Battered, Deep Fried Spinach

We went out to a Japanese steak house to celebrate our graduation from language school. It took us a while to figure out what we were doing...but the food was awesome. We were most fascinated by the tempura, deep fried spinach. I'm sure it wasn't great for us, but it tasted good. Maybe since spinach is really healthy, if you fry it, it just becomes neutral...

Gorgeous Hotel

We went up to our friend Arief's hotel in their hometown of Garut last weekend. What an amazing place. It is built around a small lake fed by artisian springs. The rooms are traditional bungalows built out of local materials. Guests can either use small foot paths to get to their rooms or gondola-like boats.

Arief offered us a couple nights stay for free at the hotel before we move...I think we are going to try and fit it into our schedule :)

Be the Fish

Digital photography is a dangereous thing - we no longer have to be responsible. We can now "waste film" on silly pictures of fish and us in coffee shops (and not feel guilty about it). Elissa and I really needed a good laugh a couple of days ago after our final day of language class (yes!). Turned out snapping self portraits of ourselves got us laughing pretty hard :) ...

Feeding Fish...Aggressive Fish!

We had fun feeding the fish in the lake at Kampung Sampireun...especially since they would practically beach themselves to get the food. As you can see, Elissa had quite a following by the end.

Mango Salsa

We love Mexican but have found it quite difficult to find “good Mexican” here in Indo – go figure! When we left OH after our 1st year of marriage our good friends the Johnsons & Wilsons hosted a going away party for us. This was our 1st exposure to mango salsa & we’ve never been the same again . . . now here in Indo we’ve been able to make it in the comforts of our own kitchen w/ the greatest mango on the planet – here’s the recipe:

2 ripe mangoes, peeled & diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 green peppers, chopped
3 TB chopped fresh cilantro
2 TB chopped fresh mint
6 shallots, chopped
2 TB honey
2 TB fresh lime juice
¼ tsp ground red pepper
½ tsp salt
(Chill 2 hrs before serving)

Marathon Cerama (teaching)

Last night we also attended the big event in our kampung (neighborhood). It was kicked off with a women's group singing a few songs in Arabic. They did a good job even though the projector was right in their faces. After that a teenage boy read from the Al-Quran, and then a guest Imam (religious teacher) came and spoke on seven things Muslims today need to do. These included encouraging young people to be faithful in worship, conducting one's self appropriately with the opposite gender, remembering to say "peace be upon him" when using the name of the prophet, being good friends with other people of faith such as Jews and Christians, and several others.

He used a PowerPoint presentation with pictures from his hagi (pilgrimage) to Mecca which included a short video clip of the cave where Mohammad is said to have received his revelation, pictures of the massive hotels planned for the city of Mecca (one from Google earth), and a number of other video clips including several from the movie, "The Message" (Hollywood's version of Mohammed's life). We started a little after 8:00 pm and ended about 11:00 pm. I was amazed that the Imam was able to keep people engaged for that long! The original plan was to watch a movie about the revelation of the Al-Quran after the teaching, but that got scraped because everybody was too tuckered!

Marin & Hula-Hoops

Marin, the son of our good friends Arief and Popy got a hold of a hula-hoop at the Ace Hardware last night. It was almost the same size as he was!

Shortly after taking this picture I was informed by the security guard that I had to get permission from the store manager to take photos...guess Ace doesn't want people copying their hula-hoops. Anyway, we had great Chinese food with the whole family and enjoyed watching Marin get a taste of the Fifties!

Huge Stuffed Camel

They had huge stuffed camels in the mall to celebrate Ramadan (Muslim month of fasting) too, so we had to take pictures with them. Della liked pulling on this guy's tongue.

Nappy Change

I'm sure this facility in the Penang airport is great, but it just doesn't sound like a place I'd want to take my kid too. It's hard to read, put the translation at the bottom of the sign says, "Nappy change."

Visa Run

We just got back from a trip to Penang, Malaysia to renew our visas. We had hoped TALI, a local foundation, could sponsor us by the time our previous visas expired, but the registration is taking longer than expected. Anyway, we had a fun time in Penang.

No Naked Lights

What can I say, I’m totally confused. If it’s “HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE,” then what’s the big deal…

Hanging Out with Holdens

We had a great time reconnecting with Holdens while in Penang. Jason and Lyn graduated from Dalat in 1996. We ate a lot of good food together (Indian, Mexican, etc.), went out for Thai
massages, and hung out at their beautiful, eighth floor, ocean front, apartment. Next time we see them, they’ll have their 1st little guy :)

Trolls & Truth

Latest suggested good read! For our VCC Philly friends – this is by Seth’s Dad!

