Rain!!

This afternoon we had a big dump of rain. It was just pouring. When Hugo picked up the kids from school on the motorbike they came home absolutely drenched to the bone. We are soooo thankful!
Today Hugo went to school and I stayed home with the two youngest as our helpers are off until monday. I actually enjoyed doing some house work inbetween telling Brynnie not to try to eat the garlic and raw potatoes on the bottom shelf in the kitchen... Later I visited with one of the neighbour ladies. It is tradition here that after Idul Fitri you visit all your friends, neighbours and relatives and everyone has lots of cookies and cake. So she invited me in for a visit. I was given the choice of many different types of cookies. Some were very much like we would make around Christmas. I was also given a cup (with a saucer) of incredibly sweet orange juice like tang. I said a little prayer that it was made with safe water before drinking. This was my first time in the neighbours house. It's kind of a big deal here to actually go into someone's house. You need to know them first.
Hugo is currently out for coffee with a guy from church. It's hard to keep up with learning language if you don't have much opportunity to speak it with someone so Hugo is planning to meet with Ricky regularly.
Some of you expressed surprise that Bandung would have such a large mall. Bandung is one of the biggest cities in Indonesia. It is a bit of a rich man's playground. Indonesia is a huge country with about 17,000 islands-give or take. I would guess that this is the only island with malls such as this. The thing about Indonesia is that there is an enormous divide between the rich and everyone else. You are either fabulously wealthy, or struggling to get by. Many of those who are very wealthy are actually originally from China and own textile businesses. On our way to the mall we passed by families that spend their entire day in the median of a busy road begging for money. There are little children like Brynne and Marc that spend their entire day surrounded by smoke belching cars, trucks and motorbikes. There are also women who borrow babies to use while begging because a child always elicits sympathy. You just can't think about it too much because there isn't much you can do. If you give them money, you only help them with their next meal, not with their living situation. Our church has programs to help train street kids so there is some help out there. But there are so many in that situation that many will live their entire lives that way.