first week - quick note

hi there,
i will write more on saturday or sunday, but i thought i would write a quick note! i survived my first week in lhong (spelled it wrong before) - actually i am in a village called blang mee. i am living with a 63 year old widow who stands at 4 1/2 feet tall at the most. she is hilarious, laughs at me all the time, we have a good time together. i call her ibu (mother) nuriah. i will write more about my home later.
due to a strike and some serious rain, we have only worked 2 1/2 days this week. serious slacking! but today i got so wet working in the rain, i don't think i have ever gotten that wet even in a shower. the indonesians stood under a tarp and laughed at laura and i while we dug dirt in the rain.
thanks for all the birthday wishes. i celebrated by shovelling dirt for house foundations. we then went for a drive to a lookout - except for some bizarre (likely islamic) rule, women were not allowed to walk up to the old dutch military lookout. so laura and i had to look out from the road. but we saw lots of monkeys swinging around. they create quite the racket while we are working. a nice racket though - makes you feel like you are at a zoo (with the water buffalo walking through the construction site). i ate some black forest cake to top it all off!
thanks for keeping a lookout for those bottle rule breakers leslie. i can finally sleep through the night now! thanks for the 112 notes! it is fun to hear from you!
anyway, - will give a full update with hopefully some good stories tomorrow.
we are going to a 12 hour wedding party tomorrow - but are apparently skipping out right after we eat some free food:-)
alida