The First Full Weekend

Saturday was our first day out and about in Yangon.  As it happened it was a beautiful day and so we were able to walk around without using our  umbrellas. Yay!  And without getting dirty feet. Double Yay!  When we left the hall we saw this adorable girl selling grapes:

These twins were so cute:

We saw our first REAL game of Basketball:

As we walked we discovered a Myanmar Muffler Shop:

Just pull up on the curb and they will take care of you right away.  No waiting.  There are stores like this all over the city.

Here are some pictures we took as we wandered:

 Thought of Zak with this pic:

All the furniture is hardwood.  Solid.  Makes it so heavy.

We went with some friends while they did their shopping and we learned some good places to buy stuff.  You can get so many things like you can at home.  Even Haagen Daaz ice cream.  We won't be purchasing that though because it's a little out of our budget.  Try 16 bucks a pint. A PINT people!  No way!   We did pick up some bargain priced movies though!

Here we are at the end of a great morning:

In the evening we went to House 5 which is where some other people live.  Our friend Allison made a Thai Green Curry that was amazing and our friend Rachel made a Mango Pineapple Sponge Cake.  Yum!

Saturday and Sunday were our first days of seeing rats.  We saw lots of rats.  All dead though.   One just outside our door when we were coming home.  He had just appeared there. So we got as close of an inspection as we would want. It kind of concerns me because I'm wondering what is causing the RATS to fall over in these random public places? Maybe people left bait out? Oh well. 

Sunday we slept in, had pancakes again.  Yumo!  Went to meeting and afterward I spent the evening in the kitchen making dinner and cookies.  FYI: don't try to pick up a cookie with jam in it fresh from the oven.  It MAY burn and leave a blister.  It just MAY!  I nursed that on ice while watching some TV show we had bought earlier.

Well that was our first weekend folks.  Hope you are all well!  Miss you!

Wednesday to Friday

Wednesday the 27th Matt hung out in housekeeping and I spent the day in the kitchen.  Matt cleaned his heart out while I did various things, amongst which was this:

Well at least now I know how you get bread to have that delicious color on top!

This was what we had for lunch:

The food here has been overall really great.  Although most of it is different than what we are used to, it has wonderful flavor and it's like eating at an exotic restaurant every day.  Sometimes it is very spicy but it is quite mild compared to Thai food.

Thursday morning we both started doing what we came to do.  More on that over time.  Lunch on Thursday was  definitely exotic. 

Notice the small portion of green stuff at the top?  That stuff is HOT!!! A little goes a long way, let me tell you.  We thought of you Andy, you would love it.  We did.  The unfamiliar combination at the bottom of the plate was noodles, veggies and squid.  The squid wasn't as rubbery as some that we have had and the flavor was quite interesting.  In a good way.

We had a rainy ride on the way to meeting and snapped some pics, after our lens defogged that is.

People here do not travel anywhere without an umbrella.  Not even just down the street or around the corner.  Let me revise.  SENSIBLE people do not travel without umbrellas.  Now from what you know of us, would you say that we are sensible?  You be the judge.  I'd say it's half and half.  That phrase "caught in the rain"?  So true. Just saying.

Here is a pic for Guy and Bill.

This is our C.O.  He is from the Philippines.  He gives amazing illustrations that are to the point.

I'm not at liberty to divulge any at this time, Matt was taking fervent notes so I imagine he may make use of them when we get back:D.

Friday it rained some more, although unlike Wednesday and Thursday it didn't rain so loud during the morning program that we couldn't hear a thing!

At Friday lunch they served a good variety, most of which was great and all of which I tried.  Matt got cold feet after seeing the first brother retrieve the coveted fish head from the bowl of soup.  I manned up and tasted it.  And then asked Matt if I could NOT finish it.  Ugh.  At least I get points for trying right?  Right?????

The reference we shared in an earlier blog is of a brother that still serves here at Bethel.  We had the privilege of spending some time in conversation with him and his wife and the feeling you get after such a conversation is priceless.  Totally upbuilding to see such amazing and humble examples in real life.  Just one of the MANY things that can happen when you make yourselves available to travel in this way. Any of our friends that has thought about reaching out for this work, or a similar work, please consider it more!  You will absolutely not regret it.

