The last of our village visit and our next adventure

The pictures can speak for themselves

When it was time to go we prayed a blessing over the family and thanked them for their incredible hospitality. Our next family adventure will be stateside. 4 states in 10 weeks. If you are in Fl, GA/TN, IL, or MN then send us an email we would love to get together with you while we are back. Meanwhile pray for our travels. We leave Monday the 30th and arrive at noon on the 31st in St Louis. 

community sleeping

When we arrived at our friends house, we walked in and saw 5 beds in a row. Each bed had a mosquito net and a curtain. They gave us a bed and the 4 of us slept together. This is the norm in the village. It was a fun experience and Preston kept reffering to our time there as camping. He would say, "Im so glad we get to go camping." Below the bamboo floor was a chicken coup. So, bright and early...actually all night we could hear the roosters and chickens. Needless to say don't go to the village if you are wanting good sleep. :)

 Isabella learned to sleep where ever we put her.

 The lady above loved holding Bella...she lost her husband 10 months ago in a motor bike wreck and you could see the sadness still in her eyes. I loved watching Bella bring her joy. I have prayed for this lady every day since we have left the village.

 After one of our big lunches, 2 of the grandmothers took one bed to nap in and in the distance you can see Bella napping in the other bed.

 When the trip was all over we were taken via motor bikes to the highway where we caught our sleeping bus. It was 10pm and our kids were exhausted. SO WERE WE!

village entertainment

There were so many things to do while in the village. Of course there were the thousands of pictures that we took. This was Preston's least favorite part of the trip. We kept telling him if he would just jump in the picture and smile people would leave him alone and let him get back to the things he wanted to do. Sometimes it was a success and sometimes a total melt down. 

 Some of the highlights for Preston was getting to go fishing in a local pond and...

Exploring the miles of rice fields. He loved to see which paths he could get on and at one point he spotted a cow at the end of the fields in the distance. He made it his goal to get to it. 

 More pictures along the way OF COURSE!

 But at last we reached the cow and that made for a VERY HAPPY BOY. especially when he got to feed that cow.

Our Black Tai friends toured us around the whole village and everywhere we went we drew a crowd. Especially other kids who were interested in my kids and adults interested in why the white people not only could speak Vietnamese (not SO uncommon) but could also speak Black Tai. Tim's teachers were very proud of how well Tim could speak and everywhere we went people would comment about what a good teacher Tim has since he speaks Black Tai so well. 

and BOY DID WE EAT!

Although the food was prepared over a fire in the "kitchen" it was put on little floor tables and we all sat around them to eat main meals. i.e. breakfast lunch and dinner.

When it wasn't a main meal we were usually huddled around another floor table in the kitchen eating fruit of some sort like the picture below. 

 Below is a pan of silk worms specifically grown to eat. They stir fried them and served them with sticky rice.  The taste wasn't bad, but for me it was my  mind that couldn't get past eating a worm especially when it squished in your mouth. Preston however ate a couple of them wrapped in sticky rice.

 On Thursday we visited another house and they slaughtered a goat. Literally every part of the goat that could be eaten WAS used. I mean every part consumed including the blood of the goat. The men butcher the goat and cut it into the appropriate pieces then they hand over the bowls of meat to the women to prepare the food.

 The picture below is of some of the plates that were created. In the center was the bowls of goats blood with either slices of liver, or goat meat on top Im not sure because it was the only dish I did NOT partake of.

 Above is right before we all began to eat. A toast was made and we all dug in.

 Between meals more fruit was consumed. Above is Preston and his friend enjoying dragon fruit. One of Preston's favorite fruits. Below is the mother of our guy friend preparing the sticky rice for dinner.

Like I said in post part 1, in Black Tai culture friendship is cultivated over food and drink...BOY DID WE EAT! By Thursday night I was so full and people were still trying to feed us. :)

our amazing family adventure part 1

Our adventure began on Tuesday morning. We had tickets on an 8 hour bus ride to the country side. We were invited by our Black Tai friend to stay with her family for a couple of days. The bus was a sleeping bus. Two reclining beds on either side of the aisle. We left at 9am and arrived at 5pm. We were tired, but excited to see and stay with our friends in their home. 

