Happy 31st of August!!!

Here, that's like saying, 'Happy 4th of July!"
It's Independence Day...and not just ANY Independence Day...
today marked 50 Years of Independence!

So that meant a parade.
There's lots of fun colorful pictures, so just click to make the ones bigger that you want to see.

We woke up early to make it downtown for the BIG parade. (by "BIG" we don't mean Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade Big, we mean, um, well, less big than that, but better than say Wauchula's Annual Homecoming Parade...)

The super cool things (for us anyway) were all the foreign dignitaries that showed up and the aircraft. The foreign representatives cars were all parked along a main street...we tried to find flags of some of the countries we knew (Cara this is why I told you to look here)


If you look on the screen, you'll see a tall white guy... That's Prince Andrew of England! The Sultan of Brunei was also there (his entourage was proof that he is worthy of his, "More money than the Sultan of Brunei" saying...if you can come up with more pomp than that man, then you must have money...sorry no pictures..we were too mesmerized!). The Prime Ministers from Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as the President of the Philippines were all in attendance. There were other important people there, but some were more important than others.

We had planned on watching fireworks that night, but apparently the baby decided to have a growth spurt and (so I've been told) the ligaments in my hips hurt. But there's a huge fireworks display this weekend, so maybe we'll make it to that.
As always...stay tuned....

Riang? I don't think so...

Here's another post from our 2 week stay in a village about 3 hours from the city...

This is a "Riang" bug.



Riang means "happy" or "fun"
It's basically a cross between a Palmetto bug (in Florida...very noisy bugs in trees that make noise at dusk) and a cockroach. It flies around very crazy-like, like its having fun.

You must know that, thanks to a combination of the fact that roaches are gross and my mom is scared to death of them and instilled a healthy dose of fear in me for roaches, the "Riang" wasn't what I called fun.

Between our host holding it (and subsequently taking it outside and releasing it instead of killing it which was my recommendation) the Riang bug flew back inside and into my hair. Needless to say the family we were staying with got a good show of a white lady freaking out!

Then my wonderful husband lost his mind...

"To the bat cave!"

Mt. Smile is actually a mountain that has a very extensive cave system within it. Part of it is accessible without equipment (a nice boardwalk on the inside).The mountain is so cool as it literally just shoots up out of the ground...it's flat until you get to the entrance of the caves. Like any cave there are bats inside, but they were all asleep when we went in...ya just gotta be careful and not touch the rocks too much- there's only one place bat poo goes- down.

Here's us inside the caves (sorry, this was the best our camera could do)
It got pretty dark inside. Here's from the inside looking out:
It was a great place to look around and explore.Back down at the campgrounds (where we had been taken the day before in our banana suits) the festivities were still going on. Dressed in normal clothes hardly anyone noticed us - it was so fun! These ladies were playing "Tolak Tali" or "Rope Push." They also had "Tarik Tali," which is "Rope Pull," what we Americans know as "Tug O War," but this particular version you have to turn around the other way and 'push' the rope. Only the ladies did it this way. It was interesting - way more people fell down "pushing" the rope than "pulling" it. Lots of fun.
We hope you enjoyed this post... it's proof that we really do enjoy the culture when we're not thrust to the front in situations that get us stared at. It was a very pleasant experience exploring the caves and watching the field events from the sidelines in relative anonymity.

20 minutes and banana suits

So when we set out at 9am for the wedding with the ginormous pots, (read post before this one) we were only supposed to stay for 20 minutes.

Our host said, "Oh, I just need to go by and say hi and you guys can greet the family. They're preparing right now for the wedding so it's real casual. Then we'll go up to Mt. Smile. It'll only take about 20 minutes."

20 minutes?

Yeah right.
When white people show up things change. But we had no idea just how out of control it was gonna get.

Mt. Smile was having a huge carnival type thing and we were looking forward to it.

Keep up with the math...we got there at 9am...

At 11:10 or so we finally left the wedding site with 2 borrowed traditional outfits (Both yellow, mine looked a lot like the surface of the sun) and instructions that we were to go put them on, I was to put on make-up, a lady would then come and assist us with a few of the details of the outfits and we were to return to the wedding at 12 to be the Best Man and Maid of Honor for the bride and groom.

