Heading Home from the Lake

Top pix is rush hour Ton Le Sap style, 2nd pix is one of the boat guys cutting a (3rd or 4th?!) net free from our propeller so we could keep going, 3rd pix shows another view of the homes on stilts (in prep for flooding) on the banks of the lack, & finally a view from inside our boat.

Ton Le Sap Lake

Ok - so back to posting about our trip to Cambodia -while in Siem Reap, we went w/ M&D D one day to the biggest lake in Cambodia to visit the Vietnamese communities on the lake.

Everything is floating here – this is a school – classrooms on the bottom, gym on the top.




These pix were taken onboard one floating home. The pix w/ the colorful background shows all the décor dedicated to ancestor worship. Mom’s teaching a song to the little girl. The final pix is us just hanging out w/ them ‘cuz we sure don’t speak Vietnamese!


While we were hanging out we saw a funny sight…a dog following “his kids” in their boat – kinda like dogs following their owners to school in the US...but wetter! On the way back the kids let him ride home w/ them. Notice the floating homes in the background…multiply it hundreds of times & that’s the communities living there.


Notice in this picture the child sitting on the tall staircase – these homes are up on stills for when the lake floods – all the way up to their porch @ the top of the pix! If you look carefully you can also see a motorbike going by in the pix - carrying 3 adults & 2 kids - pretty normal. The 2nd pix is a sweet little kid waving from his boathouse ☺

For animal lovers out there like ourselves, here’s a couple pix – 1st a guard monkey on a boathouse & a seagull (1 of many) who figured out that by following our boat which stired up the water, it could grab fish easier – J was able to snap a pix of an actual catch if you look closely.

More to come soon!

Still have a few more pix to post in order to get caught up but enjoy the below posts in the mean time!

Happy 60th!

E's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary just recently - here's the newspaper article...& E's carrying their 1st great-grandbaby! We're so proud to have such great marriage examples :)

Air Asia

Thank goodness for low-cost airlines that could take us from Malaysia straight into Siem Reap, Cambodia where Mom & Dad D live – only a 2 hr flight! We spent 5 days full of…

Angkor Watt – one of the wonders of the world – or is it ancient world? This is the entrance to our 1st “Watt” or temple.


Interesting thing about this world wonder is that it’s still very much in use today…here’s a couple pix of some Buddhist monks we saw while touring.

Altho pix can be deceiving, this is really how steep this (as well as several other) staircase was to worship the gods– no climbing allowed anymore…bummer ‘cuz we thought it would be a good story to say “I fell down the stairway to heaven”

Visitors have the option to see the temples via elephant back …


We enjoyed walking around for a morning but it’s possible to buy a 3-day pass – it’s that huge! In some temples, the archaeologists are fighting w/ the ecologists to decide, should the trees be allowed to keep overtaking the temples or not…what do you think?

Guys Nite Out

MU vs. Chelsea was on – here’s John & Phil sportin’ their best….what?

Westernization

While in Penang we didn’t pass up a chance to make a McD’s run or take some of the youth of workers here in Indo for a Chili’s night – yummy!

Ziemer Dorm

On the evening of Easter, we were asked to come speak at one of the dorms at Dalat Int’l School there in Penang. This dorm's name is “Ziemer,” named after J’s grandparents, Bob & Marie Ziemer. They had shirts made that say “I love Ziemer” so it was a blast sharing family history w/ them.

Food, Folks & Fun

We were super excited that our visa run to Penang fell around the time that our good friends the Steiners were coming from more up north in Asia & the Littletons were coming from Morocco for a break. Also pictured here is the Holden family representin’ – they live in Penang so is always fun to see them too. This was our 1st break w/ friends w/ kids so we gotta taste of what’s to come in our near future!

Onto Penang

For our visa run, we head across the Straits of Malacca to Malaysia, city of Penang to be exact. Here’s a pix of our 1st morning where J decided that M&M’s on toast would be a good start of the day (can’t get M&M’s in Aceh) :)

Our visa letter wasn’t ready from Indo by the time we got to Malaysia so we took a breather & went to the local “Spice Gardens” – very fun!

Cheers!

Because of our current visa situation, every ½ yea we have to leave the country. Getting out to bigger cities is quite a treat & so on our way out of the country in Medan we enjoyed...


Indian cuisine – Elissa was majorly craving this one



As well as “the best steak experience” Elissa has ever had – right here in Indonesia! (altho the steak was Australian)

Playing Catchup

OK, we’re finally getting around to posting what we’ve been up to in the last couple months…travels up to the mountains to survey for new CAMA work, our visa run & more trips to the mts…


Here’s part of the coastal road where Jason & Jos encountered a downed power line. They were following another NGO worker to the mts & the line went down in between the other guy & them – close call!

These kids were psyched to get their pix taken – esp the guy in the front w/ his “tough guy” stance – too funny :)


Here’s Jos right before he & Jason ride their bikes onto the 1st ferry on their journey…


Kinda like “Motorcycle Diaries”…but less political


Ferry from a distance – doesn’t look like it can hold much...


But it held all 4 of these guys & their trail bikes – pretty amazing


2nd ferry ride was a little more rugged – water only to their ankles though…


Conquering minor puddles along the way...


Here’s Jason on a bridge into the village


Jos & a Acehnese villager who was nice enough to show us how to get to the next village.

Sifter needed, please apply within…

Here’s a tightly fitting tupperware container full of flour…& weevils! Problem wasn’t the seal, but that the bugs were initially in the flour from the market. If you look closely, you can see how they’ve made “ants trails” throughout the flour…@ one point we thought of sifting (thx for sending the sifter Mom J!) but decided to pitch it instead. Anybody have any good weevil prevention tricks?

Another backyard pix

So yea, Calang's in the middle of nowhere & internet is extremely slow, but what a view!

It's been forever...

OK, we know we haven't posted in quite awhile... part of it is the recent, slow internet connection in Calang (4 hrs to book a flight - ugh!, and part of it is we've been busy! Anyways, we had to make a visa run to Malaysia & on the way took the chance to visit Mom & Dad D in Cambodia. We have tons of pix to come, but will put a few up in the mean time while we get ourselves organized :) Pix above is 1 of 2 little crabs we found in our kitchen the other week...J chased 'em around for awhile, those little buggers are fast!

Where There is No Doctor...

Well, we’ve been referring to the book "Where there is No Doctor quite frequently in the last month or so, especially w/ E being pregnant. It was written for an Africa context, but works well in Aceh too! It has inspired us to take a few more pictures...



Like “Where there is No Ladder” – well, truth is we do have a ladder but it only has 2 legs & so doesn’t work for jobs in the middle of the room. J’s using a tank of natural gas instead…you can see a little glimpse of our main room (still in process!)



Or “Where there Is No Gas Grill” – here J’s using cement blocks and a fire to grill some fresh fish…kinda like camping but tasted MUCH better :)



Or “Where there Is No Hammer” – ok, actually we also have a hammer but someone borrowed it & hadn’t returned it yet. J’s using a rock to make a canopy of sorts to keep rain out of our bedroom…how cavemanish!