Thursday 7-15-10 Sumba!

Left BATI early morning to go to airport. We are leaving for Sumba! Met David's wife, Masta at the airport. So great to see her again! She will go with us to Baing to help with interpretation and to help prepare meals.

While at the airport and during the rush through security we ended up with an extra bag on our cart. A woman with a security guard came up to us and she pointed out her bag on our cart! We had lots of questions asked - it was pretty scary and we prayed that it would work out - she still had another bag missing, and the security guard wanted to know where it was! Finally the other bag was found - thank God! None of us wanted to go on a mission trip and end up in a jail in Denpasar! We were getting even more anxious to finally be in Sumba...

We arrived safely and Gary and I were so happy to see old friends (Pastors Elias, Chuck and Casper) waiting for the team! Got our stuff and headed to Baing. About a 3 1/2 hour ride - got a good view of Sumba. Stopped at Pastor Stephanos' church to say hello - Compassion International was doing Vacation Bible School there.

We got to Baing at dusk - it gets dark between 6-6:30pm there! Pastor Elias apologized for not having food as good as we have at home??? I told him that it was the type of meal that I would prefer to have at home! Rice, fresh bok choy and spinach - great meal!

The houses in the immediate vicinity have walls, doors and concrete floors. Simple but nice. In the surrounding area the homes are much humbler - usually one room with thatched room and sometimes a lean-to for cooking. A lot of them are built off the ground - probably to discourage snakes and pests.

Found out that the bathroom at Pastor Elias' house was brand new - they had built it for us! It had a nice squatty potty and a dip bath area. It is the only sealed toilet in the village. Joe and Sam were gracious enough to let the lady's (and Gary) have the rooms at Pastor Elias' - they had no bathroom at their house across the street. Clay and Luke pitched their tents in Pastor Elias' church next door since Clay has the bad mold allergies that effect him almost everywhere.

Electricity is regulated in Sumba - you can only use it at night. Pastor Elias had borrowed a generator in case the electricity went out so that we could see the light in the bathroom behind the house. Gary and I were blessed to have the only light in our room.

So many different sounds and distractions that make sleeping hard - roosters, who have absolutely no sense of time, crowing in the middle of the night. Dogs that fight all night long. Coconuts and mystery fruit falling on the tin roof. It's cooler there than in NC, but still in the low 80's and hard to acclimate to while trying to sleep. Add to that the over 40 sleep problems of 5 out of 6 on our team, and you get a little sleep deprivation!

At least we didn't have to worry about scorpions in our sleeping bags like Clay and Luke, who killed one by their tent the first night!

Wednesday 7-14-10

Last night we were getting ready to call it a night and heard dogs barking and a huge ruckus outside - ends up some guys were out hunting snakes. (They do this at night with flashlights.) They had pulled a 13' python out of the river. They will take it home, skin and eat it.
Today we started with a nice breakfast. Then David A.(The national missionary from Bali.) did a devotion and then a team building exercise resembling the game "Twister".
Then he took us on a trek through the jungle and rice patties. We got to meet a cousin of his and his wife and wait out a rain shower in a covered shelter they have in the rice patties. Absolutely beautiful here.
Later in the evening, Clay had us gather and asked each what our expectations from the trip were, and what we hoped to gain from it. Neat time of sharing.

Tuesday 7-13-10

We got to Bali after 12am - David (the national missionary with CFTIW on Bali) met us there. So good for Gary and I to see our old friend and to introduce him to the team!

We arrived at our hotel in Bali around 1:00am. Clay and his son, Luke, met us there. Great to see Clay again, and it was the first time for the team to meet Luke. He is such a great young man. Very energetic and very personable, with a great sense of humor!

Everyone was tired but very glad to finally be in Indonesia!

After getting some much needed sleep we had our first nasi goreng, which is Indonesian fried rice, usually having bok choy and a fried egg on top. Topped with a little sumbal (Indonesian garlic-chile paste) it's incredible!
After changing some money we started for BATI. With every time frame given in Bali you have to add for traffic - it probably took us an extra hour to get there, but it was sooo worth it.
BATI stands for Bali Appropriate Technology Institute. BATI was founded by Russ and Made Alit. Many of Rus's technologies can be found here. Rus Alit is an Appropriate Technologist, which is someone who visits third world countries and introduces simple but effective technologies, "Appropriate" for the local peoples, climate and culture. BATI is a training institute used to teach others about appropriate technology and they teach people how to make their own pumps and water tanks. Rus worked with World Vision for many years but now contracts for various projects.
Shown in one photo is a sand filter - after sand is in tank it's filled the rest of the way with water. Good bacteria forms on the top of the sand and when the water filters through it is 99.5% pure.
Another photo is a ram pump that they made to feed the tanks.
You can learn a little more at the BATI website which also links to Camp Bali, which is held at BATI. http://www.campbali.com/BATI.htm

Summary Update

We are about to leave to come back home now, so we wanted to give a short update. We’re sorry, but we did not have access to the blog site since we arrived in Indonesia. Our trip to Bali continued from Korea to be uneventful and we arrived on Monday evening and to the hotel early Tuesday morning. We got a quick night’s sleep in the city of Denpasar, Bali and were off to the Bali Agricultural Training Institute (BATI) the next day. BATI is a Christian-owned facility where people come from all over the world to learn agricultural techniques to take back to their own regions. They teach simple technology and sustainable programs which can be used for community development in impoverished areas.The next day, Thursday, we left for the Island of Sumba where we worked on the water project. We stayed in the homes of the small village of Baing. The people were wonderful and the Lord blessed all of us through their love and fellowship. We left Sumba on Monday afternoon and went back to Denpasar, Bali to spend another day there before beginning our return trip on Wednesday night. We plan to upload a more detailed update with pictures soon!!!

On The Way to Indonesia

The team met at GSO at 6:30am on Sunday to check in and at 7:15 prayed with a wonderful group of Westover friends who came to see us off, and took off at 8:30. We've had an uneventful trip so far to Atlanta and Seoul Korea where we are waiting for our connection to Indonesia. It's 5:30pm here, but to us it is 4:30am. The weather is overcast and about 78 degrees. We all hope to get a little sleep on our last leg to Bali, Indonesia (7 hour flight). We're tired, but we're getting excited at the same time. More to come...

Packing Party!

Fun night of packing and fellowship!

Last Minute Details!

We're leaving this Sunday! (July 11th!)
For anyone who would like to see us off, we will be at the G'boro airport, inside in the Delta area at 7:10 am to pray.
If you didn't get a prayer calendar, e-mail one of the team members before Saturday and have them e-mail you one. It has daily prayer requests. :~)

Thanks so much for all the prayers and support!

Kristi (For Indo Water Team)