Summer 2011

Here's an update of our summer. We were a tad bit lazy, I mean busy...or lazy :) Had lots of adventures and lots of lazy days.

Here are some photos of our first hosted Baci ceremony, a ceremony meant to bring prosperity, good health and good luck, for special occasions. Our Baci in our house was for Mike's boss leaving Laos, and 5-months in, us arriving. 


 

Receiving a blessing from the maw

After our first Baci, we went on a trip to Luang Prabang. A beautiful world heritage city in the North of Laos. One of the top places to visit according to Lonely Planet. Mike had to work most of the trip, but it was still lovely to wander around.

Hiked the top of Phusi

Over 300 steps up

Headed to a waterfall



The waterfall.

 Most of August rained off and on. So we stuck pretty close to home. A few Sundays in a row we headed to Taht Vangnawng for a swim and picnic.

Our picnic spot.

Playing in the water

pros and cons of household help

First I will say this, this may be an unfair, seemingly stuck up gripe,  and if you think this is offending, then stop reading now. This is written after a very frustrating, mistake riddled morning that caused added stress to the daily routine.

Second, I am very appreciative of all the work my mai bahn does and all the stress she takes off. Mike and I went back and forth for MONTHS about if we'd hire someone to help around the house. The first thing people would say when they found out we were going to Laos was, "The help's cheap." G Thanks for that, but most Americans aren't used to having someone do their stuff for them and are uncomfortable with the thought of having someone in their house all day. It's our first post, so we're not used to it all. After seeing our house for the first time we agreed it would be best to have a helper, someone to clean and cook dinner (my least favorite time of the day as all the kids seem to be have a meltdown at that time) and be flexible enough with her hours to be able to watch the kids every so often.The whole idea was to have another right hand, what I couldn't be doing, she'd do. I still do most of the laundry and wash dishes after we use them (I hate when dishes sit in the sink.) The kids also still have their own chores.

PROS:
Someone else cleans your house, which I might add has 7 toilets. I hate cleaning toilets.

Someone else cooks dinner, during the most stressful time of the day.

Someone else is here from the hours of 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., so if you need to run an errand while kids are sleeping, someone is here.

Every couple of weeks we can have a date night.

Most of the time she has information on where to find things around the city.

She can almost help translate when workers come to the house or when at a market trying to find something specific.

When trying to learn the language it'd be helpful to practice with the mai bahn.


CONS:
Language barrier. No matter how much English she seems to know, even if she doesn't understand, she'll nod and go on with her business. Then I find cooking oil under the stove tops when making oatmeal with a pleasant fire to start my morning, the morning after I specifically ask that she clean the stove tops after cooking because the spilled cooking oil smokes...

Things get ruined, it's a fact. Like $200 pots that weren't even taken out of the box more than 4-months ago, now have burned cooking oil at the bottom, because no matter how often she's told about cleaning  the outside of pots, she still doesn't do it and I get to spend a morning trying to scrape the oil off the bottom and showing her how to do it. It happens, and I understand that, but no matter how much I tell myself it happens, it's still frustrating when someone else ruins my things and not me.

I still have a hard time leaving Maggie with her she isn't sleeping or about to go to sleep. I often find that Maggie has gone into my room, even after telling both the mai bahn and Maggie, that she is NOT allowed past the office doors. I will come home to find Maggie covered in my deodorant and nail polish all over the carpet or worse, climbing the window grates while holding a steak knife and fork. Anytime I tell her to do something with Maggie, like put her on the toilet or in bed, she'll ask Maggie and when Maggie says, "no" she'll let it go; then Maggie pees on the floor. Finn and Tess seem to be just fine with her.

Mike warned me when I told him it no longer took half the day for her to tidy up the upstairs part of the house, she might get comfortable and start skipping some things...like cleaning the outside of the toilets that have a 2 1/2- year- old's food poisoning on the side, or not sweeping the floors before mopping, or leaving an entire bucket full of mop water in the cleaning closet where the 2 1/2 -year-old can and will find it then dump it all over the floor where a baby is laying.

No matter how often she's told the kids have chores, she will still try to clean up after them and then tell me Finn had a long day at school and shouldn't have to pick up his toys...why not he picks up his toys he plays with at school.

