Fish farming

I (Craig) got out walking around to practice language today and had one of those, "My Dad would love this" moments. Its fun to go walking and just start taking random paths and weird little side roads and see whom you can meet. I had gone way down this hill close to the river that is near our home. That is where I found these guys. They are building a kind of pond to grow fish for eating and selling.

The pictures show them moving the dirt for the new pond. Lunch break (about 3pm) when they brought out big trays of ramen noodles with 4 or 5 spoons each and the guys gathered around to eat (that didn't take long). The last is them cleaning up for the day in one of the already completed ponds. They are supposed to be ready for fish in about two weeks or so. (Forgive the photo quality they are camera phone shots).

So that is where I had my "Dad would love this" moment. I ended up meeting the leader of the place the guys were working and he takes me in. We sit together and he brings something to drink, food, more food, more drink. And there I am sitting next to some river surrounded by strangers (taking food and drink from them) with no exact idea where I was and no one else having any real idea how to find me. Watching naked kids jump off a bridge, eating strange food, hoping I won't get typhoid, sort of lost and unable to communicate any needs. "Dad would love this."

Then when its time to go (just like always on these walking adventures) we say, "I have to go home. Which way is it?" And they point the way and I started climbing and climbing and climbing. The great thing about these little sidewalks is you feel like you are just about going through someone's front room. Once today I stopped and said, "May I come through?" The answer, "Of course, just keep going up."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD, you don't look a day over 55....

some random pictures

Here are some pix that don't really fit anywhere:

Us at THE local chicken place. Turns out we weren't all that impressed (since we Kentuckians know our chicken). Everyone everywhere knows KY for one thing KFC.  And you know what? You can't get bird flu eating at KFC (or any other place I assume ... or at least I HOPE)! This place did have some cool indoor play equipment. The kind the US gov't ran out of places in the 70's!

This is Hudson on the fruit tour day. His look sort of sums up the whole day.

Our neighbors who came to dinner. That girl with her head covered LOVES grapes. I think anyway. She didn't actually eat them as much as drop them all over the house :-)!!

Hanging of the Green

We bought a Christmas tree from Ace Hardware and got some lights and tinsel and with the ornaments we brought we are ready to go. We even watched The Santa Clause today to celebrate finishing it up!

Final tally:

Tree $25
Lights $12 (yes for 200!)
Tinsel $5
Grandma's Angel on top ... well you know!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Day is all wrapped up on our side of the world. All in all it was a good day with a few emotional explosions. Just like a normal holiday anywhere!!


About 50 Americans got together. We chowed down on three turkeys, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and about 50 desserts. It was a great meal.



The boys found some fill-in cousins and did what they do best. Bethany, too, was running nonstop with the girls. I didn't even get her picture!


This is probably the most nontypical Thanksgiving sight ... our shoes stay outside! Those are Hudson's dangling feet waiting patiently for me to carry him to the car.

Hope your day is a great one. Give THANKS!

I am in LOVE!

We visited a coffee place while we were at the market. This is a classic family operation since the 1930s who do their bookkeeping by hand, roast the beans slowly over rubber-tree wood, and age their beans EIGHT years before they do anything.

This is the roaster. He said it takes two hours to roast over fire, 10 minutes over gas but they don't compromise!


The store room. "First in, first out," he said. That means these bags get ROTATED. The right side of the room had bags full of year old beans, I am leaning on eight year old beans.


Some beans in various stages of the aging process.


A turn-of-the-century bean grinder from Ohio (I think).


Some random jars of beans. I put in an application for a part-time job! But haven't heard yet. I think they fear me drinking up the profits. Angie and I were both startled at the effects he promised from drinking robusta coffee. It was a typically Chinese thing to be worried about (hint: it doesn't make you rich; wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know-what I mean, know-what-I-mean?).

The big market

Today we took advantage of our between class break to go to the big market for the first time. We got to see all the fish, chicken, clothing, and daily stuff that people need to live. See the mangoes in the background? Its mango season now and yesterday I bought 5 for 50 cents. Today we bought three pineapples for a quarter and a kilo (2.2 pounds) of sweet taters for Thursday for 30 cents!


