Legend of the Hairy Tooth Fairy

Online Scrapbook: Images of Life in Banda

Let's start our Internet scrapbook with the picture of the only sink (besides the kitchen sink) of the first house we stayed in. this sink is outside the only bathroom with a hotwater heater. It is outside the bathroom next to the stairs and visible from the main area of the house. There is another pipe for a sink in the actual main sitting area of the house. This pipe needs to have plastic rubberbanded around it to keep the wonderful sewer aroma to a minimum.

I'd show you the picture of our sink in our 'real' house, but, oh that's right, we don't have one!



Mandi-style! Here is the typical basin of water located in typical Indonesian bathrooms. It is full of water and has a plastic scoop to scoop the water out of for washing various body parts and the bathroom itself. The bathroom must be constantly sprayed to keep the mosquito population to a minimum and bleach poured into the water to keep the subsequently laid mosquito eggs from hatching.

I was against keeping the basins full in the 'real' house, but then realized that our water pump doesn't work when there is no electricity. So, we fill the basins!



To keep the bug spray aroma (smells like mothballs) / dog odor /general smells of urban tropical environment down, we are into the whole 'get something nice to spray/leave around the house'. We found this at the local grocery store. We are not certain what the white plastic thingy is, but this is our interpretation. It's a two level room deodorizer - if the actual scent doesn't work, then you use the white plastic thingy to plug your nose as a last recourse.



Kyle riding his bike by the old house. Nice dirt road, local fauna (cow).




Typical wellstocked first aid cupboard in Banda - bandaids and a year's supply of anti malarial prophelactic and bird flu antidote. Cheers!

Apeasing the Grandmas

Sabrina! She turns 9 months the 17th of this month, unbelievable, isn't it? Shes does love those convertible sports cars!





Jared loves his little sister! He's always stealing her from me to play with. They certainly look like partners in crime, don't they? She is clapping, waving bye-bye and giving hugs and kisses.



















This is Listre (TRAY as we brash Americans say). She is my second hand at home. Sabrina loves her since Tre is always giving her cookies and taking her on jalan-jalan's (walks) If I take Sabrina out, the entire way down the street I hear "Sabrrrrrina!" She is a very popular baby, as you can imagine.

Yay! Pictures!

Yes, as you can see, I have finally come into the 21st century! Still haven't found the USB cable to the digital camera, and all I receive are blank stares as I ask for a USB cable, or for pictures put on a CD. Usually if I wave the film canister around and say 'CD' I am invariably driven to a DVD/CD store that sells anything you can see or listen to for about 80 cents. Not bad, and I waste my time looking for the latest box office smash to bring home or Zach adds to his arsenal of Pokeman and other Japanese animation.


These are pictures of the boys body surfing at our favorite beach. They have boogie boards and skim boards. Rob and I are trying to figure out where in the world to get a windsurfer, and Jared is lobbying for a long board. We'll see if Australia is nice to him next week,... : )





This picture above shows the one standing mosque after the tsunami.















Doesn't it just look like King Kong is going to come out of those trees on that rock? How coolly tropical, eh? Well, there it is. The northern tip of Sumatra, the biggest island of the Indonesian archipelego on the Indian Ocean.