Get outta town!

From the moment we arrived in this city in January, our family has been on the go. Between the girls' school, our schedules, language learning, and so much more, we've not had the opportunity in the last 10 months to visit any of the other "must-see" sites throughout this beautiful country.
So when a local holiday meant the girls had a few days out of school, we jumped at the chance for a short getaway. We were in desperate need of a little family bonding, not to mention a little R&R.
Still, traveling can get expensive and we are always hesitant to dip into our savings unless absolutely necessary, so we decided to try to experience our journey the way locals would do it... we took the bus!

It was actually really fun. These buses are much nicer than the buses we used to take on youth trips. The cushy, leather seats swiveled and reclined almost all the way back. The bus company provided pillows and blankets (good thing too since they kept it like an ice box in there!) It was quite comfortable and we enjoyed practicing our language skills with our co-travelers.

The bus left at 9 p.m. and we arrived in Mandalay at 5:30 a.m. the next morning. I would've slept really great on the ride if they hadn't stopped every two hours and made us all get off to take potty breaks. I guess it's better than the alternative though - needing to "go" but not having any stops - so I can't complain.

The sun was just coming up as we arrived at our hotel.

First item on the agenda was breakfast followed by a little sight-seeing. The city of Mandalay, found almost completely in the middle of the country, was only established a little more than 150 years ago. There are still some neat historical points of interest worth seeing, including places where Adoniram Judson spent a lot of his time.
Later in the day we spent some time poolside, chilling out before riding some trishaws into town for dinner.

The next two days were quite the same. Touring, sight-seeing and relaxing. Not to mention a lot of good Asian eating.

She still managed to locate some technology... :)

Our hotel's grounds were really pretty. It was clean and comfy.
You can't ask for more and be so inexpensive too!

Candles were lit for the Festival of Lights going on while we were there.

Boat tour up the Ayerwaddy River.

Many fishermen and their families live in huts right beside the water.

Mingun Paya - what would have been the largest pagoda in the country if it had been finished. Only what would have been the bottom 1/3 remains after the death of the king and a terrible earthquake prevented completion.

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see a sign like this.

We got a lot of exercise!

Taking a breather....

Going down wasn't any easier.

174 steps up and 174 steps down.

At a gold-leafing factory

Stone-carving

Tapestry weaving

Acting crazy

View from Mandalay Hill

Always laughing and enjoying being together

I think I could best describe our trip by saying it was full of laughter and fun. We enjoyed touring a new city and seeing places first-hand that we had only read about in books, but the best part of our short trip was the time we had together as a family.
Watching my girls walk arm-in-arm down the street or acting silly with their father, hearing giggles in the middle of the night and snuggling under the covers with my babies on a cold bus, are just a few of my favorite memories that I know I'll cherish for a lifetime.

Three days after leaving, we arrived back home rested and happy.

I found it poignant that we arrived at sunrise one morning and departed just after sunset a few days later. It's a great reminder that each day is a blessing - from beginning to end - we never know what a day might hold or where our journey might take us.

Drivers beware!

Moving from a city of 5,000 people to a city of five million people (and growing!) can cause all kinds of challenges.

We currently live in a huge apartment complex, probably one of the largest in this city. In our hometown, there are no apartment buildings.

Here there are markets and grocery stores on nearly every street block, but in our hometown there were only two places to buy food, Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie.

At home in Columbia, everyone had a car to drive, if not more than one car. Maybe a car and a truck, or a car and a motorcycle. Here, most people can’t afford cars at all; however, there are 6,300 buses operating in this city on a daily basis. In our hometown – yep, you guessed it… no buses. Not even ONE!

Before we moved from our hometown there was one taxi that had just started running. Not one taxi service. Just one taxi. Here there are a million, gazillion taxis. It does make it pretty easy to get one when you need it though.

Traffic in our Current City:

Traffic in our Hometown:

After being here for nearly a year, I think we’ve adjusted pretty well to the challenge and changes of life in a big city.

Still there was one thing that I have not quite become accustomed to and that’s driving a car in this city.

If you’ve ever gotten one of our newsletters, you’ve likely heard me mention some aspect of frustration or confusion over the way people maneuver on the streets in this city. It just doesn’t make sense.

You don’t have to stay in any one particular lane when driving, that’s even if there are white lines painted on the road. Some roads have no markings at all.

You drive through a red light, but you stop at a yellow light. And lots of time, if the electricity’s not working, there are no lights at all. And we have not seen a single stop sign anywhere in this city.

