Catching Up

So our company finally made it home and we caught up on a bit of sleep, packed for our trip, and now we'll try to get some new pictures up from the last week. It was a fun time that got Ricky used to eating supper at 10pm and going to bed after midnight. So Vicky will need to forgive us if Rick starts calling his midnight snack "Supper." :-)

This is James embracing Milo. Its runner-up to be our national drink. Everyone loves it (well, almost)! Here he is gulping by the quart like a champion.
A huge food court type place we had supper one night. Craig and Ricky sprung for the stingray. How is it? The word "boney" comes to mind but it tastes OK.
Here if you get your McDonald's drink to go, it comes in a sack. Superfluous sacks are normally given by a cashier wearing a "Say No To Plastic Bags" button.
Some hot looking guys hanging out in the "Air Con" and loving it.
A restaurant serving classic local food. Pretty good stuff.
It seems there were monkeys but we didn't see them.
The best breakfast bread we had! This guy is so diligent he wouldn't stop working for the picture. Plus after 30 years in the business he has a semi-permanent bend.
No small amount of Mac N Cheese made the trip. But the jelly? It seems that is all still in Brian Pickerel's office.... Poor Hudson!!
What an awesome gift. Friends carried 30+ pounds of cornmeal and this awesome iron skillet. We can't wait!!!

Man ... its HOT

We've been touring a bit and having some tasty treats, too. Like these "Chicken Rice Balls" which are balls made of rice. Interesting. I think maybe regular rice is a bit tastier.

Handsome, right? I was thinking having summer start in KY would help people prepare for the heat here. Not sure how well that is working out so far. Its been in the low 90s each day this week and people are expecting it to be hot for the next couple of months.

This is an action shot! I call it "Crossing in the Crosswalk." This crosswalk even had a red light to stop traffic for you. The thing that makes it an action shot! is that cars don't necessarily need to stop for red lights or pedestrians.
We took a nice river ride to see some of the city. The best part of the trip? Traditional music from the area. But who knew that the Bee Gees were from here? We had the Bee Gees Greatest Hits helping us roll on down the waterway. This is Ricky laying down a little, "Night Fever, Night Fever..."

Tea Time

Now these guys are much more likely to experience a "tee" time than a "tea" time normally but we roped them into some tea with Craig's language teacher this week. It was more formal than we were expecting.

We had curry puffs!! WoooHooo!!!
Rick is quite the servant.
Notice the skill with which he pours. No extended pinky for him. Just a smooth quality serving with no drips on the tablecloth. CLASSY!
We had some cheesy smiles, too.
Ms. Amanda ... counting down the days now.
The group shot! We had a great time ... just don't let Randy call them feminine for having tea. Its macho around here.

We've Eaten Some....

Apparently people felt a vague feeling of hunger a few days ago but no one has felt it since then. We have alternated getting them all sweaty and then stuffing them with food. Here we are tearing into some fried noodles and fish curry.

These delicious squid were part of the noodle dish. James popped his in before I could get a picture but I can vouch for him that he ate it and didn't even make a face. Can you see the suckers on these suckers? Tasty!!
Ricky is also not scared to try new foods. The hard part has been getting our stomachs empty enough to try anything new.
The jet lag is catchy it seems with some folks having trouble keeping their eyes open during down moments. "Just resting my eyes," as Papaw used to say.

Trying to Stay Awake...

We've got our first full day underway. In some ways, this is the toughest day with your body fighting you a great deal. A 12 hour time difference takes a bit of time to overcome. Just after breakfast James is looking pretty wide awake!
The kids could hardly wait to break into the bags our friends carried in.

This bag had a slight mishap as some beans and cornbread tried to do some premature mixing. The beans actually just had a small hole. The problem was that it was at the bottom and while Bethany was unloading the bag, she seemed mesmerized by the beans rolling out of the bag.

The kids were on fire about a bag full of books!!
No small amount of macaroni and cheese made the trip! THANKS!! Especially from Bethany who is spared a few nights of rice.

So everyone is all smiles while they are thinking, "When will these people let me rest for a few minutes???"

Safe and Sound

Got our guys all delivered to their hotel and checked-in.  Tired but all arrived OK with all their bags.  They were excited to learn something foreign ... like the electricity won't work in your hotel room unless you are in there.  Exciting stuff.

We'll post some photos in the morning....

Wedding Feast

This weekend there was a wedding in our neighborhood. This is a look at what the tables were like most of the day. Packed.

