Another month has come and gone. I can't believe my time here is almost over.
May 1st we went around the Island. I ate Durian which is the national fruit or King of fruit. It is this awfully potent fruit. It wasn't what I expected. I thought that you would slice off the pieces but it turns out that the fruit is individual seeds. It had the texture of custard. I probably wouldn't choose to eat it again, but it wasn't bad.
My favorite part was going to a WWII fort. Just being able to stand where people stood and fought so many years ago, was really amazing to me. This fort even had a paintball course. How cool would it be to play paintball in a WWII fort?!
Unfortunately my Internet is not fast enough to load pictures. So I will post some soon.
On May 17th we went to some Indian friends' house for dinner (Tandoori chicken YUM!!!!) and to watch the parade for Buddha's birthday. Buddha's birthday is a national holiday here. We were told that the parade has some 10,000 people in it. It was actually kind of sad to watch all those people walking and worshipping this "guy".
It was a kind of unimpressive parade. Some floats and people chanting. Some of the funnier parts were when one float came by and the people were singing 'happy Wesak' (the name of the holiday) to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it".
The month of June is going to be a very busy month. On June 6th we fly to Borneo for the Branch conference. I will be helping out with the childcare, ages 5 and under. It should be great fun, but nuts - there are about 10 of them!. Then on June 17th we fly to Medan, Indonesia so my mom can renew her visa. I am pretty excited about this. When we get back from Indonesia I will only have 2 weeks left before I fly back to the States.
Prayer requests:
Corbin is sick, seriously inflamed tonsils. Poor thing has been miserable for the last 2 days. Pray for his parents as well that they don't catch whatever it is Corbin has.
Pray also for the people who are flying in for the conference. Pray as they are finishing up there orientation and packing as well as for the long flight over here.
My dad asked me what I will miss when I leave. I had to think for a few minutes, only because there are so many! The food, the view, the people, access to movies!!!!!, and even things like riding the bus. I would much rather have my own car but the public transportation is amazing and so cheap. The people here are so friendly. Sometimes I don't know how to respond - they are friendly. Two of my favorite places to eat are both Indian restaurants. In the mornings I walk past a road stand where I can get breakfast for less than $.50. AMAZING! I don't know what what I'm going to do when I return. How am I going to be able to pay more than a few dollars for food????? The other place is a more touristy Indian restaurant. It caters to the hotels across the street. But it is just a 5 minute walk from our apartment. I love it, about 5 of the waiters know us now and greet us with huge smiles. One of them even jokes around with us now. It's great.
I think I'm being spoiled here!
Things i won't miss... the humidity, the limited amount of Internet, and.... I think that is it.
This place is truly an amazing place. You all should come and visit. I can give you great tips on where to eat and what not to buy no matter how good a deal it seems. :)
Thanx!!!!
