The Outdoor Life

Even though our houses and building are designed to let the outside in, we actually spend relatively little time just enjoying the outdoors. The main reason for this is that it's so hot. Spending a couple of minutes under the blazing sun is usually enough to make me light-headed. In the cool of the evening the mosquitoes come out to play, so we spend most of our leisure time indoors. For the kids of our neighborhood it's a different story. Seemingly immune to the heat they play in the streets at all hours of the day and have lots of elaborate games. There are some favorite hang-out spots. This blurry picture is the neighborhood soccer field and trampoline. Most afternoons and evenings kids of all ages hang out playing soccer and other games. Gabe loves going there, but unfortunately, he's a little bit young to go there alone, so he has to wait for mom or dad to take him. Most of the time one of Eric's students will play with him. Gabe has always been popular with the girls of Eric's classes.

There are also intramural sports for kids at the school. The school fields just across from us are in constant use. Right now it is frisbee football season and Eric with his team, the Turboslugs, have been doing well. A few days ago Gabe & I went to watch. It was a perfect afternoon: cloudy and breezy. Instead of watching I spent time playing in the perfect grass with Gabe. It was so much fun teaching him to do gymnastics moves and kicking a soccer ball with him. It made me realize just how little time we spend outdoors together.

Finally, last week-end we went to an outdoor party. Our friends, the Coes, officially opened their cricket net. Because they thought it would be fun to have an American try it out, I was the first one chosen to bat. Though I haven't played any sort of batting games for a long time I did manage to hit that very hard, scary little ball once. Here I am covering myself with glory. I'm wearing pads meant for a six-foot plus man.

As of a couple of weeks ago David came to live with us. David is in 10th grade and came back to Chiangmai while his family are on furlough in New Zealand. We've known David since our first year here in Thailand. He stayed with us last year when his parents were away and I guess it went well because they asked us if he could stay again. Gabe is really enjoying his stay as David likes to rough-house with him. We've learned lots of new Kiwi slang and Eric has actually been watching rugby this week.