Yep week off from school, for the whole family almost. Julie still has her tutor coming in a couple times this week and Franklin is working on some work left over from last week. So far we gone swimming a couple times at one of our favorite spots. Isaac and I tried but failed to find a geocache nearby, we'll blame the equipment. I forgot to turn on the data service on my phone and didn't have the info downloaded for offline search. Next time I will be ready either-way data or no data connection. Maybe tomorrow or the next day we try again. Today we also watch the locals sacrifice and butcher some sapi (cattle), we missed the kambing (goats) they did them earlier in the day. Yes you did read that correctly today was Eid al-Adha. I think if I understand things somewhat those that can donate a goat or a cow and then they kill it and cut it up and divide the meat up for the poor in the community. And you can't have a party with a lot of extra singing from the mosque. Last night they had some technical difficulties with their loud speaker at our neighborhood mosque so we got relief a little sooner then some in town. Tomorrow we should be back to the basic calls to prayer.
I also had a couple small victories today in the language department. I was able to navigate ordering a karangam bunga (bouquet of flowers) for Julie in Indonesia. I also was able to buy some sekrup (screws) from a local hardware store. I did have to use a picture for the bracket I also needed for the chalkboard but the fact that I was able to request screws and get what I was looking for pretty much was exciting. Then to top off the day we all went to Stasiun Susu for milkshakes and crepes.
The rest of the week should be filled with some-other exciting times as well. We have an invitation to a fellowship dinner thing Thursday evening and then Friday we have an invite to an 88th birthday party of a friend's grandmother. We hope to hit the pool one more time, get Julie some naik sepeda motor time. She wants to give driving the scooter a try in a local soccer field. Traffic works pretty good here however it is very different from home, most of the rules are more like guide lines rather than hard and fast rules. And if time allows maybe some more touring around the area after I get the oil changed. Ya wow 500km already on the scooter and that is when they recommended the first oil change. Maybe tomorrow I will try and navigate requesting an oil change for the scooter.
The first few pictures are from the swimming pool mentioned above. After all the pictures of the kids swimming is the family well most of the family heading out on the scooter to Stasium Susu. I haven't figured out where to fit Julie yet? We really need to get Julie driving and comfortable with the traffic here so we can lighten the load for Buzz (Jaclynn's name for our scooter). Down the road we plan on purchasing a second set of wheels and then Buzz will become Julie's ride. The last two fotos are from Isaac and my attempt to locate our first geocache. The pictures don't really do it justice but we are climbing a small mountain call Gunung Gajah (sleeping elephant). I would have to guess that the grade was similar to that of a 12/12 pitch roof (45degrees). It was only a couple hundred feet into the climb and Isaac was telling me how tired he was and he didn't think he could make it. We did give a few people some humor, I'm not sure what exactly they thought was funny? But something about two white people out of place walking past their house was funny? Maybe someday I will understand but for now I greet and smile back and hope I don't have food all over my face.
PS: I thought the milkshake was a good end of a good day. I was wrong what is even better is having neighbors over for a visit for the first time and breaking out in song and then closing our time in prayer. Wow it's amazing to see diversity brought together in unity.
The first few pictures are from the swimming pool mentioned above. After all the pictures of the kids swimming is the family well most of the family heading out on the scooter to Stasium Susu. I haven't figured out where to fit Julie yet? We really need to get Julie driving and comfortable with the traffic here so we can lighten the load for Buzz (Jaclynn's name for our scooter). Down the road we plan on purchasing a second set of wheels and then Buzz will become Julie's ride. The last two fotos are from Isaac and my attempt to locate our first geocache. The pictures don't really do it justice but we are climbing a small mountain call Gunung Gajah (sleeping elephant). I would have to guess that the grade was similar to that of a 12/12 pitch roof (45degrees). It was only a couple hundred feet into the climb and Isaac was telling me how tired he was and he didn't think he could make it. We did give a few people some humor, I'm not sure what exactly they thought was funny? But something about two white people out of place walking past their house was funny? Maybe someday I will understand but for now I greet and smile back and hope I don't have food all over my face.
