I was recently asked to talk about the country of Indonesia to some groups of children at my granddaughter's school. I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words, because it would take me more than a thousand to tell the stories behind the objects shown here. After almost 20 years, I am surprised that the time we spent in Jakarta, Indonesia came to mind so vividly as I showed them dolls and puppets, played gamelan music, passed around rupiah, shared photos and books and spread out batik. To finish, we shared a snack of pisang, nanas, and krupuk (bananas, pineapple, and shrimp crackers). Since we had family birthdays to celebrate the next weekend, our youngest son, Ben, grilled sate and and made nasi goreng for us to eat while we watched old videos of Jakarta and Bali. It was a time long ago and far away, but we remember.
