Returned Favor

Well, to our surprise & of course amusement, the monkey decided to return the favor & tried to groom J's hair. Shortly thereafter he evidently was worn out so just decided to sit & hang out around J's neck - pretty funny.

Grooming

After our conference in Bali, we motorbiked up to an area called Ubud, about an hr north. Here there's a Monkey Sanctuary where we got some great pix of their daily pastime...grooming each other. J tried his hand when a monkey waltzed over to his lap. (no cages here)

Field Conference in Bali

So we just spent the last week in Bali...in meetings for the most part! We did have the chance to hang out w/ folks in similar work to ourselves which was a blast - this is a pix of us w/ Matt & Abbie after watching a Balinese dance performance one night after our meetings were over. J did get up early one AM (a rarity we all know) w/ Matt & took some beach pix to remind us we were in Bali :) J & I decided to spend the wkend after the conference & have some time together before we head back to Aceh so will post those pix soon.

J's 1st Dad's Day

Well, we were @ our field conference for Dad's Day & had about an hr free time to steal away to a closeby Orchid Garden. J's recently taken great interest in orchids so was a fun trip. He's even found a wild one up in the mts where we work & brought it back to our seaside home...pix later. Anywho, interesting OTHER thing @ the Orchid Garden was an animal as well as it's poo that were on display - read below why! (hard to believe this is the world's most expensive coffee - yikes!)

(Info from http://www.paradise-coffee.com/index.htm - check it out for more pix)
Kopi Luwak are robusta or arabica coffee beans which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Indonesian Civet (family of Viverridae). This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago.

"Kopi" is the Indonesian word for coffee and "Luwak" is local name of this animal which eats the raw red coffee 'cherries' as part of its usual diet. This animal eats a mixed diet of insects, small mammals and fruits along with the softer outer part of the coffee cherry but does not digest the inner beans, instead excreting them still covered in some inner layers of the cherry.

Locals then gather the beans -- which come through the 'animal stage' fairly intact -- and sell them on to dealers. It is believed that enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavour through fermentation of some type.

Driving Lessons

So J has been in the process of teaching Jos how to drive in our new (to us) truck - good times!

CAMA's Office

Well, here's the guys in our original office. We just finished our field conference where all other Indo workers meet yrly. A few days before we left for our conference we found out we needed to move our office - more under "In More Detail"

Monitor Lizard

Well, a beautiful sunset wasn't the only thing we've seen lately from our home...here's a video of a monitor lizard J captured the other day...he's a smaller cousin to the famous Komodo Dragon (& yes, Komodo is an island in Indo!) You have to watch carefully. At the beginning, J is following him as he crawls slowly towards the green bush in the upper left, then the monitor lizard gets spooked and shoots out of the bush horizontally across the screen running right in between one of the goat's legs. He's incredibly fast!

Amazing

Here’s a sunset seen from our place – when u comin’? ☺

Priorities, Priorities

Here’s a mtg where the folks from the village we’re just starting to work in have written out categories of their top needs. They live in the former conflict area so it ranged from needing homes, schools, roads, to smaller projects like irrigation, cow raising, etc. They were each given a pile of the same # of beans which they used to place (as a vote of sorts) over the word that described the need that they felt like was most important. Great process for everyone’s voice being heard! (note Jos in the middle counting as well as the village chief smiling in the background)