The Monkey

We went into town today to gather some supplies for our puppet theatre project. We always go through the side streets in part because it's less busy, but in part because one of the houses has a pet monkey. The girls always insist on going by him so that we can say hello. Today he had an ice cream stick!

Much of the afternoon was spent on our project. It's slow going without some of the power tools that we have back home. We particularly miss our electric screw driver.

This evening we went to the town centre and took part in the celebrations for the King's Birthday. It was very formal, but at the end we enjoyed the part where everyone lit candles. The celebration wrapped up with fireworks, which the girls loved. It made me think of Brian and Kim (the pyromaniacs) on our street and the fun we've had at home with fireworks displays. After the fireworks, we went out to dinner with Nawarat and Naiyana and their two daughters. It was a really nice evening.

Now it's late, and we need to get up at a decent hour because we're off for the weekend to visit Nicolas. He recently became a Baha'i after he did some research that was triggered by a Baha'i prayer that he found on the Internet. There are no Baha'is near him so he's a bit isolated. When we met him in Bangkok, he suggested we visit, and we happily agreed. He is about 3 hours by bus from Yasothon. Tomorrow we will meet him in Khon Kaen which is a city near him. We'll spend the afternoon there and go back to his village, Ban Phai, for the night. We'll return to Yasothon the following afternoon. It will be fun to get out of Yasothon and see something else of the northeast.

CM