The Mask

No, this is not a picture of an overcast day. This is smoke--the cause of the black lung-- that has descended on our city in full force. And gross. Just so gross! We are all coughing, with scratchy throats and itchy eyes.  The hard working farmers are all burning off their rice fields, and all of the smoke is sitting in the bowl of our city. So on this try something new Tuesday, we decided that because it literally hurts to breath, we would do as the locals do and get our very own masks to shield us from some of the fumes. 

And now we are all ready to venture outside into the never-ending fire-pit in hopes that we won't get the black lung. And would you just look at Little Doogie Howser 1, 2 and 3. Are they not the cutest?!  I'm thinking Isaiah's mask won't do much in the way of protection since it hangs off his little face, but man, he looks cute. We may just have to cover his whole face with a bandana like this fella' did.

He's covered from head to toe.

And I guarantee he is smiling while I shoot this picture of him. :)

We hear this will go on for a few weeks and will get worse before it gets better.  I can't even... Worse!? But God promised that when I walked through the fire He would be with me. And even though Kate loves her mask, we probably won't go as far as wearing it all over town. But we're braving the fire--the 100 degree temps and the smoke.  And praying that the sick and weak feeling from constantly breathing in carbon monoxide will end soon.  

Something New Tuesday--The Coconut

We were so excited about this one.  It was gonna be great. Our new favorite. The most delicious thing ever.  It looked glamorously tropical, exotic, and just plain fun. On every other corner, throughout the market, on the side of the road, in the night bazaar, outside the grocery store, in big giant buckets of ice they sat ready to become our favorite thing in this new land.  

Thomas and Brian ordered it. The sweet smiling man cut the top off of it and stuck a straw in it.  

And together we sipped. And yet again, we tried something new and didn't love it.  

Thomas said "It tastes dirty." I think the proper food network terminology for that is "earthy."

I suggested putting a lime in it and drinking it all up.  Thomas didn't think it would help. Thomas had the best idea, take it home and add some sugar. My boy. So we tried that too. Still, um, earthy. Sweet. But earthy.

So how do you drink these things and enjoy it?  Is it one of those "acquired tastes" or is it just something you drink when you are stranded on a desert island? Clearly people around here love it or else it wouldn't be everywhere. So maybe we will acquire a taste for it, or maybe not. 

Try Something New... Every Day

I missed Tuesday. I knew I would.  I warned you type A people. Here in SE Asia, the new continues. We still haven't gone so far as to eat snake, and we decided not to pick out our own live frog to be butchered so we could fry it up at home. Not this week. But we have done some other fun things.

We started language. This is why there are no blogs. Every minute of free time... let's just go ahead and laugh at that little phrase. Free time! I have three wee little screaming, pulling eggs out of the fridge to see what will happen when they drop them, "mommy watch this" all the day, dirty, stinky beautiful, amazing people running around this place. Free time is but a dream. So I sleep with my language notes by my bed hoping that some will absorb into my brain while I sleep, but then Thing 1 and Thing 2 crawl into bed with us and kick the study notes onto the floor, and my plans for midnight osmosis are ruined while I'm simultaneously being head-butted and kicked in the ribs. So no sleep. No free time. No genuine language practice and study time. So just stop. Stop right now and pray that by God's great grace and mercy I will miraculously learn this language and that no children will be harmed in the process. 

Carry-on...

We have walked the night bazaar a couple of times. The night bazaar is blazing with culture and hand-made traditional beauties around every corner. It's probably my favorite place so far. Like any market in any culture, it's where the people are and y'all, I just love the people!

Kate tried out a new hair pin that doubles as a weapon. We had to bring one home because she is just darling!

Thomas started soccer.

His head is always in the game! Our little champ.

Isaiah tried out an old rickshaw.

Brian tried and succeeded in getting his hair cut after he went to two or three places where they told him, "We only do la-dy."  He found this place where they spoke no English, but 'they do man.' So he figured out some way to tell them how he wanted his hair cut, and it didn't turn out bad at all. I, however, will not be venturing out to get my haircut until at least month 4 of language.

We discovered more seafood. I think this is the lobster's asian cousin.

Isaiah looked through the seafood at the market. We decided we'd pass on it for now.

And our accidental 'try something new' was this.

Looks like normal toothpaste to the non-Asian language reading person. I had finally remembered to grab grown-up toothpaste at the store and was super excited to brush my teeth with something that didn't have a cartoon character on it. A little blue sparkly dab on the brush and....

Salt!!!! A mouthful of slightly minty salt that exploded in my mouth! It was awful! Awful! Awful! And there it is right there on the dang box. In English! UGH! So whenever you visit our neck of the woods and you are in the market for some toothpaste, make sure you turn the box over and look for the English to make sure it doesn't say salt fresh! There is nothing fresh about it. New certainly isn't always fun, but I never expected it to creep into my toothpaste! 

Can I have some sort of normalcy please?! 

The answer is no for now. Different is the new normal.  And it is ok.  His grace is sufficient. His power made perfect in our weaknesses.  

Please keep praying as we are looking to sign on a house soon. Pray that it goes through and that furniture, appliance and all-the-other-stuff-that-goes-into-a-house shopping goes well with minimal stress.

Try Something New Tuesday

I've decided to make an effort every week, together with my kids (if it's not life threatening), to try something completely new and then share it with you. We're gonna call it "Try Something New Tuesday," but some weeks it may be "Try Something New Tuesday... on a Friday" because life is crazy and next Tuesday I may just want to eat my stash of American peanut butter out of the jar and roll my eyes at all of this new stuff. So dear Type A people-- those of you who pointed out I needed to change the name of the blog 17 times, I love you. You make the world go 'round, and I really want to do this every Tuesday for you, but let's just all learn to be flexible together.

We're starting light today. No cow uterus for at least a few months. 

The Dragon Fruit.

I didn't even know what this little beauty was called. For those of you who did know what it was, you are geniuses and you should go on Jeopardy. The kids and I grabbed the computer, a knife and cutting board and then did a little research to see what it is and how it is eaten.   

We chopped this baby open and lookie there. It's just so pretty with lots of little black seeds kind of like a kiwi fruit.

I wish we could say that we loved its taste as much as we loved its bright red color. It's not horrible, but we are not huge dragon fruit fans. We are, however, fans of all the healthy goodness packed into one of these things. So we may be mixing it into some fruit salads or dousing it in chocolate so that we can enjoy its healthy benefits.

What have you tried that is new and out of the box lately?