Hello, Life is calling.

As I settle into this new role of housewife, I am beginning to live a life of availability for God. If someone calls,"Hey want to go run errands with me?" Yessssss, I do. "Hey do you want to go with me to this village on the lake- in 5 minutes?" Yessssss, I do. It's amazing what God will do with you when you have an open schedule. Here's one of the adventures!

Meet my friends, Christy and Ibu Ona. We sat on this trip together this last Wednesday.



We headed by boat-taxi to a village call Yoboi (pronounced "Yo-Boy")to visit a woman from the church who had given birth to a baby boy the week before. She was having issues feeding the baby, because her milk had dried up. Christy bought some presents and some formula for the mom. Our purpose was to encourage this new mom with the Word, prayer, songs, and testimony. Her husband is not a believer, but she and her family are. Here's some of the sights from the boat:



While waiting to leave on the taxi, we heard this cry that sound like either a cry of death, a cry for help, or something else. It wasn't pleasant. We didn't know what it was, that was until we saw the goat. This goat's legs were tied up and had just arrived from a lake village. The goat would ride by ojek or a motorcycle taxi to its next stop. The ojek driver just tied the goat around his waist to keep him on the back of the motorbike. Let's hope they made it to their destination with no problems!



We also saw this fisherman in his dugout canoe. This is the trunk of a tree that is "dug out" into a canoe. They can be many different shapes and sizes.



We saw the village. This village is unique because the entire thing is built on a huge boat dock. The houses are built on stilts. To go to your friends house you can walk over the bridges, swim, or take your dugout canoe.





Our friend lived at the very end of the bridge. We think they ran out of strong wood pieces and had to revert to the use of tree bark. The bridge to a beginner (or anyone who doesn't live in Yoboi) is weak. But to the experienced, you just have to know where to step. So, Momma, came out to help us cross the bridge. Christy went first, Ibu Ona followed, and I brought up the rear... with the help of Momma.









After crossing the scary bridge of death... a little exaggeration but you get the picture... we made it to our friend's house. We walked into seeing a dark skinned Indonesian three year old bathing next to her mom who was holding her brand new baby brother. We oooed and ahhhed over the baby. He's a cutie!









Momma has her own dugout canoe. "Do you want to ride?" Yesssssss, I do! So the new mom disappears for a little while. She comes back to the backdoor with their canoe. So we all climb in with this beautiful three year old and Momma. Every movement was felt in this canoe. You turn your head, and you feel like you're going to tip. There was never a "aaahhh this is no nice" moment. It was always a "hang on to the edge, enjoy the scenery, but focus!" moment.









Here is a close up of Titin, the three year old sister, and Momma.





Here's the view of the hills from the dugout canoe ride with Momma.



They gave us a ride back to meet the boat taxi in their dugout canoe. They went to "park", and Titin had to duck. She was obedient and ducked until they had cleared the low bridge.



That was our adventure to Yoboi. It was a neat trip. God allowed me to enter into homes, hearts, and establish relationship with a lot of people. How amazing is that?

Here's some random photos of our (temporary) home and our kitty #3. This house has loads of fruit trees in front of it- pineapples, guava, papaya, lemon, and bananas.



Meet kitty #3. Her name is Molto. What is "molto"? Molto is nothing special, but it's a fabric softner used to make your clothes smell nice used by many Indonesians. I had no idea what this was until my (temporary) househelper brought it to use it on our clothes. She mixed Molto (the fabric softer, not the cat) with water in a spray bottle to use while she was ironing. When we got the cat, we were told a spray bottle will help quicken the training process. So, she would try to climb our legs and we would spray her. The very first time she was sprayed she smelled like flowers! We couldn't figure out why, until we realized we sprayed her with Molto. Lucu (pronounced Loo-chu, this means funny/cute) story!






So that's all for now. I'm glad we have this blogspot to share with you about our daily life here. It's a little different from the States, but Indonesians take joy in many of the same things you do. You have a lot more in common than you may think!

-A