Sometimes I'll ask her to do something once, then I'll find her doing it all the time, ok. Other times I'll ask her to start doing something and she'll do it once.

Now with most of this being said, I understand that I'm the employer and I need to take a better approach to get my employee to do what it is I want. In this culture it's a bit hard, you don't want to loose face or cause someone else to loose face, so by telling her she's been doing things wrong or making mistakes, she can loose face. Now I have to find a way to politely show her the way I'd like things done, again.

our 4th of July tradition

Still lives on. I've just been busy, so I haven't had a chance to upload our photos from this year.

The Declaration of Independence written out somehow. This year we did 2 ways, wrote it on our wall and Mike and the kids wore it on their shirts, now that we have 3 kids it works great!
Tess is Life; Maggie is Liberty; and Finn is the pursuit of happiness :)

Our 4th of July weekend was jam packed with FUN. Well, almost. The actual 4th Rocked thanks to a group of Embassy people who organized an Embassy party. Looking forward to next year.

Lao Zoo

On our way back home from Nam Ngum, we stopped off at the Lao Zoo, which was far better than I expected, especially after visiting the Bangkok Zoo. The animals seemed much happier and healthier. There was a small restaurant and plenty of bathrooms around the trail.

Mike and the kids road an elephant, which was a first for them all, and was something the kids have talked about ever since we found out we'd be moving to Laos. Finn also fed the elephant some cucumbers...do elephants like those? He seemed pretty happy.

The Gibbon seemed to be playing games so Maggie decided to play peek-a-boo; he turned his back on her.

About a gabillion crocodiles at the zoo.

Sassy pants

First elephant ride

They liked it in the end

Finn fed the elephant; he's well trained.

Ang Nam Ngum, take two

Saturday morning we woke up, a bit lazily after the 4th of July Embassy reception. We'd planned on going to stay at a villa in Vang Vieng, but the other couple who was going with us heard that the roads were flooded and shouldn't be attempted. So we decided to try a "resort" closer to Vientiane. Dansavanh Resort on Nam Ngum in the Mountains, sweet! So minus the other couple, we drove that way and made great time. Only 2 hours to the "resort".  This is what the "resort" advertises http://www.dansavanh.com/namngum/index.html.

I seriously wish we'd taken a picture of what it actually looked like. I thought I was going to get a disease just touching the room, the pool was drained and it cost $40 to take an hour boat ride. Just plain run down and dirty! Mike wanted to look at the rooms, and in each one my eyes kept getting bigger and bigger and my NO WAY JOSE face kept getting stronger and stronger. At one point I was even shaking my head at him, but alas we ended up taking a deluxe room....the resort also advertises a "mini" zoo. I am glad I didn't see it but apparently it is just 2 bears in small cages in the back parking lot. AH! Thankfully Mike came to his senses after walking around and realizing there was NOTHING to do and was a huge rip off, we totally bailed!

I was praying we'd just turn around and go home, I desperately wanted a shower, but we pushed on farther North and ended up back in a small fisherman's village, called Thalad, this time going a few hundred meters farther than our boat restaurant and ended up at Longngum View Resort. http://www.longngumview.com/index.html Much, much better than the last place, but most of the rooms were booked, so we got a room that was fairly small with a king size bed, for half the price we would've paid for the craptastic resort before. I wouldn't say it was the best, but it was charming and this is Laos not Hawaii.

We slept in bed with Finn and Maggie crammed between us, HORRIBLE, and Tess got her pack-n-play AWESOME. She was the only one to sleep through the night. The weather was clear the whole day, but that night it rained, all night and Mike and I kept waking with fears that the roads would wash away or worse, but none of that happened. We got up early that morning, ate breakfast and Mike rented a kayak. He took the older kids out to explore the islands that were created when the dam was put up. They had a rockin time, but no pictures since they were on a kayak, we didn't want the camera to fall in the water.

They did find an island with a huge "rocket" and cows...Mike and Finn decided that cows crashed their rocket on the island and were stuck forever. The "rocket" is still questionable...

While Mike took the older kids Tess and I hiked around the lake. She's finally big enough to fit in our hiking backpack, which I would've killed for when we were car less.

