Finally, photos!
The water pictures don't really show how big the water slide was...huge...and fast.
The one of me with a family is us in our traditional clothes, with our village family. The one of me in the grass is me "mowing the lawn" at our house...no joke. We get to use a machete! The pretty flowery things on the ground are offerings they make every day. The ones off of the ground are to the gods, and the ones directly on the ground are offerings to the demons.
Hope you enjoy seeing pictures of my new home... I love it. :)



about to go down the waterslide! it was HUGE

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our first beach experience, followed by dinner and live music <3

Slow Down

Thanks to those who have been reading my blog. I only get access to a computer about a once a week, so if I haven't responded to you personally, it's not because I don't want to, I love you.

The past week we got to help Bapak in the rice fields. I loved the feeling of having to step barefoot into muddy squishy water and squat down to pick the rice. (No sarcasm involved.) However, I learned later that there are often eels swimming around in the rice terraces! Thank goodness I didn't see any, or know this at the time.

While most of you are "enjoying" inches upon inches of snowfall right about now, instead of having a snowy cozy Valentines, I went to a resort hotel and paid a whole 2 dollars to swim there at my leisure, surrounded by palm trees, flowers, and dragon flies. It was rather enjoyable, tho I love winter with a passion.

This week we will go back out to the village and hangout, and then by friday make the mountainous descent to the capital city for a week. I think we will go to an art village, which I am STOKED about.
I have grown to love tofu and tempe, and since meat and cheese is pricey here, we eat a lot of it.

Im pretty sure that when I get back, Im going to give everyone a hard time for not doing a trip like this one. It has already stretched me so much, and there is no excuse not to 'go'. I can't believe a month has already passed, and I wish time would slow down. It is beautiful, exotic, and fascinating here.

You should come.

I Kill Chickens

It's true. This week, when we went to the village, we brought with us 2 live chickens. I meant FAT chickens! One for me and my friend to kill. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Bapek (my temporary dad) told us what to do and we did it. My chicken died pretty quickly cuz I'm really good at cutting throats apparently...but it's artery did squirt a little bit. don't worry I have it all on video so you can see. :) I also can pluck a chicken, remove its guts, and cut the good meat off. Then I can eat it for dinner. It was good.

I feel like everyone (especially girls) should experience something like this...and by that i mean, not caring what you look like...not even having access to a mirror. Not wearing make up. Wearing oversized clothes...even BOY clothes. Things are just like that here and everyone is okay with it. Its so easy in America to get caught up with always looking nice and not wanting to get dirty, and its actually been so refreshing to just not care.

The family dressed us up in their traditional clothes one afternoon, because they wanted a picture of us as their 'family'. It was pretty fun. Next time we go to the village we will print off the photos for them to keep.
I also learned that I might be allergic to rambutan (rom-boo-tan)...a hairy fruit that is popular here, and is oh-so-delicious! I eat it anyway.

This weekend we did an hour long hike through some thick jungle. I saw bugs that I'm pretty sure aren't recorded in science books yet. Kinda creepy. The guy that lead the way had to use a machete to clear a path. We came upon a HUGE waterfall. I mean HUGE...you could feel the power of the wind and water from very far away. Reminded me how strong and powerful our Father is, and how small we are.

So it's been a great first few weeks.
I have gone 5 days without looking in a mirror,
never had a hot shower since leaving America,
showered out of a bucket for 3 weeks straight,
mastered the squatty potty,
killed and ate a chicken,
explored the jungle,
OH! and I rode on the street on a bike among motorbikes and cars to get groceries! SCARY.

I wish I could post pictures of all that I have shared, but you will see them soon enough. :)