So who's the guy that climbs those trees for the coconuts?



The 50ft + trees I sat admiring

 

After 9 weeks solid in the big city, this weekend we made our first excursion out into the countryside (~5 hours away). A highlight of the trip was when we visited a garden that has been in our adopted Grandpa's family for at least 4 generations. Shortly after we arrived, I wanted to show off all the language I've been learning by cracking a joke.

I was admiring the height of a couple huge palm trees, rehearsing the joke in my mind, when finally I spit it out fluently (see this blog post's title for a translation). They understood my words clearly, the only problem was they didn't understand I was joking, and they answered basically, "Oh he's right over there."

Half-way up

Yeah, they actually called the guy who cuts down their coconuts! As I began to feel guilty I scrambled quickly to spit out another sentence "I was just joking!" But after retrieving a 12 inch knife from a neighboring house, they sent him up the tree without any kind of climbing gear or safety net, and he cut down about a dozen coconuts, which we subsequently enjoyed together. What a treat!




and it started raining coconuts...



All-the-way UP

 

These cocnuts had probably 24+oz of sweet juice inside



Grandpa and Whitman enjoy some together

And they were full of sweet jello meat we all loved









Off to school...already?

I did not expect this day for at least another 18 years.  Ok, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but we planned on homeschooling as we did not expect to be living in a city with schools when Caedmon reaches school age.  No, Caedmon has not reached school age, but he has reached the age for a play group, aka pre-school.  Here children as young as 2 years can attend a "play group."  With the aim of learning the language, we enrolled Caedmon in a "playgroup."  Monday was his first day.  That morning, he did not want me to leave.  Combined with the fact that I waited half the morning to officially enroll him, I stayed with him, in class, the whole morning.  He goes for three hours, Monday through Friday.  They sing many songs, about the days of the week, letters, numbers, etc.  They have snack time (maybe full on breakfast as some bring rice), play time inside, and play time outside.  So far Caedmon has really enjoyed it.  Though he has been reluctant to stay by himself each morning, he has been just as reluctant to stop playing when it is time to go.  So far each day he brings home a new word in the local language; he may soon surpass us in speaking ability!

The Sky is Falling

stainless steel tank crushed like a pop can

  Last Sunday, after 2 weeks in our new place, we had a big surprise.  While Whitman napped, we heard a series of extremely loud sounds, followed by a massive amount of water running down our roof into our back yard.  We shortly realized our 500 gallon roof-top water tank had fallen over, directly above Whitman's room.  Whitman actually was still sound asleep though the tank had caused a small hole directly above his bed.  We are sooo very thankful that a cement wall broke the tanks fall, preventing it from crashing through the cieling and landing on top of Whitman.  It is crazy to think of what could have happened. 
  On a much smaller note, our water supply was limited to one faucet for just a day and work on the roof and tank is almost complete. 

the new tank

hoisting the tank to the roof

House Hunters International

  Our home stay ended two weeks ago and we moved into a home of our own.  While our host family had offered their house to us for as long as we wanted, we were presented with an opportunity we couldn't pass up. We are so encouraged to see how we have once again been provided for in amazing ways and with incredible timing. 

  Three weeks ago we started looking at rentals to get an idea of what was available.  A local family we have gotten to know during our first weeks here, had a 2 bedroom rental within a 15 minute walk from campus for $220/mo, but 100% unfurnished. The thought of completely furnishing (refrigerator, washing machine, dresser, couch, table....whoa) a home we plan to live in for less than 2 years did not seem like the best use of our resources. 
  The second place we looked at was beyond ideal.  It was a 3 bedroom home, just a 5 minute walk from campus, and completely furnished (we're talking right down to silverware and family photos hanging on the walls)!  The asking price was $460/mo + $50/mo for utilities and fees = $510/mo, which was so far above our budget we didn't even want to bother bartering for it.  So we looked at a third house for $240/mo: a 2 bedroom place which was unwalkably far from campus, not as well kept up, and again 100% unfurnished. Who knows how many hundreds of dollars we would have to spend buying everything from beds to brooms.
  Due to the incredible hospitality of our host family we were not in any rush.  However, the owners of the 2nd home (incredibly ideal) pursued us as renters.  Two days after first seeing the house, they scheduled a meeting with John, knowing our budget of $300/mo. We were perplexed as to why they would request a meeting since our budget was about 58% of their asking price. John and I had agreed that, though we'd only been looking for a few days, we would take the place if for some miraculous reason they wanted to rent it to us for our budgeted amount and not a penny more. Now to make this even more of a long shot, our budgeted amount for housing needed to include our monthly bills for water, electricity, garbage, and neighborhood security fees. Over the course of that 1 hour meeting, the owners eventually understood we couldn't budge on the budget, yet they still wanted to offer us the place, including all utilities and fees for $300/mo.  We were floored. 
  Not only are we now a 5 minute walk from campus¸ we are also just a 5 minute walk from our host family, and 10 minutes from our closest family friends.  Since moving in we have found out the director of the preschool Caedmon is attending (today is his first day!) lives two doors down.  We are so close to our usual activities we don't feel any pressure to acquire transportation of our own.  It is very unusual, even for furnished homes here, to include dishes, bedding, brooms, mops, etc, but when we moved in, we even found all of these things already provided.  And what is more, because of our proximity to campus, the language center here has seen the benefit of sending the teacher to our home (they are running out of rooms to have class on campus) which means Erin and I can be in class together, in our home, while the boys take their afternoon nap!
  One more eyebrow raiser in this whole experience came when it was time to pay for the place. The standard practice here is to pay a whole year's rent up front!  Still licking our wounds from all the costs incurred in getting here, and then paying the government fees for permission to stay, and then our initial tuition expenses, we were confronted with this new $300x12=$3600 bill. In the end, all of the money was here one day before we needed it, and we didn't need additional money to clean or start living in the house, this was just incredible to us! The day we moved in we found the beds made, floors mopped, and a totally decked out kitchen.
  We feel so blessed!  Enjoy the pictures.


Our house

Front room: like a formal living room, where we serve tea to guests. 

Kitchen

Upstairs

Bathroom: shower, toilet and sink!

Family room and dinning room in background.