Drawing the line through 2009

I will refrain from giving details about the awesome time i am having in Indonesia until i can post pictures. But i have met some really cool people and i have laughed a lot. One guy was explaining that his dad is a vegetarian. He said he tried to be too but then he thought, if God didnt want us to eat animals why did he make them out of meat? I laughed a lot at that

also i asked one guy what his job was he responded, i am currently Self-Unemlpoyed. Haha

Anyway, happy new year as it is already 2010 on his side of the world. Miss you all and i will blog with pictures when i return in a couple days to my bungalow.

JAKARTA

I am really enjoying my time here and have already decided i will have to return inthe future. On Christmas day i went to the Sea World Indonesia. Almira has an inside link there so we were able to go scuba diving in the aqarium. This is something i said i would never do but after i caught the turtle who was the same size as me and let him pull me around i was cinvinced it was a good idea. I also was surprised by how friendly the sting ray are. Like cats. They rub against you and catch you off guard. One boy in our group was teasing a sting ray wih a fish instead of leting him eat it and he got bit in the head. No big deal. He is fine

We went to many museums and Almira has taken me all ariund Jakarta. Yesterday we entto an Indonesian Muslim wedding. T was beautifil. We went to the largest Mosk in Indonesia but somehow they figured out i wasnt Muslim and i was not allowed inside.

I have a really bad cil and have been loosing my voice. Lasb niht we went to a birthday party where they rented a room and we all sang kareoke. There are 3 microphones so you are never singing alone and since yoh rent a room ypu are only singing in front of your friends. We arrive home about 2am and got up at 5am. We are waiting at the train station where we will take a train to Jogja for 3 nights. After not geting enouh rest and screaming rock songs at the top of my lungsfor 3 hours i no longer hae a voice. This is very inconvient as English is not their first language and now they have to try and interpre my pathetic gasps of words i may be able to produce if any words at all. However Almira doesnt seem to mind.

Anyway i hope to post pictures soon. It has been crazy busy as Almira has every moment planned out.

Safe...

Josh made it home safe and I am here in Indonesia safe as well. I have only been here one day but I absolutely love it.

I went to see the tea fields and drank A LOT of different teas. There were terraces of Tea plants from as far as you could see. I ddin't get any good pictures because it was super foggy.

We also went to a place that has real dairy cows and the make specialty items with dairy... which is rare here. all the dairy products are imported. So I bought some fresh Mango yogurt and some Coffee milk. Delicious.

Almira was a foreign exchange student when i was in High School. I am staying with her. She has been a great host already. Her family is Muslim and she has been very accomodating to me and is teaching me more about the daily life of a Muslim. I was able to witness the afternoon prayer, the preperation and the details that go along with it.

I am really enjoying my time and it has not even been 24 hours. But she has MANY things planned for us. I am looking forward to it.

it is Christmas eve here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS>

Merry Christmas....

It is hard to imagine that it is only 2 days before Christmas without any snow on the ground and my habitual application of 45SPF. However, there are many decorations and Josh and I were able to ride around on the motorcycle and look at lights hanging from the trees and surrounding people’s houses. It was beautiful.

This past week was really for recovery. However, we both got terrible head colds and sore throats after returning from Tacloban and Josh has still not regained his appetite. In Bohol it is always very humid and hot, it does not rain for long periods of time, and it is exactly what you would wish the tropics to be. However, Tacloban is almost always raining and very chilly, well chilly for the tropics. I believe that going so suddenly from super hot to rainy and cold back to super hot in such a sort period of time really took us out.

Despite feeling groggy and out of it we were able to see the famous Chocolate hills, the tarsier (world’s smallest monkey that only habitats in Bohol), and my favorite water fall. Every moment was a blast and we are thankful we have been able to spend this time together.

It is Monday morning at 5am and josh is still sleeping. The Catholic church near my bungalow woke me up at 4am with sweet tunes of Christmas songs for their 4am Mass. Starting 10 days before Christmas all the Catholic churches have services at 4am. It is beautiful. I don’t mind waking up to that. However, Josh seems to be able to sleep right through it. The water is turned off and I am contemplating making breakfast and leaving dirty dishes for 2 weeks in my sink. Probably not.

We fly to Manila at 9am this morning and meet up with my friend Irvin. We will be staying at his apartment for the next 2 nights before Josh flys out to America and I leave for Indonesia. I am so thankful to have such great friends who are willing to share their homes with me during this holiday season.

I miss all of you great friends, and I want you to know that I am ever so grateful for all of you as well. Merry Christmas. As I spend this time in a Muslim home, pray that I will not forget the reason for this beautiful time and the fact that I can travel to these places with His grace on my life.

