Wow, my last post was Mach 7th and here it is the 22nd! How time flies.

A segue to my last post is that I did not become superfluous. David Holsten was granted a month's extension to continue working on getting his visa. That created some breathing room. The deadline now is April 12th. He is confident that he will have his visa in hand by that date.

Since I wrote last, I have been to two wedding "receptions": a Chinese family and a Muslim family of the Bugis people group. The weddings were as different as night and day. The Chinese wedding was large and elaborate (about 900 guests) and the Muslim wedding was simple and small. The only common feature was the gift-giving. It is traditional here in Indonesia to give the couple money. As you greet the couple with your congratulations, you drop your gift of money into the designated receptacle. I didn't know either couple but that didn't matter; I was invited anyway. :o)

Since writing, I also had a little R&R time at the island of Derawan. A bunch of us MAF'ers chartered a boat for the three hour ride out to the island. The main attraction is the snorkeling. It was amazing. I saw huge sea turtles, had a manta ray swim right at me, swam in a crater-formed lake with non-stinging jelly fish, and saw so many tropical fish that I can't keep track of them all. I don't know the proper names of all these fish so all I could say was, "Oh look, one of the kind of fish from Finding Nemo. :o) Pretty sad!

Hopefully, I will post some pictures tomorrow of some of these events.