My brother-in-law was chosen as Little Rock School District’s Educator of the Year! This is recognized from the entire district of teachers, including all grade levels. And he was the first male to win the award in fourteen years!

That’s pretty incredible.

We were watching it all unfold on Facebook and Instagram, and are just so proud!  He is such a great teacher, and it is evident from all directions. It’s truly exciting to see someone in their niche, where they are just thriving–he serves and loves well at work, only to come home and raise an incredible family alongside his too-great-for-words wife.

So we just want to do a shout out, because Steven, you are great. We are so excited to see you recognized for all that you contribute. Obviously we wish we were there for the day to day with your family or the birth of your fourth child this fall, but we are sad to miss out on this, too. So we are just cheering you on over here! Congratulations!

While the men were busy working on water purification, I was inside corralling children away from the blazing fires, saws, machetes, and power tools. And since we had lots of time on our hands, we played with everything we could think of. The old kids especially enjoyed long puzzle sessions.

Puzzles are really challenging for the kids and adults alike. They have improved really quickly, but its evident it is an untapped part of their brain. It is so interesting to see them think it through in what sometimes seems like an illogical way to me, but then intrigues me all the more.

This one is a Snow White puzzle of 100 pieces, and it has only been conquered once before–by multiple kids and over two days. Tin Tin Ton was determined, though. The first day she did it with help coming and going, and it took over an hour. The second day she was much quicker and did it by herself in about thirty minutes!

Jor Gee is a creative puzzler. I watched him put together a number puzzle: 20 individual puzzles, with the number one on a blue piece and one lion on the other blue, the number 14 on a red piece and fourteen bananas on the other red piece. In my logic, you would use the numbers, which he knows, and count the items, or the colors and just match them together. Instead, he used the pictures on the box. He would find the number 14, see that it was matched with bananas, and try to find the bananas. He did manage the whole puzzle, though!

He also put this Noah’s Ark puzzle together in his own creative way.

And even better, he really likes to go up to a puzzle that another kid has already finished and take out one or two pieces. He then puts them back, and cheers for himself! Awesome.

Overall, they are absolutely determined. You can just see their minds swirling and trying to coordinate how this goes together. And considering the number of memory cards that have been ripped, eaten, or otherwise destroyed, we amazingly have all but two puzzle pieces to over fifteen puzzles. That’s a mind-boggling accomplishment in and of itself.

Well, this is it. Our water purification project! In photos, primarily, since I’m the one writing it; science really isn’t my speciality.

We had originally planned to install the system on the neighbors’ well. However, there are two separate wells for two parts of the community. If we put it in one well, it would dry it up providing water for so many people. If we put one on each, it would cost twice the money. And ultimately, both wells struggle to provide enough water for showers, laundry, and cooking for so many people.

In the end we decided to hook it up to the well in our yard. This way it could be shared by all of the community to promote unity and sharing. It is also less likely to run out of water since this well will only really be used for drinking water, and perhaps a small amount of gardening. Also, in the case that we move, it is transportable–not super easily, but easily enough–and could be put onto their well.

 We started by laying a foundation of gravel where the system would go, in hopes of creating a stable foundation that could handle some flooding during rainy season if necessary.

The whole system had to be elevated, including the holding tank at least 1.5 meters off the ground.

This part began to sink when we got it full of 1000 liters of water, so we had to brainstorm. Fast. Unfortunately this was just one of many kinks along the way.

We sifted gravel into big gravel and little gravel (in scientific terms), which we then washed a few times.

We sifted sand into coarse sand and fine sand. All this was then rinsed a few times over.

And obviously, we had lots of little helpers and a few big helpers. We did admittedly use volunteer child labor, all parent-approved 😉

We had to split wood for biochar, too, which ultimately led to the little machete incident.

…A lot of wood.

All of this wood was then put into this contraption and burned into biochar on the bottom and cooking charcoal on top. It burned at about 900 degrees Celsius, which is hard to even fathom. It already felt close to that outside, but the neighbors kept walking by on the other side of the road saying, “It’s hot!” and “What are you doing?” We also had to recover a melting toy horse from the bottom, where it was thrown and started smelling fast.

Each batch took about two hours, and we ended up doing five batches. It was hot.

