Progress (and a little regress!)

Whew! What an eventful few days!

Friday, our shipment from Nigeria arrived at our door. It took 6 weeks to get from Nigeria to Jakarta and 2 months to get from Jakarta to Balikpapan ... customs issues, company issues, ... But now we are grateful to have the stuff that makes things seem more like home. And everything except the books is unpacked and in the proper places! Progress!

The shipment from the U.S. should be in Jakarta within the next 2 weeks! Progress!

We turned our rental car back to the owner last night. 'seemed that his price was too high but he wouldn't go down much. We just got tired of playing the pricing games so we quit playing! Progress!

No car, now ... Regress!

Because we don't have a car at the moment, there is no point in paying Soagi for driving (after all, we didn't hire him to be our gardener!) So, we let Soagi go this morning. We gave him a generous bonus and thanked him profusely. We are feeling very right about this decision, though we still think the guy is a sweetie. His timidity was causing us great concern as we were feeling increasingly more at risk in traffic. And he was becoming more and more "helpful" with the plants, doing things I didn't want ... planting some shoots in pots where I had seeds germinating and sticking all sorts of little, ugly plants in little, uglier pots! I have control of my plants back! Progress!

Today I hired a driver who is sometimes available to hire by the hourly rate of $5 -- his car, his fuel, ... not bad. The only issue is that he's not always available when we need a driver. But today, with this guy, Junaidi, driving I realized how v-e-r-y ssslllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooow Soagi drove. We did a route that would have taken Soagi 3 hours in 2 hours! Progress!

Today was also the annual meeting of our company's spouse organization. Elections of new leadership for the year. Same group that I was heavily involved with in Port Harcourt. Same group that caused great distress, disgust, and dismay. Sometimes the same problems occur in other locations. I wasn't feeling at all inclined to do a repeat! Some of the gals in the past week had told me that they all had come up with the great idea that Sharon should be the next coordinator. I tried to politely, but firmly, say "NO WAY, JOSE'!!!" But today, I had Jim praying for my ability to resist the coercive measures that they might employ. I tend to easily get sucked in when there is an obvious need ... I am pleased to report that I maintained my firm position of "No!" accompanied by a smile. A very capable gal who is even newer than I am had told me that she was determined to not get sucked into anything! She's already volunteered with another organization. Welllllllllll, she fell to the coercion. And she'll do very well. And I told her that I'd be there to support her. Progress!

The English class that I started teaching 2-ish weeks ago is gaining students. Three more gals said they were joining tomorrow. Fun, fun, fun! It makes their visiting at a luncheon meeting a little weird 'cuz after anything each one would say, they would turn to me to see if I nodded approval. But they are so motivated! Progress!

It's starting to feel cozy in our house. And Jim just got home so we need to finish "fixing" the dinner that Lusy prepared before she left. And then I'll work on final prep for teaching English tomorrow. Progress!