Alea finishes up her years at JIS with a beautiful evening of pomp!
That’s pronounced “Joag Jakarta” by the way, with a long “O.” I’m not really sure why it is spelled that way, but that’s how the locals do it, so that’s the way it’s being blogged, darn it.
After our New Year’s pool party adventure, we took a day to get our heads screwed on straight and then headed into Central Java. Yogyakarta is called Indonesia’s cultural capital, and we wanted to spend a few days seeing what the fuss was all about.
After a bit of an adventure getting to the airport on time (our driver didn’t show up on time, and neither did the taxi we called), we found out that our plane was delayed (of course). So all our early morning freaking out had been for nothing. But, at least we got to take a picture with our crazily growing morning glory – check out the pictures from the start of the year and now:
Once we got into town, our cultural experiences started up. Susan took the time to research and learn about all the cool things we saw, so I’ll let her travelogue take it from here:
We flew into Yogyakarta early in the morning and went out right away to explore the ‘cultural heart of Java’.  Yogyakarta has been – and continues to be ‘ruled’ by – a Sultan. As a city, it was established by Prince Mangkumbi in 1755. According to our Lonely Planet, and confirmed by our tour guide at the Kraton, the area had always been resistant to Dutch colonial rule and locals worked hard to establish independence after WWII.
We walked around the Kraton, in the center of Old Yogya, which is still the home of the Sultan. We walked there from our hotel, stopping at the Taman Sari on the way. The Taman Sari is the Sultan’s pleasure palace and pool area. It was built built between 1758 an 1765. As we discovered over our week in Central Java, everything built here must at some point be destroyed by an earthquake or volcanic eruption – and this was the case with the Taman Sari, as well.  It was extensively damaged by an earthquake in 1865 and the majority still lies in ruins. The main pools and lounging pavilions have been restored and provide shade and respite from the Java sun.
The Kraton itself has also been damaged by earthquakes (the most recent in 2006), but it has always been repaired given it is the home of the Sultan. The Kraton is a huge walled city where 25,000 people still live and work. According to some estimates, up to 1,000 people are employed by the Sultan.  The living areas for the people who still reside here look much like the rest of Yogya – small homes, shops opening onto the streets, bamboo cages with chickens, cats running around (no dogs – Muslim area!!), tons of pedi-cabs, laundry lines… The Palace itself is a set of smaller pavillions and buildings. All the pavilions are open air with deep, high roofs to prevent rain from bothering those on the inside. The entire perimeter held drop-down bamboo shades to provide shade as the sun marched across the sky over the course of the day.
Tourists are not allowed to enter the actual home of the Sultan. He still lives there, but was in Jakarta when we visited. He has five daughters, three who now live overseas in England, USA, and Australia, and two that still reside in Indonesia. Because he has no son, his brother will become Sultan when he dies. Our tour guide mentioned briefly that there was much talk among the locals about whether a Sultan was ‘necessary‘ any more given Indonesia is now a democratic society and official are suppose to be elected.  The Sultan’s home has a very western feel to it – no surprise given it was constructed when the Dutch were ‘colonizing’ much of Java. Our tour guide was very informative and dropped tidbits of information about modern Java into her conversation about the past. She mentioned one Sultan had 25 wives and more than 80 children. She also mentioned that Indonesia now had family planning and the best families were one husband, one wife and two children.
 Our usual choice of transport was by foot, but there were bicycle cab options as well. These becaks are human-powered, as opposed to the India-style rickshaw becaks we have in Jakarta. We actually found them to be a bit of a pain, because 1) they fit 3 people max, so we always had to take 2, 2) They were unmetered and hence we always had to bargain even to get a tourist price, and 3) their ubiquity meant that when we wanted a regular cab, they were tough to come by!
We also had the chance to see batik being made, in the traditional “by hand” style. First, a design is drawn on cloth in pencil, which is then covered with wax (pictured). The cloth is dipped in dye, and then boiled to remove the wax – everything covered by the wax is still the original color. A second layer of wax is applied to some of the uncolored areas, a second dipping takes place, and there you have the traditional 3-colored batik. Fascinating to see performed, and amazing to think about the amount of time it takes to cover both sides of a piece of cloth! Susan bought a section of fabric that she intends to have made into a pillow case here.
