Our Most Excellent 4th of July

I can only speak for myself when I say I am tired and a bit sad. Tired from our 4+ hours of workshops each day, from trying to show Craig around town, and from Jacob having the neighborhood over for parties two nights in a row (the parties were great!) Oh yes, then there’s the factor of Craig leaving this morning, with the detail of a 4:30 departure from the front gate.

Notice that the gate guard is wearing a winter weight parka! Folks here know how to keep warm. That red circle at the end of the banner is actually the seal of the University of Alabama. The banner advertises the upcoming "international seminar" and one of the speakers has his doctorate from Alabama. May we will begin our presentation with Rocky Top!

We dragged ourselves out of bed, made sure Craig had all his stuff (except for his carved wooden mask / souvenir, it all fit in his backback) and walked to the front of campus. I was thankful that the heavy and extended rains of last night had stopped. This fits with the weather pattern of overcast morning, sunny afternoon, and rain in the early evening. Last night the rain started around 5:30, just as we were in the last minutes of our workshop, and increased in ferocity for several hours.

Despite the severe rains, thunder and lightning, the soccer match continues outside our workshop meeting hall.

We went to bed around 11 (very late for us) and it was still pouring. Thankfully we had no leaks in the house. There were deep puddles everywhere outside, and I know Craig grew tired of hearing us say we had never experienced such rain here before. Since his arrival, we have had a heavy rain almost every day, with mild temperatures. Only on Sunday was it hot enough to experience the “Siantar sweat” in all its glory. We feel very fortunate to have such moderate temperatures here, at least for now. Moderate means highs in the high 80s, but with the overcast mornings and the rainy late afternoons, it doesn’t stay that hot for long. The mornings and evenings are likely in the mid-70s, outside, and probably the high 70s to low 80s inside the house. When it gets hot with extended sunshine around here then you can add 10 degrees to those numbers and it is uncomfortable for pampered westerners. We met a German family this past week who live on the seminary campus and their house has air conditioning, so if it gets hot again we will have to think up a good reason to invite ourselves for a visit.

So we walked Craig up to the front gate and found it padlocked without any guards around. We know not to panic about anything around here, it always works out, just never in the timing that you think. We waited for the taxi/van for about 20 minutes, and when the phone call came heralding its arrival, the guard came trudging out of the small building where we suppose the guard(s) sleep at night. He was quite pleasant, unlocking the two big padlocks and sliding the gate open. The taxi arrived soon thereafter and after a few hugs we bid Craig goodbye. Craig was being transported to Medan to catch his return flight to Singapore, and after a long layover continuing on to the United States.

You make reservations for the taxi and reserve your exact seat. The taxi books as many passengers who will fit, and the cost is only $5 per person. That’s really awesome, a 3 or 4 hour drive for just $5. Plus the driver took Craig straight to the airport. I have to think that if you were staying in a five star hotel in Medan that a private taxi to the airport would cost more than that. Nancy and Craig took a similar taxi when returning from Medan last week and they both lived to tell about it, despite the aggressive driving which led them eventually to just close their eyes. Drivers on the two lane highways here must always be looking for their next opportunity to pass, as there are many slow trucks and many car drivers behind you who will pass and block you in if you don’t pass. The good news is that nobody wants to have a head-on collision so when a pass becomes really hairy then the oncoming traffic usually slows down and everyone makes just enough room to avoid an accident.

We had a great time with Craig. Last night was Jacob’s 4^th of July party. He worked really hard to make it great.

He gave presentations about the history of America, we sang America the Beautiful, The Star Spangled Banner, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, he made a delicious sugar-laden cake, decorated with tiny American flags (on little toothpicks, needless to say imported by us from America), served watermelon, played Duck Duck Goose, and even shared freshly squeezed lemonade.

We had a crowd of over 10 and the house was jumping. The night before Jacob had pretty much the same crowd over for the weekly card game of spoons.

That's Esra, Dippos, Fine, Leonni, Lolo, Johannes, Jacob, Anna, Ester and  Fina  celebrating  the 4th.

We have three days of workshops this week. They started on Tuesday, and only when the event was underway did they share the actual agenda with us. At that point we learned that we were doing the same workshop for two different groups each day.

That becomes a bit painful as your energy starts to wane halfway through the second workshop. But our students love to sing and it is quite powerful, whatever they sing. Stephen can look forward to our recording of Beautiful Savior in both English and Indonesian. I don’t think they are so familiar with the English version here, because with both groups yesterday they sang the English version (first) with a sense of reserve as they sorted through the words and the melody. But when we switch the slide to the Indonesian language version, then the recognition kicked it and they sang with great enthusiasm and spirit. I hope the video captures it adequately, but it could be one of those things that you will just have to come over here to truly experience.

Yesterday, with time running out, we decided that Craig needed to see the main tourist attraction in town, the monumental Buddha statue. I sent a Facebook message to Ester, since she was one of our guides to the statue last year. Ester wanted to learn to bake a cake from Jacob, plus she was bringing the Indonesian lyrics to Beautiful Savior, so she was coming over to see us anyway. As we were preparing to go, Thomas Bergholtz, the German who teaches New Testament in our nearby seminary, drove up to say hi and to see if we can teach English classes at the seminary each morning for the rest of our time here. When he found out we were going to the statue he offered to give us a ride, which was a real blessing.

