Holiday

So Hari Raya is quickly approaching. Everyone is out buying new clothes for the children, new curtains for the living room, new furniture for the house, stuffing small green envelopes with crisp new bills to give to the children. Once the month of fasting is over on Saturday- then there is a whole month of everyone visiting each other in their homes. So everything needs to be clean and fresh and new! Other things happen during Hari Raya too- people travel long distances back to their own villages- so there is a mass exodus which I have been told begins tomorrow. Yesterday when I collected Genevieve from school, I was informed that the governement has decided to give everyone Friday off from school. Why? To try and ease the traffic and craziness on the road as everyone goes to their homes to be with family. The Gov decided it might help to have an extra day for travel- so everyone was not leaving after work on Friday or Saturday. Not only that, but the speed limit on all major roads has been dropped for the next week- where it is usually 110 KM per hour it is now a strict (???) 80! I asked a local freind if this helps....he said, " a bit". In the newspapers there is all this talk about driving safety....etc. Oh my I am glad we are going out of town!