All the biochar then had to be granulated and washed. Due to all the washing, we ran out of water–both our purchased city water and our well water–twice. We ended up purchasing 4000 liters of water from the local fire department, which we didn’t actually know existed until this week!

Everything was then assembled into the blue basins. The first elevated tank holds a reserve of well water and creates pressure into the system.

The second tank has gravel.

The third has sand.

The fourth has biochar, and the fifth will hold a reserve of purified water. I didn’t take a photo of that yet because it’s currently just an empty blue tank.

The finished system looks like this from the left…

…And like this from the right. It should be up and running by next week! We need to flush it through a few times, and then it can put to use to provide free, clean drinking water to the whole community!

Although it has been an intensive and exhausting project, we’re so excited to provide something so practical to the community. It’s a great way to be able to save them money and ensure that everyone drinks purified water. Here’s to hoping sickness decreases in the coming year!

We also owe a special thanks to the people who made this possible. Aqueous Solutions partnered with us to provide some materials, teach the system, and they will continue to monitor it in the future. We’re also thankful for Dore Elementary in Sheffield, England, who helped to provide the rest of the financial support to make it happen!

It is never, ever dull around here.

Some days–most days recently–I would really love just a dull, boring, no-blood day.

Not so, my friends. Or not yet, anyway.

I keep writing posts and then don’t even get them published before life moves forward and surprises us!

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We were sick over Easter weekend and then drug ourselves out of bed and up to Chiang Mai for a few meetings. We got back to Mae Sot on Wednesday to begin installing a water purification system for the neighborhood!

That two-day project turned into five, and we’re just now finishing it up. But that entire project deserves a post to itself.

Amidst this installation, Stephen was chopping wood to make biochar, when the machete went down just a bit to the left. He lost a small portion of his thumb, which we guesstimated was about 4%.

Not a big loss, but a loss none-the-less.

There wasn’t anything to stitch up, so he really just needed a bandage. However, we ended up going to the hospital so that we could get a tetanus shot. But they wouldn’t give us a tetanus shot, insisting that it was a “clean cut.” We argued back that yes, it was a “clean cut” because we had washed it, but it was still cut with a dirty machete. We had no luck. We ended up paying for an over-priced bandage I could have put on at home.

We did manage to track down a clinic that would give us tetanus shots by Monday, by which point we had also learned that both of our tetanus vaccinations were out of date for living in Thailand, where tetanus is still prevalent.

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After over two long days in the sun working on the water purification system, we headed off to birthday dinner with friends on Saturday night. Stephen &  my friend, Kellie, were so sweet to pull together a sweet little outing at a nice restaurant outside of town.

It was a lovely, relaxed dinner out after a long day of work in the sun.

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It would have been really nice if that just rolled into my birthday the next day.

Instead, we hadn’t been home ten minutes when there was a knock at the door. One of the neighbors had a stab wound on his back, and he was bleeding profusely.

I honestly will probably never forget that moment and the thoughts that ran through my mind. I was suddenly very aware of my pretty dress that I didn’t want blood on; the blood everywhere–more blood than I personally had ever seen from one person; telling myself not to pass out; trying to decipher in Karen what had happened; and asking myself, Where do we live?

We learned that he had been drinking and arguing with his wife. The stories differ, but it appears that he was beating her and she ended up stabbing him. We don’t know how it all went down, but only the end result.

They had already taken him to Mae Tao, the Burmese clinic, while we were gone. The Mae Tao staff had told them they couldn’t handle it, but put a basic bandage on it and sent him to the public Thai hospital. The neighbors then decided to return home and wait for us, which left us to find a bloody mess…

…Which we then put in our car.

I tried to put down trash bags, but it wasn’t really successful. {We are thankful for the leather seats, even when they make us stiflingly hot.} We made it to the hospital without him passing out, and they wheeled him back for treatment. Stephen and I sat down in the ER exhausted, and then fell asleep.

We awoke to someone calling “Kelli!”–I guess he told them our names?–and went back to see the situation. He didn’t have any internal damage, but he did have a fever and they wanted to monitor him for a couple days.

So we saw him admitted and then headed home just as it had rolled around to my birthday.

