The "Say Cheese" Grin

 

 

 

Van has recently learned how to grin as big as he can when we say, "say cheese." The first photo was taken at our hotel in Cincinnati, this was the day before our trip to Indonesia. The second photo was taken at the New York airport. The food at the airport was extremely overpriced, so we mostly ate what we packed from home.

We are just now getting back to our routine of school. If it's not the electricity off it is one thing or another taking up our time.

I need to start proofreading my posts a little better, because when I go back and look, I always find mistakes. Please don't turn me in to the Jefferson County School Board as an unfit teacher!

Tea Plantation

 

 

 

Here are some photos of a tea plantation that we visited while in Indonesia. It was a long windy trip up the mountain. I was thankful that I happened to have some pepto in my backpack on that trip! The tea is picked by hand and tried in a warehouse and then sent off to be further processed.

What's a Squatty

 

 

Well a squatty is a potty. This is a typical toilet for Indonesia. The western toilet was at a hotel and notice the sign behind the toilet with instructions on how to sit on it. Isn't it neat how people do things differently? I still prefer the western style toilet 100 to 1. Our power went off Sunday afternoon and came on last night. We had fun grilling out and hanging out in the yard, but the cold baths by lantern and candle light weren't all that much to brag about though.

Home at Last

 

 

 

We made it home Wednesday afternoon after a mighty long and tiring trip! We had an overnight layover in New York, so we slept on the airport floor along with several other weary travelers. We asked for the cheapest airline tickets we could find and I don't know if the layover and the stopovers were worth it or not.

We took a walk and found this butterfly enjoying this hibiscus tree. Race was playing around in the Indian Ocean, we didn't get to stay long because it started to rain.

Things not to take for granted

1. hot baths
2. drinking water from the tap
3. ice
4. a/c
5. american toilets
6. automatic instead of stick shift vehicles
7. toilet usage (at one place we had to pay to use the restroom and another place you needed to bring your own toilet paper

Things to get accustomed to:

1. Licking your fingers instead of using papertowels (Race prefers his shirt).
2. Eating with your fingers instead of with utensils.

Flies, mosquitoes, ants and lizards like living here along with many other numerous critters I could do without.

The cars here have the steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle and you drive on the left hand side of the road, which I think would take a lot of getting used to.

We are here for only a few more days. We went to the pool today, there is such a beautiful view of the Ocean. Tomorrow we will go to the beach after lunch and then pack up our items and get ready to head for Jakarta on Sunday. I think we'll sight see and shop while in Jakarta.

Just daily life

Race and I are diagramming sentences, Van is napping and Keith is helping to change the oil in the van. We are going to have lunch with a couple on the team and then going to another team member's home for the afternoon to just get acquainted. Race spent yesterday afternoon with one team member's son and had fun playing video games. The family we are going to hang out with this afternoon live closer to the city, so that will give us another view of how life here could possibly look for us.

Is that Chicken or Fish?

We just returned from a tour of the town of Begkulu. We rode down a strip of road parallel to the Ocean. Keith, Van and I rode in a cyclo (as they are known by in Vietnam at least) down one of the main streets in town. A cyclo is a bicycle driven cart that carries a small load. Our hips would not allow us to sit next to each other, so we squeezed best we could into this cart. The man driving the cyclo was older and I think our weight was about to kill him. He was not used to cycling around fat Americans. Race rode with Andy, Emily and the kids on a horse drawn cart, we all had a fun time doing that. Van's shoe has been coming apart, so a street vendor shoe repairman was able to sew up his shoes for $.60. After a tour of Bengkulu we headed to KFC for lunch. We went to KFC the other day and I ordered a chicken sandwich, it was good, so I ordered it again today. Today for some reason the chicken tasted like fish, I don't like fish. If we go back it may taste like beef next time, huh? I will order something different if we go back.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is Race's 10th birthday. Race is turning into such a fine young man and he is such a good big brother. He seems to be having a good time here in Indonesia.

Coffee Anyone?

We slept until 7 a.m. this morning, the latest we've slept since we've been here.

It gets dark around 6:30, so it seems later than it is in the evenings and we find ourselves going to bed earlier than we normally would.

This morning we caught Van pouring Keith's coffee into a play cup and I think he had already taken a few sips. He is such a mess! We had school this morning and hung out by ourselves for a few hours and then toured a little more of the farm. We were able to help some ladies who were packaging some Kalamansi juice (citrus drink), it was fun to meet with them and help out a little.

We are watching a movie and babysitting the girls while Andy and Emily went to the airport to pick someone up.