No rain this morning just heat. So we bought some sodas to go. Your choices are: stand there and drink from the bottle or get it "to go". Then you have your pop (for those of you from Ohio) poured into a plastic baggie and you get a straw. These were GOOD! Four sodas= $1.20.

The Fruit Tour

OK. I'll be honest. The tour Saturday was pretty lame. But it was salvaged by the 8 hour bus ride (3.5 going and 4.5 coming home)!!

For a while I was just sitting there steaming because it was so quiet and BORING. I mean who wants to ride quietly looking out the window at people working in their rice fields and the mist hovering over the tea plantations. Finally reason won out and someone got ready to crank up the loud music.

It was then I realized it was BETTER. There was TV; so surely we could watch the horrible soap operas instead of nature. Then it hit us. It wasn't just TV. It was the BEST EVER! It was KARAOKE! KARAOKE!!!!!!!! KARAOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please excuse the jumpy camera as we were on a bus. I can't let you miss out on this blessing...

Man ... it's BIG here.

It has just hit us in a few ways the last few days how BIG the city we live in is. I told someone today there are more people here than in all of KY. And it seems they all drive at once :-)

It would be over-the-top beautiful if they could do something about the smog. We usually can't even see the surrounding mountains.

Green for GO!!

We had evaluations Monday morning and we were PASSED to start Unit 2 on Thursday morning!!



WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!

The answers are in!

We LOVE your blog comment and questions and post them with the intention of anwering your questions.  Well, today we finally have.  On all November posts we re-read the comments and answered the questions.  

On Saturday we are going on a daylong trip to some kind of fruit plantation with lots of kid's activities.  We'll have some good stories and pictures when we get back!

Since we'll be gone most of the day you won't catch Craig during the early part of his birthday (37) but maybe late Saturday our time or late Saturday yours.  Thanks and love!

Dancing machine

A quick look into our living room. Thanks to Ben for the help uploading!!!

Ice Cream Man

We finally got the ice cream man today. Yummy!

A normal Wednesday night at the Mall

We finally made it to the big mall. We didn't have enough time to actually shop but we did get to eat at Popeye's Chicken and play in the Fantasyland. Here are some glimpses of the fun.









Yeah, this mall has a roller coaster two sizes of bumper cars, a boat ride, ferris wheel and some other rides. We had a pretty good time. The bumper cars were 60 cents each. The roller coaster cost 8o cents.

More pictures

Here are a couple more real life shots. Monday night we went to McDonald's (again). It was an encouraging language time since everything we ordered was right. Now we didn't GET everything we ordered but we got everything we paid for. So we had to reorder. I think the people get so excited about talking with foreigners and that their English is working and our language is working and so some stuff just falls through the cracks (like our happy meal). Bethany wants her picture with Ronald everytime. Not just here, everytime we see him anywhere.



This guy is a roaming tofu noodle soup seller. He puts that thing on his shoulder and walks through the streets hitting a spoon against a bowl. If you want some you go out and order. He cooks and serves you then after you eat, he heads out again. Then he "washes" the bowl and spoon and later someone else gets it. I say "washes" because that is like a best case scenario. Don't expect to actually BE washed.

He turned his hat sideways because our flash wasn't working. Angie and I were discussing it and he decided his cap being turned would help, I guess. One thing about this "real life" shot is that I have never eaten from one of these guys. Our landlord walked by as we were doing this and he explained to me what the man was selling. It helped me use the one pun I know. "Tofu" and "know" are the same word. So I could say, "I know tofu" and it be like saying, "I tofu tofu" or "I know know." Everyone laughed...because I am a dumb foreigner, I think.

We have people selling stuff like this all day. They walk by hitting some thing or ringing a bell or whatever. Every salesman has his own sound. Tofu, meat on a stick, shoe repair, bananas, toys, cotton candy, ice cream. Even a guy who comes at 5:30 am YES! 5:30 AM and outside our window that doesn't close he yells, "BREAD!" Some of those guys are so burdened down the stick is just bowed. We'll try to get a shot like that some time if one gets close enough to ask like the tofu guy!

