I am sitting here in my newly roofed living room, listening to Gayle practice her violin in one corner, while Bradley strums his guitar in the other corner. We all just finished our eventful bath times, and are all ready for Sabbath to begin. The breeze is blowing and everything is peaceful and happy. (a cooler breeze always makes us happy!) I love having company, and with Gayle and the boys, and Woot, we have a comfortable house full.
Woot made us a special dessert soup today that was really exceptionally good. It has sticky rice balls in it that are totally different than anything you could expect to experience in the States, but it was all mixed up with a sweet coconut milk concoction. It seemed to sooth my unhappy stomach and I feel a lot better tonight.
In the mornings we all work. You see, it has gotten pretty hot during the day, but so far, if you stay mostly in the shade, you can work at least until noon. We get up pretty early so that we can enjoy the cool time of day for as long as possible. After worship time, each person goes about their selected duties. Today the caretaker and several of the boys worked on putting the end wall on my house, while Jason and Micah worked on building another railing on one side of the kitchen. They are planning to make a bench there also. Woot did the cooking, and Gayle and I tried to make sense out of the house again. Replacing a roof is a messy business here! The caretakers wife worked on cleaning up the outside of the house, stacking all the old roofing in nice piles. I am not sure what she is planning to do with them, but she has been carrying the stacks away all day long. We still have the interior walls to replace, but at least now that it is cleaned up, it is pretty nice again.
In the afternoon when it is too hot to do anything else, we all park ourselves on the floor of the living room with a pitcher of water beside us and learn our respective languages. Woot is working on English along with the caretaker. The caretaker is teaching us Karen, and I am learning Thai from a computer program! It sounds like a tossed salad of languages, and by the time we are done, we are all a little glassy eyed, and worn out. Then comes lunch, and we then race to the bedroom to grab our bath things and laundry! Our favorite time of the day for sure, even when there is an audience! We have started going to the well for baths since it is cleaner, and it almost has a little privacy….almost. I have been teaching Gayle how to bathe in front of a crowd. She is doing really well, but maybe not quite ready to bring in the cameras for my bathing demonstration video idea. (so far I can’t get any cooperation for that idea) Anyway, it is really cold water in the well, and after the first gasps we love the cool feeling that comes over us. We like to stay at the well as long as possible! So, I am always trying to grab someone’s laundry to add to my little pile so that I have an excuse to stay there longer. There is just nothing like being all wet and cool on a HOT day.
After that, we have another worship at our house. Quite often, we have non Christian visitors. They mostly come out of curiosity or because they like the music. We always sing and play our instruments. We conduct worship in at least 3 languages. Each person takes a turn reading the verse in their own language, and we all sing in whatever language that we feel like. A lot of the songs that we like to sing are the same tune in any language. It gives you sort of an international feeling. If only nations could get along so well!
After worship is time to relax and just talk. We do not have real electricity, so after 6:30, we light candles to see by. It is a nice cozy feeling with the candle light and the sound of the waterfall right behind the house in the background. Anyone getting jealous yet? Well, it is pretty nice!