Hello Spencer!!

It’s been a very exciting week for the Henks.  First of all, my sister Jennifer had her baby!  Spencer Philip was born on 3/24 and weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz.  Ben and I are so happy for Jen and Russ and cannot wait to meet Spencer!  It’s times like these that make it difficult to be so far from home.  It’s great living on the other side of the world and experiencing new things, but being away from family at important moments like this is so hard.  I just hope to hold Spencer before he enters preschool!  Congrats to Jen and Russ!  Be sure to send us lots of pictures.  Good luck!

 There is a saying we have here to explain things that seem so illogical and beyond understanding:  TII.  This Is Indonesia.  Our power goes out but the neighbors 2 houses away have it?  TII.  The gardener prefers scissors to a lawn mower to cut the grass??  TII.  Keep that in mind as you keep reading:

 The other exciting news is that we had some packages arrive from the states!  You have to understand that we NEVER get mail here.  We don’t even have a mailbox.  This story will hopefully help you to understand how things run in Indonesia.  So when we were told at the end of February that both sets of parents had mailed off boxes to us, we were thrilled and could hardly wait.  Both were sent through the post office with an estimated arrival date of 5-10 days.  Great!  Well, 2 weeks passed and nothing.  No problem, maybe it takes a few days to get through customs.  3 weeks go by, and nothing.  Having never received mail in Indonesia, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I at least thought that if something did arrive, I would get a notice or something.  After about 3 1/2 weeks, I was out shopping with a few other wives.  (By the way, when I say shopping, I mean out shopping for necessities for the house.  One cannot just go shopping to the mall or Kohl’s to look for something to put around the house or new clothes.  It really is a full day process since you cannot just get everything you need in one store.  Matahari has ziplock bags and a good selection of snack food.  Galael has cheese, olive oil, tomato paste, and pickles.  Chandra has the best selection of meat but you must go in the morning because they run out of the good chicken [good chicken is the kind that does not have the head, neck, and feet attached] and they have the best produce section.  No one stop shopping!)  Sorry for the side note.   Where was I?  Oh right, out shopping with 2 other wives and I brought up the subject of the packages we are waiting for.  Gail, who has been here nearly 2 years, suggested we just drop by the PO to let them know I’m waiting and see if they know anything.  The driver (who can translate for me) and I go to the package area and the PO workers, upon finding out my name, know exactly who I am!  My packages are there!  I was kind of thinking to myself that I lucked out by going to the PO on the day they arrived.  Come to find out, they had been there since March 7th–I went to the PO on the 21st.  So, what’s the problem?  I still don’t know.  I also don’t know why I had to pay 14,000 Rp to take the packages with me (about $1.50).  These things aren’t explained because when asked about why they were not delivered, the workers said that if another week had gone by then they would have sent a notice.  Question not answered. 

Doesn’t really make sense, but whatever, we got our packages!  TII.

This occurred on a Wednesday.  Two days later on Friday, I got the notices that the packages arrived and I should come pick them up.  TII. 

 Anyways, it was very exciting to get the packages and open them–thanks so much to both families for taking the time to put the stuff together and mail them off.  One complaint though–both packages came at the same time!  Let’s try and coordinate a timetable of some sort to space these things out!  I’m kidding of course!  If anyone ever wants to send us things like Doritos or a pizza, that would be great!

 I’ll leave now with a few photos of Ben since I’m sure you’ve come to expect silly photos of him on every post!  These were taken at Indonesia’s version of a buffet.  Instead of you going to the buffet with a plate, the buffet comes to you.  One minute after sitting down, five people began bringing bowls and bowls of various foods.  One dish was a fish that Ben took a liking to. 

–Sarah

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