David's house

May 14 (April 16^th or 17^th)
Wednesday

I have been intending to write about my visit to David’s house for a long time, but just never go around to it. During my last break (Khmer New Year) all the Lao students, Ben, Kim and I all went to David’s house. David is a tenth grader at the school and his sister Pon-luor (no idea how to spell) is in twelfth grade. Their father (Tendou) is the pastor in the Kal Dal province. It took us about 30-40mins to get there. David rides his bike to school everyday! The whole family is really good in English. This is the kind of family where the parents study with the kids. Tendou knows not only Khmer and English, but also Thia and Lao. Ben asked him how he learned so many different languages, he responded, “Learn little by little from people and put it into practice.”

We made lunch and ate together. I was most excited about the food because it was really different. Ok, just have to say when they eat fish they don’t cut the scales off or head. All they do is gut it and then stick the whole thing in to a pan, plop it on a plate and eat. I was first introduced to this when the Lao boys made me dinner way at the beginning of the year. I didn’t know how to eat it, but Katrina showed me how; thankfully. I’m not a fish fan to begin with, but its starting to grow on me. Anyway we had chicken, fish, vegetables, rice (given), and mango. It was delicious!

After lunch we went outside in front of the house where they garden (sell) mango trees. We laid down bamboo mates and all chilled out for the afternoon. I was so stuffed from lunch I fell asleep while everyone else played games. Once I woke up I felt like I had a rock in my stomach so I decided to go for a walk around the village with Mia (Lao girl). We walked for about an hour around the whole village. We crossed a really sketchy bridge, but I figured if moto’s can drove on it then why can’t we.

Tendou invited us to stay for dinner, but I was still stuffed from lunch and I don’t eat dinner so I was not up for the idea, but I kept my mouth shut. Ben talked to the Lao students and they all wanted to get home for the night. The day at David’s was relaxing. It was nice to get out of the house and the city for the afternoon. I can’t wait till I get home and look out my window to see mountains!