A Birthday Picnic and Other Photos

The view from our window the other night - spectacular!

The Wandering Family, from time to time, manages to wander themselves silly, to the point where blog updates are left by the wayside. That's my excuse, anyway.

And really, it's not like our lives have changed dramatically in the last two weeks. Well, we did make another trip out to "Paradise," the village we've been living/working in recently, and our coworkers are back, but that's getting ahead of myself. I should just let the pictures do the explaining:

Yes, our long-lost coworkers are back! With their twins in tow! And they are predictably cute.

And our boys enjoy them being back as well. Steven and Matthew had missed some of their favorite playmates, but no longer.

And, just to prove that the seemingly-interminable winter is actually over, here's an outdoor shot.

Of course, it's not all been fun and games since they got back. D and C's apartment is exactly the same layout as ours (not as rare as you'd think, since they all had to be approved by a bureaucrat in Moscow back in the Soviet days), and they decided that they'd like to remove the wall in between their living room and kitchen. We had also been thinking about making that change, and now we really want to after seeing how it makes their apartment feel.

Anyway, this photo is not of the work going on, which I don't have pictures of, but the work "glove" we constructed out of duct tape for lack of better options when hauling broken concrete out. It worked great!

And we have managed to convert some of our village friendships into town friendships; this is our host family enjoying a meal at our apartment recently. I don't know how much they enjoyed the American-style baked beans and fried chicken, but they didn't really give us enough advance notice to cook a more T-palate-friendly dish, so I guess they're stuck with it!

We did manage to wander our way out to the village where we've been teaching English and studying T culture and language. Somehow the student on the right doesn't seem to be appreciating the dynamic nature of my teaching style. I can't understand it.

Steven thought he could do a better job of holding their interest. Unfortunately, he's only qualified to teach the lower-case "l."

We happened to be out in the village for Matthew's 2nd (!!) birthday, so we took advantage of some nice weather and went out for a picnic. Two of our students fell in with us on the way, and we hiked up into the hills as far as the boys' little legs would carry them.

We tried to get some birthday photos; I like this one of Daddy and Matthew, who seems to be intent on tasting the flavor of his bubble thingy.

Like all good boys, Matthew likes bubbles. Here, one of the students is helping him blow some.

Meanwhile Daddy and Steven were playing in the dirt with sticks. Because that's what you do when you're a man.

Matthew managed to cap off the day by setting an international record for cuteness.

We brought him home to tuck into some birthday cupcakes and milk.

After which he was so tired he fell asleep standing up. Actually, this was taken a few days later, but I still like how he can manage to fall halfway off the bed and still not wake himself up.

Paradise

Yep, paradise. I bet you wouldn't have guessed you could find it in the middle of Siberia, but it turns out that's where it is.

What am I talking about? The village we've been spending all this time is actually named for the mythical Buddhist paradise of Shambhala. You can check out what that's about here, but the short version is that it's the inspiration for the Shangri-La that was popularized by Western writers. It is rumored to be anywhere from Tibet to T-land, but of course the people here claim that we're living in the real thing.

Which judgment, of course, we're inclined to agree with. I don't know about the New Age "energies" of the place, but as far as life goes, it's pretty good there. We've started to get the hang of our English classes which take up our mornings, and the kids are starting to make some progress. More importantly, we're getting lots of chances to learn language and culture. Culture more than language, probably, since most of what's going on around us goes over our heads, but it's still really good. On to the pictures of our latest week out in Paradise:

Unfortunately, paradise does have a few minor drawbacks. Especially this time of year, otherwise known as "The Swamp Period" as all the snow and animal droppings start to melt and combine to make the town a massive smelly marsh. Not so nice.

Oh, and the food. Yeah. Also not so "paradisey." This is the famous "Congealed Pressed Fat" dish. Served raw, in slices. Mmmmmmm.

But apart from all of that, it's great. This is our most "rowdy" class of kids, the ones in 5th class.

And back on the home front, the kids love it out there. Steven even volunteered to sweep the floor!

The family we live with keeps the television on pretty much 24-7, so it's not like their kids haven't seen it, but they almost never watch kids programs. So, when we get out a movie for the boys on our laptop, they tend to get on the bed with them to watch.

This has been a very harsh and long winter here, and it's taken a toll on the animals. Our hosts have lost over 40 sheep and a few cows as well. Our coworkers recently bought 2 of their sheep, in an effort to start their own "herd" and mainly to help out our hosts. They were able to buy some hay to see them through the rest of the winter until things melt enough for the animals to go out and forage for themselves.

However, the cows have almost starved to death by this point, and they are too weak to get up if they lay down or fall. Seems like about once a day we all have to go out to pick one of them up. Here we're setting up for the lifting process, which takes at least 3 people and is quite difficult.

