Views of the Countryside

The trip we were privileged to take out into the less-populated areas provided some beautiful scenery, and we wanted to share some of it:

A rice field behind our Grandpa's family garden

Pepper, still on the vine

The gardener's house

A chocolate tree (a fruit at center)

The well and slab where our friend grew up bathing

More rice along the highway

Rice farmers in their field

Horses

A restaurant, its sign advertising "Horse soup" (yes, really)

Salt fields, harvested by flooding with sea water, and then letting it evaporate

A Piece of My (John's) Mind

For 18 days now I've had inner ear trouble, and for longer than that my nose has wanted to run more often than not. At this point these are just an annoyance, what having to constantly mind my snot, and occasionally turn my head so my "good ear" can pick up what folks are saying. But they're totally a distraction from what I'd rather be focusing on, that is, other people and their thoughts/concerns!
While my first round of antibiotics were a huge help in removing the extreme pain from my ear, they only cleared up about 80% of the audio-obstructing-congestion. And I'm still not sure whether my runny nose stems from allergies or a recurring cold. So all in all I'd love you to be remembering me as I deal with these (extremely) minor annoyances.

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.

One month ago, today...

we arrived here in country.  It has definitely been full of new experiences.  

Here are some things I've (Erin) gotten used to:

-Cold showers...this has become very refreshing and my favorite thing before bed AND in the morning.

-Crossing this street on the way to class (Monday-Friday)

South bound lanes

 

 

 

 

North bound lanes

-fruit...it has been great to eat many new fruits and familiar ones, most I don't know what to call in English

don't know what to call this, but the boys love them, Caedmon's holding the fruit, the peel is on the plate, next to the small dark seeds

Things I'm still getting use to:

-bone in...everything (chicken, beef, fish, and even shrimp - sometimes)

-rice morning, noon and night

this is a typical meal, anytime of the day: rice, fish, chicken, and fried soy bean cake in the middle

-driving on the left side of the road...no we haven't driven here yet, but I still have to think really hard about which is the best side to walk on and get in and out of a taxi on.

-the heat and humidity...I just expect to always be hot and sticky, but I've actually noticed a difference in temp if it's cloudy, or raining, or breezy

Mold all over...after getting wet on the bottom during the flood, apparently we didn't make sure it dried out.

We celebrated the middle son's birthday with them!

-not being able to communicate...this really makes developing relationships difficult. 

 

Friday night Flood

Friday night was a night of firsts:
The first time I (John) could ever say "The rain has washed my underwear" in our new language (yes, while I was still wearing them). As a new local friend and I returned to his home from a bikeride, the rain had begun REALLY pouring.
The first time I ever opened the door of an suv, and worried that water would get in before I could get out.
A second thought, simultaneous to the last, was (after I paused a moment following Erin's suggestion to take our shoes off before exiting the vehicle) "I'd rather have wet shoes than hepatitis." (the gutters are usually full of garbage and water of questionable sources, and these had overflowed into the streets).
First time I ever swept water (for hours) from the dining room, living room, bedrooms, and family room of a house (yes, the house where we are living; no, none of our possessions were ruined).
Thanks for letting me share the excitement!

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?