The Stutz family is very excited to be sending season’s greetings from a new part of the world (for us!). After four fabulous and rewarding years at the American School of Bombay, it was time to move on and explore another part of the planet. In mid-January, we accepted jobs in sunny Jakarta, Indonesia at the Jakarta International School.
It was harder than we expected saying good-bye to India and all our friends and colleagues at ASB; not one of us was dry-eyed boarding the plane in June. A summer of family and travel brightened our spirits and prepared us for new adventures in Indonesia.
We started off the summer in our “new home†in Minnesota, and got right to the serious business of supporting the American economy. Perennial early highlights of our vacation include shopping in Target, chowing down at Denny’s, and playing trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings. This year was doubly special, as we also had the chance to get together for a lunch with Dave’s sister and family, who were in Minnesota visiting their family farm.
Susan’s parents celebrated 50 years of marriage this year, so all five families trooped off to Canada for a week of fishing, playing, laughter and love. The phrase ‘double double’ still emerges in our home in reference to fabulous fishing: two people, two bites, two fish in the boat and then two minutes later… two people, two bites, two fish in the boat…
Leaving Canada, Susan immediately flew to New York to attend a reading conference, so Dave and the kids took off through Canada to spend a week at the cabin in Rimini. They had an epic journey on the trans-Canadian highway across 4 provinces, and then swung down through Montana and back across to Minnesota. They went through 4 national parks & monuments (Glacier, Little Big Horn, Devil’s Tower, and Mount Rushmore), spent quality time with the Montana Stutz’s, and survived “roughing it†with each other in the very best of spirits.
End of July brought us to Jakarta and we have been busy settling in ever since. At JIS CIL, Dave teaches 6th grade math and at JIS PEL Susan teaches 1st grade. Alea is now in high school (with a campus that prepares her for any university in the USA!) while Breck rocks the 7th grade.  We have a lovely, old home in the suburb of Cilandak. After years in a tiny apartment in Bombay, we are free and easy with single-floor living, a huge lawn and a pool! We were welcomed to the house by rats who had taken up residence, so Dori and Linsea soon joined the Stutz family as honorary four-legged members.
Alea has adjusted well to high school. She is taking Spanish III, Physical and Life Science, Asian Studies, Algebra and Geo II, English 9, Concert Band and PE. She is actively involved in a Gerakan Kepedullian (ask her) service-learning club and LOVES her rock climbing every Monday after school. She went to Monado for a week of service learning and planted trees at the base of a volcano and removed Crown of Thorns from a local reef.
Breck has Algebra, Science, Drama, PE, World Studies, English, French and Band. He joined baseball, basketball, softball, and track and field (top 5 in long jump AND javelin at the meet – a huge accomplishment given the size of the schools competing!!). He also joined an animal rights service club and is supporting the animal aid network where we got Linsea and Dori. Rumor has it he also landed a role in the Middle School drama production for 2nd semester! Slowly but surely, both kids have made new friends among the 2,500 students here.
After adjusting to a new country, new city, new house, new school, new colleagues, and new friends, we thought we needed something familiar for October break, so we returned to Bali for a week of fun in the sun. We spent 3 days in Ubud getting our fill of culture and then continued on to Pemuteran Bay so Dave could actually snorkel the scene given he couldn’t last time we were there (because of the infamous monkey attacks!). We went to Mengangan Island reserve and had a fabulous day of snorkeling – we saw sea turtles, clown fish, jellyfish, hard and soft coral and… a wonderful day!
December holiday fever has begun as we prepare to go on our first tour around our new host country. We head off to the Gili Islands near Lombok on the 18th. All four of us will get PADI open-water diving certified. Wish us luck! We’ll also spend a few days driving the interior around Gunung Rinjani, Lombok’s largest volcano. We’ll fly back to Jakarta for the New Year and then go to Yogyakarta, the cultural capital of Java. Our main plan there is to climb the temple ruins of Borobudur and Prambanan.