People will cut in front of you while driving down the road, but they call it “being smart” and if necessary, they’ll just drive into oncoming traffic on the other side of the road to get around you.

They also park their cars in the road if they need to. Doesn’t matter if it’s a busy street and they cause lots of traffic jams. They just stop right there. And if their car breaks down in the middle of the road, they fix it right where it dies in the middle of the road. They don’t move it off to the side.

They honk all the time and the bus drivers are crrrraaaaazzzzzyyyyyyyy.

Oh and that’s just for starters…

Still we are very thankful to have a car when there are so many who do not, and we happen to have a little soft spot in our hearts for our little brown 4-door. It does have air conditioning (on most days) and it even has a radio that works despite being nearly 20 years old.

The weird thing about this car is that you drive in it on the right hand side of the car. Well, that would probably be normal for most Southeast Asian countries, except in our country we also drive on the right hand side of the road!

CJ is, of course, the master at driving and was doing just fine within our first week here, but I had yet to tackle even the idea of getting behind the wheel until today.

We were just chatting with some friends recently about the fact that we had been on the field for a year, and I began to wonder about where the time has gone. When we first arrived here there were so many goals and aspirations we had set for ourselves. Many of which we felt like we would get to eventually. Driving, for me, was one of those.

That’s why today, when we were about to leave for just a short trip, most of which would be on back roads on a usually non-busy Sunday, I told CJ I’d like to take a turn at the wheel.

He had to get us out of the parking garage and down to the main street (it’s very tight and tricky getting out of our building) but from there I was able to do just fine. It was a little weird trying to manipulate the stick shift with my left hand, and despite lots of effort, I never could get the mirrors to feel like they were in the right place. But I did it!

There were no accidents, no trouble, we made it there safe and sound.

I guess I should’ve stopped while I was ahead.

I did so good getting us to where we were going, I thought I’d try to drive home too a little later on that day.

Once we got out on the road we kept smelling smoke and the air conditioner wouldn’t work. When we stopped at a light, I asked CJ, “is that us making that smoke and smell?”

“Just keep going! Don’t stop!” he said.

He wanted to get home or as close to home as we could get if the “Brown Bug” was going to break down.

I know I was driving slow and people kept honking at me! Sheesh, it was scary.

In the end, we did make it home. We stopped a little before the apartment complex to switch drivers again so that CJ could get us into our small parking spot.

When he took the keys out of the ignition, he started laughing.

“I’ve discovered the problem,” he said.

“What? What was it? Was it because of something I did or the way I was driving?” I asked.

“You used the wrong key in the ignition,” he giggled as he explained. “The key you used is the one for the trunk.”

Oh well, at least I attempted it. And we survived.

I know I’m nowhere near ready to go out on my own and probably not ready to drive on the main thoroughfare yet, but it’s a start, right?

Sweetness!

Today was just one of those days that you have to blog about...

The morning started off sweet. Literally. We had no where to be early today so we slept in a little and then I made some chocolate, chocolate chip muffins. Zoë said it was like having brownies for breakfast. (It's at this time that I'd like to say thank you again for the good friends in the States who mailed us packages of muffin mix for mornings like these.)
I leisurely sipped some coffee while watching the news. (The only English channel we have is CNN-Asia, so thanks to our cable company for providing us info from around the world in a language we can understand.)
A little while later our family did our own version of "house church."

Miá was the music minister today. She was responsible for picking out songs on iTunes on my computer for us to sing with. Zoë was minister of education. She gave our announcements and shared a special verse or two at the beginning for memorization. CJ was the pastor, providing our message and discussion. I didn't do anything in the service - I guess that makes me the youth pastor. (Ark, Ark, Ark) :)
It was another "sweet" time of family devotion. We actually had a very deep theological lesson with the girls, and I never cease to be amazed at the questions they come up with when studying passages in the Good Book.

We have been without water for three days now, so after our worship time, we decided to head over to the American Embassy Recreational Association, or what we affectionately call the American's Club, to eat lunch and take showers. I ate a hamburger with french fries. Yes, let me repeat, I ate Western food (well, as close as they can get to making Western food here) and it left a huge smile on my face.

And, I have to gush a little about the weather today. It was absolutely glorious! It was sunny, but not hot. There was a gentle breeze. Balmy and beautiful and perfect for swimming which is just what the girls did for awhile.

It was the first time they got to use the new swimsuits their grandparents sent them this summer. (We've been in monsoon season and it's been raining all day everyday for several months. Maybe that's why the beautiful weather today seemed even more amazing.)

