Electricity

well...because of oil going up...gas has gone up...and everything is going up, up, up...so that means our electricity has gone up because all electricity in Indonesia is run on Diesel Fuel...so wednesday...friday and saturday (and periodically at times before that) we had no electricity for about 5-6 hours at a time...with no warnings...and for us, it is only 'inconvienent' ...but for many it causes big headaches cuz their businesses can't run. and "they" say that the electric company is only doing this so that people will appreciate their electricity more...cuz our bills are going to go up. OR...it could be that now we will just have blackouts periodically every day to conserve. who knows what this means for the future of indonesia? it's just so hard for the people already...maybe solar energy will get a boost and they will learn new ways of doing things??? but in the meantime...we are thankful for the times we do have electricity...and then today i am thankful because we were in town shopping and i found Q-tips!!!!!!!!!!!!!! real ones! so all the ex-pats are going to be so excited for this! and we are also very very thankful that we have a car to drive! we were getting down the "two bike/5 persons" deal pretty good but we are realizing after just 24 hours of having a car...that life just got 100% easier! it's so great to be able to go when you want to go and come back when you want to come back and not be relying on others so much...be it public transportation, hired drivers, bikes, stroller, our own two feet, or friends cars...we have loved that time without the car cuz it made us appreciate "this life" here but i have to say "we are all (especially gavin) so glad to come back to the life of having a car!!!!!!!!!!"