School Begins

This is now the 4th week of school for us at Dong Dok, though it is the first full week we've had yet! Two weeks ago we had Thursday and Friday off for Teacher's Day, and last week we had Wednesday and Thursday off for the Boat Racing Festival. I've also been to Thailand the past two weekends to take visit the state-of-the-art hospital in Khon Khaen there (no worries, I was merely the traveling buddy, not the patient).

Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the past few weeks though was yesterday... Bei and Thuai, the two little neighbor boys from the house across the way, had their first day of school. We've been hoping for a while to help them find a way to go to school. So the other day, Sone and I stopped by their house and asked if they would like to go to school. Their mom gave permission and so we went to the school to inquire about it. Monday we went shopping for school clothes and school supplies.

Here's Thuai trying on a shirt at the market.

 Nouy and Sone helped the kids put all their supplies together in their bag.

Sone was being the exemplary "ueai" (older sister) teaching the boys how to behave at school and take care of their supplies.

 Thuai on the first day of school. He's such a cutie.

 Bei all dressed up in his uniform.

 Sone and I dropped the kids off for their first day.

 I felt so bad though because the two days that we went there, all the kids were gawking at us. I'm assuming it's because I'm a falang (foreigner), but I think it made the boys feel really self-conscious. Bei has been to school before, but I think the teacher said he only came for one day and then quit. I'm so hoping that they will continue going to school and learning because without education, and basic literacy skills, there's really little they can do (except get into trouble). So, our hope is that we can encourage them in their studies and help them to continue going until they feel comfortable. Today they ate lunch with Nouy and I, and after Thuai had shown off his counting skills, he told us a kid hit him at school. I'm hoping they don't get picked on because they are poor and their family situation is a little strange.  They are so precious, and I haven't been able to reach out to them as often as I would've liked, but I'm thankful for this opportunity and would ask you to be lifting these cuties up to the Father. That He would have His hand on their life, and that He would give Sone and I wisdom as we seek to help them as much as possible. They don't even have electricity at their house so if they don't study before it gets dark they can't even read their books or practice their writing. We're going to look into the possibility of running some electricity from our place to theirs so they at least have a light at night or something.

Anyway, that's my news for now. Here's a super cute pic of Thuai and Bei... :)

One of those days...

Yesterday was just one of those days. One of those days where I thought, what am I doing here?!  As many of you know, we've battled ants and ants and more ants in our house (along with a few other species of small crawling things) and yesterday was like WWIII with the ants. Here you can see they have created an ant hill inside our house. This is in our kitchen in one of the corners.

 They had also spread to the entire cupboard area...leading to this massive pile of dishes to be washed and de-anted.  We don't have hot water in our sink, so we have to boil it if we are going to wash with hot water. Christa ate chocolate popcorn the night before and even though I washed the pot thoroughly (or so I thought!) with hot water, the ants still found some remnants to raid. They decided to check out the rest of the cupboard while they were on the prowl. 

 Here is the cupboard, emptied of its contents for the third time since moving here due to my favorite little creatures.

 Oh, and did I mention that our kitchen faucet was also broken? The water pressure was too intense and the other day it just catapulted right off the spigot and onto the floor. So we couldn't wash the ant-infested dishes in the sink...So we resorted to Lao style dish washing - outside and rinsing in basins of water. Not too terrible, but for this lazy American, rather back-breaking! I'm just so spoiled, and it's days like these that really make me aware of that!

 We decided to launch a pre-emptive strike with the ants and seal up all their hideouts. So here Sone is filling in the crevices with a cement paste. Hopefully this will keep them out of our house (at least for a few days!)

 More cement paste in the cubpoard...

 Another view of the mountain of dishes waiting to be washed.

 Here's our faucet...do you see the stream launching out to the left side, in addition to what is coming out of the faucet? Had a few unexpected showers today from our wacky faucet!

It was kinda funny, because we went to dinner while the cement was drying (I didn't want to eat at home and make any more dishes!) and I was just telling Sone how this is just one of those days that makes me realize things here are so very different than things in the States. I think I had forgotten how different until I went back for the summer. It's not even like I long for the ease and comforts or even really miss them, because I know I'm right where the Father wants me to be.

But today was just one of those days where I wish I could've called Terminex or something and with a snap of my fingers, eradicated the problem. I think that's how I am with so much of life. I just want to call Terminex of the heart and have every struggle quickly and neatly taken away, every fleshly instinct gone with the snap of my fingers. Instead, the Father calls me to get on my knees, get a little dirty and let Him fill the holes of my heart where the invaders keep coming in.

Wow, when I started writing this, I didn't plan on it being philosophical at all, or having any sort of deeper analogy, but then it just sort of happened. Hmm, something for me to chew on I guess, as I learn to be patient with the way my life is here, and the way my heart is no matter where I am.