A SISTER FOR HAZZA

Well its definately all going great for all of us.

My husband and I have just returned home for a 2 weeks stint in Bali. We sponsor a family (18 members) in the village of Tabanan, about and hour and half drive in the mountains from Denparsar. Its an annual sojourn. We are welcomed with loving open arms from everyone in the village and are token gifts from everyone in australia are great appreciated in this very poor part of our world. We were honored this trip with a Balinese Feast that the family cooked for us, they even slaughtered one of their chickens for us, Green Chicken Curry.. This is equivalent to a months wage for one family member. (not to mention the loss of eggs). It was wonderful to see where are meagre amount of money goes with this particular family. 4 australian families credit a bank account with $5 each week, ie $80 per month. On this visit we were shown that they had bought 2 wardrobes, one for each of the bedrooms, the elders sleep in one room together and the parents and children sleep in the other room, everyone sleeps on the floor. (no windows). We find it interesting that they preferred the purchase of wardrobes instead of beds. (that is our aim for next year). We took a family to the waterbom park for the day. it is very rare that a family can spend time together as they work 10 hour days, 6 days a week and that doesnt include the hour drive to work and then back again. so the day at the waterbom park with mother, father and child was and will be most treasured.

so what has this to do with poodles and and update...

this was the first time that pearl had to go on a sleep over. she was brilliant. As i have said before, we are so lucky here that we have this fantastic poodle community and all our poodles are so close to one another..
so our first dilemma was who Pearl would actually go to, they were fighting furiously over her.. Harry ofcourse went to Auntie Terri's & Stanley, an apricot boy. Then Pearl went to Nancy and Auntie Barbs. They are still on the search for a black baby girl, so they are baby hungry. Pearl and Harry seen one another everyday at the beach, had chipolatas and dotty cookies on the cafe strip and basically had a great time. Nancy even took pearl to work with her everyday and she was a total angel... We were getting daily updates via SMS while we were in Bali, even pics. It is so great to know that our dogs were just so loved and cared for, just as we would while we were on holidays. its so reassuring. Our only concern was that we would have to start some legal battle to get them back....

carlene, harry who and pearl the girl
australia