Week 4 - Getting set up to work

On last Sunday the Branch President and his wife picked us up at 7:30 and we had breakfast before arriving at church.  While at church we agreed to hire a driver (Rp 1,500,000 or $133 per month, at the recommendation of the Branch President) who only speaks Indonesian (knowing that will be a challenge) no English speaking drivers were available.    During Sacrament Meeting we and the new sister missionary who traveled on the same plane coming to Medan were asked to introduce ourselves and share our testimonies with the congregation. Rick was to be the first to speak, the Branch President's wife came forward to interpret for him, so he started the introduction in English, and then after apologizing in advance switched to Indonesian for the majority of what he said, Audrey did her whole intro and testimony in Indonesian.  We were also individually asked to pray in another of our meetings, which we also did in Indonesian. At 5:00 PM we took a taxi back to our apartment.
      Monday through Thursday evening we were without permanent transportation, so we went out for a short walk in our neighborhood, another time took a cab to the store and get some supplies, the rest of the time we spent studying the language.
      We were able to get a car rented and have it delivered by Thursday night for 4.5 million Ind. Rupiah or $400 per month.  So on Friday we attended district meeting, went grocery shopping, and went back to the church to pick up a counselor in the Branch Presidency, then took an hour drive, not necessarily a long distance (maybe 20 miles or so), just a lot of rain and traffic. We sat at one intersection for about 20 minutes before it cleared.  There was a large dump truck blocking about 4/5 of the intersection, so no lanes were able to move, except the many motor-scoters that are on the road, at one point the truck unintentionally started to dump his load in the middle of the intersection, fortunately he got it under control before the load was dumped.  It appeared that the truck had lost its transmission,  another large dump truck was able to get backed into the stalled one and push it down the road and get it out of the way.  We were trying to get a 30 year old member of the Branch to a 6:00 PM appointment at a cancer clinic, we finally got him there about 7:15 PM, from there we took him to the hospital, ended up getting back to our apartment about 9:30 PM.
       Saturday, we had our driver pick us up at 3:00 PM since we had kept him out so late the night before to get started with English Classes at the Church.  There were 6 in the younger group (preteen), and 8 in the teenage group.  We visited with those there for their weekly seminary/institute classes, when the power went out, which happens quite regularly, throughout town, rolling blackouts, we don't experience it at the apartment, because of the generators they have, but we can see those buildings without power around us quite often.  About 7:00 PM we took a group to the hospital so they could visit with Brother Abdi and the Elders could give him a blessing.  Then transported them back, and got home about 9:00 PM.
       Yesterday we had our driver pick us up at 8:00 AM to head to church.  Once there I shared a text message I received from President Donald, the Mission President, that asked what arrangements we had with our driver, because there was a driver who was going to be available the 17th of Dec. when the Mission Couple he drives for goes home, he has two children and no prospects of employment once the couple leave Indonesia.  This Brother is willing to relocate to Medan and speaks English and Indonesian.  While we thought it would be nice to have an English speaking driver, we concluded that as we had already extended employment to the other gentleman, we would keep our commitment to him.  Later the driver complained to the Branch President because the hours we needed him were later in the day than he was hoping they would be, and that he could earn as much money driving his "angkot", a van which he owns and uses for public transportation, he also drives a "becak" in most places a three wheeled peddle car, but here in Medan it is a motor-scooter, with a one or two seat side car.  So I agreed to pay him for the time he worked, and would look for another driver, after hearing this he said the hours were not really the problem, and that he would be happy to work any hours if he had additional pay.  Since I originally thought I would offer between $200 and $250, we were able to reach an agreement at Rp 2,500,000 or about $222 a month, but would likely only need his services until 17 December when the other driver becomes available who speak English.  After church Audrey went to the music class that is taught.  They were learning to lead music.  Then we had a meeting with the missionaries and the ward mission leader who is also a counselor in the Branch presidency and the ward clerk.  We got home about 5pm.  We also were able to download the first Saturday session of conference but it took about 4 hours.  Next Saturday and Sunday we will watch conference at the church in Indonesian.  We will work on getting it all downloaded and have the missionaries over to our place to watch it all in English at some point.
        We visited with Erin on the phone for a few minutes, before we were cut off, and were unable to reconnect for some reason.  Also watched the first half of the first session of General Conference that we had downloaded at church, as we currently have a 10gig limit on our monthly internet usage.  We are looking to get a different service in the future that offers unlimited usage.
     Can't get dropbox to work right with my phone so no pictures again.  I will keep working on it.