January 17, 2008 - Dragonfruit and Jeruk Bali

I am pulling myself away from the fiesta of fun to write this email to you. I am having a blast with my family (as you can well imagine).
Today Mom and Carlena and I took a great walk down the mountain, through the cemetery, and out to a wonderful fruit stand. I wanted to buy some jeruk bali for them to try. It is segmented like a jumbo grapefruit but not as sour. This morning they tried some dragonfruit.
The outside of it looks like an inflated pink flower but the inside was like a white and black kiwi fruit. I took them to Hypermarket today and they bought a whole bunch of crazy Indonesian foods to bring home to show everyone.
Those of you who know my Dad will not be surprised when I tell you what he was doing today. He went next door to the new hostel that is being built and helped them paint. The foreman is in a time crunch to get the hostel done in time, so I know that they greatly appreciated Dad's help. Right now Garth and my Dad are taking an Indonesian man to the doctor. He has gangrene on his leg or foot that has to be treated everyday for 4 months or he will lose his leg. He does not speak Indonesian so they took an interpreter.
It was so precious when Cale woke up this morning. The first people he called out for were "Grammo and Eena." He, along with Wyatt, Emma and Sophie are REALLY enjoying having family here. Although, I must tell you that we almost lost Mom. When we were at the beach on Monday, we were walking along the ocean picking up shells. Mom bent over to pick up some pretty ones right as a coconut fell from a tree.
Luckily it hit her on the shoulder blade and not on the head!!! For those of you who do not have palm trees in your backyard, let me inform you. They fall fast, and they are stinkin' hard. More people die from coconuts than from being struck by lightning. That was close!!!!!!!! We are very thankful she was o.k. She does have a bruise and we saved the coconut and a reminder. Of course it would happen to Mom....silly girl. We have a hilarious video of Eena trying to slide down the fire pole at the playground at the MAF base. She had a very unique way of sliding, scooting, flying and jumping her way down the pole. Garth was in tears laughing so hard watching the video. We might send it to America's Funniest Home videos-honestly, it would win! She also has quite the bruise on her leg and a knot on the back of her head. You try to figure out how you could get a knot on your head from sliding down a pole. Only her!!!! Ask her about it.
Oh, one more good thing. A wonderful man named Joe bought the hostel a shop vac. It is for wet or dry and it is very nice. I am so glad he brought it when my Dad was here so he could put it together and show me what I needed to know. It is so great to have all of them here.
Bye-Back to the fiesta of fun!!!!!!!!
Rachel