Over the National Holiday we visited two family's homes in two different villages. Though it is a lot of work, and hard with a crawler, we always have a great time.
The highlight at our first visit was the 'arrow helicopters' and playing house in the sand pit.
Our friend's built a nice house in their village, which is becoming more common here in the valley. We always joke with them about our family moving in.
The kids got these helicopters going very high, as high as this bamboo:
Gabrielle did well, drank her bottle and remained mostly content, even though she missed her morning nap.
All three kids said they liked playing with the helicopters (rubber-band propelled), going 'up stairs' to the roof, and making food in the sand.
David visited and caught up with his old language teacher.
I helped very little in the kitchen, everything was mostly prepared, but I can use a mortar and pestle, so I 'chopped' the peanuts for our hosts. These went atop one of my favorite dishes that I can't really describe because I don't know the English name for the vegetable. It is topped with cilantro and hot pepper flakes and in this case peanuts (though not always).
Their new house and new kitchen hardly look like we are in a village.
AiMuan stuffed the fish. It was yum.
The rooftop view. I quoted Ps 121 to each of the kids every time I went up there to retrieve an 'arrow helicopter'.
Workers were in the fields, but we saw many coming in for lunch, bringing their water buffaloes with them.
And another new house going up.
We had a great time. At the other village we visited we were welcoming a newborn baby, so cute. The kids had fun there chasing ducklings, catching them, watching the hosts prepare the food, and playing house near the tractor. That family is a bit poorer than the other ones, but they have a refrigerator and served us ice, a first ever for a village visit! Little blessings, that and the cute, cute baby, of course.
