Today we went and got Mikah and Brynnie’s ears pierced. That was an interesting experience. We took an angkot as near to the road with all the jewelers as possible and then walked the rest of the way. Brynnie just looked her eyes out and kept stopping to stare. Can’t blame her. There is a sort of sidewalk to walk on, but every few meters there is a hole that you have to walk around or fall into the gross sewage underneath. Then there are the sellers that line the sidewalks. It is amazing what you can get from the side of the road here. There are the guys with their little carts selling food; guys with their little stalls where they replace the soles of your shoes, even soccer cleats; the guys with their treadle sewing machines ready to alter any clothes you’ve just bought from the stores behind them; the guys who’ll frame your paintings or photos right there and while waiting for customers they are busy staining frames, right on the sidewalk; then there’s the guys selling flipflops or accessories (Indonesians are accessory crazy) or pirated Playstation games. There are cars parked along both sides of the road and there are supposed to be two lanes of traffic, but there’s more like 3.5 usually. Wow! It was pretty crazy. Anyways, after some asking, we found a jeweler that actually does piercing. Brynnie didn’t watch Mikah getting hers done so she had no idea what was in store for her. She actually managed to sit still long enough for them to do the deed. She cried rather angrily at first but then the store people started giving her all kinds of candy and that did the trick. Now people will stop asking me if she’s a girl or a boy – I’m not kidding you, I get asked that so often even if she’s wearing a pink dress… All Indonesians get their daughters ears pierced not long after birth. Some feel that there are some protective qualities to pierced ears with regards to evil spirits… Gold is huge here too. We bought some little gold earings for Mikah to wear after her new holes have healed well. This is how the average person saves money. They don’t put it in the bank because banks charge fees, they just buy gold instead and then when they need the money, they sell the gold. So the prices of gold in the stores fluctuates along with the market. Right now it is 160,000 rupiahs for a gram. The earings that the girls are wearing now aren’t real gold, I’m not sure if they are even gold plated, but they came in sealed packages that said they were sterilized piercing earings from the U.S.A. Anyways, it only cost $4.50 for each girl including the earings and piercing. Not bad eh?

Again, couldn't get her to stay still long enough to get a good photo....