There was no internet in the country of Indonesia for three days. Can you imagine? Now there is a connection but it is VERY slow.

We had arrived home five days before we had told the maid, Iis, that we would – we had planned to travel more, but returned since Greg was so sick. When we arrived the house hadn’t been cleaned, the cat was hungry, the plants were droopy and she wasn’t there. Right before we’d left, she told me she was getting engaged over the holiday and requested one day off. The engagement was shocking to me, since it was proceeded by the numerous conversations we’d had about planning for the future, saving money, agreements between couples, and her previous comment that her short-term boyfriend was “nothing serious.” But her parents were putting a lot of pressure on her since she was already old (20) and her younger sister wanted to get married. In any case, we left a note asking that she talk to us if she came home, but she came home, said thank you, took her things and left. We don’t know why, and we asked her to stay – she said she’d call and never did. Apparently this is a pretty normal thing here. Now we’re back to doing things the American way – by ourselves. I sure wish the house was smaller! Or that it was carpeted and we had a vacuum! It takes 2 hours just to sweep and mop just the downstairs!

There sure are a lot of accidents around here. Here’s a part of a report from the Jakarta post about a recent train derailing:

“At the time of the accident, I was asleep under the seat of another passenger because the train was overcrowded and lots of people were standing. All of a sudden the (fourth) car, which I was in, lost power. Later the car somehow became uncoupled. People started screaming in fear," said Sri Lestari, a 16-year-old student who was in the car that plunged into the riverbed.

Police said the train was passing over a bridge spanning the Pager river near Rancamaya village in Cilongok district when the accident occurred.

Railway officials said the car had a maximum capacity of 106 passengers. However, they also said economy class trains were officially "allowed" to exceed the maximum passenger numbers during peak traveling times.

"We allow up to 50 percent more passengers than the maximum capacity on economy-class trains. That's normal during every Idul Fitri holiday season," Soemino, the director-general of state railway company PT KAI, said.

He could not say what caused the accident. "We are still investigating."