More stories from the kampung…

Despite the illnesses, we did make the most of our time in the kampung.

In the first week we were there, we had a  special celebratory ceremony for baby A. The ceremony involves him swinging in  a cradle while being serenaded by the most beautiful music sung and performed by some of the women from the kampung.

Unlike M who screamed non-stop when we did this with him a few years ago, A loved it. He was mesmerised by the swaying and the music and even fell asleep.

After the music was finished, kakek (grandpa) recited some prayers and then it was time for people to bless him with a mix of leaves, flowers, rice and blessed water. S insisted on blessing his baby brother too, because he said ‘I want him to have a really good life’.

A few days later, the second part of the blessing took place. S still remembered when we did this for M and was really looking forward to it. This part involves inviting poor and orphaned children to our home and giving them a small gift and an envelope with some money in it. S worked hard helping his dad put all the money in the envelopes and enjoyed giving them out.

As you can see, there were plenty of kids in attendance!

We also enjoyed walking around the kampung in the coolness of the evenings (when it wasn’t raining!) and spent a bit of time traveling around the kampung in S and M’s favourite form of transport – becak.

We did a few day trips into Medan and one to a Water park that has not long ago opened. This was a fab day out and I was reminded yet again about just how far S has come and how much he’s benefited from the swimming lessons he’s done this year (we’ve been lucky enough to source a brilliant teacher who runs an ‘Access All Abilities’ program). His confidence in and around the water was so lovely to see.

M, on the other hand, has quite an overconfidence in the water and I had to keep on my toes to make sure he didn’t go off the deep end (literally!).

Both boys loved the little water slides and adored the ‘Lazy River’ which wound around the other pools. A is also proving to be quite a water baby and loved splashing about in the shallows.

I was impressed that the boys’ dad went down the big water slide. I wasn’t brave enough.

We had plans for a few more adventures, but the kids poor health put an end to all of them, except we did head into the jungle for a night. More about that tomorrow!