I am sitting in my living room, writing to the glow of
Christmas lights strung from our windows, the bamboo Christmas tree in the
corner, a Merry Christmas banner strung across our doorway. The air conditioning is set at 25 degrees
Celsius, and I remember that I am not in Wheaton, currently experiencing it’s
first snow of the season. I am in
Jakarta, Indonesia, the other side of the world. I am writing to the tune of crickets chirping
and the torrential rains of rainy season.
I am writing in a tank top and shorts, and I have sweated multiple times
today. I had my hired helper prepare our
meal tonight, and she’s actually going to prepare food every day this week,
since Jeff is away. Yes, I am certainly
not in America! This is extra poignant as Jeff is on his way to our old home,
getting ready for his dissertation defense later this week. I am sad not to go, happy not to have to
endure the long flight with two small children.
But, let me save reflecting on our week apart and ending
this dissertation journey later. First,
the start of the holiday season. For a
while now, I’ve been pureeing pumpkin and turning it into pumpkin cookies,
pumpkin bread, pumpkin shakes, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin lattes—seasonal foods
die hard, and somehow eating something that is made from pumpkin made it feel
more like Thanksgiving was here.
Thanksgiving is just a normal day here, so Lydia went to school, Jeff
went to work, and it really wasn’t sad since it all feels so different. Thanksgiving week was also exam week for the
International Teacher’s College (ITC) where Jeff works, so students were busy
cramming in what they’d learned over the semester, and writing last minute
papers.
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| A recent display of sibling love to keep your attention. |
Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, several other faculty wives
and I decided to bring the girls at ITC treats at their apartments. We had fun each making 72 cookies, one for
each student, and going room to room with cookie deliveries. The girls live in a tall apartment building
that makes me slightly terrified when I look out the window and see the traffic
lights far far below. I am a long way
from learning all of their names, but since many of them go to the church where
we attend, I am getting to know some of them.
I also have the opportunity to lead a conversation circle of
9 students, most of whom are freshman.
The conversation circle is a support group for newly arrived students as
well as those second year students who need additional help with their English. Don’t get me wrong—all of these students
speak excellent English, and we have a fun time talking together. Our final conversation circle of the semester
was on Thanksgiving day, so I made an apple pie (thank you Diane Brown from
World Relief ESL for the recipe and experiential learning that made this
possible!!) for us to eat as we talked.
Thanksgiving night we had over Jeff’s care group—a different
group of 9 students that he is in charge of supporting and mentoring. They wanted American food, so I made the
easiest food I could think of—spaghetti with salad, bread, and apple crisp for
dessert. I still have some learning on
how to get everything to be ready at the same time for a larger group of
people, but the students were gracious and helpful! I was aiming to eat at 5, and we ate at 5:30,
so I’ll call it a success. We enjoyed a
traditional Thanksgiving meal with several other American families that Friday
night.
Our season of parties ended last Friday with a Christmas
party for my conversation circle. They
decorated cookies and created ornaments.
I was so impressed with their creativity, and I think we were the main
beneficiaries. When they left our house,
it smelled like cinnamon, and our once bare bamboo tree was covered in
beautiful ornaments that they’d created.
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| Students decorating cookies |
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| Creating gingerbread ornaments |
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| Lydia feeding Jeff some of her orange at the Christmas party |
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| Elias was a happy guy at the party. |
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| Lydia, thrilled at all the ornaments on our tree. |
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| Impromptu family picture after church with students jumping in. |
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| Family Christmas picture on the campus of the ITC after church. |
To end this post on the start of the holiday season, you may
be wondering about the title, May and Doofus.
Every night for a long time now, and at nap time, Lydia has been
requesting that we sing “Happy Birthday.” I’m not sure where the obsession with
this song started, but I think we feed into it by allowing her to name those
that she wants to sing happy birthday to. The list gets longer and stranger
each night. We now regularly fill in the
names of not only Auntie Jojo, Uncle Adam, her animals, baby Lias, Mommy,
Daddy, and other friends, but now we sing happy birthday to the wall, the
windows, the door, the lights, basically anything she sees or remembers from
her day. She has also been asking that
we sing happy birthday to Doofus. For
the longest time I’ve been wondering, who in the world is doofus? I've never used the word doofus at home,
has she heard it at school or on TV? I finally figured it out when today after
school she was talking about “My and Doofus,” and it suddenly clicked. The season, the manger, the Christmas story…
Do you know who My and Doofus are? Leave your guess and I’ll
tell you if you’re correct…
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| Lydia lined up all the characters of the nativity scene, including "My" and "Doofus" and then asked to take their picture. |
