We were very privileged this past week to have been given a mini vacation as Luka and Ghan, founders and organizers of T-AMF, gave us the week to get adjusted and relax before we started working. It was nice to get settled, clean up around the house and catch up on reading and sleep. Our days consisted of waking up, reading and attempting to get a recap on America the day before, eat brunch, walk over to the main house for the internet, visit/go into town/nap, make or eat dinner with the family, watch a movie and go to bed.
It is somewhat of a luxury when we go to town because even though Luka or Ghan nearly go there everyday to take and pick up three out of their four girls to school, we often feel like a burden having them take us around and helping us translate (by the way, they are more than happy to take us). We’ve realized that we’ve needed a few trips to get food and other little things. Looking back, our first errand run at Big C was more of getting the essentials and awe-ing at new Thai foods to try; we really didn’t think about every day things and the new things we would figure out we would need or miss…such as:
HOT WATER
Our hot water heater doesn’t work in our bathroom
So we shower in another bathroom
No big deal
But the walk from the bathroom to our room is excruciating because it has either been unusually cold here or we just weren’t prepared for cooler weather (we sleep in sweatshirts and two extra blankets)
And that shower has very small water pressure and the water is more of a lukewarm than hot
But our water heater is in the shop and will hopefully be working by the end of the week!
#littlevictories
(Thailand is usually hot and many don’t really want warm water for bathing)
HOT STOVE
We have an electric stove that at a maximum, heats to a maybe-simmer
Which takes 10 minutes just to get to that
So we’ve been making our meals in the rice cooker
Because the rice cooker boils
But then we decided to buy a microwave
And then we decided to buy a portable gas stove (after much deliberation on my part. I was fine with the rice cooker)
#littlevictories
I’m sure we seem really high-maintenance by now.
// Jennifer
Open market food shopping with Luka
Luka attempting to fix our water heater
Our first attempt in making dinner. It was very bad. We don’t like to talk about it.
Our new stove, our rice cooker and our new microwave!
Celebrating a boar kill at Luka’s village. We ate boar brain, boar guts and boar skin. We are pictured with Luka’s mom, whom I met in 2010. She is very nice and is very affectionate.
Our matching shirts from Big C (our attempt at a selfie)
That's THAIght 