More on fruit...

Reading the blog, you might think that all we do is eat!  I commented to those at our cell group that they talked about food a lot - and they laughed.  It does seem to be a consuming topic here.  I suppose because the food is so diverse and there is so much to try.  Many of our friends eat out most nights.  Roy and I tend to cook at home a lot, so we don't have as much opportunity to try things.  I think our cell group as made it their calling to get us to try all kinds of new things.  

A couple of weeks ago, one of the guys brought a bunch of durian to cell group.  I mentioned before that durian is a rather smelly fruit.  I evokes passionate responses from most people - either for or against.  Hotels have signs that say, "No guns, no smoking and no durian."  Seriously!  The smell is intense and not something I enjoy.  I try to hold my breath walking by that section in the fruit department.  But, people say that if you can get past the smell the taste is worth it.  Roy and I were urged to try it so we did.  It was actually quite good.  It is very creamy and rich tasting.  There are two kinds - bitter and sweet.  I really liked the sweet and didn't care so much for the bitter.  Roy liked the sweet as well.  Apparently our cell group thinks we'll graduate to the bitter!  Everyone asks us here if we have tried durian.  We say yes and they wait in anticipation as to whether or not we liked it.  It's kind of like a test.  They expect most Westerners to not like it and so are pleasantly surprised when they hear that we do.  It is like our initiation.  Our pastor said that our liking the durian means we were meant to be here!  Here's a photo:

In an earlier blog I mentioned that we hadn't tried dragonfruit yet.  One of the university students read that and brought us a bag last week!  There are red and white dragonfruits.  You peel them kind of like an orange and eat the sweet fruit inside.  I think they are best when chilled a bit.  There are little black seeds (like in a kiwi) inside but you just eat those too.  The red dragonfruit has a sweeter taste than the white ones, but they are both good.  

Rambutans

These are rambutans which are a new fruit we tried here. They are absolutely delicious.  You peel the hairy skin part off and the white fruit is inside.  The fruit is related to a lychee and looks like a small white egg when removed from the rind.  There is a seed inside (like in a plum).  The taste is both a sweet and a sour.  Quite nice.  The name comes from the Malay word meaning "hairy."

Malls

I've never encountered so many malls in one city in my life.  There are malls everyone.  And not just small ones - they are huge!  Mega Huge!   Someone said that people here don't have a lot of hobbies, so they go to the mall. Others joked that people go to the mall when it is hot (a lot of the time) and then they go when it rains (the rest of the time).  

Some of the malls have bowling alleys, most have cinemas, one has a climbing wall and another has an ice rink!  There are stores from all over Asia as well as Britain, Australia and the US.  I don't know how the economy can sustain so many malls, but they are always busy and the parking lots are always full.  You drive around and around looking for a place to park which takes forever - except at one mall.  It is one fairly close to our house and the parking is only about .30 cents US for 4 hours during the week.  When you pull into the car park, you'll see signs like the one below that tell you how many parking spaces are available on that floor and in which direction they are.  If the sign says "full" you just go to the next level.  The signs will tell you how many open spaces available either up or down.  

Once you get to a floor with open spaces, you look for the green light (see below).  The signs will point you to open spaces, you find the green light and park.  Once your car crosses the sensor, the light turns red and everyone knows that there is one less space!  The handicap spaces have blue lights, so they are easy to see.  

I am amazed by this and wonder why I haven't seen something similar in the US.  Of course the parking lots at Mall of Georgia and Perimeter are mostly outside parking, so it wouldn't work the same.  But this is great!  I'd rather shop here than a lot of places because I know I'll find a space.  Plus the garage is well lit.  

Most of the malls and also car parks near grocery stores have other services for drivers - like car washes!  I dropped my car off the other day, went and shopped for about 20 minutes came back out and my car was hand washed and dried and waiting for me.  Great service.  

Wildlife

We went up to the hills above the city last week for a team retreat.  It was such a nice refreshing time.  The temperature up there is in the low 70s rather than the high 80s and 90s.  It makes it very comfortable.  We rented a bungalow to share with the three families and ate in local restaurants.  We walked everywhere and had a chance to have some concentrated time to talk about our hopes for the future of our work here.

