Greetings!
I will begin this by telling you all about a lovely drink you should try. It consists of condensed milk, raspberry syrup and carbonated water. And you just mix the three together and some ice and drink up. It is called soda gembira- happy soda. And it is very enak (delicious).

I am now coming to the close of my second week of language training and it is going well. Bahasa Indonesia is a realatively easy lanugage to learn, it just requires a lot of memorization. The last two days have been excpetionaly fun as we have spent a good chunck of time laughing. We are not always sure why we are laughing but we do some hard core laughing, like tears streaming down the checks laughing. It is good times. Today we attributed it to the full moon that is coming up. But we will see how tommorow goes. Do not worry though there is still lots of learning that is done inbetween the tears of joy.

So I have now been in Indonesia for for almost a month. but it does not seem that long at all. There is just so much new stuff to be learned that time is going by fast. I have now been the passenger on a motorcycle several times. And I think that if Winnipeg did not get so cold I would consider trading in my car for a scooter, or something of the sort.

The public transportation system here, I will have to admit is A LOT better then the transit system in winnipeg. There are blue vans called angkota's that you can take to most places. and there are lots of them, you stop them were ever you are and you can get them to stop wherever you want. as long as it is along their route. or if you are willing to pay enough they will even go off their route. very good. i am enjoying it.

i think that is all for now. i will hopefully be able to upload some pictures here at some point to show you visually what my world here looks like. but that might be a while.
blessings

****Hello! I am back again and have more to write*****
I spent the first days in Indonesia in the mountains with the MCC leaders and the other SALTers. It was a time to get over jet lag and learn about the Indonesian culture. At least learn how to use an Indonesian bathroom.
Thursday I went to Jepara where I will be living for the year. I spent the week living with my host family. which was fun. I have two host siblings. A brother who is 8 months and a sister who is five. And very nice host parents..I am anxious to learn Indonesian so that I can communicate better with them.
I also spent time at the school I will b teaching at. The people here are all very friendly. I will be teaching English in Kindergarten and elementary school mainly. But will also be assisiting in junior high and grade tweleve.
This past week I had the oppourtunity to teach a kindergarten class and also grade 11 and 12. The kindergarten class was fun. They were learning numbers that day so there was lots of counting to ten done. In grade 11 and 12 I told them about Canada. And attmepted to draw a map of Canada and told them about the different provinces.
I am excited about this coming year. But this past week it also really hit me how hard it will be being away from everything familiar. Howevver I met a very nice man, who calls himself the 'SALT father' as he has hosted many SAlTers, and he continually reminds me to forget about home becuase one year is not long and I should just enjoy myself. he also taught me the phrase 'rubber time' And I really like that concept and will probably keep it with me foever...just to warn you.
Mornings are the hardest time for me. I get up aound 5:30. Which sounds really early but the world around me is very much alvie by then. And I usually think about back home where everyone is just sitting down for supper which makes me sad and lonely. However every day so far I go to be really excited about eh year and what it holds for me.
It is amazing to look back at each day and see the different blessings God gave me. Like the different people I meet. Or going to the youth service wondering why I had signed up for SALT and having the sciputre be Proverbs 16 which has a verse 'In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.' So I left there being very excited about the year, and very encouraged.
On Monday, the 3rd I will begin six weeks of lanugage training. Which I am looking forward to. Living in a different culture becomes much easier when you can communicate with people and understand what they are talking about.
A few prayer requests
-ability to learn a new language well
-health (so far so good)
-think of me while you are eating supper and pray that I will not be sad

Just a note about e-mails. I love getting them I will do my best to respond, but there are no promises.
And also if any of you are considering vacationing in Bali I recommend it. Just let me know so that I can see you too
~Malyssa.