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| Sustainability Conference 2013 in Malang, Indonesia |
April marks two years of living in Indonesia and we are still thankful, safe, and content. If God allows we hope to be in Indonesia or SE Asia longer as we are actively searching out jobs that will extend our previous careers. We have learned that getting an Indonesian work permit is very difficult outside of English teaching, so our search also includes other nearby countries. The search for what is next also includes the USA as we cannot deny our love for our family and home. The next two months will be busy and we ask that you pray that our difficulty will be in having choices, not in the lack of choices.
In our last semester, we made the decision to focus on sustainability. You may have read previously that our schools and community lack professionalism and have no procedures in place to sustain good action or projects. This in turn has created a habit of non-existent creativity and the “sustainability” of just doing whatever was done the year before. As a last push to make a difference, here are the things we have been focusing on this last semester:
o Identify the best activities and lesson from the past 3 semesters.
o Document materials through computer documents, sound files, videos, and websites.
o Discuss with the teachers and school the best way to save the information.
o Create an executive style summary of the past activities for the Principal and school.
This is to help keep the time and money allotment for future school budget planning.
This is to help keep the time and money allotment for future school budget planning.
o With counterpart(s) rework some of the material to promote confidence.
o Remind the school, continuously, that we will not be here after this semester.
o Close all possible communication gaps and relationships to end on the most positive note possible.
In March, we were spoiled by Peace Corps at our Close of Service Conference. This conference included 3 days with our counterparts to discuss sustainability at our schools. After the time with our counterparts Peace Corps surprised us with 3 nights at an all-wood bungalow resort on the mountain side of Batu. Batu was where we originally studied 24 months ago, so it was really neat to have a pseudo-closure from our original experiences in Indonesian.
During our last night of training our fearless leaders, Ken and Betsy, lead us in an activity called Starfish. If you haven’t read the story, look it up online. It is one of those simple inspirational stories that are needed now and again to open your eyes to all that you have done. After the story, we each spoke about one person in our two years here that have been positively affected by our presence. It was touching to hear how little successes with a small desa neighbor or an eager student at school will definitely make a difference in this world, or at least in their world. Planting seeds even though we might not see the flowers.
Outside of school, we are just continuing to enjoy life here. I can’t count the number of hours Daniel has spent researching, applying, and preparing for our next chapter. We aren’t worried about what is next but we’re hoping that we have a clear path sooner than later. In the meantime, we are trying to savor the time we have here, because even if we stay in Indonesian, we most likely won’t be in our same town, with our neighbors, students and friends. The Peace Corps life has been a tough one in that there are lots of goodbyes. It was extremely hard to say bye to everyone back home, and we’re not looking forward to saying bye to our family here. The world is still too big. It’s sad to think that if we leave Indonesia, we might never see these people again, but God willing, our presence has made an impact eternally.
1 comment:
Tuhan itu baik! He will show us the way and lead us if only we are obedient ;) I'm eager too to see what's next in our lives... and I can feel it... it's a breakthrough!!! Fighting!
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