After we were all showered and sparkly, we headed over to the place where CJ teaches a Good Book story to a group of young adults every week. They were happy to see us just as we were happy to be with them. CJ broke down the story of the Son and his discussion with Nicodemus as found in John, chapter 3, ultimately explaining how to be born again. CJ has such a talent for teaching, and you could tell the "learners" were into it by the way they were all sitting on the edge of their seats soaking in every word that he had to say. I was reminded just how much we take these stories and the saving knowledge which has been taught to us so freely for granted.

After leaving that place, on our way home we drove past a really neat park on a nearby lake that was beckoning us to come see. It was such a beautiful day, as I've mentioned previously, and there were hoards of people out enjoying the splendor of it all.

Of course we made quite the commotion, drawing the attention of all the locals. Everyone was pointing and staring at the foreigners in their midst, but we didn't mind. We practiced our minimal language skills with those that appeared interested, and we enjoyed the landscape surrounding us. Zoë said she felt like she was walking down a red carpet with the way people kept taking her picture. I'm sure somewhere on YouTube tonight is a video of our family walking along the lakeside.

As the sun began it's lazy descent, we got in the car towards home stopping along the way to pick up some dinner at one of our favorite road-side food stands. (I know we ate out twice today, but did I mention that we've had no water for washing dishes?!?)
The only dim spot to the whole day occurred when I was getting back in the car after getting our food.... my favorite pair of flip-flops broke. I guess I shouldn't complain. I bought them at Walmart back in 2002 for probably around $3. Still, flip flops are very important here! :)

We ended the day just as it began, our family sitting around the table eating together and praising Father.
From beginning to end, it was truly a sweet day and one we won't quickly forget.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13

Language lapse

We have some of the best language teachers in the world - I firmly believe that.
But let me tell you, this language is HARD!

(This is the script of the language we're learning. Don't ask me what it says.)

Some days at the end of class, I just want to sit in the floor and cry. Not because I'm sad or upset but just because my brain is working so hard the liquid from inside explodes through my eyes.
Ok, maybe not. Maybe it's really just tears because I'm frustrated at my inability to comprehend simple sentence structure.
For example, in English you might say, "The book I am reading is good." Sounds easy, right?
In this language you have to say, "I - read + present continuous marker + that book - good - is."
Then once you rearrange the structure, you have to translate the words from English to this language. (Oh and you have to get all the tones right or you might say something completely different thus resulting in bizarre looks on your conversant's face.)
There are so many synaptic nerves trying to connect in my head at one time that it is physically exhausting.
The good news is I no longer am having to translate in my mind many of the words in this language, so that's one less part of the equation in the process. And it is getting easier. As long as the person I'm speaking with speaks super slow and doesn't mind repeating their sentences two or three times and maybe uses a few charades motions, I can sometimes understand them.
And when that DOES happen, it feels like pure joy!
The days when I understand and I'm able to speak, I feel like I could run a marathon.
I live for those days.

This week has been really tough. I've been learning new word structures like how to make a verb into a noun. For instance, I like "cooking." In this language you would say, "Ja ma chet ya dah jite day." Are you impressed? If you knew how long it took me to understand that, you would! :)

Anyways, when days are hard, I try to remind myself that English is even harder.
Another thing I like to do is look at a picture of my language teachers being silly. (I got them to pose for the picture one day when they felt really sorry for me and were trying to make me feel better.)
If you knew these teachers, you would know how unlikely their posing here is.
It just makes me crack up. So when I'm staring at them intently trying to understand what they're saying, in my head I think of this picture and it makes me laugh. Well, maybe not laugh, but it keeps me from crying.

(These are two of our language teachers being silly for our enjoyment.)

Would you please continue to petition Father for divine understanding of this language so that we can share the Good News with the people we are living amongst? Also yarp for patience and the ability to laugh at ourselves when we mess up. Lastly, thank Him for such wonderful teachers and ask that He bless them for their willingness to work with us.

Slowly but surely we'll get there with His help and your support.
Jay zu tin ba day!
(That means thank you.) :)

Peanut Butter Mug Cake

I happen to be a peanut butter fanatic. I love peanut butter! It's the mixture of salty and sweet all at the same time. It's the best of both worlds!
Even more, I love peanut butter with chocolate! But I digress....