Dave’s Grandma, Mildred Robison Stutz, died just last month. She had a long and wonderful life and we celebrate her memory as we head into the holidays. She was a delightful part of many of our summer trips out West; we are fortunate to have had her in our lives as long as we did. Dave’s brother, Rob Stutz, is running for Congress for the state of Montana. Sisters Karla and Shari have helped run, manage, and negotiate an active campaign. We wish him all the best and firmly believe he is the best candidate for the great state of Montana!
We continue to be blessed as a family – we have so much for which to be thankful – and we are! We send forth all our best wishes to family and friends for a safe, joyous, and wonderful holiday season and 2012.
Setting things up for the classroom the other day, my principal stopped by with a high school teacher (known here as “Speck”). He has been at JIS for many years, and was the driving force in getting the MS science building (at which I am teaching) all revamped and remodeled.
When I introduced myself, he paused for a minute and then responded, “I taught some kids named ‘Stutz’ a few years ago at my last school before JIS. Their names were Karla and Rob.” It turns out that he had been my sister and brother’s teacher, in Amman, Jordan, twenty-three years ago. He’s been here in Jakarta since, and he still remembered them by name!
When we got the schedules last night, guess who was listed as Alea’s science teacher this year…
They are finally up and ready! Only three months after the end of the vacation, we have sorted the photos, written the stories, and organized all the different stuff that needs to be organized to post our Pemuteran, Bali pages online and finish the trip!
Allow me my soapbox for a moment: I realize that many people prefer to post things on Facebook after their trips, and I’ve been given some grief for not doing so (*cough* Karla *cough*). I also realize that there are some very important positive aspects to doing so, especially 1) the immediacy and 2) the ability to get feedback.
In all fairness, I could easily enough put together an album of 142 pictures from every trip and upload them the day after our trip (taking care of #1 above). The problem that I see with doing this is that A) then there would be none of the quality control/cropping/etc (aka Photoshopping) that goes in to touching up the pictures on the webpage, B) there would be no descriptors or travel talk like we try to put in the webpages, and C) who really looks through albums of 142 vacation pictures with no idea of what is going on in them?
Since all of these take time, having the choice between putting things on Facebook or my own webpage, I prefer to put them on our own webpage. There is an additional reason to consider: what happens to those pictures on Facebook? If something happens to the site (notice the news about Bebo today?), what happens to all your pictures?
But having said that, I also realize that the number 1 thorn in my side right now is the inability for people to comment on pictures (or even just pages) in a static webpage. That is an ENORMOUS advantage that putting something on Facebook enjoys, and one that I’m really not sure how to address. If I could find a snippet of code that would allow me to turn my Web1.0 pages into something with more interactability, I would certainly do so.
But, until I find that magical snippet of code, please enjoy the Pemuteran pages from our Bali trip!
Our second stop over the Christmas vacation was to a dive area on Bali’s east coast.
I’m sure you are saying to yourself, “But wait – what about the first stop?!!” Really, I know you are.
Don’t worry – we are putting these up all out of order. This is the second stop (Amed), next up will be the first stop (Sanur), and then we’ll go on with places three (Ubud) and four (Pemuteran). Trust me.
In any case, the Ahmed webpages for our Christmas trip are now online.They don’t hold any navigation to other parts of the Indonesia pages because, honestly, none exist right now. But scoot on over and enjoy the pictures and stories that are already posted – if you are enjoying a nice cold winter, the sun will help warm you up inside!
Our last post of 2009 is simply a link over to the annual wrap-up letter we sent out. In case you missed the paper version, or just prefer the electronic variety, you can catch up on our events of the past 12 months.
We are currently on holiday in Bali and – deliberately – not electronically connected. How sweet is that?!
Oompah-loompah doopidty doo: that’s how we all felt last night as we tried to sleep on tummies stuffed with food. We had an outstanding meal, made all-the-better by the fact that we had good friends as guests, really making the holiday complete.
So let’s see – the menu was rotisserie chicken (which we cooked for the first time ever on the barbecue and which turned out great!), mashed potatoes with gravy, yams (Indian yams: not really yams and not really sweet potatoes and the only disappointment on the table), squash, green beans with almonds, stuffing, pumpkin muffins, jello, spice cupcakes, apple crisp, and ice cream.
