Humidity

The effects of humidity on my wall calendar.  =0(

We are no strangers to humidity!  Growing up in Tennessee and living in FL for 8.5 years... and some other humid places as well... we've met & gotten to know humidity well!

However, we know humidity on a whole new level here.  I guess it is due to the lack of air conditioning in our home.  We do have one small room with a/c (our bedroom), but we only run it at night while we are sleeping.  (Don't feel sorry for the kids... they say they get cold at night with their fans!  They are like the Indonesians in that respect!)

As you can see in the picture above, my calendar is a bit droopy... and this is the DRY season!  Some of our shoes have mildewed.  Eeww.  So have some of our suitcases & things inside them (like my purse).  Yuck.  And of course, when you need your clothes to dry... and it is humid... they don't.

BUT the plus side... is our weather is not nearly as hot as what some of you are experiencing in the Southern United States.  You can always check our weather here on our blog (look to the right).  We pretty much hang out in the 80s.  Sometimes it might slip down to the 70s at night or up into the low 90s during the day.  This is due to our altitude.  When we move to the other island next year... we will continue to have the humidity... but we'll have a LOT more heat to accompany it... all still without an air conditioned house.

Here's to ICE WATER!

Bebek-bebek

A still picture of the bebek-bebek.  Here, they are in

the sawah down the road, not across the street.  They

are camouflaged... so hard to see them!

The sawah (rice field) is all around us.  I've shared that with you before.  I have seen three types of animals used in farming the rice.  Some sort of cow... maybe a water buffalo? You've seen the pictures of the sheep when they walked with us along the road.  Now the third are bebek-bebek (ducks).  In the language here, you do not add "s" to the end of a word to make it plural.  Instead, you double the word.  So to say duck (singular), you say bebek.  To say ducks (plural), you say bebek-bebek!  Unless of course you are using a number with the word.  So, to say 5 ducks... you say 5 (lima) bebek.  The number makes it plural!   Okay... that was just a side note!  Back to the ducks...

I love the ducks!  I don't know why... must run in the family.  My 19 year old niece currently has 2 pet ducks!  But I love the ducks here because they make that great quacking sound ducks make, and I love the sound of them in the sawah.  It is very wet & muddy in the sawah... and their feet just sound great in there.  I don't know what it is, but it just seems like a happy sound!  That may seem strange, but it is true.  

Well, the other morning as we were about to start school, we suddenly heard a lot of quacking and the "duck shepherd" (as we call him) in our yard!  For some reason, the ducks took a wrong turn into our yard instead of into the sawah across the road!  I grabbed my camera & headed to the front teras (porch) as fast as I could to get them on video before they were completely gone!  You can see what I captured in the videos below!  As you can tell, the kids & Dano came out with me! 

What color are the ducks?  I'm not sure.  They always look brown... like the dirt or mud.  I'm not sure if this is their natural color or if they are just dirty all the time.  There does seem to be some variation in their feathers, so maybe they aren't solid white.  It seems like there is one black duck among the group. So, if you know the answer to this question, feel free to let us all know!  

I hope you enjoyed this little video of the bebek-bebek as much as I did!  Leave a comment here at the blog & let me know!  

REWIND - Getting Here!

I could write about 100 pages on our trip here, but I know no one would read that!  So, I will just say we had a GREAT trip all things considered!  I will post a slew of pictures and just comment on some of them!  Just a brief summary of our trip... we took off from Nashville, TN flew to New York and changed planes then refueled in Germany (we still had to get off the plane & take all our carry-ons OFF), then to Singapore to change planes then to Jakarta!  We had to go through security at each stop... carrying ALL the carry-on luggage each time, BUT we were well taken care of!  Singapore Airlines was VERY helpful and had employees help us so much!

Our 11 blue bins... they could not weigh more than 50# or
we would have to pay a HUGE fine.  We did pay extra to
bring 4 or 5 extra bins... it was cheaper than shipping
anything or paying the fine for overweight bags!  We were
allowed 2 checked "bags" per person, 50# each, with a
total dimension that I now forget!  BUT it wasn't big
enough for us to have 2 blue bins per person.

Our other checked baggage... each had to be 50# or less.
They are smaller than we wanted to take, but the airline policy
requirements of the total dimension forced us to have small
bags.  It is hard to get 50# in these bags.  Most were only 30#.

Our carry-ons.  Yes... this is too much!  More than I "planned"
but in the end... this was the result.  Each was about 15#!