One of the odder things to us, culturally, is the way they deal with the sheep that starve to death. Rather than skin them for the wool or try to get what little meat is left on them, they just throw them into a pile and give them to the dogs. Here, what I initially thought was a nice sheepskin bed this dog was lying on turned out to be merely a pile of dead sheep. Looks comfortable, though.

If you'll recall, a few months ago we had a picture of me looking ridiculous dressed up in a local outfit. Now it's Bobbie's turn!

And this one is just a bonus. Congratulations to John and my sister Rachael on your wedding! Sorry we couldn't be there, but on second thought, considering the stock of pictures and stories I could share, maybe it's best for y'all that we weren't. ;-) We love you and will be lifting you up as you start your life together.

The Village

Well, I'm sorry to say you have to read another blog from me (Bobbie). We got back from the village last Saturday but Jesse has been sick so it is now up to me to keep y'all up to date.

As most of you already know, our team here had been invited to come teach English in a village. We've been really trying to find opportunities to get into natural cultural situations, so when we found out we could live with a T family while we were there, we jumped at the chance.

Steven in a "natural cultural situation." Not loving it.

Our coworkers went the first two weeks (to see their pictures click on "Privyet" to the right) and then it was our turn. We arrived there on a Sunday evening and got settled in. It was a interesting set up and one that we had to get use to. Our "bedroom" was actually in the living room at the end. There were 3 other rooms in the house which were all attached to the living room and only one had a door (the room where they keep the baby sheep and cows so they won't freeze).

All the other rooms were open to each other so we had to get use to changing and even using the bathroom (aka a pee can) with other people in the house. It worked out pretty well as we figured out each other's schedules. Life in general is pretty flexible there. Well, I would have to say VERY flexible there. No set time to eat or go to sleep.

Our bedroom

The lady of the house would usually fix a pot of soup around 10:00am which was eaten by the family (and friends) as they came in and out. You never knew when people would show up or how many there would be but you had to have enough food to feed all of them. I had to learn this as I fixed several meals while I was there. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way, as a couple of times the poor lady had to whip up something really quick since I didn't fix enough. Now I know!

Another example of how laid back people are there was our schedule at the school where we were teaching. It was posted every day what classes we were to have but as the days went on we quickly saw that we had to be ready for anything since the classes that were supposed to come didn't and classes that were supposed to be in the afternoon came in the morning and vice versa. Some classes we would have only 3 children but the next day there would be 9 in the same class.

But, we rolled with the flow and took everything in stride. I mean, why stress out over something that you can't change, right? So, the next time you see us, we'll be even more laid back and flexible than before - whether this is good or bad, you be the judge!

So, we got settled in and started teaching our classes the next day. Actually, Jesse taught all the classes the first day as I went and stayed with the kids at daycare since it was their first time.

I quickly realized a few things: One, I need to start potty training Matthew (almost 2) as every kid his age there is already mostly potty trained. Second, Steven loves to run. They have a large play room they use as a gym. Steven had to be dragged out crying each time (they have a schedule and only go in there during certain times). Third, I need to teach them how to share. BIG PROBLEM. I'm open to suggestions if you have a way to teach children this. And lastly, I shouldn't be in the room watching them as they act so much worse when I'm around.

They fed the boys something like grits at snacktime; Matthew loved it!

By midday I left, realizing how much better they did if they didn't see me. So, I went to join Jesse in his classes and realized he needed some help with the younger kids. That's how I got to teach grades 1-7.

Once classes were over we would eat at the school then I would head back to the house and talk with the lady of the house (A) to practice my local language. She is the same age as me and has kids the same age as ours, so we had a lot in common. She also loved to watch Hell's Kitchen with me so we got along great. Jesse hung out with S and practiced his language as well.

We also helped around the house cleaning, cooking, milking the cows (I actually successfully milked a cow!), and hauling water. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot - they don't have running water, so getting water for all the sheep and cows and people was a big task every day.

We stayed busy and slept well. We learned a lot about the culture and are looking forward to going back. Please keep them in your thoughts as this winter has been the worst winter in a long, long time. Their animals are starving and they have no money to buy hay for them. One day they even went out and just brought back pine branches and dead leaves for the animals to have at least something - they attacked it like it was alfalfa or something. This is the case not only for them but for most of Siberia. We're getting tired of all the cold and snow too, but at least our livelihoods aren't dependent on seeing some greenery soon.

Bottle-feeding a premature calf in what turned out to be a doomed effort - it died 3 days after being born

And that's about it. We'll be taking turns going out to the village over the next few months, so we'd appreciate your thoughts. Also, Jesse has been sick since we got back, so he's anxious to start feeling better and get in the office to start going though all his new language data. Thanks!