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As we climbed into the car, I got in the back to avoid the blood-covered front seat.  I reached up to shut the door and then jerked my hand out of the way. Unfortunately, all of my hand managed to get out of the way, except for my recently-broken-and-healed ring finger. It got smashed between the door and seat, stuck.

While I screamed, Stephen helped me get the door open and get my finger out.

By the time we were home, I was crying with a throbbing finger, Stephen’s thumb was still throbbing from his earlier injury, and we were both exhausted.

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Then we woke up to my birthday.

Stephen worked so hard to really make it a lovely day. He had bought me a waffle maker, which we used to have waffles late that morning. We spent some time at the swimming pool, and I got to open two birthday packages from America!

Stephen had also reserved a room for us at a local guesthouse, which really turned out to be just the best idea yet. After many conversations about the stabbing situation and a couple trips to the hospital that morning, I was so grateful to be able to tell the neighbors we would be gone for a night but be back tomorrow.

So lovely. It meant that no one came to the door, I didn’t have to clean up blood, I didn’t have to cook, and I didn’t have to feel guilty if we left the aircon on for hours.

We rested, even if just for a night, before we jumped back into the chaos.

Because there is never a dull moment!

Songkran | Thingyan is a weird experience, and while I’m glad to enjoy the cool water being thrown on your face in the blazing heat, I really love the entire week off! The entire country shuts down and enjoys an adult spring break.

Songkran | Thingyan officially started on Sunday morning and the kids were shouting outside the door at 7am.

The week had some water fun, but that is really difficult for capturing photos.

We mostly enjoyed time to rest, read, swim, and play with our neighbor friends!

I know these next two are pretty blurry, but they are so absolutely adorable. Aren’t they all, though? Thankful for some extra days with them this week!

Home improvement is a constant process, isn’t it? I think its further complicated by living in another country: how long will you be here? How  long will you be in this house? When will the landlord raise the rent, especially if you “look too settled”?

Who knows. That’s my only conclusion.

Either way we have had fun improving our home in little ways as we go and loving it more and more. We painted after we’d be here a year, and that made a wonderful improvement! We’ve put up hooks here and there, we designed a bamboo bed frame to be built locally, and we built a desk from a recycled door. We put up curtains and a huge magnet board to create the community space.

And now, we put up shelves.

I really like things that help me stay sorted. I love hooks, baskets, drawers, shelves. Anything of the like. And I like them even more now that we live in a house with absolutely no storage: no closets, no attic, no cabinets or cupboards, no drawers, and no shelves in the entire house. It is really just walls in the most simple way.

Where do you put your clothes? Where do you put your dishes and your food and your spoons? Where do you put your towels and your toilet paper and your medicine? Where do you put your ginormous suitcases that you use once a year at best?

I don’t know. That has been a challenge since we got here!  At least we’re getting more and more creative.

Our next idea was for shelving in the kitchen & studio. Wood is fairly expensive around here, so we went to shop that sells used windows and doors to find wood that we could repurpose. We found a set of three narrow accordion-style doors, one long skinny door, and two smaller windows for about $50. They have quite a bit of character: there is Burmese writing all over them, and some English–“USSR” and “I love you.” Stephen got them all cleaned up–wiped off the spider webs and dust–and cut some of them in half.

We had a local metal shop create L-brackets. This was not an easy task, and it took over six trips to the shop and countless drawings. But a few weeks of work and 118 drill holes later (61 of those into our wall…): it worked!

The jars are a result of many hours searching and collecting around Chiang Mai with my patient husband to safely seal our food from ants, humidity, and who knows what else!

Last month we also landed a great deal from some friends leaving Mae Sot: a kitchen cabinet, with three closed-door cabinets on the bottom, three drawers, and a tiled countertop double the size of my current shelf-turned-kitchen-counter. What?!

It is important to note that we only had one drawer in our studio apartment in the US, so this is my absolute first time to cook in my kitchen with three drawers!

The studio turned out absolutely amazing, which I can’t really capture in photos.

It is a fun little space for Stephen to work, and he had his first worship practice in there already!

While we had the drill, we also hung some simple paintings I had made for the community space and we now have photo frames for an expanded family collage. We didn’t take photos of this since we don’t actually have the photos in the frames yet; most likely that is another project for another month!

