Happy Countryside Home

Another weekend trip to another friend's lovely countryside home. Chen Man's family has a big fish pond, orange tree grove and several vegetable gardens. Mom, dad, daughter, son, daughter-in-law and new grandson live together in the pinkish boxy building in the upper left corner of this picture (above). Paternal grandparents and some other relatives live in the next door white building just to the right.

Yes, they have a new grandbaby! 41 days old. Coincidentally, his name has one character from Drew's Chinese name and one from mine. Are you confused? Like...his name is Drew-Rach...but in Chinese. That's the simplest way I can explain it. Anyway, having a baby around made our stay convenient because they had a stroller and walker for Michael to sit in.

(For those who read Chinese: Drew's name is 思远 and mine is 睿秋. The baby's name is 思睿.)

We got some tiny fish from the traps. Chen Man's mom fried them with hot pepper flakes and we ate them whole.

The little boys were busy with mud, sticks, rocks, junk, buckets of water, chickens, dogs, etc.

Their home is actually a ma-n-pop business called 农家乐 nong jia le, which means "Happy Countryside Home". Rich people from the city pay to fish in the stock pond and eat a home-cooked lunch in the garage. The big appeal is countryside nostalgia and organic fresh produce.

We helped pick and prepare the fresh produce.

Chen Man's mother grew the vegetables, caught the fish, killed a chicken that morning and cooked for 35 people over a fire.

I had a blast waitressing and cleaning up when the customers left. Everyone was confused why the foreign woman was working at the "Happy Countryside Home". One of my most beloved experiences to date!