'MERICA

    Our kids haven't really been able to do some of the "American" experiences as they have grown up.  So during the summer months, we have tried to squeeze in a lot of things that were typically American (the good and the bad): national parks, hiking, road trips, Doritos, Chik-fil-A, a trip to the capital, cookouts, Apple fritters, etc.

The Change

   The differences between America and Indonesia can be quite shocking.  One of the big differences that I wasn't really ready for was the silence.

   We stayed for the first week at a house in the woods at the end of a dirt driveway.  As we groggily dealt with jet lag, there was very little noise, except for the birds.  No dogs barking or chickens clucking, no motorbikes zooming by, no one selling anything, no noise from neighbors.  It was hard to get used to.

 

 

 

Layovers

    The trip from Indonesia takes about 30 hours.  In the past, we had a short layover in Korea which usually ends up with us sprinting from one end of the airport to the other in order to make the next flight.

   So we elected for a longer layover in Korea this time around to break up the trip and let us stretch our legs a bit.  We were able to get out of the airport for a few hours and see some sights.

   It was cold...

 

Saying Goodbye

    Leaving Indonesia is always difficult for us.  A lot of people ask us how it is to be home.  But in reality, Indonesia has become home for us.  For our kids, they were born there and grew up there.  It's the only home they've known, so leaving is hard.

   Kaelen especially had a tough time saying goodbye to all her friends and teachers in Class 1.  There were a lot of tears and hugs and promises to send each other videos.


   Jaiden is also really established in terms of her studies, her friends, her extracurricular activities.      So the time in America is something that is not necessarily "looked forward to".

   Thanks to everyone who has been gracious to us as we're trying to adjust.

Photobomb

   We were in Australia to get our short-term visas, and Kenan really wanted to get his picture with the little plane that we had flown into Arnhem Land.  This was also one of the smallest airports we have ever been in (and we've been in some small ones).  Kenan had big plans for this shot, but unfortunately his sisters (and Mom) had other plans.

The Ride Home

    Kenan really wanted to ride his bike to a friend's birthday party.  It wasn't far from our house, and all five of us can't really fit on the motorbike anymore anyways, so we let him ride by himself.

   One of our neighbor's kids had a serious accident riding his bike out on the main road, so we've been extra cautious about it ever since.  We ended up staying at the birthday party longer than we thought, and it was dark by the time we were ready to go home.  Kenan's confidence faded due to his tiredness and a couple of motorbikes that zoomed past right as we were about to leave.

   So Jaiden reluctantly stepped in for the pinch hit.  The bike was too small for her, and she definitely didn't feel cool, but she wanted to help out her brother.  

   Kristi decided to record it.  It's quite embarrassing.  Two paranoid parents, one kid on an undersized bike, lots of instructions, and lots of laughing.  We're not proud of it, but we'll share it with you...

   The important thing is... she made it home in one piece. 

Compassion

   Sometimes it's just heartbreaking.  The struggles that people are facing all over this island can be so difficult, and it is difficult knowing that we cannot help everyone.

   Our local partners that work at Access life Bali face these challenging situations everyday as they help people with disabilities.  I was with Ani and Andre recently when they were following up with a family in the mountains.  The grandpa has some disabilities, the grandma has some health issues, and the granddaughter has major disabilities that stem from a sickness she had as a small child.  The dad and mom of the little girl are not in the home any longer.

   Incredibly, this family continues to live with hope for the future.  They are focused on all the good things in their life, and they are so thankful that our team continues to visit them regularly.  It's great.

Country Roads

   We have friends that live up in the mountains.  I love visiting their place because it's fun to take the bike to their house.  They live down a narrow dirt trail... past a bunch of goats, coffee trees, clove trees, cows, banana trees, and a bamboo bridge.  It's a good ride.

Spaghetti?

   I was traveling in a neighboring country recently and was amazed at the amount of telephone and electric lines running in the city.  Our lines in Indonesia aren't super organized, but they're not this mixed up...

   I thought to myself how big of a headache it would be if you had to actually locate and fix a problem.  Two minutes later, I came across a guy trying to do exactly that.

   Poor guy.

C'mon Man!

   I was heading to a friend's wedding reception in the mountains.  I was on the motorbike, and I was needing to a break for some lunch.  I stopped by one of my favorite bakso mobile food stalls for a bite to eat (Bakso deserves a whole separate post, I will work on that soon, you can click here if you need to know what it is sooner than that).

