Josiah's Dad, Mr. Mike, Comes to Town (part 1)

Feb 24-Feb 28

Mr. Mike came to get Josiah and take him back to the USA. 

We were very excited to introduce him to our town and life here. 

It was great to catch up with things going on Stateside and reminisce about Westside happenings from fifteen years ago. 

Mike was instantly endeared to our kids by the great gifts he brought from his wife!

There is nothing like American candy and crafts to win a Coker heart. 

Sidewalk chalk fun....

we showed him around our 'hood...

And took him to one of our favorite restaurants to give him some local flavor.

Still working on the crafts they had just received...

breakfast at the market...fried bread dipped in sugar.

And the hunt for good espresso. Mike roasts his own beans and thought surely this town had something decent. He showed these folks how he liked it. We stopped by here daily before the day's afternoon outing. (since David and I started drinking black coffee many years ago, we too, have become a bit pickier about the flavor, roast, etc. this was a whole new level of that, and I was certainly spoiled by these few days of great espresso)

Though he was only here a few days, we packed a lot in.
Back to the village we went...

Grilling fish.

Josiah cooking, or pretending to be.

This guy said he knew David....("the white guy that speaks my language"). There are actually two of them, but it didn't matter.

The girls took over watching the fish.

More of this....loved this. We talked parenting, theology, life, work, and on and on.

They thought they could make this their loft

new friends...

the men came home a little later so they ate later...

while the girls helped with the dishes.

We stayed at this village home for many hours and had a blast. We love these folks they always welcome us (and our friends) like family. We were so excited to share these experiences with Mike and Josiah.

Chinese New Year, Pseudo-Routine and 'Other' Days

Mid-February.

Chinese New Year

We were ecstatic to be sharing the crazee of Chinese New Year with someone new, and someone who would completely appreciate the blasts of fireworks and boom of the night. 

We ate dinner and built a fire outside in order to make 'smoreos'--roasted marshmallows put in the Oreo. Yum. 

We also made a movie night out of it, introducing our kids to The Sandlot, per Josiah's request. They all loved it (though we had to explain baseball, again, and who Babe Ruth was). We also decided we would camp out in our tent, since we never sleep much on this night anyway. Josiah opted to try his hammock for the night, it is pretty comfy!

For the first time ever we let the older 3 kids (4, including Josiah) stay up until midnight. But the parents didn't last. David, Gabrielle, and I climbed in the tent just before 10 maybe. The others played Apples to Apples among other games until the extravaganza. We did doze off until just before midnight. Gabrielle was sound asleep and did not budge during the ground shaking, earth splattering roar of fireworks exploding all around us....If only....

These New Year's Eve fireworks last a good while, with every home setting off their own variety. The booms usually die down a bit by 1:30 a.m. and there is a few hour lull, with sporadic loud displays. Then again by 5 or 6 in the morning the chorus of explosions start again, and the sulfur smell hangs hard in the air. The kids all got in the tent by 1 a.m. and slept fine until morning. Not me...I dozed and tossed. Finally at 6 a.m. we went to our own bed and slept well until mid-morning! Josiah had already gone inside because he had gotten too cold! OOPS, yes, I should have known it may get too chilly. The tent was toasty even with the windows vented. 

New Year's Day was a blur for me, I think we ate scones for breakfast. And we did bike to KFC and eat lunch, or maybe it was dinner. Almost every place shuts down for awhile during the holiday. Not KFC, and it was jam packed!!! There were a few shops open, we did some leisurely shopping, and biked home, the streets were barely busy making it perfect for kids on bikes!

And there we commenced the Year of the Dog here in China, so thankful Josiah came so far to celebrate with us ;).

The 'Other' Days

With Josiah here over the holiday we were not in our normal routine. But we did get into one for a little bit so that we could all do some school work even while the country celebrated. 

Josiah would go with David to his office to work on his own school work and work out. We stayed home and filled the morning with Home school. 

They came home for lunch and we had most schooling done by then except read aloud time and CC review (which we barely did). Nerf gun wars sometimes ensued and then various play outside or in. In the evenings we would go out or play family games, we introduced him to Five Crowns and Blokus. 

A few times in the afternoons or evenings Josiah would go to a nearby school and play some pick-up basketball with whoever was there. It was during one of these times in the evening that he nearly got his head blown off by a wayward firework (that someone else had lit). He came back shaken up saying it rang in his ears and really scared him, it was so close. It was the huge kind that are supposed to shoot high in the air and then light up but in this basketball courtyard it went sideways instead. We were SO thankful he was okay!

Tobin received his accolade for completing Tae kwon do, and Josiah even got to go with him to an exhibition event showcasing all levels. Tobin loved that Josiah was here for this.

While the guys were at that event the girls acted like they were living in 'olden times' cooking over the fire. They actually made a pretty decent rice dish.

On a different afternoon Josiah helped with a science experiment, donning protective goggles and all.

We rearranged one home school day to take Josiah to market day, which happens every 5 days. This is where people from all surrounding villages, etc. come to town to sell their wares and shop. It is not touristy at all, this market holds what is needed for life here.

And the big wet market always has some interesting characters.
This day's was this little alligator...There was another one already chopped up.
It was selling for about $12.60 a pound.

Josiah's hammock always had a few kids in it! And one Grandma tried putting her toddler in it too.

