Home Life in Tarakan

A couple people have asked me to share about what I am doing during the day here in Tarakan while Jeremy spends his day at the hanger.  Are you ready for it?  I do the same things here in Indonesia as I do at home in Spokane, which I love.  Sorry that it isn't out of the ordinary, glamorous, or super exciting.  It consists of playing with and caring for Connor, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, walks, laundry, etc.  The beauty of the call to homemaking and motherhood is that I can do it no matter where in the world we are.  Though they are the same activities I do at home in Spokane, some look slightly different here in Tarakan...

Same: Connor loves playing and wiggling around on the floor.

Different: Connor has decided to become more mobile while we're here- lots of rolling around and experimenting with crawling to get where he wants to go.

Same: There is always laundry to be done.

Different: The clothes are hung on the clothes rack or out on the line instead of being thrown into the dryer.  Thus laundry isn't dry in a half an hour.  Sometimes it can take a day or two or more in this humid climate.  Even then it can be a little damp until it has been ironed.  (Yes, I said ironed.  At home, I normally throw things back in the dryer to take out the wrinkles.  Not here.  There is a lot of ironing after each load.  I'm so thankful that the house helper does the ironing!)

 Same: Connor runs all the errands with me.
Different: Instead of being in his car seat or a stroller, he comes along in the front pack.

Same: There are grocery stores and markets.
Different: The stores are much smaller!  Only the bottom floor of the building is the grocery store.  There isn't as much variety in what you can find in the stores.  Also, what you may have found there a couple of days ago may not still be there today.  You never know what you'll find.

Same: We eat some similar foods.
Different: If you can't find it, you make it from scratch.  There aren't a lot of dairy products here, but it is easy to make yogurt out of powdered milk for a good source of dairy and protein.

Same: I make most of my foods from scratch.

Different: There are different, more limited ingredients available as I cook from scratch. 

 Same: I'm not sure what is the same about this picture since we don't have rodents, geckos or even ant problems in our house in Spokane. We are blessed.

Different: I can't let my foods cool on the counter or on the stove top or else the geckos and/or ants will get to the food before we have a chance to enjoy it.  I actually can't leave the kitchen while I'm cooking not even for a minute or I will come back to find something in whatever I'm making.

Same: We have lunch with Jeremy almost every day.

Different: It is close enough for him to come home for lunch. In Spokane, we join him at STC. (As you can see, Connor loves it when daddy comes home in the middle of the day.)

It has been a challenging experience learning how to run a home here in Indonesia yet fun at the same time. The MAF wives have been a huge help and encouragement to me. I have been so thankful for all their help! I'm sure I'll have things better figured out just in time to head back to Spokane. :)