One month ago we attempted a trip to our friend's home on an a southeastern island. Yesterday we returned home from a successful visit to this island in need.
A tropical island, covered in palm trees, surrounded by clear ocean water, shown to us by our own personal tour guide (our friend) sounds like a dream vacation! I, Erin, am still adjusting to the culture around us so the trip was much more a 'cultural experience' than a vacation. Since our current goal is language and culture study the trip was beneficial and provided a great opportunity to watch for future possibilities, though very stretching (more in the following post).
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| the port as we left on a ferry |
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| on the ferry with our friend |
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| another seating option on the ferry |
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| making friends on the ferry |
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| exhausted from leaving at 5am and taking a 4 hour car ride + 2 hour ferry ride + 1 hour car ride |
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| visiting historic/tourists sites: this in an ancient gong, one of a pair, left by explorers |
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| traditional still house |
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| people who gathered to... look at us |
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| Visiting a friend's grandmother's house. She lived about an hour outside the city, in a small village. |
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| Caedmon in the entrance-way of the grandmother's house |
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| inside the grandmother's house, a stilt house as well |
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| guest and family room of the grandmother's house |
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| we were served lunch at the grandmother's house: boiled cassava, boiled eggs, buffalo meat, vegetable in broth and oranges from the family garden |
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| neighbor's house across the street |
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| parakeet type birds, just hunted and most were still alive: for eating |
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| visiting the family's garden |
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| picking oranges |
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| looking at pumpkins in the garden |
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| a view on an hour bought ride to this adjacent island to enjoy a well known beach on an uninhabited side of the island |
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| a fisherman |
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| visiting our friend's house I noticed this neighbor wood working while his wife cooked over a fire |
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| since coconut trees are in abundance, coconut meat is dried out over a small fire to be sold for processing into coconut oil |
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| chopping the dried coconut meat to be sold |
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| picking young coconuts for a treat |
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| opening the coconuts, these women (cousins of our friend) were very skilled in this |
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| collecting the coconut water |
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| Caedmon helping to remove the young coconut meat |
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| eating the young coconut meat with a natural spoon (from the outer shell) |
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| A cousin's house, newly built. Most newer homes are of brick and cement construction, though stilt houses are still built. |
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| Playing with small fish caught in the backyard river and making new friends. |
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| Our friend's aunt, mother, and youngest sister. |
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| Whitman was content to be carried around and shown the chickens and dogs. She was concerned he would be too hot under the sun and covered him with a sarong. |
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| A hillside grave yard. According to the majority religion the head is placed towards the north with the feet facing south. Then the grave is marked to last over time and decorated as one chooses. |
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| Temporary markers on a new grave. Two are used for females and one for males. As family and friends visit the grave they shower it with flowers, leaves, and water. |
