Here are a few key achievements (from 6 months ago; gahhhhh!). No matter how long ago, they still deserve to be noted.
Ephrem is now a green/yellow belt in Taikwondo. This kid! Learning to do this demanding skill AND doing it in Chinese! These kids are my heroes! The test is nerve-wracking. He has to do it all by himself and remember both the Chinese and the moves. Crazy!!!!
Hosanna had finished Book 3 in the Barton Reading and Spelling Program. Yay! Progress is slow but it IS going! I’ve watched this girl grow from being afraid and frustrated; looking at me for reassurance after each and every letter or sound to a confident reader of full sentences and pages (as appropriate to her reading level). I would say it’s a miracle, and grace is part of it, but really it is plain old determination and a method and program that works for amazing brains like hers. Getchu some gurrrrrrl!
Jubilee has finished Phonics Pathways! Now, she can read (almost) anything! Wow! Around here, when you finish something reading related, your prize is….MORE BOOKS! We are all winning!
In November, I got the chance to meet up with my bestie. I played a few gigs, we ate some great food (often free, cutesy of whatever venue I was playing), and we got to relax and catch up on what is going on in each other’s lives. As a bonus, we also went indoor climbing, bowling, and got in a game of lazer tag. It was so hard to share with the children what we did! They were super jealous and wondered why we don’t do all those things with them? It was a good question; one I didn’t explain. Maybe they’ll get it when they are older?
I opened for these guys one night. They were amazing. I didn’t know you could both ride AND play a bass.
Last Spring, we had the privilege of being invited to a pretty swanky wedding. We’ve been to different kinds of weddings but this one was quite different. It was like a peak behind the curtain of the top 10% here. We were invited because the groom is a fellow trek guide. We run in similar outdoor guide circles and it’s not unusual to invite EVERYONE you know to your wedding here. We ran into hotel and guesthouse owners, other guides, and winery owners. It almost felt like a tourism convention where we could make more business contacts. Anyway, the wedding was quite different in that the food, venue, and entertainment was fairly refined (compared to other weddings we’ve been to). Enjoy the visual experience!
Notes:
The kids brought things to do, knowing that we were going to be there a quite awhile and hunkered down in a tent intended for guests.
Ephrem made sure to wear his utility vest so he could collect the free candy often served.
There is one picture of a table with men sitting and people giving money. It is expected that you will give a cash gift upon arrival to the wedding. Your name and amount you gave is cataloged.
This fall and winter, Jada had not one but two dance performances. One performance was for the New Year celebration and was filmed and put on a loop in the city center here. What fun! It has been a joy seeing her grow and learn and become a beautiful Tibetan dancer. Sometimes, I do so badly wish there was ballet here because it would just suite her perfectly. But then, I remember that if that’s what Father wanted her to do, it would indeed be here. This type of dancing and this type of experience is exactly what He has planned for her and it is seen and confirmed in the gift that she is when she dances. Amen.
Now that I’ve got this figured out, it feels like I should do a current, real-time post before I blast our site with things that have happened up to 6 months ago! I know that other countries are suffering similarly and I don’t want to minimize this; not to mention the awful loss of life and immense change of life for people. I just want to get down what has been happening in our little corner.
Our Christmas “tree”.
A last minute balance competition. Ephrem won.
First, some virus background from where we are: After Christmas and just before the official Chinese New Year holiday, we were all hit with the news of the virus outbreak. It was awful timing in some ways but COULD have been worse. Every winter, just after Christmas, our town basically shuts down for about three weeks as everyone goes home to visit family for the Chinese New Year. Shops and restaurants close down, meat gets expensive, and only a very few places stay open for vegetables. There are two or three stores, restaurants, and vegetable/meat markets each, open to buy stuff. Totally normal. This is also the time a lot of foreigners choose to travel. Its cold and business grinds to a stop so, it is an ideal time to go back the their passport country or travel some place warm. So when news broke and no one was here anyway, it just felt like an extended holiday. We had stocked up on essentials weeks previously anyway, had a game plan in motion for homeschooling, and it was going to be great. We live out in a small village 25 minutes out from town so when winter comes, we hunker down, play outside, have lots of fires, and eat a lot of soup. It is also a time to focus on book work and language work.