One of the evenings, Barb wanted to take everyone on a tarantula hunt.  Darlene and I passed and stayed home enjoying quiet moments to read our books.  But everyone else tramped through the hills at 9:00 pm to see if they could find the tarantula hideouts.  They did!  Apparently you look for a hole along the side of the road that has a bit of a web.  Then you get a stick and tease the tarantula out into the open and take its photo!  Here is one that got caught on camera.  

On our way down the mountain after the retreat, we saw monkeys along the side of the road!  I had never seen monkeys away from the zoo and it was quite a treat.  We had to be careful taking the photos because they came straight for the car and we weren't sure that they wouldn't have climbed in with us.  Can you see the babies?!

Roti Tisu

We went out to dinner with our friends last night and enjoyed a specialty here called Roti Tisu.  We went to Mamak food corner which are all over the city and very popular.  These are run by Indian Muslims and have some of the best food anywhere - their version of a fast food restaurant.  Good comfort food.  They are usually on a corner and open on two sides so that the breeze can come in.  This one had fans with mist to keep you cool, but it was such a nice evening we didn't really need them.  The waiters come and get your order and don't write anything down.  There were 8 of us and he didn't miss a beat.  You can get fresh squeezed juices, coffees and teas and the kids favorite - Milo ice which is chocolate malt drink.  I usually get a lime water which is very refreshing.  We ate our dinner first, fried chicken rice for me, and then we got our dessert.

Roti means bread and is a flat bread cooked on a griddle.  You can have it many different ways.  Plain served with curry and sambal (spicy red sauce), or with bananas or the coconut honey called Kaya.  The specialty of this Mamak place is Roti Tisu.  

First the cook flattens out the dough and gets it really thin.

Then he puts it on the griddle and put butter all over it.

When it has cooked a little, he sprinkles sugar on it, then sweetened condensed milk, and finally honey!

He gets it off the griddle, wraps it in a cone and it is three feet tall!

The kids had never seen anything so big and yummy!

We sure enjoyed it.  The cost of one of these is about $1.66 US!  

Birthday Party

We had a really busy weekend last week.  First was the 4th of July party (see separate blog).  Then on Saturday Ken Sande was here to do a Peacemaker Seminar for leaders of our church and others in the denomination.  It was very interesting.  Our pastor was part of the panel that looked at an Asian case study and thought about peacemaking in an Asian context.  As a church we are going to begin going through some of the materials in our cell groups.

On Sunday was the church's 8th anniversary.  They had a combined worship service which was very special and included a cake cutting.  

Then everyone adjourned downstairs to the parking lot.  There they set up activities for the children like face painting, arcade games, balloon animals, and jewelry making.

The worship team set up and played lots of great music

And then there was lots of food!  Tents were set up and a catering company provided rice, noodles, curry, veggies, fruit, roast lamb and....

lots of beef and chicken satay.

What was different about this lunch was that they sent out flyers to the entire neighborhood.  The community surrounding the church is filled with college students from the three colleges in the area.  Plus there are families who live around there and lots of businesses as well.  The church is in an office building and so to accomodate a large crowd for the party, they used the parking lot downstairs with the blessing of the building owners.  Lots of people from the community came which was very exciting.  Many didn't even know that a church met in that building.  Some thought it was only for Chinese, but we assured them that all were welcome.  We met some new students who were just starting the semester at one of the local colleges.  It was the first time the church had been so visible in the area and I think it was a great success. 

4th of July

We went to our friends' house in the north of the city to celebrate the 4th of July last week.  It was great fun.  We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, had salads and chips and sodas and (other beverages).  Then we played water games (ever run a relay with a baggie of ice between your legs?) and threw water balloons.  We sang "My country tis of thee" and the "Star Spangled Banner" (while the neighbors looked over the fences!) and then lit sparklers and other mild firecrackers (although one did get kind of close to our car!).  It was great time of just sharing our national pride with others who are living overseas.