Well, since 3,000 invitations were sent out these full tables would empty, then fill, and repeat. So my great wife was hard at work cleaning tables and doing a ton of other work!

One great thing was that the whole neighborhood pitched in to help. People packed gift bags, packed take-away meals, and everything in between. These guys washed plates for hours on end.

Which made these dish-drier dudes lots of stuff to do!

Here are a couple of friends. The one on the left is called Santa Claus by some folks but we're not really sure why. The other guy laughs with just about every sentence he says. Fun folks to be around!This is the groom's dad. Not sure if you can see but in the background are stacks of gifts they give to the folks who show up. It was a big affair!
The bride and groom. Catching them smiling is a treat. Wedding pictures of people not smiling seem odd to Westerners but pretty normal here.
I'm not sure what this thing was supposed to be. Its a pineapple with sticks in it. Some meat kabobs. Some shrimp on a stick. In person it was just an odd thing to behold. But folks were excited to see it come around all us dish-handlers!!

So a great time had by all. Of course by "all" I mean "all the people who weren't paying for it!!"

Amazing!

This incredible photo shows Angie after having asked to go to Starbucks!

Everyone was very happy that she decided to come and buy her frozen drink with whipped cream.

Perhaps someday we can get her to try some coffee there...

Prayed Yet?

Its not exactly "Got Milk?" but I guess it serves as a reminder anyway.

Family Day

Over the weekend we had the chance to hang out with some neighbors for their Family Day. It turns out these folks are serious about their get-togethers. More like an African-American family reunion than anything we've ever been a part of. We got matching shirts, stickers for our cars, antenna ribbons, and more. We were invited as the official photographers (seriously).

The schedule originally said we'd "gather" at 8:30 to leave at 9:30. Well, normally in Asia that would mean the Americans arrive at 8:30 and stand around in the sun waiting until 10. So when they pushed the time back a bit to "gather" at 8 and get some pictures before leaving at 9, we were still in no hurry. When they called at 7:50am to ask where we were, I thought I might have misjudged things. When they called again at 8:15 and asked why we still weren't there I knew we were officially late. This is what we saw when we arrived ... a group waiting in the sun with no photographer. Ouch!

So after our late start we had a prayer and a ribbon cutting. I told you this was serious ... check out that megaphone
At the beach in the hot afternoon sun. No one on this beach was wearing shorts. The ladies swim in long pants and long sleeves. Or they sit on a mat under an umbrella. Men keep covered to below the knee at least.
The other day when we were talking about going Bethany whined, "What?!? Another beach trip?" Funny how quick we can take things for granted.
Since men stay covered to below the knee (and Craig has no capris) this is a shot of him preparing to enter the pool fully dressed for some spontaneous "Dad games" including 'Who Can Hold Their Breath the Longest?' and a version of 'Pool Soccer' that included the Dads throwing a soccer bottle at 2 liter bottles.
Maybe you can't see it here but on the left side of the photo Craig was being held the whole time by the man "guarding" him. "It was all for fun," except the guy wouldn't let the white fella play.
Of course we had to eat some fish and rice. Yummy. Caleb did a good job of cleaning his like a cat in a cartoon.
Folks got all sorts of prizes. Bethany won a game and the kids all got prizes like colored pencils. Don't look at the weird face Amanda is making, just check out Bethany's smile.
After the prizes were handed out, the karaoke got started. Trying to enjoy things and mind our own business, Craig was eventually dragged into dancing in front of everyone. Raise the roof, whoop, whoop. Wow, what skills!!
This eventually led to Craig's amazing rendition of Black Magic Woman. Truly an unique experience for everyone in attendance. Mercifully its a Santana song so its basically four guitar solos interrupted by lyrics in a few places but the lyrics seemed to brim with innuendo. Imagine trying to sing while also trying to figure out if the lyrics were offending people who don't even show their knees.
One dance and one song later, we were ready for bed. Early by local standards, 11pm or so. Not sure how many weekends we can handle with this much excitement but it will be fun to try.

Aren't they cute?

Have you ever?

Some days we can still feel a bit like, "Do we really live in a place where you can see that?"

Not that we have become accustomed to seeing monkeys and huge lizards as roadkill ... but we were more than a bit taken aback when we saw this sign over the weekend.

Never in our lives did we think we'd live in a place to see a sign that said, "Caution Elephant Crossing." Amazing!!