Kucing makan kacung (The cat eats peanuts!)

The next day, Anni waits to walk with me to meet Jo and bring her back to the Villa. (We'd agreed to meet the next day since I found it hard to give someone directions to the exact random roadside footpath, across from the ramshackle warungs, through the rice fields that led to the villa). The night before Anni had shocked me--she was so pleased to hear I'd have company for my travels. (A few times she's mistaken my "work hours" for "boredom". Though I laugh that it's impossible to be bored in Bali, but am glad for the company to share in the amazing-ness of day-to-day discoveries). I tell Anni when she meets Jo, she'll know why I'm so excited. It's not just any friend. Jo is different. But it takes me a few days to figure out what that is.

Anni shocks me again when, later in the day, she is so completely protective that she's borderline aggressive when actually meeting Jo. A slew of questions about travel plans and rates, disapproving cold looks, it goes on -- I can't seem to make Anni stop and it takes me a few days to figure out what it is that causes her reaction. I pull Jo aside and I quietly ask her to ignore Anni and we agree to hang out and see what happens as I feel absolutely 100% fantastic about my New Zealnad stranger. It's amazing feeling to be able to share the villa with another unaccustomed to Indonesia, with someone who can revel in the beautiful, strange, and newness of it all. I've also been craving discussions with more depth (and sentences longer than three or four words -- all present tense) than the basic, halted conversations (food, activities, animals, grammer...) I'm limited to with Anni and Oka. While I work, Jo explores the town. At every step she is thankful, appreciative and enthusiastic. I feel the big, old villa breathe new life. Over dinner and breakfast, we sit and talk about life, dreams, work, school, snowboards and Baker (always Mt Baker! ;) as Anni cooks and schools us in Indonesian.

We leave early for Sanur, a quick stop before picking up Christine at the airport. Oka drives while Anni tosses back Indonesian phrases for Jo and I to pick apart, practice, repeat -- as we sit, both with our matching Lonely Planet Dictionaries open. We flip to words we don't understand and those we don't yet know. We remember and forget. I teach Jo her numbers and the other words I know. We laugh happily over our mistakes and the difficult nuances of a Asian-based language, so different from the romance-languages we've studied in the past.

After weeks alone, I adore the company. The added energy, the ability to now share these experiences. We wander through the sleepy beach town of Sanur. We eat peanuts (kacung) and confuse it with similar sounding word for cat (kacing) -- as in pointing to the peanuts and asking the smiling waitress in Indonesian if we could get more cat (kacing) to eat?! Confusion leads to peels of laughter from everyone at the table. We devise one of many tongue twisters to remember:
Kacing makan kacung. (The cat eats peanuts!)

Then flip it over for elementary more laughs: kacung makan kacing! (The peanut eats the cat!)

At Jo's suggestion, after counting from 1 to 10 on our fingers in Indonesian (like any 5 year old) we learn to follow it up with "Saya suda besar -- I'm a grown up!"

We learn to say "I'm only kidding" (Saya bercanda!)

As we walk along the beach after lunch, I point to more things I know and give Jo the words -- like a proud older sister. She drinks it in and we share the joys of learning a new language together, like two kids. While Anni laughs, smokes and gives us new words -- calling out "hati-hati" when we wander close too close into the way of bikes and scooters -- we walk past smiling vendors who seem genuinely pleased to hear us chatting Indonesian (and throw more new words our way) in a sea of disinterested German, French and Aussie English.

We end up at the airport and wait with the hoards of hotel men in sarongs. We talk about learning the art to waiting, only mastered in third-world countries. We wait more. Hours tick by. Finally I pick out Christine in the crowd. We pile into Oka's car and head to the Villa. Sitting between Jo and Christine, laughing in Indo-English, I get the feeling that a new leg of the journey has begun.