Miss V2 and me on the "small" plane from Nashville to NY.
She did GREAT on this flight.  It was 2 or 3 hours.  The
following pictures are all the others on the same flight & more
of Miss V2.  There was plenty of room on this flight, & we spread out.
This was the FIRST flight for all the kids!  They did great!
They all LOVED it!  =0)

Mr. W4 playing a little digital game from Wal-Mart that
was just a dollar, I think.  It was race cars.

Blurry picture... represents our trip... a BLUR!!
This was in NY.  The very helpful guy in Nashville
said we wouldn't have to go through security again
til we landed at our final destination.  He was WRONG.
We had to go through security EACH time with ALL our
carry-ons, but only after carrying them on about a mile trip
each time through the airport!  ha!

Riding the train from one terminal to another in NY.
Miss O9 has her American Girl Doll that was given to her by
a special friend in that bright colored bag.  Dano looks thrilled, huh?
Miss V2 rode in her carseat attached to a suitcase.  It didn't work
perfectly, but it worked okay.  Later we checked the chair gate side,
and she rode in the umbrella stroller.    

This is normally how we traveled through each
terminal... Dano led... then the kids were in a single
file behind him and I was at the very back.  We said
we were a sandwich:  Dano was a piece of bread and
so was I.  The kids got to pick what they were.  They
actually thought it was fun.  =0)  We made them earn
their keep.  They carried backpacks and/or pulled carry-ons.  

In New York, we landed about 7 or 8 at night and had about 2 hours, I think, before our flight took off so we thought we had enough time to eat... and we thought we should eat not knowing when our first meal would be served and since we had not eaten supper.  So once we arrived in our correct terminal we ate a fairly quick supper of pizza (if anything ever happens quick with 5 kids) with a bathroom break before and after.  Then we headed to our gate. The picture above is what we saw when we started the journey... a HUGE line for security!  Oh my!  We suddenly realized maybe we didn't have time for that supper!  BUT then a lady asked us who we were... we told her, and she was there to escort us to the plane.  She took us to a short line & helped us get through security quickly and helped us get all the way to the gate!  She was like an angel from Singapore!  Also... some young guys (from the airline) helped us, too!

This was the next "morning" in Germany.  This was the

only picture I took while in Germany.  This is the plane (I think)

we flew into Germany on & left Germany in. 

The first night, Miss V2 had her carseat in her

seat by the window.  It started out great... but then

during the middle of the night she started crying 

and didn't want to be in her seat.  =0(  So... I ended

up holding her a lot.  So neither of us got a lot of sleep.

So when we landed in Germany and had to take everything

off the plane, we just checked her carseat "curbside" along

with our umbrella stroller.  So this is how Miss V2 got some

sleep on the next flight.  Ahhh... much better!  =0)

Miss O9 traveled great... the only complaint
was about the food!  BUT... she's often complaining
about the food... so that was normal!  She sat with me
and Miss V2 in our row of 3 seats next to the window.

Dano & the other three kiddos in the 4 seats in the middle.
The kids were watching movies on the back of the seat.  We
had just bought the Tangled DVD for Miss E6 for
her birthday and watched it about 100 times before
leaving TN.  Guess which movie was one of the
FEW kid movies to choose from... yep...
TANGLED!  The kids did not mind!  They
could also play video games on that TV.  

Dano snoozing!

No pix in Singapore... we were too busy racing
through the airport to get to the next terminal.  Really
we had NO down time between flights!  RUSH, RUSH, RUSH!
This picture is in the airport in JAKARTA, JAVA in Indonesia!
We made it... approximately 30 hours after we left!  This is the
immigration line... notice how short it is?  This is AMAZING!
This process was much quicker than we could have imagined.  Also,
I'm not sure if you noticed... but everyone (except Virginia) is still
wearing the same clothes as when we left the US!  While we had time
to change on the plane, we didn't really have ROOM to change on
the plane. If we'd had more TIME in the airports, maybe we would
have been able to change at least once... but NOPE!  So we arrived
at the immigration desk feeling a little less than "fresh," and
hoping they would overlook that and let us in!  Thankfully,
they did!  Of course, I think the kids helped smooth the way.
We had no problems at all... all our paperwork & visas were in order!

For the first time in our lives, this was the line we got in.

These are the exhausted kids waiting while our
paperwork is looked at.

This is what an exhausted 4 year old does!  Thankfully,
no fit was involved!  

