Old Wives' Tales...?

As I sat in my friends living room I smiled and listened as she told her two-year-old he couldn’t have cold water.  She then got him a cup of room-temperature water to drink.  It is easy to just smile and listen, even as my friend explained about how cold or ice water would cause coughing and a running nose.  But then when she asked my opinion, I wasn’t sure how to answer.  I tried to reference all my studies and past professors and respond with a polite, “I don’t believe cold or ice water has anything to do with it.  Usually a virus or bacteria causes a cough or runny nose.”  She continued to bring up other examples of things they are taught, such as too much time in air conditioning or not wearing a jacket out on a motorcycle at night might cause coughing or worse yet bronchitis.  I tried to explain the effect dust or allergens can have as well.  I thought maybe I could chalk it all up to old wives’ tales present in their culture, until she told me how doctors also advise their patients to not eat or drink too many cold or icy things, as it will cause cold like symptoms, influenza, or even bronchitis.  What do you say to that?  In the end I did a lot of listening and stating there may be differences in cultures, which didn’t satisfy my friend as to why doctors here would propagate that.  

In other news ...

the construction on the house addition continues.  It is even possible to visualize how we might use the space and arrange furniture!

kitchen sink and counter

Looking in from the front towards the back-alley-way door.

Additional Space

A roof has been put on and about half of the floor has been cemented, along will all walls. 

From left to right:

back door to alley-way, additional bathroom, washing and kitchen space, and entrance from existing house to the addition. 

There is definitely a lot still to be done, but it is exciting to see progress and a resemblance of what it may look like!  We just hope to be able to move in before the baby comes, though we're not holding our breath. 

A Love-Hate Relationship with Water

Water has never been something you could count on here, but ever since our return it has been even more inconsistent.  Then due to the sink hole in our kitchen breaking the one pipe carrying water to our bathroom and the construction in the back resulting in the move of our washing machine, we have become very creative to supply water to the bathroom and washing machine.  This has led to many mini floods in the house as I fill the washing machine with a hose and forget to watch it, resulting in overfilling.  Outside the house I have always thoroughly enjoyed the rain.  The clouds and rain keep the temperature a few degrees cooler, though slightly more humid.  Plus, it reminds me of the states; I find the sound very soothing and desire to just sit, listen, and watch it with a good cup of coffee.  I grew up in Portland after all. 

In the past week I have experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows associated with water.  We now have water in the bathroom!!!  A very exciting high!  I could not imagine how water would be brought back to our bathroom as we live in a brick and concrete home.  But there is nothing like calling in a local to solve a problem.  A ‘plumber’ we knew came over the very day John called.  John showed him what we wanted.  The following day the ‘plumber’ had moved our water tank, re-worked the piping from the tank, piped water into the bathroom, added a sink, and a shower head, all by 6:30pm.  When the full pressured city water came on that night there was one leak, resulting in some big puddles in the kitchen.  But even with the leak, we enjoyed a shower for the first time in our own home since our return! 

New Sink

Now there is a place to wash hands, other than the kitchen sink, after using the bathroom!!!

Cement walls chiseled out to inlay piping.

A Shower!!!

 We spent the entire week enjoying the sink, shower, and water in the bathroom! 

Then I experienced the lowest-low yet with water.

Saturday morning, we were woken up at 3am by a neighbor knocking on our bedroom window.  It had started raining as we went to bed, which again created a soothing sound which lulled me to sleep.  We got up of course to see what in the world could our neighbor want.  I could hear it was still raining, or had began again, I’m not sure because I was sleeping really well.  As soon as John and I opened our bedroom door, we stepped into about an inch of water.  Water was flowing, I mean you could see it running in from our front door to the lowest point in our house, which happened to be the kitchen.  This turned out to be a blessing.  We had no idea what to do except get anything and everything of value off the floor.  The ‘backyard’ had recently been elevated at least 8 inches because of construction, resulting in our backdoor being unusable and absolutely no place for the water in the kitchen to exit.  After raising all we could, John went outside to see what else he could do, while I used a broom to sweep the water into the bathroom (all bathrooms here have a drain in the floor).  A contributing, if not sole cause of this flood was that our gutter in the front of the house where all our gray water and run-off from the street is supposed to go, was currently filled with sand, rocks, and dirt, again due to construction.  The heavy and continuous rain created so much water with no place to go, it ran straight into our house.  John proceeded to dig out some of the gutter and also create a channel for the water to run through into the next door banana garden.  The water in the kitchen collected to at least a depth of 2 inches before the flow slowed down.  I was able to push or sweep, most of it into the bathroom to drain out of the house.  The irony of it all draining out through the bathroom was the drain originally went out to the gutter in the front.  In addition, a hand full of tiles in our bathroom broke a couple days before, due to another sink hole type issue.  As this had not yet been repaired, at least half, if not more of the water I swept into the bathroom, exited right through the floor.  At first I considered this a blessing as the draining kept up with the flow coming in. 

But, as it turned out, all the water running under the house either from the bathroom, or the smaller amount that entered the boy’s room, caused a sink hole in the boy’s room.  Thankfully the boy’s slept through it all. 

Broken Tiles in the Bathroom

The Boy's Room

All except a row of tiles around the walls sank down. 

Broken tiles are as sharp as glass, so we taped the edges and now encourage all play to occur outside their room.

Early on I checked the water flow into the boy’s room, then an hour or two later we went in to clean and saw the floor damage. 

It was such an adventure, one I hope not to repeat.  After we got all the water out, there was so much dirt and silt to clean up that we were exhausted and aside from cleaning, spent the rest of Saturday napping and resting. 

Now we await a construction worker to come to fix the floors and hope we can sleep through the night if it rains again.

 

Water IN the House

Visa Progress!!!

I am always excited and encouraged by movement forward; especially in the area of our visas.  When we do see progress though, it often seems to come as two steps forward followed shortly by a step back. 

Last Tuesday, the 29^th of March, John and Caedmon, who was invited to go along, took a rather full van ride to the provincial capital.  Caedmon had to sit on John’s lap the entire 3-hour ride!  The following day they had great success as they received the letter we have been waiting for since our arrival in January.  John and Caedmon were then blessed by a ride from a complete stranger to a local hotel.  The man joined them for lunch and then connected them with his travel agent so they could book a flight straight to the country’s capital.  Thursday morning, John and Caedmon arrived in the capital city to hand deliver the letter from the provincial capital to our agent working on our work visa in the country’s capital.  John said it all went very smoothly, was good to meet with the agent face to face, Caedmon was a great travel companion, and they were provided for at every turn!  John and Caedmon returned home early Saturday morning, to Whitman’s and my great delight; it had been rather quiet at home. 

Caedmon at the National Monument and Museum

John and Caedmon

Model depicting a battle in the Museum

Model depicting people voting in the first election.

At the top of the monument

Presidential Complex

Tuesday, the 5^th of April, the four of us made the trip to the local immigration office to finalize our current visa extension.  They took our pictures and finger prints, then gave us our passports back stamped with visas valid through the 14^th of April, which whether you are ready to admit it or not is right around the corner.  Then this past Friday we traveled back to the immigration office, this time with our sponsor, to turn in our passports once again to apply for the next extension, as each is good for only a month at a time!

We also received news from the agent in the capital city informing us our application has passed through the first step at the Social Work Office.  The Social Work Office is to make an official recommendation to the Work Force Office, which then in turn grants us, or rather John, permission to work.  Then that official approval is sent to the Immigration Office, which then issues our actual visas.  Thus far we are very encouraged by the forward progress and must enjoy it!  Hopefully no more steps back!