Indonesia Photo Gallery 2

Posted by marshall Wed, 17 Aug 2005 22:46:00 GMT

I finally got around to sorting through the rest of the pictures, and have put up another 50:

The photos.

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We made it home safely

Posted by lara Sun, 15 May 2005 04:52:11 GMT

We made it safely home from Indonesia, and it's now past our bedtime!

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Weather

Posted by marshall Thu, 05 May 2005 02:01:18 GMT

Just in case you were wondering, here's a link to the current weather here. :-)

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Indonesia Photo Gallery 1

Posted by marshall Tue, 03 May 2005 09:22:00 GMT

Well, we've sorted through some of the photos taken here, and we've posted a gallery of over 50 of them.

The photos.

More to come!

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Today's Indonesian Lesson

Posted by lara Mon, 25 Apr 2005 02:32:00 GMT

For all of you out there who are wondering, the linguist in me has been having great fun learning some Indonesian. So, here is your lesson for the day: cognates.

I have been searching my dictionary, and here are some words in Indonesian that are similar to the word in English. How many can you figure out? (Pronunciation is mostly like Spanish, but with a few of our English-like vowel sounds - schwa, etc. Also, "c" always sounds like "ch".)

Read more...

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Reza's Wedding

Posted by lara Sun, 24 Apr 2005 12:55:00 GMT

More pictures will have to come later, but we had a great time yesterday celebrating the wedding of our friend Reza. It was really neat to see some of the wedding traditions here. I am looking forward to looking through pictures with Reza and his wife so that they can explain to us better what was going on. But here's what I got out of it:

We started out at the groom's house. His family fed us breakfast as everyone gathered together. They had gifts for the bride's family that they were putting together to give to them as a sort of bride price. The groom was dressed in an Indonesian outfit.

From there we went to the mosque. They found some chairs for us and some others outside the mosque so that we could see what was going on. We didn't understand much, but it was interesting to watch. They all took off their shoes and sat on the floor for the ceremony, with the men on one side and the women on the other. There wasn't any music except for some chanted prayers. One of our Muslim friends borrowed our camera and brought it inside, so hopefully we got some good pictures and can get a better view from the pictures on our camera. :-)

Then after the mosque, we went to the reception at the bride's family's house. The bride and groom changed into traditional Acehnese outfits. A group of men ate in one room (including the village leaders), a group of the women ate in another, and then the rest of the people all ate outside. Since I don't speak Indonesian, I ate in the men's eating room with the rest of the PACTEC guys. It felt somewhat odd for me to be the only woman in that circle, but they didn't seem to mind. Everyone sat on the floor, and they had SO MUCH food spread out all through the middle of the floor, with all of the people sitting around it. The bride and groom sat at the head of the "table" in the men's room. The walls of the house were covered in fabric, and they had created what looked like almost a throne for the bride and groom. It was quite impressive-looking.

Reception after Reza's wedding

So all in all, we felt very honored that Reza and his wife would invite us to their wedding, and we had a great time.

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I made it!

Posted by lara Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:22:46 GMT

The airplane from LAX to Taipei was huge! It had 10 seats across with 2 aisles! And each seat had its own TV, which had movies and video games and music on demand. So I learned a little Mandarin and Italian and played Chinese Checkers with the computer. But of course I slept first! It seemed like we would never get off of the plane! Those 14 hours are just a very long time to sit in one seat. I sat next to some Indonesian ladies. So once we woke up in the "morning" (in quotes, because when you go in that direction you're following the sun so it was dark for a good long time), they discovered where I was going and they were teaching me some Indonesian. It was much appreciated.

So I went from LAX to Taipei (Taiwan), then from Taipei to Penang (Malaysia), and then to Medan (Indonesia) and then up to Banda Aceh (final stop in Indonesia). Marshall met me in Penang, which was an awesome surprise! I wasn't expecting to see him until Medan. However, he'd had to go into Malaysia so that he could re-enter Indonesia and get a new 30-day visa that way. So we both now have 30-day visas, and we are ready to be in the Internet Cafe tomorrow. Also, it was great to have one of the guys from JAARS to travel with. He is on his way to work at the Internet Cafe in Meulaboh, and he ended up on the same flight as me. That way we were each able to have another person to speak English with. :-)

This is definitely the closest I've come to being in a place where I can't understand anyone else. At least in Ecuador I had taken Spanish lessons before I left. Here the language is totally unknown to me, although the pronunciation seems a lot like Spanish and they do use the latin alphabet. And I've been pleasantly surprised at the amount of English I've heard and seen around me. English was spoken as one of the languages on all of the flights, and all of the flight attendants spoke English with me. So I am thankful to say that I have not yet been in a place where no one could understand me. But it was frustrating to me that even "yes" and "no" are different.

Also, traffic was of course interesting. One thing is that it's disconcerting to drive on the left instead of on the right. And then you add the people piled onto motorcycles or into small vehicles, plus the random cows... and it gets pretty crazy. Kind of like Ecuadorian driving, except that you're driving on the other side of the road.

Okay, well, it's been a long day of traveling and I am going to go to bed! Signing off for now...

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On my way...

Posted by lara Wed, 20 Apr 2005 21:09:29 GMT

I am happy to report that I now have a valid passport, and I am vaccinated for hepatitis A&B and I have a prescription for malaria preventative. I leave tonight! Yeah!

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An Exciting Change of Plans

Posted by lara Sun, 17 Apr 2005 03:07:50 GMT

Yes, it's true. I (Lara) am actually posting something to our weblog. I am excited to report that I get to see Marshall again soon. And not only that - but I will see him in INDONESIA in less than a week!

We were talking online on Wednesday night, and Marshall mentioned that they had still not found someone to take his co-worker's (Tom's) place when he heads back home to his family. So he asked if I would be willing and able to come so that we could both work in the Internet cafe for a few weeks. So he checked with Joy (Marshall's manager at MAF in Redlands) on Thursday morning (California time). And after some e-mailing back and forth, I spoke with Joy myself on Friday morning. I asked around at Trinity Church, where I have been working for just under a year, and they gave me approval to take a few weeks off. So on Monday I have an appointment to renew my passport. And Wednesday night / Thursday morning I am off to Indonesia. So I'm going to go work in the Internet cafe with Marshall for a few weeks, and then we'll be back in time for my sister's wedding in mid-May. Yeah!!!!!!!

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Mid-week 'merican redux!

Posted by marshall Thu, 14 Apr 2005 08:33:00 GMT

For this week's Acehnese-version-of-American-food experience, we got hamburgers from a local stand. Tom and I each got the "special". This has many of the ingredients one would expect: a beef patty (or some kind of meat, at least), cheese, lettuce, and tomato. It also had a few ingredients one doesn't normally find at the local American burger shop: sliced cucumber, Acehnese hot sauce, and a fried egg.

Tom eating a hamburger

That's Tom eagerly devouring his very own spicy egg burger. As with KFC, Tom and I found the local twist to be quite palatable. We also tried one of the more exotic (to our minds) drinks here: avocado juice. This is a blend of avocado, Milo, Nescafé, and milk. It actually tastes a lot like a chocolate-banana milkshake. It was recommended by David (one of our guards), as it's his favorite drink:

David drinking avocado juice

Oddly enough, out of the juices I've had here, it's probably the only one I'd order again.

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