose a small local hotel for the wedding…Hiring cost of venue per
person 45,000 ($7nzd) for food. About
2weeks before the wedding, I was talking to my tailor who was quote 80,000
p/prsn for that same hotel. The poor
lady couldn’t understand how a ‘white person’ got a better price than a
local….neither do I, we laughed and I told her it must be a blessing from God
to which she agreed.
TIME
WITH FAMILY …… and ….. THE WEDDING!
I was truly blessed in
having 7 members of my family came over to Bali for our Wedding J Mum & Dad, 2 sisters Sheryl & Julie and 3 nieces Tatyana,
Olivia & Grace. They arrived 10 days
early so were able to have some quality time and some extra hands, my own
personal hairdresser (Julie) and my flower/decoration designer (Sheryl). Check
out the NZ touch on the flowers-I LOVED IT!
The Wedding Day went well….I felt relaxed and enjoyed
it, we had time to eat and chat with people, and most importantly were LEGALLY
married J We
had a kids corner, a funky gardening themed cake and the guest book was
fingerprinting the border of a canvas print.
AFTER THE WEDDING …. I
think they call it a ‘honeymoon’ J
I think we definitely took the
‘traditional’ Indonesian version of this and spent with family; but absolutely
NO COMPLAINTS as we had invited my family to stay longer if they wished. Seriously if you are going to pay big money
for a ticket you may as well make the most of it. Half my family went home 2 days after the
wedding and the other half stayed till Christmas Day as cheaper to fly then. We had a great time with my sister and nieces
and played chauffeur for them. Some have
laughed at the thought of spending your honeymoon with family, but Agung &
I got to see and do things that we would never have done otherwise. So THANKS HEAPS to Julz and the girls!
Agungs’ father suffered from a stroke 2 days before the wedding which
left him paralyzed on his left side. His
parents had just arrived in Bali the day before the stroke and were staying in
the north with Agungs sister and family.
Due to this only his Mother and brother in law attended the wedding from
Agungs side while his sister stayed with Dad.
Some hospitals here give very little care in cases like this especially
at the small remote hospital Dad was in.
It’s actually quite a new hospital, but nothing of the standards we take
for granted in New Zealand. There are no
resources for testing, nothing fancy; just beds, simple meals, an x-ray, small
pharmacy and an internal medicine specialist that visits once day and no
comments on him or his bedside manner. If all you need is an IV stuck in your
arm and to take pills 3 x day it’s an ok hospital, but no further care or
education/help is given.
A couple of days after the wedding we help organize for Mum & Dad to return to Java where Mum would continue to care for Dad at home. She really had no idea what that would entail, but I take my hat off to her. Java for her was a better place for her to be as she has friends there and it is home. Also she sells traditional cakes at the market every morning (3am-9am) and her buyers were threatening to buy elsewhere if she didn’t return. Mum had wanted Agung & I to travel back with them but sadly we could not due to my family still being here.
After my family left at Christmas, we headed by bus to Semarang in
Java. That experience in itself is worth a full page of its own J but I won’t. Let’s just say
there are always delays, often VERY long; and it has been said that you ‘take
your own live into your hands’ or maybe you ‘put your live into their (the
drivers) hands’ when you travel by bus. It can be pretty hair raising at times!
Dad was worse than expected when we arrived (mum had kept the news
positive) but he was still doing ok. We
bought him a wheelchair so that ‘quality of life’ could be better and enjoyed
more than 24/7 on the floor. Sadly
though he only used it twice as he had high fever Wednesday night and then went
downhill fast and passed away on Thursday.
We had the wake & then funeral on Friday and then headed home to
Bali on Saturday. All in all ‘Thanks God
J He knows best and His timing is
perfect’. We are thankful that tickets
could not be found for Thursday or we would have not been there when Dad passed
away. The wake and funeral process was a
delight also. EVERYONE worked together in harmony, talked
freely about God and Dad going to Heaven OR the Will of Allah, we ate together;
the Muslim family and friends respectfully observed the Christian worship &
protocols and we went together and buried our dead together….all religions
standing side by side.
THIS YEAR & THINGS TO COME
Agung continues with his role as
soccer coach with the local kids in Jimbaran.
The club is run be my old NGO and with help from Agungs church. They have training/games 3 x a week and join
competition about every 3months. The
heart is not just to teach soccer (which is a MUCH loved sport – it is the
RUGBY of Indonesia) but to mentor and encourage the children to have dreams for
the future, to prepare the next generation.
Teaching them also Biblical values and morals, to be fair, honest,
caring for others, being faithful in what you do ++.
He will also rejoin and co-lead the monthly trips to Lombok where he works
under the NGO ‘World Relief’ and teaches Disaster Risk Reduction in villages.
(ME) – learning to juggle the
new role of wife. I’m glad to say I have
a great husband who helps around the house heaps, BUT ultimately I have a new
responsibility of caring for the house, cooking, shopping, cleaning and just
being there to support Agung. I have
restarted one of my teaching groups and will add the others in February when my
friend Shirley returns. All up I’ll have
4 x English groups, 1 x basic education group (reading, writing & math in
Indonesian to a family that is unable to go to school. With 2 of these groups Agung will join me and
do story telling (values) and mentoring.
The compromise to make room for the new wife role is only teaching each
group 1 x week now instead of the previous 2 x week.
:)
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