11 July 2007 – Rabu

I woke many times during the night but always went back to sleep so I was well rested. I got a little reading from the D&C in before the house came alive. I also walked around a few blocks. We had breakfast and then I made sandwiches for lunch while Mary cut up apples. We were out of the house before 7:30.

Even though we spent 6 to 7 of the next 11 hours in a car it was a super day. First we went to see a water project that had just been finished. This meant we toured through a nicest village I have seen since we were here and Elder Kane it was the same for him. We walked through the village and the surrounding hillsides looking at identical distribution points – that is the places where the villagers hook up pipes to get water to their homes. Each distribution point provides water to 6 to 10 families and there were about 20 of them in this part of the project. This means some 150 families now have fresh, clean water for the first time in their lives.

It seemed to be a very prosperous village with stone or concrete walks around most of it. The women and children looked healthy and as always very friendly. The men were either at work or stayed in the house. There were rice paddies, lots of fish ponds, and the villagers were drying cloves about anywhere there was a piece of flat ground. They seemed to have lots of goats – which are kept in small pens that stand about five feet off the ground. My guess is it keeps them from straying and getting killed by wild animals or snakes. Whatever the reason it is strange to walk by a pen and find a goat looking straight into your face.

The village had electricity and many of them had TV. We felt it was interesting that there were families who could not seem to afford to run pipe to their homes at the cost of about $15 US but they had TVs going. I guess it all depends on what you value most.

I enjoyed most of the walking and Mary was a real champ about keep up with most of it. But there were a couple of times where I suggested she wait for us to come back because the walk was going to be mostly up hill. She made lots of friends while we were away. The only problem I had was that I started sweating and just could not stop. If I had thought to bring a small towel or two with me it would have been fine but I could not get the moisture off fast enough.

After touring the water project we went to a bamboo cabin built right next to a river and had lunch. It was beautiful and peaceful and after an hour I came close to stopping sweating but not entirely. We told Taufik – the native engineer who oversees the project and knows how to wine and dine the money folks – about the store we use to own. He was greatly surprised when we told him we sold 2 men tents that sold for up to $600. He was very interested and asked us to get him a catalog.

After lunch we left Taufik and his group – he has a good size crew that oversees all the work – and headed for the ocean which was about 30 minutes away. This was the first time we saw a real beach and ocean that looked like the ones at Redondo and Hawaii. It stretches for miles and miles and during the week there are very few people. There are only a couple of hotels and they did not seem to have much in the way of customers. We walked the beach and Mary got wet up to her knees. She also collect seashells from the Indian Ocean. I just walked along the beach and looked at the waves crashing into rocks and felt like I was back in California. The sky was clear, there was the breeze that always seems to come in the afternoon, and there were a few people enjoying the beach. This is an area this is almost untouched by foreign visitors – but I am sure that will change some time in the future. The town is one of the neatest and quietest we have seen. Beautiful bougainvillea planted along the wide, clean streets. It looks as if some one laid out the town for a busy future time. Very wise in my estimation.

The trip home took the best part of 2 hours. During our time in the car we talked about our missions, our families, our pasts, and Indonesia. It would have much more comfortable if there had been a second back seat so we could spread out some. But it still was a nice day.

Sam was waiting for us when we got back to the Kanes. Sister Kane insisted we have some bread and cheese to tide us over for the trip home. There are no nicer people in the world than the Kanes – we are so glad that we have had the chance to get to know them so well. They are doing an excellent job in their area.

The trip home was much easier and quicker than I expected. It took only about an hour so we got home before ‘On the Lot’ started. I am not sure why we like this program. Most of the movies are not very good but the average quality is getting better as the number of directors gets smaller. It has to be an expensive program to produce and I do not think we will see a second season.

After it was over we read from the Kitab Mormon. Mary actually had us stop a little early because she was so tired. Unfortunately she had twisted her knee – fortunately it was almost at the end of our trip to the beach so while she suffered, it did not cause any inconvenience.

So our two day working vacation came to an end. I doubt if we will do that very often but it was good to do it this time.