The House Collective

timetables.

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Often when we leave for awhile, I’ll make a weekly or monthly calendar noting the things that might be different. I’ll give one to Thida, noting the extra work she’s filling in for us.

And for The Reinforcers, I give them new calendars, what they call timetables, quite often. This is in part because they have special events each month where they’ve been hired, so their work days or hours are often changing. They also have changing schedules with school, so we might work more or different times of day when they are on holiday. And we simply change their schedules pretty often; and since they are 15 and 18, I try to make sure I’ve communicated when they are to come in hopes of them showing up on time.

Well, it’s become a bit of a joke, as I hand them another piece of paper week after week or month after month. They laugh because I explain it yet again. (To be fair, they forgot again this Wednesday, on their normal day of work every week, to come until I reminded them!) Each time Stephen makes a joke about them throwing it away, or perhaps about the thirty timetables tacked to their wall.

This week, Stephen and I have yet again re-worked our own schedules, as we try to work around each other’s schedules and make sure one of us has Oak, we can both get to our Burmese lessons, we both have some down time in the week, and someone is free to get people to the hospital. And after our plans were made, he requested a chart of “Who has Oak?” for different chunks of time that we are separate. So I made a weekly layout of when he is primarily working and when I am primarily working; and then when our family times are.

The Reinforcers arrived to work last night and saw it posted on the wall, to which they asked, “Stephen, is that your, uh…timetable?”

Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.

beautiful things.

by Filed Under: house church, kelli, on the house, photos, playhouse, schoolhouse 1 Comment

It has been quite a month.

We really love living here, and we love this community. But I’ll be honest–and I have been here for years, so you know this already–we’re often in over our heads. And this has been true for nearly a decade now.

And then we adopted a toddler–who can run and shout and touch hot things!–but isn’t able to say much and is doing his best to grasp at English, Burmese, and remnants of Thai.

And so I’m looking through all the photos and realizing just how much there is to say: so many great things! And even I say them, I know they are each too amazing and too great to have waited this long!

But other things won out in priority–mostly keeping our little community center running and hiring eleven people, while keeping a toddler fed and rested and as minimally injured as possible.

First, baptisms! Our church celebrated three baptisms in the past month, including one of the teenagers in our community! He’s an English and guitar student, and his family attends our church regularly. So thankful to celebrate this with them!

Also we just generally love our church: baptisms by the reservoir, big hats and umbrellas.

Our church also hosted a three-day discipleship training, which Stephen and The Reinforcers managed sound and PowerPoint for.

This week after church they gave out free umbrellas for the children and students who are walking to school every day during rainy season. We love their intentionality in the community! We also love that umbrellas are legitimately something everyone gets excited about, kids and teenagers alike.

One of my best girls, Yaminoo, which many of you remember, now lives at the church with a few other young women. She still attends school with many of her friends in the community and she comes to our house after school and through the summer for English classes.

And, after she and I both waiting patently week after week, seeing Oak only on Sundays and Tuesdays, he decided he liked her. So while this photo isn’t all that amazing, it was a milestone. It felt like he just decided to like his big sister!

We are still doing Family Dinner, but we now host it once per month. We all gather around the colorful, delicious meals that Thida cooks up. Then we have a teacher come and attend a Life Skills class together.

Over the past few months, every Family Dinner has held a big announcement: in April we had just received Oak’s photo and shared it with them; in May we announced we’d be leaving the next week to pick him up! Then he joined us for June.

Our sweet sister Phway Phway also came with great news: she passed her Grade 10 matriculation! For those outside of Burma, this won’t mean much: but it’s incredible. Only about 1/3 of the population passes, and she received high marks. She’ll be able to attend university in December if she can determining a funding plan.

Her mom, Thida, was SO PROUD. We were all just beaming for her!

She returned from a year studying in Burma in March, shortly after we visited her. We have connected her and subsidized a position for her at a local organization–the same organization that provides our language classes and self-defense course; also our Life Skills class and previously our sewing training! There, she is working with other Christians, getting more comfortable in her English, and learning basic office and management skills.

She’s planning to work there until December, when she’s hoping to be off to university!

Sojourn Studio is still present in our home a few days a week, and the ladies are working hard on new designs.

