Pada Sore Hari

We try at least once a day to get outside to visit with our neighbors. Normally, that tends to happen in the late afternoon when they all get back from work and head outside for the same thing. Nadia is a key feature in these times with our neighbors. They love to play with her, and when she doesn't come outside for awhile, they come calling for her. ("Pada Sore Hari" means in the late afternoon.)

As you can see, the grass is burnt brown. It has not rained since May. We had our first rain shower two days ago. The locals are promising much, much more within the next few weeks.

Watching Nadia walk is everyone's new favorite thing to do.

Well... almost favorite. Nothing could ever replace ping pong in their hearts. Our neighbor's yard is always hopping with ping pong sets from 4pm to 6pm. Every. Single. Day. I also have no idea what Nadia is looking at. It looks sort of as if she is weary of all the ping pong.

Nadia's News

Not that we have any video yet... nor do we have photos... but Nadia is walking! That's her news. 

Here are two cutie pies. This is Nadia's future husband, Pascal. He's a darling in every way... i mean, look at those eyes. You should see his smile. His parents are co-workers of ours from Germany.

My loves.

Here are two very happy campers, eating their french toast with MAPLE SYRUP!! Thank you, mom for the bottle, and thank you Michelle for the flavoring! These two have suffered through many terrible attempts at alternative toppings to their pancakes and french toast... including vanilla pudding (which is completely disgusting) and coconut sauce (not so disgusting, but remarkably disappointing with pancakes).

Neighbors

All this talk about learning language and building relationships... where are the PEOPLE!? Here they are. These are some of our neighbors and friends. They are the ones who are helping us daily to learn their language and use it appropriately in this cultural setting. We are learning slowly, but surely. We are very thankful for these new friends, and their continual patience with us.

This little girl in the sling is 6 months older than Nadia... and about 20 pounds lighter.

Babies are fed almost non-stop here. And this little guy is wearing a hat so he doesn't catch a cold.

The entire neighborhood showed up for Nadia's birthday party a few months ago. Here are a few of them before they posed for the photo. This one was much better than the one they posed for. The lady second from the right loves to play ping pong with me, because she loves to watch how terrible i am. She laughs so hard at me and my awful-ness.

Here, our next door neighbor tickles Nadia. We talk to her every day, and we call her "Nenek" (Grandma). She is married to "Einstein", the guy who talks to the trees... and locks his wife out of their house for days at a time. This woman works harder than anyone we've ever seen.

These ladies (the two on the left) work in our home. As Westerners we are culturally required to hire help. It is hands-down the single hardest thing for me here. To have someone who doesn't speak our language, working in our home every day, watching us up close, listening always, doling out advice (sometimes really terrible advice), and constantly trying to take over, and raise Nadia their way is incredibly tiring. However, they are are huge help and a huge blessing to us (most of the time :0), and we would be pretty lost without them. They help us with the language, they've helped us "de-code" a few awkward situations with neighbors, they've taught me how to cook some seriously delicious Indonesian meals, as well as a few very effective methods for killing local pests. Priceless.

Hiking Mt. Andong

Last weekend Phil and some friends from school took a hike. They drove to a nearby village in the hills, then hiked a little mountain called Andong.

The smoking mountain to the right is Merapi. It erupted in 2006. It's not a direct threat to our town because its lava flow heads in the opposite direction. That makes me feel all better.

Some villagers taking a break from their farming to see the spectacle of a parade of hikers.

Another shot of Merapi. On a clear day, we can see this volcano from our house. What a beauty!

Looking across a farm at Merapi.

More villagers

The view from the top.

Phil and Dylan squat on the peak of Andong. Our local friendly volcano, Merababu, is in the background. Phil says that even though Andong was a small hike (one of our friends had the nerve to call it a HILL) he was pretty toasted when he was done. He wants to hike Merapi and Merababu in time, but he thinks he has some more conditioning to do before tackling those volcanoes. I decided to sit the hike out, because our one year old weighs 30 pounds... And no one wants to lug that beast up any hills unless absolutely necessary.