Week 3: My new home

Saturday September 4th. Hot, humid, overcast. I had been in Laos for exactly 2 weeks. It was time. I was ready....to move in with my host family.

Now, I wasn't going into this totally blind. We had stopped by to visit the previous saturday, I have to say, there is a lot of things you don't know until you move in! Well...first, let me tell you about where this is. It is in the village (Baan) Tong Bpong. (i think...I actually forgot the book where I wrote that down...but it's something like that). All of Vientiane is divided into little villages. To get here you have to go clear across town from where I had been staying at the MCC office, past the airport (which you can tell is the edge of where any tourists go) and out into what you might call "suburbia." Now the little neighborhood roads are dirt instead of paved (which is actually more like "mud road" this time of year, in the rainy season - the pic here is of a road just up the street from my house) and there are a lot more cows, chickens, and rice fields are not too far off the main road, behind some of the clusters of village houses. It is quite a ways away from the downtown/MCC but it IS very very close to Nita School, where I'll be teaching come October 11th, so the location is actually really perfect. And I love that there is a lot more vegetation around (not quite as city-ish) : as seen here in this picture taken from my fence looking out down the driveway.

Okay...I know the suspense is killing you...here is my house!!: It is a quiet spot, right at the end of a little dirt/gravel driveway that leads to about three houses, including ours.

There are now (including me) 11 people who live here. Yes, 11. Actually, often more. 12-14 is common. But I will describe the 11 main folks who I call family. There is Maeh and Paw (the Lao words for mother and father). They are in their late 50's and are super cute/speak basically no English (I am going to say that "hello" and "mommy" and maybe a couple more doesn't count. this family has hosted two other SALTers in the past, so everyone has remembered a word or two). They have one grown daughter in her early thirties named Pauntip. She is the assistant director of Nita School, where I'll be teaching. She speaks quite a bit of English. She and her husband are in the process of building their own home so they are currently living in our living room with their three children: Nina (7), Anna (4), and the new baby Fanta (1 month!!!). These are three of my sisters. I also have three more (because as you see, we are only up to 8 people right now). Puna (16?), bah (14), and Kat (12) also live here. From what I can tell, though, they are not related...or if they are, it is complicated. Puna and Bah have parents that come over sometimes to visit, but Puna and Bah always stay here. I think it might have something to do with the fact that we are so close to the local school?...I'm not sure, but let me tell you, it is super fun to have 6 nawng sao (little sisters)!!!

Other fun facts about the house: we have puppies!!! They were born (get this) the same day I moved in! That has got to be lucky, don't you think?! There are four of them. I am so excited to watch them grow up! There are also about 5 roosters (which I hear at 5am every morning), 20 chickens, and 10 ducks in the front yard!! Oh and a little cement circle, above-ground pond around back with fish!

Oh yes, and the most important feature - the sauna. Yes, that's right. It is a little family business to run the local sauna. It is so funny! It is right off the eating area (the covered but not walled in section of the house that's on the right side of the pic). The sauna (as seen in the pic here) is just off to the right of the other picture of the house I posted. It consists of a bucket for showering off (on the ground off to the left) and the two door in the cement hut in the back center of the pic are the two sauna rooms!! People from the neighborhood come over, mostly in the evenings, put on these sarong-like wraps and proceed to shower/sauna/spa (put juice on their skin, rub their skin with these special rocks), etc - all in fairly easy view from our dining room table! It is pretty fun. In the first week living there I had already done the spa routine twice with Puna. (it's soooooo hot, but the cool water bucket shower feels sooooo good after!)