CHAPTER 25

Albion Park

Life in Indonesia, absorbing a different culture and working with people who had different values, had changed us. One doesn't know that until one comes back home. At All Saints missionary training college we had been prepared to receive a culture shock going into a different culture, and that had been very helpful. But no one had prepared us for the culture shock in reverse, when we arrived back in Australia. It hit us on the first day. While it was wonderful in one way to be back in our familiar surrounding in our old Lindfield home, the crass commercialism of the pre-Christmas season, even in the Lindfield shops, simply knocked us over. Had the world gone crazy, I thought? It depressed me no end.

Our home didn't look too tired from the wear and tear of several different tenants. Our belongings were still on the verandah where we had left them, and it was a pleasure to see our old familiar things again. Our children started to play with their long forgotten toys, and never thought about their tiredness.

Last minute shopping at Lindfield seemed so easy after Kupang. Our children were happy with small presents. We resolved to resist the buying frenzy for as long as we could. Willi Toisuta, the only person from Timor we had met before going there, and his wife Jenny, invited us to their place for a barbecue over the Christmas days. We also met an Indonesian couple there who were now living in Australia with their children. As we were sitting around the swimming pool, watching our children chasing each other and frolicking in the pool, someone commented: "It seems rather odd. Here are Indonesian children talking to each other in English, and Australian children, talking to each other in Indonesian."

We all laughed. It was true. Our children were used to speaking to each other in Indonesian, as they usually mixed with their Indonesian friends. It came quite natural to them, but being back in Australia, it sounded somewhat funny. Unfortunately, though, they soon forgot most of their Indonesian, except for George, who went back for a visit in 1977 and brushed up his language then.

We spent some relaxing weeks in our home. One day I went to our Board of Mission office. The General Secretary was no longer Jim Stuckey, but John Brown, who had just started in January. He had served as missionary in Korea for many years. He gave me a long time to get things

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