Sometimes living in Indonesia is not too different, day-to-day, from living in the U.S., except that the following things can (and do) happen:

I wake up in the middle of the night to pee, and upon opening the door to the bathroom, I find that there is a baby parrot with no neck feathers and a dog leash around its ankle perched on a music stand with a green towel thrown over it.
"What the hell is that?" I ask Nick, waking him up.
"Oh, it's the bird," he says, groggily. "You haven't met the bird?"
"No. Whose is it? Is it anybody's?"
"Oh, someone found him outside getting chased by a cat, so they brought him to Louise as a present. Louise doesn't like pets, so she gave him to Shayna, and I guess Shayna's keeping him in the bathroom."
The parrot bites, but doesn't talk, and loves attention. He eats mashed-up bananas, but only out of a clenched fist. He gets stuck in my hair a lot. Soon, he will be going home to Wamena with Hiron, who is the subject of the next story in the list of Stories That Wouldn't Happen in the States:

Hiron is Louise's boyfriend. He is also a member of a tribe of inland-dwelling Papuans who, not fifty years ago, hadn't ever heard of the rest of the world. He's not sure how old he is, because they don't keep track or care. Hiron can make a meal out of anything - you know the common refrigerator affliction of having lots of food, but nothing to possibly make with it, such as mayonnaise, chili powder, half a muffin, and ketchup? He could make a meal out of that, and it would be delicious. He made a meal out of a bag of cassava, three eggs, and salt, and it was enough to feed four people. If he doesn't eat for three days, nobody can tell. He is making us an English-Indonesian-Dani dictionary (Dani is the language of his tribe) and it's just bizarre to see him sitting in the living room watching Indonesian soap operas, which he does often. How can you make the change from raising wild pigs and growing vegetables and occasionally warring with other tribes to sitting in a tiled living room with a bag of KFC and watching Indonesian soap operas in a matter of months?