March Madness!

As usual, these pics are totally random in order. Here's to a month of Maulids, Moms, and Monsters!

Spending time with our friend Iluh and the fam'...

This is inside her house...pretty typical.



Teaching Iluh how to read so she can advance in school. Me teaching Indonesian...who would have thought!?


Maulid, the celebration of Muhammed's birthday, is a really big deal here. Kind of like Christmas except the only gift is food. These are the snacks served at one of the houses I visited. After the snacks come a big plate of rice and meat of dubious orgin. It's fun to visit, but after a month of Maulids in not so sanitary villages my stomach is ready for a break

Took this one while riding on the back of a motorcyle...the Muslim women wear head coverings and long sleeves in the heat and still manage to sweat less than me.Another Maulid. This is Ferdie's family, the boy I talked about a while ago who broke his arm. His cast just came off and he is doing great - surfing better than ever!

Every year, Hindus make big, creepy looking monsters and parade them around town to scare away the ghosts. Then the next day they hide in their houses and aren't allowed to make any noise or use electricity. There are even Hindu "police" who come around and make sure your hiding properly lest you invite evil spirits into the community.

Every Hindu neighborhood makes a monster and wears matching t-shirts for the parade.

This is a giant trap for the giant rat roaming around our house. I put poison on it for bait in hopes of doubling its chances for impending doom. It worked! He took the bait and yesterday morning we found him dead underneath the water dispenser. Luckily, my fearless neighbor was here to discard of it while my roommate threw up outside in disgust. Small victories.

These are one of my favorite trees. Really long roots hang from their branches and if you find one strong enough you can try out your best George of the Jungle impersonation..very entertaining.

Mildly creepy statue in Bali. My teammates joked that he's my boyfriend so I gave him a little smooch. Hopefully my next boyfriend is a little less gray and a little more real...

Hands down the best restaurant on our island. Arabic food and A.C. ...so good! Me and mom on the bike! The temperature dropped in the 80s that night so I borrowed a jacket. Mom didn't seem to be cold..weird.

We went to Bubba Gumps in Bali. It's a restaurant themed around the movie "Forrest Gump". The food was okay, but hearing Forrest Gump impersonations with Asian accents was much more enjoyable

We also took the moms out on the banana boat...

Did a little surfing...

and watched a lot of sunsets...

Kelly, Matt, and Caleb's birthday party. That's me in the middle playing chicken with two girls on my shoulders. Definitely felt that the next morning...

Ronald McDonald surfing it up in Bali

Hard Rock in Bali. Mental note made to never go there for my birthday. One pregnant girl unknowingly made the mistake and ended up going through what had to be a 20 minute long procession of obnoxiously beating drums and men in scary masks dancing around while she stood on a chair and her baby cried. In fact, every child in there under the age of three was wailing in fear by the time it was over. Nice.

Another banana boat pic. I got front, which makes me the designated bouncer/tipper of the boat. It's quite fun...and a great leg workout :)Somehow a friendly game of "share the hammock with your awesome daughter"...

...turned out to be "hey everyone, let's gang up on Amy and throw her out of the hammock" Clearly, they were unaware of my superhero power to defy gravity...ha!

Some villages on our island are rockstars when it comes to making pottery. Here's a few examples of their work...

The white part is eggshells. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it looks really cool up close.

Aritst at work...

Mooshing up the clay with their feet...

Future pottery artists...

No oven here...these guys fire their pots old-school

More lovely examples...

The clay in pre-mooshing form.

Back in Bali (did I mention these pics were out of order? :) )

Waterbom a.k.a the best waterpark EVER!

Cheesy smiles for the Waterbom bird...or whatever it is...

Scored a copy of Season 3 and 4 of The Office! Happy days!

Battle wounds!

No further details available (my
grandma reads this blog) but others may inquire within :)

February Festivities

These first 10 pics are at a village up north. We went there with a friend while they were celebrating Muhammed's birthday. Basically, all your family gets together and you beat rice, listen to traditional music, offer some sacrifices, and eat...A LOT. :)

These boys were so stinkin' cute!
It was a day of rice beatin'. Grab a bamboo pole, play some traditional music, and beat away! Seems like a great stress relief :)
An old school mosque that is used for holidays and special religious events.

Such a beautiful village!

Rina and I in the traditional clothing. It's basically just a pretty sheet wrapped tight. Being an amateur sheet-wearer, I forgot to spread my feet out wide when they wrapped the bottom sheet so I ended up having to do a little penguin walk, barely moving one foot in front of the other. haha..leasson learned! :)

Sporting our traditional attire :)

On their way to beat some rice

More rice beating. Every group of rice beaters wore a unique hat or bandana. Girls will find any excuse to accesorize! :)

I got a flat tire about 2 hours into our trip on the way there. Thankfully, there was a mechanic right down the road!

Before the mechanic, I tried to air up my tire with this machine at a nearby gas station. We couldn't really figure out how to work it and were wondering why everyone was giving us weird looks. Turns outs it's a fire extinguisher. Who knew? :)

This is a historical pic I found of the local people. It was taken a long time ago, but the people here look and dress about the same. Not much has changed :)

My new friend, Jack. He has a bad case of TB and wasn't able to get meds because of some loopholes in the health system. We found a doctor who would write us a prescription and took him the meds this Thursday. Remember him and and ask that he can make a full recovery.

Teaching my friends how to take a blood pressure..future nurses for sure!

Beautiful village down south where Jack lives.

My feet after a 20K walk. Note the infamous Chaco strap tan :)

My friend, Lynchee, really wanted to play basketball for her 15th birthday. These are my girls at the court showing off their mad shooting skills. We decided to give Johnny and June up for adoption. We visited them the other day and they seem pretty happy..and fatter. I think their new parents remember to feed them.

My friend Malea's brand new baby girl! So cute...so much hair!

Only in Singapore.

When did McDonald's get curly fries? Is this universal? I am so disconnected! :)

In honor of Tom Yum soup lovers everywhere.

Watch out for those...raised zebras?

Joyous January

What is this you ask? Our friend recently traveled home to a neighboring island and brought back their native tribal outfit. That's right, this is all the guys wear. I'll let you figure out how it works.
One of the winners from the English competition I judged. The guy giving out the trophies was really excited to take a picture with me. Afterwards, he actually did an arm pump and shouted "YEAH!"

Awesome random t-shirt. Girl Power!





Packed into a car with all my neighbor ladies to visit the latest addition to the neighborhood.

I was out exploring and stopped to buy gas off the side of the road. I tried to make small talk with the lady who was pouring my gas and before I knew it I was hanging out in her village talking about life and drinking tea. These are a few of the kids we chilled with...so cute!

This is bamboo soup and it tastes just about as appetizing as it sounds. The bamboo part isn't too bad though...tastes kind of noodle-ish

This is Ferdie, the sweet little boy who fell off a bridge and fractured his arm. He's doing A-OK now and eagerly awaiting the day he can be back on a surfboard catching some waves

Another picture of a beautiful sunset...they just never get old :)

I was a guest speaker for two college classes this month. Most of these guys were government workers in their mid-20s. Their English skills need work, but they've got the pick up lines down pat!

The second class I spoke to was comprised mostly of freshmen. Their room was crazy hot and I was dripping with sweat five minutes into the class. They didn't seem to mind though - they still enthusiastically ran up to me after class and threw an arm around my stinky self for photos. Poor kids!

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.