Permisi Dulu, Pak. Mari!

School is never-ending!! I just finished this week's lesson plans last night, and I'm already thinking about next week's. When I took my kiddos to the library today, I checked out two books for myself. Bahahaha... Oh, boy... I don't know what I was thinking. I have never had less time for reading in my entire life!! Most days, I come home with so little energy that it's all I can do to eat dinner and stay up until 8:00. In the evenings, I'm either writing lesson plans and grading/checking papers, or going to Bible study or some other activity. There are occasional game or movie nights, but even those have become few and far between. During the last movie night (Friday), I fell asleep 30 minutes into the film. Great... I've become my mother!

In spite of it all, I LOVE my job. Somehow, when 7:45am rolls around, I'm actually looking forward to seeing the little buggers. Amazing- and a total God-thing!! Most days, I feel incredibly boring and inept, but hopefully, my second-graders are getting SOMETHING out of my talking at them for 4+ hours.

I also love this country that I'm in. On Saturday, I went into town for a cream bath. Now, I can try to explain what a cream bath is, but it really is something that has to be experienced (hint, hint). I paid the equivalent of roughly $8.50 for an entire head, neck, and upper body massage, along with a hair wash, condition, and blow dry. It's literally a small taste of Heaven. As in God will have cream baths for us after we die. I'm convinced. On Sunday, one of my students celebrated her birthday at the restaurant her family is opening next week. It was essentially a free-for-all food-wise. There were appetizers, main dishes, desserts, and gelato... in unlimited quantities. I attended, and am still having trouble believing it. Thankfully, I have witnesses.

What I've come down to is this- life is a balance. There are definitely negatives to living and teaching in Indonesia. Bugs, heat, language, distance, resources, etc.

And then there are cream baths.

Idul Fitri

Today is Idul Fitri, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. For the last 30 days, devout cousins have been neither eating nor drinking during daylight hours. Each evening, after the sun sets, they "buka puasa", or open the fast, and eat for the first time in 12 hours. Wow!! I can't even imagine! By the end of this month, most cousins are pretty tired and weak; their bodies have a lot of adjusting to do! To celebrate, they all return to the area where they are from to spend time with their family and to ask forgiveness for anything they may have done over the last year. Again, wow!

What this means for me is... NO SCHOOL!! We actually take the whole week off, so I'm am living in luxury right now- sleeping in, watching tv on laptops, reading, etc. It's been lovely. There has, of course, been some schoolwork as well, and I'll be working in my classroom later this week, but oh well. A break is a break!! Even though we've only been in school for two weeks, I was definitely ready for a break! I hoping to do some changing and revamping in my classroom before the kiddos come back next week. We'll see how that goes :-)

The weather so far has been really nice. Pretty warm, but nothing like dry season usually is!! We had rain here in Kota Baru last night for the first time since I've been here; a very short foretaste of what rainy season will be like.

For all my teacher friends, I hope your school years have begun well!! I'd love to hear all about your classes :-)