Sunday, July 10th,
Jim’s bread dough rose through the night… and today’s the big day to bake the bread!
Attended church at 8:30 am with Reina. Yes, it was a one-hour 15 minute service. Woohoo! There was a guitarist for two choir songs – and one song was “Shout to the Lord!” with a really cool guy-harmony part. Sung in Indonesian of course! It was beautiful. The young girl, playing the guitar, was smiling and worshipping with all her heart and soul. We were mentioned in the sermon – welcomed – which was kind. The entire congregation, probably only 450’ish this morning, turned to stare and smile.
Reina and Ezra walked home with us after church to watch Jim form the loaves and make sure the bread was baked correctly and safely. You should see this oven (check out the photos when posted). It’s a big aluminum box that sits on top of the open flame, propane stove. We had to use a lid from the teapot to make it balance and be straight. Jim formed the loaves, put them in the pans, and opened the aluminum-framed glass door and put the pans in. The oven heated up very quickly, in about two minutes. The bread baked for 20 minutes and was done. We let the loaves cool and then Jim sliced up pieces for Reina (who loved it and had a second piece!), Ezra (one piece was enough… needed jam), Nancy, Jim and Jacob (who loved the smell, the home-like feelings that came with Jim-Bread). They headed home at 11:30 and we hung out, read, relaxed for a while before heading over to Kantin Nantu (next door) to head to the zoo with our neighbors!
What a day! We started at the kantin (canteen), and met Mr. Sanggam Siahaan and his wife Diana while we waited for the girls to finish getting ready. I think they wanted to look “good” for Jacob. Seriously. It was decided that Lolo, the oldest son, would drive us in their minivan to the zoo. How nice! So we all piled in: Lolo driving, and Jim in the front seat; Nancy, Jacob, Siska, and Leoni in the middle seat; and Dippos, Johannes, Duma, Fine, and Ana in the back seat. Yes, 11 of us in the mini van!
We drove to the zoo, and Lolo is an excellent driver. We felt very safe with him. He parked along the side of a very busy road because the car park for the zoo was full. As soon as we hopped out, Siska bought a bag of Salak – a small, garlic-looking fruit with rough brown skin. They peeled it for us and it was delicious! It had three sections, each with an apple-pear tasting fruit and one brown seed each. We ate, tossed the skins into the street/ditch, and walked through the traffic and crowd to the zoo. Siska stopped and also bought for the younger ones, rice-made cotton candy. The guy who was spinning the rice (not sugar) did not have electricity, but rather used a bicycle to make the power! We all had a taste, and it was surprisingly good and sweet. (It was exactly like US cotton candy, so we think maybe the girls meant that the sugar was derived from rice…or something. Sometimes communications is difficult. Whatever the case, it was much better than those nasty green rice noodles in the drink yesterday!)
The zoo was crowded on a Sunday afternoon, the day before school was to start for children. We paid 7,000 Rupiah each (80-cents) per person for admission, and walked into a beautiful, shady, rain foresty looking park area. The animals were all in cramped American 1930’s type cages – sad. But it was interesting to see the animals because they were very different than those displayed in our zoos. The birds were especially interesting. We walked up and down, on broken, rocky concrete and viewed everything. We had to watch our step because there were rather deep drainage trenches along the paths, just like along some roads outside the zoo.
The other visitors were viewing us! Perhaps we were more interesting than the animals in the cages! There was not one other foreigner in the entire So many people wanted their picture taken with us – and especially with Jacob. It was hysterical. One mother wanted to have a picture taken with Jacob, along with her small child. The kid took one look at Jacob and started screaming and throwing such a fit that the idea for that picture was abandoned.
One very sad thing was a huge crocodile in a nasty pen who had trash all around him and a juice box thrown on his back. I believe many visitors had patiently watched him, waiting to see him move, and then had tried to trigger a movement by throwing things at him. It didn’t work. This is not a performing
We left the zoo after several hours and walked to the Bazaar (pronounced Bit-Zar here), which we think is just a weekend type thing with clothes, “rides” and junk being sold. Great deals on really cheap looking watches. We may have to bring some home if we go back. Siska bought a bag of this red spiky fruit, rambutan, for a snack and we all had a piece. Again, it was white and soft and very sweet. We each ate one, and our friends ate many. When we opened the bag later, it was filled with ants. Yum! We wandered through the bazaar, saw a guy pedaling a bicycle to make a little merry-go-round ride go for a small child (again, creative thinking – why pay for electricity when you can use a bicycle?!) We asked where we were going next, being a little tired by now, and our hosts said the Taman Bunga, as if everyone from America knows what the Taman Bunga in Siantar is. We have learned that this life is just full of little mysteries large and small and you just go with the flow as possible.
Wading through traffic and people, we walked to the park Taman Bunga where you pay an entrance fee of 1000 rp per person (about 10-cents) and go in and there are plastic chairs and big mats (tikars) to sit on. We found a tikar under a tree and the 11 of us sat down. We were immediately approached by vendors selling drinks and food. We ordered two drinks, and Siska and our friends ordered nasi goran – fried rice, and fruit salad, which came covered in a spicy peanut sauce and a few very active ants for good measure. There are many ants here and we are not yet to the point of the locals, which is to coexist with them and not be bothered. Sitting there under these amazing huge banyan-palm trees creating a canopy of shade was comfortable. It was a chance to see a true slice-of-life of the Indonesian people.
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