Village Trails

Here’s 2 seemingly contrasting pix that actually have much in common…both discovered on the trails up to the village CAMA’s working in. J likes to try to grow things & when he saw a wild orchid on the side of the trail one day, he brought it back home for a fun souvenir from the mts.

The truck pix was a recent pix when J escorted about 20 village folks down to Calang to get some training on how to grow organic rice & start rubber tree plantations. First, imagine 20 people cramming into the truck (clown car style) & then on the trip, slowly sliding off the road into an unseen ditch…not a typical day in the office! ☺

Before we took off from Calang, we had a chance to connect briefly w/ our neighbors. The pix of all women was taken on our front porch when they stopped by to say their “see ya in January” greetings & the pix w/ 2 little guys is the sons of Pk Hamit (J’s closest Acehnese friend) as they get ready for school – uniforms is the norm! Just for reference, these guys were the ones that were playing jacks in our earlier post & the oldest was borrowing our bike – adorable.

Wildlife @ Our Place

We’ve got the typical animals which pass by our place daily – cows, goats, chickens (seemed a little out of place @ 1st since we live @ the beach but we’re used to it now), but there have been some more interesting “sightings” lately.

Here's a wild boar rooting through our neighbor’s garbage pile – usually they aren’t brave enough to come out in the middle of the day.


Also, J left his wet Nikes on the porch after a motorbike trip to the village the other day. 2 days later, when he put them on again, one in particular didn't seem to fit right. He took it off and found this little bullfrog. It was kind of awkward for both of them, but no one got hurt, and no one peed so all's well that ends well.

Ladies’ Afternoon

E invited the ladies w/ FHI over to learn how to make banana bread & watch a movie. They decided to make welcome/congratulations cards for CAMA’s other team members in Calang, Jos & Yuli. They were just married & are getting ready to come back to Aceh – hooray!

Tribute to Cali

Well, last week one of our neighbor’s cats who likes to stop by brought her kitten too & hung out @ our place all day. E’s holding them both on our kitchen floor while Cali nurses & then they cashed out shortly thereafter in our chair…very cute. Unfortunately just a few days later Cali came down w/ something (or ate something weird – we think something that was poisoned) & became super weak & died a few days later – really sad. Shortly thereafter her kitten died too. Not all posts can be lighthearted eh? J was really great about burying Cali – as animal lovers it’s semi-traumatic to see suffering & not be able to do anything…

FHI Crew

Here’s a pix of the group working w/ FHI (Food for the Hungry Int’l) here in Calang – great folks. We interact w/ them almost daily & have learned a lot from each other. A handful of them have been trained thru our org as well. The other pix’s of E w/ her jogging partners from FHI. (Winnie on left & Monika in the middle) Often Indonesians don’t run intensely so it’s been a perfect fit for E while pregnant. :)