April? Already?!

Sorry it's been so long since we updated the blog! We've been busy with school and moving and having fun and relaxing.

So we’ve moved into a new house – it’s really big and beautiful. Here are some pictures.

This is called a bale. Every family compound has one:

AJ's room:

Upstairs:

The kitchen:

Front room:

Awesome outdoor shower:

Mom's room:

We’re also going to school! In the beginning of the trip we visited a place called Green School. Well, now we’re going to it. It’s pretty much in the jungle, the classrooms are just about outside, there’s a huge river that runs through the middle of the school, and it’s basically pretty cool. Our classes are small and mixed-grade (1-2 and 3-4), and we have to say the work is pretty easy. We get to do things like permaculture class (I was the only one who knew that squash was nitrogen fixing! – AJ), and gamelan (which I don’t like – Padma), and mask making (which I do like – Padma). It’s great to be with other kids again – we’ve already made new friends and had sleepovers and parties.

Here's some pictures of our school.






A few days ago, my mom was going to do internet and we were going to go with her. But then my brother saw a baby chick without a mom and he said, "i want to stay here at the car." And then I saw it too and I said, "i want to stay at the car, too." So my mom left, and we caught the chick. We went into the car and waited for my mom to come back. When she came back, she said we couldn't keep the chick, but then she said ok. So now we have a little fluffy chick in our garden.

We'll try to write again soon. We miss everyone, but we'll be home pretty soon.

Bali, take 2

We’re here in Bali! It is very green here.

When we first got here we stayed at really pretty hotel.

Now we’ve rented a house.

The house we’ve rented has a fish pond. Do you know where the food we don’t eat goes? To the fishes! Our house is a 2-story house. It’s kind of like a one-story house because we don’t really use the downstairs. Except for the kitchen which is outside. To get to the kitchen, you have to go out on the porch, turn right and there it is. It still has a roof. On part of the stairs, you can peek in through a little triangular hole into the kitchen. You can spy on people that are in the kitchen. Ha ha! –julie





People here are really into Barack Obama, because he went to school in Indonesia.

Gods at the Airport

In the airport in Thailand we saw this amazing sculpture. It is a sculpture of the churning of the ocean of milk by the gods and the demigods holding on to the snake Vasuki. The churning produced the guy on top, Dhanvantari who is the doctor of the gods. It also produced amrta – the nectar of immortality but also poison, which Shiva caught and held in his throat which made his throat turn blue. A bunch of Indian people were posing in front of the sculpture and smiling. It is a fully awesome sculpture. One of the coolest sculptures I’ve ever seen in an airport. –aj

Shoe Death

My mom made me get new shoes in Bangkok, although I protested that my old shoes were NOT SHOT. I like my new shoes, but I like my old shoes better, but I agree that my old shoes were not the right shoes for Bali because it took me 15 minutes to put on and tie my shoes (I tie a lot of knots) and here you put on and take off your shoes a lot.

Baby Ducks!

Look! We have baby ducks!

We have these ducks on the land called Muscovey ducks. They are not very beautiful, and they don’t quack.


About a month ago, the three females started laying a lot of eggs and have been brooding for a while now. On the full moon, the first one hatched! Unfortunately, the mom stepped on it and killed it. This happened with four other babies. So yesterday, when five more eggs hatched, we decided to take the babies away from the moms. When they first hatch, the babies are really wet and scraggly-looking. But when their feathers dry, they get very fluffy and cute. And they are already pretty strong by an hour or so after they hatch. So we fed the 5 babies by hand and watched them during the day. We let them have a little swim in a tub of water. Even at one day old they can already swim! At night, we put them in a dry tub with straw and put the tub on a compost pile for warmth and covered it. We were so happy this morning to find that all but one of them were alive this morning! (The one that died was called Sleepy, because it kept nodding off during the day – its mom was squishing it when we took it out of the coop. We weren’t surprised that she didn’t make it through the night). So these ducklings will be raised by hand and put back with their moms when they’re too big to be squished.

and Bunnies!

Our friend Nui got some bunnies – they are really cute. Here they are in the garden.

Mui Ne

We’ve been at the beach in Mui Ne, Viet Nam for about a week. It’s really nice! Our dad goes kiteboarding everyday and he’s really happy about that. We hang out on the beach, at the pool, and in our room watching tv (cable! Discovery Channel! Cartoon Network! ESPN! Animal Planet!). We met a really nice girl named Phoebe who we play with every day. She’s from California, but has lived her whole life in Pakistan. It’s been very fun to play with a kid who speaks English and is not our sibling. She’s leaving here today. We’ll miss her.


I've been boogie-boarding a lot. It's very fun. Me and my dad also rented a jetski. That was SUPER fun.



A few days ago I got two pretty - very pretty - dresses. One is red and has barely any sleeves. The other is blue and has long sleeves. Me and my new friend Phoebe played a game and in the game we wore the dresses. Here are a few pictures of us.



Yesterday, we all went to the sand dunes.


The sand dunes are giant mountains of sand with almost no footprints. It looks almost like yellowy white cement. There is also a lake there and a kind of oasis area. We got to ride horses there (but only for about 10 minutes). Then we played by the lake. We also got to play with a really cute monkey. When I squatted down, it came and sat on my lap. The monkey was on a chain. It seemed like they were treating the monkey pretty well, but it’s still kind of sad. It’s like the elephant at the internet shop. Kind of sad, but really neat to see up close.






We're here a few more days, then back to Bangkok and then the land. It'll be nice to get back to the land.