Visitors

Matt, Scott and I have enjoyed two visitors this weekend.

George and Jackson!

Jackson will stay until tomorrow. George already went back to his bachelor pad in Portland. We miss him but we are all doing great. George and I both feel peace about this even though we don't really know what is in our future. Come what may and love it!!

Markets

I've been looking through all our travel pictures. Oh, it really makes me want to go somewhere!

I'm reminded that one of the best ways to get to know a country is to visit its markets. I loved taking visitors to the grocery store and market in Barcelona. So I wanted a share a few pictures of markets we have visited around the world.

Spice market in Dubai

Pisac, Peru

Unlike some markets, this one was not just for the tourists. Families were there shopping for their produce! But some were obviously selling things for the foreign visitors.

I bought a few of these intricately carved gourds from this women. She told me that her whole family carved them.

Bali

I like the old scale in the middle of the picture.

The baskets of flowers in the middle of the picture near the post are especially made to be given as daily offerings in the many altars you see all over Bali. There was always one on the front console of our bus. With the wild traffic there, I'll take all the help I can get!

Hong Kong

Fresh fish market

Beijing Silk Market

Aswan, Egypt

This one makes me smile! Notice the two bewildered looking tourists being accosted by TWO enthusiastic salesmen!!

Spice shop in Aswan

I will always remember the smell of all those exotic spices!

Cairo, Egypt

Khan el Khalili Market

Narrow winding passages, medieval architecture, silver, brass, hookah pipes, carpets...... A maze of shops with few tourists! I will admit that I felt conspicuously FOREIGN!

Anyone want to go on a trip with me? India in October????

Bali

After almost two years I've gotten the pictures from our trip to China and Bali on my computer instead of just on George's so I've been looking through them and savoring the great memories! One of the many highlights for me was our extension to Bali. That was the most unique place I have ever visited.

This is a home with many altars in the front yard. See what I mean by unique?

A highlight for me was my "Balinese Cooking Class". The day started early with a 6:30 a.m. pick up at the hotel. Our first stop was the market where "Mama Bali" shops. The chef scared me to death when he announced that each of us needed to pick one of the chickens to be butchered for our lunch. I thought this whole experience might be a little too authentic for me!

After one was picked, he showed us how they hypnotize a chicken before chopping its head off. I was cringing the whole time waiting for the 'ax to fall'.

Pretty weird seeing the chicken all laid out on the chopping block calmly waiting! Lucky for me, this chicken lived to see another group of shoppers, since the chef finally admitted that our chickens were in the fridge back in the restaurant!

We got to learn about all the exotic spices and how they were used. He assured us that the same spices would be readily available in our local grocery stores! Really????

Next we learned how to make banana leaf rice holders for cooking rice. Cool! Not particularly useful since our local Albertsons's doesn't stock banana leaves!! I was later told kale leaves work well but I haven't tried it!

Then it was back in the van to go to the fish market. Boats from Java and Sumatra! What an exotic mix of color! I loved it. The black and white cloth covered statue in the picture is another altar! The Balinese are a religious people.

Here you could buy

Shrimp

Crab

Squid

And of course fish!

This little beauty peeped out at me from under one of the boats! Wonder where she is from and what her life is like?

At the restaurant this lovely breakfast awaited us.

Then we started cooking!!! All kitchens in Bali are outside since it is so warm. They don't have ovens either. The chef was an excellent teacher and got us all involved.

So much fun and such a varied and interesting group! An Indian couple who now lived in Boston, a gorgeous couple with a British man and his French wife who currently live in Switzerland, two couples from Australia, a newlywed couple from Taiwan, and another American whose girlfriend didn't want to learn to cook, she just wanted to sleep in!

This is what we prepared! Want to come over for Balinese food? I still remember a few things!

Year of the Tiger

I decorated my table in honor of Chinese New Year.

And thought I'd share a few of my favorite pictures from our 2008 trip to China.

The Great Wall of China

Love on the Yangtze

Panda at the zoo in Chongqing

Rickshaw ride on the city wall at Xian

With Jan and Janice by the Pagoda at Shibaozhai

Cute little salesman guy at the Three Gorges Dam Museum. I bought two of his dragons and was later told they are made out of cigarette papers! Oh well, they are cute. You can see them on my table in the first picture.

This enterprising fellow was walking around our hotel in the morning. I asked (in sign language of course) if I could take his picture with his "future lunch" and he rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign of "Sure just give me some money first." So I gave him a dollar and took his picture. My sister-in-law Katherine was with me and wanted to take his picture too....guess what! Two pictures meant two dollars.

Family and Friends on the Li River

George's brother John, his wife Katherine, George's sister Tammy, our niece Jennifer, Marilyn and George on the Li River Cruise.

Wonderful memories!

She did it again!

Remember the wonderful poster that Taylor drew last year with our Young Women's theme? http://bondia2000.blogspot.com/2009/02/so-much-talent.html

Well she did it again.

She said that she decided on this scene because no matter where we go Heavenly Father will always be with us. I especially love the light in the background. My photo doesn't capture the subtle effect of that heavenly light! All year we will be blessed to enjoy her talents as we look at this poster. We are lucky to have her in our Ward. I love her!!

I have a dream!

I am working for a company called Club Z Tutoring and part of my current assignment is to tutor two little girls, one 8 and one 12 who are from Somalia. I work with them in their apartment and have the added challenge of entertaining their two little sisters age 3 & 5 while we work! I have grown to love those 4 little girls, Halima, Maryamo, Mamona, and Hermisa!

Yesterday the 8 year old read me a story in one of the "Frog and Toad" books called, "Dreams". We talked about the story for a few minutes and then she said, "Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream." When I asked her if she knew what his dream was she instantly replied, "that little children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." I asked her to explain what that meant and she didn't miss a beat saying. "We should like people because they are nice and kind and work hard and we shouldn't not like people because they are black or white or brown." Then all the little girls started to talk at once (they had an 8 year old cousin visiting that day) telling me that a long time ago in America people who were black couldn't drink at the same water fountains or go to the same bathrooms or sit in the front of the bus or eat in a restaurant. I told them that when I was a little girl in Arkansas that was the way it was and they were amazed that I was that old. Then they asked me if I knew Martin Luther King and when I said no they were sure that I must have been at the "I Have a Dream Speech'. I told them that I was a little girl like they are now when he gave that speech but I did remember seeing it on television. One of the girls then told me how someone who "didn't have love and kindness in his heart killed Martin Luther King and that was so sad".

It was such a heart warming experience sitting there listening to these little girls share these tender feelings with me. We all laughed as we realized that I'm not white, I'm kind of pink and they aren't black they are more brown and that none of it matters.

I looked up Dr. King's speech when I got home. It was amazing!

• I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
• I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
• I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
• I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
• I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
• I have a dream today.
• I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I think the scene in that living room fulfilled Dr. King's dream as this great, great granddaughter of slave owners enjoyed coloring, playing games and reading with four little girls from Africa!!!