More Pictures

Well, we haven't been up to much. Just language study and more language study! We were able to go to a friend's village home for 2 days, so add in a bit of culture exposure, but that's really about it.

I've also been trying to have "school" with Steven every day working with colors, numbers, drawing, and the alphabet. He is the only kid I know who can read but not talk yet. Usually, when we do drawing/coloring he hands me the pencil or crayon because he loves to watch me do it but he won't do it himself (at least that is what I thought). I've never seen him do anything except a few lines and maybe a circle.

One day I went into the kitchen and let him do his coloring by himself. When I had come back I found this (he drew the one on the left, copying the clown we had been using to learn shapes). Although not perfect I was still amazed since I didn't even know he could do anything but scribble. YEAH!

The other news is that we are travelling back to the States soon for a bit. The tax documents we mentioned in the last post were accepted, so we're on schedule. We will be going through Moscow first, where Jesse will be helping out with some language consulting, and then on across the ocean. Steven will have a speech evaluation and then, if we get the go ahead from the therapist, we will take a few weeks to travel and see as many people as we can. So, if you want a visit from us hopefully you'll soon be getting your wish!

Here's some pics of the language study I was talking about earlier. I went in to work with Jesse the other day to take some pictures of him so we could show you. Here's his notebook, with a dialogue he's learning about a conversation at the immigration office:

This is his culture and language helper A. They spend a couple of hours together every morning talking in T.

This is the stolovaya in town (like a cafeteria-style restaurant). It makes Jesse sick every time he eats there, but I love it!

I mentioned that we went out to a nearby village recently to visit a friend. Her grandparents live out there, so she's staying with them for the summer and invited us to come for a weekend. I think the boys aren't quite made for apartment life; when they get out, they have a great (and dirty) time!

My friend's name is M, and you can be thinking about her. She's moving to Moscow soon, unfortunately, so we won't get to see her much, but we still really had a great time getting to know her.

A while ago some foreigners came in to work in this village. They built this giant "yurt" before they left, so we thought we'd get a picture of it. Definitely not something you see every day!

The river there was so beautiful! We tried to get a family picture there, but none of them really turned out. It was a pretty spot, though.

Here's Jesse playing with Steven in their yard. As you can see, most of the yard is a garden; there are potatoes on the right and raspberry bushes on the left.

I think my favorite thing from the time there was the real, fresh, unpasteurized cow's milk! Super delicious!

And that will do it for now. Looking forward to seeing many of you in a few weeks back in the US. Keep your eye out for a post from there in the near future, although we may post from Moscow first as we pass through.

It's So Purty!

Well, it's about time for a post, and since we don't have a lot of new photos for you, I figured I'd give a guest photographer a shot. But first, a few of us, just so you don't forget who we are.

It's been quite hot lately, and one of the boys' favorite things to do is to go down to the museum. Most of the time, the fountains are on, and when the wind is blowing and a fine cool mist comes off them, it's one of the best places to sit on a hot day. Of course, being small boys, sitting is not their thing, but running up and down the wall next to the fountains, well, that's a different story.

The wetter the better, in Matthew's view.

Daddy and Steven enjoy a break in the action to people-watch a bit.

And when it was time to go home, we splurged on a special treat - an ice cream bar! (50 cents counts as a splurge, right?)

Unfortunately, that's about all I have. We went out to a nearby village to spend the weekend with a friend, but I'll have to post those pictures later. For now, you get to enjoy some of the beauty of T-land, as photographed by our coworker David on his recent trip down near the M border:

This next one makes me think of a Kipling poem, one of my favorites:

Something hidden. Go and find it.

Go and look behind the Ranges --

Something lost behind the Ranges.

Lost and waiting for you. Go!

That's all, folks. Tune in next time, when we'll have all kinds of exciting information, such as whether or not our tax documentation was accepted, and the like. Oh, and maybe a few pictures of what we're up to when we're NOT working on documents as well.

My Friends Like to Party All the Time ...

