The Gong Factory in Bogor

This past Monday we took a family trip about 1 1/2 hours out of Jakarta to a city called Bogor. Hidden within the hundreds of tiny street of this city there is the Sukarna Gong Factory. A small Indonesian cultural treasure. Though the word 'factory' doesn't quite suite. American safety people would have a field day with this place! There were probably 8 workers in this small sooty room. It was completely dark except for the light coming in from the one doorway we entered through and the fire burning in the middle of the room. There are tools and bags and random things just lying everywhere in this room. There is no real floor that can be seen just dirt and layers upon layers of soot and ash. Most of the gong makers in this room wear flip flops or are barefoot. What happens is they take a piece of brass and throw it into the fire. A man with enourmous tongs sits by the fire and when the brass has reached a very high temperature and is burning red hot he takes it out with the tongs and the 4 other men gather in a circle with huge hammers and bang the metal into shape a little at a time while the metal is red hot. As soon as the redness fades to grayish-black, the tong man puts it back into the fire and the process continues. Not much visibly happens with the metal each time it comes out but after about 1 hour, you start to see the metal flatten and get wider forming th gong. The nice men let us all hold the heavy hammers, they even let Mike hit the brass a couple times when it was red hot. Be sure to watch the video at the end...you can hear the interesting sounds of the metal as each man hits it. And they're rhythm was an incredible sight!

This was a very small room in the back where they do the finishing work on the gamelan instruments. All various kinds of gongs. One man below is carefully chiseling the intricate design work into the wood and another man is polishing the gong on a very fast spinning wheel. Then of course there is Mike with the ginormous gong we bought, and a video of the men hammering the red hot brass into shape.

Inem and Fifi

Our lovely, dedicated house staff! They make our lives here very happy and enjoyable, not to mention bearable when we are still having trouble with the language. On the left in yellow is Fifi. She is our newest addition. She lives here with us in the staff quarters which is kind of like a mini apartment attached to the side of our house. She stays here with the kids when Mike and I go out for evenings and helps with the children at other random times when I must leave and the kids can't come along or they just don't want to. Often the kids don't want to come because traffic is so bad and they know they will just be sitting in a car forever! Fifi also does a lot of the daily household cleaning and laundry. In the blue shirt on the right is Inem. She is WONDERFUL! She does all our cooking, grocery shopping, washing of fruits and vegetables. She also does much of the house cleaning and is just the general housekeeper. She makes sure that everything is done and done on time. She is just terrific! She was the first person we hired here, I just had a really good feeling about her and now we know why.

Bubble Bath

Dinner at the Mission Home

We had 4th of July dinner at the mission home. It was a very interesting evening. Too much detail let's just say that I've never participated in such a bizarre white elephant gift exchange! In the first picture we have the Key's family, they are the big game night friends and sitting next to them is the branch president, President Donald from New Zealand. The family dressed all in red is the newest addition to our branch family, the Nielson's. She in many ways reminds Mike and I of our sister-in-law Danica. They are lots of fun! The highlight of the evening was when everyone took turns singing the national anthem from their own countries...Very Cool!

Innocence!

So...here's the story: There I am clicking away with the camera, capturing "precious moments" when Mike says "Hey Arwen", so I turn to look and this is what I get! Apparently, Emmalyn had been telling Mike that she had a fingernail hanging off or something like that and it was on her middle finger, so when Mike asked "show me which finger?" she put this one up. As you can see, Mike found it quite humorous and had to bring me in on the joke. Funny Girl!

4th of July

We spent the morning playing in the pool at the American Club and wandering through the bazaar where many locals had come to sell their handicrafts and things. It was a very fun morning. Mike was "Super Dad"! I spent the time on the sidelines taking pictures while he was in the front lines the whole time playing whatever the kids wanted. What a stud!

This is Dallin with his good friend Ian, they have so much in common and have very similar temperments. His mother and I are very happy that they have each other this summer!

Eden got brave this summer and attempted the diving board, we haven't been able to keep her off it since! Emmalyn spent over an hour just jumping to Mike over and over again. He sure loves that girl!

Pondok Indah Elementary Park

There is this really fun little trike section of the preschool playground at PIE. We came to play here one day this summer and the kids had a blast! There are 3 regular playground structures and then this area. Marion was being the traffic cop using the "stop" and "go" signs and Dallin was being a wonderful big brother pushing Emmalyn around since she still hasn't figured out how to pedal. Where is Eden? No idea.