Saturday we were exposed to some new things.  Next blog. Stay tuned!

Tuesday

Our internet has been down for the last day so I couldn't post anything but hopefully I'll get caught up here soon.  Maybe.  We'll see.

Tuesday the 26th was Matt's day helping in the kitchen and my day helping in housekeeping.

The sister I worked with has just recently come here from the district work.  Myanmar has just one district and so they travel far and wide.  By bus, plane, train and on foot.  I really enjoyed talking to her as we worked.  Also on tea break.:)  We had biscuits (aka cookies) on tea break and they look like this:

They taste like Ritz crackers with chocolate on them.  I don't actually care for Ritz crackers, however I will tolerate a lot for some chocolate!

From the floor I was on you can see the one of the windows in our room:

In the building with the red roof we are the last window on the right hand side.

As you can see our house is quite close.  It takes like a minute to walk from our room to the outside dining room which is located in the building in the front of the picture where the roof is obscured by the tree.  You can also see the construction of the new building on the right.

Here is a picture in the hallway at bethel that I love.

Tuesday was also our first day of experiencing rain in Asia.  I had a whole blog post in my mind about the shocking lack of rain here.  I mean, I was promised Monsoons and the weather had just been beautiful ever since we landed.  For 5 whole days we did not witness one drop of rain! Not ONE!  Aren't you sorry that you missed out on that tirade?  However, on Tuesday we found out that it does rain here. And on Wednesday.  And Thursday. And Friday. So.  That satisfied me.  Also I have been told that June is just the beginning and in July and August it will rain harder and oftener.  So I'm sure I will get my fill of it.  Quickly.  The rain here is really amazing.  All the sudden the heavens are just pouring rain.  Like the faucet was turned on. Then the next minute it might be dry.  Just like that.  I took a video of it but I can't load it.  Maybe another time.  It's quite gripping.  Well, that depends on if you like videos of rain or not.

Tuesday night we went to meeting.  It also happens to be the week of the C.O. Visit.  In a year and a half Matt and I have been a part of 8 C.O. Visits.  Which is quite a lot really.  It has just worked out with our moving and traveling that we happen to be there for the C.O. wherever we are!  We have heard many talks more than once, but it's wonderful to see how they information fits the area you are in at the time.

We thoroughly enjoy the meetings here.

Here we are with Brian and Allison, a couple here from California. (This picture is for Rod and Virginia.  I do not have their email address so if you are in a position to tell them that this picture is here and tell them how to find it, I would appreciate it.  Or send me their email and I will send it to them:)

You may notice that Matt and I are matching.  We didn't even realize til Allison pointed it out to us. Wow. Too cute:D

 No matter where we go, we find friends in common!  On the ride to and from the Kingdom Hall we take a truck and squish as many people in the back as we can. I want to take a picture of it to show you all but it will have to wait since every time it has been so humid that my camera fogs up.  Yes, I did try wiping it off, but the moisture is so intense here that it gets INSIDE the lens.  Crazy.

More later!

Thank You

Wasn't the illustration in this week's bible study beautiful?  That picture and the accompanying paragraph with the experience from the sister in England touches our hearts. I almost cried when they were reading it at meeting, I'm such a sap:). We are so appreciative to have such loving and supportive families and friends as we travel.  We want you to know it is not easy for us to leave you our dear loved ones and we think of you all the time.  Thank you for the wonderful encouragement you provide for us and for your faithful examples.  We are loving all the emails, they brighten our days even more!  We love you!

First Monday

Monday we woke up bright and early and found our places for breakfast.  We eat in the "Cafe"  aka the construction dining room.  Which translates to outside screened in dining.  Which basically leads us to the point of "not air conditioned".

View from my seat.

However, it only gets really hot when it is about to rain.  Relatively speaking.  More on that later.  It honestly isn't uncomfortable in the mornings and when it does rain (which we will talk about later) it is so cool because there is a metal roof and it sounds neat! We had some meetings in the morning and got our picture taken for the board of those who have made themselves available to come here so far.