....
I had typed that before we left Bohol and then my computer crashed. we have been in manila now for 2 days and we have had an exciting time. Both of us are feeling much better. Josh leaves in the morning and we are at a Starbucks in what they call 'little New York' here in Manila. It is beautiful.
Things we did in Manila:
went to the Mall of Asia
road in busses, vans, tricycles
ate at Krispy Kreme
went to a huge market and bargined with the locals
walked around Manila
made an american meal for my friend Irvin
Drank lots of Coffee
continued to remind each other that is in fact the week of Christmas even though there is no snow and we are wearing shorts...

I hope to update from Jakarta... but i will not bring my laptop with.


Love you!

Hopping Islands

This is inside of one of the caves we have explored:



Josh has been to many countries all over the world. Apparently it wasn’t until he arrived in the Philppines that he found a bacteria to take him out. Tuesday morning about 1am he woke up shivering cold but he was sweating and very hot. This lasted until about 5pm Tuesday night when I finally brought him to the hospital.

The hospitals here, although a 3rd world country, are very clean. They do not have the best equipment and they allow the possibility of tree gods cursing you to be the reason you are sick. However, the blood and urine test results only took an hour to process. Sure enough, he had some weird bacteria that wasn’t too happy about his body trying to kick it out. We went back to my homestay so he could rehydrate and rest some more. I ran to the pharmacy to get him some prescription Advil. I am not sure if I mentioned this before but Jerry, the father of the homestay I lived with, is well known for his great success in Cock Fighting. Due to the rain, jerry kept all 5 roosters in the house. So, this hindered Josh from getting fully rested.

Wednesday afternoon I forced him out of bed to come and meet the Deaf students I worked with two years ago. We caught a plane to the island of Cebu and found a really nice cheap hotel with air condition and NO roosters to spend the night. Laying in bed watching National Geographic at 6pm in a new exotic city on an island Josh has never been to was no ideal. But I knew he needed to rest.

Thursday morning I kept all the lights off and was very quiet until about 8am. Since the buffet breakfast was only open until 9… we had to get a move on. The most amazing continental breakfast you could imagine! Rolls, bacon, eggs, pancakes, rice, corned beef, coffee, tea, corn flakes, juices…. It was great! I felt bad that josh didn’t really have his appetite back yet. So, I ate for the both of us. 

This is the sunrise we saw when we camped on top of the mountain...







Josh rested a little more as I packed up the room and we headed to the Cebu City Market around 10:30am. It was HUGE. We walked and walked and walked. Josh didn’t enjoy the tricycles and the jeepney rides since his body is much bigger than any Filipinos who have to get in and out of them.

We caught the 2pm fast craft back to Tagbilaran City. This only took an hour and 45 mintues. Much better than the 8 hour trip in the beginning of the week. Upon arriving at the Pier we had many taxi drivers and tricycle drivers trying to convince us that 150P was a cheap price to get into town. However, I knew that we were only 800 meters away from where we needed to catch our jeepney. So we walked away and found an honest tricycle driver to take us all the way out of town for the appropriate price of 40P.

we only got caught in the rain one time in bohol:


I made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches with tea for supper. Hoping this will help Josh feel better. He went to bed early and I let him sleep until he woke up this morning, which was about 10am. So, we will see what the day brings us. He seems to be doing a lot better after getting a full night sleep with out roosters or me waking him up for any reason.

Thanks so much for your prayers. We love you!

9 days summerized...

After what seemed like the longest 42 days in my life, Josh arrived in Tagbilaran City. The past 9 days have been an absolute blast. We have done so much together that I think I will just sum up the events and only give detail on a few specific moments.
WE….
1. snorkeled
2. went camping on top of a mountain
3. saw an amazing sun rise over several cities
4. climbed a mountain
5. toured through 2 caves that required us to bring our head lamps. We stayed at a place for backpackers one night and met a guy whose grandpa had discovered some caves a long time ago. So we paid him to take us there. I was super nervous to enter the cave since the entrance was super small and I had to duck and maneuver my way into it… needless to say, it was even more maneuvering for josh to get in it. Once we got inside there were bats flying around and many unique cave creatures that were fun to see up close. We took a lot of pictures and even some video. The sound of the bats flying around was amazing.
6. held a queen ant
7. got caught in the rain
8. swam in the Loboc green river
9. ran out of gas
10. walked around downtown Tagbilaran (several times now)
11. bought some AWESOME shoes that both of us are really proud of
12. walked across a bamboo hanging bridge
13. saw an 85KL snake
14. got a flat tire
15. laughed a lot
16. drank a lot of coffee
17. got a massage
18. Ate supper at Lee and Deborah’s house (the other american’s here)
19. fell more in love with each other through every moment
20. Laughed so much I almost peed my pants several times… ( Krystal knows this is true more than anyone)
21. went to the market and bought some fresh food to make the best stir fry
22. Saw a movie on the release day in the theater then bought the dvd the next day in the market
23. Went to the market about 30km away famous for their baskets.
24. Found some locals to take us through the mountains to another cave. This cave had water running through it and we only had 2 flashlights between 5 of us. Once we reached the mouth of the cave I decided to sit this one out. I do not like the idea of traversing through a cave with running water and insufficient light. The sound and sight of the bats flying out of the inside of the cave the further the boys went in was amazing too.
25. Josh broke 2 pair of sandals within one hour. As soon as we exited the cave his sandal broke. He walked through the forest the rest of the way barefoot. He is such a trooper. We stopped at a market on our way to the next waterfall I was going to take him. Everyone who was selling shoes ran to him as soon as the saw a white guy walking around the market with no shoes. I thought it was very entertaining.
26. Once we arrived at the water fall Josh decided he wanted to try and climb up some rocks with the rushing current against him. This is when his ‘new’ pair of sandals broke.
27. We woke up early Monday morning to travel to Leyte. 2.5 hours by van, 2.5 hours by boat, 3.5 hours by van… we made it to Tacloban.

