Friday in Pangkalan Bun

My sleepover at Bu Arfa's last night was lots of fun and except for the enormous cockroach who insisted on greeting me every time i used the bathroom, i loved every minute of my time with the family. Got some great footage of Bu Arfa buying vegetables from a kaki lima driving a motorbike and also footage of bapak feeding Tiara her breakfast in the typical indonesian way of feeding young children: hand feeding her.
As usual we were very late getting to the hotel to pick Sharon & Annie who had already left and had gone to school by ojek an hour previously.
I arrived at school to find Sharon & Annie talking in English about what the children have enjoyed about their stay.
We broke into groups and my group consisted today of Rani, Ari, Irvan & Wirra who did a fantastic job with my topic. I rode on the back of Irvan's bike to the same market i was at yesterday and we found the same banana seller at the back of the market who reluctantly let us video him selling bananas. However his voice wasn't loud enough nor did he speak clearly enough so the boys offered to do his part too and we progressed well. We thanked him afterwards and walked off to get a cold drink (es jeruk/iced orange) which was beautiful. We sat down and looked at what we'd done so far & discussed what worked and what didn't and then where to go next We decided the fish market would be interesting so headed in that direction As we walked past the banana seller, he glared at us & i realised that i should have bought some bananas in appreciation. So i bought a kilo of pisang susu but that didn't put a smile on his face either. Maybe should have bought a kilo of several varieties but was aware that i would then need to carry them all.
I then gave Rani my flip camera and we broke into 2 groups to film. Can't wait to see their footage! It was hilarious asking fish sellers if we would use their fish for the video. They were incredulous that anyone would be interested enough in dead fish!
I had forgotten to take my oleh oleh with me so we dropped in to the hotel so i could pick them up. Turned out everyone was also heading back to the hotel so after we had all grouped together, we got a whole group photot with everyone, even Bec & Kate! We have planned to catch up later after evening prayers (mahgrib) for last goodbyes and also to chat as i got the impression there are still questions that haven't been asked about Australian culture.
After everyone had left, Sharon & family headed out for some family time fishing at a place where after you have caught your fish, they cook it for you. We headed to the Istana Es - the ice palace for more es campur and juices. I tried an sop buah (see photo) and a durian juice while the girls had a mango juice,a banana juice and a jack fruit juice. We then walked back to our hotel via various shops and various ATM's where i still have had no luck getting money out & got back in time for afternoon aerobics.