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!).