Living abroad with Ross & Pat

Well, I think I should add a bit about the adventures I had with Mom & Dad when we lived in Indonesia. We definitely had some wild and crazy times over there.

After we had been living there for only a few weeks, I was outside playing in a tree. Up in the tree I noticed something moving in the jungle across the street. I sat and watched as a huge lizard (huge, like 6 feet long) walked down the street. Well, I couldn't keep this discovery to myself, so I ran inside to tell Mom & Dad what I had seen (it ran away when it heard me). I rushed inside, breathless, trying to describe to them that there was this HUGE lizard outside. Well, they gave me the polite parent response like "that's nice dear, but you must be mistaken." I tried and tried to convince them of what I had seen, but they didn't believe me.

The next day, though, they found out for themselves exactly how wild our island was, because they got to see the lizard! They never doubted me after that!

Another adventure was when a drunk lady jumped in front of our car and spit her chewed up cigarette all over the windshield.

One neat thing Mom got to do while we were there was to use her vast hospital experience to help our neighbor, Didi, who had a stroke. We arrived in Indonesia right after she had the stroke. So, the doctors on our island said she needed to travel to Jakarta to see a specialist. So, Mom went with Didi to see the doctors in Jakarta. I'm not sure how long they were there, but it was a while. Mom got to be Didi's personal nurse and make sure she got the care she needed.

Living in Indonesia had it's ups and downs. I'll list some of both.

The Fun Stuff

1. We had a driver and maid.
2. We lived on a tropical island.
3. We ate very fresh food and fruit all the time.
4. We got to go to Bali, Singapore and Malaysia.
5. Me and Mom got really tan.
6. We became really good friends with our neighbors from New Zealand, the Turnbull's.
7. We learned a lot about Islam and learned to appreciate the Muslim culture in Indonesia.
8. We got to babysit a parrot for a few weeks.
9. A tribe of monkeys lived across the street.
10. We really learned to be grateful for the good lives that we have.

The Harder Stuff

1. Being very far away from all our family (3 grandsons/nephews were born that year).
2. The power would go out all the time, sometimes for weeks, meaning no A/C.
3. Crazy bugs, like this big scorpion that Dad had to kill with a golf club it was so big.
4. Losing our luggage for 3 months.
5. Having to boil all our water.
6. Not speaking Indonesian very well (we did learn quite a bit, but we've forgotten almost all of it now).
7. Seeing the poverty.
8. Seeing the deforestation of the rain forests.
9. Not being able to swim in the ocean around our island (poisonous jelly fish).
10. The smell of the fish market.

Overall, it was a great adventure. It definitely has shaped my life. And it was good to be able to be with Mom & Dad one on one for a whole year. I had a great time!