We already felt weird as people looked and talked about us like we were dolls to be dressed up, but then to find out we were taking the place of the best friends of the bride and groom and we didn't even know them made us feel horrible! But all the women in charge were insisting and they wouldn't take no for an answer.

So back at the house we put on the basics of the outfits.
Anthony's boxers showed through his pants, and the waist of the skirt I had to wear could have fit a 3 year old snuggly.

Then the lady showed up to help us.
And things got worse. (You must remember it's 1000 degrees outside)

She got out the head covering for me.
But it wasn't a regular one (like what she's wearing)
It was the kind a BRIDE wears...and ONLY a bride.

You can see the excitement all over my face.
Then luckily she brought out a waist covering for Anthony, so it hid his boxers. But men only wear the waist thing at their weddings and on the first day after Ramadan. They wear jeans and shirts to weddings. They also brought a traditional Muslim hat for Anthony to wear, except they couldn't find one to fit him so it sat funny on top of his head. He also didn't have any shoes to wear but flip-flops so several men asked him straight up with a disgusted tone in their voice, "Why are you wearing slippers?"
While we were getting dressed, the village leader came over.
Here was the short dialogue which insured we'd have one of the most awkward and frustrating afternoons since we got here (we're laughing about it now, but weren't then)

Village Leader- "Where are the white people? They need to come up to Mt. Smile and get interviewed right now."
Our Host- "Oh, they can't come right now. They're dressing up right now in traditional outfits and have to go to a wedding first."
Village Leader- "Oh really?! Then just bring them up to Mt. Smile wearing the outfits!"

Nice.

So off to the wedding we went.
EVERYONE was pointing to us in our banana outfits and saying, "Pegantin! HAHA!" (Which means "BRIDE!" or "GROOM"...it was so humiliating. We've been to several weddings and this was definitely out of the norm which is why we were so embarrassed)

Check out the hat and the "slippers"... (it would do no good to try and explain they are from JCrew)
And this us eating at the seats of honor.
By this point Anthony's back was completely soaked through with sweat.

Then it was off to Mt. Smile.
Here's some of the crowd at Mt. Smile.
There were a couple hundred people there.
And we experienced another dose of "PEGANTIN! LOOK! PEGANTIN!"
Since we're taller than 90% of the population here and were wearing the brightest outfits in the history of the world, everyone was staring at us.

The supposed interview that we were to have (because they wanted to interview white people who could speak Bahasa) was slow in coming. Then our Host finally found out after another hour or so that it was a newspaper interview and that the reporter wasn't even there yet.
So we left.

Safe to say it was the longest 20 minutes of our lives!

A Quick Game

These past two weeks have been quite eventful - we stayed with a family in a village far, far away from the big city. That always equals fun. So instead of making you sit through one very long post, we're gonna break this thing up into small, ADD sized pieces.

We were invited to a wedding this past weekend. Here's a picture from the pre-wedding set-up:


This is a pretty standard looking pot, right? Cooking up some pretty standard Asian food (chicken curry).


Guess how big it is.


A gallon maybe?


Oops, sorry, this is Asia. I mean 4 litres?


5 litres?


Big enough to fit an entire chicken in?


Take another look, this time with a full sized person next to it:


Yes, I promise that's an adult. I have no clue how many chickens are in that thing, but the chicken population of this village has definitely taken a hit.

Satu Tahun! Woo hoo!

It's been 1 year since we set foot here.

1 year.

Satu Tahun.

Wow.

365 days of summer.

365 days of looking at mostly Asian faces and realizing they're not all the same.

365 days of no central A/C 

365 days of not calling it "A/C" but "air con"

365 days of driving on the other side of the road.

360 or so days of realizing it's not the "Wrong" side of the road, just the "other."

1 year and 2 days since seeing America with our own eyes (it takes 2 days to get here)

1 year to get over what we thought we left behind and realize we just traded up.

