I have a lot of catching up to do. I will not do it all now. BUT here are a couple of highlights-
End of Bali: I went with Misi's team & another girl - (total:me, mis, jonathan, julie, & stephanie) to visit an orphanage outside of Kuta. Misi is good friends with the woman who runs it. Ermi is her name. She started taking in kids when she was 24! she didnt' know how to drive or cook or anything. Now she rocks. She has 18 kids ranging from age9 to 18. Most of them have had trauma in their lives (ie.seeing their parents killed) but, with much love and prayer, this joint runs like a well-oiled & very happy machine. The kids are amazing! All chess masters :)the first night they didn't have enough beds for us to stay in, so they decided to pull all the mattresses out into the main living room & we'd have a big slumber party! wow! they were like acrobatic popcorn weilding pillows! after everyone was hot & tuckered we settled down to a movie. The next day we took them to a water park. I'm scheming my next trip back to do an art camp with them. Love those kids!
Java/Transit: after Bali we split ways and Misi & I went to Surabaya - a huge, ugly city, hot, with more malls and restaraunts than a body could count. Misi used to live there though, and we stayed with a sweet friend of hers named Fenny. (jessica, you know her.) The highlight for me was reconnecting with some family friends of ours. Jeff & Liz came to Indo in their very early 20's & were mentored by my parents. Now they have 3 big kids, thriving work here, and are just great. We saw Jeff at church on Easter, and then spent the whole day with Liz & the girls on Monday. Good People. (i am getting more than my fair share these days. lucky me!)
Bandung, Java: I finally launched out on my own again to Bandung. There (i thought) is an art scene here with printmaking studio, as well as some more old family friends. It has been amazing reconnecting with the Culvers. Judi was my 4th & 5th grade teacher. We have spent countless hours already catching up and sharing thoughts on the many common interests that we have. I came here hoping to receive a little douse of mentoring and wisdom from them and my hopes have been far exceeded!
Art-wise: Good news & bad news.
Yesterday we 'randomly' went to a gallery that a friend of Judi lives next to. It happened to be the extensive gallery/museum/out-door-sculpture park/cafe/workshop of one of the artists whose work I saw in Ubud. I wrote his name in my little book with a huge star next to it: 'amazing sculpture: look up Nyoman Nuarta!'. And here I was amid dozens of his powerful sculptures!! So great.
Then today I called the print-making studio, Red Point, (we had tried to go yesterday, but it was closed) and made an appointment with the head guys. Bad news: no more studio - they're looking for a new location and have hit hard times financially. Good news: he was a WEALTH of information and contacts for here, Yogya (also known as Jogja, yogyakarta, or jogjakarta), Malang, Singapore, and Germany. He gave me at least 5 contacts in germany with phone numbers, a map, etc! He also looked at my portfolio on line, and we had a good long chat about various art things. I also braved and conquered the ultra-cheap (& ultra-crowded) public transportation.
so, i stopped at an internet cafe to share the goodness :) i'll try to be more interesting next time. Thanks for listening. Etc.