They are just releasing three new stud designs, which will soon be available on Etsy under Sojourn Studio. Our neighbor ladies make great models!

Our Schoolhouse classes have been restructured now that there is a toddler to be looked after, but they are still happening! I am now teaching English on Tuesday, twice on Thursday, Friday, and then twice on Saturday. Stephen is still teaching guitar twice and cajon twice through the week, and recently started a coding class. One student is really doing well with coding and learning some great problem-solving skills.

Our house is still a playhouse five days a week in the afternoon!

This is Oak’s favorite friend. They are always up for a hug.

Her mom told us today that she asked about going to English class–Toddler Schoolhouse. Her daughter said she didn’t want to go this week, until she heard Oak was back from Bangkok and then decided to join! 😍

Sometimes, when family disputes happen, our house becomes a playhouse much later into the evening. Thankfully, we always have snacks and toys and, now, a playmate!

We’re also still celebrating community birthdays, sometimes with cake and sometimes with something extra special! The newest Reinforcer just turned fifteen this month, so we had a small party with his friends.

See how beautiful it is? Our church is growing and thriving. Our friends are producing beautiful work and accomplishing great things! Our neighbors are coming to play and rest. And now there’s always a toddler in the middle of it!

new teachers!

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We are beyond thankful to introduce three new teachers to our little collective!

We’ve been working quite a bit with Sara, who manages Sojourn Studios and helps to employ and love on three ladies in our neighborhood every week. Her husband, Jason, also stepped in and managed Schoolhouse while we were away at the end of 2018.

This year, Jason asked about an opportunity to get involved in the community with his kids. They have a daughter and son, ages ten and eight, so it seemed the perfect opportunity for them to both teach and get to know their peers. Thus, a new Schoolhouse class started, with three new teachers in the neighborhood!

It’s pretty great how things sometimes (occasionally?) just work out: this group is stellar. This particular age group is committed to come to things, and we know them very well. They were so excited to be invited to a special English class, where they wear name tags. Siblings aren’t able to come along nor sit at the door watching.

{That’s one of our goals with schoolhouse. We want each age group and individual to get focused, age-appropriate teaching. Our toddler class is only for those under 5, so that older kids can’t shout out the answers. Our English lessons can only be attended by the one student learning–no siblings, no one staring over their shoulders, and no whispering the answers in Burmese through the window.}

We have really enjoyed seeing the kids learn and look forward to the class every week. I like hearing them practice their new words and dialogues on the porch:
What is your name?
My name is Kyaw Gee.
Kyaw Gee. How do you spell that?
….(long pause, followed by Burmese: I don’t have my name tag! How do you spell it?)

They are learning the responsibility of coming on time, on their own, with their name tag. They are also able to learn from their peers, and then play a great game of tag afterward.

We love having new faces to help. We’re so thankful when others are willing to get to know our friends, too!

languages schlanguages: in real life.

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Our life is full of languages. The good news: this means it can make a mess of all of us equally. We’re never alone.

One of our bread ladies has faithfully been coming to English each week. She does about 45 minutes of Rosetta Stone, and then we practice together for ten to fifteen minutes: whatever I can get out of her before she looks like she might give up. Right now we are working on:
This is my daughter. This is my son. This is my husband.
My name is Nyein Nyein. I am twenty-six years old.

My favorite is “This is my husband.” Somewhere, quite awhile ago, she learned husband = Stephen. She can’t help it now; her brain has learned it wrong. Every time I ask, Who is this?

This is my Steph…husband.

Every time. She always catches it before the last syllable, but it’s still pretty obvious. And pretty funny.

_________

Aye Aye Naing is nearing two and half, and she’s all toddler. She really loves Stephen and isn’t a huge fan of me. As in, Do you love uncle? YES. Do you love auntie? NO. Side glare included.

The challenge is, she has our names switched. She’ll come to the door and see me, give me the glare:
Kelli?
Hi! How are you?
NO. KELLI.
Yes, do you need something? Do you want to play? Do you want water?
NOOOOOOO! KELLI!!!
Do you want Uncle Stephen?
Yes.
{Right. One moment please, madame.}

_________

Win Moe is another little all-toddler toddler. One afternoon, as she pranced around with a lot of attitude, I said, “Wow, she is sassy! Do you know the word “sassy” in English?” (I said this in Burmese, except for the word “sassy” itself.)