   There are wild monkeys in the trees near this food stall. You have to be careful not to put anything down (keys, phone, bag), because the monkeys will take it.  It was a hot day, and I was thirsty.  I got a water and quickly finished about 3/4 of it.  After digging into some bakso, I went to finish off the water... and it was gone!

   I spotted the guilty party.  It was a monkey sitting about 20 feet away from me.  He was holding my water, just relaxing.  He casually opened up the bottle, and took long, slow sips while looking at me out of the corner of his eye.  I'm not sure if he was looking at me because he was afraid I was going to try and reclaim my water or if he was trying to taunt me :o)

   So when in Bali, be careful not to leave items unattended. 

   For those keeping score at home, the score is monkeys 2 - Jon 0.  The first item taken was a pair of Kristi's glasses.

New Ride

    Since January, we've been borrowing cars from other people that have been off the island.  A couple of weeks ago, our borrowing streak ran out, and we had to head out and find a car. 
   Cars are a funny thing in Bali.  They tend not to lose much (if any) value over time.  In some cases, they actually will appreciate in value.  For instance, we bought a car in 2007 for 76 million, sold that same care in 2010 for 78 million, and then I just recently came across an ad for that same make/model/year and it was being sold for 77 million.  8 years later and it still has roughly the same value! 

   The car we settled on is a Suzuki APV.  It's an "everyman's car".  It's not expensive, is fairly reliable, and is easy to fix.  They are everywhere.
   The only problem is that we were wanting an automatic, and automatics are very hard to find.  The overwhelming majority of cars in Indo have a manual transmission.  The search was going on for weeks with no results.
   During this time, Kaelen had been praying for a pink car.  We would have been happy with any color, as long as it was an automatic.  The first one that popped up on the radar had this purplish hue,  and it made me think of Kaelen's prayer.  I told Kaelen that purple and pink are very similar colors...
    Despite some minor issues, it is a decent car and ended up being the one we got.  The kids have called it Huey, the Purple People Eater.

Islands

   According to the CIA factbook, Indonesia has 17,508 islands.  According to a 2002 survey by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space, the Indonesian archipelago has 18,307 islands.  Some people say that 1,000 islands are inhabited, others say that around 6,000 islands are inhabited. 

   Why all the confusion?  Some of those islands are very small, and some islands are temporarily inhabited depending on the time of year.  It can all get very complicated...

   On our recent trip to visit former coworkers in Flores, we snapped this quick photo out of the airplane window.  This might give you a better idea of how small many of those islands are.

The Big Delay

   We had a long day of driving in front of us... about 7 hours of driving over really bad roads.  On our way from Mbay over to Maumere on Flores island, we came across a bridge that was out.  The alternative road was more like a trail, and it passed over a riverbed that was usually dry.  

    We were (un)fortunate enough to come upon this riverbed right after a night of heavy rains.  There was lots of water.  It would have been passable except for one deep spot right in the middle of the river.  So we waited about an hour and a half with a group of other travelers until the river receded about 8 inches or so.   

    While we waited several 'brave' guys provided the group with entertainment.  They tried to make it across on their motorbikes, only to stall out halfway across.  Their motorbikes would've been carried down the river if it weren't for some friendly onlookers that rushed into the water to save the bikes. 

The Other Kind of Traffic

   Kristi and I recently made a trip to the island of Flores.  We were visiting a friend that used to work with us at Access Life Bali. 

   Flores is much more sparsely populated than Bali, so we ran into a different kind of traffic there: cows and goats.

   On a side note, this road ranks up there as one of the worst I've ever been on.  Maybe only rivaled by the bad road conditions when we visited Haiti.  This road in Flores featured several obstacles that I truly didn't think we were going to get past: crossing a river, going over a bridge with big holes in it, land slides, dense vegetation that at times seemed to clock the whole road, etc.  It was bad...

  

Experience

   At a recent ceremony to hand over seven new water tanks to a local village, I had the responsibility of taking some pictures for the Access Life Bali office.

   The guy in this picture came and kind of hung around without saying much.

   He didn't need to say much.  His face shows that he's probably got a lot of experience and plenty of stories to tell.  He lives up in the mountainous area where the Balinese fought off the Dutch and the Japanese during the Indonesian struggle for independence. 

   I wish that I would have had more time to hear some of his stories...