I had an expatriate friend (expatriate is what you call people who don't live in their home country...we're expatriates!) recently write very eloquently about all she thought she was leaving behind when she moved to Southeast Asia.  She put it so well...so I'm gonna use her idea to talk about our 1st year living overseas.

When we left 1 year ago we had sold both our cars, our new gorgeous leather furniture which we thought we had done SO well by having when we got married, most of the barely used wedding gifts we had received just 2 years before, 95% of Sharon's shoe collection, most of our clothes, and a couple of job offers that would have afforded us a house and enough to pay off credit card debt without either of us having to work 2 jobs.

We said "C ya later" to our families, our friends, basically everyone in our life that speaks English clearly and effortlessly.  The people we love, who know us, know our family, know our hearts and what makes them 'tick.'  

We left behind Wal-mart, Target, malls with parking lots (as opposed to stuffy hot parking garages), shoe stores with shoes in our sizes, restaurants with menus we could read easily and know instantly what the menu was talking about when it said "Fried Chicken," "Hamburger," "Pancakes," "Blueberry pie," and "Dr.Pepper."

Some things we didn't realize we were leaving behind.

Like our sense of control of situations.  Boy, when you can't speak a language and don't understand "normal" routines, your sense of independence drops and frustration rises.  You do realize how AWESOME it is that when you order fried chicken at a restaurant in the US, you KNOW it's gonna come out as a whole leg, a whole breast or a whole thigh?!?  We had no idea we'd get here and be confused when (once we finally figured out how to say "Fried Chicken") they brought out the chicken and it was cut into unrecognizable, almost unedible pieces with parts like "neck" and "feet" that had never been included in a definition of "fried chicken" before.

But.

When there's a calling on your life to do something or to go somewhere, especially when you're a child of God, it's amazing the perspective that you can gain in a year.

We felt like, and still do, that we were SUPPOSED to be here.  We had to trust a still small (but persistent) voice that said this was the right thing to do.  He promised us that He would be faithful to us if we were faithful to Him.  All we had to do was sell all our possessions and follow him.

I've heard it said (Thanks HY for the reminder!) that "You can't out-give God."

If that isn't cliche, I don't know what is.

But this year he's proven it.

We gave up a lot.  

We gave up things a lot of people aren't willing to give up for that voice.

But that doesn't make us better.

I mean, it's made us better, but not 'better than so-and-so..."

Just better because we've been given back LOADS more than we ever gave up and we now realize how small a sacrifice leaving home really was.  It's made us better.

Our house is the equivalent to a town-house in the US.

We drive 1 car (not 2 like in the US) but it's way nicer than either of our cars were.

We have new friends here that we've worked hard at becoming friends with...so our thankfulness for DL, Laura, K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, Justin and Daniela has shown us really what a gift friends are.

Before we took friendships (with people like us) for granted.

So we're sorry to all our friends back in the US.

We're MUCH more grateful for you now.  Ya'll truly are a gift.

We've always said we wanted to be the kind of people that "travel."  The past year we've been to 4 countries that are not our own...places we NEVER could have afforded to go before. Wow.  And the country we live in is so beautiful.  We left Florida palm trees and tropical breezes, for Southeast Asian palm trees (and banana trees, mango trees, etc) and Asian breezes.

Pretty great, huh?

But we've been given even MORE!

We have a sense of peace that is overwhelming sometimes.

I can't explain it.

But it's a gift.  And it's given day after day...sometimes a few times a day if we need it.

We've gotten to spend like every day together for the last year.  Before we'd high-five a couple times a day and shove a bunch in on the weekends.  We know each other better now, our marriage is stronger.  

It's stronger because we've had to learn together.  

Learn to grocery shop

learn to speak

learn to drive

learn to be thankful 

learn what in the heck we're supposed to do when we visit in local people's homes.

We make less money now.

But it's amazing that that hasn't affected us at all.

We've even gotten completely out of debt since arriving and are saving!  How do you do that when you take a 35% pay cut?

We're also now bi-lingual.  We use that term loosely of course, but wow! What confused and frustrated us a year ago is normal now.  Even when we come across new situations (which still happen of course) we now have the vocabulary to at least ask what's going on or how to do something.  What an AMAZING sense of fulfillment to feel like you 'fit' in another country. The sense of accomplishment FAR outweighs the frustration and anxiety in the beginning.

