A Great Finish to 2011

Extra Pictures Djoko, a new friend who hiked with us, took on Rinjani


As Thanksgiving came and went I had a low week from the realization that we would not be home for Christmas. I had been away from home for Thanksgiving but never for Christmas. To make matters worse, this culture thinks of Christmas as just another day. December 25 is the same as December 24 and December 26. There is no Christmas music, no trees, decorations, or “Merry Christmas” greetings. And the ever-constant heat requires you to use your imagination to feel the bite of winter air. My attempt is to take a bucket bath in the evening and then sit in front of our rotating fan. Sometimes if it’s cool enough, I can enjoy a cup of warm tea although this usually ends up in me sweating.

Needless to say, we knew we were going to miss Christmas so we decided to take matters in our own hands and create Christmas here. I started by buying felt and created Christmas Batik stockings for our sisters and close friends. I must say, they turned out awesome. Daniel created invitations and we invited our family, counterparts and close friends to enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner on Christmas night.

Christmas morning at 3 am, Daniel and I had our first experience of being Santa Claus. We stuffed our sisters’ stockings with candy, trinkets, and Indonesian food. We even gave them the smelly Durian fruit which they love. Our church service started at 5 am Christmas morning. It lasted until about 10 but we had to give up at about 9:30. The last hour plus was for door prizes and we were about to drop from wearing too much clothes in the sweltering heat.

After church, the cooking began. I made royal purple sweet potatoes (same flavor just different color), green beans, stuffing, mushroom gravy, cinnamon apples with sweet tortillas (our attempt at apple pie without an oven). Our friend Margareth made chicken, rice, onion rings, and sliced watermelon. Then our guests brought an assortment of Indonesian foods to share. It was sooo funny watching them eye the “weird American food” before trying. They were skeptical but ended up loving the stuffing, gravy, and onion rings. And unlike most “parties” in Indonesia, everyone actually stayed around and chatted, instead of scarfing their food and running home. All in all, Christmas Day was wonderful.

And then the vacation begun. On the 26^th, Daniel and I headed to the island of Lombok. We spent 3 days, 2 nights, hiking to the summit of Mountain Rinjani. By hiking I mean, this was the hardest hike we’ve ever done. It consisted of about 10 hours a day of hiking, 3 days straight. As hard as it was, it could have been nearly impossible. Our trip actually included a guide and 3 porters to carry all the food, tents and equipment. These guys were AMAZING. They each had about 70 pounds of weight sitting in 2 baskets hanging from a bamboo pole. They hiked in flip-flops, while smoking about 2 packs a day, and were faster than we could keep up. It was really cool to see an example of what the human body can take. Not only did they carry all that, when we stopped for lunch or to camp, they set everything up, cooked, and brought us hot tea or coffee on a tray. It was the weirdest mix of luxurious relaxation and physical exertion.

After we conquered the mountain, we spent the rest of the day lounging on the beaches of the Gili Islands. We had the chance to meet up with some of the other volunteers too. The Gili’s are beautiful and still clean. Gili Air was so quiet, we talked about how long it would take before we would start to go crazy. But if we went crazy, it would be a relaxing crazy. We spent our time in a private bungalow, lounging in a hammock, swimming, and eating some amazing fresh fish. I got to scuba dive and saw 4 huge sea turtles (close enough to touch).

Our vacation was the perfect break from school. We are happy to be back at site and have already started back at school. Our students seem different, suddenly more comfortable with asking the Bule teachers a question. We already have plans for some secondary projects, which I am pretty psyched about.

We hope everyone back home had a joyful Christmas and New Year. We love and miss you all!