We still really love the community space, and really our whole house. It is so fun to see it evolve into a warmer and warmer space. It is fun to see memories form, to see laughter and chatter fill the walls. May the home improvements become more and more rare!

I’m not much of an animal person, really. I don’t care for indoor pets, or outdoor ones that touch you. I am much more disgusted by street dogs than sympathetic. I am supportive of the local practice that any animal can be eaten, and that included our little bunny when we bought him.

We thought he was the perfect pet: you buy him when he’s tiny and adorable. You have fun with the kids, he sits on your lap, and then eventually he grows up and you give him away to the neighbors to be eaten. He is beneficial in both life and death, if you will. When the neighbors asked us if we were going to eat him, I replied, “Not yet. Later.”

I thought this would take me two to four weeks, before he’d be too big or dirty or smelly. Or maybe just boring?

Instead, he is currently sitting on my lap while I write. He will run around the kitchen when I go to make dinner in a few minutes and he’s coming with me to bible study this evening.

Y’all, this bunny is too much fun.

He’s much cuter than I even thought he’d be. The little wiggle of his nose and the way he stands on his back legs; the way he runs to edge of his cage every time you walk by; the way he nibbles on carrots right out of your hand; the way his feet slide on the tile when he runs off in a scared hurry. They way he just sleeps on my lap as though everything is right in the world.

The kids love him. They talk to him and pass him around, chase him around the room. He patiently lets them hold him like a baby or squeeze too tight.

And really, they are a great help to reminding me to give him food and water!

So yes, we’re still having too much fun.

I had bible study, so dinner was prepared and in the oven by 6pm. That’s a record for our household as it currently stands.

I was working on some chickpea snacks and needed a few limes, so Stephen and I took Kayak for a little walk down the street to the shop that has a few vegetables.

For just those few blocks, we waved at neighbors the whole way. Two kids bicycled past; Jor Lay run up as soon as he saw Kayak. Six older kids were around the corner and waved in the coolest way they knew how; one bailed on the cool idea, shouted out, “Bunny!” and made bunny ears above his head.

We passed Mo Bya & Saw Eh Say, who had just come back from purchasing a drink and chips at the shop.  I asked in Karen if Saw Eh Say had lost his shoes last night since we had discovered a small little pair of flip flops in the back of the car after the concert outing last night; we thought they might be his. He wasn’t wearing shoes currently, but Mo Bya said he didn’t know.

The shop owners oohed and ahhed over Kayak, and we bought our three little limes for five baht. We walked home, again meeting a few kids on the way. Jor Lay–soaking wet from who knows what–ran up to Stephen. Yuh Meh Oo held onto my arm and pet Kayak as we walked home.

We played outside for a few minutes; Stephen wrestled with two boys and we watched a pre-Songkran water fight break out.

And in just five minutes, it was clear: all is well. And all will be.

It has been a season of questioning: where we should be, where we are headed; what is wearing us out, what is giving us life; what is God in the midst of and what is He telling us to turn from. It has been a season of long days and longer weeks.

But in just five minutes, He can make clear where He is working, where we should be, what is giving us life; that all is well.

I thought it was a normal Sunday. We had French toast for breakfast and then spent the morning swimming laps and reading by the pool. We went to home church, followed by a special baby shower for my Karen teacher, Hser Nay Gay, who is eight months pregnant with twins!

We made it home by 6:30pm, and I got started on dinner. A few kids came around to visit Kayak; we gave out ORS for the kids–most of them–currently plagued with diarrhea. As most of them trickled home, Yuh Meh Oo & Lay Tah Oo stuck around to play with Kayak and cook with us.

About 7:30pm, just as we were starting the tortillas, Mong Ey came to the door and asked if we could drive some of them to a concert. There was a Burmese concert in town, she said, and seven of them wanted to go. Would we drive them there, drop them off, and then they could call for us to pick them up?

{Read: Can you be the parents of teenagers for one night so we can go to this concert? Please! All the cool kids are going to be there!}

We agreed, since we do want to be there to help, we have the blessing of a vehicle, and the flyer looked generally above board: it wasn’t obvious gambling, cock fighting, or who knows what else. Stephen headed out to get the group into the car while I kept cooking with Yuh Meh Oo & Lay Tah Oo, who really like both tortillas and tortilla dough. I needed to keep cooking before it was gone.

