Happy warm, lazy, sunny Saturday morning! It's 8:24 am, everyone here seems to be asleep (Tris is at the gym) and I am enjoying a little quiet time. Great time to finish up the last of a few books and to check out what's going on in the lives of my friends/family via blogs and Facebook. I love updates and finding out what's going on in the lives of those I love, whether it's good or bad.

Rebecca arrived safely on Tuesday, a little tired but ready to enjoy her Indo experience. Two days earlier I arrived safely home from Jambi and am so very thankful that I went. I enjoyed meeting a variety of women from the Jakarta area, all speakers at the seminar held in Jambi by an incredibly brave Australian woman named Jenny. People keep asking why I went, and really, I just wanted to see the area and to

be able to say I've been t

o Sumatra. During the semina

r on Saturday I was blessed with a hospital car and driver, and although

there is very little to see in Jambi, according to the locals, just shopping in the traditional market and driving alongside one of the largest rivers in Indonesia was a treat. I was able to haggle down the price of a great wicker

picnic basket (long search finally ends here) in the market, and to practice my language skills because NO ONE spoke English during my excursion. I love the pressure of having to speak Indonesian. The photo is of an incredibly ancient charcoal-heated iron being used to iron newly made pants. This was a bit of an assembly line held in a very dark, dingy little alley. "Sweatshop" is not an inappropriate name by any means.

During one ironic moment at the end of my trip, Jenny, our hostess, commented on my time away from the rest of the girls and told me how "brave" I was for going out alone (yeah, alone with the driver along by my side). I shook my head, because here is a woman who has moved alone (kids have moved back to Australia) to a city where very few people speak English and even fewer are foreigners. She's taken on the task of heading up the hospital and all of the changes, physical and intellectual, some even cultural, that need to take place. SHE called me brave! There were so many heartbreaking stories of people choosing not to get medical help simply because of a lack of money, lack of knowledge or poor choices made by families regarding an ailing family member. To do all that she does and also have to face the realities of human beings in pain and sometime dying is incredible, and I think she deserves a medal. A really big one.

I would return to visit Jambi in a heartbeat, but there are so many other wonderful, in

triguing places in Indonesia that I also want to experience. Right now, while Rebecca is here, I'll try and show her all of my nearby favourites. We have no plans to travel anywhere via airplane or train, but I do hope to stick her in a bajai (a little tin can on wheels) in Jakarta, maybe a becak in a nearby village, and at least one trip to the local salon on an ojek, the motorcycle-taxi that everyone needs to take at least once.

Thanks for reading.

photo: Janet and I leaving Jambi with our new friends Rose (pink) and Erin (black)