When we got here there were only 2 of us.  Now there's this new little (guy?) who isn't even out yet, but is already making his presence known.  All you parents out there know what we're talking about, but its absolutely amazing to think about the life God is giving us.  He could have given us a baby in the US, no doubt, so I'm not saying it's because we came here that he did.  What I'm saying is, we've got another perspective to look from when thinking about our baby.  Experiencing our own life in a new way, and now waiting for this new little baby, helps us see that life, and the ABUNDANT life we lead is all in God's hands.  I think we would hope different things for our baby if we had never come.  Make sense?

We are so glad we came.

We really think we would have missed out on the biggest blessings of our lives by saying "no" to the still small voice, or ignoring it.

Now that we're here we can't imagine not being here.

We can't imagine being in the states right now and feeling the same satisfaction and sense of fulfillment as we do here now.

Not that everyone should come.

But some should.

The first step of saying, "ok" is the hardest.

After that, God starts giving so much of himself and his blessings that the thought of "We're giving up SO much, we feel so deprived" never enters our minds.  It's like we say "Ok God, we're gonna sell our cars...that's HUGE." And then He responds with, "Ok Anthony and Sharon, I'll raise you on that and give you a nicer car than the ones you're selling, a house that's bigger than one you can buy now in the states, and a life in general with way cooler experiences than you've ever thought possible.  Oh, yeah, and in all that I'm gonna give you a baby and make you bi-lingual too.  Beat that."  It's impossible! We can't out give him.  

Even if he never gave us all those things, the life we have here would still be great. But he has...and he deserves more thanks than we can give him even if he decides to take it all away tomorrow.  It's like we came to him with our arms full of 'stuff' and he asked us to empty them...then has filled them this year with things better than we could have asked him for.

What an AMAZING year!

Be Back Soon...

At least for 1-2 weeks. We're heading out to a rural village for a couple weeks and we're pretty sure they don't have internet. Don't worry, we'll bring the camera.

If you're dying for some blogs, here's one from from a family in Texas that we've never met but is usually highly entertaining: www.allthingshendrick.blogspot.com

Simpsons and Silk

Updated story below!
So a couple of cultures represented in this post...
First one is American...
The Simpson's Movie was released here this weekend.
It probably disappoints both of our mothers that we're happily smiling with this dysfunctional 4 fingered, yellow-skinned cartoon family.
So we apologize to our moms for liking the Simpson's even though they both tried real hard to keep their animated antics off of their respective family TV's.
That said, the movie was funny, but not SUPER funny.
But funny.
Kinda nostalgic- like the wrecked ambulance in the background at The Springfield Gorge.
And hilarious as the 98% Asian audience we watched it with thought a LOT of it was funny.
Like when the Flanders kid asks if Buddha is gonna be in Heaven and Ned says "No."
That got a big laugh from the Chinese crowd, interestingly enough.
So it was fun to experience American TV in a movie theater in Asia...

