Back to Work

A month after returning from holidays, and life has fallen comfortably back into our routines.  We are busier than ever.  Lilly's soccer practice keeps she and I at the school until suppertime once a week, swim lessons for all three take us right up to dinner on another weekday evening.  Lilly has piano lessons and Sophia has a violin tutor, both of whom come to our home after school.  They've each got an after school activity besides.  And then our weekends are full of musical rehearsals, soccer games and my music classes.  We've settled into a new church and so we're enjoying going to church every Sunday morning, and Dave and I try to attend small group every Wednesday night.  The routine doesn't leave much breathing room, but we're enjoying everything and so we just seem to keep rolling along.

The music classes every Saturday are my own.  I brought my music center from Caracas, renamed it, and recruited enough families to run my first session this term.  I'll admit - this has been much more difficult than I expected.  I arrived in Caracas with these music classes in my back pocket, and my neighbors asked me to teach.  With very little effort, I had two classes a week.  I assumed the same thing would happen in Jakarta.  And so, within a few weeks of our arrival, within a few days of moving into our house, I ran my first demonstration class and opened up registration for a September session.

Three families registered.

In a class where you sing and dance and generally make a fun fool of yourself, three families are not enough.  Classes need at least six kids to offer a good experience.  So, I gave those three families their money back and asked them to wait until January.  We enjoyed our empty weekends through October, and ran a bunch of new demonstration classes amid a big marketing push in November and December.  With interest all over town, but only one location and one Saturday morning available to me each week, I opened one class.  That class is nearly at capacity, which excites me to no end.  Even better, everyone seems to enjoy class.  I'm not making a profit yet, but I am enjoying every aspect of the work.  Even more exciting, I'm talking to a local non-profit about volunteering to teach my class at their local preschool.  The kids are very sweet and teaching them would be a joy - but they know precious little English, and I know precious little bahasa Indonesia.  An exciting challenge, no doubt.  But the closer I get to teaching there, the scarier it becomes.

And with this joyfully full schedule, an ideal job listing came across my lap.  I submitted my resume this morning for a part-time job with the embassy.  Perfect in so many ways, here are two.  First, the job would allow me to work from home - a priority we were not considering compromising at this post.  Second, I am honestly qualified for the job - a fact which both surprised and pleased me.  The more years between today and my last full-time employment, the less I've felt able to fulfill the qualifications on any posted job listings.  But I honestly meet each qualification for this one.  I pulled together a resume - initially daunting, but eventually satisfying - and feel I have a good chance of scoring an interview.

Once that happens, we can discuss where I'll fit an extra 20 hours of work into my week.