Gang's all here! Take 2!

Ok, so, note to self… NEVER let Molly do a blog post. :) Her information was accurate, but I have a feeling our readers (all 3 of you!) were possibly looking for a little more detail? And grammar?

A lot has happened since the last post and all of it has been amazing! It’s so wonderful to be back over here and we’ve been able to jump right back into the language and culture.

Ben and Leah both made it here safely on Thursday evening. Besides a small… ok, large… case of elephantitis/cankles and one lost bag for Ben (thankfully the lost bag had food and other goodies, and he still had his clothes bag!), they said their traveling had gone off without a hitch! We all managed to stay up until a decent sleeping hour and slept through the night. Jet Lag, whatttt?!

Friday morning we hung out at the apartment a little while and then headed out to Pasar Festival, my (Steph’s) favorite mall! First order of business for acclimating Ben to Indonesian prices was for him to get his first ever pedicure! Thankfully, he wore his pink shirt, so no questions were asked. :) $20 and 1 hour later, Molly, Ben and I had beautifully pedicured feet and Leah had some smooth hair and relaxed muscles from her creambath (an hour long head and shoulder massage)! From there, we headed to the food court for some Indonesian classics – nasi goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (fried noodles), cap cay (vegetable stir fry) and chicken teriyaki... along with some Mango smoothies, after which Leah remarked,
“I can’t believe I’ve been here a month and haven’t had one of those!”

Our last stop at this mall was at some little kiosks to buy some Batik for the dedication next week. It was quite a spectacle for people to watch us try on the dresses (over our clothes, since there were clearly no changing rooms!). For those of you who don’t know, Indonesians are generally of a petite stature, so our hefty and tall American selves had a few issues. Not only did it take 3 people to put each “XL” dress on or off, but the sellers comments were always hilarious. At one point, Molly and Ben were helping Leah gently pull a dress over her head, when the saleswoman ever so gently shouted “that’s a SMALL!” Later, right as Molly was about to try on a different one, the lady so graciously added, “it can stretch”. In their defense, more meat on the bones means more money, so really they were just complimenting us, but…..

Once we had made our purchases, we made our way to another mall to meet up with Mom and some friends whom she’d just picked up from the airport (they’ll be going to the dedication with us). After our greetings, Leah, Molly and I scooted off to a little market to find some cheap shoes and blankets for the next trip. While Molly and I were negotiating the cost of the blankets, Leah decided to wander and look for shoes on her own. When we were done, we went looking for her. It took about ½ a second to find each other since literally EVERY person at the market had taken it upon themselves to help us reunite. Leah had approximately 30 people hollering and pointing at us and shouting “Your friend, miss. Your friend.” We found some shoes (size 40 European… the biggest ones that any store had! Don’t judge!), headed over to dinner with everyone else and then made our way back to the apartment. Ben, Dad and Caleb (one of the friends) packed up and had to head right back out to fly to the other island, where the dedication will be taking place (mom and dad are the host/hostess for the event, so dad had to get everything in order over there).

Today involved more of the same. We picked up some more guests at the airport, took them to get creambaths and pedicures, ate at the same authentic restaurant, and went to the same shopping centers! We all just got finished packing and eating dinner and are about to head BACK to the airport. This time instead of picking up, though, we will all be boarding a plane out to another island to start the Bible dedication week. On this island, we will be staying in 3 different villages, each a little (or lot) more remote than the next. Since the first one has yet to get a McDonalds or wireless internet, you can imagine what the third will be like. As such, we will NOT have blogging abilities for at least 8 days. Please bear with us and know that we'll be taking extensive notes to provide the best re-creation of events as possible. Also, please be praying for safety and health as we are going to areas with high amounts of malaria and other diseases and participating in events/celebrations which Satan highly opposes (...we've already seen accounts of him trying to cancel the ceremony, but thankfully Christ is always victorious!).

Gang’s all here!

Everyone’s here :-D!! Seww neat!! We r reel glad 2 b hangn wit our fam. Cant weight til PNG lolzz! Papua!

Luv, Mollz “2 Kewl” Wacek

38 hours later...

We made it to Singapore! We have one hour left before we can board our final short flight to Jakarta and then we'll be done with traveling... for a day at least. :)

We had a rough start at Dulles (they told me they couldn't find my e-ticket when I went to check in, we got bag searched at security because our 5 oz. cans of Tuna were not conducive with the 3 oz. liquid rule (go figure!.. long, funny story that needs to be told in person for actions and sound effects!), running through the airport to our gate, and then Molly having to re-check-in at the gate!). Needless to say, we were happy to finally be seated for our 13 hr, 45 minute flight.