Anytime I happen across a recipe with peanut butter in it, I have to try it. That's why when I recently saw a recipe for a peanut butter mug cake, I jotted it down to save for a rainy day. (I've got a whole collection of peanut butter recipes if you can believe that.)
Last night we had finished up dinner early and the dishes were all washed and put away. The girls' backpacks were ready for the next day, as well as clean uniforms set out ready to be put on first thing in the morning. In other words, everything was done.
Since I had some extra time, I thought I would use the opportunity to study for my language class. But my heart just wasn't in it...
"If I just had a small dessert to give me some energy, maybe I could get into it," I thought to myself.
I didn't want to make brownies. I'd end up eating the whole plate full. (It's that time of the month when you are really craving foods that are bad for you, ya know?)
That's when I remembered the recipe for the mug cake. (It's called that cause you make it in a coffee mug.) It was exactly what I needed... a single serving of the comfort food that I love the most.
I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but let me tell you, you have GOT to try it!
It was the quickest, easiest, yummiest dessert I have ever eaten. (Please remember it's been awhile since I've had Western food and anything remotely non-Asian is the best food in the world these days.)

The recipe was so simple:

4 tablespoons all purpose flour
4 tablespoons white granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

You mix it all in an oversized coffee mug and cook it in the microwave for two minutes.
Finito!

Of course, all microwave ovens cook differently, so I'd start with a minute and a half and then add a few minutes til done. You don't want to overcook it because it could become rubbery. (Which would still probably seem delicious to me these days.) But you want it like perfection, right?

I should've snapped a photo of my own creation, but it was gone before I had a chance. (I did share a few bites with the rest of my family.) :)
Here's a photo I grabbed from Pinterest where I originally found the recipe:

I think next time I may add a few chocolate chips to the mixture... hmmm.....
Ok, I'm going back to the kitchen!

School Daze

Going to a new school can be a little intimidating no matter what country you live in, but going to a new school in a new country with a different culture, a different language and different ways of doing things can be really challenging.
Zoë and Miá are beginning a new school term this week at an international school in the city where we live. I've been so proud of them for their positive attitudes throughout continual adjustments to Southeast Asia, but my pride has surged to new levels in these days as I've watched them prepare for this new school attendance. They both have gone above and beyond by being flexible and maintaining their outgoing demeanor and confident spirit.
We have been continually impressed with this school - their facilities, their staff and their programs. When we first visited several months ago we were awed by the elementary and middle school principals. Both had great rapport with the students and they seemed to have a genuine care for the children's education and well-being. Both principals also took time to talk with our girls and really listen to their thoughts, concerns and questions. With over 1200 students attending the school, they've surely got their hands full, but you would never know it.

I.S.M. is a very big school with separate elementary, middle school and high school buildings all located within a couple blocks of each other. Miá's building is a tall contemporary structure. It's a brand new building with construction just recently being completed and it even has an elevator!
Zoë's building has been recently updated. It has a nice library, a large computer lab and warm, comfortable classrooms.
The school is made up of about half local students and half foreign students, although Zoë and Miá are among only a handful of white faces. The girls have made friends with kids from places like China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The teachers at the school, however, are mostly native English speakers and the classes are all taught in English. Miá's teacher is a sweet lady from California and Zoë has a band teacher that received her Masters degree from the University of Southern Mississippi - go figure!

Both girls are excited to participate on the school's sports teams. The school mascot is a dragon - makes sense for an Asian country, right? They also plan to be involved in clubs and other extra-curricular activities.

Overall, they are super excited about school, but still desire your yarps for friendship building, culture understanding and plain 'ole good grades. :)

The day before school we got to go down and find their classes,
get their schedule, meet the teachers, buy their uniforms, etc.

All dressed up and ready to go.

This is Miá's building, seen through the rain on our car window.

Another view of Miá's building from the road.

This is Miá's classroom.

Checking out her schedule.

Miá's building is 5 stories, but she's only on the third floor.

Miá's outdoor dining area. There's no cafeteria or microwave.
The kids either bring their lunch or buy from street vendors nearby.

The playground has grass!
(You don't know how little grass we see around here.)

This is one of Zoë's classrooms. 

Her locker - what a great number: 111

The gym - it's an open air building, although the dining
hall (behind the goal) is an air-conditioned room.

First day of third grade!
(She had to wear a separate P.E. uniform today.)

7th grade - here we come!

Pretty girls -  inside and out.

In the car, on the way there...

This is the middle school building.

Zoë was a little nervous walking into the building,
but she's still wearing her smile! :)

This is now after school, leaving the building. She still has
a smile on her face. She said her day was "AWESOME!"

Picking up Miá. She also said she can't wait to go back tomorrow!

Now it's time to go home and do homework!