This will be a pool

The latest views of our house site. The framework is in place ready to pour the concrete for the swimming pool. Most of the platform is filled now and the base for the ground floor is in place.

Cotton

While we were in the Malang area we saw lots of these trees with green pods hanging from them. They are cotton trees. Inside the seed pod is full of cotton as well as the hard black seeds.

Independence Day

Over the past weeks more and more flags have been appearing throughout Surabaya in preparation for Indonesian Independence Day. Every street has some decorations, including ours. Last night we went to our Blok's celebrations. Everyone from the houses in our Blok seemed to be represented.

There was a lot of speach making from various local leaders, and more interesting an elderly lady who is one of the surviving heroes of the fight against the Dutch.

As today is a national holiday we took the opportunity to drive out to Pasaruan to see how everyone is there. Once there I took my cup of tea out to one of the bamboo platforms that act as meeting points and park benches to sit and watch the world go by. An old man from one of the neighbouring houses came over and sat with me. We had little to say as my Indonesian is still all but none existent, so instead he gave me a back massage as we sat together in the sunshine. Very good it was too.

From there we drove up into the mountains around Malang. These are some of the views.

Ditch

On Thursday 16th August the team started on the ditch that runs along two sides of our property. All the streets in Surabaya have concrete lined ditches on either side waiting for the rainy season. On this site we have to dig out an existing ditch and face it to hold our land up and in. Once the ditches are lined we have to build bridges across so we can enter and leave the house by foot and by car.









This is a general view of the area where they were working. Then a close up of the team digging in the ditch.





Then they had to bail the water out. Bucket after bucket of water thrown over the makeshift dam. As they worked they found scores of fish. Here is one bucketful. We liberated a few and brought them home to put in our existing pond.

Filling it up

Now the foundations and base walls are in place the builders have been busy facing the walls with cement and then filling the various voids.

Below you can see the filling, and Rose looking at the progress. The only voids not filled are beneath the kitchen which we will use as storage, and the indoor swimming pool shown below.

The Distribution Business

Here are some pictures of our latest business venture. We are ditributing soft drinks, snacks, ans small household items to the small local shops (Warung) around our part of Surabaya.

This is the new office, situated in a house as so many businesses are. The house is located adjacent to yet another new housing development.







Inside Ivon, Bayus wife, is busy with the sales records, while Rose looks at the stock.







Outside some of the salesman's bikes are loaded up ready to go.

Working on Saturday

Even on Saturday the work continues. This was today 11th August 2007.

Rose was there to give more directions

Brickwork

Walls are starting to appear. Not the walls of the house itself, but the retaining walls for the platform on which the house will sit.

Changes

More changes, more vertical strengthening, and more shuttering for the foundations as well as a cement mixer and portable a water supply.

Rose and Pak Gunn in conversation over the plans.

Back to school

This is Alex’s new school The Wesley International School in Malang East Java. It is a beautiful purpose built site with somewhere around 200 pupils. It caters for children from 6 to 18 and follows an American style curriculum.

These schools are run by the Wesleyian church in the USA and were set up to cater for the children of missionaries, but now are open to any English speaking pupils who can pay the fees. Malang was a Dutch hill station from colonial times and is now surrounded by military bases and tea plantations. The city is growing fast and due to its cooler climate is very popular with the ex-pat community.
Alex is in 10th grade and his class of 10 consists almost entirely of Koreans, mostly girls, and an American boy. He has begun a course on psychology and is working on the school magazine. School starts at 7:30 am and ends at 2:30 pm.

Houses we have built

The houses we have been building are almost completed. Two are on the same site as our own house project. These have been designed and built by Pak Gunn, who as a result has got the job of building our house. We originally set two builders to work, Pak Sugur and Pak Gunn. Each had to build three basic houses to their own design on land we provided. Pak Sugur was a lot cheaper than Pak Gunn, and as the work progressed it became apparent why. He never had as many people on the project, and the quality of the build was never as good. In the end Pak Sugur’s building virtually ground to a halt and we had to chase him to get them finished.
These two houses are the ones adjacent to ours made by Pak Gunn. Rose has modified them internally, and caused much consternation by making the maids room so large.

Here is Pak Sugur’s row of houses. At the end of the row fronting the road it the third of Pak Gunn’s buildings, and it is far superior in general quality and in detail.

The area where all these houses are being built is on the east side of Surabaya. When purchased the land it was empty. Most of it was given over to fish ponds or salt pans. Now houses are appearing everywhere.