Stephen rallied the group for half an hour while everyone argued over who would get to go. He had to tell them we couldn’t squeeze nine people in the trunk…the door did need to close. They settled on four in the back (with the LPG tank, designed for none), six or seven in the middle seats (designed for two), and another two up front with Stephen.

One ten-year-old came back with Stephen, when they arrived and his mom discovered he had slipped into the car and wasn’t really allowed to go. Who would’ve thought you could sneak a ten-year-old into a intended-for-four-passenger vehicle?

Stephen took one more car load, we finished up the tortillas, and finally sat down to dinner.  Stephen did dishes while I sat with Yuh Meh Oo on the porch; we listened to a domestic dispute and a blaring television while I combed her hair.

We sat down to read when there was another shout from the door, this time for the hospital: a woman was in labor. I jumped in the car this time and headed out with four adults–one of them groaning in labor pains in the front seat. I hadn’t seen the couple before; I think they may have come over from Burma to stay with family here while she had the baby.

As we drove, I wondered if she had ever been in a car before. Was this her first car experience: in our bumpy ride while in labor? Poor woman.

We waited for a little while, until three of us headed back while the father stayed outside the delivery room.

I returned to the house to have a call from the first round of concert kids, ready to head back home. Stephen went out to get a car load, this time filled with four adults and two sleeping toddlers that had been dragged along. Our dear friend Mo Bya had left for the concert on his bicycle a little later, but his chain broke on the way. He now held his bicycle out the back window while they drove back.

We sat another half hour, and received a call from the father that they had a little baby girl! We then got another call around midnight that the concert was over. One more carload to be delivered home.

It wasn’t a normal Sunday, in the end; or maybe it was? We chatted over dinner about the cute little things Jor Lay is learning to do as he approaches two–getting water for himself or chasing Kayak around shouting, “Ooooo! Ooooo!” We compared the fact that I sat outside of labor & delivery for this little baby girl, but we won’t be there for even one of the four nieces and nephews coming this year. We laughed at the improving English skills and how the kids will call to Kayak when he’s under the sink or a bookshelf, “Come back, Kayak! Come back!”

We’re discovering so much of what community is: an organism of its own. We may try new ideas that fail miserably, but then find ourselves connected over a traumatic trip the hospital. Sometimes it means saying no and setting up boundaries so you can have dinner at a normal hour; sometimes it is saying yes and letting everyone feel like they are a part of the cool team that rode in the car to the concert, while you eat dinner at 9:30pm.

It’s funny how a Sunday can show you the beautiful, messy organism you are a part of.

Today was graduation day at Hsa Thoo Lei, where the neighbor kids go to school.

There was only one student graduating from our community–Jorgee finished the kindergarten equivalent–but the whole community came! All the girls put on their best dresses and shoes.

I wish I could capture the entirety of the ensembles.

These shoes were paired with a dress: it was red on top with some Asian characterization on it, a white tutu on the bottom, and white wings on the back. Yes, actual wings coming out of her shirt. And these pink, sparkly, flowery boots. It was adorable.

These shoes were paired with a pink, polka-dot dress–with a bejeweled belt and ruffles. She had red striped shorts underneath for modesty, so much modesty that they were longer than the dress. And of course, oversized, Caucasian-toned panty hose and sparkly high heels.

I continued to wonder through the day why on earth she was still wearing those panty hose in 100 degree weather.

Though the school is less than a kilometer away, we went in the Zuk to transport a huge pot of curry that Jorgee’s mother was contributing to the potluck-style meal. And once you have the Zuk going, you might as well pile in kids, right?

The first trip had seven of us and a big pot of curry, but this left some kids behind. We returned for another load, this time with eleven of us! Not bad for a little car that supposedly holds four.

And then we sat together for three hours or so, enjoying odd snacks and chatting. We moved our chairs further back and further back to stay in the shade while the sun rose.

And then the moment finally came for Jorgee to graduate!

It does’t look like he was too thrilled for us to be there, until you see the photo with his mom. They just don’t smile for pictures, and we just can’t help it!

Despite the outrageous heat of hot season that is now melting us, it was a fun day with the community and celebrating Jorgee’s faithful studies in Karen, English, Burmese, and math!