Balikpapan and Eid Al Adha

I didn't post last Sunday because I didn't get back from Balikpapan until late afternoon.  I was exhausted and also had to take care of some school work before Monday came around.  Balikpapan is a city about an hours flight away from Tarakan.  It's an oil town so it has a lot of Westerners which means a lot of stores cater to Western tastes. 

I went with Holly Underhill and Angela Moore.  The weekend ended up being a marathon shopping trip.  Holly is a shopping queen.  She knows all the places to go for good deals and great buys.  And we hit them all.  On the way to Balikpapan we each had our carry-ons tucked into our regular suitcases.  On the way home, we had carry-ons and checked bags stuffed to the gills.  What did we buy?  Holly and Angela were buying Christmas presents and all of us were on the lookout for American foods we miss.  For example:  Parmesan and Cheddar cheese, cranberries and cranberry sauce, Snickers, almonds, black olives, salsa, lunch meat, bacon, and we even hauled a 13 lb turkey home.  We'll eat him at our MAF Thanksgiving meal. 

 There is a McDonald's in Balikpapan.  I usually don't eat at McD's in the States but I did there.  The hamburger tasted so good, we ended up eating at McDonald's twice.  :o)  Here is a picture of us ready to return home with loaded baggage. 

Angela, me, Holly

 

 

Friday was a Muslim holiday here.  It is one of the Eid festivals.  The "greater" Eid is Eid al Fitri which comes at the end of the month of Ramadan.  The festival this past Friday is the "lesser" Eid - the Eid Al Adha.  Not sure what the Arabic means, but according to Islam, it is the celebration of the time Abraham almost sacrificed his son Ishmael.  No typo there.  That is what they believe happened.  You can google it.  Hundreds of cows or goats are slaughtered during this festival in commemoration of the event.  And the mosques sound the prayers from seven to ten on the eve of the festival and then from four-thirty to seven-thirty on the morning of the festival.  I'm attaching a video of a mosque call to prayer.  There isn't anything to see because I took it at night.  Envision this "call" going on for three hours.  

 

 

 

We MAF'ers live in a predominantly Muslim culture.  Friendly, kind, generous Muslims.  We try to live exemplary lives among them.   You can pray that we succeed.