The flight was one of the smoothest I've ever had. We watched Just Go With It (featuring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, pretty cute and funny!), The Losers (featuring no one famous... ok for an action flick, but kind of dumb), and I watched Rango while Molly watched the newest Harry Potter. Other than movies, we ate, listened to some music, slept some (we had 2 seats in a 3-seat set, and no one was in the third seat, so we were able to recline and have some elbow room!), ate some more, played some Sudoku, kept eating because they kept feeding, and watched some TV shows.

Funny side story: Along the way (about 10 hours in, I'd say), we decided to experiment with the "free alcohol on international flights" idea. (With all the price spikes on airlines lately, we weren't sure if this would still be true, but it was!!) So, I walked back and ordered a gin and ginger ale.. my drink of choice on airplanes. :) Usually when I order it, they hand me a glass of ginger ale with a few drops of gin mixed in. This time, though, she handed me a little bottle of gin, a can of ginger ale and a glass of ice (after asking me if I was 21, that is!). I took it back to the seat and, seeing that I was successful in the endeavor, Molly went (w/ ID in hand, because we knew she wouldn't believe that both of us were over 21!) and got a small bottle of Rum and a can of Coke. She sat down and ever so kindly said, "I'll mix yours for you. I'm really good at proportions." Next thing I know, she's dumped the entire bottle of gin into the cup, filling it 3/4 of the way full and then tops it off with a little ginger ale. After I gulped down the first few brutal sips and was able to even it out, I enjoyed the rest of it while she daintly mixed hers with a splash of rum to a 1/2 can of soda... :) Well, anyone who's seen me with alcohol knows that it has a very calming effect on me. So much so, that, literally 3 minutes after taking my last drink, I was passssed out! A few hours later I woke up and Molly confessed that she had actually listened for my breathing and taken my pulse at one point shortly after I fell asleep because she was afraid that I'd died. Hahahaha.
We had a 3 hour layover in Tokyo/Narita, Japan. After walking for a little while to get the blood flowing in our legs again, we found our gate and had a seat. I had brought along the game Blokus: Duo (the 2-person version of the game Blokus). Molly had never played, so I taught her and then somewhere in the middle of our second or third game, we looked up and realized we had caused quite the commotion. To our left, stood a 5-year old Japanese girl and her 7-year-old brother, and an 8-year-old Singaporean boy. To the right was a 65-ish-year-old Japanese man... all of them just staring at us/the game. We heard another family walk by and saw the mom glance at us and then say something about Blokus. Not wanting to be greedy, we offered to let the kids play. Only the 8-year-old wanted to and he ended up spending the next 2 and 1/2 hours playing with us (the real version of Blokus quickly turned into "make every piece you have into a supersonic weapon and we can have a huge battle," at which Molly did very well!). It helped our time pass very quickly and I'm sure his parents appreciated the free babysitting as well! (I ended up sitting next to his dad for take-off during the next flight and so he got to fill in all the details that Dylan couldn't remember about his work and such!)

Finally, our second flight (Tokyo to Singapore) arrived and again was super successful! We lucked out and got the seats right behind Business Class with tons of leg room! We got some yummy dinner (I had penne with marinara and Molly had chicken curry and rice), watched half of Justin Bieber's Never Say Never movie, ordered another adult beverage (Molly got a bottle of Chardonnay this time, I stuck with my gin and ginger ale), and then slept the rest of the 7 hour flight.
Our seven hour layover in Singapore had the potential to be long and unbearable. Thankfully, it is the nicest airport in the world (and that's a fact, not a hyperbole!), stocked with 3 Koi Ponds, 3 free movie theaters, a gym, free foot massage machines, free wireless internet, a butterfly garden, an Xbox gaming center, and more. Additionally, our cousin Leah who will be spending the month with us in Jakarta is temporarily in Singapore due to Visa issues, so she ventured out of her hotel at midnight to come hang out with us! It took a little work to meet up with her since we have no cell phones -- we were both walking around with open laptops on facebook chat at one point, we had her paged (which turned out to be completely worthless since it came across as a little louder than a whisper, they pronounced her name Lay Wattch (Leah Wacek), and they told her to come to THE information desk... of which there are at least 20 in the airport!), and we had to go through immigration and customs (yay for no lines and more stamps in the passport!). It was totally worth it though. She kept us awake (by feeding us and inspiring us to go outside to climb trees!), which should help us get over jet lag more easily.

All in all, it's been a wonderful trip. Molly and I are both in high spirits. Definitely ready to be in Jakarta, but so thankful for how smoothly everything's gone. Thanks for all the prayers, please continue to pray as we only have 2 days in Jakarta before we head to a more remote, less comfortable situation for a week!

P.S. More photos will be on Facebook soon. I'll wait until I have enough for a complete album, though!