Satelite TV

Yesterday Wednesday 21st November astro arrived at the dorm (astro being Asia’s Sky TV). It’s an early Christmas present for the girls, who received the news with screams of joy. It means that we have a little more connection with England through BBC World Service and the girls have the enjoyment and education of western TV; CSI is a dorm favourite already!

The Installation Process

In the UK you contact sky who give you a day they’ll come to install your dish and receiver. They arrive in a van with the Simpsons smeared across one side and David Beckham scoring a goal on the other. They have ladders strapped to the roof, a health and safety book on the dash board that tells them they can’t climb up the tall ladders on the roof, (they’re there to look good, but have no real function) then proceed to install the dish expecting to be offered a cup of tea within the first 5 minutes of work. They only drink half the cup because they have two dozen dishes to install that day and therefore time only to do the bare essentials; leaving you to figure out what they’ve done to your TV once they’ve gone and spent 30 minutes pushing buttons to take you from one sky operator to the other on the phone.

In Indonesia things are a little different

Two men arrived to install the dish, on time as arranged at 10 o clock. They didn’t have a van with pictures either side because they didn’t have a van, they arrived on motor cycles! Yes carrying a big dish, (not the neat little black ones you find in the UK, one of the big white ones everyone had 10 years ago) the other had a rucksack full of the tools needed for the job. The Indonesians obviously understand that in the UK the sky installer doesn’t use his ladders (they’re for show on the roof remember) so they didn’t bring any with them; I guess there’s no room for roof bars on a motor cycle.

Positioning the dish

Satellite dishes have to point towards their relevant satellite in space, back in my home town all the dishes pointed southward up into the sky. All you need to get this right is a compass; they didn’t have a compass so a lot of guess work got under way. They used our short ladder to climb onto the roof bare foot to start with, but the roof tiles were rather hot in the tropical sun so the sandals were thrown up from above. They connected the dish to the TV and pointed the dish around till the signal was found, it took a while. Once found they spent a good hour drilling three holes and fix the dish to the house

Finally we had Astro TV
Once the man from Astro cleaned his sim card a couple of times he was able to contact the Astro centre and the receiver picked up all the channels. He then proceeded to give me instructions on using the receiver in Indonesian, (my Indonesian is not that good yet) thankfully my language teacher came over to help for that part.
So all installed and demonstrated (it took 4 hours) I paid the money, thanked them and watched them ride away on their motor cycles, still pondering on how they managed to ride with a satellite dish between their legs.
So until next time; stay tuned for the next episode of The Nobles in Indonesia, coming up after these commercials.

Paul.

Culture Shock

The Culture is always here, the shock comes and goes, without warning and without remorse. Usually it's related to missing friends and family or just the cold autumn weather in England.

Yesterday was different, I had a black cloud day.

One of those days when things aren't really right. it's not that anything has gone wrong or something terrible has happened things just aren't right. The day started as everyday does, in bed, feeling tired (Presently Em and I achieve 6.5 hours of sleep each night so every morning there is a struggle to rise from the comfort of the bed). Yesterday I got up and my knee hurt / ached, don't understand why, it's not even the one I injured a couple of years ago; so I started out feeling a bit glum.

It was dorm sorting day (we're trying to make more of a home / family atmosphere) so things were being moved around and new things being purchased down town to create the desired changing rooms look. The problem was that my black cloud didn't like the way everything was being changed and everyone else was busy changing things and I felt like a spare part; like the camera man on changing rooms who wants to shout out "no not there, put it over here" but can't because it's not his place to say. I should add here that apart from the boys I was the only Male involved in the changes (I say involved I actually mean present) so I was out numbered and my black cloud left me huddled in the corner trying to protect my masculine side from being consumed by female creativity. (If you check my Birkman Persnoality Profile it states that I don't cope well / reject changes that are made without my input. I now understand what that means).

The knee situation got worse in the afternoon as well. I was out on my bike with the boys messing about and my foot slipped off the peddle, sending my knee (the other one, not the one that was aching in the morning) crashing into the handle bars. Being a tough boy I managed not to cry but I now had two knees that hurt.

So I had a black cloud to start with and the days events had not blown it away. The black cloud was finally consumed as a side dish to supper at 6pm, it's amazing how beneficial food can be sometimes. For Em and the Boys it was the healthiest meal I'd eaten all day as it transformed the way that I interacted with them and meant that I was actually quite nice (sorry for being horrible).

Today is a better day I hope i don't have the same problem next month; Em's been teasing me about PMT!

Paul.

away on break

Well wow it's been a while. I could try and make lots of excuses, but it would take too long, so I'll simply say sorry and get on and tell you where we're up to.

In October we had a week long break and took the opportunity to visit some friends from the UK and America who are living and working in a big town about 150 miles east as the crow flies. The journey on long Indonesian roads and through Indonesian traffic took an impressive 9 hours (in a car, 9 people, it was a squeeze, we travelled with a family from school). We finally arrived and were really glad to be able to meet our friends and make new ones, it was refreshing to hear Alan's northern accent (he's form Preston).

We enjoyed a week of shopping for clothes that fit us. In our town there aren't many western size shops, everything is made for Indonesians so often, depressingly, the XL sizes don't fit.

We had hoped to go swimming while there, there is a great swimming park, but Luke injured his shin (deep cut, needed super gluing / stitching maybe, but swelled up to fast to do anything with it) so we'll have to wait till next time to enjoy the big slides and rubber rings.

We did manage to go ten pin bowling, a first for the boys. It's amazing I think all bowling places look the same, it felt a bit like home, except at home you can ask for the 'bumpers' down the side of the lane so no matter how useless or young you are you hit some pins. They didn't have said bumpers, but that didn't put us off. The boys had a lot of help from Paul and hit a few pins; the scores were Luke 26 and Isaac 21. They really enjoyed themselves, we all did.

The highlight of our week was a trip to Tamen Safari where we got to see a lot of animals from around the world, we even got up close with a few. Emily and the boys had a reef of flowers placed over their heads by an elephant who marched forward with flowers in trunk. We all had a stroke and photo taken with a baby tiger (about the size of a dog, except with sharp teeth and claws) it was fun and scary at the same time. Paul tried purring at the tiger, the tiger growled back, oops.

Then Emily the bravest person that day plucked up the courage to get up close and personal with a 1 year old lion. Now this lion was more the size of a Great Dane dog, except it had more body / muscle. She stroked it a bit, was feeling ok then it growled, teeth showing, jarring it's head. The handler said it was ok, but Emily had already proved herself and made a steady but swift exit from the lion.

The week was refreshing and when we got back to the dorm we had that settled feeling, the one when you say 'it's nice to be home' because it is home; we're settling in and feeling like we are doing more that keeping our heads above water. Emily is gettng busier as her role increases - she is running a series of classes on bullying for the elementary and high school and rewriting the school's policy. She's also helping out with planning classroom management for students with SEN. It's an interesting mix - please pray for her to have wisdom as we work to serve the kids and families better.

Here's some photos of the Safari, enjoy. Love Paul & Emily