Our Home

In our first year and half of marriage we lived in many homes…with Jeffrey’s parents and in a friend's farmhouse our first summer, traveling to Florida and living in a small primitive community while studying Community Development, spending the next six months living between both our parents in Minnesota and then Vermont, coming to Laos and living with a host family for two months and then moving to Tha Thom to spend the next two months in a guest house… and now after months of anticipation we have finally moved the seventh time… into our first real house!

If you are ever able to take a visit to Laos, don’t worry about the questions, ‘Where will we stay?’ ‘What will we do?’ ‘Who will we see?’ We can now answer all those questions for you!

Our Home!

Our new home is located a short distance down the main road from the ‘business district,’ directly across from the local temple (called a ‘wat’). We were happy when the home was not built on the road, but rather about thirty meters back. This will hopefully translate to less dust in the hot season and noise during village festivals. There are also a number of trees living in the yard, and we are happy for the shade they provide and hopefully fruit, too!

After a Thorough Cleaning

The house is a traditional style, raised-structure, and we hear that in the hot season families will spend more time beneath the home than actually in it! The home also consists of a traditional outdoor kitchen which is located directly behind the home. Some of our home’s ‘un-traditional’ characteristics are the porch, wooden walls and tiled roof. A traditional home would probably not have a porch, and would be built with bamboo walls and a grass roof.

Relaxing with a Bowl of Wai Wai (Ramen Noodles)

As you step into the house, you will enter our large living and eating area. After three months of sore rear ends, Jeffrey was insistent on the ‘comfort factor’ in our home. Most Lao homes will have various chairs or couches, but we have yet to see one with cushions on it. Our home will be furnished with a couch and sitting chairs (with cushions!) as well as cushions on the floor encircling our traditional Lao table.

We have two bedrooms, one for you and one for us! The guestroom is a bit snug and we actually had to cut the bed to fit it into the room! Part of this fact is due to a traditional custom we were informed of, ‘In Tha Thom people will never sleep against the grain of the floor boards, only with them. This is because when a person dies, they will be placed across the floor boards, demonstrating how that person can no longer do things as living people do.’ In our western point-of-view, we’d rather position the beds to maximize the space, but for now we’ve chosen to leave our beds the Lao way.

You can then make your way through the home and step down into our indoor kitchen. We were surprised to hear that even though they were building us an outdoor kitchen, we would still have an indoor one as well. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all the space! One exciting item in our kitchen is the sink and a ‘running water’ tank that Jeffrey built for us. I find washing dishes this way much easier on the back. We also have a good refrigerator that does a great job at keeping food cool…when the electricity is on. As we are entering the dry season, electricity is becoming more and more sporadic.

Our bathroom is another step down from the kitchen. The interesting 4-different tiles used (all various shades of white and pink) are good at waking one up in the morning. There is also a large mirror on one wall, which to Jeffrey’s satisfaction, is high enough that he can shave without slouching to see himself! And yes we do have an Asian style toilet. We actually find we prefer it to the western style.
In our back yard we have the outdoor kitchen, well, coffee trees and the future site of our garden (more on that when it’s completed and green!). You can take a short stroll down to the river front, observing local villagers washing clothes, showering, fishing, children playing… or a perfect view of the starry sky on a dark night!

We feel blessed to have such a beautiful place to call our home in Laos, and we think it’s been worth the wait! When you come visit us, we hope you will agree!
Posted by Kaarina