Juni Joys

Americans usually cradle babies in their arms, but here we carry babies (and teddy bears) in slings.
Hanging out with the girls

Our friend owns a pottery business and showed us this type of drinking pot that the king used to use to make sure no one could poison his water....

The pot doesn't have a lid, but if you turn it upside down there's a "secret" hole where you can pour in your water.

Then you slowly flip the pot back over and the water stays in without pouring out the
bottom. It's kind of like that magic trick with the cup that keeps refilling. I was entertained :)

When someone gets married there is always a parade. The bride and women lead the way and the men follow, usually playing drums and making loud music of some sort. Friends and family join in the parade and bravely walk down the busy streets as motorcycles and cars try to get by without hitting anyone. It's always an interesting experience

Playing pick-a-boo with Caleb, hands down the cutest white boy on the island :)

I caught a few boys climbing my tree and cutting off its branches to make sling shots. I think they thought I was going to be mad at them for killing the tree, but I told them I didn't care as long as they cleaned up their mess. It wasn't long before all the neighborhood boys were at my house making sling shots. The tree was pretty, but I can understand the importance of a good sling shot. This is a few of them posing with their new weapons...very intimidating :)

The island we went to for our annual meeting is really touristy and they have a Mexican restaurant....delicious!

Found this sign outside of a restaurant. It says, "Stop!!!, Eat Lunch, Yuukk!!!"

Hmm, I think their slogan could use a little work

Wind surfing. I haven't had a chance to do this yet, but it looks really fun! Maybe one day... :)

The view from our hotel room...beautiful!

May Days

This is the boy I mentioned in my update with epilepsy and cognitive delays. He is super cute and makes me laugh. He was shy when we first met, but last time I visited he came running to me, gave me a big kiss on the cheek, smiled, and said in a Ray Charles-y kind of voice,"Oh Yeeeeeaaaahh" It was awesome :)

Working hard in the rice fields. No tractors or big machinery here, I think this is about as technical as it gets.

We typically have crowds of curious students at the door wanting to "survey" our classes. I think they're cute, my friend thinks they're a distraction. She usually wins :)

I see this cigarrette ad all over the place. It has two messages: "smoking can cause heart and lung disease, impotency, and complications during pregnancy" and "go ahead" Maybe it's just me, but I think I'd have my marketing people rework this one..

Chillin' at a village leader's house after school

Another pic of Mr. McSmoocherson

Why is this sweet, little girl biting on a piece of cotton, you ask? Well...

One morning I walked into a classroom packed with screaming, giggling elemetary school kids huddled in a big circle...

I made my way to the middle to find a dentist giving 15-second check-ups to the kids one by one. So basically you sit down, open up, and cringe as some stranger pokes around inside your mouth with a dirty, pointy object...About every 3rd kid the doctor says "cabut" and the kids go wild. The doc stands up, reaches, in, and yanks out a tooth. No pain meds. No words of comfort. Just a lousy piece of cotton and 50 of your closest friends laughing in your bloody face.

One of several Dental Day victims...

It's been raining a lot lately. This is (was) a driveway...

And the front yard become a decent sized baby pool

Leny is looking a lot healthier these days. All that soy milk does the body good :)

Kelly and I have an amazing knack at getting caught in the rain ...always without rain gear and usually far from home. Sometimes we stop and take rain showers, but this particular day we finally remembered to bring jackets. At least, Kelly thought she was bringing a jacket. It turned out to be a giant, thin plastic sack with strangely cut holes. Less than 5 minutes after she managed to tame the plastic beast the rain stopped, the sun broke through, and we had to pull over again so she could get it off . Poor Kelly. Maybe we should just stick to rain showers. :)

Amy in April...one week anyway :)

So I realized about a week ago I hadn't taken any pictures this month....yikes! These are all pics from the last few days so we'll just entitle this post "A week in the life of Amy"....enjoy! : )

These are some of the women from my Saturday morning group. I'm teaching them basic health lessons they can teach to others. Today's lesson: prenatal nutrition.
Goodbye Ria! Our friend's visit ended yesterday, but we got to go out for a little karaoke before we parted ways. (Sorry for all the sideways pics..my computer couldn't make them right side up)
I've had Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" stuck in my head since...

This is the beautiful Maria demonstrating her "I can drink from the kettle without touching it with my mouth" skills. It's a lot harder than you think. I'm getting better at it though...I only choke myself about 50% of the time now :)

Making dinner with Maria's family...

Mama chicken protecting her babies. I used to think chickens couldn't fly. This was until Thursday night when I got pooped on by a flock of them hiding in the tree above me. So not cool...

Ibu Kulit teaching us how she cooks tempe with her wood "stove." She's got skill and her sambal is amazing (sambal is a spicy, hot sauce made from red chili peppers. They add it to everything and always say "the hotter, the better")

Got caught in the rain on my way home from visiting Leny, whose village is an hour away from me. Some kids had just gotten out of school and were making a break for home...

Some of them stopped to hang out and chat with me for a while. We sang the ABC song and practiced saying "My name is....." It's cute when they concentrate so hard on getting the phrase out they forget their name. haha I was thankful for their sweet company.

I posted this one mostly for the little girl who is giving the camera a funny look. I posted a pic of her when I first moved. She's gotten so big! :)

Super proud of this mom for sticking with breastfeeding. Yay for healthy, normal weight babies!

This is Leny. I met her when I first moved here and then she disappeared from her village for several months. Her mom recently brought her back and she was lethargic and severely malnourished. We've been visiting as often as we can and trying to educate and encourage Mom to feed Leny nutritious foods. I was excited to see her smiling and fairly active this week. She looks so much better and has started to gain weight...PTL!

Started teaching health education/english in 3 new villages. This is school #1

School #2 - Playing a game to see if students can choose the right option. Can she do it?

Yes, she can!

Besties!

School #3

Little Grace, one of the MKs on the island, posing with one of Johnny and June's little ones. That's right, Johnny and June are parents. They grow up so fast! :)