elijah

Today's a quick break in the house pictures to show a video of Elijah's walking. He had his first birthday 6 days ago, and now he's a big boy and walking all over the house. Actually, he seems to be completely done crawling. Today is also day 4 of a high fever for Elijah, and we're not sure what's causing it. He's having a hard week b/c Eva also smashed four of his fingers in a door yesterday, and though they're not broken, they're swollen and blue.

those details

Electricity in laos usually does not run IN the wall, but runs along the visible part of the wall, stapled in place, as seen below. (most people outside the city don't have electricity at all)

The lines usually run into huge boxes like this, which sit halfway up the wall. I have a lamp that won't plug into an outlet b/c the cord is only 3 feet long, yet the outlet is 4 feet up the wall. In one room of our house, the light switch sits at the base of the floor while the outlet is three feet up the wall. If a particular house has outlets close to the floor rather than up the wall, it usually means there was some western influence in the design and the owners have more means.

Windows in the city are usually barred to keep thieves away. I won't go into the list of things we've had stolen here, but I've learned that personal property needs to be guarded. I'm not sure how much these flimsy bars keep a potential thief away, but maybe it's a deterrent if the house next door doesn't have them? Most don't have glass and many don't have screens... it's just window bars and wooden door on the outside (see picture below). Our last house didn't have screens, so we put in our own.

Our particular land lords are very concerned for safety b/c they have put these metal bars in every possible little nook and cranny. I'd love to take them out and have a clear view outside, but then again when Nathan's gone, I'm usually glad they're here. :)

These are the wooden doors on the outside. They lock with little pegs on the top and bottom that lock the door in place. We used to lock these up regularly every night and reopen them in the morning. I timed myself one night when Nathan was gone, and it took me a full 20 min to get all the windows locked up (not to mention min reopening in the am). Part of the time issue is due to the peg holes not being lined up with the pegs, requiring lots of pushing and pulling to make the lock work. Part of the issue was that our old house had lots and lots of windows.

We're noticing more and more houses going in with window panes now, which also used to be a sign of wealth, but now seems to be a little more common, especially in the capital.

painting before and after

When we moved in, the walls needed to be painted, which would have been a huge job had I been the only one painting, but my friend Kara was here visiting, and between the two of us, we made quick progress. One of our Lao employees saw us painting and told me "westerners need everything to be perfect but lao are happy with things as they are". I just laughed and said yeah, that was probably right...

our space

There was a lot of logging done here in our province several years ago (due to the building of a big hydroelectric dam, which provided lots of logging opportunity as the valleys were flooded with water). This is why many houses here are decorated with wood. Our landlord also happens to work for the forestry department, which gives our house a bit more than others.

Our main living space is shaped like an L, or rather a mirror image of the letter 'L', so there is also a room with a couch off to the left. All three bedrooms are right here, which is also something I appreciate about this house. The kitchen is straight ahead.

Our room to the left...

kids room to the right (E&E share a room)... office in room #3

This is the room w/ the couch off to the left of the entrance (I guess we could call this the living room).

tour of the house

Here is our front door

and notice that the lock is actually screwed on from the outside!

our front screen door in need of repair, esp w/ the rainy season beginning and the hoards of mosquitoes that will soon find entrance. the new screen is ready and just needs to be picked up

see where we live!

Well the day is here... I'm finally posting some pictures, other than the kids, that I hope will give a better picture of our lives in Tha Kaek. Today as I was going through my crazy day, I just decided to grab the camera and start taking pictures, which means that most of these shots are our lives just as they are... mostly. :)

And so, welcome to Tha Kaek! Population here is somewhere around 35,000, which at one time didn't sound all that small, but then I realized that the town consisted of around 35 little villages, all located in the same general land space, collectively calling itself by the name Tha Kaek. In our village, and in each of the villages here, we have our own village Headman, temple, local outdoor market, and school, among other things.

I've read once somewhere that Tha Kaek is a "somnolent riverside town" which is exactly how I felt when we first moved here. I remember thinking I'd have to make and enforce a strict schedule for myself so I didn't fall into somnolence myself. Thankfully, this has never been a problem... might have something to do with Eva age 2, Elijah age 1, and the constant flow of people in and out of our house (which I love).

Tha Kaek is a border town, which means that it lies on the border along the Mekong River (one of the world's major rivers), so I can actually see Thailand when I go down to the river and look across. This can be deceptive, because even though Tha Kaek is one of the few border crossings for Laos, there is no bridge across the river, so crossing is done by ferry, which can take hours. (pictures to come)

So here are two pictures of our town... these were taken standing in Thailand, looking across the Mekong River into Tha Kaek.

See all the mountains? Aren't they beautiful? Tha Kaek is in front of the mountains, scattered in among the trees.

This one was taken another day and gives a shot of the "downtown" area right along the river. The white building is a hotel and the largest building in town. There's not a whole lot to see, but I guess that's the point. It's quite small. :)

More on Tha Kaek later. We moved across town about three months ago, so the pictures posted are of our new place. We love our house! I can't say this enough... it is just so perfect for who we are, what we value, and who we want to hang out with. Some days I can hardly believe this little house lies right in Tha Kaek.

See the long long driveway? The best feature hands down. This is because we live (and lived) on dirt roads, and the distance from the road has exponentially cut down on the dust that blows inside, coats the floors, and is mopped up by Elijah as he scoots around the floor.

My 2nd favorite feature is that it is one story. Call me wimpy, but I'm happy that I'm no longer climbing up and down stairs in the tropical heat, without a/c, carrying little ones around all day. And I just love the banana trees!

pics from eva's day

Eva missed our house helper a ton when she was gone last week. It was the first time our house helper's been gone that Eva kept telling us that she wanted us to find her and asking where she was

Eva's "nu" - the lao word for mouse

Enjoying outside until the ants began to bite

yummy yummy in my tummy

Occasionally around here we'll have a fun breakfast, something other than our usual muesli and oatmeal, which I happen to love, but those who need variety (nathan) need an occasional something different. So yesterday, Eva, Elena (visiting for a couple days) and I made waffles... though I guess we didn't eat them 'til later in the day, we still had fun making them!

and in true 2-year-old form, if anything is more fun than making the food, it's playing with the water in the kitchen

aren't they pretty? these days eva is in a shy stage with the camera, so though we see lots of smiles, it's not so easy catching one for documentation :)

walking at one!

outside with the hose

bananas from our trees!!

Palm Sunday!

Eva with her banana leaf

and her palm branch