In the higher units of school we sometimes study a newspaper article and then discuss it in class. This week we read an article about a really bad road. This road has so many potholes and there are no street lights either. So when it rains the potholes are covered and because there are no street lights you really can't see them. The funny thing is that the worst part of the road is right in front of the PLN (our version of BC Hydro) building. Also on the same road is a big office building where government leaders meet. Only in Indonesia! Apparently this country is the third most corrupt country in the world. Yikes... There is money here in Bandung to repair roads. The problem is that when someone wins the contract to repair a road, they quoted for good asphalt. However, when they go to repair it, they use a much lower grade and pocket the rest of the money and then four months down the road the pothole reappears and they have work again. There are some rich folks who've gotten together with their neighbours and paid for road repair themselves. That hasn't happened on the road to our school even though there are some absolutely enormous houses on it...
This past week was "Week Without Walls" at the kids school. Christiaan and Aidan made boxes of love and gave them to Indonesian kids from the kampungs around here. Mikah's class went to a Indonesian school three times and taught English. The kids school, BAIS, also invited the kids from all the local kampungs to come to the school for three mornings and have fun doing sporty things. I witnessed an eels in the bucket race... yuck! I saw some of the high school kids filling the pot holes on the school's road with cement. We'll see how long that lasts...