Week of March 2, 2014 
Beautiful Bandung.  Helping Babies Breathe Training.
Working with the needy flood victims in Jakarta.

Hard to believe it is March already. Time is going oh so quickly and the wondrous experiences keep on coming.
 Sometimes it is as if we are in a dream...the beauty about us, the kind and tolerant people....then the exposure to the difficulties and trials that many of the people face brings one back to reality. We are grateful to our Heavenly Father for the blessed opportunities to serve, but oh how you wish there was more you could do. Latter-Day Saint Charities cannot help everyone, every time, with everything. But they do help many. We feel honored and humbled to represent this great organization in Indonesia.

Spending a few days in the beautiful area of Bandung, a city in the mountains, so it's nice and cool!  Mary wrote,"I am having a wonderful Sunday and it all started with forgetting what time church started here and arrived at the building just an hour and ten minutes early! The gates were locked still, but we were thinking church started at 8 am and here we were at 7:50, where was everyone, why weren't the missionaries here at least? Then it dawned on us that we had the wrong time, since we had taken a taxi to get here, we would just stay. We decided to walk around the area, which was so nice since it was where the nurseries are. The plants are so beautiful and it was fun seeing plants that we can grow home, either in the house or in the summertime as a annual, growing here in their Garden of Eden size! Meaning bigger and more lush than what they look like at home. Since it was still early, there was very little traffic, so as we meandered through the plants, we could hear the birds. It was such a nice Sabbath start.

Can't get over the size and magnitude of these trees. So lush and beautiful

When we see these huge trees with all these branches, we think of Bryce and how much he loved to climb up trees, even pines!! He'd love these!

 It has just rained and everything was just sparkling through the sunshine. Everywhere we turn it is a peaceful, green, lush landscape

We take one day a week (usually Saturday or Monday depending on the schedule) to relax from our weekly routine, get out and visit the sites and wonders of the area. Today we went to a beautiful waterfall in the area.

The trail to the base of the waterfall criss-crossed down the hillside. At first we saw a few monkeys in the trees above, then along the sides and then everywhere

This guy got a little too  close.........   we had the impression that perhaps we had gone far enough. So we didn't get to the base of the waterfall, but got some great footage.

The waterfall is located close to a volcano (Tangkuban Perahu Crater) we had visited several months ago. A hot stream, which is created by the heat from the crater flows down to a hot springs called Ciater Resort which we had been hoping to get to at some point. The water was wonderful and with the weather being a bit overcast and rainy it was a great day to take in the hot smoothing waters. We will definitely have to come here again sometime!

Our translator and driver, Edi, thoroughly enjoyed himself. In fact as we got in and out from time to time, he hardly moved.

Tuesday March 4th, back to work. In October we worked with Dr Visick and others from Utah that came to Banadung to train doctors and mid wives on a program called, "Helping Babies Breath." It was featured in the Church News (Jan 12, 2014). Part of that project was for the trained Indonesian physicians to train 600 midwives over the coming year. Today we had the opportunity to observe one of those training classes. It brought back fond memories of our experiences in October. This is a great program that will help to reduce infant mortality rate. What a wonderful blessing to babies and their families. In the opening statement, they thanked us for the sponsorship of LDS Charities, and then amusingly to us asked, "how old are you?" This is often of interest to them, our age! Maybe we look older than they think, we aren't sure. But tidak apa apa, which means," no worries".

 

Doctors teaching the midwives with the mannequins and tools given to them from LDS Charities.Each midwife will receive her own stethoscope, penguin like suction device, and most importantly a portable hand ventilator to use in their own practices. Tools to help babies who struggle with breathing at birth.

Back in Jakarta there are still areas that have been affected by flooding for several months now. LDS Humanitarian funds have been used to help relief some of the suffering.

 

These are families living under a overpass because their homes are still under water and they have no other place to go

One of the items we were passing out today were boots so the people who are in the flooded areas everyday can get some relief.

                            Walking through the narrow alleyways in the recently flooded areas

Along with the boots, people were able to get their blood pressure checked, eyes examined, and reading glasses if needed, as well as medicine for high blood pressure, diarrhea, itchy skin, and antibiotics if needed.

The lady assisting the man with reading glasses is Dr Titi. She is a pediatrician that we have worked with on several occasions. A wonderful women that we respect and admire. She has devoted her life and resources to helping the poor and needy. She gets embarrassed when we call her the,"Mother Teresa of Indonesia." Though we may believe differently in some things, we believe in God, and that he loves all his children, and that we can be united in helping to serve. It is a wonderful thing for us as Christians to work in such harmony with those of the Muslim faith. We are coming to love these special people.

                                    In some areas the flood waters have receded....for the day

This is Joko on the left, and Aga on the right. They were more than willing to tell me about the challenges of the flooding. They both are fathers with a wife and 3 children each. For Aga his mother also lives with them. They said that it has been flooding for 2 months. The water will get as high as 7 meters. When one level of the house gets flooded they move upstairs. If people don't have an upstairs  they go to a church, government facility, the street, or wherever they can go. They said that normally the river is only 1 foot deep...."if they would dredge the river we wouldn't have the flooding," they said. They have been hoping for this for years!

              For some, they have cleaned out the water for the day...... for others, it is still ongoing.

 

One of the most remarkable observations that we see time and time again, is despite hardships almost everyday, the people are happy. When you say hello or smile they almost beam. We are humbled everyday, knowing we can go home to a place that is clean, dry and warm. They will battle this again and again, and yet they are happy!  Much we can learn from them!

 

 

 

We felt yet again at weeks end of our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for the blessing to be here at this time in our lives. We think of our families and friends every day, but know they are doing well. Here we have the opportunity to serve the Savior and it is special indeed!!!!!  What a privilege to be a missionary!