To which her mother replied, “Oh, yes! I do know that word. Sexy, sexy. My daughter is very sexy!”

“No, no, no, NO. Those do sound similar but they are very, very different. Please NEVER say your three-year-old is sexy.”

_________

The Reinforcer, Pyint Soe, knows English. He still comes to study Rosetta Stone once a week and practice with me, which we hope will help with his graduation exam at the end of next year.

Sometimes I have him write a few sentences at home so he can practice new vocabulary and work on his grammar. He came last week using his new word, wedding, with this sentence, “Everyone will die wedding.”

I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. Usually I have a pretty good idea of what he’s getting at, even with errors. Of course he’s watching my facial expression and listening to my silence as I re-read it, scrabbling my brain to determine what he was going for. His face is falling, “Is it wrong?”

Well, I’m not sure. What do you mean?
Everyone will die wedding.
Yes…but, why? Can you tell me why?
Everyone die. Die (he says this in Burmese)–we call this “die,” right?
Yes. I understand “to die.” And “everyone.” But why “at a wedding”?
You said wedding is one day. So I think everyone dies.

Rewind to the previous week, when I was explaining the difference between a wedding and marriage: A wedding is one day, but the marriage is for the rest of their lives. So Stephen and I were married on November 1, that one day event or party; and then we are married for ten years now. So a wedding is one day and the marriage is the years following.

So wedding = one day. Everyone will die one day. And that, my friend, is true.

children everywhere.

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There are still children, everywhere, keeping us on our toes.

Toddler Schoolhouse is still fun and hilarious, each and every week. Thida teaches some Burmese and reads them a story; I teach them some English. We sing songs, and we eat together.

Kyaw Gee is doing absolutely amazing at guitar, particularly as an eleven-year-old! It was a rough start: very passionate in his playing, he broke a few strings and we thought he might break a few guitars by the end. And it was just loud.



But now he’s doing so well! Stephen’s working on teaching him a few songs he might be able to play at church, and he continues to take a lesson with Stephen every week.

Thida is still amazing. In this photo she’s reviewing the Christmas story with her granddaughter.




We have a new Flour & Flowers baby, and she and I spend most of our Fridays like this. 😍

languages schlanguages: still.

by Filed Under: kelli, schoolhouse, stephen 1 Comment

We are still learning Burmese.

STILL.

Language is an emotional rollercoaster. I want it so badly. I can’t seem to grasp it some days, and it can make me angry or defeated or heartbroken. Other days it can make me feel like I’m on top of the world and can conquer anything. My brain can make sense of that today, and it couldn’t before? BOOM. I’ve got this.

Every thing you learn new, you realize the hundred more you can’t quite yet say. You see the ten mistakes you made in three sentences while you were just trying to say something simple. Or you realize the tiny portion of the song on the radio you can actually grasp. But then you chat with a friend and time goes by, and you hardly notice.

It’s so natural. And then all of the sudden its just so impossible. 

I’m the most disorganized learner when it comes to language. I don’t have a record of notes. I have notebooks here and there, often unfinished, sometimes with loose themes at the beginning. (The themes are always lost by the end.)

Stephen is the most organized, driven learner I’ve ever encountered. He has found system after system to break himself down, conquer every weakness, and tackle every challenge. He has the biggest file of notes, all sorted perfectly. He has apps, audio files, books. (I will note, I have all these things. I just couldn’t find them at this very moment. Or the next few.)

Last week, we started lessons with a new teacher. Our teacher of five or six years recently returned to Burma (but showed up in my dream last night!).

Honestly, our new class was pretty discouraging. I could try to explain why, but I’ll just say she was very unimpressed. I just left broken, wondering if I’m saying any of the things I mean to and if we’re accomplishing near what I thought we were. I was in tears and wanted to throw in the towel.

The next day we had a bible study over tea with the jewelry ladies, and I followed along. I felt like I knew what we were talking about, could comment and join. We shared stories and perspectives. At the end, two of the Burmese ladies said I really knew a lot and was doing very well.

Rollercoaster, you see?

Language is also a bit like a Magic Eye. Remember Magic Eye? Sometimes you look at it, and you see chaos: tiny little images, swirls. Nothing of significance. Overwhelming. Often frustrating.