We leave you with this picture of the nicest outhouse we found in town. Chills my backside just remembering it (yes, that's snow)!

Edit: one last picture of Steven and one of their puppies, just for the grandparents.

Moskva!

Moscow got a bit of snow last week

Yep, back in Moscow. Or M-va, as we gangstas like to refer to it. And you know me - nothing says "gangsta" quite like a freckled white guy wearing jeans. It's just how I roll.

So, what have I been doing? Language, of course! In the course of training to help out with the culture and language program, I was asked to come back to Moscow to help out with a checkup for some of the students here. That meant a lot of this:

Followed by the other consultant and I listening to what was recorded, and talking with some native Russian speakers about the language sample we got. It's a lot of work, but hopefully it will help out those in the process of learning culture and language. We had a productive time here, I think, and I hope that we were able to give them some good direction and advice for their future study.

Anyway, it hasn't all been work here, and you wouldn't really enjoy the pictures of it even if it were. We did have some space in the schedule one day, and I went out to try to find some peanut butter and other things we can't get out in T-land. Amusingly, in the local mall, was this shop:

...claiming to sell salteñas, which if you'll recall from a few posts down is a famous Bolivian dish. I didn't buy any, though, as they were clearly something different.

I did manage to go to the absolutely atrocious Ashan store, which was packed with people at 2 on a Thursday afternoon. I can't imagine what it must be like on a weekend these days. To make matters worse, they didn't have any peanut butter.

One of the best things about the trip has been seeing all of our old friends here. This is our friend Nadira, making plov:

... and her sister Delia, serving it up. It was so good to see them again! (Not to mention to eat the tasty real Uzbek plov!)
I've also gotten to have some other foods that we can't get out East, including McDonald's and once, as seen below, even Papa Johns. These are our friends Gudrun and Ivor (she's had some neck problems lately and hence is wearing the brace).

Here's the whole gang, post-plov (except Shawna, who's taking the picture). It's a fun group to be with, and it's been an enjoyable visit.

But that doesn't mean I'm not anxious to get back to this:

Steven's been quite sick since I left, and Bobbie just let me know that now Matthew is coughing and hacking as well. Please lift them up in your thoughts - especially Bobbie who's very tired and needing some rest. Taking care of little ones is hard enough, but it's harder when they're sick and I'm not there to help out some.

I'll leave you with a video we took a few weeks back of our neighbor playing a common T game, if for no other reason than I have fast enough internet here to upload videos. When the T people slaughter a sheep, they save the knuckles, and over time get quite a collection of them. Then, you can play a series of games with them, one of which is similar to jacks:

The Torture Chamber (aka The Banya)

Yes, my head looks like a giant blueberry. I like it. So what?

Hi everyone! So, this is to catch you up on what I have been up to. Jesse is leaving me (well, at least temporarily). He is fleeing (I mean flying) soon to Moscow to do some work there and then will hopefully be coming back. Since he is taking the computer I figured I should post something since I'll probably forget by the time he gets back. Anyway, I haven't been up to too much different from what he's been doing. You know, language sessions, practicing the language, learning the culture, having a 3 hour torture in the local torture chamber here.

Well, that is what I call it. They call it a healthy, relaxing experience (aka the banya). For those who don't know what a banya is, it is a public bath (men and women are separated, of course). Once you pay you are taken into a locker room where you are told to strip everything. Then they put you into a superheated room and keep you in there until you collaspe of heat exhaustion. They then drag your overheated body out and throw a bucket of ice cold water on it, jump-starting your heart.

After about 3 rounds of this they take a rough surface cloth and literally rub the skin off of your entire body (all the dead skin and even some of your good skin). In case you thought it couldn't get any worse they pour a bucket of warm water over your raw skin causing pain I can't even describe. To add to the "experience" you are not allowed anything to drink or eat during this time. By the end I was confessing sins I didn't even know I had committed. Anything just to make it end!

Of course, that is how I described my bath the day it happened but now I've had about a week to recuperate I can see how they would enjoy such an "experience". Nudity is not a big deal to them so it wouldn't be humiliating. I was telling the friend who took me that it is not really something that is commonly seen in the States and she was shocked and started laughing when she saw I was trying to hide myself with my towel.

The sauna is made to be that hot to make you literally start pouring sweat which cleanses your body of toxins. I was told that the cold water is to help strengthen your heart, so apparently you shouldn't do this if you have a bad heart. While in the sauna they will take either a bristly brush or a branch and beat/rub their skin to open the pores and allow the toxins to drain out. If your skin is not red and blotchy you are not doing it right!