 About 3 hours into the trip they stopped for lunch. You are not allowed to wear your shoes on the bus, so when they stopped they took out a basket of plastic slippers to put on. It helped to speed up the process of getting on and off the bus.

 Lunch was cafeteria style food which we all enjoyed, well...not really but it filled our bellies :)

 2 hours from our destination a lot of people got off the bus and we were able to stretch out a little bit. We were anxious to get to our destination and the kids were getting a little bit restless although they traveled GREAT!

 The views from the bus on our way out of the city were breath taking, but it is so hard for me to capture their beauty from a window in the rain. Even the color is more dull in the picture. Everything was a luscious green. So if you really want to see the beauty of Gods creation in SE Asia then come and see for yourself.

 Upon arriving Hoa's (our friend) mom greeted us and the good times began.

 The baby below was just 2 months younger than Bella. They had fun crawling around together.

 Also upon our arrival the FEASTING began! We ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. apparently in Black Tai culture friendship is cultivated over food and drink. Below was our first of many meals. They filled fish with spices and put them between bamboo skewers and we roasted them. YUMMY! This was Preston's favorite.

 Hoa's older brother loved holding and playing with Bella. For the most part she did GREAT. As long as I wasn't in the room she would go to anyone. As time went on people realized if they wanted to hold and play with Bella they had to walk away from me otherwise she just wanted 'ma ma ma ma' I learned so much about the culture and how a whole village raises the kids. I felt loved in every way and felt like my kids met new family members.

 A must for ALL Black Tai meals is sticky rice. This also happens to be Preston's favorite type of rice. YUMMY!

 Below is the kitchen. The cats roamed around and Preston loved to chase them and watch the action in the kitchen.

 On our second day we did some site seeing. Below is a picture of Tim's 2 Black Tai teachers. They have become very close to us and after meeting their family they have become even closer.

 I must say though that I have never seen so many car sick people. I thought I got car sick easily, but not like these people. At one point on our drive I think we had 4 people puking in bags and tossing them out the window. Even though they live in the mountains, they don't usually travel far from home. When they do they go by foot or motor bike making them very nauseous when travelling through mountains via car.

After seeing some sites we stopped for snacks. Bella's baby friend from a previous picture joined us on the road trip, but baby's here don't usually wear diapers. That is usually not a problem, but on a road trip it made it much more difficult. On our stop for drinks I went to change Bella's diaper, and our friends asked if we had an extra for the other baby. Of course we gave her a diaper, but then I realized they had no idea how to put one on. So I took the baby and put on her very first diaper at 7 months old. SO PRECIOUS!

There are SO MANY more stories and I will keep blogging about them as I have time. For now this was just a teaser of our week. Thank you for the many prayers that went our way. We had a great time, but we're exhausted when we got home. We have 9 days until we leave for the USA so we have LOTS to do.

random June

 This is Isabella saying goodbye to Bac Ngyuet. She is the lady who watches Isabella while I am in Vietnamese study in the morning. It is always fun to watch Bella's face when she walks in the room. She loves her so much and it makes it easier to study knowing she is WELL taken care of. This picture was taken on our way to the airport to head to Chiang Mai on June 1st.

 Below is how I entertained Bella on our 3 hour layover in Bangkok before we got on our flight to Chiang Mai last month. She enjoyed the ride and Preston enjoyed walking her around as well.

Me and the kids playing in our hotel that we stayed at for our conference. We had  a great time. Even though  it was mostly work for Tim we did steal away a few family moments.

During our 2 weeks in Chiang Mai Isabella was going through some major separation anxiety. She would rarely let me put her down. Below was one of the rare moments I wasn't holding on to her. She is next to Eden who is 8 months older than Bella. The youngest of our dear friends in Chiang Mai

 While staying with them, Preston also got to show them his blue goo that grammie brought and they had fun playing in the pool for a LONG time.

We are so thankful for our friends who graciously open there house whenever we are in town. :)