I talked with my Uncle, who is the most fun person to talk to, and most of it was in Bahasa, I tried new foods, Nastar- with pineapples in the center, got recipes, hung out with my little cousins, Rizky and Radit, and went to sleep.
Then i woke up- freezing cold in their room. Without a blanket, because in Indonesia, you don't really need one, without my slippers, or a sweater. and there was no way i would be able to sleep.
so i went outside
and laid on the futon. (sp?)
not more than 10minutes and mosquitoes surrounded my head, started to bite every 5seconds.
which would you rather have?
mosquitoes all night long, or freezing cold all night long?
yep, i'd rather not risk malaria, so i entered the ice cave.
and remembered- that God told me to pack Autan, bug cream that repels all mosquitoes.
and i thanked him :)
went back outside, lathered myself in it, and fell asleep without a blanket among insects that wouldn't come near me : )
go that. sounds kind of like daniels' in the lion den, but not!
my uncle woke me up, with a-
kenapa? *why?*
me: dingin! *cold!*
uncle: mosquitoes!
me: Autan : )
uncle: OHH1 : )
and we went with their family and chika to the zoo.
where it wasn't too hot yet cause it was 6:30am.
and we walked around, saw the crocidiles, no monkeys or giraffees yet though- because it wasn't actually open.
but. we walked around without shoes on, on these rocks- that prepared me for the walk back from the waterfall.
and it was intense.
there was a guy who walked around on these rocks that were at different widths to give reflexology to your feet, and you callouse them i think- and it was amazing.
i walked around in pain 2x. and then we went to get popmie *like raman noodles*
then i went to choir practice at church, and from there- caught a cab to senyan city- a mall, to meet with my counselor here.
when i got to senayan city. i wasn't feeling the best. and felt like being an American.
so-
i looked at where the christmas decorations crossed in the center of the lobby.
went to that spot, looked in the four directions.
and decided to sit down, on the floor, right there- which is basically taboo in indonesia. but a lot of things are taboo and weird to do in public.
so i'm the opposite : )
and i sat there, and read a devotional with God to get back in tune with him, and then- someone came to talk with me.
which made me feel like he was the weird one and i wasn't. and almost immediately i texted my counselor to see where he was.
so i was careful, did not move- and the guy said he was from north africa, knew french, and was here because he had a boxing match the next day. his name was Naoufel, look it up online, i hope he's there.
and it was so cool- to see someone do something out of the ordinary, someone besides me :)
i'm seeing that a lot here.
where i'm noticing people here that want more too. they want to break out from the culture they've grown up in.
on saturday night, after the meeting with my counselor, i hung out in the food court until my friend picked me up, and figured out that God wanted me to go to Bogor for church tomorrow morning, so i started making calls : )
when riska came, i was so happy, and we went to the mall to get a movie ticket to Rapunzel.
then when we went in, i had to continue making calls- so i left.
outside, i realized i didn't have minutes on my prepaid phone here. so i had to start asking workers to use their phones. and i asked God to show me where my friends were in this mall so i didn't have to ask so many strangers- and he showed me them :)
i made one phone call. then they had to leave. so i went to get riska's phone. and then-
i tried to switch my SIM Card, cause it was rejected, but i didn't know how to turn her phone on again.
so i went to the security to help me out, and while they were talking about buying minutes.
i saw God's blessing.
i saw Dito, Aswin, Kevin, and a couple other guys from school.
pointed to them- and started running.
used their phone in tired thankfulness, and got back into the theatre just as the movie was saying, "happily ever after"
and i started laughing.
you would too. : )
the next morning i took a green taxi to meet Dasha and Ailin for our trip to Bogor. and was ripped off- i didn't realize it until 2sec. after he changed roads so that we took the one right next to the big road, where we would have to stop at lights- then he had no change. and a $3 fee which was supposed to be $2 turned into $5.
so angry.
but
these are good days in indonesia- the beautiful mess that it is.
between poverty, greed, natural beauty, corruption, polite people, kindness, ripping people off, people wanting to please, quietness, and hearts that long to explore but don't know how.
this is the beautiful mess that i live in.
: )
and i don't know whether i like it or not.
but it is what it is: it's a beautiful mess :) it's God's mess
of cultures, languages, people, colors, animals, and food.
it's where we live
it's what we do