Once your skin is slick, they will rub it until it is raw which means they got all of the dead/bad skin off. A few things that actually did feel really good was that they put honey on their skin in the sauna which soothes the redness. Then, towards the end they will do a mud mask on the skin and then put lotion on it. That part I enjoyed!

Unfortunately, I did not eat beforehand and by the end had such low blood sugar (I'm hypoglycemic) I struggled to make it home. I spent the rest of the day in bed. The funny thing is, I want to go back and do it again. I'll do a few things differently but decided it was overall a good way to get clean, and especially to spend time with the people in a cultural setting.

Moving on to a more pleasant experience, our coworker, Erin, and I were invited to "judge" students cooking the traditional local food here. I add the quotation marks because we wouldn't even know how it was supposed to taste so we couldn't really give a valid opinion on it. We did enjoy the whole thing overall, however.

It consisted of two days, the first being a traditional meal and the second day being traditional desserts. Erin couldn't make it the first day so it was just me. I understood about 20% of what they were saying. Some of it was pretty good but some was, uh, interesting. They don't use a lot of spices and flavorings here so it would be considered bland to most people but they really enjoy that kind of food.

The second day Erin was with me and we were able to see how they make desserts. It all basically consists of jello. Some were tasty, some were not. At the end they asked if Erin and I could come back in March and teach their English students how to make American food. So, if you have an idea, let me know.

And that should about do it. Thanks for visiting, and check back soon for a post on Jesse's trip to Moscow, as well as more on our plans to go live in the village. You can check the Privyet link for some pictures of our coworkers' time out there.

Winter Adventures

Well, we've actually had quite a bit going on over the past week! The first week after our last post had a lot more of the same, with language study being unremarkable and our lives just going along. Thus, I put off posting for a bit, but this past week we've actually had enough of interest to merit a new post.

Let's start with a Bolivian meal, and we'll save the big news for last:

One of my favorite foods in the whole wide world is the Bolivian dish of salteñas. They're like these little pockets of meat, olive, egg, and spices, and about the best thing ever tasted. The problem is that they take massive amounts of spices unavailable in central Siberia as well as loads of time and effort. So Bobbie doesn't often break down and make them.

However, as a special treat, she fixed up a batch (the recipe we have makes 50!) for me last week. This is only one tray out of several. Just looking at this incites me to inappropriate lust for food. ;-)

In other news, it was Bobbie's birthday last week as well. I'll let you ask her how old she is now (but I still have to point out that I'm younger). Her and our friend Erin went to the fanciest restaurant in town for lunch (about $6).

For supper, our friends watched our boys so that I could make Bobbie a special meal. I had intended to get all gourmet, but due to lack of ingredients ended up making steak, baked potatoes, and roasted peppers. I think she liked it, though.

So, what is the big news alluded to earlier? Well, we've managed to make an arrangement to go out and live in a village on a regular basis! Some of you know that we've been trying to/thinking about doing something like this for some time, but it just hasn't worked out.

The problem has been to this point that it's difficult to get time with the people in a natural T cultural context in town. People might invite us over for dinner, but even that is fairly rare and we just don't spend that much time immersed in the language and culture. All of our study is in our office with our helpers, which makes things somewhat artificial.

No longer! Our coworkers left today for their stay out in the sticks, and when they come back we'll replace them, and then take turns. It will hopefully be a really good environment for our culture and language studies, and we can provide a benefit to the people there as well by teaching English in return.

We'll be teaching English at the school shown above. The school is actually one of the "national schools" which run in the T language, so there won't be much Russian influence there, which is good for us. The people in town during our visit spoke little Russian, so there will be a lot of good opportunities for us to be in T situations.

Below is the kindergarten where the kids will go. I think we can get both boys in there, which would be great as it would free up Bobbie in the mornings and get them more exposure to the T language, which we're hoping they'll start learning.

One of the best things about this opportunity is that we'll be living with a T family. Our host teaches music at the national school, and has a place where we can live in their living room. Basically, the kids will sleep on the floor and Bobbie and I can fit onto their futon/couch-thing. Or vice versa, maybe, I guess we'll have to see. Anyway, this is taken outside the house with David and I and our host (in the white sweater) and a few of the people from the school.

This is their back yard! We will get lots of chances to see how to milk cows and take care of sheep and that sort of thing. They even keep chickens in a basement below their kitchen floor! The only thing I'm worried about is getting sick - I don't relish the thought of constant diarrhea (which seems to plague all of us when we eat T food) in an outhouse at -40. But overall, it should be really good, especially for our language acquisition.

So that's it! Please be thinking of us in the upcoming months, and you can start thinking about our coworkers and their kids right now (they left a few hours ago to take the first "turn).

Here's a picture of the boys in some cutesy Russian outfits Bobbie got somewhere, for the grandparents: