Monday, December 17, 2007
Happy Birthday Jason
He's gotten alot cuter since this baby picture taken 30 years ago today! Send him a comment or an email :) ~Elissa
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Early Christmas
Dinner on a Waterfall
The Real Rainforest Café :)
Boat Outing with Dad
Leaving on a Jet Plane
This takes serenading your guests to a whole new level – if you listen carefully you can hear the band singing “leaving on a jet plane…” – guess "leaving on a raft" doesn't have the same ring to it!
Weekend at Arief's Resort
Bathing Water Buffalo
"Oleh-Oleh"
Big Flowers
Friday, November 30, 2007
‘Tis the Season to be Jolly….
So the latest edition to our list of websites we recommend (see to the right) is www.brownielocks.com – it gives a list of “bizarre, crazy, silly & unknown holidays & observances for the month” ie: December –
Bathtub Party Day – Dec 5 (can hear John's "amen" all the way from Morocco)
Int’l Volunteer Day for Economic & Social Development – Dec 5 (we’re taking apps on this one for Aceh!)
National Cotton Candy Day – Dec 7
Int’l Mountain Day – Dec 11 (love this one)
Cat Herders Day – Dec 15 (what?!)
Barbie & Barney Backlash Day – Dec 16 (isn’t this everyday?)
National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day – Dec 16
Clean Air Day – Dec 17 (this is for you Steiners) – also Jason’s Bday :)
Underdog Day -Dec 21 (everybody loves this one)
National Whiner’s Day – Dec 26 (yes, let’s just make this 1 day)
We’re clearly most thrilled with Dec 25 no question. However, this website claims authenticity so if you’re looking for just yet another reason to celebrate this month…read on!
Field Trip
Jason as a Tree
Ok, apologies for the sideways view on this clip– normally we wouldn’t post it, but we think it’s funny enough to make the head turn worth it :) Check out this monkey crawling all over Jason…can guess which animals were our favorite?
Lip Games with Orangutans
This baby orangutan was a riot. Elissa played with him for about 15 minutes. Their time together culminated with this “lip game.” Check out this video of them…
Taking a Big Swig off Your Tail...
Sorry the monkey in this clip is so small (we can’t zoom with our camera when we’re shooting video) but this is like National Geographic type footage! If you look closely, you can see the monkey in the middle of the screen dip his tail into the moat in front of him. He then pulls his tail up to his mouth, sucks the water out of it, and drops it into the moat again. A bunch of monkeys did this repeatedly while we where there. Elissa felt like Jane Goodal and I felt like…a very mellow Steve Erwin – I almost said, “Have a look at that mate!”…almost. I thought the ability to use tools was what distinguished humans from animals.
Posing for Pictures
Here’s a picture of a common experience for us here in Indo – We didn’t know this family at all when they politely approached us at the zoo and asked if they could take a picture with us. We said sure and asked them to snap one with our camera too. Why not right? :) They told us where they were from and we told them where we were from and then they were off again. For some reason Indonesians love taking pictures with Westerners...
Lonely Monkey
Friendly, Smelly Camels
Since we were able to find Ibu Siama much quicker than we’d initially anticipated, we had a morning to go to the Surabaya zoo. Quite impressive for 1$ ! The camels where a little stinky, but at least we could get close enough to pet (and smell) them. The animals were definitely much more accessible in this zoo than in zoos in the states.
Too bad we don’t smoke cause this would be a great “Camel” cigarettes ad! Gotta love these guy’s lower lips!
Too bad we don’t smoke cause this would be a great “Camel” cigarettes ad! Gotta love these guy’s lower lips!
1930s Ice Cream Parlor
Finding Ibu Siama
So after our time in Semarang we took a 4 hr train to Surabaya – the 2nd largest city in Indo. When J was little his family lived here for about 4 yrs and a woman named Ibu Siama lived and worked with them. She ended up working for his family for about 10+ yrs – moving w/ them to Yogya and later Solo. So, here it is 15 yrs later & J wanted to track her down. He took an old pix (see above) & started asking around the area where she was last known to have lived…& found her! We took her out to lunch & had a good time :)
Mini Greenhouses
Men with Guns Photo Op
Geyser
9 Temples
We also went on a mountian hike to go see some fairly recently rediscovered temples from “ancient times” (that’s about the extent of our historical knowledge on these guys). They’re called the “9 temples,” but only seven have been found so far, so presumably there are a couple still waiting to be discovered.
Photo by Bill Oberlyn
Photo by Bill Oberlyn
Buddies
Tofu on the Go
Train Runner
The little train went through several busy intersections, so there was a designated “flag guy.” His job was to hang on to the train, jump off before an intersection, run ahead, stop traffic, wave the train through, and jump back on the train again. I think he should get a raise because amazingly we didn’t hit or get hit by anything!
Generations
Harvesting Bog
The Little Train...
"Fun Time"
Dining on the Lake
Green Construction Materials
This pix was taken @ Crissy’s university – the bamboo stairs look quite precarious eh? Were not sure construction companies in the States would go for using bamboo as scafolding, but we hear they use it to build skyscrapers in Hong Kong. Anyway, you can’t get much greener than this – it’s all biodegradeable!
Crissy's Students
Visiting Crissy
Monday, November 19, 2007
Aerial Shots of the Coast 3 Years Out
Jason had been planning to ride a motor bike from Calang (our soon to be home town) back to Meulaboh while Elissa took our bags in the MAF Caravan. It rained straight for two days and flooded everywhere,though, so Jason ended up flying too. Because of the weather, the pilot flew low (1000 feet)and Jason was able to snap these pictures of the coast:
This first series is at a wider angle. It starts just below Calang and ends as we are landing at the Meulaboh airport...
These last two start just south of Calang as well, but are closer shots of the coast. They end at the palm oil plantation just east of the Meulaboh airport.
This first series is at a wider angle. It starts just below Calang and ends as we are landing at the Meulaboh airport...
These last two start just south of Calang as well, but are closer shots of the coast. They end at the palm oil plantation just east of the Meulaboh airport.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Early Thanksgiving
So last year we’d planned a Thanksgiving meal with our host fam, Arief & Poppy & friends the Maxey family. Unfortunately Arief had a stroke & so our plans were postponed…until now, a year later. We just froze the turkey & spent the last year joking about it “still being in the freezer.” This year we finally celebrated together & the meal was amazing (dare we say worth the year wait?!)
We have a couple other Thanksgiving celebrations coming up – with our sister Crissy & some of our team here in Indo…more pix soon – ‘tis the season to be extra thankful!
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