Moving Day!

Well, we made it. We left Vientiane on a night bus last night to arrive in Pakse at about 5:45 a.m. It’s pouring down rain here. It seems that we’re getting the remanence of a hurricane off the coast of Vietnam. It’s supposed to be raining non-stop for the next several days.

We did purchase an oven yesterday before leaving Vientiane! To get it to Pakse, it had to be put on top (Yes, I said on top.) of another bus. Our bus and the bus the oven and our bicycles were on was arriving at a different bus station than we were. So it was my job to track them down once we arrived. It was quite the ordeal and I wish I had the energy to tell you every detail. But I’ll just say, it took me an hour in the pouring rain traveling around in a tuk tuk with a very helpful Lao gentleman. When I got back to our teammates’ house, Bethany thought it was hilarious that I was drenched. I was just glad we didn’t loose a $200 oven.

On that note, I am sad to inform you that while we were napping this morning, our bikes were stolen out of the front yard of our teammates’ house. Bethany wasn’t too happy. But it could have been worse. The Father knows our needs.

After a nice nap in this morning, we enjoyed lunch with our team and one of their Lao friends. We had fried rice and Thai noodles. Of course we did. We’re in Asia. Then we went with Sarah and her friend to look at our other housing option. It was a really beautiful house with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Of course, I was looking at the kitchen and it was well equipped. We’re leaning toward this house but I don’t want to make a commitment just yet. Things are so fluid here. It’s hard to know where you’ll end up.

Bethany and I spent the afternoon watching Murder She Wrote. Our teammates have Season 1. We had never seen the first episode. After that, we had dinner with the team. They ordered out for Indian food. As soon as it got here, the power went out but not for too long. We’re currently enjoying some freshly baked Betty Crocker cookies.

Bethany and I start teaching tomorrow. That’s if they don’t cancel class because of the rain. It’s dirt roads all the way to school, so it’s a possibility. I’ll keep you updated.

Russell