6/29/2002 - Is this a Zoo?

Hello Everyone!

Well, it looked like it was about time to send out another update, to let you know that we're still alive and kickin'.
Happy 4th of July everyone!

How has life on the farm been treating us? Wait, perhaps "farm" is too generous of a description, zoo is probably more accurate. We started out a year ago with 5 fish in our pond, about 20 geckos, a black ant colony and a handful of daddy-longlegs. The fish population exploded shortly after we arrived, it survived the dry season with only minimal water input, and at last count we had over 40 fish. The daddy-longlegs have gotten totally out of hand, and they've recently unionized, demanding more ceiling space and a higher bug count. The ants have expanded their empire, and rumor has it that they'll have nuclear capabilities by the end of next month, and that ant-spider hostilities could break out at any time.
Then the chicken moved in. Ahh, the chicken. A half-grown, scrawny excuse of a bird. Our neighbors recently moved to the city of Surin, taking all their ducks and chickens (and that annoying rooster - yes!) with them. Except that they forgot one. Well, apparently he got a little lonely, because he scoped out our front porch, picked a corner, and moved in. He seemed to especially enjoy sitting on the handle bars of Denny's bike, and leaving presents on any shoes that we were foolish enough to leave outside. All was well for about 2 weeks until the another neighbor's dog decided to use the chicken as a chew toy. So then we had a half-grown, scrawny, broken chicken on our porch. Well, we're not completely heartless, so we took pity on him, and started feeding him banana muffins and left-over rice and leaving a dish of water out for him. He mostly just slept for several days, but eventually perked up, and his wing and foot have almost healed, though he seems to have a permanent limp. He's started eyeing Denny's handle bars again, and we think he's here to stay. (Undoubtedly the muffins convinced him).

Then the frog moved into the bathroom. Twice, actually. We have no idea how he gets in, as he's about the size of a mandarin orange, and the largest holes in our bathroom are no bigger than a b.b. (except the toilet drain, but we don't like to think about that). However, tossing him out the back door obviously wasn't a deterrent, because he came back, and came back again. Except that the last time he snuck in, he hid himself behind the cabinets just outside the bathroom door. We hear him croaking at night. Ribbit ribbit.

Then, three days ago the cows moved in to the front lawn. While we're content to have them mow the lawn, we draw then line at them coming into our house. This over eager cow wandered though the gate at the front of our porch, tried on our shoes, and was attempting to figure a way to open our front door with his nose. Denny showed up shortly after this picture, and coaxed the cow out the front gate, only to have the cow start to pace laps around our house. Being stalked by a cow is definitely an experience we don't have every day in Fairbanks, Alaska! Speaking of which, cows in Thailand are still a bit of a mystery to us. Beef is not very popular here as most people eat pork or chicken. And, with the exception of ice cream, very few people eat a lot of dairy products. So why do people keep cows? We thought at first that it was to fertilize the fields, but then why did they bring their cows to our front lawn? So, we asked the owners about it. From what we could understand, they raise the cows "to have baby cows." Um, so what does one do with a baby cow? Sell it? To whom? To someone who wants to raise their own cow, so that they can have their own baby cows and continue the cycle. Sounds a bit like a pyramid scheme to Denny. We hope that since the farmers are just now starting to plant the rice for the growing season, they've simply moved their cows to fresh patches of grass [a.k.a. our lawn] as a temporary thing. (And we're really hoping it's temporary because the cows are starting to smell...)

All right, all right, it wouldn't be fair to put a picture of the cow in the update, but not put a picture of our chicken.

Really though, we shouldn't complain about the miscellaneous animals that show up, because our problems could be much worse. Our closest PCV "neighbor," Jessica, lives in Khukhan, which is about 40 kilometers from here. While she was at work last week, during a particularly wet day (the rainy season is in full swing here), her next-door neighbors frantically called her at her office, saying "Jessi, Jessi, ban ap nam" which means "Jessi, Jessi, your house is taking a bath." She went home to find about 6 inches of water in her house. Here in Thailand, unless you live in a big city (and sometimes even then), the water from the sinks and shower floors (and often the toilets) just drains out a pipe straight into the yard or onto the street. So much for environmental control. Well, as her yard filled up with rainwater, it backed right on up the pipe into Jessi's house. We'll take the grazing cows over the living room flooding every time it rains.

We did have a bit of excitement (for lack of a better term) however, when we were at a restaurant last Wednesday night watching the world cup semi-final between Brazil and Turkey. (Speaking of World Cup - Hurray USA for getting into the quarter finals and doing so well - we've been able to watch more US soccer here in Thailand than we ever could back home in the US). Apparently, there is a "crazy" man living in Sangkha who likes to steal bicycles for the fun of it. He'll take one, ride it a for a while, then hop off and take a different one. Well, Wednesday night, he decided that Lisa's bike was the one. We were the only ones in the restaurant that night, (What am I saying? We're always the only ones in the restaurant. This is a pretty small town...) but fortunately the owners of the restaurant saw the man take the bike. So all of us ran out of the restaurant, and started running after him. Lisa is thinking "I'm not going to lose sight of him before help comes." (In addition to being "crazy," he is also usually drunk, and doesn't bike really fast). The owner takes off on his motorcycle, and catches up with the thief in no time. The thief stops, and the owner of the restaurant starts demanding in Thai "Hey, where are you going with that bike, etc. etc..." The man then decides to start pedaling again, so Denny, now standing next to the man, reaches out and grabs the back of the bike and informs the man that "Ni chakkayan pallaya pom" ("This is my wife's bike"). Completely unfazed, the thief gets off and starts walking down the road. Denny is told to keep an eye on him while the restaurant owner goes and gets the police. So Denny, now on Lisa's bike, starts following the thief, and after losing him in the shadows for a moment, spots him again riding ANOTHER stolen bicycle down the street. The man hadn't made it very far before the police showed up and escorted him to the police station, just in time for Denny to see that the game had ended and Brazil won.

This last picture is us on our 5th anniversary in May, taken outside of our house in Sangkha. Lisa's outfit is, of course, made from Thai silk from Surin. :)

Upcoming events on our calendar - we're going to watch the World Cup Final on Sunday (Lisa says "Go Germany!" and Denny says "Go Brazil!"), and then off to Bangkok for the 4th of July weekend. The Embassy has a party on the 5th, and the American community in Bangkok has something planned for the 6th. We shall have to pop in and see what the party's like...

Our best wishes to everybody at home!
Denny and Lisa :)