So, in addition to the regular culture and language study, we've also managed to be involved in quite a few celebrations of late. Hence, a party-themed blog post. Between the 4^th of July (obviously a critically important holiday in central Asia) and a few birthdays, it's just been that kind of month so far.

But one thing that will kill a partying mood is lack of water. Having lived here for a few years now, we've gotten used to the fact that our hot water is turned off for a few weeks in the summer. After all, maintenance has to happen sometime, and it's much better that it happen now and not in January, when we really need our radiators humming.

But what if the cold water were turned off too? Those of you with incisive reading skills will recognize that as a segway into the fact that they turned off our cold water last week also. Hence the photo of all the bottles we could scrounge up full of water, having carried them from a friend's place. You don't really realize how much water you use every day until you have to carry it from somewhere. It did come on after a couple of days, just long enough to make sure we don't take it for granted any time soon.

The first birthday party we attended was for the son of the people we lived with out in the village when we were teaching English. He was turning 6, and we were invited along to the festivities, which were basically a picnic/barbecue in the hills. While we waited for the car that was to take us to be repaired, we killed some time by teaching Steven the most time-killing sport in existence, baseball.

But eventually we did get out there. And what a spot! I can't get over how beautiful T-land is at times.

We got the barbecue started right away, and in the foreground you can see a separate pot boiling for some T-land tea (the salty, milky stuff). It's even better when you get it made on the fire.

The birthday boy and the gift we brought.

Of course, our kids loved it. Steven and Matthew spend a lot of time cooped up in our apartment, so when they get the chance to run wild they take it! Steven was in heaven exploring the woods and throwing the frisbee.

Of course, it wouldn't be a real T event without some wrestling! This is an action shot, so it's blurry, but the boys all got on a mat and wrestled each other for quite a while. Steven loved it. It was so funny to see him taking on (and getting thrown by) boys twice his size and coming back for more again and again.

This picture was actually taken back at their house before we left, but I can't for the life of me get the website to move it into order, so here it is. One of their kids rode in on his horse, and gave our boys a chance to hop on and ride a bit. It was their first horse ride; I expected Steven to be scared, as last time we lived here he didn't want to go near the horses, but instead he loved it and cried when he had to get off. Matthew didn't really care one way or the other.

Steven and the birthday boy, who of course rides regularly.

This isn't a party shot, but the other night we had our upstairs neighbors over for supper and they wanted to take pictures afterward. We've discovered that the T people LOVE Mexican food – the enchiladas were a huge success.

I also recently celebrated the end of my 20's. Our teammates all came over for cheeseburgers and doughnuts, which was fun. Delicious food and good friends: you can't really beat that for a birthday gift.

That's about it, really. We've purchased our tickets for our westward journey coming up, but before then we've got some more trips/events planned around here, so we'll be posting pictures of them in the weeks to come.

I'll leave you with a picture of Matthew trying to fill Daddy's shoes. I think he needs to grow a bit.

A Boring Post (Update: Now With Something Interesting, At No Extra Charge!)

So, I know we need to post a blog, but there's really not much to tell about. Jesse and I are still chugging along in language and trying to develop relationships with people, and it's tough to come up with an interesting post built on that.

One thing that could be of interest is that we might have a few opportunities to go with families to some of the various areas of T-land. Oh, and it's been a little crazy with the weather here. It will be real hot (38 C) and a storm will come in a it will be chilly (20 C) for the next few days.

Thankfully, we are all healthy. Unless, you consider poor Matthew who has a total of 120 mosquito bites on his body. Poor guy looks like he has a disease or something. The rest of us also have bites but only a few. I guess Matthew is just too sweet.

Well, that is about it. Sorry, nothing too exciting, so I'll just post pictures. Enjoy.

Yep, manly men have tea parties. And below, a look at poor Matthew's bites. We thought we were avoiding the mosquitoes when we decided to work here instead of in the jungle!

Part of having boys is stifling that cringing sensation you get ("You'll hurt yourself!") sometimes. As in, when they decide to climb the balcony ladder. Actually, Steven climbs like a monkey. It's Matthew that makes us nervous when he climbs up to the top.