The next cultural experience was going shopping for material for our Hari Raya outfits.This is obviously fits in the Asian culture category.
Hari Raya is the celebration of feasting after the fasting month of Ramadan.
Hari Raya isn't until October.
I (Sharon) went with Kakak as shopping in Asia for clothes is mostly left up to the women just like in the US.
But I'm actually a bit late in picking out my material for my new outfit.
Families get whole matching outfits just like Easter in the US.
It's a huge deal to pick out your material and get your outfit sewn.
But since seamstresses are SUPER busy with everyone's orders, getting them in after August is pushing it.
You do NOT show up for a Hari Raya celebration in an old outfit.
So, after going through tons and tons of GORGEOUS silk patterns, I finally found one I liked.
Since we were in an Indian silk store, I'll go ahead and confess that I dreamt of getting a saree made for myself (Indian woman's traditional outfit that is feminine and flowy and fun)
But I stuck to the plan and the budget.
After picking out the material and lining for my dress,
in true Raya form, I picked a matching color for Anthony's outfit.
(The gray is the material for Anthony, the girly pattern is just to show they match...er...coordinate)
Last year I bought a store-bought ready-made one a couple weeks before, and Anthony had to borrow a Baju Melayu (men's outfit) from Abang.
Abang is tall for an Asian, but still not as tall as Anthony.
This year's festivities will NOT include Anthony's ankles showing.
So, stay tuned to the blog and come mid-October, the Raya outfits will be done and you can see them here in all their glory.
Update:
So we took our material to the seamstress to get measured, etc. When we went to the ladies house and opened up the material for Anthony's outfit, we discovered that it was VERY see-through. Even more so than the chiffon of my material. It had all of us fooled (until we opend it) for looking like a common similar material that's used a lot. After the initial discovery and the embarrassment of an old woman laughing at me, Anthony and I went and found a different material and had him measured this morning.
I must say, it's always humbling maneuvering in a culture that isn't your own. You have to take it in stride and asking for help with things that no one else here needs help with (like picking out material) is part of life.
Side Note- This morning at the seamstress's house, Kakak shewed the lady's cat away from the material (we sit on the floor here). The seamstress said, "Oh, but that cat is such a good cat." which we took for code for "Don't mess with my cat." A few minutes later the same cat came walking in the door with a GIGANTIC lizard in it's mouth (lizard was over a foot long). The seamstress screamed and picked up the nearest object to her on the floor, a broom, and hurled it at him. Hilarious!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

After Chiang Mai we caught a late flight to Bangkok, and since our flight to Phnom Penh was leaving early the next morning we decided to make like European backpackers and sleep in the airport. And by airport, I mean THE COLDEST PLACE ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET. I'm pretty sure I saw a snowflake... inside... cause, you know, it was cold... pretty sure.

The next morning we hopped on our super-cheap Air Asia flight and arrived at Phnom Penh at 8am, where we quickly noticed that nearly everyone was carrying $20 US and a passport photo, neither of which we had. Come to find out you need both for a visa. We decided just to wing it through the first line where you turn in the visa application and passport photo. We found out that if you don't have a passport photo of yourself (for them to keep) the fee is $1 USD or 50 Thai Baht. The funny part about that is $1 US = 33 Thai Baht, so they made like an extra 50 cents off of us. The next part was the $20 US in the next line. Obviously if we didn't have $1 we weren't gonna have $20 (or $40 for the both of us). The great part was that I could see not one, but TWO ATM's about 20ft after the immigration line. Here's how the conversation with the guard went:

Anthony: "Excuse me, would it be alright if I walk over there and get out some money for our visa?"

Guard: "No, you need a visa to get over there."

Anthony: "Yes sir, I know, but I need $20 to get a visa."

Guard: "That's right."

Anthony: "So, can I go?"

Guard: "No, you need a visa."

Anthony: "But I need the money first in order to buy a visa. I'll leave my bags here and you can watch me."

Guard: "I'm sorry, you can't go over there without a visa."

Vicious cycle.

Luckily a nice American named Paul graciously paid for us and another British couple who had no clue about the $20 visa. We paid him back 20ft later.


After checking in to our hotel, we took a motorcycle taxi into town. That's right, "a" motorcycle taxi, as in "one" motorcycle. Three people. One motorcycle. Actually, 4 people if you count the baby, which we do. I can actually hear our family collectively gasp.



Here's some sights around town. This is an unfinished temple. From what I understand, it was started years ago but the money ran out, so they just left it. Gotta love third world countries.


Here we are looking mighty fine after spending all night in the sub-freezing Bangkok airport (that pink Mickey Mouse T-shirt looks mighty familiar... look at the elephant show pictures on the previous post taken the day before). We were in a tuk-tuk and headed back to the hotel when we took this picture. Unfortunately, our driver didn't understand where our hotel was (a few miles outside the city) and we got a nice tour up and down the Mekong River and Downtown Phnom Penh before he finally figured out where the hotel was. We see it as training for the Amazing Race one day.


