Indonesia

Every winter our school has a six week winter break, partly because they can't afford to heat the school throughout the long winter months, and partly because of Ch!nese New Year. We have been told by people who have lived in our area for many years that you should try and get out of the country at least once a year, just to get away from the stresses of living here and help regain perspective. So taking all that into consideration Amanda, a teammate, and I decided to go somewhere warm for a few weeks. Between the two of us we had contacts on three different islands in Indonesia so off we went. Just getting to the first island was an adventure that took three days and involved trains, planes, taxis, and a ferry!

LOMBOK

Waiting for the ferry that would take us to Lombok. It was several hours before we knew if it was even going to run that day, it was rainy season so the ocean was a little rough, but it eventually came and we made it to our destination!

Trying coconut milk

A beach where we spent a night and went snorkeling

This guy was our companion one night as we were walking along the beach, he was pretty friendly and quite helpful when he stopped us from stepping on a sea serpent.

They may not look like much but these were the first sandwiches we had had in over six months, so we were pretty excited!

In Lombok there's a place called Monkey Forest, it's just a spot on the side of the road where a lot of monkeys hang out and you can feed them. They're definitely not shy and will just come up and take the food right out of your hand, and as long as you stay away from the babies they're pretty friendly.

Thanks again Carder's for a great time in Lombok!!

JAVA

One of the things Java is famous for, besides coffee of course, is its ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples. This is the Buddhist temple that was built in the 8th century, later abandoned and then rediscovered around 1815 and restored.

Hindu temple 

At a coffee plantation

Hiking through some rice paddies

Dyed chickens, why you ask, because they think it is pretty and people will buy them and keep them as pets.

KALIMANTAN

The city we visited in Kalimantan sits on the river so for a lot of the people that is where life still happens. They live in houses built on stilts over the river, they bathe and wash clothes in the river, and a lot of them still get their livelihood from the river.

Standing on the equator!

Thanksgiving

Cooking up some Thanksgiving goodness!

Asen & I making the green bean casserole

Emmaus helping with the deviled eggs

Amanda mashing potatoes!

The yummy spread. We had all the traditional foods, turkey, sweet potato casserole, dressing, and pumpkin pie for dessert!

Lh@s@

The Pot@la Palace

this was the winter home of the D.L. before he fled the country

Tib. ladies getting ready to climb the 555 steps (yes, we counted) to the top of the pot@la

Monks practicing their debating skills. They can get pretty lively, one monk will ask a question and then do this dramatic hand clap/slap thing indicating that it is another monks turn to answer.

Me & Corrie

Pilgrims prostrating at the main temple in town. Tib. will often prostrate at temples or while walking certain routes as a way of atoning for their wrongs in hopes of being reincarnated as something better in their next life.

Making a House a Home

It has been about three months now since I moved into my house and I can now say that it feels like home. Getting it furnished and curtains on the windows helped immensely in this process. It has also been great to have a place that I can come to at the end of a language filled day and rest my very tired brain!

My Bedroom

My Guest room, that anyone is welcome to stay in should they ever find themselves in my neck of the woods!

My Office, many hours of studying have been passed here

My Living Room

Living Room again, that's the kitchen at the far end

My Many Travels

It has been a while since I have updated this blog but if you keep reading you will see that I have been quite busy trekking about the country. My first trip took me, and three teammates, to three different cities whose populations are predominately the ppl group that several of the members of our team a focusing on. We spent 10 days traveling through some very beautiful, yet very dark areas. In each city we met some great people and even got to share some of the good news with one family. On my second trip I went with two teammates to a city south of us. We went partly for a mini vacation, but mostly to go shopping at Ikea for our new houses. Speaking of houses mine is close to finished now. It is now fully furnished and I am ordering curtains this weekend so pretty much all that is left is decorating, and my little brain is still working on ideas for that. But more about that in my next post, here are some pictures from my travels.

These first two are pics of the largest pile of mani stones in the world. Tibs. will carve a mantra/pr on the rocks and then bring them to holy places and pile them up as a way to gain merits in hopes of being reincarnated as something better in their next life.

More mani stones in a river

One day we hired a taxi to take us around to all the different sights in the area and on the way up a 14,000 ft. pass his car couldn’t handle it’s six passengers so some of us had to get out and hike part of the way up until he came back for us. It more than once literally took my breath away, but we got to take in some beautiful scenery and a few yak fights.

Another thing they will do to gain merit is hang pr flags from the high places around where they live

This is a pr flag designed by a friend from my company that has a pr to our Father on it. It is now tied among many other pr flags at about 13,000 ft. in one of the more remote regions of this country.

Pr flags on top of a mountain

One day after we hiked up a mountain these four local boys running up to the top. They were a lot of fun and were very eager to share their little sugar feast that they had brought along with us. And of course being as well trained as we all were we accepted what was put before us. So after consuming what at the time seemed like every sugary creation ever invented we were hyped up and ready for whatever adventures they brought on. Including...

wrestling

hunting hawks

and swimming in the frigidly cold river.

One day while exploring a monastery we met this nun. As soon as she saw us she called us up and wanted to take pictures with us and then took us into her home and served us tea.

Our new friend in front of her house, which is actually just a room

These last several shots are just some of the beautiful scenery that we saw