Dragon Fruit

This has got to be one of the coolest looking fruits ever! We’re told the color travels all the way through (I haven’t visited the little room since partaking though, so I can’t verify this yet). For the faint of heart (or GI track), there is also a white variety.

Beach Pines

So there’s this certain type of pine tree that grows well on the beach. They’re great for preventing erosion etc. so they are a good fit for post-tsunami beaches - only problem is they are super hard to find in Indo! We got a tip that there are plenty in Penang, so Jason went on a cone/seed hunt to bring some booty back for needs in Indo & that’s where we ran into...

Monitor Lizards

In Nyack, NY we use to go down to the Hudson and watch the rats scavenge and fight along the rocks on the shore. In Penang, it was monitor lizards (the little brothers of komodo dragons). They are well camouflaged, so it takes a while to spot them at first. See if you can spot the one in this picture…

Here's a closeup of him in the above picture...

Inflatable Fun

So we recently had our camera again when we needed to grab a few things @ the store. We came across something we couldn’t pass up . . . this beauty’s called “Inflatable Fun” – who could resist?!

Upside Down Tomatoes

This is one of only two tomatoes Jason successfully grew out of the bottom of old plastic bags suspended from the ceiling of our front porch – they looked pretty cool growing anyway…

Independence Day Walk…in Pink Skirts

These guys really are happy to be dressed like twinkies (they just don't smile for pix here usually!)

Jason had no idea participating in the jalan sehat (health walk) to celebrate Independence Day would entail he and the rest of the guys walking 5 km in pink, grass skirts. They were a hit, though, and their group won first place.

The Electric Slide in Indo?

Who would have thought traditional Ambonese dancing looks a lot like something they do down in Texas! :) (Check out Elissa in the back left) Our language teachers are tearing it up in the front.

Pak Yuyus & Ibu Tati

This is a video of two of our teachers doing a not-so-precise Sundanese (the people group of Bandung) dance. These two were so funny! The clip ends abruptly because we are being recruited to dance. The quality of the performance deteriorated pretty rapidly after that!

Traditional Javanese Dance

This is a clip of a young Javanese girl doing an amazingly precise traditional dance. (You might want to turn your speakers down though; the music was quite loud and didn't record well.)

I Hope You're Happy!

Here’s a clip from Jason’s Independence Day speech at our school (don't worry, he's telling a joke).

Mardi Gras in Our Kampung!

In Indonesia a parade is called a karnifal (carnival) and we're still not exactly sure what a carnival is called. Anyway carnival probably is a better description for the crazy procession our kampung put on for Independence Day. This picture was actually shot right in front of our house. FYI, the person in the green head covering in the back- yep, that's a man!

Leader of the Pack

Here’s Pak Bandi leading the karnifal (parade) with his granddaughter, Fia (1 of the avid Uno players from our update letter)

What Men do on the 17th of August

Tanjut pinang is one of Indonesian’s favorite Independence Day activities. Basically what you do is stick a huge, greased, bamboo pole in the ground with a lot of presents tied to the top and get a bunch of men to try and climb it. How could that not be entertaining! Jason managed to keep the recruiters at bay this year, but it’s not looking good for next year…

These guys are dancing around to rally the crowd before the competition. Pak Unen (far right) introduced us to Pak Bandi & to our community – great guy! The guy on the far left is holding a donation box which says, “Donations for the tanjut pinang.”







And the competition begins...






















Three hours later they finally made it to the top. Check out this video…

A Different Sort of Cheese Puff

Here’s a quick clip of a women’s krupuk eating contest. Krupuk is a hard, foamy type of snack that tastes like fish-flavored cheese puffs. They hang them from strings and make the ladies eat them without using their hands.

What Women do on the 17th of August

This was an Indonesian Independence Day event that Elissa had seen before! She won this heat, but was robbed of the title because of a puddle. Not sure why only the women were competing in the events, but Jason was glad to let Elissa represent!

E & Eels

While Elissa won her sack race, she wasn’t so successful in the “stuff a baby eel in the glass bottle” competion!




















Here’s how it’s supposed to be done!




















Most women in this competition were able to stuff anywhere from 3 to 5 eels in a bottle, but Elissa had to be satisfied with one. Afterwards she got a lot of strategy tips for next year: rub your hands on the ground between eels (to get the slim off), grab them by the head, etc. I think with a little training she has real stuff-the-eel-in-the-bottle potential.

Massages at Ardjuna

Elissa’s sister Crissy gave us a great gift – free massage certificates! The place Crissy choose for us was really classy. Incidentally though, you don’t even want to know how cheap you can get a massage here. Let’s just put it this way, “extra value meal number 1 or hour long massage?” If we weren’t neck deep in language study most of the time, I think we’d be regulars. Thank you Crissy!