I've already
been back in school for two weeks. As usual, things go rushing
by here. Actually, I've been ill for the past week with some sort
of stomach virus, but I've taken my medicine and finally am better.
It just so happened that three of the eight teachers all had stomach
problems at the same time. Hmmm, interesting. Certainly not related
to the first days of work after a month.
The family
and I went back to Bali during the break. I stayed a week, they
stayed for two. It was an incredibly busy week for me: I bought
three computers for the house in Sumbawa, we sold our old Kijang
which has served us well for the past eight years, we bought a
new car which should be here next week, and I visited old friends
that I haven't seen in the two years that I've been absent from
Bali. The trip was also interspersed with more shopping for things
that we need here in Sumbawa, in particular an expensive trip
to the Ace Hardware store in Kuta. Once all the new necessities
of the house were bought, then we picked through furniture, books,
and other household items that we needed in Sumbawa. Next, we
had to rent a large truck to transport everything from Bali to
Sumbawa. One of the downsides to living in an archipelago is that
transporting things from one island to the next is usually difficult
and almost always expensive.
My old friend,
Robert, the retired psychologist, and I came back to Sumbawa first
as Robert wanted to see the new house, and I wanted to get back
to take care of Apple and keep an eye on the workers who were
building the wall around the house. Robert and I had an interesting
trip: we took a 20 minute flight from Bali to Lombok, and then
took a taxi from the airport to the harbor on the east side of
the island. All of that was fairly routine. Once we got out of
the taxi, we were surrounded by a number of guys selling tickets
on the bus from the harbor to my village. The two of
us were quite a sight: two bearded old guys, one with a cane and
sporting a top knot on his head that is symbolic of a Hindu priest.
So we took the bus down to Maluk (a 15 minute drive over some
hills from our village) and then hopped on a couple of ojek (motorcycle
taxis) to get to Sekongkang from Maluk. We spent a week hanging
out watching the construction crew build a wall around the house
(the local joke is to call it the Great Wall of Sekongkang). Robert
went back a few days after Su and the kids arrived here from Bali
along with the truck load of furniture, computers, tools, books
and other assorted stuff from the house in Bali.
All this
actually happened a few weeks ago. Today one of Su's sisters arrived
with our new car as it had to be processed in Bali. She came with
her husband and their three kids along with two other relatives
of Su's and one of their kids so Kampung Bugis in Bali is slowly
being relocated to Sekongkang in Sumbawa. I've added some new
photos here of the house which is essentially done as well as
the wall which is finished. We are going to wait a while before
going on with the next phase which is to build a garage for the
new car. In the meantime, we are cleaning up the yard so that
we can start a vegetable garden in the back corner and the orchard
which will be on the hill in the back of the house. Eventually
we should have around a hundred fruit trees back on the hill.
Mercedes
won an academic scholarship for this school year which will pay
her fees at the local junior high. The money is not really the
issue, she's just proud that she won it. It's nice seeing the
kids work harder in school after all the messing around they did
during my years in Pakistan. Sam moved up from being ranked last
in his class to the middle and Rebecca from last to fourth. Meredith
just started first grade so things are going well with the kids.
While they enjoy the size of the house and the yard, they prefer
living in Bali because there's more to do there. Sekongkang really
is more of a place that I like because of the small size of the
village, the animals, the jungle and the beach.
I'm still
writing travel articles mostly for escapeartist.com, but I had
one of them reprinted in a glossy magazine done in Jakarta which
everyone finds more impressive than having things published on
the internet. Well, it keeps me off the streets as my friend,
Bruce Goforth, used to say.
I bought
a new printer/scanner/fax machine (the fax is fairly useless as
we don't have a phone here) and I've been scanning old photos
at a high resolution. I'm placing a link here to the page so you
can see some old photos. The kids find them humorous because Su
and I look so young. That's all for this week.
I put a little guest book here so you can leave a message here
for us if you are having trouble reaching us by email. Thanks
for the messages in the guest book. I like hearing from you all.