Lessons Learned

Today we took an unplanned trip to the Big City. This city's name is Jayapura. It takes about an hour or more to get there. We pass on many roads that wind through carved out mountains and jungle. They are paved roads that cross through a few smaller cities. The "Big City" has a store that has some imported items that we can't buy in Sentani. We heard rumors of a great find, so today we stopped in. This is what we saw:



Feast your eye's on that, folks! That's the first time we've EVER seen ANY kind of Dr.Pepper products here (besides t-shirts that kids from Texas wear!). So we bought two to go with our lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. By the way, KFC becomes "special" when you live overseas. :)We finished our lunch, came back downstairs to buy more of the "goods", and this is what we saw:



Dr. Pepper habis! Habis is the Indonesian term for "all gone". :) While we were eating, someone came in and bought the rest of them! I heard another rumor that there was the original DP, but someone bought all that they had when they found out. I know who you are, and I might be coming to your house soon. :)

We also saw this for all our Dutch friends and family (Ed, this is for you!):





With the current exchange rate, that wheel of cheese is ONLY $120.51. We didn't buy it, but we thought of you. :)

Lessons learned in SE Asia: Buy those favorite things you NEVER see here within the first five seconds you see them, because they might be HABIS before you can even say the word :)

We're Up and Running!

Since we moved into our house in November 2010 we haven't had a phoneline. If anyone needed us, they just called our cell phones. For internet we were using a 3G wireless modem, which when we first got it was sufficient for our internet usage. When we returned from furlough, we noticed the length of time we could actually be on the internet using the wireless modem slowed waaaaaaaay down to only about 20 minutes a day (I'm not exaggerating!).

Josh had tried to talk to the phone company and was told that all the phone lines were full in our neighborhood. He was given a phone number of the field agent who might be able to help us out. Josh called but when asked how much he (Josh) thought it should cost we got the idea that it probably wasn't going to be the right price for him to come out. We even offered to pay another phone bill that wasn't ours to connect the line to our place.

This past Saturday we contacted our landlord. We explained how we had tried to get a line hooked up to the house and how we felt disconnected from our family. He understood and made a phone call. Sunday we got a message telling Josh to go to the phone office to pay on Monday. By Monday afternoon, we had a phone line running straight from the main road to our house. Tuesday there was a miscommunication and the phone guy returned to install internet, but we were both gone. He returned on Wednesday, and by Wednesday night we have a faster internet connection! It's so fast that we can use skype, check email, update the blog, and see facebook. :)

We are counting our blessings, and hoping to talk to you soon!