Rotiboy and other things I feel guilty eating.

Yesterday was was another interesting time of learning about Malong. I worked with another teacher in the afternoon about curriculum planning.  Wesley has a lot of new teachers this year, with varying degrees of experience. Also, because they come from different countries, the techniques, expectations and experience levels are varied as well. They have a computer lab, but it lacks the server infrastructure that most of the schools in the States would have. In the end, I'd be almost tempted to buy a Raspberry Pie for every student and just have the students run Rasbian Linux for the majority of the classes.

After the school day Mike and I went for a run around the neighborhood. I'm still healing and recovering from my plantar factitious, so i'm both out of running shape and trying to figure out if running is helpful, harmful, or doesn't matter either way. Considering 2 out of 3 of those let me run, i'm going to continue to cautiously run. 

On the run we got to see some nice Indonesian homes.

and some places that were planned to be nice.



This was an abandoned Sports complex, which was half built and then owners ran out of money, both of these places were right down the street from each other.  It's really not uncommon to see these buildings that are half constructed and then abandoned.

After the run we went to the local mall and looked around.  We ate a place in the mall that was kind of what Panda Express would be like if they specialized in Noodles. It was good, but really was like fast food Asian. I don't know how often I would be able to eat there and still feel good about myself.

After the meal I got to to visit Rotiboy.  This is a place that I have heard about from my niece as being a special treat. I'd compare it to Crispy Cream in the states. The Rotiboy is basically a sugar bun that has a caramelized glaze and then is injected in the middle with butter via a wicked looking syringe.  They are served hot, we had to wait 5 minutes for the batch to come out, and then everyone rushes the counter to get their order. I have to say that it was really tasty, kind of like a cross between a buttered filled doughnut and a churro. Once again, It's not something that I think I could heat regularly and not feel guilty about afterwards.

When we got back I went to sleep, doing my regular sleeping pattern of waking up at 3:30, half dozing until the call to prayer at 4:00 and then falling asleep again until 6:00, but I got woken up at 4:30 with a video call from home. It seems the kids are missing me and driving Tami a little crazy.  I wish I could help more, but there is only so much I can accomplish from 8,000 miles away.  Fortunately I know that we have support of family and that I will be home relatively soon, which is more than I can say about many of the military families that I know of.

This morning I was able to catch a couple DOTA games and have coffee and cereal for breakfast.
After breakfast we went on a walk to a little stand/shack and got a SIM card for my phone, then went to the local Alfamart, a 7-11 like convenience store and put minutes on it.  I'm not quite sure how it all worked, than God for Mike seeming to know most of what is going on, but I now have an Indonesian phone number and cell data so that I can message using WhatsApp and get Internet access.  This frees me up a good deal and allow me that ability to start roaming the city and still be able to figure out where I am, how to get back to Wesley, and be able to stay in contact with other people.
After THAT, Mike and I then went off on his new scooter to get the battery fixed.  The traffic is crazy, but Mike seems to know what he is doing and we did the whole trip without any issues, although I really think that I should get a mask if I'm going to do this much more.  Scooter is really the way to see this city, cars are nice, but they limit the speed and where you can go in this place. Kind of like driving a large mobile home around in the states.  It's comfortable, but limiting.


Mike currently has some meeting that he has to take care of, and I'm taking the time to fill out the blog. I really need to improve on my writing, but as it is now, I'm mostly interested in just getting down my experiences more than my thoughts on this whole time. I think that if I keep this up for a bit longer, all the new stuff will be recorded and then I'll be able to process it a bit more.