New Years? Time to de-worm!

New Years and Fourth of July, two dates that we Americans are unlikely to miss. That is why, in our house, we break out the fireworks, the party favors, and the good ol' worm medicine.
Here, it is relatively easy to pick up *cough* *sputter* ... (shhh).... worms and periodically we must rid ourselves of our little friends. Too much information? Sorry. Just be glad I didn't do my intended Ramen noodle analogy.

This past week has been a grand one for us with time spent together as a family celebrating the New Year and Elizabeth's success on her first language check. We have also been exposed to some interesting practices that folks have to mark the New Year here. For the most part, families get together and eat (and eat, and eat). There are also some here (as there are everywhere) who like to imbibe a little too much. What make things really interesting though is the universal male fascination with loud noises and fire. In the last weeks we have been introduced to exploding bamboo (toss a segment on the fire and the steam pressure within blows it apart with a bomb-like noise). We have also been introduced to the practice (some here actually live to tell the tale) of cooking unexploded WWII ordinance. As far as I can gather the process goes like this:

1. Find some unexploded shell rusting away in the jungle.
2. Carry it home and store it in your house.
3. On New Years, build a fairly large pile of very dry brush. (Place the shell in the middle of the pile)
4. Gather all of your friends and neighbors.
   
5. Light the pile of brush.
6. Run like crazy (and listen for the BOOOOM)

Adds a little spice to life, if I understand it correctly.

The New Year isn't the only exciting thing that is going on for us here. In about two weeks we will be heading to the bush to live for 4-6 weeks. By bush, I mean, 1.5 hour plane flight from the nearest city to a grass airstrip followed by a 2 hour hike down river to a little village called Naqui. We will have more information about our time there in our next posts. For now, you can be praying as all of the plans/preparations are happening this week.

Thanks a ton for your partnership this last year!
Your co-laborers in Christ,
The Claasens