But if you wait long enough, look hard enough, and give yourself a significant headache: you see something really beautiful.

(This is such a good analogy, I can’t even handle it. Wait, look, pounding headache; and there it is.)

But the cool thing about both language and Magic Eye is that you can also un-see it. (Not many things in life are like that; too many of us know.) I can step back from Burmese; I can choose to listen or not. I can choose to see swirls or statements.

And we’re still choosing every day, to study. Stephen still has his notes perfectly sorted, and I still have a few random pieces of paper on my desk of the new words Thida & my new teacher taught me this week.

Still.

the collective christmas 2018: one.

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It was our best Christmas yet, in so many ways.  

Do I say that every year? I hope so. Mostly, I think we’re just learning more and more each year; learning what to expect, learning Burmese culture, learning our best friends, learning ourselves. 

I’ll start with my favorite photo this year: just a day after we returned. I was meeting with Thida to create our Christmas plan–we certainly needed her help! And the kids wandered in to find our Christmas tree, which we’d just set up the night before. As the best tree on the block, and it draws quite a lot of awe!

We started the festivities with a movie night. On Sunday night–just a couple days after getting back into town!–we pulled out the projector, opened up some cookie tins, and blared Home Alone in our yard. We didn’t have a Burmese translation or subtitles, so we’d just shout a translation over the parts that seemed confusing. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Either way, slap-stick humor is funny in all languages.

It was the best kickoff we could have imagined! Hearing the adults and kids alike laughing their hearts out was amazing. 

My two favorite moments: About twenty seconds in, as the thief is in the house entryway, pretending to be a police officer, Thida says to those around her, “I don’t think he’s a real cop! I think he’s faking!”
Yeah, you’re going to get this just fine. ☺️

Then, Kevin uses the trick repeatedly of playing the movie in the background to scare off people at the door, “I’ll give you to the count of ten to get your ugly, yella, no-good keister off my property before I pump your guts full of lead…Keep the change ya filthy animal!” Same trick; repeatedly, folks. And they all laughed their heads off every. single. time. I loved it. 

We even had guests join us in the street. Look closely and you’ll see a grown man sitting in a stroller he pulled up as a chair. We know how to throw a party!

On Tuesday we had storytime after school. Thida read the Christmas story from the Jesus Storybook Bible, and we crafted our own nativities.

It was chaotic and lovely! The kids left with nativities and fruit.

There are reasons we don’t use glue often, though. There was also a nativity glued to our motorbike seat, and a few on our inside walls. Glue stick works better than you’d think. 🤦🏼‍♀️

The next day we sang a few carols in Burmese and played games, including a disaster of Bingo. That was the low point and I might be permanently finished with the game…but “pass the present” and a few other simple games were a big hit! Either way, beyond the singing, it was far too chaotic for photos. We all survived!

And then we were off to the market to kick off our Collective Christmas Meal!

our favorites: schoolhouse.

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Stephen comes up with the best ideas. A few months ago, I mentioned we started something new through Stephen’s great idea and a grant from Kingdom Mission Fund.

It’s easily a favorite these days.

Currently, we have ten students and four adults learning English. We have four students learning guitar and one more learning cajon. (Even more incredibly, thanks to the help of some friends in Mae Sot and Stephen pre-organizing all the curriculum, all these are continuing to study while we’re away!)

There are lots of reasons to love schoolhouse.

First, we love seeing the kids and adults succeed; to be so proud of themselves. It’s fun to work with them on it, helping them learn and answering questions.

For English, Rosetta Stone is a pretty incredible program. I’m so thankful it allows me to be everything other than a teacher in these classes! Sometimes I watch kids; sometimes I help with pronunciation. Stephen is often the technology specialist: helping them understand the warnings that open, or why the microphone doesn’t work.

One day Stephen had run to the hospital while I oversaw two boys’ English lessons. One of them was having a hard time with Rosetta Stone understanding him, so I was trying to help as he would repeat, “It is a car. It is a car. It…is…a….car. IT IS A CAR. IT IS A CAR.” Then he switched to Burmese. “IT ISN’T WORKING BECAUSE STEPHEN ISN’T HERE.”

