August 4, 2001: Only a Child, Puzzle Answers, God's Boxes

Hi,

Selamat Pagi (Good morning, in Indonesian). Well, I returned safely from
my week trip to Jakarta. I felt relatively safe all week, since my
colleague from Avery picked me up from the airport and took me around to
all our customer visits and to all meals. On Thursday, I did hear from
another colleague that there was a bombing in the city on Wednesday. We
also drove through several areas of the city that were sketchy.

I didn't take any pictures of Jakarta. However, I did notice that Jakarta
is very stratified. There are some streets where the buildings are very
nice and modern and many of the people drive expensive cars. However,
there are many sections of the city that is very poor and dirty. In these
areas, there are trash everywhere. Some of the streams are extremely
polluted, and people live right by the stream.

As in Thailand, all of our customers are ethnically Chinese. I was able to
speak to half of them in Chinese. My colleagues translated our conversation
with the remaining customers from English to Indonesian. I'm really amazed
at one of the merchants we visited. He is one of the largest paper
distributors in Indonesia. However, he operates in this side alley in the
Chinatown area, in a shack that measures about 3 feet wide by 6 feet deep.
The only thing in there is a desk and a phone. Some of the other
businesses we visited were in very impoverished areas. However, once
inside, their businesses were surprisingly nice.

Some of my more memorable activities in Jakarta involve food. My colleague
took me to the Hotel Borobodur for a buffet dinner. They are known for a
great oxtail soup. I also ate a lot of sashimi there. For lunch, we ate a
traditional Indonesia meal called "Padang", where the waiter sets in front
of you a huge # of small dishes. At the end of the meal, they only charge
you for the dishes that you actually eat. Finally, one of our very best
customers took us to dinner at a nice restaurant called Paprika. It
featured good Western food and a wine bar.

Today, I went hiking in Singapore along the MacRitchie resevoir, all the
way up the Bukit Timah summit. It was a long, tiring hike of 12 kilometers
(about 3 hours). Luckily, it was cloudy, so it wasn't too hot. I did take
some nice pictures of the resevoir and the hike trail. I'll post them up
by next week's email. Afterwards, my friends and I ate dinner at a pretty
decent Japanese restaurant.

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you were to give one person
you know an award for something, who would it be, and for what?"

This week's humor and inspirational pieces were both forwarded by Jennifer
Deniega.

Enjoy!

-Josh.

Chiang Mai's Two Waterfalls:
http://community.webshots.com/album/17725403PRcdMoCUtx
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Only a Child

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it
was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even
though they were a very large mammal their throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. The teacher
reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was impossible.

The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah"

The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?"

The little girl replied, "Then you ask him."
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Puzzle Solutions

Here are the solutions to the puzzle from last week. I still have not
received the solutions for:

16) 100 C in a R
19) 13=UFS
31) 6 B to an O in C

The reason why it was difficult to get many of these was because the
questions had to do with items related to the British Commonwealth.

Answers:
24 Hours In a Day
26 Letters of the alphabet
7 days of the week
7 wonders of the world
12 signs of the zodiac
66 books of the Bible
52 cards in a pack (without jokers)
13 stripes in the United States flag
18 holes on a golf course
39 books of the old testament
5 toes on a foot
90 degrees in a right angle
3 blind mice (see how they run)
32 is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit at which water freezes
15 players in a rugby team
3 wheels on a tricycle
16) 100 C in a R
11 players in a football (soccer) team
12 months in a year
19) 13=UFS
8 tentacles on a octopus
29 days in February in a leap year
27 books in the New Testament
365 days in a year
13 loaves in a bakers dozen
52 weeks in a year
9 lives of a cat
60 minutes in a hour
23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body
64 squares on a chess board
9 provinces in south africa
6 bowls to an over in cricket (according to the puzzle spreadsheet, this is
not the correct answer. Could the spelling be wrong?)
1000 years in a millenium
15 men on a dead mans chest
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God's Boxes

I have in my hands two boxes which God gave me to hold. He said, "Put all
your sorrows in the black box, and all your joys in the gold."

I heeded His words, and in the two boxes both my joys and sorrows I stored.
But though the gold became heavier each day, the black was as light as
before. With curiosity, I opened the black, I wanted to find out why. And
I saw, in the base of the box, a hole in which my sorrows had fallen out
by. I showed the hole to God, and mused, "I wonder where my sorrows could
be."

He smiled a gentle smile and said, "My child, they're all here with me."

I asked, "God, why He gave me the boxes. Why the gold, and the black with
the hole?" "My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings, the
black is for you to let go."