The belatedness of this comes because of a combination of business, sickness and technical glitches.
But, I come bearing gifts.
It is like having to wait until ALL the food is ready at home until you can begin eating…
It is like waiting for the 3 hour Indonesian church service to finish…..to find the bakso buffet at the end. (haha, rubbery meatballs that Salters have a minor dislike to deep distain for)
It is like waiting until after Christmas to then be able to delve into an audial visual wonder….
Behold….
The Christmas video that is imperfect like its producer, whom forgets to show where his room is in his home…..silly me. Well, one morning I took a few video clips.....and this is the end result.
Photo time......
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| I went to the market with the cook of my favorite small buffalo meat restaurant, while browsing the tantalizing produce, I payed 50 cents for a live catfish. Needless to say, the catfish was rather restless. The first attempt of the catfish to escape my back pack caused me to swerve and freak-out as unexpectedly my meal tried to get away on me. In the end it mets its fate as a delicious supper. |
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| A fine specimen of Artocarpus heterophyllus, or jack fruit. |
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| A friend, me and a stranger having a communal shower together under a waterfall. |
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| I visited a Buddhist temple with my host family and was able to talk about the meaning of the various candles, signs etc. Chinese New Year is January 23rd, i hope to stop by at the festivities at the local temple. |
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| The highly anticipated angklung performance occurred for the massive special Christmas program at my church. 1500 sets of eyes and ears awaited melodious rattling. This also represents the 1500 people in my church. That also means that my church is more than 2x the population size of King's University! |
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| Jason + The world's largest Hindu temples (Prambanan) = one happy guy |
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| A family road trip to Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple. Home to every Indonesian teenager who wants a photo with me and overpriced souvenirs. |
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| Traditional Javanese art painting depicting the birth of Jesus. |
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| Jason practices stoicism and mediation while confusion reigns over the church's youth group. |
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| Host family photo minus one older brother.....plus a Christmas tree. How festive. |
Life has been crazy for the past month.
Lots of Christmas services and events for weeks before Christmas.
Christmas with MCC for a few days.
Christmas two day road trip with my family.
Speaking at the Youth Leadership Camp I mentioned in the last post, which was difficult to do and I learned lots, and I hope the youth did as well.
Visiting neighbors.
Going to temples and markets.
New Years eve sleeping over with the young adults.
Being sick.
Misunderstandings with my host family and the ensuing attempts for resolution.
Reflecting on my experience here so far.
Planning the coming months.
So, the gathering with people whom have HIV/AIDS was cancelled in December, so it will hopefully go ahead tomorrow.
This weekend is an interfaith forum, I will talk at it about pluralism and hope to connect with those from other faiths.
I miss family and friends more at Christmas time than any other time. Take care, Jason.
Hi Jason! So great to see and hear you in your setting. I was reminded of Taiwan--the street life, the homes and the vegetation. Even just the lay out of the neighborhood reminded me of Shanhua,the town near AVRDC (the research centre where we lived). I also enjoyed hearing you speak Bahasa--reminded me of dad speaking Bangla! So, thanks for sharing! Much love and many prayers, your Mom
ReplyDeleteP.S. -in contrast to the busy street life by your home in Kudus, Evan and I were in the ditch on Yelich Road because of the extremely icy road conditions--for 45 minutes, no one came by, not even a bird. Dad came to our rescue and pulled us out with the truck! :o)
Hi Jason!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for that great video and for your Christmas and New Year's Greetings! You are in our thoughts and prayers often. It was great to hear you speak Indonesian in the video and to walk through your neighbourhood with you. Looks much more appealing than the ice we are dealing with at home!
Much love, Fred, Teresa and Christiana