Bananas and other stuff

 

Yesterday was Saturday and Cheri and I took the train to Bogor and visited the our friend, Bishop Soewignyo. He took us out to see his farm and we came away with these two bunches of bananas. Over the next few days I will cut them off the stems and give them to the missionaries because this is way too much for us to eat but we will keep a few. There are so many kinds of bananas here. I can't remember the names of all of them. The green ones in my right hand are cavendish bananas, I think. They are the kind we eat in America and they will ripen over the next few days and turn yellow. I don't know what the ones in my left hand are called but Soewignyo told me they are also sweet and good to eat plain.

Here is Soewignyo loading the bananas into his vehicle. Thank goodness he drove us back to Jakarta because it would have been pretty tough to bring these home on the train (-:

In this part of his farm hs is planting papaya seedlings. It has been very dry so he has to water these by hand with a bucket every two days. This month the rains should start again and then he will plant his corn and also his sweet potatoes should start to grow. The sweet potatoes are alread planted and doing ok but they won't take off until it rains. He is quite an enterprenuer. In addition to these fields of crops he and his wife also own and operate a store that is across the street from his house, a laundry next to the store, some fish ponds which I will show next, and he also raises goats which he sells just before the annual sacrifices of the islamic people here. He just got released from being bishop for 8 years and was called to be the self-reliance specialist in his ward. He told me that was just the calling he wanted and he did not say anything to the new bishop but was very happy when he received the calling. He wants to help the other members learn ways to increase thier income and be more self-reliant.

A few years ago Soewignyo bought some empty land near his house and built fish ponds. There are several ponds next to each other, each one holding larger fish than the previous one. He buys the baby fish by the thousands and then gradually moves them from pond to pond as they get bigger. The fish in this net are ready for market. They are catfish and will be sold to people who operate roadside stalls and restraunts.

We took this picture in Soewignyo's house. This is Brother and Sister Soewignyo and next to Cheri is Sister Sri Anon who lives nearby. She is 80 years old and works part-time at the church office, where we work, in the church history department and she is also helping to translate hymns for the new hymnal. She is like an adopted member of the Soewignyo family.

We also visited the Safari Park in Bogor last week with the new missionary couple, the Furgos. I took this picuture of a mama orangutan and her baby. They have a wonderful group of Sumatran orangutans there that I could sit and watch for hours if I had time. The keeper told me that they're alot like people. They get many of the same sicknesses that we do and when they are sick they use the same medicines to care for them. The gestation period is also 9 months just like people. They are very strong but seldom harm people because they are gentle animals.

It was fast and testimony meeting at Church today and this visiting brother stood and bore testimony. I did not recognize him at the time but when we talked after the meeting he introduced himself as John Limbong. He was one of my Indonesian teachers 48 years ago in the Provo LTM (Language Training Mission). It was a joyous reunion and we talked for the next half hour. He is now 79 years old and was one of the very first members baptized in Indonesia. My group of Indonesian missionaries was the first to go to the Provo LTM. The previous groups went to Hawaii. John was at BYU Provo at the time so he came to teach us and subsequent groups. It was great to have a real Indonesian among our teachers.

Selfie at the Safari Park in Bogor.