Our First Days

We have started our volunteering and it is definitely a new experience for Kayla and me. We were not really sure what to expect coming in and it is a good thing that we did not try to picture it as we never would have pictured this. The home is set on a plot of land about 5 hours away from Denpasar. About 6 buildings make up the entire children's home. There is a prayer/yoga/study hall, the main office building (which has an attached outdoor kitchen,) a boys dorm, a girls dorm, and a bathroom/bathing building. They have enough land to have a soccer field, basketball court, and farm land. The school grows most of their own fruits and vegetables including papaya, bananas, corn, eggplant, and chilies.There are 60 children and 1 adult that live at the home. There are 2 other women that work as cooks for the home but they do not live on the premises. The children range in age from 2-19. The home functions like a big family. The older children help the younger children with homework and all of the children have daily chores. Kayla and I were amazed at how well behaved the children are. There is a schedule that all of the children have learned and no one argues about it. The children put themselves to bed at night without having to be told....which as a babysitter in the U.S. I did not think was possible.

The children all seem to be very bright. They are all in the process of learning English. The older boys and girls are almost fluent and there is one girl that has become fluent in German as well. Aside from their daily school work the children have learned to play instruments like the guitar, xylophone, and drums. They also really enjoy yoga and dancing. Kayla and I have had the opportunity to watch them do yoga in the evenings and even the 2 year old is better than we are!  Today we worked one on one with a little girl named Mina. She is in the first grade and can count and write her numbers through 100 in English, can say her ABC's in English, can write her name, and spell/say her colors. We also worked with grades 7-11 and were amazed by their math skills. They know all their multiplication tables and compete to see who can do them the fastest. Some of the problems they did in their head Kayla and I had to use a calculator to check the answer! (example: 345x27) We are excited to work with the younger kids today.

One of the most interesting/scary things that has happened since we have been here is that the children have killed 2 snakes! We were playing hide and seek when one of the children spotted the cobra in the grass. She let out a scream and yelled for the boys. Not one of the children even thought about getting an adult, they knew what to do. They surrounded the snake and one boy speared the end of the snake with a stick while the others threw huge rocks down on it. It took all of 30 seconds for them to kill it and present it to us dangling from the end of a stick. While we were walking to dispose of the snake they spotted a green viper and the whole process was repeated. Kayla and I will be watching where we walk and checking under our bed every night.

The food here is definitely interesting. So far we have either rice or noodles with every meal accompanied by some sort of vegetable and water. Needless to say we will probably be leaving here skinnier and well hydrated!

We will take pictures today and hope to post them within the next few days!

The reason we wander...

Here is one of the songs that inspired us to wander...

I Was Here

Artist: Lady Antebellum

You will notice me
I’ll be leaving my mark
Like initials carved in an old oak tree
You wait and see

Maybe I’ll write like Twain wrote
Maybe I’ll paint like Van Gogh
Cure the common cold… I don’t know
But I’m ready to start ‘cause I know in my heart

Chorus:
I wanna do something that matters
Say something different
Something that sets the whole world on its ear
Wanna do something better
With the time I’ve been given
I wanna try
To touch a few hearts in this life
And leave nothing less than something that says
I was here

I will prove you wrong
If you think I’m all talk
You’re in for a shock ‘cause this dreams too strong
Before too long

Maybe I’ll compose symphonies
Maybe I’ll fight for world peace
‘Cause I know it’s my destiny
to leave more than a trace of myself in this place

Repeat chorus

Bridge: I know that I will do more than just pass through this life
I’ll leave nothing less than something that says
I was here

Narayan Seva Children's Home

Today is the day that we finally begin volunteering at Narayan Seva Children's Home in Bali. We are very excited and only a little nervous. The reason that we are nervous is that for the next 30 odd days we are going to have to become lacto-vegetarians. This means no meat, no eggs, and possibly no cheese and certain types of vegetables. Anyone that knows me knows that I love a good steak and that Kayla could possibly die with out cheese so this could be interesting. We are trying to look at it as another amazing experience that we will be lucky to have....check in around day 10 to see if that idea has changed.

We have no idea what to expect but we are so excited about meeting all of the kids. We have been looking forward to this for almost a year and can't believe the time is already here. We are not sure about the logistics right now. We doubt that we will have internet access during the week but there are internet cafes in a town right outside of the home so hopefully we will be able to update everyone on the weekends.

We are not sure exactly what we will be doing at the home but here's to hoping that Kayla is not the music teacher or cook!

Indonesia

Things we have learned in Indonesia:

• Most Popular Phrase: ""Hello Darling!"
• Most Popular time to be on the beach- Sunset
• ""No" to an Indonesian shop keeper just means "Try Harder"
• You can buy a pair of sunglasses for $2, you can get a meal for 2 people for $7 (2 drinks, appetizer, and entree) and you can buy an ice cream sundae from McDonald's for 50 cents
• McDonald's serves chicken wings and rice
• The beaches in Bali are beautiful and the waves are killer
• People REALLY want pictures of Kayla & Me. They stop us on the street and ask to take our picture and some men on a beach just walked up and started snapping pictures of Kayla until I chased them off....literally.
• ATMs charge almost $9 every time you use them
• You feel like a millionaire when holding 100 US Dollars ($100 = about 1million Indonesian Rupiah)
• Religious Rules- They passed a "Decency"Law which limits everything from what local tribes are allowed to wear to what tourists can (or cannot) wear on a Bali beach. Lady Gaga actually had to cancel her concert in Jakarta last week due to these rules.

