Photo Gallary of the last week...

Arrival of all our bags and all of us, without any problems!

Our short stay over in Asia mainland to obtain our visas, it was a success!

Our boys are famous.  Everyone wants to touch, hold and take pictures with them.  They're not as excited about it.

Caedmon playing with grandchildren at our home stay.

Snacks with a granddaughter at our home stay.

View from front door of home stay.

Our bathroom.  Yes, this is the toilet, shower and sink.

The boys' room, the only room with AC.

Our room.

Traditional house at a bi-annual cultural event displaying traditional music and dancing.

Traditional dance.

16 mosquito bites

on my (John's) left foot, in one night. It's one swollen foot. And not to mention the other bites on the rest of our bodies. We did have a rough first night in our home, emotionally, physically. But by night 3 we didn't hear a single mosquito buzz and stayed quite comfortable. This morning we had sausage and chicken broth over white rice. And now I'm heading off to my first 2 hours session, with Erin's being this afternoon. Hopefully we'll be posting pictures soon. Can't thank you enough for remembering us this past few days!

Settling in

We've made it and are settling in to our new city. Our homestay will begin today, and classes begin Monday. We will each be in class two and a half hours per day, 5 days per week. I'll be in class in the mornings and Erin in the afternoons so the boys will always be with one of us, for now. Everything seems to be going well up to now, as we remain healthy and upbeat.
Thanks for thinking of us,
John

Visas approved!

Today after a few minor miracles (not the least of which was we ended up swimming at our hotel pool during our wait to speak with the visa official, which seriously beats sitting in the DMV-like waiting room), all four of us have received authorization to stay in the country for a year while Erin and I study the local language and culture. So Wednesday we'll finish the voyage to our final destination. Thank you for thinking of us.

We are officially off!

All 4 people, 6 bags at a total of 300 pounds (yes we maxed the limit on each), and 5 carry-on bags will leave today for overseas.  We will spend an extra few days in another country to obtain our visas, then travel on to our end destination. 

Our first (stateside) language lesson!

These are some of our props from our time spent with a native speaker today.  We use these to learn the words by auditory repetition.  This is how it works:
step 1: I (Erin) point to the banana.  Our language helper, Max, says the word.
step 2: I add another word by pointing to the mango.  Max says it in his language.  I point, back and foreth, at these two fruits until I am familiar with which is which.  Then I add another one.
step 3: I then have Max quiz me.  He says, "Point to the mango," in his language and I have to point to it.
At this initial stage of learning it is all by listening and responding with actions.  We, John and I, are not learning to say these words yet.
It is amazing how many words you can learn and actually remember.

While we wait...

...We are off to Portland.
Our first task upon arrival in-country will be language and culture learning. But why wait? In the past 3 days we've learned that Portland is home to a community of folks from the islands of southeastern Asia. So we have made a few contacts with people who grew up over there, are native speakers of the language, and would love to spend time with us daily. We plan to invest several hours each day acquiring as much of the language and culture as possible, in Portland. 
We hope our delay is only 1 more week, but for as long as we're in the States, we'll utilize the resources we've been given.  And WHAT resources! Get this: Tomorrow we have dinner plans with a man (and his family) who was born and raised in the town we'll inhabit for our first two years abroad, and he is very excited to share everything he knows. What an amazing development, right?