prayer request

hey friends!

We are in the city of Ulgii in the province of Bayan Ulgii in the very western part of Mongolia doing some training for vets that have come to this center to improve their vet knowledge and we have found internet access!

We won't write long but we wanted to write and ask for your prayers. We are wearing in our energy, patience, passion and ability to stomach the food. Every other day involves driving on bumpy dirt roads to the next county to continue with more training. Our group of 6 has been together almost 24-7 for 2 weeks in very confined spaces. It is really hard not knowing the language and having people talk all around you without having a clue what is going on. We hope we are making a difference but it is hard to say. Please can you pray that good things would come from all of this and that we would not be discouraged - that we would be content with however and whenever God chooses to use us and that his love and truth would be communicated. Please pray for patience for us as we are always working on other's people's schedules or lack thereof.

We will write more in hopefully a week or so when we are back in a major center.

Lots of love... craig & suzanne

the end of indonesia, adventures in china & now Mongolia

Hey friends!

its been awhile since we posted! internet in China was a challenge and a lot of websites were blocked including our blog site. our time in indonesia finished up well. we did some surfing in Kuta before heading to beijing and it was a lot of fun! Kuta was a lot more like what I thought Bali would be like and I'm glad we didn't spend much time there. The beaches were great but it was awesome to spend so much time with the locals and in more remote areas of indonesia. We did rent a mo-ped one day and found our way out to Tannah Lot - a touristy temple that sits out in the ocean - very beautiful at sunset - getting home in the dark driving on the left side was its own adventure though that's for sure!

china was interesting... i was surprised that although they just hosted the olympics there was hardly any english! but there were definitely a lot of chinese!!!!! streets were always packed! eating was a challenge and definitely not like the chinese food we have back home. we tried a number of things - including these miniature candied apples (not that great) and craig and i spent the most time (likely due to our attempt at the local food) we've spent so far on the can - aka squatting. even in really nice brand new buildings - there are squat toilets - they just come equipped with flush censors - so strange. I think the only really successful street food we tried were sweet potatoes they cook on these big drums! That's what Craig has peeled and is eating in the picture below. Tienneman square (the tall pillars pic), the forbidden city (you can see the entrance to it just behind the soldiers) and the great wall were very interesting - the great wall was very impressive! we also went to an amazing acrobatics show - the contorsionists were unbelieveable and the chinese really can fly! 5 days was more than enough in beijing though. the hustle and bustle of the city and the very unpleasant random smells are not missed.

and now we are in Mongolia! just arrived yesterday and what a warm welcome everyone has given us!!! The folks here at Christian VET Net have been great at showing us the ropes and making us feel at home. our 1st night here we enjoyed an amazing meal hosted by the Gaine Family. Spaghetti, garlic toast and salad! It was great to eat a meal we recognized after attempting to eat in China and so nice to enjoy a meal in a home and not in a restaurant! Glenn & Kathy are sitting on the couch next to us - Glenn is one of the large animal vets here and Kathy directs the education of countryside children. Kit & Warren are both visiting from the USA and are on the board at CVM. We were also taken to a traditional Mongolian cultural evening full of music, dancing and singing. Apparently everyone in Mongolia loves to sing and you can tell - they are awesome! Yesterday they took us to the market to buy warm clothes so I am now the proud owner of a handmade camel wool sweater and craig of a yak wool sweater! And last night we were invited by Karen (a small animal vet) to visit her friend who's running an awesome program helping prostitutes and alcoholics turn their lives around, get off the streets and learn life skills. it was a special evening as we were able to meet one of the women who's been a part of the program and several others who are helping to work alongside these people! The picture of the women are some of those involved in this ministry work! Tomorrow we head to the countryside for 2 weeks - 4 days by van on just wagon wheel tracks - we'll be very close to the Russia, Chinese, Kazikstan borders and will be staying in Ger's, the nomadic herdsman's version of a teepee. They are just simple white round buildings easy to put up & easy to take down! We'll be travelling with a couple vets and a translator. We'll be visiting a number of herdsmen that came for some initial training in the capital city awhile ago to see how they are doing at implementing some of the things they learned. We'll also have many chances to share about life stories and our faith in Jesus, they are extremely open and love talking with foreigners! We are very excited! If you could pray for our safety and health - that would be great. And also for Craig and I as we prepare a few different discussions and presentations. Lots of Love!

family reunion

After our trek we decided to spend a couple days relaxing our bodies in Sengigi. It was a great couple days, where we each got an hour long full body massage for about the price of a starbucks coffee, and also tried to surf, although the only waves were over coral that was about 6 inches from the surface, so we bailed on that idea.
The next day we caught a ferry back to Bali where we met up with my Aunty Theresa and Uncle Bryan, who are currently living in Australia. It is only a short jaunt for them, so they are only in Bali for the week, and then back to Australia.
We spent the first night with them in Padangbai and then the next day went to Tulamben, a town a couple hours away that was the site of an American transport ship that was shot down by the Japanese during WWII. Theresa & Bryan hadn't planned on doing any diving on this trip, but us being new divers couldn't resist our first wreck dive, and so we all went and dove the wreck. It was very cool, as over the last 60 years, the coral and marine life had totally changed the ship into their home.
During our time so far, we had heard about this fruit 'Dorian' that has a reputation of 'tasting like heaven, but smelling like hell'. I can tell you that although the former is questionable, there is no doubt about the latter. I've heard it described as smelling like 'old mans socks' and a 'rotten diaper'. Many higher class hotels also ban this fruit from its premises because of the smell. We decided that we had to try this legendary fruit, and it lives up to its reputation. If you plug your nose while you eat it, its not that bad, but otherwise its pretty much impossible to eat. And I don't know how to describe its taste, it reminds me of something that I was forced to eat as a kid.
The next day we traveled to Lovina, a beach town on the North Coast of Bali with black sand beaches. The next morning we hired a guy with a boat to take us out to see the dolphins at 6am, but it turns out there was about 70 boats for one dolphin, that we did not see. That was okay, because after breakfast we went for another dive near an island with the most clear water I had ever seen. And althgough we didn't see anything sharks or huge fish (except for a huge green turtle just chilling out), it felt like I was swimming in aquarium, with the amazingly clear water and amazing corals and little fish swimming about.
Today we are now in Ubud, and plan on catching some traditional Balinese dancing tonight.

post from october 8th

Hey friends!

