Gearing up for Thanksgiving

It’s been quite a while since we’ve been able to get something up on the site. Nick’s computer crashed about a month ago, to the point that we don’t think its going to be repaired. So, after a good bit of searching and thinking, we settled on getting a desktop to replace it. We won’t be able to bring it home, but the price was a lot cheaper than any laptop option we had. It’s hooked up and ready to go and here’s an update!

First, a quick update on the water bill post we made a while ago. After receiving the bill pictured in that post (for 150,000 kip) we received an even higher bill the next month for 830,000 kip. Ok, we’ll go along with a $20 water bill but a $100 bill is pushing it a little too far. We got our landlord, Wandy, involved after receiving the bill and he promptly called out the water company to have a look and to get an explanation. Apparently the water man had been under-estimating our usage all along and didn’t get an accurate reading until after we had been switched to the higher rate. Wandy got them to reduce our bill down to around 180,000 kip and we are now in the process of trying to get us back on the Lao rate. I’ve gotten the university to write a letter saying we are volunteers and don’t get paid by the school. Maybe this will appeal to them and they’ll give us a break, but this road has been traveled by people before us to no avail, so we’re not holding out too much hope.

On the workfront… at the university, Nick is full into teaching now. Classes are going great and it seems as if its been easier to make friends with the Lao teachers this time around. Candice is working hard on her website to great success. Her traffic has risen dramatically and she is starting to have more and more people advertise with her and ask her to do reviews for them.

We’ve been trying to sell our old car for about two months now with no luck. I’ve received a lot of phone calls about it but no bites yet. I’m driving it around more than I ever have and I’m actually getting to where I like it a lot. Someone hit me the other day, just scrapes on the fender mainly and fortunately they agreed to pay for it since it was their fault. We really need to sell it though, so hopefully something will happen in the next few weeks.

We’re going to start a Thanksgiving unit tomorrow at our Filipino fellowship. We’re trying to focusa on holidays this year with Jonas and Deacon. As far as their meanings and why we celebrate them. If you have any ideas about cool ways to do this, shoot us an email. We’d love to hear from you.

Wow, Wow!

Here is a video of Jojo and Deeds dancing to the theme song for the show “Wow Wow Wubbzy”.

After the second dance, when the video was turned off, Deeds very clearly said, “Woooow!”

A Blessing in Disguise

Baht and his friend Kham had a motorcyle accident on our motorbike last Friday. Baht was driving but it wasn’t his fault. Another motorbike, with a man and a woman on it, tried to cut across the road without looking a hit him in the side. They slide for a while together. No one was seriously hurt, mainly bad scrapes, burns and bruises. Baht had the worst of it I think. After the motorbikes stopped moving, his leg was laying on top of the other mtorbike’s hot exhaust pipe. He came away with a pretty serious burn on his leg but it is healing up now, slow, but healing.

Amazingly, everyone, even the onlooking tuk-tuk drivers, was in agreementthat it was the other guy’s fault. So, in the end we didn’t have to pay for any of the repairs to our motorbike (the total repair bill was around 750,000 kip, or around $90). I took Baht and Kham to the hospital after we made sure the motorbike repair issue was taken care of. They got cleaned up and were both giving shots in the bottoms. They both received some antibiotics to prevent infection and we were on our way home.

So, how was a blessing? Well, our relationship with Baht has grown tremendously over the past week. He’s opened up more to us and doesn’t seem to be as shy. Also, there’s the issue of money. We paid for his hospital bill, but the bigger impression came from the fact that we made sure he went to the hospital to get cared for. We have been checking his leg everyday and making sure he takes his medicine. I think this has helped him to see that we care for him. This understanding and trust has taken time, but is deeper than if we had tried to rush the issue.

I think, as Americans, we feel we need to come in and pay our way into people’s hearts. Give people material things they don’t have and that we think they need. Or maybe force ourselves on people to show them that we are here to help them. But that just doesn’t work here in Laos. First, it’s too easy to get burned out once you realize that the people who you are around you are there because they think you gonna give them something. But secondly, it takes time for people to accept you as who you are and not who they think you are.

So, I’m looking forward to the upcoming time with Baht around. It seems that he has become more loving towards Jonas and Deacon as well since Von became pregnant. I hope their upcoming child will be a blessing to their family that brings them closer together.

We figured this day would come

So, it has finally happened. Above you will see a scan of our latest water bill. Last month, we paid around 17,000 kip ($1.98) for our water. As you can see, this month the bill is for a little over 150,000 kip ($17.44). Why the increase? Did we use that much more water? Do we have a huge leak in our house somewhere? Nope. the water company finally got wind that a falang, foreigner, was living at this house. And with the stroke of a pen, or press of a button, our bill is increased tenfold.

This is typical of most everything in Laos. If a falang is the purchaser, the price is always higher. Our electric bill is usually around $80/month while our Lao neighbor’s is typically $12/month. Granted, we use more electricity, but not 7 times as much. Many times, my love of justice surfaces and I want to do something about this blatant injustice. But what can I do. Go yell at the deaf ears of the water company or the electric company? These prices are the norm, and fighting against the norm is not acceptable. At least not out in the open.

So, I will pay the bill and hope they don’t raise it next month.

A new addition on the way

Von, our meibon, and her husband, Baht, have been working for us for the past three years and living with us for the past two years. Von has been an incredible help with Jonas and Deacon and we feel as if she and Baht are a part of our family. So, with that said, I am happy to announce that Von and Baht will be having their first child sometime next April!

We have always wondered when this day would come as Von and Baht are both young and we knew they would want to start a family a some point in time. Now that it is here, we are thrilled that we will be able to be a part of this exciting time in their lives. It will fun to see the little tyke grow up with Jonas and Deacon.

