It Ain’t Easy Being Green

As I peddle through rain drops the size of toy poodles I begin to grin. A giggly grin I haven’t felt since leaving Asia late last year. This region of Indonesia has a mini rain season in the midst of the dry season just to keep things as green as possible, a green so bright that it could make Kermit The Frog blush from racial paranoia. I left Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia this morning, Manado is known for being the city of smiles but I do believe that that smile is big enough to encompass the surrounding region as well. A smile so big it could knock the ball out of bounds on an Olympic size soccer/football field. Every pedestrian is smiling at me, every person on a motorcycle is giving me the thumps up and the guy driving a two cow cart full of things for the market chuckles as he motions that he wants to pull me up the hill. The spirit of which these folks are shining can only be described as beautiful Indonesian hospitality. I have laughed several times today while peddling and thinking of how many people have looked at me as if I have two heads and pretty much questioned my judgment concerning my safety. If only they could come peddle with me someday they would get to experience why I love this, I keep thinking to myself as I peddle on. 50 kilometers (about 34 miles) later I stop at a store in search of lunch. I meet the shop owner who used to work for an American oil company in Papua and is trilingual. The shop owner says there is a Bahasa word, Indonesians widely spoken language, pronounced breyana, the spelling I am not sure, the word is said in response to how it is going, in reference to working, driving, eating etc. It means whether it is raining or any other hard time, no worries, I will carry on. The man sits with me as I eat odd fluffy bread stuff and drink a coke and he says that because I am smiling about the rain, legs and face freckled with dirt next to a wet bicycle that I am trying to peddle to the end of the K shaped island that that is my word. I spend the rest of the day peddling in the rain while practicing the pronunciation of my new word and hoping that someone will stop and ask how I am, so that I can say breyana. Breyana! The greatest word I have learned in some time and one I will be using as much as possible from now on. Breyana! At the end of the day, 90 kilometers (about 60 Miles) I roll in from the rain and the women who owns the hotel says hello how are you and I smiled so hard a giggle popped out and I got to say Breyana!