Trip to the Nursery

One of the many great thing about living in the jungle is that we are lucky to have help at our home. We have a gardener who handles not only the outside of our house but also the washes the floors and cleans the porch. I know all of you in the States are rolling your eyes. Yes, we know we have it good.

Our gardener, Zani, who has been with us for the last three years is the sweetest old man. Last month we had to ask him to retire because he was struggling with the physical labor involved with being a gardener. We saw the terrible toil it was taking on his body and knew it was time to let him go. That did not make it easy though. John and I both felt terrible but we knew his best interest was at heart.

Well, we were lucky enough to find an experienced gardener named Chi Chi. He is amazing and our yard already looks a hundred times better. Yesterday, John and I ventured out to Pekanbaru in search of some new plants and flowers. Our driver took us to three local nurseries. We had a great time picking out new things for the yard. I thought you might enjoy a little glimpse into what we saw.

The first nursery we stopped at was just about five minutes out of camp.

Picture from the window of the Avanza. (The teachers co-oped car)

Many of the trees here flower. The colors are almost always bright and beautiful.

I find the trunks of trees in Indonesia so interesting.

Many of them are twisted like this one. I am sure it serves some kind of a purpose.

Typical House/Store on the way to Pekanbaru.

I love all the different textures and colors.

Poor John was getting ate by mosquitoes.

I can't believe neither of us thought about bug spray before we left the house. We so should know better.

We would have loved to have bought this tree. I have no idea how we would have got it home.

Typical Restaurant.

Beware of the Guard Chicken.

Do you want some of this?

We bought this flowering tree. It was beautiful.

I have never seen a plant this color. It's actually bright pink and evidently the wild pigs love it.

We bought two of them for $5.00.

We are going to try potting it and see if they will leave it alone.

A light traffic day heading into town. It's normally way crazier.

Nursery # 2.

The Indonesian Les Schwab. These tire shops are everywhere.

They have been working on the roads since we moved here three years ago.

In another three years they might be done.

A creative use for broken tile.

Another store kind of like the Indonesian Kwik-i-Mart.

Gasoline - I am guessing not EPA approved.