We Have Landed in Our Nest

We have officially ended our training, sworn-in, packed up and moved to our permanent site. They told us it would be hot, and they were right. We have a fan in our room, and it cools enough at night to be comfortable, but for the most part, we sweat constantly. 

Arriving in Caruban, we visited our school, and met most of the English teachers. At both of our schools, they had a welcome ceremony for us and asked that we speak in front of the school. There are lots of giggles, oooohs and ahhhhs when we are around. We stopped by an elementary schools' competition and were swarmed by kids. Seriously, we could have been Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to these kids. There were so many of them, we had to be guided by an adult to get us out of the pack. Then, of course, they stopped the competition so we could go on stage and give a speech!! Hahahaha. 

Our town feels like a beach town; like you should find the ocean when you turn the corner. It's cleaner than Malang was, the streets are wide, and there are more cyclists, so we don't stick out as bad as we would have in Malang. (We still stick out though). Very close to our house, we found a gym! It's definitely not a 24 Hour Fitness, and the equipment is probably from the 80s but it's a gym, none the less. Our Bapak (host dad) loves taking Daniel around to show him off. Bapak has two daughters so Daniel is the son he never had.

Another amazing plus is we have already connected with the local Protestant Church. It is actually pretty big, and has a projector, praise and worship music, and weekly bulletins. After the service on Sunday, a lady came up to us who spoke English. She taught English for 2 years in Australia so shes fluent and is reached out to us to help us with anything we need. She leads a bi-lingual bible study with high school students so we've joined that too. It is amazing to hear Indonesians praying and singing in English. It made Daniel and I cry :)

We have 2 more weeks to explore Caruban and get to know our counterparts at school. Then the real work begins. We're extremely comfortable here. We couldn't ask for a better host family and new home. The people have more than accepted us, and are patient with all our questions and mistakes. They call us "Saudara" (Brother/Sister) We love it here.