Ibu Teti and Ibu Lisa

I have officially completed the first week of work at Sekolah Mentari, and yet it feels like I have yet to begin. There is still so much to learn, so much to see, and so much to plan, however, at the end of the day (around 2:30) Ibu Teti and Ibu Lisa took Ab, Mike and me out for a late lunch. Ibu Teti is one of the five founding mothers of the school and Ibu Lisa is the parent coordinator for the middle school. It was great having an opportunity to meet two of the more influential parents in the school to hear their perspectives on education and life in Jakarta. It was great that there was a group of five of us because the conversation was able to flow freely between all of us and there was never too much of a focus on any one of the three of us. In fact, conversation went so smoothly that we stayed at the restaurant for close to three hours! Furthermore, it was an introductory education in the home lives of our students. I definitely feel fortunate to be a part of the Sekolah Mentari community and continue to be blow away by the hospitality and community within the school.

Interesting TEDtalks fact, there are 1 billion malnourished people and 1 billion obese people in the world. Ellen Gustafson is exactly right that both kids in the South Bronx and kids in Botswana need apples, though Golam with his morning "breakfast" of a full bag of chips may disagree...1 billion and 1 billion... (and for those interested in more info and a link to Ellen's full talk: www.30project.org)