The Pacific Ocean is stunningly blue. We were able to go to the beach and see it yesterday with some friends of ours, the Price’s. To get to this beach, we drove about 45 minutes and then got on to a long dugout canoe with outriggers and took it across. What a blast! We did everything. From digging in the sand, to collecting shells and coral, to snorkeling, to riding a palm tree…Yes, I did say, riding a palm tree. There was a great tree bent low over the water, and the kids could shimmy out on the trunk. Then us adults jumped up to grab the trunk and pulled it way down by the water, and then all at once we let go. No, we did not send the kids sailing, they were holding on, kind of hugging it, and so they got a great ride up and down. Snorkeling was fantastic. There were some places that were not too deep and I felt like I was going to scrape my stomach on the coral, so I preferred to go out where it was much deeper. We saw big, blue starfish, and the regular orange ones, blue neons, a small tiger shark, lots of different colored striped fish, anemones, and beautiful coral. Garth has the “snorkel burn”-he got fried on the back of his legs from snorkeling so long. When we were eating our picnic lunch Garth noticed some dolphins out in the water. There was a whole pack, or school (whatever you call them) of about 40 to 50 dolphins about 150 yards away from us just jumping and playing-showing off for us. They gave us quite a show, and then hung around so that everyone was able to see them, even the kids. That was such a treat. The whole day seemed unreal. Garth set up Cale’s playpen under some palm trees for his nap. How many kids get to sleep like that with the sound of the ocean next to him. No one wanted to leave so I am sure we will be going back. I can’t wait to take my family there.
The dorm kids all went home or to friends or guardians homes this weekend for the holiday so it has just been us and the pembantu’s. Wyatt thinks it is too quiet. It has been a nice break for us. We are thoroughly enjoying the kids, but this was a nice time also.
We had the Prices over for dinner after the beach. Poppi said she would surprise us and make something. She made pigs in a blanket. What a treat to come home to a meal. Thank you Ibu Poppi.
Today, Saturday, we experienced some of the Indonesian culture. There is a wealthy Indonesian family down at the bottom of our street that invited us over for a feast. Was it ever a celebration! They had so much food, and lots of people, lots of red velvet chairs and candles…It was wonderful. The wife is a Christian and the husband is Muslim. I ate some interesting things. Especially this stuff that kind of looked like pink punch until you dip into the bowl and find little squares of gel things and long pieces of coconut that looked like octopus legs and little green cone things and fruit cocktail. That was different. They had a big cooler full of sticky rice and lots of meat, chicken, fish, beef etc. We all enjoyed the experience.
After the party, the kids had some friends over, the Olvers and another girl named Kaylee. We all ate dinner together, Chicken nuggets-yes you can find them here, sometimes in the frozen part of one store-and pasta salad, garlic bread and corn. Just like in the States, huh? We had a great time with the Olvers looking at pictures from when we first came here and they were introducing us to everything-so much has changed. Then we played doubles ping-pong (You know how much we love doing that.) The kids all put on a concert for us. Sophie, for those who know her this is no surprise, is always looking for a way to make a buck. She decided that if they were going to put on a show, they should charge us, you know to make a profit on all their hard work. When she was younger in church we would all sit in one pew-Mom, Dad, Carlena, Donald and all of us. Well, Sophie would motion down the aisle for Grammo or Eena aksing them for their offering so she could put it in the plate. Well, then after some time of doing this we realized that she was keeping this money-it would go straight to her pocket. When I confronted her about it she simply said, “Mom, I was going to give it to Jesus later.” Yeah, sure you were-Stealing in church? Whose kid is that?!? Today Sophie decided she wanted to run around the world. She stopped in the living room however, when she got distracted. Childhood is full of fleeting ambitions. The other day when she had been playing outside and I was calling her in for dinner, she comes in and walks right up to me and says, “Mom, if you are calling me, you need to say Joy, or Erickson, but not Sophie, cuz there are two Sophie’s in this country and the wrong one might come!”
Well, enough for now. We love hearing from you. Thanks to all who write.
Love,Rachel
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