Merry Christmas!

Warning: These pics are in a very random order...sorry!

Encounters with my first sea snake! These guys are supposed to be very neurotoxic...I'd rather not find out :)
My friends, Chris and Kayla, visited for Christmas. Shout out to my Missouri girls..."M"!

I learned how to use a weed eater! Be proud Dad!

Kayla and I enjoying our beloved Fig Newton bars...thanks Mom!

After Johnny and June chewed through the wire cage we made them, our neighbor took pity on us and helped us build a real cage. They seem pretty content in their new home :)

This is the typical scene at wedding recpetions. You shake a lot of hands, eat a lot of food, and go home...or go cruising the streets with your elderly neighbors like I did after this wedding. We stayed out until 9:30 pm...party animals!

These are a few of our neighbors that came for our Christmas party. Aren't they beautiful!?

Turkey is a big deal around here! Andi had one imported and cooked a rock awesome Christmas dinner...so good!

Scuba diving on Christmas Eve...we saw sharks!

Christmas cookies!!!

Our Christmas decor. My teammate's mom sent us trees and my Mom sent a homemade stocking. My neighbors were quite impressed with her cross-stitching skills...way to be Mom!

Ran into these sweet little boys at a village I was visiting. They're holding up strings of crickets they caught...a nice mid-morning snack!

Rina, Sukma, and Wida...my girls! Sukma and Wida are attempting to teach me their heart language. I mess it up most of the time, but it's fun to try!

A pic from my friend's village. This part of the island has very little access to water. You can see how dry it is even though this is the peak of rainy season.

My friend became a new Mom last week! This is her holding her beautiful baby girl. I got to help teach her about breastfeeding and all the baby basics. She and baby are healthy and doing great...so precious!

The day after Thanksgiving, there is a holiday here called Eid al-Ahda which primarily involves animal sacrifices, usually a goat or cow. Suddenly all the goats roaming around my neighborhood are missing and the roads are lined with little makeshift tents like this where you can pick your sacrifice of choice.

Meet two of my awesome Iraqi friends. The girl on the left just discovered the Backstreet Boys and is completely obsessed. This family is a hoot!

Our first official health teaching! We taught all the women leaders in a local village about health topics like infection prevention, hand washing, nutrition, and breastfeeding. They were really eager to learn and we learned a lot about their health beliefs as well...it was a good time!

This pic is from my trip to the capital city. It's not unusual to have impromtu photo shoots when I'm walking around town. They just really love white skin! : ) These girls kind of came out of nowhere on my way to a taxi (note my luggage to the left) I'm not sure what they do with these pics, but I'm on camera phones all the place!

I got to go to Sea World on my way home from the capital city. Only $5 to get in and they let me take home one of these shark eggs. The shark had already hatched out of mine, but if you look close at these you can see the baby sharks inside.

This is also from Sea World. There was a little pool with sharks and stingrays swimming around and they didn't seem to mind me reaching in and picking them up. It was really fun!

This is a shot from a school where we've been helping teach English. The kids are so stinkin' cute!

Before school, the kids get together and exercise. Some of them have some sweet dance moves :)

Meet our new pets, Johnny Cash and June Carter. They've still got a little growing up to do, but hopefully we'll have fresh eggs soon. And, unbeknownst to Johhny, we will also be eating well this Thanksgiving : )
Ever wonder where cocoa comes from? This is it! The cocoa bean is covered by a white goo that tastes pretty delicious. Then you can dry the bean and make your own cocoa...how cool is that!?

Yes, this is a 2-headed fish. Be amazed.

Recently went to the north part of the island to visit some friends and check out the volcano. We went hiking and and came across two big waterfalls. This one was my favorite because you could crawl behind it and jump through...very cool!

This was our kitchen sink last month. The faucet fell off and water was bursting out at full force - flooded the kitchen. Thankfully, our friends from one of the villages had recently given us some cassava to grow. I used the root to plug the hole and we washed dishes in the backyard for a few days until we could get it fixed. Our bathroon also recently got a little makeover as there was no piping under the toilet so everytime you flushed everything in the toilet just leaked out onto the floor. It was a very stinky situation :) but after a little work and lots of bleach all is well again! Our team hopped on boat and spent the day on a tiny, secluded island about a 10 minute boat ride away. It was absolutely beautiful and I got to go snorkeling for the first time! I was really wishing I had an underwater camera because I saw a ton of crazy awesome fish, including just about every Finding Nemo character! :)

Another shot from our trip to the island.

Chillin' with the monkeys. Bring a few peanuts and you will instantly make friends with these little creatures. Honestly, being surrounded by a giant mob of these guys was a little intimidating, but I came out alive and it was a pretty cool experience.

Surfing!

Water buffalo crossing!

Getting ready to catch some waves!

I met some friends who invited me to go surfing with them on the south part of the island. It was hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever been....and the waves are HUGE! It was a great time and I have a feeling I'll be investing in a surf board very soon : )

The Market

Street-side chicken cleaning...I'm pretty sure PETA would not be happy about this.

We went to the market recenty to snap some pics of the local food here. We're going to use them to make nutrition flash cards to teach moms and pregnant women how to eat healthier.

Turning 23, the Beach, and Bob the Birthday Monkey

Meet Bob, the giant inflatable birthday monkey. Bob is quite the party animal so we thought we'd bring him along on all our birthday adventures. Eating out with Bob, Building sand castles with Bob, burying Bob, banana boating with Bob, you get the idea.

Village Visit

Chicken anyone?

These pics are from a village I visited recently. The sweet baby girl in my arms is over 5 months old and still under 7 pounds. Mom is young and loves her baby very much, just has a lot of misconceptions about proper nutrition. This is very common as health education is not typically taught in school and there are little public health initiatives to promote awareness and prevention.