In other news, the flood waters have retreated and life has returned to normal here in Vientiane. Apparently, the heavy rains were not the main cause of the flooding around us. A dam in southern China and one in northern Laos both had to be opened up to prevent massive flooding in their areas. This extra water was the main cause of the river exceeding its boundaries here in town. Further south in Laos, there was more extensive flooding.

The rising Mekong

In 1966, the Mekong rising flooded the city of Vientiane. That is what our meibon told us and according to her, the people of Vientiane are afraid that the mighty Mekong is ready to do it again. It has been raining constantly for the past two weeks or so and the rain water has swollen the river to a height where it is lapping over the edges.

It is truly a sight to see. As you can see in the video, there are large trees and other junk being pulled down the river with the current. The large boat that runs a dinner cruise on the river is now floating even with the land. However, what makes it more amazing for us is knowing what the river looks like in the dry season, a time when you can almost walk across the river bed to Thailand. There are 30-40 foot banks on either side of the river that are know struggling to contain the massive amount of rain water rushing towards the open sea.



I don’t think we are in danger of being flooded as our house sits in a higher part of the city, away from the river banks. There are many places throughout the city that may not be so fortunate, as much of the city sits right above the level of the river banks.

Life Update, Family Update

Life Update: Our house helper, Von, over the past few months, has asked us to give her a large sum of money ($1,000) several times. She wants the money in order to fix the roof on her parents house. If she does this, she feels that she is investing in her security because she will be able to go and live with them whenever she stops working for us in the future. If she contributes to the house hold in this way, she has the right to go live with them.

When someone who is close to you asks for money in Laos, it turns into a delicate situation. First of all, the fact that they are asking for money indicates a deep relationship. The difficulty lies in how to handle the request: if you give them the money, they will probably ask for money again in the future, resulting in an endless cycle. If you refuse them the money, you run the risk of damaging the relationship. Our house helper sees us as being wealthy, and we knew it was important to explain to her, gently, why we don’t have $1,000 to give away freely.

We told her that our money comes from people in the U.S. who give us money because they want us to help Laos. We told her that we don’t have an exact amount of money that we can count on from month to month: we don’t know how much we will have at any given time. We told her that our job isn’t like the work that other foreigners in Laos do through groups like UNDP and World Vision; their workers drive around in Land Rovers and live in the biggest and best houses because their budget is limitless and they receive donations from all over the world. She understood and said (her own words) that some foreigners come to Laos for a short time “like a vacation”, but that we plan to live here for a long time. If you come “for a vacation”, then it is easy to give away lots of money and things. But that is impossible to maintain over the long haul.

We did give Von a small monthly raise since the value of the US dollar has decreased in relation to the Lao kip (pronounced KEEP). We hope that with the extra income, maybe she will try to save for her parent’s new roof over time. Our house helper is like-minded as well, and we really want her to learn to depend on the one who provides all our needs, instead of depending on us.

Update about the children: We went to tour three different preschools last Monday. At the third school, when we entered the building, a young Cambodian boy named Jay Jay eagerly ran up and invited Jonas to play with him. This resulted in Jonas not wanting to leave the school after we had finished checking it out. The school director, who we actually already knew previously, said that Jonas could attend the school’s summer program for a one week “free trial period”. Jonas is having a lot of fun there and will continue through the end of the summer program on August 15^th. The children go swimming twice a week and do some other fun activity every Friday (last week they went to a large park with stone sculptures).

For the school year we have decided that Jonas will attend a different school, just around the corner from the summer school. Our main reason for choosing this school is that the children are instructed in Lao language in the afternoons, and we feel it is important for Jonas to be exposed to Lao in an academic setting. Also, most of the teachers (except for one!) are like-minded.

One thing Jonas is really into right now is playing board games. We brought several from the states, and board games have become part of our night time ritual. After Deacon goes to bed at about 7pm, we play board games and read books with Jonas. Jonas likes to make sure everyone has a good time, and on two occasions has gone outside to insist that Von and her husband Baht join in the games. I think they like it too.

We had to leave a lot of things behind when we left the U.S.A because we just didn’t have the luggage space. So far, Jonas has been missing his green frog boots and his 3-D snake puzzle. He is also convinced that he is going to dress as a pirate for his birthday (in October), so I need to get working on a costume solution!

For the past week or so, our Von has had her older sister staying with her. Along with the sister is her 12-year-old son, Ghee. Ghee is very sweet (he looks more like a 9-year-old in the US) and love playing with Jonas and Deacon. However for the past two days he has been reluctant to come in the house. Von told me that Ghee had taken one of Jonas’s action figures and was trying to play with it secretly. Von asked him where it came from and told him he had to give it back. Ghee was angry at Von for making him give back the toy, but I think he also feels guilty and nervous that we might be mad at him. I haven’t acted like I know anything yet, but I can tell he is still bothered. I’m not sure how to handle this.

Sweet baby Deacon will have his first birthday on August 15^th. I’m not sure when I will be able to have a small celebration for him. I might need to wait until late August when more of our colleagues are back in town. Deacon is a happy boy most of the time. When he is tired and I lay him in his bed, he giggles and snuggles down into the pillow. He likes animals, especially cats, fish, and birds. When he sees a picture of a cat, he makes a high-pitched sound like he is trying to “meow”. Deacon also likes cars and can make a “vroom” sound. He has enjoyed eating new fruits in Laos like dragon fruit, pineapple, and mangoes. I think his favorite thing to do is CLIMB. He also likes to carry around things with long handles, like a spoon or mop. His current favorite is a toy meat fork that Nick always takes away from him.

Our project for the next couple weeks is trying to turn the “junk room” into the “boy’s room”. We need to buy some shelves, I think.

Settle in and wait