HOHOHOHOHOHOH.....
Dari Bogor kami menggucapkan Merry Christmas buat yang merayakan dan Happy New Year buat semua teman-teman dimanapun kalian berada. Semoga di tahun yang akan datang membawa kedamaian bagi kita semua.
lihat deh gaya nya Ob yang susah diajak kerja sama buat bikin foto Natal tgl 23 Des.
Kemeja merah ini dulunya punya Andre ketika dia umur 2 tahun (27 year old), kini dipakai lagi oleh Ob (10 month) saat mau ke gereja tgl 24 sore. Sudah mulai luntur warna dikerahnya tapi tetap bagus kan?
dan ini fotonya dibawah pohon natal tgl 25 Des lagi buka kado nih...
lalu ini foto kami setelah pulang gereja. Org Dpk pada nginap dan gereja bareng2 di Gebaut. Kita duduk diluar karena gereja super penuh dan dua tenda dikiri-kanan dan depan gereja penuh.
Tanggal 26 besok kami mau berlibur di Pelabuhan Ratu sama seperti Natal tahun lalu. Kayaknya ini akan jadi tradisi keluarga deh, soalnya suamiku demen banget sama laut. Semoga Natal tahun 2006, jika Tuhan memberi umur panjang dan ada rejeki - mau juga jika bisa merayakan ditempat mertua. Bukan begitu kan darling???
- Rencananya tanggal 4 Jan mau kopdar dengan Sherly. Kangen ama si Kevin nih! Jangan abisin coklatnya yah sis!
- Cecil, kopdar January juga kan say?
- Ayo nih teman2 lain ditunggu kopdarnya...
--------------------------
Dear friends,
Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Eventful 2005 began for us with Jackie awaiting childbirth.
When the promised day came and went with no sign of downward movement, the doctor said the baby was too large and counseled a Caesarian. Our son Robert Renjana Korns was thus born on 16 Feb, weighing 4.9 kg (10.8 lbs), with me a spectator in the OR. We named him Robert after my Uncle Robert but his nickname is OB (pronounced O-bey’ at times or O’-bi at others) in the Ambonese dialect.
He has since gotten comfortable with the 24 hour care that babies get in Indonesia, from his mother, his extended family, and his fulltime nani (0 days off per month), a villager and cousin of Jackie.
OB spends much of his waking time in someone’s arms. This is nice for him, but does spoil him a bit and rules out travel so far.
At 10 months, he now weights 11 kg (24 lbs). He crawls vigorously around the house, making a bee-line for a distant object of interest, and grabbing everything in sight, so that he requires constant supervision. He has 5 teeth, of which he displays 2 in the photo. His time with me is largely spent in the garden. His taste for gardening runs to picking leaves and the odd flower. OB has a sense of humor and enjoys peekaboo.
He doesn’t talk yet but can say a word or two, like mama, food! (in Indonesian), and mimic a few sounds.
He knows for sure when he is hungry and is finding ways to tell us this urgently without crying.
In September and October I visited the States for 17 days. I had planned to visit my mother in New Orleans, age 90, where she has lived in the same house for 58 years, but in anticipation of Hurricane Katrina, she was evacuated from New Orleans to Lake Charles. I made plans to fly to Houston and drive to Lake Charles, but as I was flying across the Pacific my mother was evacuated once again, this time to Little Rock.
In Chicago I was able to reroute to Memphis and thence to drive to Little Rock. I asked her if she regarded her evacuation from New Orleans as a hardship or an adventure, and she firmly answered “Adventure!” Mother has lost much short-term memory, but is still attentive and sharp in conversation.
During 2005, I worked mostly away from home. In January and February, I finished an interesting job for the Asian Development Bank, evaluating their programs in Technical Assistance for capacity building in statistics. This assignment took me in January to Hanoi and to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan (for my fifth visit), as well as to ADB headquarters in Manila. This was on the heels of a visit to Phnom Penh in December on the same job. In April and May I worked on industrial statistics in Ghana and took the opportunity to visit Nelspruit South Africa.
In March and again in June I was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to work on a system for updating the industrial registry. A software company called Genesiis is doing a very credible job of preparing the application for use by the Dept of Census and Statistics. In June, before the mission to Sri Lanka, Jack and Carol Weeks visited us in Bogor for a few days before proceeding with me to Colombo. Jackie then joined us in Sri Lanka for the last two weeks of my mission and explored Colombo with Carol. In November I did some editing work for the International Labor Organization office in Bangkok and worked briefly for a USAID project in Jakarta. In December, I was back Colombo to shepherd the directory updating project further along.
Meanwhile, 4 trail maps on which I have worked for 8 years are nearing publication. A USAID grant for $20,000 has been obtained to defray half of publication costs, and we are lining up other sponsors for the rest. For me this activity has included writing text for each map, based on notes taken in day hikes as well as on info collected by the mapping team. At home in Bogor, gar¬dening is an interest that Jackie and I share. As the ‘rainy city’ of Indonesia, with 420 cm (166 inches) of rain per year, Bogor is a place where one can grow a garden fast. Although the days are occasionally hot, we prefer not to use AC, so about a year ago I began experimenting with vines that would climb to the roof and thus shade the house. Vines now cover more than 10 percent of the roof. .
