HAPPY BIRTHDAY STAN!

Stan's birthday today. The students all made him cards in our 'Have fun' session today. Lots of dictionary use - the result being our favourite - Stan you are great, you are cool and congealed! (We think he meant congenial!). They then sang Happy Birthday and a traditional Indonesian song and all wanted to shake hands with him. When he thanked them for the cards and told them he would take them home and show them to Will all the girls screamed! (It's true Will, we have it on video!).
As a treat he got taken to the ice cream parlour (air conditioned - what joy) for an advocado, vanilla ice cream and coffee sundae and then we went to have coffee in a Swiss Hotel - it had Flush toilets AND a tap with hot water! Whilst there we all had a proper wash.
Stan's thought for the day was well received - we were studying Mark 1 16-20 today so he talked about ordinary people like fishermen being chosen, which was very apt as many of them have fathers who are fishermen. We also taught them 'I will make you fishers of men', or, as it is now known ' I will make you flossers of men' (slight pronunciation problem!).
Had our first meeting with durian fruit today - it is known as the stinking fruit and now we know why. It is rugby ball sized with big prickles and smells like rotting flesh. Didn't have to eat any today as on a market stall, but if we are offered it we will have to as rude to refuse.
Tomorrow they haqve their first 'graded' test. Each week they have to learn and recite to us (in English) the 'story so far' we have studied that week. To help them remember words and sequences of events we drew pictures on the board. This week we have studied Mark 1 1-20 so he if you can guess who this is a reminder of - a hairy camel with a leather belt around it's middle eating a locust and drinking from a bowl with an H on it surrounded by bees. Answers on a postcard please.
Finally - if you have read about the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia - it was in the East. We have the tail end in that it has been very rainy and windy today, but we are assured that Kalimantan would not be affected by a tsunami unless it was a big one! (I have said I would not have minded if they had left the last six words off that statement!).
PLEASE PRAY FOR -
The student tests tomorrow - that we have taught them enough to pass.
For a restful weekend - we are exhausted.
That Stan gets to see his first match tomorrow evening - we are going to the house of the German lady to watch Germany play. She has asked Stan to look at a piece she has written for Harvard to correct any grammar as she has written it in English. We were impressed by her command of the English until we were told that as well as English she has a Masters in Theology, a PHd in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic and has also written a book on the subject of this paper (in Indonesian), so Stan is honoured she has asked a Yorkshireman to correct her English grammar! (The paper, by the way, is on 'Old Testament application of divorce in Indonesian society today'. Very interesting - well what I could understand of it!
Lots of love
Sue and Stan xxx