On my own time

Things have been busy here on our little island. Caleb was in the capital city from Sunday to Thursday and brought back some wonderful cheeder cheese, zucchini, broccoli and bail peppers and lots of books for Alethia. We missed him but tried to fill our time with fun things. On Sunday night we had our usual worship with the other expat families here. Then on Monday afternoon we took a picnic supper to the beach and watched the sunset with the other american family here, who will be leaving us soon :-( . Remarkably the water was very clean which is rare and the tide was low sow the kids had fun splashing around. Alethia likes to get her sand toys and proclaim, "Alethia go beach, go beach" - On Tuesday I had a house full of 11 local people here from the family of my language helper. They tasted spaghetti for the first time, bread sticks, and carrot cake. Alethia loves to help me cook and she is pretty good at stirring up the ingredients. I just have to make sure she doesn't add some of her own. Then on Wednesday, some single ladies came to the house and taught me how to make "Ayam Sewir" - chicken in a unique sweet, tangy, garlic, and onion sauce with cashews and carrots. We completed the night by watching American Idol - I am a big Jason Castro, Brooke White, and David Cook fan. in that order. I hope I can post a picture of Alethia in a traditonal costum. One of my friends gave it to her and she has not wanted to wear it - but at the last wedding we went to it was her idea. So on her own time she wanted to don the cute and fancy outfit complete with bracelets, necklaces, and her hair up in a bun. She is in the picture with the niece of my language helper. They have fun exploring together and "talking the local baby language". Caleb along with some others found some unique ceramic stuff down in a cave when they were scuba diving. It has been the talk of the town and recently we got to meet the mayor of our city (He is like a star here) when he came to see for himself. Tiffany has also started an aerobics class for some of the ladies here on the second floor of our house. We are having fun.