Day 8, March 16th

We started the day by going to visit a famous buoy in town. This buoy washed up in the city after the volcano Krakatau exploded in 1883. When it exploded it caused a tidal wave that killed an estimated 35,000 people. It also caused this buoy to be displaced.

I wish you could see just how far it is from the sea. Unbelievable! My guess is that it is 6 or 7 miles from the shore. Just a guess though.

While we were there, a group of government people came up to us and began talking to us, asking us all kinds of questions. We found out later that they were from the department of tourism, so that is why they were asking questions. One guy in particular spoke really good english and was very easy to talk to. He will be mentioned later in this post.

We found these signs while we were out sight seeing. They are made from flowers!

Some more of the city.

Some of the transportation that you can use to get around.

This is where we ate lunch.

At this restaurant, they bring out everything they have in bowls, and then you only pay for what you eat. And yes, I tried one of these. (You eat them whole.)

Me, Brent, Alex, and all the food.

After lunch we went to where one of the church members (Bertha) has an English school. She was so nice and fun to meet with. When we walked in, the same guy we had met earlier at the buoy was there. WHAT ARE THE ODDS! Come to find out, he is one of the teachers at the school. Such a small world.

A view from the school.

I just had to include this next picture. I like to call it, "Steps of Death." These are the stairs at Brent's parents house. I took Brent's picture while he was CLIMBING them. Look how steep they are!

That afternoon we met at Akademi Alkitab Sumatra bagian Selatan, (known to us in America as Southern Sumatra Bible College) to take a group photo of all the students. Brent's dad founded this school in 1989.

Our sunday school class donated neck ties to the guys in the class. They seemed to really like them. There were even two Auburn ties in the lot.

We had such a good time visiting with everyone.

That night we ate at Khuailok with all the staff and their spouses from the school.

When you walk in they have all of these tanks that you can pick out what you want to eat from.
Our food had already been ordered when the staff made the reservations. I don't even remember what all we had but it was good!

It was a great day.

Oh, I just had to include this shot just to show what they Indonesian money looks like. It isn't too often that you get to hold a bill that has the number 100000 on it. What is interesting is that around 12,000 Rupiah make one US dollar. They do not really have any units of money less than 100 Rupiah. This hasn't always been the case. When Brent lived there while he was in high-school the value of the money wasn't as inflated as it is now. He kept a coin as a souvenier from back then that is 5 Sen. And 100 Sen makes 1 Rupiah. So it is mind boggling to think of what that coin is worth now:

12000 Sen = 1 US cent

so

5 Sen = .0004 of a penny

(it is worth more for the metal than what it is worth monetarialy)