10 days in...

Indonesia has been our home for about 10 days and we are just starting to get the hang of dorm life. Luke started his new school last Tuesday and is really enjoying it. There are 6 boys and 1 girl in his class (1stgrade) and his teacher is called Miss Ashley. She is new here too and is really lovely. There is a parent and teacher meeting tonight so I am looking forward to finding out more about Luke's day. After his first day, Luke said "I like this school, it's a playing school"! I'm not totally sure what that means (except they have a fantastic playground for recess) but at least he is enjoying it. Luke said in the bath last night that he couldn't wait to go back to school - I think he finds the predictable schedule and routine comforting in the midst of otherwise chaos. The boys are really enjoying the big girls, who are very patient with them and will play lego and take them to play soccer. I think the boys are not quite sure what the girls role is, so there have been some choice performances from both Luke and Isaac as they figure out what will happen and who will sort it out! They are both coping well with all the changes, given that they are in transition. Luke has hit this is all horrible stage saying he is bored of the country and especially of rice! Having said that, he chose rice for breakfast this morning when he could have chosen toast or cereal, so I think rice is just something he can project is confused feelings on to ( I hate it and I love it at the same time). Anyway, we have started to make the apartment feel a bit like home by putting up pictures of all you lot. If any of you have good pics of what's going on there, we would LOVE to have them - it'll help us feel connected. Luke and Isaac have pictures in a long line all around their room and they spend quite a bit of time just looking at them and thinking about what those people are doing.
Paul is getting into the swing of teaching. He has 3 students in his bible class and he is teaching about the prophets at the moment. Unfortunately he teaches firt period every day except Friday which is 7:40 am! We are all feeling the early mornings, but at least it is light and warm when we have to get up!
Well, that's all for now, please continue to pray for all our transitions and for our language learning. Also, for wisdom in being dorm parents and parents of the boys - there are some big cultural differences in parenting that we need to negotiate.
In Him, Emily, for the family