Plugged In

Jaiden and Kenan locked in

   Our trip back to Indonesia was the longest flight we've ever done.  42 hours from the first take off to the last landing.  We had some well timed layovers (including a hot shower in Taiwan) which helped to make it less grueling, but it was still quite a long trip.

   At some point along a trip like that, when you're not really sure what time it is, where you're at, or even what day it is... normal family rules start to fly out the window.
 
   Usually we try to limit screen time, but somewhere over the frozen landscape of Siberia, it turned into a free for all.   I'm pretty sure Kenan watched 3 movies in a row at one point, and Kaelen became an expert with the inflight entertainment system.  

   It was a sacrifice we were willing to make for a couple of hours of sleep...

Getting Ready for Re-entry

   The differences between life in the US and Indonesia are huge.  Culture, traffic, food, clothing, language, weather, etc.

   As we get ready to head back on the 15th of January, one of the differences on that list is gets drastic due to the time of year that we are going back.

   This is one of the hottest, most humid times of the year in Bali.  It is also one of the coldest, driest times in America.

   As you can see from the photo, it was a 75 degree difference yesterday (9am America time, 10pm Indonesia time). 

   In January, the temperature is regularly in the high 80s in Bali, and the humidity is also in the high 80s.

   We're actually looking forward to it...  :o)

Street View!!

   Most of you know how much I love maps, and if you follow the blog, you also may remember about Google Streetview's rough start in Indonesia with the Google Street View car involved in some hit and run accidents, among other things.

   Much of the work is done for our island, and Street View went live about a month ago.  So I thought it would be fun to show you some of our favorite places via Google.   Just click on the links, and it should take you straight to the Street View page.  Look around and have fun exploring...

Morning Run (click here!): This is close to our house and is the road I jog on in the mornings.  Usually there aren't as many clouds in the mornings, and you get a great view of the mountains and volcanoes to the north.

Heading out west:  When I'm heading out to water projects on the western part of the island, I usually stop here for a break.  This is a scary road with lots of accidents, so I like to take it slow.  The bulls in the statue commemorate the big bulls ridden by extremely brave men in wild races in West Bali every year.

Good Eats: This is Dekade.  It's close to our house and probably one of our favorite places to eat.  Great Indonesian-Chinese-Balinese food.

Traffic: This is not one of our favorite things.  Explore this area to see how crowded the streets are...

Pertigaan: Pertigaan just means a three-way intersection.  This is located really close to our house.  On the left you see our market, Pasar Agung (the great market).  Notice the offerings in the middle of the road.

Liberty Shipwreck: while this is not technically Street View, we still love this place.  An American ship from WW2 ran aground here and eventually ended up sliding into the ocean following the eruption of Mount Agung.   Stepping out of the ocean, this is one of the driest areas of Bali, lots of needs here for water...

Kedinginan (Freezing)

   Since coming to America, there has rarely been a day that we have not found ourselves freezing cold at one point or another.  This has usually been due to the ridiculously frigid levels that air conditioners are set to in homes, stores, and restaurants. 

   With Fall officially here, now it is the actual weather joining in to make us cold.  We often feel out of place, when we are wearing jackets and/or shivering when everyone else is 'comfortable'. So we try to blend in as much as possible.

   This morning, I was especially cold after a breakfast meeting with friends.  In the privacy of my (rented) vehicle, I set the thermostat to where I wanted it... and turn on the heated seats.  It was great.

Catching Up

 The blog has not been too high on the priority list since we've been back in America. Sorry about that...

   In order to catch up with some of the stuff we missed in the blur of getting ready to leave Indo and then arriving and settling in to our visit in America, we're going to back up a bit.

   Jaiden and Kenan left school a week early for our trip to America.  It was a sad day as they had to say goodbye to classmates and teachers. 


    Kenan's class (top picture) sang a little song for him, and he presented each of his classmates with a cookie.  A big spontaneous hugging party broke out.  The funny thing was that 2 of Kenan's 3 teachers got teary eyed as they said their goodbyes to Kenan. 

   Jaiden's departure was much 'cooler'.  The girls took silly pictures and selfies.  Her friends made Jaiden a list with their emails and social media information (I didn't realize that all of Jaiden's friends already had facebook, twitter, etc).

   The kids have done well transitioning to life here in America, but they talk often about their home in Bali and wanting to return.  That's a good thing...