A few weeks go by and we are all fine but in the meantime, we are getting daily reports of people rushing to leave the country, people being trapped in their campus housing, etc. And by now, the virus has started spreading. Roads are shutting down and our village has a curfew. If you leave and aren’t back by 6, I found out the hard way one day, the only open road is blocked and you have to walk home OR frantically call around to see who parked their car in front of the road so you don’t have to carry your groceries, in the cold you weren’t prepared for, 2 kilometers uphill to your house. The few local restaurants that were open are now closed, and there are only a FEW (down to two total) places to buy fresh meat, vegetables, and general supplies. When you go, you have to wear a mask and sign in and out. The local authorities are super kind and call once a week and make sure we are doing alright. I feel like I should mention here that NO ONE is buying out the toilet paper.
Finally, the tide turns here; reports of new cases are down every day, road travel restrictions are lifted (though everyone is still too afraid to go any place), KFC is open again, and no one is going to yell at you for not wearing a mask. However, schools are shut down still but we plug on through because homeschooling is awesome like that. Our employees are still gone so we continue with what we can and keep our heads down.
Fast forward to now; this week. Obviously the rest of the world is in a totally different place. Our foreign friends are now locked out of the country so if they didn’t get back somehow during those sketchy few weeks they could have, they aren’t now. Two other families did manage to get back but had to do a two week quarantine (in a not-so-awesome hotel, separated from their spouses, splitting up kids between the two of them) once in country. When I’ve chatted with them to see how they are doing, it sounds an awful lot like jail…..for lack of a better word. They are being fed though and small mercies abound like the surprise delivery of fruit from a kind person and a short meeting of spouses in the hallway.
Local people have already began moving around this prefecture so businesses are opening and people are moving around. School is rumored to start at different times throughout the month. Students have been doing video conferencing with their teachers with their phones all day. Parents have been stuck at home, making sure their kids -no matter the age- are sitting in front of said phone all day. All of China was home-schooled!!
Local foreigners, however, are heavily questioned. Local authorities that know us aren’t giving us the grief. It is local people that don’t know us or authorities that don’t know us if and when we go to another city. Even though we have never left, people are finding it hard to believe we aren’t sick and that we’ve NOT traveled; even after showing our passports. Even after the country has been shut down or extremely limited to international air travel. Yesterday, on a run, I was stopped and told that I couldn’t run in that location. Why??? Didn’t even make sense!!! But after I told them I lived just a few kilometers away and that I really, really, REALLY haven’t left the prefecture, they grunted and drove away. Two weekends ago, I drove Ephrem (with serious tooth pain) 3 hours there and 3 hours back to see a recommended dentist in one day just so we didn’t have to stay in a hotel and risk getting forced into a quarantine.
A basic status check: I DID find the owner of that car, we are all still fine, Ephrem is fine, home-school continues, and work that we can do continues. We think this whole summer of foreign tourism for us, is shot. Because our focus has been on foreign tourists and no one will be willing to travel, our business will likely suffer. We will see what things look like in the fall but we’re not too optimistic.
As for other local and foreign run businesses, the focus has been switched to focus entirely on domestic tourism. For our local business focus, we are turning to the sport of indoor climbing. More on that later. People (especially foreigners) need to figure out a way to work, earn money, and stay in county somehow! We shall see what this whole thing does to the market and economy genera. We remember those all over the world that are experiencing this total life change and who have lost a loved one. And of course, our hearts go out to all our foreign friends that have been or are still stuck NOT here; where their homes are.
I THINK this is going to work! After many months of computer, internet, and phone issues, I think we’ve worked and executed a plan to get these blog posts actually posted. It will take time to catch up but, late is better than never! Here goes nothing!
We got a new (second hand) car this last October. It is great to have two cars since we live far out of town and our business requires Nathan to be gone a bit during the busy season. Now, I have a way to get to and from town when he is gone.
We (our family and employee) flew to up North and drove the car back down on home. It took about 5 days to do and boy did we drive through some amazing country and mountains. We drove all through Tibetan areas and it was great to see how the mountains and the people there were different and a like to what we know here. Here are some photos of that incredible journey.
Note: We found a hot spring on the road so we stopped for a dip. The adults were completely happy to just put feet in since the air was so cold but water so hot. The kids went all in. They were cooking hard boiled eggs, by the way, in the pool we put our feet in. I’ll just….leave it at that.
Last month, I got to lead a 7 hour trek with guests. It peaks at 4,200 meters (13,780 feet) and ends at a breathtaking lake.