So at least we all know what our roles are 😁

And while Rosetta Stone is amazing, it’s very gracious with pronunciation. VERY. Sometimes I can’t tell what they were supposed to be saying!

For guitar, we have an app that teaches them a chord, and then has them play it with a song. They have to hit it on beat and get the chord correct. (Not that surprising for the idea of learning guitar.)

And then for cajon, Stephen has a separate lesson with this student every Friday. They have been working their way through a video course, and he’s getting pretty good!

I think our favorite part of Schoolhouse are the one-on-one opportunities it gives us. As the community keeps growing, it’s hard to stay connected to those we know best and have known the longest. Sometimes they are actually more stable now than they were; while the more unstable families ask for assistance and take more time. These classes have really allowed us to pick and choose some individuals we can invest in, hopefully with long-term impact on their language and music skills, learning opportunities, and mentorship.

We continue to ruminate on to Jared Diamond’s words, “I have heard many anecdotal stories, among my own friends, of children who were raised by difficult parents but who nevertheless became socially and cognitively competent adults, and who told me that what had saved their sanity was regular contact with a supportive adult other than their parents, even if that adult was just a piano teacher whom they saw once a week for a piano lesson.” (The World Until Yesterday, p.190) Here’s to hoping these lessons are just that–in difficult home situations, amidst the challenges of poverty–one hour a week with a friend willing to stumble over languages, laugh, and learn new skills together.

our favorites: toddler schoolhouse.

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This is easily one of our favorites. Toddlers are such fun in any culture, and when they are shouting out “Auntie Kelli! Uncle Stephen!” it just gets better.

For years, in our effort to learn Burmese and in our personal dread of teaching, we have avoided English classes. I have tried one here and there, but I am not a teacher. I was doing it out of love. But I will be the first to admit that as students dropped off or forgot to show, I was relieved and occasionally elated. That is probably the end of any class.

Then last year arrived, when a favorite “little sister” took her matriculation for Burmese high school. It is the equivalent of the American ACT or SAT standardized test, with six subjects: Burmese, English, math, chemistry, biology, and physics. She was second in her class at the high school down the street, and we knew she’d do well. What we didn’t anticipate was her passing five subjects and failing one: English.

As her native-English auntie and uncle that spent hours upon hours a week with her, this was a big failure on our part. We still feel awful for her now, retaking her senior year in Burma with hopes to try the test again next year.

But, that has led to another attempt at English. We won’t let this happen again! Our first step was to buy two Rosetta Stone licenses for adults and students to learn English without us being the official teacher.

The second step was a toddler class. They learn so fast, it seemed an obvious step. They are also so very easy to entertain; I thought surely I could teach colors, numbers, shapes, and basic words with little preparation. And just in case I couldn’t, I called in help from Mway Mway. Before she begins making jewelry on Thursday, she helped with the class. She would rally the kids while I taught English, and then we’d swap. I’d rally the kids while she taught Burmese.

It has turned out to be the highlight of every week!

First, there are the backpacks: all empty, some purses, some lunch boxes. All carried in with great importance.

Then, there are the cutest kids ever.  I’ve been focusing on colors, counting, animals & sounds, and opposites.

We have this fun opposite book that teaches them the idea, and then we’ll use a few of them: we sing the ABCs quietly and then loudly; we sing Head & Shoulders slowly & then fast. Before we sing If You’re Happy & You Know It, I go over happy and sad. I act them out: HAPPY! with a smile; ssaaadddd with a frown. Zwe, without fail, shouts SAD! with a giant smile on his face.

Stephen also leads our singing with guitar, which the kids love. It’s really our very own little library storytime, and I’m not sure I could love something more!

We do animal sounds, which has turned out hilariously. They love Old McDonald but struggle through every bit except ei-ei-o. And we left a lion in at the end, despite it not being a farm animal, because it is fun to growl at each other. I also taught them a few with hand motions: “elephant” with a trunk; and “rabbit” with little ears. What I didn’t realize was that as I do the rabbit ears I also say, “Bop bop bop.” So now they all make rabbit ears and say “Bop bop bop.” Whoops.