As the maps nears publication, I am casting about for a follow-on hobby, one to share with the family. In pursuit of this, in November we purchased land on the slopes of Mt. Salak, about 45 minutes from our house. The land, comprising 2.6 hectares (6.5 acres) is at an altitude of 750 m (2500 ft) and includes a simple but comfortable cabin, a disused oilseed mill, and chicken pens, which we intend to shut down in view of the bird-flu scare. The land provides a splendid view of the city of Bogor and nearby mountains. Temperatures are several degrees cooler than at our home. There is electricity and spring water. More about our hobby farm next year!
Please keep in touch and let us know your news as it happens.
Best wishes,
---------------------------
Kalau Tuhan ijinkan, bulan depan Ob ultah. Asyikkkk!!
Nikki dan Nathan ditunggu kedatangannya loh.
Tante dan Om yg jauh2, ditunggu kadonya hahahahahahahhahahahha....
Eventful 2005 began for us with Jackie awaiting childbirth. 
When the promised day came and went with no sign of downward movement, the doctor said the baby was too large and counseled a Caesarian. Our son Robert Renjana Korns was thus born on 16 Feb, weighing 4.9 kg (10.8 lbs), with me a spectator in the OR. We named him Robert after my Uncle Robert but his nickname is OB (pronounced O-bey’ at times or O’-bi at others) in the Ambonese dialect.
He has since gotten comfortable with the 24 hour care that babies get in Indonesia, from his mother, his extended family, and his fulltime nani (0 days off per month), a villager and cousin of Jackie. 
OB spends much of his waking time in someone’s arms. This is nice for him, but does spoil him a bit and rules out travel so far.
At 10 months, he now weights 11 kg (24 lbs). He crawls vigorously around the house, making a bee-line for a distant object of interest, and grabbing everything in sight, so that he requires constant supervision. He has 5 teeth, of which he displays 2 in the photo. His time with me is largely spent in the garden. His taste for gardening runs to picking leaves and the odd flower. OB has a sense of humor and enjoys peekaboo. 
He doesn’t talk yet but can say a word or two, like mama, food! (in Indonesian), and mimic a few sounds.
He knows for sure when he is hungry and is finding ways to tell us this urgently without crying.
In September and October I visited the States for 17 days. I had planned to visit my mother in New Orleans, age 90, where she has lived in the same house for 58 years, but in anticipation of Hurricane Katrina, she was evacuated from New Orleans to Lake Charles. I made plans to fly to Houston and drive to Lake Charles, but as I was flying across the Pacific my mother was evacuated once again, this time to Little Rock. 
In Chicago I was able to reroute to Memphis and thence to drive to Little Rock. I asked her if she regarded her evacuation from New Orleans as a hardship or an adventure, and she firmly answered “Adventure!” Mother has lost much short-term memory, but is still attentive and sharp in conversation.
During 2005, I worked mostly away from home. In January and February, I finished an interesting job for the Asian Development Bank, evaluating their programs in Technical Assistance for capacity building in statistics. This assignment took me in January to Hanoi and to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan (for my fifth visit), as well as to ADB headquarters in Manila. This was on the heels of a visit to Phnom Penh in December on the same job. In April and May I worked on industrial statistics in Ghana and took the opportunity to visit Nelspruit South Africa. 
In March and again in June I was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to work on a system for updating the industrial registry. A software company called Genesiis is doing a very credible job of preparing the application for use by the Dept of Census and Statistics. In June, before the mission to Sri Lanka, Jack and Carol Weeks visited us in Bogor for a few days before proceeding with me to Colombo. Jackie then joined us in Sri Lanka for the last two weeks of my mission and explored Colombo with Carol. In November I did some editing work for the International Labor Organization office in Bangkok and worked briefly for a USAID project in Jakarta. In December, I was back Colombo to shepherd the directory updating project further along.
Meanwhile, 4 trail maps on which I have worked for 8 years are nearing publication. A USAID grant for $20,000 has been obtained to defray half of publication costs, and we are lining up other sponsors for the rest. For me this activity has included writing text for each map, based on notes taken in day hikes as well as on info collected by the mapping team. At home in Bogor, gar¬dening is an interest that Jackie and I share. As the ‘rainy city’ of Indonesia, with 420 cm (166 inches) of rain per year, Bogor is a place where one can grow a garden fast. Although the days are occasionally hot, we prefer not to use AC, so about a year ago I began experimenting with vines that would climb to the roof and thus shade the house. Vines now cover more than 10 percent of the roof. .
As the maps nears publication, I am casting about for a follow-on hobby, one to share with the family. In pursuit of this, in November we purchased land on the slopes of Mt. Salak, about 45 minutes from our house. The land, comprising 2.6 hectares (6.5 acres) is at an altitude of 750 m (2500 ft) and includes a simple but comfortable cabin, a disused oilseed mill, and chicken pens, which we intend to shut down in view of the bird-flu scare. The land provides a splendid view of the city of Bogor and nearby mountains. Temperatures are several degrees cooler than at our home. There is electricity and spring water. More about our hobby farm next year!
Please keep in touch and let us know your news as it happens.
Best wishes,
