More new beginnings

If you have ever traveled to a predominantly Muslim country or been somewhere that has a mosque and have heard the call to prayer, you may agree that it is one of the most exotic sounds there is. When I hear it, I can’t help but think of dry heat and desserts, beautiful mosaic tiles and gorgeous architecture, foreign languages and open air markets. For some reason it makes me think of Morocco, even though it’s Mali where I first heard the sound. The call to prayer is a sort of song in a deep voice and without too many hills or valleys. I do love it, because it never fails to either take me somewhere else or make me totally live in the moment. The trouble with the call to prayer is when it happens at 4:30 a.m. and is 1.5 blocks away from your house. When it wakes you up at an hour that is far from the time when you have to wake up. And even worse? It seems we have a very devout Muslim neighborhood rooster living nearby. Not 5 minutes after the call to prayer begins, the rooster starts calling to his devotees that it is indeed time to wake up and begin the day. This is how my day has started since we moved into our house last weekend. I keep hoping that I will begin to sleep through it, or at the least instantly recognize it for what it is and fall back asleep without a second thought.

The house is good. It is awesome to be out of the hotel and to feel that we are putting down roots of some kind. We have very little furniture and none of the personal, homey things that we sent from the US, but it is our’s for the next 2 years and we are getting to know it. The location is evidently better than we hoped. We can go to a couple good grocery stores without having to enter the thick of the neighborhood shops and traffic, and there are a few preschools nearby worth checking out. Even better, it is only taking J 30 min. to get to and from work. We feared it would be double that. The yard is big and has plenty of space for C to run around and we have taken a dip in the pool. It is louder than we expected, obviously, and there are a couple kinks to work out, but all in all it is a good move. We will hopefully get our car this week and then I can begin filling the house.

I am planning a trip to Singapore in a couple weeks to explore hospitals and doctors for the baby’s birth. I am looking forward to the trip, not that I need another new place to explore but it will answer a lot of anxious questions and I’m looking forward to doing some exploring on my own. No offense family, but I do like to get away from time to time and it has been nearly a year since I traveled for work. Plus Singapore is supposed to be a nice break from Jakarta and it is only for a few days.

I have taken a couple photos of the house which I will hopefully post soon. Our internet connection isn’t quite set up right so I am forced to get online in the living room sitting on a hard chair in a corner. My back just can’t take that these days. But I will try to do it soon.

And congrats J’s cousin A on getting married this past weekend. We’re sorry we missed bearing witness to the grand day and spending time with loved ones, but you were in our thoughts and it looks and sounds like it was a gorgeous wedding.