Weird Little Events

Rebecca is now in the air and on her way home. She should be landing at YVR within the next few hours. She arrived a 44 year old woman and returned to Canada 45 years young. The tropics do that to a person:)

It was a good visit although we didn't get out much, and I think she'd say that being here has changed her perspective on a few things. That's always worth the cost of a plane ticket. When people leave us here I often reflect on how things will be different for them back home, and this time I thought I'd share a few things that happen in our home that are just a little different from what we once knew.

*last Saturday Rebecca and the kids made a few thousand sugar flowers for cake decorating. I

have a feeling that a few of those made their way under the refrigerator, a place that doesn't get swept under daily, because there has been evidence of them found on a regular basis since. There have been little purple and green cicak (gecko) poops all over my house. Normally these droppings are black, and so

I figure the cicaks have been snacking on the sugar flowers under the fridge.

*every morning at 4:30 the Muslim call to prayer occurs. You'd think we'd get used to it, and sometimes we think we do until they turn up the loudspeaker volume. I'm just thankful we don't live closer to a mosque.

*Once or twice a week we hear a man outside yelling "Aqua!" and it's the water delivery truck. For less than a dollar a bottle we can buy treated water that we use for drinking. Because the water in our area is treated, we still use the tap water for cooking, tea, and brushing our teeth. Typically though, in Indonesia one wouldn't use tap water for the latter

three actions. Even in hotels we use bottled water outside of Lippo.

*I have two beautiful orchids in my home right now, and one more outside that is starting to re-bloom. These cost me only $2 each, very different from the $30 I spent on an orchid from Nanaimo Costco a few years back.

*We do not have hot water in our sinks in either the kitchen or the bathroom, so in order for Tris to shave he sprays water from the shower into the sink. In order for us to wash dishes properly we fill two tubs of water from our "powder room" and bring them into the kitchen.

Those are a few things that I realize I'd either miss or at least be aware of their absence if we moved from Indonesia.

Thanks for reading.