Back in Bandung
I have no idea what date it is, but I know it’s Saturday. The past 4 days have been a whirlwind of traveling. Wednesday morning we left for Pekalongan with Alice, the Compassion rep. The road leading out of Bandung was windy and bumpy, and our driver was heavy on both brakes and acceleration. To ease the motion sickness, I slept and munched on ginger candy.
Along the way, we stopped at a small town and ate in a “hole in the wall” restaurant with tasty rice with soup (unfortunately I keep forgetting all the Indonesian names). They also have shrimp-flavour chips similar to the Cantonese shrimp chips but larger and they dip it in soup or peanut sauce. The trip to Pekalongan was long, and my body was adjusting to the rapid change between the hot humidity on the outside and cold air conditioning within the car.
The country side is dotted with short buildings with peak roofs with orange tiles. We pass a mosque every few kilometers (it seems), and people are everywhere, either working in the fields or on at stands on the roadside.
Traffic is insane. Passing is allowed on any part of the road and if you’re slow you better get out of the way. Majority of people here travel by motorbikes or scooter, great for maneuvering through traffic jams.
We finally arrived at Pekalongan around 2ish. We went straight to the church who is partnering with Compassion. We were introduced to the Compassion project leader, Pastor, and a translator who went to university in Australia (3rd generation Indo-Chinese). Jules was introduced to her sponsor child, Agnes, a very shy little girl. They had the kids give a singing presentation for us, and a traditional Balinese dance. We handed out the toys and gifts and I was impressed by how polite the children were. After that we went to see the some social programs they had set up for the kids and visited Agnes’ family.
I can see that Compassion is helping to change lives of countless kids and their families. What is small change for us can give training, fun, and hope to a young boy or girl.
I wish I could write more but this is already getting long, and the dial-up connection is flakey. Until next time….
posted by D-tales @ 10:13 PM
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