Ibu-Ibu Meeting

One thing I appreciate about Indonesia is the importance of relationships between neighbors.  Neighbors know each other, they will greet each other in the street, visit if someone is sick, help prepare for weddings, funerals, and other events.  Sometimes they can be like your second family.  In Salatiga, each neighborhood "Kampung" will hold two meetings a month, one for the men and one for the women.  These meetings are meant to discuss neighborhood business, collect social dues, share some new interesting information, socialize, etc.

When we were still pretty new here (maybe our 2nd month), I had the opportunity to host the monthly women's meeting in our home.  Even though I had hardly any language at that point, I had the help of one of our coaches (Pilates) from school and my house helpers also.  We worked together to prepare for the meeting.  Little did I know all the details involved!  We had to borrow several "tikars" (mats), enough glasses to serve tea to all the ladies, order several snacks plus the snack boxes for the ladies, then put together all the boxes, plus I baked one of the snacks for the snack boxes.  It ends up being quite a bit of work and cost, but in the end the meeting itself is almost no work for me since all I have to do is smile and try to understand a word here or there!

the tikars we borrowed from a neighbor.  We clear out our front room and everyone sits on the rugs

In the end i think about 30 women came, but sometimes there can be 40-50

the snack boxes each women would take home with her

Some women sat outside on the front porch because it was full inside

I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve my neighbors in this way.  While building relationships has been slow because of our limited language, it is nice to be able to help in other ways, like hosting this meeting.  A lot of times a smile and generosity can go a long way.  Now that we're farther along in language school we can have a little more depth to our conversations.  We look forward to continuing to build relationships with our neighbors, and pray that they would see a difference in our lives because of Christ.

for us all....  Renae