We loved going to all our favorite eats, though he may have gotten tired of noodles. This day was Vietnamese noodles with spring rolls.

diva dolls, shades, scarves, and lollipops!

Some days, during their short breaks the kids would come up with shows to put on during lunch. This happened at least three times and usually involved dancing and ninja chops, choreographed and produced by Sophia (with the portable mic on).

Towards the end of his visit, the neighborhood filled the pool up with water. It was cold and semi-clean, but I agreed they could go for a swim...(Josiah thought it not close to semi-clean, but he was a sport for a little while)

It didn't last too long, soon they were warming up in the sun! 

These days with Big Bro Jo did not disappoint, and more adventures were had when his dad joined us for the last five days of his visit.

Border Town Fun

None of these pics are that great...but bear with....

We packed up the car with lunches and headed to the waterfalls near the border of Myanmar. 

We bring everyone here. It is a nice hike. We had never been when it was so crowded. When we left, Josiah had to get out and help direct traffic (tell people where to go with the common language of hand gestures). All the stories you may or may not hear about regarding 24 hours stuck in traffic in this country is no exaggeration!

We ran into this cute guy riding in style. 

 Once at the falls we ate our PB & J, though the kids opted for noodles too.

Last time we did this I used an ergo for Gabrielle on the way back.
This time she walked the whole way except for just a short section where Josiah put her on his shoulders. She never complained!

While we were so close, and playing the tourist, we decided to visit "One Village, Two Countries" where you can step foot into Burma (Myanmar).

Over the fence...


And everyone (except G) did the zipline across the river.
Once we watched a few folks do this we thought it okay. Until we realized that you build a lot of momentum on the way back and the two workers were stopping everyone before they hit the pads surrounding the tree base. We warned Josiah to brace himself because we weren't sure the guys could catch him. They barely did.

 The real story of the day is that we asked the Burmese guard if we could go in a little further and snap some photos. He was so kind, and asked Josiah where he was from. When Josiah told him, he replied "Your country is famous," shook hands eagerly and welcomed us into his. Think Barney Fife-ish, but not even a gun. Contrast him with the man and woman soldier that hurried toward us from the Chinese line. With their big weapons, bullet -proof vests and sharp uniforms they asked us what we were doing!? The woman started to listen but the man would have none of it, 'you cannot go any farther'. We smiled and of course obeyed the folks with the guns!

This was actually no big deal, but we came up with all kinds of embellishments to add to Josiah's retelling if sensing the need to add to the adventure.

And we couldn't leave without PaoluDa, a Burmese sweet drink that we LOVE.

These two were fast friends! (both the babies of their families, they clicked well)

We met up with some friends that live in this town and then headed home, with kids in their own beds by 10 p.m. It was a long, but incredible day.

Days in the village

We couldn't help it, we had to start right away with the fireworks! We asked his parents before he came if it was okay that Josiah handled some dynamite. Only a slight exaggeration, the loudest ones are almost like half sticks of the stuff. 

But we started with the pretty ones and eased our way into the building shaking variety. 

Thankfully, our neighborhood office posted signs to not set off fireworks in the stairwells. We have experienced this before and it is awful loudness and shaking for many full minutes. Some people did opt for the parking garage, which echoed just as loud.


Off to a village on day 2.
Impressed by his size and at only 16!

This was a 'new house' opening, where you invite the village to a meal, here are the god shelves to Buddha

We decided to eat at the home, while most people ate at the temple. This lessened the spectacle of our family and gave us more intentional conversation.

I love this lady. She comes off as a little abrasive, and we have mis-communicated a lot in our ten year friendship, she speaks minority language to me and I speak Mandarin back, and it doesn't work very well. But my minority language has improved a tad and so we try, until I have to call on David for back up.

She just got done telling us (making fun) that a dish on the table tasted like banana bread (what I always give them to eat when they come to our house).

Josiah is teaching Tobin something...

And this sweet lady laughed at having her picture taken

In another village we explored the fields. This is where David's old language teacher lives, David spent quite a bit of time in this village moons ago.

Josiah helped order the food at the restaurant, and while we waited he taught our kids 'spoons' or in this context 'beans'. You can see I was victorious in the end (don't worry I didn't gloat or anything ;).

Josiah decided to order cow brain...we thought it was pig brain, but no, theirs are too small.

Everyone braved the chewy 'meat', except me...I've eaten a lot of crazy things and I am sure I have had brain before, it just wasn't in me that day.

That afternoon David's teacher took them all fishing while I stayed home and did lesson plans.
Lots going on and more to come!

Big Bro Jo Comes to Town

I hope in the next few posts to detail our month of February, which could have been our craziest on record (I have certainly said that before). 

It was highlighted by 16 year-old Josiah coming to visit for three weeks. We took him on some adventures, wowed him with Chinese fireworks, and he meshed with our kids in all kinds of mischief, leadership, and fun. 

David went to the capital to greet him and bring him to our town. 

He was arriving with some other friends from Btown, USA. We love these people! They were going to another city to bless and help some friends of ours. 

David gave up his home office and all the kids helped me get it ready while we waited for the day their 'big brother' would come. They made greeting signs...of course....

On day one, we showed him the neighborhood.

Introduced him to some favorite friends...

And took him to some local eats (a lot).

He came right smack dab in the middle of the kids Chinese School break (perfect). Everything was gearing up for Chinese New Year, a holiday I think every person should experience once in their life.

More February Days coming up...