Bits and Bites....

Hugo had this past week off. So we did some more painting in the boys room. Not quite done yet, but nearly. They are very happy about it!
Hugo also took a morning to fix the electrical issues in Ice's house. They only had a 2 amp circuit breaker and so anytime she would watch a dvd the circuit breaker would blow. Hugo fixed that problem and also replaced some of their light fixtures with more efficient ones.
On Thursday Hugo and I headed out to Jayapura for two nights at the Swiss-Bel hotel there. It's pretty much the only hotel in the entire area worth visiting. It's clean... and there's a buffet breakfast included in your room rate. There's Indonesian and Western (well, as western as you can get here) choices. The weather wasn't that great so we didn't lounge by the pool. We did walk around the town a bit but it's not as much fun as it would be in Canada. We stick out like sore thumbs here in Jayapura. They don't get a lot of tourists so people stare and others call out to you and still others try to talk with you. One day Hugo wore his Persipura shirt and that made him some friends. Persipura is Jayapura's professional soccer team and they are one of the top teams in the country so everyone here is very proud of them. We also drove up to the government hospital just to take a look. It was built way back when the Dutch ruled. So it's a little old... and man, it sure looks it! The road was terrible and the buildings look very rundown on the outside anyway. But they have a CAT scan machine!
After living here for some time, things that back home would be out of the ordinary, are here, perfectly normal. Like seeing nak*d little boys running down the street. I couldn't believe how many I saw today! I guess I'd rather that than meet up with an inebriated fellow...
Our guard, Yokben, is doing better. He came home from the hospital last Tuesday. On Monday they had done a complete blood work-up on him and said that all he had was malaria. This even though the test on Saturday was negative... So his other issues weren't even taken into account... They gave him injections of quinine while he was there and then sent him home with a bag of pills. He took none of them (quinine makes you deaf and your head feels huge) and Wednesday night he came to me saying that his stomache was still really hurting. I put him on amoeba meds right away. I can't believe how the medical folks at the hospital don't really listen to the patients. He's still got pain, but it's only been four days since he started the meds. Let's hope that he really does have amoeba and that the meds do their job!