She just doesn't want to...

      Yesterday a new friend came over with her 4 year old daughter.  During our visit she told us about her daughter’s poor health, lack of teeth and many doctor visits.  The majority of her daughter’s top teeth and many of her bottom teeth had rotted away.  Not much later the mother told us how her daughter just didn’t like having her teeth brushed, the toothpaste was ‘spicy.’  We showed her the kids’ toothpaste our boys use.  She responded in the affirmative, she had seen that toothpaste before, but her daughter just wouldn’t let her teeth be brushed.  Later the mother made a comment about just trying to keep her daughter happy. 

      I, Erin, so often see kids with a few to a whole mouth of rotting teeth.  At first I thought this was due to a lack of education and understanding regarding mouth hygiene.  I later learned most small children are put to sleep with a bottle of milk or while still nursing.  It took still longer for me to learn that all of this, brushing teeth to the methods used for soothing, are more surface level expressions of deeper underlying values.  Peace between people and keeping other happy is highly valued in this culture.  A common saying is roughly translated, “Maintain others’ feelings.”  We have seen this in the indirect way people will respond to invitations or make requests, or choose to lie to avoid hurting another’s feelings.  This extends into the family as well.  It is important to keep the children happy, therefore giving in to the child when they protest or cry, even to the extent of avoiding practices that benefit the child’s health (tooth brushing).  I still think there is a lack of understanding among many regarding the harm of putting children to sleep with bottles of milk or the benefit of brushing teeth, and I understand how hard it is to endure a child’s whining when you put your foot down and stick to it.  But with all that said, the value placed on peace and contentment among people here seems to trump many valuable practices that may require a little hard work for a long term benefit. 

On a happy note, here are some pictures from a day trip we took on Sunday to a local hot spot known for the many butterflies.  Instead we saw a great number of.... bats!

On the road there, trees were filled with bats, during the day, chirping and flapping their wings. 



The bats were huge!



Looking at bats in bamboo.



Our friend's son wanting to take a fallen bat home!

Whitman sitting in a nook said to have been used by a man for 40 days and nights searching for purity and renewal.



Caedmon washing his face in a spring said to keep you looking young.



The path through the forest to the cave.



A nice swimming area created by a small river.

A water fall at the top of the swimming area. 



Erin's first bike ride

When I bought my bike 18 months ago an added bonus was the small frame sizes, because Erin would be able to use it too. Well, apart from trying it out once, 2 hours and 45 minutes ago was Erin's first real bike ride (and she's not back yet...hmm). Most Sunday mornings it is me who has the social engagement, but I canceled my swimming date because our favorite tutor (pictured) invited Erin to ride out to the beach. Watching the boys is getting easier every month, as they're learning to play on their own, but I'm still definitely hoping she survives the crazy traffic.

There are cows in our park!

The park in the middle of our complex, as see from out side our house.

We have a small and rather nice park in the middle of our complex.  When I, Erin, say park I mean a landscaped area with some paved paths, lots of shade, and a few bamboo benches.  There is a small roofed structure about to fall over and the occasional garbage pile being burned.  It is not the large grassy park with a play structure I often dream of taking the boys to, but there is so much shade from the surrounding trees it is quite a pleasant place to visit.  On Saturday we noticed two large cows tied to trees in the park.  I could not believe it!  The park has been home to building materials for houses being renovated and rice field plowing machines for sale, so why not cows.  It shouldn’t have surprised me, especially with the upcoming holiday, but it did. 

Two new additions to the park with two very excited boys.

We spent most of an hour looking at the cows and learning what a 'cow pie' is, right in our complex!

 

Yesterday, Tuesday, was the second largest holiday of the year.  The majority of the population celebrate it by killing a cow or goat, depending on financial ability.  The meat is then shared with the poor and also cooked as part of the day’s celebratory meal.  When we first noticed the cows we where told they were to be killed there in the park.  Last year John and Caedmon accompanied our host dad to the killing of his cows, so this year we thought we’d just go outside to the park.  By Tuesday morning though the cows had been moved to the far end of the complex where the owner killed them in front of his house instead.  The boys, only, where slightly disappointed to not be able to watch. 

We were invited over to a tutor’s house to eat dinner with her family that evening.  We enjoyed two varieties of wrapped rice, goat, chicken, noodles, and vegetables.  Today we ate lunch with our host parents.  We had wrapped rice and beef cooked three different ways.  The flavor of one in particular I really enjoyed; tasting like it might contain coconut.  After placing another piece on my plate I noticed the texture of the meat was slightly different.  I’m pretty sure that dish was made mostly from organ meat (heart, liver, lungs).  The flavor was good, but the texture is just not appealing to me.  As we left our host mom gave us a bag full of beef.  As she handed it to me she explained it was cooked so it would keep longer, but not seasoned at all.  It looked rather strange, was room temperature, and smelled strange.  I heated it up in the pressure cooked with some BBQ sauce and we ate it for dinner, so hopefully all will be well tomorrow J.  Throughout the day we were also gifted with many of the wrapped rice varieties. 

We are still having new experiences after more than a year!  Enjoy a few extra pictures from the weekend as well!

Three varieties of wrapped rice.  Each has a different name, uses different leaves, and at least one a different kind of rice.

Cooked beef given to us. 

Limes from our back yard.  John went crazy on Saturday picking limes for our breakfast.

The longest paint brush I've ever seen!

A wooden structure built in front of a home for special occasions, usually weddings.

Moving right along...

I (John) have just been hired to promote a brand new academic center at the end of the earth. 

Okay, at least offered a job... 
Before they can hire me, the institute will first have to gain permission to hire a foreigner, which could take six months.
But the best news is that we still have six months remaining on our current student visas, so we have worked out a deal which will allow us to move there to focus on studying the local language and culture while we wait for my work visa to be approved.

One other exciting development, my boss-to-be has offered the newly added second story of his house to our family as we transition there. This will hopefully allow us to adjust gradually to our new lifestyle in a much more isolated spot. Caedmon and Whitman will have a three year-old playmate there, in addition to an elementary schooler and a middle schooler.
As for the town, it is set on a beautiful coast which has both Oregon-esque beaches with big sharp rocks and even cliffs, and other beaches which remind me more of what you would see in Florida (sea walls, piers, plenty of sand and no rocks). And the water is warm and there is plenty of sunshine and mild weather.

Thank you for thinking of us as I made my first journey up there for a two-day interview, abandoning Erin and the boys and spending two nights out of three on a bus. I definitely did not sleep much, but I spent the trip home marveling at (and a bit intimidated by) the fact we have such an ideal an opportunity to benefit a community in really big ways.
For now, we have about six weeks left to iron out the wrinkles in communicating via the national language, and round out our understanding of the majority culture here. Then we will have our last language and culture evaluation and move to our new home at the end of November. There are plenty of things in this transition which could make our lives easy or cause us big headaches/inconveniences, and we will do our best to keep things updated here...