Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Last Month in Brief

Hey in Bukkitinggi now, Western Sumatra, arrived here two days ago from the Tello Islands and a quick taxi ride from Padang.

Today we are celebrating Penny's 27th birthday (27 on the 27th). We (that being Penny, I and Eban an Aussie friend we have found upon the way) hired motorbikes for a couple of days and used them to good effect checking out the "rafflesia" the Worlds largest flower, named I guess after Stanford Raffles who was involved in the foundation of Singapore, and the lovely lake Maninjau, where we woke this morning at a lovely little Losmen called Arlens Paradise.

Tello was amazing and hopefully tomorrow I will write something up, and maybe even post some photos as this connection seems ok. We worked hard for Troppodoc doing medical clinics and erecting rainwater tanks for schools. Penny got to see many interesting patients, too much TB and a a whole lot of everywhere sick (I've been living in the developing world for 60 year) old ladies. We were lucky to share the experience with a group of other kiwis; a family from Wellington: Bronwyn, Johannes, Rose and Brianna as well as Nick and Penny, previous acquaintances who it was great to spend more time with and become friends.

I'll write in detail about some of our expereinces, but some of the highlights: afternoon village clinics and motorbike shuttling, Nina's restaurant and Bintang, remote island clinic (the Baluta experience), Near island adventures (Sibarano and Sibolo...including the sinking dugout), Fish cakes and eggplant in Hato Saro's backyard, Indonesian Independence Day, Unilateral fried banana eating competition, Baby-sitting our Doctor Dereks sick and lovely Leone and Making many new friends. Tomorrow at lunch we travel for 24hours by bus to Medan. I will try to make some more updates before then, Take Care, J

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