We ate and drank to excess, and then finished off the evening with rousing games of Eye-to-Eye and The Game of Things, and the promise of an invite to Google Wave (which we’re still awaiting, BTW). All in all, a nearly 6 hour festival of gratitude. My “what are you thankful for” was that this year, unlike last, we were not celebrating the holiday under an umbrella of uncertainty and fear.
This weekend doesn’t just revolve around the giving of thanks and the consumption of copious amounts of fowl, however. It is also the Muslim holiday of Eid, so our basement is once again filled with goats.
They don’t know it yet, but they are scheduled to be ritually slaughtered today – Breck has been asking whether or not he can watch. Raising your kids internationally lesson #274: instead of crass commercialism during the holiday season, we get a discussion on the differing religious traditions.
But I suppose it is not much different from that-which-gave-Alea-great-pleasure this weekend: Uncle Billy got a big buck hunting, which means there will be venison sausage for her this summer!
The webpages from our Dharamsala trip are online and rarin’ to go. This last week has been really weak on the blog entry front, and I’m worried that trend might continue as we enter the holiday season of things.
We did have an exciting event this last weekend, as we went to downtown Mumbai for dinner with the parents of one of my students. The interesting thing about it is that the husband happens to be the 34th richest man in the world (this after having his net worth drop by $42 billon last year. Yes, you read that correctly. He’s only worth $10 billion now). When all is said and done, however, he and his wife were delightful hosts and we had a fabulous time.
But that doesn’t excuse me from neglecting my internet duties now, does it? Until I get back into the real swing of things, go take your mind off your other problems and check out all the fun we had a few weeks back!
It has been a while, but I finally have finished up all 4 Ganesh immersion pages. There is some good stuff here, lots of which didn’t make it into the Facebook spread, so check out the better-late-than-never edition of this holiday.
And yes, I am away this week with Alea on our Week Without Walls trip, but though the wonder of the Internets I could schedule this in advance! How technological are we these days!
…
Alea’s band played for the school last week, and did a bang up job. It is so fun to hear her grow as a musician (and a little scary how fast she is doing it!).
She has gotten herself involved in the on-going middle school drama production, and is spending lots of time after school practicing with that club. She is growing into such a mature young lady!!
Plus she’s doing ok in her math class, but I think that’s because she’s got a great teacher!
As the Ganesh festival gets ready for its final evenings, I decided enough was enough. We’d been here three years, yet had not taken a family picture with Mumbai’s favorite Hindu god. After dinner, we went down to our local temple and – with the help of our famous neighbor – got our photo taken with one of the soon-to-be-immersed statues.
If you missed the album on Facebook, you can see it here: a couple of days’ worth of festival shots. I’m still debating whether to make an actual webpage out of them, so these will have to do for now…
We are, indeed, a week or so late – but that’s ok! Because of the week without walls trip and Diwali break, our Halloween celebrations didn’t take place until yesterday, but we sure jumped into them whole heartedly!
We had bought some Indian pumpkins – green, not orange – before our break, and kept them in the refrigerator to keep. Unfortunately, some froze and were no good, so we ended up with only one to carve.
But, the kids were sure excited about designing and cutting the face. Alea drew out the eyes, Breck liked a square nose, and Dad tried some fancy teeth. Breck took a turn cutting for the first time, and did a super job pushing the knife through the thick skin.
The seeds and scum inside were really cold (having just come out of the fridge), so Alea and Breck took turns scooping everything out. We got quite the assembly line going, where they would pull out a handful and hand it to dad, who separated the seeds from the other stuff and set them aside to bake (of course!). Mom sat at the other end, giving advice and taking pictures. A true family effort!
By the end of all the work, we had a great looking pumpkin all ready to fire up and scare the trick or treaters!
The kids got into the spirit of things with their costumes. Breck decided to bypass the Yoda look he had worn to school and went as a “Mysterious Jedi,” complete with mask, hood, and two lightsabers! Alea and some friends all got together to be “Plastic Bag Princesses,” a take off the book “The Paper Bag Princess.” (obviously the ogre at the end went with a different theme for her costume!