When we went to get our luggage, it had already been
collected for us by all these gentlemen!  Unfortunately,
one bag had been left in Singapore.  While I went to take
care of the paperwork for that, Dano & the kids entertained
these men.  When I returned, the men were taking turns
having their picture taken with our family (minus me).
They especially loved Miss V2 who was enjoying all the
attention!  Thankfully our missing bag was delivered
the next morning!  Yea!  It had all our shoes!  Before
we left the airport, we had to go through customs.  It
was a breeze!  Everyone seemed excited to welcome us
to their country!    

Outside the airport...

Our ride taking us from Jakarta to Kota Baru... notice...
no boosters, no seatbelts, no carseats!  There were none!
Of course, we had Miss V2's seat... but you can't install it
without a seatbelt... besides there wasn't even room for it!

You think they look tired??  Hot??
I was sitting next to (or under Virginia).  Dano sat in
the front next to the driver (from our company).

Can you see the Pizza Hut sign?

Jakarta... the capital... about 2 or 3 hours (depending
on traffic) away from us now.  There isn't a lot of traffic
in this picture... it got much worse!

Yep... that says Starbucks!
We don't have one near us, but there
is one about 30 to 40 minutes away.
We haven't been yet!

This is where we stopped to eat lunch
on the way to our temporary house.
That little truck has all our luggage.
Is KFC the same here?  The chicken
does taste the same, but instead of a
biscuit... you get rice.  And much to
Miss O9's disappointment... they don't
have mac n cheese.  I can't remember
what the side dishes were... we just had
fried chicken and rice and water!

Not sure why I took this picture... this is a nice clear spot
of traffic.  In Jakarta, it was bumper to bumper and door
to door!  AND people would be working along the side
sweeping up the trash!  I wish I had pictures of the
beautiful landscape we saw as we drove.  

This was our final destination... our temporary
housing in Kota Baru.  It was NOT what
we were used to in America in some areas,
but it was VERY nice and had many rooms.
We called it "home" for two weeks and 2
days while we arranged our permanent housing.
It was in a very nice neighborhood with many
"cookie cutter" houses.  This is where middle
class and upper middle class and rich people
live.  This is where a lot of expats live.  Also,
Indonesians who have a lot of money may have
a weekend home here in Kota Baru.  This is VERY
different from how the "average" Indonesia lives.
We are now living like the "average" Indonesian
in a lot of ways... but not really.  Eventually, I will
show you our new house! 

We are so thankful for the wonderful trip and for arriving safely and for our company helping us get from the airport to our temporary housing (which they arranged) and the week or so they stayed to help us get settled and learn our way around!  

Okay... that might have been close to 100 pages... and it only scratched the surface of our trip!  If you didn't fall asleep, please leave us a comment!  

A Sweet Treat!

Today we tried something brand new... Putu Cake!  BUT our neighbor didn't bring it; we didn't buy it at a store; I didn't make it, nor did our helper!  Instead, we bought it from a man who was walking along our street.  This is a VERY common occurrence here in Indonesia.

Actually, the little neighbor boy DID bring it first and let us taste a little... then we went and bought our own!  For only Rp 1000 (about 12 cents), you get 3 pieces of Putu cake!  We splurged and bought Rp 5000 worth!

The man doesn't just sell them... he MAKES them while sitting on the side of the street.  He is sitting in our neighbor's driveway right on the edge of the street!  When he is finished, he'll stand up and that bamboo connecting the two sides will rest on his shoulder as he walks along.

The cakes are the green cylinders on the brown paper.  He
scoops some of that green powder (cake mix, I guess) into a
bamboo cylinder then he puts a little palm sugar (which is the
brown stuff in the orange bowl) on top then more green cake mix.

Next he sits the bamboo cylinder on top of this can that is
filled with boiling water (it has a fire underneath that
we couldn't see... it is inside the green box).  The cylinder is
on the left on top of a little hole that steam comes out of if
the cake isn't there.  On the right side is a pipe that makes
a loud whistling sound!  So from now on, we'll know he is coming
when we hear this sound!  I bet he can tell the cake is done
by the sound it makes, too, but I'm not sure!  BTW, that silver car
in the picture is not parked... it is driving by on our street!  He is
that close to the road!  

A picture of him putting cake mix in the bamboo.

All wrapped up when he is finished!  He covers them in
freshly grated coconut!  I forgot to take a picture of ours
before we ate them!  =0(  BUT the link above that says
"Putu Cakes" shows them close up!  

They were enak ("short e" then "knock") which means delicious!!  I have a couple of videos that I might try to post sometime.  I narrated what he was doing in the video, but you can't really hear that because of his box whistling!  ha!

Maybe when you come visit, you can have some Putu Cake!

