Time for Lebaran!

Right now we are at the beginning of "Lebaran."  It is the season to celebrate the end of Ramadan and all the fasting which has been going on for about a month now.  Because of Lebaran we get a few days off school.  It is quite a relief from the week and a half we have had in Unit 4.  The first three units of language school focused on talking and listening whereas now we are focusing more on reading and writing.  Our day now consists of only two hours of class, but for homework we ask questions to Indonesian friends and then write a one page essay in bahasa about what we learned.  When class time comes, we do a presentation telling the class about the paper.

Gracie helping celebrate the completion of Unit 3

To balance school, time with Gracie, and everything else is sometimes a huge task, but we seem to have gotten into a rhythm with going to class together again and leaving Gracie home with our new babysitter.  We are very thankful for all of your prayers as we have adjusted to this season of life.

Yummy!

We have had some hard nights recently with sleep due to Gracie teething.  She currently has six teeth and more on the way.  This picture is a perfect example of how Gracie spends her time when she is not crawling all over our house.  Although we have many chew toys for her, Gracie obviously thinks this wood table works much better.

If you follow us on Facebook we put up a picture last week about the dozen eggs we found in our back yard.  Apparently, these chicken eggs are relatively expensive here so we were thankful to have them.  After deciding our stomachs are not quite strong enough for them yet we gave them away, but maybe next time we will eat them ;)

It is pretty common for locals to climb 50 foot coconut trees here to get the coconuts that are ready to eat.  I never would have thought but when the coconuts hit the ground they shake our whole house so now when the shaking begins we take Gracie outside or to the window for a little entertainment.  She loves watching...and so do mom and dad.  No ropes or shoes.  It is really a non event and normal here but interesting for those curious about how life is here.

While talking about coconuts it is important if you come here to remember that the word for them is kelapa...not kepala.  Kepala is head.  Sometimes I get these mixed up.  Still even now I have to think before I speak.  I would not want to ask someone here if it is normal to cut heads out of the trees without ropes.  Or what isle the shredded head is on.  Yeah, its all part of learning the language.  Good times.

All clear buddy!  Come on down!

We took this picture only because we had the camera out and the opportunity presented itself when these kids were jumping the fence.  What this picture does not capture is the kid on the bottom "helping" was trying to pull the kid's pants down as he was coming down.  Yet another activity less than 40 yards away from our back door.