 "The Jakarta situation is 2-fold: Indonesian authorities demand I censor the show & religious extremists separately, are threatening violence." @ladygaga

Cravings

If there is one thing that Kayla and I love it is food. We have really enjoyed the food that SE Asia has had to offer. BUT...

This is what we have been able to find to help with the cravings:

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is our AMAZING father's birthday! We love him so much and we are so sad that we are not there to celebrate with him. We are going to do our very best to celebrate him over here on the other side of the world. We are going to have a fun day on the beach and then I may even force Kayla to eat some seafood in his honor! We love you Dad and miss you like CRAZY!

ขอขอบคุณที่คุณประเทศไทย (Thank you Thailand)

Well our time in Thailand has come to an end. We have had such an amazing time and have seen so many incredible sights. On one of our last nights we had the opportunity to do something we have dreamed of doing since we first set our sights on Thailand....release lanterns on the beach. We started releasing them at sunset and it was definitely a "jaw dropping" experience. Here are some photos from our last night on the beaches of Thailand.

Tomorrow we are off to Indonesia!

She wore WHAT???

It's no secret that Kayla is the Fashion Queen of the universe....of a different universe. Here are some samples of what she thinks are perfectly matched outfits. And yes, she wore every one of these out in public:

Rainbow Bright

It is hard to see but this was a really bad outfit.

Oh I love her!

Kayla loves her fanny pack.

Not too bad.



She still wears those shoes even though they are broken and she complains the whole time we are out.

AND DRUM ROLL PLEASE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



This is the WORST...and she wore it to breakfast, like where people could see her! 



Reading Machines...yes, even Kayla

An aspect of backpacking that I really enjoy and that Kayla is forced to take part in is reading. Here is a list of the books that we have read so far:

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Catching Fire (Bk 2 of Hunger Games series) by Suzanne Collins
• Mockingjay (Bk 3 of Hunger Games series) by Suzanne Collins
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Bk 1 of Millennium series) by Stieg Larsson
• The Girl Who Played with Fire (Bk2 of Millennium series) by Stieg Larsson
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Bk3 of Millennium series) by Stieg Larsson
• The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
• True Believer by Nicholas Sparks (only Kayla)
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (only Sarah)
• Game of Thrones (Bk1 of A Song of Ice and Fire series) by George R. R. Martin (only Sarah)
• A Clash of Kings (Bk2 of A Song of Ice and Fire series) by George R. R. Martin (only Sarah)

Any suggestions on other books we should read?

This is not the love boat...

One of the things Kayla & I were most excited to do in Phuket was to go snorkeling around the island of Koh Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee.) On the trip you have the opportunity to not only snorkel at several different locations but you also have the chance to visit several spectacular sights. There are the limestone cliffs, Viking Cave, Monkey Beach, and 2 very nice beaches where you can eat and relax. We were beyond excited to see so many of the sights that we had been looking at in photographs for months. The limestone cliffs seem incredibly tall as you sail along below them and Viking Cave looks like something that could be in a horror movie. Monkey Beach was cool because as your boat pulls up to the beach tons of monkeys swarm into the trees above waiting for you to throw fruit to them. They do warn you to be very careful as the monkeys have been known to jump down into the boat and try to follow you home. Both of the beaches we visited were very nice. One of them was featured in the movie "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Kayla and I had seen the movie in our hotel on Koh Tao. Unfortunately, the movie does not make you want to go off and explore the area on your own. We also had the chance to visit a spectacular cove while on the trip. Let's just say that it puts the party cove on Canyon Lake to shame. Overall it was a great day. We had the chance to see some amazing sights, swim with all kinds of fish, and see some of the biggest, pinkest jelly fish we have ever seen!

The only draw back to the day was that we were the only 2 single girls on our boat of about 35 people. With the exception of us and a group of about 8 guys everyone else on the boat was coupled up. This presented an issue when the group of 8 guys turned out to be VERY loud and seemed to "claim" Kayla & I because we were the only available girls. One thing that we have noticed since we arrived on Phuket is that it appears to be a popular vacation location to middle eastern men. Every group we have run into has been very overpowering and seem to think that since Kayla and I are women that they can do whatever they want around us. This includes standing behind us while we eat and take a picture, just straight up take pictures of us without asking, whistling at us, and refusing to leave us alone. It hasn't been anything dangerous, there just seems to be a lack of respect when it comes to women. The men on the boat were absolutely obnoxious. It seemed that the rules applied to everyone but themselves. They pushed people over to sit next to Kayla and I, yelled at each other from opposite sides of the boat so that no one else could have conversations, refused to sit down while we were going through rough water even though the guide asked them to, and had to be first to do everything. We tried to breathe and just deal with it all day but finally an Australian lady stood up and said what everyone on the boat had been thinking. One of the guys tried to pretty much climb over her so that he could be the first one off the boat and boy did she let him have it. I think he was shocked that a woman would talk to him that way but needless to say he was much better behaved for the rest of the trip!

Viking Cave

Kayla is one of those heads swimming in the party cove. (I joined her quickly after taking some pictures.)

Getting ready to visit "The Beach"

We <3 Texas

One cool monkey