We didn't see much of Jakarta, but we met a lot of Baha'is including two counsellors from Malaysia. One is also the counsellor for Cambodia, and it was pretty incredible to hear about the huge numbers of people becoming Baha'is in a formerly non-religious country. It's such a global religion, in form and function, and it's great to see. In Jakarta we visited a home where over 30 children and jr. youth from a nearby village were singing songs about world unity and learning about how to eliminate prejudice.

Back in Surabaya, we plunged into the planning of a special 'open house' for the parents of the students in the virtues class we've been involved with. Four mothers came. We began by telling them about the Baha'i principle that all religions come from the same God (whatever the name) and thus there were many ways to pray. After prayers, we talked about the necessity for moral education - if school can make you into a doctor, what will make you into a good doctor? If school can make you into a policeman, what will make you an honest police man, free of corruption (a big issue here)? Immediately, the mothers began grinning, and saying that since they spent all their time in the market, that their children were lacking in this aspect and they were so happy to have sent their children. Their first response was to thank the teachers profusely. One of the mothers who had been sending her children (model students), had been previously concerned that there wasn't any writing and learning going on. When she learned about the activities, she asked if she could bring her neighbor's children. The activities include crafts, drama, songs, science and so forth to illustrate virtues like generosity, truthfulness, perseverance and cleanliness. In short, the response was so good that the man living in the house forgot all about his fears of having too many children coming to his home for the classes - in fact, he hadn't wanted to have the classes at all less than a year ago. It was wonderful, especially since so many Indonesian adults are so reluctant to make any changes in their lives, constantly living in a world of fear - only recently were people free to study what they wanted and belong to the organizations that they wanted. In fact, even now there is a complex social structure that involves neighborhood heads. Within the city, each block has a man who is in charge of the goings on in that area. The people must inform him of all events, pay dues, and go to him for their id cards. If he doesn't like the people coming to your house, you are endanger of being visited by a corrupt policeman or two looking for bribes at the least. This is the law as it was set up during Dutch rule and this is how it continues, keeping everyone in a constant state of fear of their neighbors. When we decided to have children's classes at this house, the resident was mostly afraid of what the neighbors would say. Now that the neighboring mothers had such a positive response, he's overcome a little of that fear, and it feels like a tremendous weight has been lifted.

In other news, we will be returning to America next July. We had thought of staying a third year -because it will be hard to leave the community we've gotten to know and because it means saving a good deal of money - but Greg was informed that he in fact did not have the option of returning. It's not a good boss, or a good job, so it's a good thing, though the feeling is quite negative. Greg certainly wasn't informed of this loss of option in a very professional manner and no event lead up to it - absolutely no words of either praise or punishment have been bestowed upon him from the higher powers this year. Which is too bad, since he had at least one student score a 5 on the AP exam last year and this year is teaching overtime without the pay so that more students can fit the AP class into their schedules.

So until we return, we have a lot of places to travel to! We won't get to them all, and it's always a tough call if we should spend time with friends on the weekends or abandom them to travel on our own. The mud keeps us from any weekend destinations for the time being, but we're going to do some diving in Bunaken National Park in North Sulawesi over the winter break. (Winter - hah!) From there, we're going to a Baha'i youth conference outside of Jakarta, then up to Sumatra since Greg hasn't been. Later we're hoping to get to Cambodia and maybe Thailand and maybe even Vietnam, then hopefully India before we go to Haifa, Israel for Baha'i pilgrimage with my parents and brother. So much to see and so little time! We'll have to scrap both the plans to return via Europe and the trans-siberian railway and also Island hopping through Papua, New Zealand, Samoa and Hawaii towards California. And there are still all those islands and cultures in Indonesia!