I debated writing and publishing this post because it’s been almost a decade since our adventure ended. However, I leaned into it because this blog continues to be a resource for people who are thinking about or preparing for their own adventures in Tembagapura. It can be a difficult decision to make, especially if children are involved. My intention in writing this post is to convey a message of how our three-year experience directly influenced our children’s life paths. At the beginning of our time in Indonesia, they were eight and eleven; when we left, they were eleven and fourteen; today, they are nineteen and twenty-two.
Moving to Tembagapura was our family’s most stressful life event. It created uniquely difficult situations for each one of us, including the girls. We uprooted Ally during her most formative years from a comfortable community where she thrived and transplanted her into an atypical community that required significant adaptation and change. She balanced her personal struggles by drawing, playing the guitar, participating in indoor hockey, building forts in the rainforest with her friends, and traveling around the world. Ally also focused on school. She was exposed to unparalleled experiential curriculums and instruction at Mt. Zaagkam School, and was taught by her most influential teacher, Mr. Gary, the middle-school math and science teacher who continues to teach there today.
Ally also took an interest in the activities of the mining world around her. Living in the shadow of the iconic Grasberg Mine and being surrounded by the engineers, geologists, environmentalists, metallurgists, and mine managers who ran it (the same people who were family friends, neighbors, her friends’ fathers, and acquaintances) it was impossible to escape mine talk. At some point, Ally aspired to find her place in that world.
On May 4, 2024, Ally graduated magna cum laude with a BSE in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University. After three successful summer internships with Freeport McMoRan, she was offered a full-time position as a mechanical engineer at the Sierrita Mine near Tucson, Arizona. Ally is thrilled to begin her career at this site, and she is looking forward to becoming involved in the professional organization, Women in Mining, to help promote the underrepresented population of women in the industry.
Kylee’s most significant experience occurred on December 24, 2013 (only a month after arriving in Tembagapura) when she didn’t recover from an acute case of strep throat and had to be hospitalized in the Tembagapura Hospital. When she was admitted, she was severely dehydrated and the doctors couldn’t access a vein to give her an IV for fluids and antibiotics. Multiple attempts were made by several expat and national doctors, but it only resulted in more pain, suffering, and resistance. After those failed attempts, an Indonesian nurse came into Kylee’s room to assist the doctors. She calmed Kylee down and then proceeded to gently slide a needle into her battered arm with precision and expertise. Kylee spent three days in the hospital (including Christmas Day) before she was discharged and sent home.
Kylee doesn’t remember very much about being in the hospital, except that she has an extreme aversion to tomato soup because of it, but Chris and I believe that the experience sparked her interest in the field of medicine. She is currently enrolled at Arizona State University in the community health program, which will allow her to apply for the competitive nursing program in the spring of 2025. Kylee’s goal is to obtain an undergraduate degree in nursing and then further her education to become a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant.
To gain experience and mandatory hours for postgrad opportunities, Kylee enrolled in and successfully completed a certified nursing assistant (CNA) program earlier this summer. Last week, she took and passed Arizona’s state licensing board exam, which will allow her to work in a hospital, retirement home, physical therapy clinic, or home healthcare setting. She is currently applying for CNA jobs in Tempe while preparing for her sophomore year, which begins tomorrow.
While living in Indonesia, I often wondered and wrote musings about how the girls’ experiences would shape and define them. In one of the posts, titled Bananas and Stars, I wrote about an article that I had stumbled across that beautifully described expat children as being stars. The author of the article labeled them differently from their triangular parents because they have multiple points of reference considering where they are from, what they believe in, and how they see the world. It is true that expat children live and repatriate as stars, but I would continue to add that they shine even brighter over time.
7693 Miles from Home 