Pearl Farm and Mataram Mall in Lombok, by Kate

The babies are very hard to see but they are the tiny black spots

The Pearl Farm was really cool.  It showed the life cycle of the oysters.  First they are so tiny you have to look under a microscope to see them.   Then they grow so you can see them.  Then they keep on growing so they are large - bigger than my hand.  After two years of its life people do a surgery.  They insert this little ball in that helps make the pearl.  Then you have to wait another two years to get the pearl.  That means that you have to wait four years.  Then you can produce three or four more pearls in the oyster's life.  Altogether an oyster can produce four or five pearls.  Mom bought a pearl pendant.

This is where the babies are kept after they are taken off the clay part in the picture above


This is a little baby oyster under a microscope

After the baby oysters start growing they cling to the rope

This is what they put inside to make the pearl.  It is made in China out of crushed oyster shells

These are big enough for surgery

Food from Tasmania for the babies

You need to sacrifice one oyster by cutting part of it and putting that part into another oyster with the fake pearl

Ready to take the pearl

Mataram Mall was really cool.  First we went to a store and and it was called Naughty.  It had lots of mirrors, fancy rings, purses, and necklaces for kids and teenagers. We found out that the store just opened that day and that a lady was inspecting it.  We also went to a different store that had shirts and we each bought one.  Hannah had to buy her shirt out of her own money because it was see-through and also it only matched her jeans and so mom and dad didn't want to buy it. We had dinner at a restaurant that started to get busy at around 6:20 p.m. because that is when Muslims who observed Ramadan could finally eat.  Then we headed back to our hotel.

These are the bathrooms at Mataram Mall.  You have to go to the bathroom in the corner where the black drain is and then use the bucket to wash the floor (even girls).  I didn't use that bathroom

This is a shirt I wanted to get but instead I got a shirt that says, "Today is my favorite day"