It's been awhile since our post. Lots has happened. Some of you may have heard about the earthquake here in Indonesia a week or so ago - we didn't get wind of it til a few days later but we've just heard it was pretty intense. It was in Sumatra though which is quite a ways away as we were on the island of Lombok finishing our scuba diving course. We've since finished and have now done about 10 dives total! Some pretty cool sights - Craig'll probably write more about that in his blog.



We just got back to civilization so to speak. We spent the last 3 days and 2 nights trekking the 2nd largest volcano in Indonesia called Mount Rinjani! Wow! I thought I've done some pretty intense hikes, but this was crazy! There's no such thing as traversing a mountain, its straight up and straight down! We hiked about 9 hours the 1st day to make it to our 1st base camp. There were 3 other girls with us, a guide and 3 porters to carry in food and supplies. The porters were so strong. I wish the pictures would upload but these men walked the entire trek in just flip flops & carrying 65 pounds or more of food etc on bamboo sticks over their shoulders!! We woke up at 3 am to start our ascent to the top of Mt. Ranangi. 3 hours later of straight uphill I was totally exhausted. Craig had made it to the top for the sunrise, I was about 15 minutes later but still found spectacular views. We hiked back down and took down camp and moved in the crater of the volcano next to a lake. By the time we set up that camp it was noon and we'd already hiked 8 hours!! We hiked out the next day - back to the top of one of the rims and then down to Senaru where we'd begun! Unbelievable views, the volcano is still spewing some lava - it erupted only 3 months ago and all through the night you could hear it rumbling. Our guide and porters were amazing cooks too and we spent time trying to learn some indonesian words and they english.

A few observations of our time in Indonesia: There are lots of rice paddies, monkeys, singing from temples, and dogs everywhere. Squat toilets are maneagable, sharks usually keep to themselves (we've seen 3 diving so far!), the people are super hard workers and carry crazy amounts of weight on their head - we watched men and women unload a boat of bricks carrying them to shore 2 at a time on their heads! People litter everywhere, roads are narrow, mopeds can seat three - not unusal to see a man and woman with a small child tucked between them swirving though traffic, i'm tired of banana pancakes - we've eaten them for about 8 days straight...washing clothes in salt water is not ideal... roosters crow at anytime of the night and craig and i should not sit in the back of their mini-vans! i got sick twice already!

thanks again for all your prayers. lots of love...

Bali

Suzanne and I are now in the Gili islands, enjoying the true 'island experiance'. Our travels from Bali to here included a 5 hour ferry, hour and a half van trip, (barely avoiding getting carsick) a 2 hour wait in the scorching late afternoon sun, and then a half hour boat trip where we all ended up soaked from the rough sea. now that we're here, life is very peachy. We're done our first 2 days of our open water diver course, and have out first dive in the morning! We're both very excited. Today we've played some beach volleyball with some Frenchman (and women) and tried the Indonesian version of Mexican food. I think they should stick to their Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice) and Chicken Curry instead. We are gretting used to the heat and humidity, and learning to drink water whenever we can. We're also learning how to barter, although I'm pretty sure we still paying more than twice what the locals pay. Tonight we're going to watch a movie on the beach! The 'strip' here on the beach is more built up than I thought it was, and you can indulge yourself quite nicely. We plan on hanging out here on the island for a few more days to finish our diving course and then do a few fun dives as well.

Honeymoon Details - Salmon Arm to Sorrento

We spent our last 2 nights at Craig's Parents cabin in Sorrento. We found a little Evangelical Church to attend Sunday morning - they were so friendly and genuine and very curious to hear all about our upcoming trip and involvement with Christian Vet Missions & Athletes In Action. They even asked us to add them to our prayer chain and to send them a letter and they'd try and help us out financially a bit too! Wow! Love being a part a God's family! Anyways - after all that, we decided to venture out to Copper Island on a 2 person kayak. It took us 3 hrs round trip but was well worth the sore arms and shoulders!

The island was beautiful and had great panoramic views. We found a trail that took us up to the summit and enjoyed a bite to eat before hiking back down.

Just a quick flex to pump up our egos! Feeling quite proud of our very adventuresome, outdoorsy, athletic honeymoon! And we've only just begun! We're excited to have so many of you curious to hear about our journey and thank you in advance for your prayers and support!

Next stop - Bali, Indonesia!!!!

Honeymoon Details - From Canmore to Salmon Arm

One of our friends - Caleb, invited us to spend a night in his crazy tree house in Salmon Arm as his wedding present to us so we took him up on it!


Its quite the tree house - a little tricky to get into if you're scared of heights or unsure of your balance - but we slept great after an awesome sauna and hang out time with a random group of very interesting people & friends of friends.


In the morning Caleb took us to see the last part of our wedding present... A Giant Rope Swing 30 some feet in the air! He calls it - "Walk the Plank"




Um ya - major adrenaline rush! Loved every second of it!