This was originally posted on 2012-09-02 after arriving at our second host family's house. Additional commentary has been placed in [square brackets].
We are now at our second host family. They live somewhat further out of town than the first family but are by no means isolated.
The family seems friendly although they speak very little English so most attempts at communication so far have ended up with laughing at the other’s wild gesticulations and incoherent mumblings. They also have six (hok) dogs which we have been warned to stay away from but that doesn’t seem to be a problem as they generally stay away from us.
Steven and I managed to tell the daughter (the only one that speaks any English at all) that we could help her with her homework. This was fun but more difficult than we thought as, not only is the letter R naturally difficult to pronounce, she wore braces. It took more laughing and waving our tongues around but we did mange to make some progress.
As I was having a shower (which seems to be a little warmer here although it is still cold) there was a sudden downpour followed by a power cut. Luckily I remembered I had a torch in the pocket of my shorts. Five minutes of fumbling around in the starlight coming through a crack in the wall I was able to find it and escape my soggy tomb.
On Monday we go to get a health check so we can get our working permits. That should also be the week we get our first expenses payment of 8700 Bhat. This is more than we would normally get so we can kit out the apartment once we move in, hopefully next Monday.
[ Going down the dirt track to reach Daw’s house with rickety shacks either side was a little scary at first. A man with a bonfire looked at us curiously and a few stray dogs darted between buildings. But it turned out any apprehension was completely misplaced the family were absolutely lovely and wonderful hosts to us the entire time we were with them. ]