Kickin it on the streets

Everyday we go out practicing our language with folks around our home. These pictures were taken about 10 minutes walk from our house. Its hard to practice in our neighborhood since its all foreigners. Everyone in the neighborhoods around us (we are actually in a "Complex") is very helpful with language practice and they love to sit and chat. No matter how long you stay they are always saying not to rush off. Sort of like Glasgow without the "Ya'll go with us." I am trying to teach that, though!!!

The thumbs-up lady is Angie's friend. She runs the little shop you see in the background. Some ramen noodles, bottled water, instant coffee, fresh veggies, candy and other mini-mart essentials are available there and in shops like that every few hundred feet.

The boys are like kids everywhere expect Mandera (wink to Eric and Brian). These guys were literally begging to have their picture made.

Mmmmm...breakfast

This is a delicious breakfast from Sunday morning. That is my coffee from right here on the island. The green things are oranges (one is sliced). We finally got some stuff to soak fruits and veggies that don't get peeled and so we finally have grapes and strawberries. And finally, a delicious bagel from Herman the bagel guy. He makes the bagels in his kitchen and Saturday morning he actually delivered them to the door. Four fresh apple cinammon bagels cost $1.30.



Speaking of delivery we are becoming the kings. Recently we have had bagels, water, and El-Pi-Ji all delivered. Someone offered eggs at our door (we refused) and today the kids even took a motorcycle to school for a dime. Not too bad!!

Busy Week

This week has absolutely flown!  Probably the fastest week since we've been here.  Language classes have leveled out a little bit and the kids are all doing pretty well.  We went shopping a bit today and actually saw two other groups of white people....man there goes the neighborhood.

This week will be our final week for Unit 1 in language school.  We get a couple of days off at the beginning of next week and then we start again on the next unit Thanksgiving Day.  

I guess that means no Macy's Parade this year.  Actually I guess the Macy's Parade won't be on here (if it were to be on) until Thursday night anyway!!

Wassat?

There is no end to the cool stuff we can see if we have a chance to look (read: sit in traffic). Last Sunday we took a 15 minute drive that took an hour. Well, actually we only drove 15 minutes and we sat for the rest of the time. This is one of the things we saw.

This seems to be a sort of bicycle contraption that was modified to be a tea selling machine. Probably people sit around and talk about the "good ole days" when the tea man would ride by on his bike and you could get a cold glass of sweet tea for a nickel. Now he is on a motorbike and the tea costs a dime.

For those of you reading in Ohio or Washington, sweet tea is God's favorite drink. It's made with tea, water and just the right amount of sugar. By the way the "right amount" is however much you can get to dissolve in said water. I am not sure what the saturation point would be but that is what you aim for :-)!!

We got a glass of iced tea here the other day. It's a little different here since the sugar is added later but not like sugar is "added" to tea up north where it just lays in a pile at the bottom of the glass. Here the sugar is dissolved in water and added to the problem (unsweetened) tea. Well, since the density is different our sweet tea came to the table and the bottom third was clear--nothing but sugar water!! Then going up, the tea got darker. When stirred it was delicious. When the bill came and it was a dime it was HEAVENLY!!

I DID IT!!!

This delicious shot was taken with my camera phone then beamed to my PDA where I used Bluetooth to get it on my laptop and cable internet to upload it to the blog to be downloaded into your eyes.

If you are grossed out by chicken heads and feet on ice, I apologize. Just realize there is a whole world out there that has no interest in all-white meat!! "Segar" (sounds like cigar) means fresh. PLEASE, when you eat chicken HEADS make sure they are fresh!

Birthday Party!

We celebrated Caleb's 11th birthday at Avenue A Pizza. Six kids from school came and some other folks were there. We had cake and Caleb got his own Hah-Pay (aka a cell phone). Now he is good to go. I think he is more excited, though, about all the cards he got that said money was deposited in our account for his spending pleasure. I sure hope we don't forget about that :-)!!

"You wake up to lies everyday."