Pretty typical scene of Phnom Penh: lots of dirt, various Buddhist shrines, tuk-tuks and SUV's (although a Rav-4 does not count as an SUV - but there were Land Rovers and Land Cruisers everywhere) from all the NGO and UN workers.


Here's where the post is going to get a little sad, but you can't take a trip to Phnom Penh without learning about their horrifying recent history. Back in the late 70s, Cambodia experienced a terrible genocide at the hands of its own leaders. You can read about it here. I'm not sure how to comment about genocide, other than it shows how completely evil man can be. Around 2 million Cambodians were killed by other Cambodians. Many were tortured and held captive at the prison below (at what used to be a high school).



The Khmer Rouge took pictures of all the captives at this particular prison camp, all of whom (except for 5, I believe) were either taken to the killing fields and executed or died in the prison. The prison has thousands of pictures lining the walls, much like this one:


After being tortured, the prisoners were taken to the infamous Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh. When the Vietnamese freed the Cambodian people from the Khmer Rouge regime, they discovered this field from its awful stench. This monument is where many of the bones and skulls found in the fields were laid to rest.


Over 9,000 victims were found in this field alone, all buried in shallow pits.


You can still see some of the victims' clothing lying around half-buried in the mud and visitors are still finding human remains.


The rest of our time was spent swimming in the hotel pool, so I'm sorry to end this on a down note. Genocide will do that. It's hard to wrap my mind around such an evil thing. But I do know that God offers us the chance to trade our hearts, which are bent towards hate and evil things, for the perfect goodness of Jesus Christ, which is mercy, love, and forgiveness. What a hope we have in Him!

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Our week in northern Thailand was filled with a lot of meetings.
But the week before going we had several friends in town...
So Anthony took advantage of the flight there...
The view of the mountains from our room was gorgeous.
Thai massages are famous... here's my (Sharon's) feet before a 45 minute Foot Reflexology. There's no pictures after the part where they wash your feet because, well, I was distracted by the amazing foot massage.
Chiang Mai also has amazing western restaurants. And not your average chains like Chili's or TGIFriday's... they're authentic places with home cooked food.
Like these authentic quesadillas.
Delisioso! (Or however you spell it...Dora would know...so would Cara...a little help from the bff?)
There's also some fun historic things to see...
Like this wall that used to surround the old city of Chiang Mai. There is a moat that runs in front of the entire length as well. So you pick up on the local lingo when asking where something is... like, "The Salsa Kitchen (where quesadilla above came from) is inside the moat..." and so on.
Chiang Mai is too big to fit within the wall now, but the remains are interesting nonetheless.
Here's us in the also-famous Night Market. They have lots of fun stuff to buy for really cheap. Like t-shirts and what not (my shirt says "Coca-cola" on it in Thai...I bought it there the night before)Here's Anthony (on the right) with a friend proudly displaying their night market gems.
It was robot tshirt day.
Thailand is also famous for Elephants.
We went out to an Elephant park one morning and were treated to a delightful show.
Here's the Elephants entering...
They did all kinds of neat things, but one of the best was painting.
Several stood in front of easels and painted some rather beautiful pictures.
Here's me feeding them. (There's a banana curled up in his trunk...he just took it from me)
And this one is fun because the elephant on the right put his trunk around my shoulders like a human does in pictures. Hilarious. The not-so-hilarious part was the elephant snot left on my neck afterwards.
One wanted to put a hat on my head. The hat is on, but this is actually a shot of it 'tapping' it down the rest of the way like an adult would to a child. Except, I don't think elephants can do very many things gently, as the taps felt like they were gonna give me a concussion. Well, maybe not THAT strong, but still...
We left Chiang Mai later that night and spent the night in the Bangkok International Airport to make it easier to make our flight to Cambodia early the next morning.
That's right...on the floor in the airport. Wouldn't have been that bad except at night they crank up the air conditioners to chill it down for the next day of doors being opened and what not, so we nearly froze. We have no pictures of it, but you can reference the one of Anthony sleeping above, but imagine us colder and not as comfortable as sleeping on a airplane tray table.
The next post will be about our weekend in Phnom Penh (Puh-nom Pen)... stay tuned!