Well, it was more like a follow. It was the first time I did this particular trek so I went with a local guide we sometimes hire as well. It was beautiful….and exhausting. Since I went with one of our guides and 2 guests, it was my job to carry the gear, remember the trail for next time, and translate. Overall, it was a win!
It’s that time of year where you try to squeeze in one more fun thing before school starts! Not that we are starting school as we’ve switched to an all-year program, but still. The day was beautiful; no rain, a new slide, BBQ with friends, and a camp out. Probably my favorite day this summer yet. Good thing too, since it’s almost over! Yikes!
A month or two ago, we saw this sign on the roadside. This day, we went to check it out. There are some fun things to do, like swing on a large swing or play on the monkey bars.
The BEST thing is this huge slide.
It was crazy fun. The kids and I all went. If any of you follow my mom (Anita Geissimger) on facebook, you can find the video she posted of me screaming down the slide. I refuse to post it here. I was literally scared for my life.
Next, off for a BBQ at a different location. My friend pulled a Beyonce and pulled out “hot sauce” from her purse! My girl!
Playing with the food. Once actually escaped! Lucky dog…errr, fish!
This summer, we had the chance to take a real break. No other expats, no childcare program 😩, nothing. Just our family. It was wierd because we almost didn’t know what to do! But, we figured it out. We traveled by boat (a LOT) and got around to Railay, Koh Lipe, and Koh Lanta; all in Thailand.
A neighbor in our village died last week and we attended the funeral. He was a grandpa and had complications with his stomach, intestines, and liver. The medical terms were a bit much to understand. We consulted a foreign doctor who thought that he should be tested for hepatitis B and passed on his opinions to the doctors here but in the end, after about 17 days in hospital, he passed away.
The “viewing” was held over 3-4 days and the funeral was held after. At the viewing, people came by the house to pay their respects to the family and bow to the deceased. I felt a huge thickness in the air at the first step I took into this family’s home. Once I found out that the man’s body had been placed in the home, behind a black curtain and surrounded by incense and candles, this feeling made sence.
Funerals are tough, no matter the culture, but we feel like funerals here are a bit heavier than what we are used to. I tried my best to photograph the funeral while trying to also be respectful.
After someone dies, everything in the house must be washed. These are just some of the things that were laying out in the sun to dry and sun-clean.
Since everyone in the village, and around, are expected to come, a lot of food is prepared and served. It’s mainly soup, bread, and yak butter tea; maybe some cold rice noodles. It is all prepared in a make-shift kitchen outside.
I got stuck as part of the rotating dish washing crew.
I actually enjoyed this job because it was a tangible way to help. Many of the women don’t speak much of the trade language here and since I don’t speak the local language, communication is very difficult. Help and work are languages everyone understands. Below is the dish washing set up. Water is heated and added to large basins. There is a wash basin with soap and a rinse basin. Then, everthing is ready to be used again. Everone is served in the house and since hundreds come, everyone is served in rotation.
After most have eaten, the women of the house come out and lead the procession of mourning family members and friends. When I say ‘mourning’, I really mean ‘wailing’; literal screaming, tears, and throwing of bodies. What’s a little strange is that it appears to be the women’s job to mourn. The men stood around, chatting.
Then, the family crouches down in a long line.
First, men of the family holding up flags and incense lead a procession. Then, the parted family member’s clothing, placed on a horse, passes by the family. Lastly, the family member, in an impossibly small casket, is carried over the heads of the family in the crouched line.
After the casket is carried over everyone, the wailing women rise, many having to be carried, and return into the house. The casket is carried by a row of praying monks and the men go on with the casket to the water burial.
Nathan didn’t go to the water burial as he was told there was a specific counting that happened and he didn’t have the required pack of cigarettes. We were told later that there has to be an even number of men in attendance; the cigarettes were specific to this funeral but there is normally something every man must take to the burial. I’m not too sure what happens at the burial but generally, the body and its pieces (hense the small casket) is taken out and placed in a river and consumed by the water and fish.
If you ever want to experience what seems like the epitome of fear and hopelessness, go to a Tibetan funeral…or read this post again. I’m pretty sure dishwashing is my new, future bag. It also helped me, along with a lot of prayer before and after, to stay sane amongst the juxtaposition of women wailing and men chatting.
Oh, and of course, everyone gives a little bit of money to help pay for the funeral and, if needed, hospital costs. And yes, they keep track of who came and how much they gave.
