Trip to the market

We shop for just about everything in the open market. It is the hub of social life in town. Everyone eats fresh - women go to the market every morning! Kim is using this time as a chance to learn language, while Maelyn goes around and collects oranges. The woman in the picture is named Xin (pronounced "sin".)

The Train Ride

In-country luggage alotment was less than international, meaning we had too much stuff to take the plane to our new town... so... we took the train. Maelyn thought it was the infamous Thomas since it was blue!

The little boy with Maelyn is a friend we met on the train. You are looking at a very talented young man. Whenever he needed to go to the bathroom he just stood up in the aisle next to us and went in a coke bottle (at least 4 times!)

Rides in our new town!

Maelyn was definately pleased when she found out there were rides in our new town. Our town isn't very big but there are several "parks" with carnival-type rides. It is a great place to meet people. You can ride about 4 of them for less than 50 cents. I think it will be a big adjustment when we get home and she realizes that we can't ride rides every night in Wynne!

Riding a syclo!

While in the big city Maelyn felt it was priority to try out a syclo! It was a lot of fun and a good way to tour without riding a taxi. But warning - negotiate the price before you get in or you could get over charged like we did!!

A visit from a friend!

A few weeks ago a good friend of ours from our home town came to visit us! We took a quick trip to our new town. We had such a good time exploring together. This is a picture of Matt with Maelyn and her new cone hat. We see these hats everywhere we go and Maelyn had been wanting one! Thanks for your visit, Matt! We had a great time together.

The other picture is of the open market in our new town. Since there is no Wal-mart this is where we go for food, diapers, kitchen supplies and almost anything else you could imagine. It is two floors high with mostly food on the bottom and textiles at the top. The fresh fruit you can get here is amazing- ranging from pineapples, to watermelons, to a new favorite - dragon fruit!

Receiving a TET gift

TET is the biggest holiday of the year, a mix of Christmas and New Years and everyone's Birthday all at the same time. Streets were filled with flowers and special TET trees were found in homes and in places of business. Gift giving is also a part of this holiday. We felt so special when we were included in the celebrations and the apartment complex gave us a TET gift!

Our friend in the picture is Thien, the receptionist at the desk of our apartment complex. She was so helpful and even helped to teach us some language.

Videos from the Buddhist Pegoda near our room

Here is video from the inside of the Pegoda which is behind our hotel/apartment. Here is where they are offering a pig and some other dishes to the ancestor pictured.