Howdy all, been busy as usual, and we just returned from a fantastic trip to Malaysian Borneo, in the state of Sabah. But first, here's a few pics from the last few months.
Climbing Club!
Brent and I started a kids climbing club. There's a 'sports dome' here in town which showcases several events, but outside off the parking lot is a nice, huge climbing wall:
It's about 20+ meters high and we get to climb the scaffolding on the backside to hook up the top ropes. Centered here are two 'speed climbing' routes which locals practice on all the time for such events in the X-Games, etc. Indonesia has produced several speed climbing champions and we've seen them reach the wall in 1/4 the time it takes us to!
we're teaching them all the basics about balance, climbing with 'quiet feet', keeping 3 points of contact, using arms, not legs, safety and communication. It's a great group of kids and we've seen tremendous improvement in a very short time!
Of course, there's plenty of fun to be had, too!
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more riding:
Sir Paul (red helmet) was heading off to a new post so we had 2 or 3 farewell rides. Greg crashed on this one, and Paul had a doosie of a fall and puncture on the last ride which I missed due to illness. Our rides are rough and tumble enough that we average one person crashing per ride.
Here's one of the steep slopes we ride down on our urban jaunts. Not too steep but very slick sometimes.
This is Pak Yayang. He is our 'caboose' and an incredibly strong and gifted rider. He has helped so many people out and is one of the happiest people I know. He is nearly the sole reason I want to learn to speak more bahasa Indonesia!
Sometimes it's not the riders who crash!
Pak Eko (like 'echo'), he has blossomed incredibly in my short time here, and still on an old school bike like mine (though I usually cheat and ride Jill's)
OK, so the hills here are steep, and photos usually don't do it justice. But these are stairs and only 2 guys could somehow manage to get up this ramp on the left... and then even got up the stairs at the top of the hill?! This one's called 'Snakes and Ladders'
this is what we feel like after trying such silliness
another good weeknight ride out!
some local boys enjoying our antics
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Iza update- our little baby is no longer. She titles herself as a 'little girl' (except during a horrible midnight breakdown last night. Ugh!). Now at 27 months, she's getting more and more dexterous doing more wild dances, somersaults and getting more intricate with her drawings with crayons and pencils. She's also learning bahasa Indonesia and her new favorite word is 'sama sama' which means 'same thing/similar'. Her hair has gotten incredibly long, especially in the last month... we can pull it back in a pony tail no problem now, but she and I are due for a haircut, so uncle Develan, sharpen up those scissors! Here's my babe and babes:
Iza and her best friend, Avae
there's my girls!
Iza and daddy enjoying Baby Group
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Teaching Design & Technology (D&T)-
I am the new D&T teacher at the school now, since every other teacher is overbooked with their own classes. It is a hands-on class taught separately to each grade, from K to 8, about a week each. Basically there's a problem that needs to be solved and the kids need to devise a plan to solve it with either restricted or open ended materials (and guidance!). Grade 1 made a cool freight train from milk boxes as the 'seas were rising and the school and its supplies needed to be moved inland to a higher elevation' (they were learning about transportation of goods. Grade K made Chinese New Year's paper lanterns, with designs representing the four season on each side. The older kids had a great time, too. One of my favorite projects was a 'paper column challenge' project. The 4th graders were learning about ancient Greece and I upped the anti by asking them to design 4 to 6 paper columns that will be strong enough to withstand at least 10 big literature books, which were 4 pounds/1.8 kilos each. They could only use previously used A4-sized paper and glue sticks. The kids didn't think it was possible at all...
one unique 'square' shaped design, which held up very well to repeated book crashings because of the previous folds.
One girl won last year's D&T schoolwide challenge (egg drop from 3 stories high) and is VERY likely to become some sort of engineer. Super talented girl! She tied with 2 others with holding the most weight, over 85 pounds!
pretty insane for paper and crappy glue!
Next up was another cool project, a rainforest canopy research outpost! Grade 2 was learning about the rainforests around the globe so I thought I'd put everything into perspective so they can learn what a challenge it is for scientists to learn about everything at such a great height.
they had to design a 'tree house' for their science team to stay/sleep
and a safe, stable canopy bridge
and a mechanism to get them and their equipment up and down the trees (the height of everything is to scale relative to the Lego people)
enjoying the view
Hope you enjoyed the much overdue update... next up our Kinabalu trip!
Iza preparing to fly back to the states... is that a tentative smile or what?
A visitor at a neighbor's 2nd floor balcony. Not sure if it was poisonous or not but it was exciting trying to sweep it off w/o our shoes on!
Americans don't love to think about this, but we'll all end up contributing to the billion-dollar funeral industry--and to say it's not the greenest of enterprises is a deadly understatement. According to Mark Harris's Grave Matters (Scribner, 2007), Americans entomb more than 1.6 million tons of concrete and nearly 830,000 gallons of toxic embalming fluid annually, plus immense amounts of steel. 
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