Happy Birthday Caedmon!!!

On Monday Caedmon turned 4.  Every Birthday I (Erin) am amazed he is ..(your name it).. years old now.  We enjoy the opportunity to rejoice and celebrate the fact that we had another year together.  Plus, Caedmon loves Birthdays, so how could we not celebrate.  We decided to throw a party and invite friends and neighbors.  This proved a little challenging as many of our friends are fasting (during daylight hours) this month.  None the less, we decided to have a party for Caedmon by having what is called a 'break-fast' event which begins about 6 pm with sweets and progresses into eating dinner together.  We planned, of course, to finish with Birthday cake. 

Caedmon opening his presents in the morning

We began our day celebrating as a family.  John left early, on his bicycle, to pick up donuts for breakfast, but after two flat tires and an hour trying to get to the store, he came home and we ate homemade scones instead.  I (Erin) spent the rest of the morning preparing for the big party.  A good friend took me to a local market to buy all the needed ingredients for 'ice fruit' (literally). 

'ice fruit':
papaya, unflavored gelatin squares, & jack fruit in a liquid of water, sweetened condensed milk, and fruit flavored syrup 

After our language class in the afternoon, my friend returned to show me how to make it.  It is customary to 'break-fast' in the evenings by eating 'ice fruit' and traditional sweets.  So we prepared 60 cups of 'ice-fruit' and plenty of chocolate chip cookies (I went for a traditional Stateside sweet).  What kid wouldn't love a party that opens with sweets right at dinner time?  We followed this with dinner and then Birthday cake of course. 

we've had a hard time finding matches, so I had to use our stove

We all sang to Caedmon in English, then again in the local language.  It was a great time with friends and neighbors.  Caedmon thoroughly enjoyed the day as well!

Almost Famous

There is nothing like moving to a different country to make you stand out.  Since arriving here we've become quite famous.  Everywhere we go people call out to us, talk to us, and love to touch our boys, especially their faces.  People are so interested they will nudge their friends and point us out as we walk by.  Most people have cell phones; therefore people are always ready, and desiring to take our pictures.  Many young people, upon meeting us for the first time want to know if we know other 'famous' people, such as Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.  Please be thinking of us as we continue to adjust! Sometimes this is quite amusing; other times we seek wisdom to know how to respond in these situations, especially as our boys are less then fond of the constant cheek pinching. 

Shopping...

Fruits and Vegies

We have been amazed at everything that we are able to get here (should we ever need half of it).  There are multiple malls to choose from; ranging from a collection of very expensive western stores to a collection of buildings continually being added onto for more store space.  There are some grocery stores, mostly located within the malls.  There are also many 'hole in the wall' stores and road side stands.  Though we do most of our shopping at the mall, I (Erin) cannot not help but appreciate the convenience of our daily street venders. 

Chopping up and gutting chicken for me!

Every morning, starting at about 7 am guys on motorcycles, usually with added baskets, drive through the neighborhood selling fish, chicken, produce, and bread.  They drive by, yelling "chicken" (for example) and stop if you yell back.  Caedmon and Whitman love listening for and calling out to any vender I might need.  Later in the afternoon there is usually at least one 'ice-cream man,' music included.  I've even seen a guy selling kids toys and another selling household items, like brooms, small buckets, etc.  I buy most of our produce, bread and chicken this way.  I've also bought fish and shrimp as well.  The prices are great and the location even better.  I do have to be careful as they may not always have what I'm looking for or come at the same time each day.  The bread guy, for example, hasn't been by all week, so much for PB&J this week. 

A trip to the mountains!

Last weekend we enjoyed a trip out of town with some friends.  We spent one night in a mountain town of about 200 people.  Prior to leaving, everyone described the place as "cold."  Although I (Erin) had a hard time believing it would really be cold, we all brought light jackets anyways.  It turned out to be noticeably cooler, enough to warrant a jacket in the evening and morning.  Our friends bundled up a bit more!  It felt like a beautiful spring day, it was a wonderful change from the heat and humidity of the city.  Our friends took us all over to see the sights.  We had a wonderful time seeing more of the country, practicing language, and just getting to know our friends better. 

A dam on the way: water from here is piped to our city.

rice fields

a house ride with our friend's daughter

a walk through a Tea Garden (growing tea leaves)

from the top of the Tea Garden; we felt as if we were in a vineyard back home

one of my favorite fruits: literally Holland Eggplants, reminds me of a berry once peeled

a source of fish for those living far from the sea

waterfall

the walk to the waterfall

drying harvested coffee beans

we stopped for some fried bananas and tubers

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!