We played scary music that echoed through the hallways, and the floodgates opened at 7. By my count, there were 22 kids running around and knocking on doors, looking for goodies. By 7:15, every apartment had been visited (sometimes even more than once by enterprising trick or treaters!), and people slowing began migrating down to the designated gathering place for candy swaps and treats for the adults (ahem). It actually turned into quite a good party, with conversation about politics and sports, kids trading huge piles of candy, pillow fights, and even the Thriller video!
With a surprise visit by the Great Pumpkin (disguised as a dog), the evening was complete. Dad had to drag Alea home at 11 (mom and Breck had left a bit earlier, as he is still getting over being sick), but the kids were already plotting what they were going to be next year. A super special scary evening, and a ton of fun for the start of the month.
And now – it is time to pull out the Christmas stuff!!!!!
Always a cause for celebration. We were so darn excited about the break – we packed ourselves off and headed to the beaches of Goa. It was a pretty funny sight at five o’clock in the morning in the airport: it seemed to us that 80% of the school’s population was doing the exact same thing as we were. Since local airlines, in their infinite wisdom, only schedule departures for Goa at 4 in the afternoon and 5 in the morning, we were all on the same flights together.
But Goa has quite a number of different areas and different beaches, and so we all split up and went our separate ways – with the Stutz family going back to Anjuna beach and the hotel we had so enjoyed before. We had told a couple who are new to Mumbai about the place we went last year, and they ended up staying there as well. Alea was a little worried about spending her vacation with her math teacher right next door, but we ended up having a lot of fun with them. We hung out with them for breakfasts, showed them around the beach a bit, ate dinner with them two nights, played in the water with the Mrs., and even had some laughs about the “Come look my shop” racket on the beach.
Alea actually had the roughest time out of all of us, though. In one morning, she forgot her glasses, bonked her chin and bit her tongue, got a fat lip from dad smacking her (accidentally!), and cut her foot open on some sharp rocks. She was a real trooper, however, and we all had some serious fun jumping into waves and body surfing. Breck had a super time petting all the cows and kittens he could find, and came up with some good beach-sitting humor (What kind of spice do the Eskimos like? Chilies!!).
We ran into some other teachers at a cafe Saturday afternoon, and they got a big kick out of all the bargaining I was doing for some shirts. In fact, I got an email from one of the guys this morning: There are 8 Goan woman standing outside waiting for you. They told security that they will sell you a shirt for 80 rs.” I told him that he can laugh all he wants, but now I have my “vacation shirts” for the next five years!!
We’ll certainly post up more pictures and descriptions when we get around to it. We have lots on the plate this week, as we get things ready for Oktoberfest this Saturday. We have one more normal week, then Alea and I take off for week without walls, and then we have another week off for Diwali break, during which we’ll head to Udaipur. Just to keep things all in perspective – that means the middle school has classes for exactly 9 days the entire month of October!
And yes, I know the Cubbies got swept. Just be quiet.
What a swirling afternoon of sensory overload! Our neighborhood, called Bandra, was a historically Christian district, and there are a number of churches scattered around (to go with the Muslim mosques, Hindu temples, and various Sikh and Jain places in the suburb).
The traditional birthdate of Mary – Jesus’ mother – is September 8, and so there has long been a religious festival held here to celebrate that date.
It has apparently evolved over time into the (all caps) BANDRA FAIR, which is eversomuchmore than simply a religious get together. It is a screaming, scrambling, jam-packed frenzy of shopping, eating, and just having plain old family fun. And for a foreigner with a camera, an unforgettable people-watching experience.
We took the kids this afternoon to experience the fair in all its unvarnished glory, and we were not disappointed. We have pictures from the day as well as some descriptions of what we saw. What a super way to cash out a weekend!!
Alea and Breck get ready for classes at ASB this morning
Today is the big day!
After all the pre-in-service and the getting-over-jet-lag and the reacquainting-ourselves-with-friends sessions have drawn to a close, school starts again today.
