What's for dinner? Seriously...

I think I ask myself this question almost every single night. The meat in Sentani is mainly chicken, beef, fish, tofu, and more chicken. Our dinners are mainly chicken and rice, and when we tire of that we switch it around to rice and chicken. :)Not really, but sometimes it feels like that. We eat pasta, Mexican food, and pizza too. Tonight I went through a "drive thru" (insert imagination here). It was almost like KFC or Churches Chicken.

This is called a "Kaki Lima" (Kah-Key Lee-Mah). It literally means "5 Legs".



Vendors will push the cart around town selling their goodies. If you count the legs when the cart is stopped, you'll count five legs including the two legs of the vendor. This car is stationary, so it might be missing a few legs... The guys in the back are the vendors. They have a huge vat of oil which is used to fry the chicken. They then set the chicken in the window and sell it to people that walk up to buy it. Fried chicken (ayam goreng "eye-yam gore-ang (like angle)") is a popular dish.



We have to be very careful with the foods we eat if it isn't cooked in our home. Fruits and veggies have to be washed and dried very carefully, killing all of the harmful bacteria that can make us very sick (in both directions... if you know what I mean, either way not pretty). A good rule of thumb that we use is- if it's freshly fried, it's just right. So buying food from a kaki lima can be harmless if the food has recently been fried. This kaki lima offers fried chicken that is freshly fried around 5:30. The price is only 7,000 rupiah (roo-pia or rupes if you're local), that is about $0.81. What a bargain!

So ayam goreng, that's what's for dinner

*Ants*

*TOTALLY*RANDOM*BUT*WAY*COOL...I just learned this from a friend today that if you put * around your words in facebook chat your letters would be bold. amazing.

Today our bathroom was attacked for the second week in a row. Maybe it was our amazing towels that have the Texas stars all over them, or possibly the floral scent of the fabric softener.

Here's the scene:
We have two towel racks in our bathroom. One, which happens to be mine (Amber), is directly under a window which allows a little bit of sun to come into the room. This is where the army of ants made their entrance. The came down and attacked my towel from Texas. Oddly enough, they left the local towel virtually untouched even though they were right beside each other.

I carefully and delicately grabbed the towel and put it in a laundry basket. Our sweet helper calmly took the towel outside and shook it out. I figured it would be unwise for me to keep the other towel there that had a few stragglers on it. So I shook it out. This all took maybe five minutes. When I returned to the upstairs bathroom to spray those ants with bug spray, they had disappeared! Maybe only a couple were left... I let them live, showed some mercy.

But, seriously, if they decide to attack my Texas towel again... they're going down.

Here's the photos:









Returning about 5 minutes later:





I guess this goes to show that everyone, even ants, love Texas :) OR they don't and like to aggravate those who do.

These Days...

These days I'm missing home more and more.

These days I'm watching new movies with new friends.

These days I'm wondering when and if Kraft mac and cheese will ever come back to Sentani.

These days I'm wondering if I'll go home before my last stick of deodorant runs out.

These days I'm more thankful for the rain.

These days I'm pondering what it means to have joy in all situations.

These days I'm resting in the Truth of God's word that He is faithful.

These days I enjoy laughing with my six 6th grade boys (no girls).

These days I don't seem to mind walking in the rain.

These days I value family more.

These days I hope to update this blog more often... no promises, but no excuses either.

These days will soon be those days, but I hope these lessons will always be things I'm pondering.