He dropped us along the main road and we walked along the row of food vendors who were gearing up for lunch. With the huge Buda looming above us, how hard could it be to get to the temple? It proved to be a challenge, even though Ester knew the way exactly. We crossed a small bridge and there were a half dozen motor bikers and walkers looking over the wall at the river below. With all the rain the water level was unusually high.  We turned a corner or two and there we were at the Methodist School, where we taught for two days last year. I was telling Craig about the girls lining the balconies to shout to Jacob, and we stepped into the big courtyard to have a look. While there a teacher or two appeared (school is on holiday this week) and then the headmaster stuck his head out of the building. I imagine with my Tennessee hat and shorts he did not recognize me as the big American from last year. Or maybe I scared him. Anyway he immediately disappeared back into the building without saying hello. We walked down the road another block or two and then Ester turned down a very narrow street, cutting right through the very poor Chinese neighborhood. We hadn’t gotten very far down the street when someone called out to Ester and told her she needed to return to the main road, that this street was blocked with mud. Then we looked to the houses on the downhill side and they were flooded with several inches of water. I can’t imagine living in one of those little shacks and getting flooded out, that would be discouraging.

Thinking we had dodged a bullet, we returned to the main road, went down a block, and then cut over to the small street. We discovered that this section of the street was also heavily coated with mud. After Ester almost lost her shoes in the deep mud along the edge of the street, we discovered that it was possible to walk in the tire tread patterns in the middle of the road and only sink into the mud an inch or two. I thought Ester’s little slip on ballerina shoes were goners, but she managed to wipe off most of the mud once we entered the temple grounds.

We were pretty much the only ones there so we didn’t have to be too embarrassed about the mud caked on our shoes. We had a good look around, and enjoyed the nice breeze blowing at the base of the statue. When we visited last year it was a toasty hot day and I can remember moving quickly from shady spot to shady spot.

That's Craig at the base of the statue.

I asked Ester about Batak pork, which others had told us was a real local delicacy, with the pork served in a sauce which included BLOOD. That’s pig’s blood of course. Craig was up for it, and Ester knew of the best place in town for the pork. After checking out all there is to see around the statue (a nice goldfish pond, various small gardens, and a row of smaller statues, one for each animal of the calendar years) we sorted our way out of the temple grounds. Luckily we stumbled upon the main entrance, which was officially closed but open just enough for us to squeeze through. That saved us another layer of mud on our shoes.

We caught a micro-bus ride to the restaurant, which was actually rather clean and civilized looking, by Siantar standards. It was in kind of a suburb looking area, and we got a table out near the street. Ester did all the ordering and we had no idea what to expect. She asked if we wanted the grilled pork in addition to the Batak pork and that sounded like a good idea. She asked if we each wanted a plate of it, and why not? Though Craig wanted his pampered Westerner drink called Coke Zero, they didn’t have it and everyone was brought a bottled sugared tea along with the customary glass of hot water (hits the spot on a cold day…oh, that’s right, it’s never cold here…) It is our belief that if you are really concerned about clean water then you will order a bottled water. If you aren’t quite so worried then you get the complimentary glass of hot water, and since it’s hot you feel safe because it must have been boiling hot before they brought it to you. After about 15 minutes the water cools from really hot to just hot, at a temperature where you can at least not burn your tongue when you drink it.

The food arrived quickly and it was a great deal of food. Ester said she ordered what was normal for six people. I think she believes we eat huge quantities of everything! First there was a little dish of soup, mainly broth with a little onion and carrot (wartel) and what seemed to be a pork chop bone, with just a few shreds of meat tucked into corners of the bone that made it just a tease. Somehow Ester removed her bone from the hot soup and reached the meat, Craig and I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Next came the plates of rice, and then the proteins. The Batak pork looked pretty tasty, especially while we ignored the extra small plates of sauce (that would be BLOOD based!). The grilled pork consisted of a thin meat/fat/rind portion, grilled and then cut into narrow strips. The rind was so hard that I chewed everything carefully and daintily removed the rind from my mouth after I had gnawed on it a little. Not need to break a tooth in Siantar! There was a mystery dish on the table, and Ester said it was fish, and she mentioned something about being cooked in orange. We didn’t understand, but that’s a natural state of affairs for us here. It was bathed in a yellow sauce and we guessed it must have been cumin based after having a taste. When I cut off a small taste I questioned Ester further, and she mentioned that it was “cooked without fire”. I told her that sounded like our “smoked” and she agreed. I have a small taste and the texture was very odd. I took a closer look and it sure looked raw to me. Not like on the underdone side of cooked, I mean raw. So both Craig and I just had a little taste of the fish and decided to pass on it. I don’t believe Ester had more than a small bite, and she said it was too spicy. I believe that may be the first time I’ve ever heard a Batak person say that! Needless to say we had a large amount of this fish left over. Ester and the waitress didn’t like the idea of us walking off without it, so I had them bag it up and we took it home. Now all we need is a dog or cat for the doggie bag!

The other highlight was the micro-bus trip from the restaurant to the Ramayana (grocery store near our home). The bus had no shock absorbers and the driver was flying down a back street that had a small speed bump (called “sleeping police men” here) every fifty feet. The bus hit them hard and just kept rolling. An extra treat was the ten year old kid gunning his motor bike less than five feet from our rear bumper all the way. There’s never such thing as a dull micro-bus ride.

Then it was cake baking time with Jacob (for his July 4^th party) and then on to the workshops for the day. During the second workshop the clouds cut loose and the rain came down in buckets. The soccer match going on outside of our building did not pause for a second as the torrential rain backed up into deep puddles on the field. Thunder and lightning are also no cause for pause in outdoor activities here (including swimming in a swimming pool).