You know the meat is top quality when it's more fat than actual hamburger, right? Right?

Just some souvenirs. I really have nothing else to post, sorry.

*Update* Bobbie asked me to spellcheck this and post it today, but then we were spontaneously invited by my language helper to go out to "Salt Lake." If you'll recall from last year, this is a nearby tourist attraction that, much like the Dead Sea, has an extremely high salt concentration. The locals go there to bathe in its healing waters; we just went so the boys could experience a beach!

Both Matthew and Steven thoroughly enjoyed the unlimited size of the "sandbox." They didn't like getting the salty water in their faces, but once they learned to avoid that they loved it.

This is my language helper, A, and the shashlik we fixed for dinner.

We posted a similar picture last year, but we duplicated it again today. The water is so salty, you float almost on top of it, so I took a newspaper out in the waves to catch up on my reading. I don't remember if I talked about this last year, but one of the things that fascinates me about the lake is the lens effect that the salt has on the water.

What I mean is that there is so much salt in it, that it concentrates the sun's rays like a lens. It gets warmer the deeper you go, and about 5 feet down it is almost boiling! It's so bizarre to be standing in the water and to have your feet boiling hot, your waist comfortably warm, and your chest chilly.

The locals prize the mud for its curative powers. It must do something, because Bobbie tried it once a few months ago and said it did make her skin soft. I filled up a bottle with the mud for her before we left, so she could put some on here at home.

Steven and A's daughter having a grand time splashing and playing. It was so great to get the boys outside where they could just run and play wherever they wanted!

Right before we left, it started to rain and a storm looked to be brewing. As we drove across the steppe, we could look back and see the storm sweeping across the lake behind us.

Meetings

And now for something completely different.

Does anyone else remember how Monty Python would always start their skits off with that phrase? And since it represents our life of late, I thought I would start off with it.

How have things been completely different? Just this - in the past two weeks, we've had a language consultant come to check us on our project, and a couple of guys from other parts of the country to check our team and our work here and find out how things were going.

All of this has meant lots of meetings. First, it meant lots of meetings for those of us on the team so we could kind of crystallize somewhat exactly what our future plans are. What kinds of things each of us will do, timelines, that sort of thing. After we met as a team and finessed our plan, we met together with these two guys from other areas, and they gave their input. During all of this, we had our language consultant also in town, and she was checking on how we are doing in culture and language acquisition. So it was a busy time, and involved a lot of this:

That is to say, a lot of sitting around, drinking coffee, and talking. Planning, discussing, arguing ... well, of course not arguing. I mean, we're always in agreement on every detail, of course! ;-)

Fortunately, not all the meetings were about big picture things. Below is our language consultant, who last visited us in October and now came back to see how we were doing. We don't have any pictures of the things we did with her, but it basically involved her observing how we go about our culture and language study and then offering tips to improve it. Of course, there was also the dreaded level check, which actually was a source of pretty good news, all things considered.

Both Bobbie and I are at a level of Basic High in T, which means that we're close to entering the Progressing Level where you can create more freely with the language and just generally start getting out of the box of memorized phrases and variations on them. I'm really looking forward to that level; it will make getting around and just making friends much easier to do. We were both encouraged, especially Bobbie who's doing really well in T and loving it! Not to say that I'm not, it's just that the difference between this language and last has been more notable in Bobbie's case.

Of course, we did take one afternoon off the formal meetings to just take the guys around town and show them the sights. Here they are, looking suitably touristy, snapping photos of the snow-capped mountains across the river.

We also took them downtown to the big Buddhist prayer wheel. I don't think we've ever posted a picture of it on here without snow on it, so here it is wearing the latest in summer fashions - no snow.

And lastly, just for the sheer purtiness of it, a shot of the sunset. T-land is certainly a beautiful place to live!

Thanks for lifting us up during these meetings, which I think were really helpful to our overall work here. Please continue to do so as we return to regular culture and language study tomorrow.