Selamat pagi!

Yesterday was a great day.  Everyone from my village was pretty tired all day because after Starbucks we went to a karaoke place. The Dean of the philosophy department lives in my village and decided to treat us for being awesome mahasiswa, along with Mirah and Aries, our program director’s assistant and one of our language teachers.   It was really cool but very different than I was imagining.  Instead of being in one big room there were several floors that contained many little rooms.  Each room had a couch, a projector, a computer full of songs to sing to, and, of course, microphones, so we had our own private little karaoke party!  We were there for an hour, and everyone sang and danced, even the Dean and our other Indonesian driver!!  I hope we get to go back again before we head back to Bali. 

In the morning we had Bahasa as always.  After that we had a thematic seminar on Pesantren, or Indonesian Muslim boarding schools.  From there we headed to lunch and then to a Pesantren to hear more about the structure of student life, take a tour of the campus, and talk to girls who go to school there.  I was also asked to lead a prayer in the Muslim school!!  It was very short and basic, but it felt so good to pray aloud with people, even if there were very few believers there.  I really miss being a part of a church family, especially because I feel so close to everyone at Logos.  I am hoping to find one when we get back to Bali (I have heard there are a couple in Ubud), but we will see. I realized the other day that I haven’t been to church, or even stepped foot in a church, in nearly a month, which hasn’t happened in … I don’t know, years.  It has been difficult to find both the time and enough Believers in my area, but I know that where two or three are gathered in His name, there He will be also (Matthew 18:20), and I also know there is at least one Christian in the program!   Anyway, after the talk with the students and faculty we walked around the campus.  I even made a couple of friends, Dea and Mia! They showed me around their room and answered all of my questions.  Here I am with my beautiful new teman-teman!

After school, I hung out for a bit with friends and my host family, and then headed to dance lessons.  Mirah and Olivia decided to join the lessons today after watching Aries and me practice yesterday with our guru (teacher).  Although Carolyn didn’t want to dance herself, she came again today as well to cheer us on!   We now have 5 people who are performing for the village on Thursday.  Tonight we all decided to go all out for the show, so we are getting traditional hair and makeup done and are renting the customary garb.  I can’t wait!  I just hope that we can learn the 15-minute dance before then.  Mirah and Oliva caught on fast today, so I think we’ll be able to pull it off J

Mudah-mudahan! Sampai nanti!