Students – Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia Pic 1

There was one whole day when I got interviewed by about five groups of English students who were instructed by their teacher to roam the streets of Medan, find a native English speaker, capture them and do an interview. I was about as obvious a native English speaker as you could get in Medan. This was one of the groups that captured me. They were really nice and I’m glad I got to participate, but by the end of the day I felt like some sort of celebrity and it wasn’t as much fun as I might have imagined. The first two interviews were stimulating, but by the end of the fifth one, I didn’t need another one.

Exercise Machines – Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

This is the row of exercise machine on the other side of the track from the people who were in the exercise class. They were some fairly nice machines. Note they were free for everyone to use. How many people a day do you thing used each machine? One? Two? Maybe .5? Indonesians have the same problems Americans and all the rest of the world has. They’re lazy.

Kick The Shuttlecock – Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

These guys impressed the heck out of me. I saw them from afar. I wasn’t sure what they were doing, but as I approached it looked like they were kicking a large shuttlecock over a net. It turned out that was exactly what they were doing. It was like three-man volleyball using a shuttlecock and you had to use your feet. It was hackey-sack with a purpose. I was fascinated. I stopped everything I was doing and focused on these guys. They had an audience and a scorekeeper and sometimes the whole thing got out of hand when the audience got really involved. I couldn’t believe some of the moves some of these old guys were making. I’m thinking about starting a league when I get home.

Exercise Class – Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

Once again we have the large and active Chinese population of Medan being active. This is the exercise class that I witnessed early in the morning when I was out roaming around because my biorhythms were messed up and I couldn’t sleep. I don’t know if I should have told these people, but they could have picked up the pace a little. This was called ultra-low impact aerobics.

Job Opportunity – Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

I do have a commercial driver’s license. I have been riding two wheel vehicles with engines attached to them for almost 50 years. I pretty much know how to be a jerk on the highway – cut people off, cuss them and do all the ugly things that tuk-tuk drivers are famous for. I’m thinking may this picture was a divine intervention in my life. Maybe it was God telling me there’s an opportunity here…

Sidewalk Trouble – Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

They had some serious issues with their sidewalks in Medan. I wonder how many people go to the hospital each year because of all the messed-up sidewalks in the town. Believe me, this was a fairly typical sidewalk.