School & House Update

A few people have asked me what is going on with the school and house situation so I figured I should write an update.

SCHOOL: Ok, well we finally did decide on a school. After meeting with both schools and families with kids who attend the schools we decided on CMIS. It's the one without the GT program. But from the families (and CMIS teacher) we spoke to, the school is wonderful at meeting each student where they are academically. For reading and math they split the kids into four different groups...depending on their level. In Orin's Kindergarten class there are at least two other kids who are at a 2nd grade reading level like him and they are being completely challenged by the teachers! One of the 2nd grade teachers is with our organization and we spoke to her for a long time. She really helped ease any fears we have. We are SO excited about the school. It's diverse, in a good location, and there will be a lot of opportunities for both us and the kids to meet friends from all nationalities and religious background and hopefully be salt and light to them. We're excited! He starts Monday! That I'm not totally excited about. Yes, I'm going to miss him being home, but I don't think that's the main reason. I think it's more about a sort of loss of innocence for him. From now on life will be so much harder. Lots of responsibility, school for the next 15+ years probably! Dealing with kids who are not kind. Having to learn to make touch choices. Hopefully the right ones, but tough non-the-less. I feel like in some ways he's now entering the "real" world. I know it's good. Kids have to grow up. But while he will be gaining a lot, he's also loosing something.

HOUSE: We finally found one. I'd like to say I'm excited about it, but I'm not totally there yet. :-) First, the positives. It's in a perfect location - we can walk to school and lots of street food! It's a good price. It has tons of yard space which is very hard to come by here. Ok, the negatives. It's in terrible condition. That is the case with most homes here, so most people end up putting money into it...which just sort of stinks since it's just a rental. But, it's reality. The house didn't have a kitchen (Thai kitchens are always outside) and one of the bathrooms was just a horrible mess. The house is close to the river and was flooded (seems sort of ironic) about 3 feet 4 years ago and hadn't really be dealt with. It's supposedly the "40-year flood" so hopefully we won't have another one any time soon! Luckily houses here are build entirely of concrete..but there is quite a bit of mold still. Lots of holes in the walls. There are only two bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. So for now, Sora will be downstairs (since she's confined to her crib). Don't worry, we'll be able to hear her with a baby monitor. But there is a HUGE landing upstairs that is big enough for a bedroom so eventually we'll probably put up a wall and make it into a room for her. The good thing is that labor is really really really cheap around here. So cheap I feel like I'm taking advantage. Since the Monday before Christmas we've had a "crew" there working on it. Re-tiling the bathroom, putting in some Thai style kitchen cabinets, etc... Fixing some little things. It's a slow process (just the way things are around here) and you never know how things are going to turn out. It's pretty difficult since we can't really communicate with them so there is a lot of pointing and grunting going on between us. :-) One of the guys is totally hammered every day. It's funny. He just keeps talking and talking to us even though we have no idea what he is saying. That's another thing that is completely normal around here...but it still makes us wonder how things will turn out. :-) We're just ready to move in and be settled. They said it would be done by the end of this week (which is tomorrow) but there is no way. But as much as we want to get in the house I just can't get frustrated with the three men and one woman who are working on the house when they are getting paid about $1/hour.

Here are a few pictures of the house. As you can see, the entire thing will be getting a fresh paint of coat once the workers are done. :-)

This is one view of the kitchen before they built the cabinets.

The same view with the cabinets in process. They will look much different when they are done. They put ceramic tile all over the outside and either a granite or tile counter top.

Another view of the original kitchen.

The same view with the cabinets. I love the tree branches that are holding it up while the cement dries.

The dining room. Someone actually added a wall here and was once using it as a bedroom. Oh, and look at the fan! The wood has totally been warped (from the crazy humidity here I assume).

The dining room with the wall torn down. So much brighter!

The living area. More nasty fans that have been taken down. They will be donated to a local Thai church. One plus is that there is actually an A/C in the living room! That is almost unheard of. Some other westerner must have installed it. Unfortunately it's too expensive to run it so we probably won't use it anyway. We'll do what we do now and only use the A/C in the bedroom at night when we sleep.

Looking at part of the living room from the kitchen.