We Are Back!
We arrived in the States just in time to celebrate the 4th of July and are now spending our first two weeks with family to self-quarantine before heading out to Colorado for the REI Global Forum July 19-25. We plan to return to Indonesia August 10th, but are currently waiting on a new visa. If you have time to connect during the last week of July or first week of August please don’t hesitate to reach out--we’d love to see you! Or if you’d prefer Zoom or a phone call it is much easier to coordinate schedules now that we aren’t 12 hours ahead.
A few quick highlights from the last month:
Jake completed his these proposal seminar and is now ready to begin primary research. He also recently made trips to Pasuruan to meet with farmers and discuss vision for collaboration with them as SunREI works to expand and modify its mango supply chain.
Amber has continued to have powerful conversations with "Ria".
Amber is also starting to collaborate with Ria's sister, "Miriam" on a blended English and Arabic story for children. "Miriam" is a very gifted artist, and would like to create education resources with Amber's help. Amber is thankful that she is able to collaborate with Miriam and continue to teach English online over the next few weeks in spite of the distance and time difference.
Brawijaya University and Thesis Update
Jake completed his thesis proposal seminar one day before we left the country! A clear, exciting research project has taken shape, and he is excited to begin doing further research over the next year related to the Loka Pere banana. It is hoped that the results of the study will provide helpful information and decision support for future efforts to develop the local economy and improve livelihoods through sustainable agriculture. The project is designed to be interaction heavy with locals, and he is excited to see how relationships will develop in that region and how our Father might move in this community.
He also had the opportunity to make a few trips over the last couple weeks out to Pasuruan and Probolinggo, East Java, as the SunREI business is working to expand the network of farmers we work with and modify our supply chain so that we can improve the business, employ more people in rural areas, and provide more balanced work for employees. On these trips he had the opportunity to meet with farmers to present a vision for what collaboration with them could look like. This collaboration could create a circle of influence for our team in these communities.
A Note on Our Visa
When this newsletter was originally written, we planned to return to Indonesia shortly after the REI forum. However, there was a different path in place for us. We ended up spending most of the next 10 months in the US due to visa complications caused by the COVID-19 health crisis. We utilized this time to fundraise and strengthen our support team to be able to return to Indonesia on a long term basis.
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