Bitter Sweet, this on my way home thing...

Well this would be a very opportune time to update my blog!!! I am sitting in the Hong Kong airport with free internet and still more than 9 hours until I take off toward Vancouver! So I have been out of Africa for two weeks now and I still long to go back... that probably won’t change!! So, what have I done for two weeks???

Well, I have been in Indonesia with Kim and Tris and Matthew and Abby. It was an amazing time. I enjoyed seeing their life in Indonesia and the meeting the community that is around them. It was a perfect opportunity for me to catch up with them and to rest. I did a lot of resting and sleeping and recovering that I would not have done if I had of gone straight home. Although resting is the main event I also did a few other things on my journey. I discovered ‘cream baths’ which are about 1.5 hours of head and shoulder massage including a luxurious hair washing that almost put me to sleep. I did two of those, one for each week and they only cost about $5!!! I also had a full body massage which is beyond description for less than $10... I think that I would go back just for those two wonderful things!!

I was also invited to share about my experiences in Africa as a nursing student to about 150-200 Indonesian nursing students. I love to talk, I love Africa, and I love nursing so as you know when I talk about Nursing in Africa, I become a little passionate... it was a great experience.

I also got to share my life story with a group of ladies from all over the world. I really enjoy using the experiences of my life to encourage others and to talk about God.

We also went shopping; apparently shopping is what you do here. Indonesia, or rather the bubble in Indonesia where I was staying, was much more western than I expected... I got Starbucks and Wendy’s and Donuts...

Last Friday Kim took me to some slums in Jakarta... and of course my heart came alive, I think that I needed to see some poverty to help my transition home to Canada. I helped a Dutch woman teach English to 10-13 year olds. Let me describe the room and environment and them I am going to go find Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. We went down many tiny allies, so small we had to walk single file and then came to a set of stairs that even half my foot couldn’t fit on and the angle was closer to that of a wall or a ladder than inspection approved stairs. The room was at the top of the stairs a short distance down a little porch. It was about 8ft by 10ft and filled with the smiling faces of children. I have baked cookies in cooler ovens than that room. There was a single fan, not pointed in my direction. The smell is indescribable because our methods of dealing with waste in Canada are far to civilized for your imagination. But even in this, you know I was playing with these kids and making faces with them!! I would go back regularly just to have these kids teach me how to speak Indonesian.

I saw something in these kids that I also see in my African kids... I saw joy, imagination, resilience, and even hope!! The buildings and walk ways that these kids live among are built over the grimiest water that I have ever seen... everything is on stilts and I could barely trust my footing ever. I could not even imagine living here, let alone during an earthquake or during the regular flooding.

I am sorry that there are no pictures of this adventure but my camera found a new owner, without my permission, somewhere along the way.

I know that I missed parts of this adventure but I am tired and hungry so I will go eat and then find somewhere to sleep.

I am sorry if my tiredness is way too evident!!

Blessings, Candace