Nancy's Report - July 7

Right when I was feeling pretty good about my distant relationship with the household lizards, they over-stepped their boundaries. After spending five hours in a Sunday School workshop. Jim and Jacob had beat me home by 30 minutes (as I hung out for more conversation and picture taking), and like they were, I was tired and hungry. There, on the table was our package of tasty little ginger-type cookies we found, pre-packaged, very safe and yummy. Well, I reached into the almost empty package, felt one cookie left and then thought there was one more broken one at the bottom. It wasn’t a cookie!!!! It was soft and moist and started crawling up my hand. I screamed – no – I shrieked!! I jumped up and down, while that little fellow continued up my arm, then jumped off and ran to hide in our bedroom. Great. No more cookies for me. Ever.

We’ve had a very unusual amount of rain here in Siantar. Last year, we had rain 2-3 times at night. This year, almost every evening there is rain. Not rain – a monsoon, downpour.

Thank goodness our porch is a good foot above the puddle level!

This really has improved the air quality and the daytime is beautiful and clear. Then, late afternoon the clouds roll in and water is dumped from the heavens. The earth absorbs it fairly quickly, but there still are some major puddles – including in our kitchen. It’s also been a killer on getting our laundry dried. Everything has a nice, damp, moldy smell. Ahhhh.

Jacob, Craig and I went swimming with the neighbors last Sunday at the Siantar Hotel, when it began to storm. I’m talking rain, lightning and thunder. In the US, the life guards would have been standing in their chairs, whistling, getting people out of the pool immediately! But no. First of all, there is no lifeguard (or lifesaving equipment, or chlorine, or – list any safety feature here) and when we expressed our concern to our friends, and told them this is dangerous and in the US we would get out of the pool, they responded, “Oh, but that is not a problem here.”

Craig and Jacob entered the pool with a big cannon ball! I'm sure that terrified all the locals but it certainly cleared a space in the pool.

 Trying to find a balance between being polite, culturally correct, and staying alive – Craig decided that the tall, metal water tank right next to the pool would absorb any lightning strike. We stayed in the pool, we had a blast, and we are still around to tell the story.

Yesterday (July 6), Jacob and I walked to the Ramayana just to pick up a few items, and to stretch our legs a bit. We wisely took our umbrellas, and un-wisely did not bring the camera. Drat. It was a camera-worthy trip. We arrived at Ramayana and walked through the clothing section, quietly giggling over the “English T-shirts” with pretty bad spelling and meanings. Jacob politely returned smiles to the many people (old, young, girls, boys, old, young) who were staring at him. I mean, flat-out staring. We walked into the grocery section where a nice young man handed me a sales-flyer, I shook my head and said “tidak.” No. And he grabbed my arm and started rubbing lotion on me. Creepy! Jacob said, “I’m going to find the peanuts.” And I’m saying, “No you’re not, not until this guy lets go of my arm!” Of course, no one could understand  us, and again, not wanting to create an international uproar, I let the guy finish rubbing lotion into my arm and hand (maybe it was lizard protection?), and finally understanding I was not going to buy his product. Terima Kasih, apa Tidak terima kasis (thanks, but no thanks).

We finally get our few items, walk outside and the skies open to the traditional afternoon downpour. Umbrellas were pretty worthless, but we trudged on home, cutting through the HKBP (church) yard and through the front of the seminary. There, in the deep drainage ditch in front of the seminary, was the biggest snake I have ever seen outside of a zoo. Jacob saw it first, squiggling through the ditch. We stopped and stared. I suppose if I’d had a camera, I would have dropped it. This snake had to be 6’ long, and we were safe because we were on the street and he was in the two-foot deep ditch. Well, Jacob decided to say “hello” by tossing a rock toward the snake (not to hurt him, just to see what would happen… boys…). So, the snake jumped (I’m not kidding, jumped!) out of the ditch, first onto the street, then decided he didn’t like the street, went back into the ditch and out the other side into the deep green, jungle area. Oh my gosh. Jacob and I stood there in stunned silence. Then we nervously laughed, cracked up, and all but ran home. 18-hours later, my heart is finally calm.

Today is this big international seminar.

We loved the Batak dancing "tortor sigalegale" which was part of the opening of the  event.

 I got a text from Mam Reina at 5:00 am about needing our couch for guest seating. So, after we had already left, and Jacob was probably still sleeping, in comes our couch and three chairs into the auditorium. I was just waiting for the bed, with Jacob still in it, to come through the door.