Padang Food - Spicy and Delicious

When Kim's brother Rick was in town, he wanted us to get him the spiciest food we have in Indonesia. So we picked up some Masakan Padang (food from the city of Padang in West Sumatra, near where the tsunami recently hit). Padang food is known throughout Indonesia has being extremely spicy, and really, really delicious.

We did take out and had fish, jackfruit, soybeans and sardines, hot peppers swimming in oil, and tough as nails beef.

 If we were to eat at the restaurant, all the food would be sitting in the window like this.

Then the server balances all the different foods and brings them to your table. You pick what you want to eat and they take the rest back to sit in the window to await the next customer! Even if you've already taken a little from the bowl.

Double Trouble in Indonesia

Indonesia is reeling this week from an earthquake triggered tsunami off the coast of Sumatra and a volcanic eruption near Yogyakarta, Central Java. The tsunami hit the Mentawi Islands the hardest, where they've reported 300 dead and 400 missing. The volcano is Mount Merapi (which means "Mountain of Fire") where 30 people have died.

Here are some revealing pictures. Pray for Indonesia!

Uncle Rick comes to town

Last week, Kim's brother, Rick, was able to make a brief stop into Indonesia while on business in Asia. We had a blast getting to show him around in the span of about 36 hours.

The kids got to show him around their school, and we took him down to the learning center to see the neighborhood and meet the staff.

 Aidan challenged Uncle Rick to a duel on the high seas. Uncle Rick prevailed due to some trickery.

But Uncle Rick got his just desserts when we went to Taman Safari on the way to the airport. This guy got a little too close for comfort. But what do you expect when you've got carrots inside the car!

We also spotted Indonesia's own tree hugger.

Who's on first?!?!

With the World Series just getting started, this definitely fits the season. A couple of weeks ago, Aidan and his friend Connor performed Abbot and Costello's "Who's on first?"at the international school talent show. We couldn't believe that they were able to memorize the whole routine. They did a fantastic job. I wish I could upload the video, but it's 750MB and there's no way our connection in Indonesia would be able to manage that. You'll just have to take my word for it.