Sabaai, Sabaai (สบายๆ)

Last week I was listening to a conversation in my office about my house that was being built. I was very excited because I assumed they were talking about it because I would get to move in shortly. Construction would continue and I would get to move in in a few short weeks. But, as the conversation continued I heard them mention the month October. What about October? What's going on? My Ron Nayok turned to me and said that the reason the house wasn't finished was because the workers disappeared so there was no one to work on it; to finish it. They were thinking that there may be a chance that in October, there would be more workers to finish it. So, please ignore the pictures that you saw on my previous post…that house is not destined to be mine. L

On Monday, my Balot took me on a bike ride to go check out a couple of available rental houses around the Tessaban. We biked to a coffee shop in a neighborhood of row houses. He pointed to the coffee shop and said that that was an option for my house. It was a cute house with a loft for a bedroom. I would have to sleep under a mosquito net, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. He explained that the coffee shop would move next door and I would have the place to myself…except, the owner wanted to park her car in my living room in the evenings. Hmm…ok, not my idea of fun at all, but I really want a place. Reluctantly I was willing to go along with it. Then my Balot and the owner started to talk amongst themselves. From what I gathered from the conversation, there was a miscommunication about the coffee shop. It seems that each night, they would move the tables and chairs next door, but then open the coffee shop in my living room during the day (at least that is what I thought I heard – We all know how well I understand Thai from my conversation with my Nayok the other week). My Balot agreed that this would not be a good thing for me and said that I couldn't take that house…so we moved 2 doors down.

This house was locked as the owner was out of town, but we could peer in through the grated front "door". Inside there were about 6 wooden cabinets, 3 chairs, and an air conditioner sitting in the middle of the floor. But, the set up was like the previous house. The conditions of me moving in there would be that I would have to be willing to keep the cabinets and chairs in the house with me. Hopefully, I will be able to use them (but who knows), but I immediately said 'yes'.

I now have a rental house! I get to move in on August 1^st. They are doing some repairs on it now to get it ready. I have no idea what type of bathroom I have. I can hope for the best; western toilet with a showerhead for my cold showers, but I need to prepare for a possible reality…bucket shower, squat toilet. But, it's ok, because I have my own house!!!

 

On other news, the last week and a half has been great. My Balot is spending an hour to an hour and a half with me each day learning Thai while I teach him English and we are going to lunch together to different restaurants in the area. I getting ready to go to Bangkok in two weekends for a Thailand Youth Theater Committee meeting so we can start planning the 3 day conference for next year and the Queen's birthday comes up the weekend after that for a 3 day weekend. I have discovered that there is a library being built in my tambon that I might be able to get some projects out of and I haven't found any bugs in my bed since coming back to site in mid-July. All in all, things are going well.