So on Friday morning Hugo and Jason, MAF pilot assigned to Kalimantan, had to write an exam in order to obtain their Indonesian license to fix and pilot aircraft. Officially the officials that give the tests are supposed to be in the office at 8:30, but they don’t actually come in until about 10:00. The tests they write are from the United States, but they’ve been translated into Indonesian and then translated back into English (instead of using the original English version). The translations are so bad, incorrect grammar, missing letters, that at times the guys don’t know what the point of the question is. As there are no tenses in the Indonesian language, it becomes a problem when you have an Indonesian person doing the translating. There are also some questions like, “What important event in the history of aviation occurred in Kitty Hawk, California?” First of all, what does that have to do with Indonesia, and second, Kitty Hawk is not in California… Too funny… The guys also have to make sure they bring their own pens as there are none provided. Jason had some questions that required a chart to answer, he didn’t have that chart, so the guy in charge just X’ed out all those questions as simple as that. We are pretty sure that, if for some unknown reason, the guys don’t pass the test, there is some form of fundage being handed below a certain table… It’s how this country runs…
Today our church had one of its biannual baptism services. So today we witnessed the baptism of a three month old, 8 month old, 3 year old, and 5 year old and three girls in their twenties. Also one other girl did public profession of faith. They read a form for baptism and a form for public profession of faith and the people all answer together instead of each one being called on individually. The three year old boy just wailed when the pastor put water on his head. They don’t just put it on their forehead, but they actually put it on the top of their head. The older girl who did public profession of faith knelt down as well and the minister held his hand above her head and blessed her in a similar way in which he did with all those being baptized. Only, before it all happened, they realized that no one had put water in the special goblet thingy. What was also interesting was that everyone, including the kids, wore white shirts and black pants or skirts. Only the two little girls who were being baptized wore dresses that were only white. In this culture, the clothes you wear mean a lot. They love uniforms for everything, including parking lot attendants and school children. So whenever people have duties during a particular service, they wear white shirts and black bottoms. There was also a professional photographer to capture every moment on film, including group shots after the event. I have to say that I much prefer our way of baptizing the children, if possible, when they are only weeks old. They sleep through the whole thing and there is a lot less fuss.