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.