Abe, Jill, and Easton Sobczak

     “So what’s life like there?” This question comes up in just about every conversation with people from home. Every time without fail, I’m a bit at a loss for words. Trying to articulate day to day life here is in many ways like trying to describe a roller coaster ride to someone who has never ridden one before - it’s most definitely FULL of ups and downs! To really understand it, you just have to experience for yourself. But one thing is for sure, you’re hair is going to get MESSED up! Here’s a snapshot of a couple of days in the past two weeks.

Grocery Shopping

     Laos has no grocery stores, only open air markets and a few small shops with overpriced, out of date cereal and pasta. About once a month, I travel an hour across the border into Thailand to get groceries. Mostly I buy frozen meat and a few special vegetables like asparagus and bell peppers that I can’t get in Laos. The meat section of the store really is interesting. They have everything from crocodile to lamb and every conceivable part of a pig; tail, hoof, kidneys, skin. And of course there’s plenty of Mekong Catfish and squid. But ask me if they have a cut of beef for roast? That answer would be a big fat NO! So very sad! Minced beef is available but they pretty much ‘mince’ everything in that beef - bones, tubes, and all! Not so tasty. They do have chicken breasts most of the time and pork tenderloin, which is pretty good. Truthfully, there’s not a whole lot in this grocery store that looks like home, except for maybe the vegetables. They do have Lays chips but in some strange flavors; Nori Seaweed, Bar-b-que Shrimp, and Spicy Beef. Lucky for us, Sour Cream and Onion is usually available as well.

     I go to one store for the food part of my list and another store for things like diapers, cleaning supplies, and other non-food items. This city in Thailand where I do my grocery shopping is the same city where we get our mail from the US. To cross the border, go to both stores, and check the mail takes about 5 hours, depending on how busy things are at the Thai-Lao border crossing. I don’t mind crossing the border and doing all that but every time I make the trip I have to admit it’s a bit surreal thinking that I have to actually go to a different COUNTRY to get groceries and to check my mail. I remember when grocery shopping was a ten minute drive to Wal-mart and checking my mail was as simple as walking to the end of my driveway! I remember those things but I have to admit that memory is getting a bit hazy even after only being here 5 months.

Giant Mekong Catfish at our "grocery store"

Buying A Car

     Abe started shopping for our Speed-The-Light vehicle - THANKS TN YOUTH!!! He went to the dealership here and quickly noticed something a bit different from dealerships in America. Dealerships here have no actual CARS in the showroom. They have MAGAZINES!! Here’s the basic process for buying a car here: Pick out the make, model, and color of your desired car. You will not get to test drive it. You will not get to see an example of it. You will only get to see a picture of it in a catalogue. Make a downpayment and ORDER your car!! We are in the process of doing all of this and hope to have our car the first of next year. That’s right! It takes about 6 months from the time you order the car until you can actually pick it up and drive it yourself.

     Grocery shopping in a neighboring country; snail mail box in another country; making a downpayment on a car that we won’t see for six months - that’s kind of what life is like here. Everything is a lot more trouble and takes a lot longer than you’re used to it taking. It doesn’t make any of these things wrong at all. It just makes them really different. I guess that’s the best way to sum up life here. It’s not that it’s wrong. It’s just really, really different. How many different ways can you eat rice? There’s nothing wrong with having to figure that out. It’s just different. How can you cook lamb roast to make it taste like beef roast? Again, nothing wrong with having to figure that out. It’s just different. I have to admit that adjusting to all these different ways does sometimes make me tired. But with a lot of prayer and grace, we’re adjusting to this new way of life. My hair is most definitely messed up, but I’m staying on this roller coaster ride until we’re finished here.