Josh became very ill yesterday and we ended up bringing him to the hospital near by. he had a 102 temperature. They gave us a prescription for Advil and sent us home. He is doing much better today. We will catch a flight to a near by island then a boat back to Bohol. All is well.

Tacloban is the city I lived in last year when I was here. We sang Karaoke for about 2 hours last night and were able to have a traditional Filipino supper with the family I lived with when I was here. The time is going by so fast, but we are able to experience so much together. Thank you so much for your prayers. We appreciate it!

pictures to come...

No Stock Ma’am.

Everyone here is so polite, especially to foreigners. After being here 3 months now I pretty much know what food I like to buy at the market and what foods I prefer to buy in the Supermarkets. They have 4 really big supermarkets with almost anything you could ever need or want in them. However I often encounter my favorite wheat crackers are not on the shelf, “No stock Ma’am” Or maybe I can not seem to find any avocados at the market, “No stock Ma’am” even occasionally the only brand of rasins I have found without spiders or beetles inside will be out of stock. I have learned to live with this. Not a big deal. I just check back the next week and usually they have stock again.

This past week, starting Monday at 2pm I had the worst toothache. If you remember, I had complained about this when I first arrived but prayed for healing and havn’t had a problem since. Well, I prayed and had people pray for me, yet the pain became worse and worse. This week I had been teaching interpreting seminars everyday. Not fully aware of what was going on around me the pain slowly overtook the entire right side of my body. I would weep at night because of the pain. Tylonal and Advil didn’t help at all. Finally, Thursday I decided I would go to the dentist, something I swore I would never do in a third world country.

During my interpreting seminar I was called to interpret at the hospital for a woman who is Deaf and in labor. So, instead of heading to the dentist I went to the maternity ward. They have 3 rooms here in the OBGYN unit. A check-in room, a labor room, and a delivery room. All which look the same but with different specialist for each section. The women are all laid out next to each other knees up ready to give birth. I don’t need to give all the details but needless to say it didn’t help any of my already existing anxieties about giving birth. And I am not sure, but I think the screaming mothers and babies made my tooth pain even worse. Another girl whom I had trained this week was able to take my place interpreting while I went to the dentist.

Once I arrived at the dentist he explained to me that my dentitst in American had put fillings over the top of infections that hadn’t healed and that is what was causing the pain. He needed to drill out the old cavities and refill them. While he was at it he decided to drill out an old Mercury filling I got when I was probably 13 because mercury is bad for me. That didn’t cost extra.

The problem came when he began to drill. I sat up, in pain, and requested Novocain. “No stock Ma’am” WHAT? How can there be no stock? This is a dentist! This is not the cracker section in the grocery store! “Do you have anything for the pain?” I exclaimed half crying out of anticipation of what I knew was to come and half crying because I was already in so much pain. “Acetaminophen” Now, I know that is the generic form of Tylenol. That didn’t help me BEFORE he started drilling my head. I declined and we began a four hour painful process.

I was able to sit up every 5 to 10 minutes and hold my head in my hands and weep because of the pain. I told him several times I wanted to go home and that I wanted my mom. He continued to apologize, I am sure you are surprised to know that didn’t help. All in all the procedures cost about $13. The medication for the antibiotics however, were much more expensive.

It is now 3 days after the appointment. Yesterday I had a terribly high fever and stayed home all day and slept. I am feeling much better today and will take some time to prepare my house and buy some fresh fruit since Josh arrives in just 19 hours!