A little exercise in the morning

Heading out, Maggie didn't like it at first

Please come back happy :)

Didn't quite make it in time to get them returning



She'll get used to this

 After everyone got back, we had lunch, packed the car and headed back for home. A successful trip in the end. As usual we have to fail to succeed.

Thai border crossing, take two

Last week I told Mike I wanted to go to Thailand and "stock" up on stuff. What stuff you might ask? I dunno just stuff.

I've grown tired of looking all over the city for things, and buying not 1 but 3 shovels that have all broken the second they strike the ground. See, unlike most people around here, I'm attempting to plant my own stuff (blog about that later) so I need a good shovel and possibly a spade, but they are not here! Annoying.

Anyway, back to the point, I told Mike I wanted to go to Thailand for stuff. I wanted a real store that was set up the way I'm used to with "quality" products. I just needed to see again what I was missing out on. To be FRANK, not much at all. Most of what we found today can be found in Vientiane, granted maybe for a higher price and questionable quality, but still found HERE, not across the border and an hour farther.

Mike went along with my plan, giving me credit for going with him on many, many trips I was not too excited about. See, I am more of a go along girl than a planning girl. I will do whatever he wants, even if I think it's crazy, rather than plan something myself. If I had my way, I'd get to sit in front of Lifetime movies all day or sit in the car and be lost in my thoughts for hours and hours, so that's why I choose to go along with him. Most of the time our trips take us in the wrong direction, sometimes many times, but at least once, so I get time to just think, about what who knows.

Ok, ok I wandered again, so we got to Thailand and one of the stores I really wanted to go to. It had shovels, and bug zappers- hopefully ones that won't break in a few days- and stuff :) Rows and rows of stuff in neat little aisles with Signs telling me where the "stuff" was. I was fairly content, until everytime I looked up 5 people were waiting to grab things for me, or just stare at us. The staring comes in handy when the kids are touching everything in sight, but they think it's cute, me not so much. I really like big stores but what I like about them is my that I can wander and look without being followed every step of the way.

I love stores, not because I love to shop, I just love 'em. I like that they guide me to what I might need. See, what I really miss is Wal-Mart. The one store I could go to and find absolutely everything I need. I HATE shopping, but I love wandering down aisles in a store that offers me EVERYTHING. I can't clothes shop in a mall, but give me a list of random items and I'll find them, all in one place!

So maybe this is what I was hoping for today in Thailand, but alas, I didn't quite get that feeling, more like spend some money and buy some crap to show it was worth something. In the end, I think my trips to Thailand will be limited and without the kids. I am okay with spending a few extra cents here vs. going the extra mile or 50 just to get a bargain. Plus I like it here, more than there :)

consumables

Vientiane, Laos is a consumables post. I think for good reason. Check out this picture:

Both of these cost me the same amount of money, one was bought here the other bought in the states. I'm sure you can guess which one is which.

Now that I am over the "funny money" and actually have a concept of how much things cost I feel even worse about our pack-out. Several bottles of dish soap and hand soap were left under cupboards and forgotten until we left :( When I spend 12.50 on a gallon of bleach I want to scream having only sent 2 gallons.

Maggie's favorite thing to do is wash her hands now and when I catch her playing in the sink all I see are dollar signs flashing and have to contain my anger and politely demand that she not wash her hands again, for a week! Kidding.

One night I let out a cry when I watched Mike putting shampoo in the kids hair. He couldn't believe I was freaking over soap, it's just soap. Yes, just soap that cost 5x what it did in The States and I want it to last. He just shrugged and now I bite my tongue, because at least he's doing the bathing.

Someone was recently joking about how people keep their consumables secret; sitting in dark corners scarfing pop tarts so no one asks for one. It's true, I hide my good snack foods when other kids come over, mainly because they waste them, but also because I want them :)

Thankfully, even though we sent quite a bit of consumables, we still have a lot of weight left over, so we can do a second shipment; my list keeps getting longer and longer, mostly cleaning supplies and beauty supplies with lots of spray sunscreens and bug spray.

We're also totally lucky to be able to order stuff from the Bangkok commissary (which I have yet to do) although the prices don't quite compare to the States, at least we can get US brands of detergent and if you search hard enough on Amazon, lots of places ship to APO, so the kids still get to eat some of their snackie foods while attempting to broden their food palates.