This Is the Way We Wash Our Feet

Whenever we come in from outside, our feet must be washed because it is DIRT-y in the yard!  This kamar mandi (bath room) is right by our back door which is convenient!  You can see that even Miss V2 is an expert at washing her feet.  You can also see Mr. W4 is doing something he shouldn't be!  Yikes!  Climbing on a stool in a wet room with a tile floor... not a good idea.  Normally, we don't keep that stool there.  

This room (kamar) is literally the bath (mandi) room!  The wall Miss O9 has her hand on is the side of a basin we partially fill with water each morning.  The basin does not go all the way down to the floor.  It is about 1 1/2 tiles deep.  With the water there, we are ready to "wash off" anytime we need to.  We just use the blue dipper to get water to rinse off the soap.  This is also the room in which we shower.  The shower head is mounted in the corner where Mr. D8 is standing.  There is no curtain... no tub... you just shut the door we are looking through at the kids.  So everyone takes a shower these days (not at the same time), but there are no more baths!  

I think the "normal" thing around here is NOT to shower or bathe the American way.  Instead everyone just takes baths the way we wash our feet.  They suds up... then rinse off with the dipper using water from their basin.  I am pretty sure that most everyone does not have hot water either.    

Thankfully, we do have hot water (most the time)!  We do not have what an American would call a "normal" hot water heater.  Instead we have a hot water heater that hangs on the wall above the water faucet.  The water is heated by gas just as you turn on the hot water.  It is not electric at all unless you consider the spark that lights the flame electric... but it comes from 2 D size batteries.  

our hot water heater and showerhead

And we are fancy around here.  The previous tenant (also American) rigged it up or had the landlord design it so that this hot water heater in our bathroom also supplies hot water to the kitchen sink... a rare thing around here!  People just wash dishes in cold water!  Thankfully, we have hot water to at least rinse the dishes!  

Well, just thought I would share an everyday occurrence (or several) in our life around here that is a lot different from what we WERE used to... and perhaps you, too!    

The Vegetable Handyman!

Tukang sayer kami!

(Our vegetable handyman!)

The load!  There I am barely on the right holding some
chicken breasts in my hand.  They are in clear plastic
bags, but it pretty much feels like they aren't!

This was the stuff in his lap he sets down on the porch
when he gets off his motorcycle.  It is kangung, I believe.
It is good whenever our pembantu has cooked it for us!

I love how everyone is okay with you taking their picture here!  =0)  Miss O9 took these shots Friday morning!

Every morning I have the opportunity to purchase items from this man, the tukang sayur
(which according to google translate is the "vegetable handyman."  And when I say every morning, I mean EVERY morning, 7 days a week.  The only "stickler" is that he comes around 6:15 to 6:45!  So... I prefer to be up and showered before I start my shopping... but if I wanted to, I could shop in my jammies... the other women do!  He pulls right into the "driveway" we share with a couple of neighbors. If I miss him in my drive... I just go to the next neighbor's driveway... he goes there next.  I assume he just continues this down the road until his motorcycle is empty.  He lets everyone know he has arrived by hooting and hollering.  Thankfully, the kids seem to sleep right through it... most the time!

I know a few words that help me get by in my shopping.  My neighbors (in my driveway), help me with shopping to let me know if something is bagus (bah-goose) or tidak (tee-dak) bagus!  (good or not good)  Then when I finish, the man starts adding everything up.  I still don't know all my numbers and especially when he starts talking hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands... I get lost.  I could SO be taken by this man... but I don't think I am.  My neighbors also help me here to let me know if a price is bagus.  My total this morning was Rp72.000 (I think)... yes seventy-two thousand Rupiah!  That is roughly $8.  For that I got 4 boneless chicken breasts, a bag of chicken legs, some white potatoes, and some garlic.  I think that is all I got.  So... I don't think that was a bad price... but then again... maybe my neighbor could have gotten all the same stuff for less!  Maybe I'm supposed to haggle with the guy... I'm not sure.  I don't see my neighbors doing that.  (But maybe they are.  I'm still so clueless in soooooooooooo many ways!)

As I said, the kids normally sleep right through his hooting and hollering, but on this particular morning... the 4 oldest were awake and came out after me... complete with Wesley only wearing his undies!  Anyway, the vegetable guy just loved seeing the kids!  Everyone does... and when I told him I had 5 kids (lima anak-anak), he gave me a surprised look and a big thumbs up!  That is the normal response here!  Joy & approval of a large family even though most families are only 2 or 3 kids now a days even here.

So... next time you wish someone came to your door selling groceries, you can remember us and our "Vegetable Handyman."  =0)