We left Hong Kong on a beautiful day September 17, 2009 for our annual trip to Jakarta.
This picture isn't clear because I took it on the move amidst non-smiling police men. I wanted to get the sign, but didn't want to have the same consequences as the drug traffickers so I kept walking fast as I snapped the "Welcome" message to Indonesia.
On Friday we visited the Taman Safari. We left on Friday, because Saturday was the start of the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of the Ramadan fast and we were told that there would be tremendous crowds at the Safari during the celebrations over the next three days.On the way to the Safari, we stopped and bought carrots and bananas to feed the animals. As soon as we arrived at the Reserve, the animals saw us coming and they were happy to get right in the car with us and have lunch. We saw a lot of Zebras and other African/Asian jungle animals.
The Elephants were separated from the road by a deep moat. I'm not sure that we would have wanted them with their trunks in the car looking for food.
The Lammas were anxious for thier share.
Hungry, Hungry Hippo
There were more varieties of cattle, deer and African range animals than we could count. It was amazing that they had all of them here at this Reserve.
The giraffe's stayed their distance as well.
This wild boar will blind himself with his tusks if he isn't careful. Pretty fearsome looking.
We entered a gated part of the Reserve and the wildlife officer made sure that we had our windows rolled up. This lion is only one of a large pride that we saw.
We saw many tigers, but the one albino tiger was a novelty. His friends didn't seem to discriminate though.
These Rhino's were larger than our big SUV. They were content and we were happy they didn't charge us.
Cheeta's were only part of the large cats we saw besides the lions and tigers.
Grandma must be getting really lonely for hugs from the grandkids.
On Saturday, we had a self-employment project that the missionaries and the Service Center Manager, Subandriyo had orchestrated. They want to franchise small food carts selling Sloppy Joes. Here is Annie, the wife of the ERS translator/driver/etc. with the Sloppy Joe banner in the background.
The workshop included having the participants prepare the Sloppy Joes from a recipe of Sister Reber's, our ERS missionary.
Many didn't cook, but all enjoyed eating the finished product.
Subandriyo is fully involved as he explains how this will provide jobs for many of the saints. I wish everyone had his passion for the kingdom of God. He is definitely one of the noble and great ones. He presently serves as an Area Seventy.
On Monday, we were taken to another self employment business. We were surprised to see what we did. This was a composting business. But it was located in an area of Jakarta that was so poverty stricken and filthy that it was almost unbelievable. Here we found we had to cross the Bogor river on a cable held raft made out of bamboo poles about three inches in diameter. This villlage was built along the river and the river was used for every purpose you could imagine. It was the place where they washed their clothes, brushed their teeth, plied their wares from their rafts, threw their garbage, dumped all of their sewage, etc., etc. This raft is coming to take us across the river.
There was a narrow place of about two feet wide where there were two layers of bamboo. We were glad to be able to stand on the second layer because the water slopped around the poles on the first layer and no one wanted to step in it. However the locals were completely comfortable with their surroundings. You can notice in the background that the river banks were totally covered with trash.
We visited their small compost business and then left. As we got back on our raft, the children waved. We were novelty to them--and their village was novelty to us.
While we were crossing the river, we noticed the children climb in and out of the village "Outhouse." You can see in the river, just thirty feet or so down river from the outhouse, the women are washing thier clothes. You can also see a boy swimming in the river. He was buck-naked and spitting out water every time he came up from being totally under the water.