December, 2003

If you ended up here, this is really a page for family and friends for photos and information about how and what we are doing. There's nothing here particularly educational. Just some portraits of what life is like for us over in Sumbawa with the hope that it will entice a few of you to come over here and visit us once we finish the new house in Sekongkang, Sumbawa.

We just finished with a new birthday party - this was Meredith's fifth. This time Su wasn't able to hire her usual group of dancers since this part of Sumbawa lacks the dancing groups common in Bali. But, not to be forced in to a usual party, Su invited all forty kids from Meredith's class in school. Meredith, taking after her mother, also invited all the staff from the hotel, so we had another party for the adults after the one for the kids. This photo shows Su in the living room of our place in the hotel (called "The Container" by a friend from school) preparing all the baked goods that she started making two days before the party. She's not happy that I am putting this photo on the web site, but I want to show Amanda that Su really does do all this elaborate preparation for these parties.

The actual cake itself is a major part of the baking, and Su does elaborate cakes. This time there were a few minor problems like not having an oven. Su worked around this problem by hooking up a makeshift oven by placing some metal contraption on top of the gas burners that are used by many Indonesians for cooking. This worked remarkably well although the cake was a bit overdone due to the lack of control over the temperature inside the "oven".

As long as the cake takes to bake, there is still more that needs to be done. The guests don't actually eat the cake - it gets consumed by family and close friends. So what do the guests eat? Well, actually very little at the party. Guests take their food home to eat, and there should be a good amount - all of this actually is a status producer for the person who hosts the party - although Su would deny that status has anything to do with any of this. The cakes get handed out at the end of the party along with a box lunch and a bag of treats. Guess what? These parties get expensive. The children were actually very well behaved considering that most of them were four or five years old. They all lined up to get their cakes and lunch and goodies. I didn't realize it until the end of the party, but the lady who was acting as the MC was actually Meredith's teacher. She has a lot of patience.

Our place is about four hundred meters from the hotel bar and restaurant where we held the party. So we had to transport all of this stuff over there. That ended up being my job this year. In order not to destroy the birthday cake and the small cakes, I made nine trips back and forth as guests arrived. I was very surprised when people started arriving on time. My experience from Bali is that people generally arrive 30 minutes or so late. The good people of Sekongkang actually are very prompt. Motorcycles began arriving with kids and their mothers. We also sent our driver to the village which is about five minutes away from the hotel to pick up people who gathered at the school for a ride.

Usually there are a variety of party games at the birthday parties for the older kids. I was wondering just how this was going to go, but Su and the teacher, in their collective wisdom, decided to restrict party activities to having the little guys get up in little groups to sing short songs that they had learned at school. The children were surprisingly willing to do this. It was all very sweet and pleasant. The actual party part of the gathering took less than 30 minutes for which I was very grateful. Food was handed out after the singing and then the kids all went home. At that stage Su ran back to our place to finish preparing a lunch of yellow rice and chicken curry for the Yoyo staff. After everyone finished their food, we packed up, took Meredith's stash of gifts and went home where I enjoyed a post-party drink while watching the sun set over the ocean.

Well, enough text for this week. I'm on vaction for a month so I plan on updating the family page every week. So check back once a week for updates and new photos. Since I still have a few more photos left to put up here, I'll just place them down here. All of them can be enlarged by clicking on them. Explanations, as well, can be seen by placing your cursor over the image.

I've been thinking about placing some links to short digital videos in mpg format here so that you can get a more graphic idea of life here on the island. I haven't done this before so I'm not sure how it will work out. Let me know if you are able to access the videos. This video is from Meredith's party. This video is from Mercedes and Rebecca's party last July in the Samosir house. Here is another from the July party. If these work, I'll add some more as I have plenty of space on my new server.

January 2004

Su and the kids are in Bali now. Our immigration agent screwed up and neglected to tell us that Meredith's passport was about to expire so Su had to go and file for a new one. She and the kids went to Bali on the 30th with their driver and the car. On January 1, I took the motorcycle and drove over to the next island to sign the forms. I couldn't go with them because someone needed to stay here with the zoo which now includes: Apple, the German Shepard, a nameless cat; Tom and Jerry, two Balinese monkeys; a nameless turtle; and two hampsters which keep having babies that the mother keeps eating - she just ate her latest. So I drove two hours up the coast to the ferry, took the 90 minute ferry ride to Lombok, and then drove two hours across Lombok to get to the airport where Su was waiting for me with the passport application. I signed the application, had a cheeseburger at the McDonalds in the Mataram Mall, and got back on the bike and drove back to Sumbawa. All together it took me 14 hours. Fairly nutty for some 54 year old guy. I got a lot of stares on the ferry from the Indonesian passengers who probably agreed with my assessment.

So now that I know that the movies will work, I'm adding some more here and on the Pakistan page and on the Bali page. The ones here are family ones. This movie is the kids playing on the beach just down from the hotel. This part of the beach is where we want to buy some land. The waves here are intense and the current is strong so Meredith doesn't really like to swim here. She prefers the coral directly in front of the hotel when the tide is high. Mercedes, Rebecca and Sam swim in either place.

I put a little guestbook here so you can leave a message here for us if you are having trouble reaching us by email.