We all slept rather badly two nights ago, and so got to bed early and slept soundly, all prepared for our classes. We rushed a bit for the bus (there was even family member who did not get his or her pair of shoes put on as we hurried out!), but made it in and were off to a great day.
Wish us all luck as we get things going with a first grade teacher, a fourth grade student, a sixth grade student, and a seventh/eighth grade teacher. What a mix!
Before all the bad knee stuff happened, we had a very pleasant start to the summer. We flew back from Mumbai directly to DC to visit Uncle Rob and Aunt Blanche and kids. We got to meet John, who picked us up from the airport with his hot yellow Mustang, and congratulated him and Yiayia on their marriage.
We stayed with them for almost a week, and they treated us like royalty. We went to a Nationals ball game, saw their newly purchased home, and even had a couple days for exploring the Mall.
It was the perfect introduction to summer for us, plus we got to visit some of the places that signify “America” and mean so much to our history.
After all the other hoopla of the summer, we never got around to posting some pictures from this trip. But now – that oversight is rectified. Enjoy our pictures from Washington this summer!
Unfortunately, we aren’t the ones doing the greetings from Rimini. We got a call last night from the huge family reunion taking place at our cabin, and enjoyed hearing how much fun the rest of the family was having at our house!
(A quick recap of the summer’s trials and tribulations: we got back from India, spent a week with family in DC, and then came out to Minnesota. Our plan was to hang out here for 2 weeks, and then spend most of July at our cabin in Rimini, Montana. Family from all over the US – brother and family from DC, mother from WV, sister and family from WY, sister and family from Missoula, MT, and, for the first time ever, father from Billings, MT – all made plans to converge on the little town outside Helena for a grand reunion. But two days before I was to drive out and get things ready, I blew out my knee playing beach volleyball. The grim diagnosis was a ripped ACL and torn meniscus, requiring immediate surgery and (at least) 6 week recovery time before any travel was possible. There went our plans)
But everyone else decided to carry on with the plan, so we got a fun phone call from them last night – great cell phone coverage! Sounds like everyone is having a good time: dad is acting goofy, Rob brought Obama pins for all the kids (except Tyrel, who still wants Mitt Romney!), Karla has a pink Obama shirt, Yiayia is unfortunately not feeling well, and Shari’s got her hands full with two feisty girls.
We wish we were there, and we hope everyone has a super time with lots of swimming, hiking, and campfiring. There have been many promises of pictures, so we are certainly excited about seeing them.
Meanwhile, our kids got to go to the MN zoo today, while I got to go to physical therapy. Hardly seems fair…
Well, we made it to DC, and are having a great visit with Uncle Rob, Aunt Blanche, Boyd, and Sam. They have been so gracious in letting us use their apartment, which is conveniently located right near a Metro stop, so we’ve been able to zip downtown on a couple of occasions to see a few of the sights. They are in the process of moving to the new-to-them house they just bought, so everything worked out perfectly.
Yesterday we spent the whole day with YiaYia at the Air and Space Museum (and the only one asking “Are we done yet?” was Susan!! We eventually let her go to the National Gallery of Art across the way to get her daily dose of culture!). This morning, we are heading to start at the Lincoln Memorial and walk the Mall to the Museum of Natural History.
Even though we are in the midst of a DC heatwave, we are feeling right at home. The jetlag has been negligible, and we are so excited to be getting our summer off to such a great start. More info as we travel around, but suffice to say at this point – we’re back in the USA, we’re healthy, and we’re happy!!
We have returned from the sunny south of India, after 10 days of backwater boat rides and the four s’s – sun, sand, salt, and seafood!!
Our trip was a great success; 3 nights in Fort Cochin, a ride through the famed backwaters and an overnight in Alleppey, 8 hours on a ferry down the inland coast to (our one ratty hotel in) Kollum, 2 nights in bamboo huts at Varkala beach, and the final 3 nights at a place with a pool(!) in Kovalam with a flight out of Thiruvananthapuram (luckily also known by its old name of just Trivandrum!). Whew!