That was actually one of the best things I heard in Virginia. The reminder that spiritual warfare starts early each day and the enemy doesn't fight fair. From before our eyes open the lies begin: "You deserve to sleep in today." "Ten more minutes won't hurt." "I don't want to go today."

I was reminded of that this morning. We've been dealing with too many "You just can't do it" type thoughts the past week or so. Too old to learn. Too many other things going on that keep us from advancing. Its easier for other people. No one really expects us to be able to accomplish all that.

Last night, though, I spent some good time in the Word and was realizing how much I had been letting those planted thoughts distract me. Jesus surely doesn't spend time telling me what I can't do. I think He is more in the business of doing "all things" through clay pots. I got up energized and two minutes into the day found myself thinking all these things OTHER people should be doing differently.

That is when I remembered that teaching. "You wake up to lies everyday." EVERYDAY. Every one of us. So what will guide my day today? "You can't" or "I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me"? I guess that's my choice, right? And yours! Thanks for being part of my encouragement.

The water that is (supposed to be) inside

Here is our water source. These nearly five gallon jugs sell for $1.10 including delivery. When I say delivery I mean the guy stands in the street and yells the brand name, "Aqua...Aqua...Aqua." And if a lady goes to the door he'll carry it all the way to the kitchen. If I go, he hands it to me. So I hide until its over. Not a bad deal. Especially when its raining.

Just beyond is our kitchen. It comfortably holds one American. Cozily holds two and causes Dad to yell with 3 or more. Inside is one sink, an LPG gas stove with 4 burners, and some cabinets. The doors you can see we don't open. We have a few times and decided some things were better left undiscovered.

Culture Day

At the kids' school they had culture day on Friday. It was a big deal. Now remember we have been very frustrated with language this week and the kids school is right next door to ours and basically everything is open because its nice and warm. So we can hear them playing most days.




Also imagine how cool it is since all the kids and teachers are in national dress and they've brought in food vendors and musicians. Imagine also that another mom tells Angie to skip language school and come to the activities because the language school "totally understands". Remember, too, that we went to EVERYTHING at school in KY.

Now picture in your mind as we are saying, "John is a solider." For the 100th time the looks Angie is giving me since I insisted on going to school (but gave her the freedom to skip if she wanted).

NOW to get the full picture imagine us going over for our 20 minute tea break and ordering some delicious sate (or satay) and it NOT GETTING DONE in time for us to eat it before needing to be back at school. Imagine how sweet she was looking at me!! HAHA! She wasn't bad....but she wanted to be.


This is the sate (satay) guy. Chicken or beef or mutton (read: goat) on a stick and cooked over charcoal. We've had chicken and I've had goat. This would be our first beef...if it had finished in time :-(!


The fried rice guy is a national hero. 99.9% of people love fried rice. Its everywhere.

Catching Up

This has been the toughest week so far. Just the kind of junk we were warned about but frustrating still: rain, runny tummies, fever, driving in the rain, allergies, walking in the rain, language learning, spaghetti, crowds, leaky roof.

The kind of stuff that is no big deal (like no bathrooms in the mall restaurants) are infinitely more frustrating when you need to go to them 8 times during dinner. So I waited until the weekend to catch up here since I am much more optimistic today than I was on Wed/Thu.

Our house phone is working now. On Thursday night we celebrated our feelings by ordering McDonald's delivery. The guy rolled up on his motorcycle in the pouring rain in his rubber suit. It was exciting. The phone is crackly but I got to have two conversations: one with McDs Delivery and one with the local store confirming the order. Except for the double cheeseburgers being single hamburgers everything else was right--a huge milestone (for some reason there is a difference between a "beefburger" and a double cheeseburger...not to mention a "chickenburger").



So today we feel much better. Health is better for everyone. The language moves from almost totally frustrating to bright spots where out with 15 people who speak no English you actually have something that is a shadow of a conversation. They say something and you understand and you say something and they understand and they say you are smart and surely you have been studying longer than two weeks. And you say, "Yeah. I am brilliant. The smartest guy ever." But you say it in English so know hears your bragging. Thanks for walking with us. We need and love you!!