Looking on with anticipation!

 We got a little tour:

The Inside Dining Room

One of the 2 guard dogs. We had to meet them so they will be friendly to us.

Tree on property.

Cool gate in neighborhood.

 Here we are with the newly established Myanmar Sign Language Translation Team!

So exciting to meet them!

Lunchtime was a new experience.

See that shriveled up stuff at the front?  That was fish at some point.  Which I thought I would be brave and try.  That went well.  I couldn't figure out what to do with it and so instead of eating like a cave woman with my hands I tried a knife and fork.  Which led to the fish leaping off the plate (my knife made a nice loud metallic on ceramic noise to draw EVERYONE'S attention to this fact) and diving underneath my chair.  Where it stayed til I scraped my chair (hey, I am nothing if not discreet) back and retrieved it.  That fish was not worth the effort.  Never again. Did I mention we were in the INSIDE dining room?  The fancy one?....The soup looking stuff though?  Curry.  Which we love.  Matt had 2 helpings, yes 2. He thoroughly enjoyed it.  Only later did we find out that the potato looking stuff was actually eggplant.  OH  yes.  Matt ate eggplant and loved it. (Patti, I put that in for you, remember when you were trying to help him like it?  Now you can serve it to him any time.  You have my blessing.)

And in the afternoon we learned how to do some Laundry.

 In the evening is Watchtower study.  There is an English one and a Myanmar one. Afterwards we had a nice chat with our housemates and went to bed.

First Sunday

Sunday the 24th we were able to have a lazy morning.  We are sharing a house that is rented with 3 other couples.  One brother made us some exotic food for breakfast.  Here is Matt with our first Myanmar meal:

Yes,pancakes.  Amazing ones.

Ok. While this may not be your admittedly "traditional Myanmar" cuisine, we sure enjoyed it!  Oh, by the way, the food here has been amazing overall.  So that whole diet idea we had...you know the we can eat whatever we want because we will lose weight in Myanmar thing?  Ya. Not so sure that is going to work out.

Anyways, our meeting is on Sunday at 1 pm.  So another couple that lives in our house showed us where to go to get the taxi to take and gave us some fare negotiation pointers.  The taxi drops you off at the end of a street. (Newly paved, thank goodness because we heard some interesting stories about the unpaved street.  One story involved a big fat rat.  Something about huge and unafraid.) So, we are happy about the paved! 

You walk down and go in this door:

Up these stairs:

View from the top.

Isn't the banister pretty?  And at the top on the left is this door:   

      

Inside you will find beautiful people from different countries who gather together to worship the same God using material that is the same no matter what country you may be in.  So amazing.  Someone here told us that the Kingdom Hall was used as the branch office many years before.  Here we are:

We clean up good!

After we walked back to the main street to catch another taxi.  Along the way we saw some picturesque things:

Back out on the main street we saw this while waiting for a taxi:

Notice the traditional clothing? Most people wear it here. So cool.  Our taxi ride back to our house was interesting, the taxi's are very well used if you catch my drift.  However it is possible to have nice conversations with your taxi driver if he speaks English.  Which this one did.  After we got home all the ladies of the house crowded in the kitchen to get dinner.  Since it was crowded it took awhile to get everything done.  Although a good time was had, and we wouldn't change it a bit!  We were tired by the time we were done and we fell asleep to a movie pretty early.   Monday was our first day of orientation here so more on that later!

 

 

 

Our Room

We love our room here.  It is spacious and we have plenty of storage.  It's hard to take it in from every angle so I'm sorry about the volume of pictures you are about to see.

The cabinet is for our shoes and we are on the door to the left.

As you enter.(We have our own air conditioner!)

The door opens to the wall on the right.  On the left is Matt's new messenger bag.:)

These chairs are next to the bathroom on the left and the desk on the right.

View from the doorway to the bathroom.

Cute critters!

View from the corner of our bedroom nook.

Our OWN bathroom!!!!

Our shower is open to the rest of the bathroom.  No shower pan or curtain.

I has been so nice to unpack and make ourselves at home.  We had been living out of various suitcases and boxes for several weeks so to be able to settle in and be organized feels amazing.