Sumatra Day 3

It really is a cool experience for us to be able to be in Indonesia visiting our family and our friends with Scott's mom and aunt who are visiting us in Singapore from the U.S. 

As we awoke this morning it was a beautiful day at our hotel, here is the outside of our hotel

and around the back there was a deck with tables and chairs by each room, a perfect place to enjoy a morning breeze and a cup of coffee, well really it was Nescafe, but the caffine was welcomed and it does have coffee flavor.

Today we get to experience an Indonesian wedding reception, our family and friends who live here have weddings that they are invited to on a very regular basis, think like three times a month!  It is an honor for us to be invited to this extremely intimate cultural experience and we are told it is an honor to the bride and groom that we would attend.

In Indonesia the "wedding" the promises made to one another, actually take place between the groom and the brides father, the bride is not even present.  There is a ceremony with the bride and groom on Saturdays but they technically are already married at that point.  Sunday is the party, the reception, this is what we were privledged to attend.

It was in a big building with tons of people present!  When you walked in, each guest was handed a fan,

good thing too as the room was crowded with no air conditioning and lots and lots of people.

Even the bride needed her fan.

The bride and groom stand on a stage, a very beautiful and elaborate stage, to greet their guest,

 there is no mingleing and the bride is not to smile as she is now leaving her family so even though she may be happy that she is getting married she must show sadness that she is moving out of her parents home.

One of the decorations on the stage was this tower.

We were told that once a year the city has a festivle and there are many of these towers that are made, the towers are floated out to the sea to ensure that the city will maintain health that year.  One year the city did not hold the festival and some kind of outbreak occured, so now every year they float the towers.  Having a tower at the wedding signifies wishes of good health for the bride and groom.

Like any wedding in America, there was food.  A lot of food, good and very VERY spicy food.

You simply get a plate and go through the line then try to find a place to sit.....

We were able to mingle and meet some of our friends neighbors at the reception

These ladies may cover their heads on a daily basis but I tell you they take the fashion of their head scarves seriously, there were some really beautiful women at this reception.

After we ate and greeted the neighbors it was time to go up to the stage and congratulate the bride and groom, as we were the only "white" people there, the photographer immediately lined us all up for a photo.  Scott handed him our camera and he was kind enough to take the picture for us.

The wedding was just the begining of our day three in Sumatra and what a great begining it was.

 Our familly and friends planned a picnic for us at a private beach area in their city for the evening. 

We all piled into a S.U.V. and off we went to the beach.  When I say we all I mean 12 yes TWELVE of us piled into that car, here is a picture of just a few of us

As we were driving down the road to get to the beach it became clear as to why the beach was a more private beach, you need a tough vehicle to navigate the road!

We were told that there might be some wild waterbuffalo around the beach area so be aware, of course we had to sing the waterbuffalo song from veggie tales on our way, and upon our arrival we did indeed see some waterbuffalo, some BIG waterbuffalo.

They crossed over the road and headed down the beach before the rain set in.

Rain did come, it is pretty common to have rain, it is a rain forest afterall, but it only lasts a short while.

Grandma Pam loved playing with little Daniel, he was very busy and very much loved the water

speaking of loving the water a couple of other boys loved those big waves.

As always it is very important to stay hydrated in S.E. Asia

One of our familes favorites is fresh coconut water straight from the coconut, Scott learned how to break one open

and a very happy little Josiah was thankful for the job well done.

Caleb knows how it's done..... bottoms up

At the end of our time on the beach the sun was setting on our trip to Sumatra, we are so glad we went and already miss our family and friends, thank you for sharing your homes and your love with us.

The sun was also setting at our hotel.  Beautiful, God is such an amazing artist!