The colors are going off the best–easy to review in the afternoons and we all love picking out the colors we’re each wearing! One week I asked the usual, “Who is wearing BLUE?” Zuzu proudly lifted up her dress and pointed to her panties, “BLUE! I’m wearing BLUE!” She was right, at least 😂

We’ve also been practicing our colors with superheroes: SPIDERMAN! Spiderman is RED and BLUE. The HULK! The HULK is GREEN and PURPLE. We have hand motions, as you can see below. It’s adorable.

The mixture of Burmese & English is tricky for little brains: they struggle to know which to say. I teach them all the colors in English, and then Mwei Mwei follows in Burmese. This leads to them shouting all the colors in all the languages. We have since decided it’s better if we teach different things for now: she’s been focusing on fruits, vegetables, and first words. In the mean time, there is a lot of confusion about chicken–which is pronounced similar to “jet” in Burmese, and is now most often called “jetkin” in our home. Again, whoops. I mentioned I wasn’t a great teacher, right?

It’s been a great opportunity to give the kids attention and teaching, in addition to the social lessons of thank you’s and following instructions. And of course we go home with a snack, so that everyone’s winning!

new skills, new perspectives.

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Mwei Mwei is one of my favorites. (Or Mway Mway; she uses both because it’s really မွှေးမွှေး) After a little hiatus to Bangkok, she’s been back in our lives for over a year now. She makes porcelain jewelry for Sojourn Studios two days per week, and also sews canvas bags for Housewares one day per week. With this job, she also studies at our house: she takes private Thai lessons once per week that are subsidized by Sojourn Studios; I’ve been teaching her math; and Stephen’s been teaching her guitar and photography. We have hopes of starting her on Rosetta Stone in English in coming months.

We’ve learned that if you can find something she loves or cares about, she’ll give it her all. If she doesn’t care or feels she’s competing with a sibling, she sits back and quite obviously doesn’t put in effort. It’s been a learning curve to find her strengths, find her passions, and get to know her.

One of those things that motivates her? Photography. She loves it, and has an eye for it. She has been easy to teach and has picked it up quickly. And now we want to show her that she can make a future of this; she has skills she can offer to both us and the whole world.

So after a few months of photography lessons on Stephen’s Canon DSLR, we’ve given her the project of taking photos in the community every week. She can choose what to photograph: Sojourn Studios jewelry, the kids playing or taking classes, sewing projects, The Breakfast Club, Flour & Flowers, The Reinforcers. She captures photos through the week, and in her class she sorts and edits, with Stephen’s oversight.

Nyein Nyein, one of our Flour & Flower bakers, and the best tortilla roller!

Pyint Soe, a Reinforcer and high school student; son of Daw Ma Oo, the Flower Lady

And then we buy them! Each week, we pay her for the photos that are good. We give her two different rates, for if she captures a good moment, but perhaps it not fully in focus or not well aligned. Photographically it might not be amazing, but we love the people and love that she captured it! And then, when she really captures a beautiful photo with great skill, she makes a pretty decent price for our little neighborhood!

Since we started, she’s made a few extra dollars most weeks. Last week, she took photos of San Aye making jewelry, and did an absolutely stellar job. She made nearly double her weekly salary!

We’re pretty excited about this. We’ve helped her create a watermark, and explained how this shows everyone it’s her photography. We showed her this blog and our monthly updates, so she understands where the photos are used and why. We’ve explained how our friends and family in the States want to meet our friends and learn about our lives here; and that through gifts of the Church, we are able to do all these projects and create jobs like hers.

It’s always intimidating to share all of this with our neighborhood. But a friend posted an African proverb the other day that I think captures it quite well, “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”

While I think this captures the point, I’m not sure I want to be represented as a hunter, nor do I wish to present my friends as lions. But the idea still stands that if we never open this up to their perspectives, you will only see ours.

I don’t know if we’re to the point we can equip our neighbors to tell their own stories, but I hope someday we can. For now, this feels like one of the first steps. We want you to see our neighborhood, and for our friends to be presented, from another view that isn’t just ours. We don’t want you to always see what we see or praise what we praise; it will probably always make us look good.

But if we give our friends room to tell you themselves, to show you their lives and their work and their skills, we hope that honors them.

So enjoy these beautiful photos that Mwei Mwei skillfully captured, and be looking for more photos with her watermark on it! We are excited to see where this can take her, and us, too.