WE PLAY A GAME ON MOMO, OUR MASON 43. WHEN WE ARRIVE IN A NEW PLACE, WE THROW OUT OUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS BEFORE WE HAVE TIME TO BUILD UP ANYTHING ELSE. BEFORE WE ESTABLISH ANY RHYTHM OR CREATE ANY LASTING FEELINGS. THEN, AFTER SPENDING A FEW MONTHS IN THE PLACE, WE COMPARE NOTES TO SEE HOW OUR EARLY IMPRESSIONS HAVE DEEPENED OR CHANGED. IN INDONESIA, OUR CREW OF FOUR — MY HUSBAND, BERNIE, DAUGHTERS LOLA AND JANA, AND ME — ARRIVED IN THE KAI ISLANDS AFTER SPENDING 10 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. WE NOTED OUR EARLY IMPRESSIONS IN THE LOG: “GENTLE, ACTIVE, SMILING, LOUD, CURIOUS, WELCOMING, PHOTO-OBSESSED, SMOKING, ISLAMIC.”
Then, after nearly two years in Southeast Asia, we arrived on the other side of the Indian Ocean in what felt…