Fireworks over the airport runway at Nabire, Papua, Indonesia.
When we first moved to Papua in December of 2012, I was quite surprised to see fireworks being sold in the remote highland town of Wamena. Dozens of stands popped up alongside the road where you could buy any kind of firework, for a price. […]
A diagram showing the steps for obtaining a driver’s license in Indonesia.
In the middle of Christmas parties, our youngest daughter’s birthday, visitors, and holiday preparations, we have to set aside a day (at least) every December to renew our Indonesian driver’s licenses.
We’ve lived in four different countries with MAF and each driver’s license-obtaining […]
Pizza on the stove top.
All I wanted for Christmas this year was an oven that works.
It may not look like much, but believe me, my oven is quite a character with quite a history. Some friends of ours bought it for us way back when we still lived in America and way back […]
It’s a sultry day in the tropics, and in the shadow of Mount Cyclops, palm trees wave over a collection of buildings perched on a hill. Inside one of the buildings, teenagers are transported away from their equatorial surroundings to 19th century London, where they follow the adventures of a young man named Pip as […]
Liz’s son, Benjamin, enjoying a playground this past summer.
As our furlough in the United States nears an end, I marvel at how rich a time these past months have been. When we arrived back on home soil in July, we were tired and soul-weary. We had completed three years abroad, spent time learning […]
This was the report that the 12 Israelite spies brought back after they explored the Promised Land—a land of milk and honey and … giants. Since moving to Indonesia six months ago, I have encountered some giants of my own in this new land. My giants’ names are Driving, Shopping, Cooking, and Language Learning. Things […]