Of course, these names mean nothing now, but we just wanted y’all to know that we are back safe and sound. We’ll obviously be posting stories and pictures on the webpage and linking there from here.
In other news of the world, today was ‘no horn day‘ here in Mumbai, and it seemed to have a mixed result. We took 2 separate rickshaws home from the airport (since we’d bought so much stuff!!), and when we got in the apartment, Susan commented that she and Alea thought the ride was much quieter than usual. Breck and I replied that we had counted all the honks on the way home, and had totaled up 98 – which is admittedly fewer than expected. So success or failure? Who knows.
I do know one success, however, that is set in stone: regardless of who wins the NCAA tournament today, I have – for the first time ever in my life – won my basketball pool. By one point!
First of all, here is Breck, asking a question of Minnesota’s First Lady. The governor made a trip to India a while back, and while he didn’t make it to our school, his wife did, and Breck got to ask her a question! According to our director, “he was very articulate.” Way to go, Breck!!
Now for some from our Christmas trip. These are the first pages, put together over the weekend. None of the page navigation is in, so you’ll have to keep coming “back” here to get to the next one, but at least it is a start. Enjoy!!
We’re back from our “Golden Triangle” trip – safe and sound, battle scarred and road weary. Our trip was, in different turns (and often within minutes of each other) beautiful, dirty, frustrating, rewarding, restful, and stressful. We saw wonders of the world and soul wrenching poverty, experienced overwhelming environmental degradation back to back with fantastic wildlife conservation, and came away with a new appreciation for all that we have.
In fact, one of the most poignant moments was upon our return to Mumbai – as we were driving through the street, both Dave and Susan looked at each other and remarked at how clean and orderly Mumbai seemed!! After all our ‘comments’ about the quality of life here, seeing what things are like out in the sticks brought a new round of culture shock home to us.
In any case, we’re back and will begin putting together pictures and stories from the trip, but this will be a very time-intensive project (as you can imagine). Patience, and we’ll get these posted. In the meantime, Susan is taking off for a week in Jakarta, Indonesia to get some teacher training, so don’t expect to hear much from her!
The middle school drama group is putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet this week, and Alea was very excited to be able to attend a sneak preview during school. We were talking about it before the big day, and trying to explain why it was a comedy, love tale, and sad story all in one. “Romeo thought Juliet was dead, so he died of a broken heart. When she woke up and saw him dead, then she died of a broken heart too.â€
Breck tried to get into the conversation as well, but those darn Italian names really threw him for a loop. Romeoa became Romano and Romanetto, which quickly coalesced into Ramona, which mom and dad thought was pretty funny. Now the latest from Bill Shakespeare, a tale of star crossed lovers fighting the rampant homophobia of medieval Italy, come and see Ramona and Juliet.
As mom was fighting off tears at the table, Breck – pretty oblivious to what he was saying and how funny we all found it – started to try to say Juliet. He made it through Julietta but stopped pretty quickly on Chuleta. Again, a great choice, since that means “pork chop,†which was Alea’s favorite food in Honduras.
So by the end of the meal, we were all laughing pretty hard imagining poor Ramona dying of a broken heart after she lost her beloved pork chop. Ramona and Chuleta – sounds like a great Mel Brooks movie.
Our annual letter about all the stuff we did this past year is now posted on our webpage. Read, enjoy, and have yourself a merry little Christmas…
Pumpkin muffins, apples, corn, peas, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, peppers, corn on the cob, jello, apple crisp, stuffing, casserole, and … tandoori chicken. Welcome to India.
We celebrated on Saturday, since we had a full school day on Thursday and went to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park on Friday for our day off. Mom and dad spent part of the morning doing a little shopping for Christmas presents and decorations, so we are doing a good job of integrating our holidays!
We all ate too much – the kids on veggies, mom on apple crisp, and dad on sweet potatoes – and then got our energy out by playing the Terminator game (this is a Breck invention, although he has never seen the movie. One person shoots a nerf dart at the other two, and if you get hit then you are the shooter).
The evening ended with a little Skype conversation with family in Minnesota, which brought a good holiday to a fun end. As Yoda would say, “Lots to be thankful for we have.â€
