Huddy and Josiah

Huddy definitely needs a haircut soon... I keep putting it off as it isn't a very enjoyable process but pretty soon he won't be able to see:)

More Pictures from Western Tuva

Just a few more pics from David's time out west with Aidash. Aidash brought him to another mountain that is currently being studied for it's ancient writings. On the rock face there are many pictures and different languages- some of the writing is Mongolian? Chinese?, some of it is Tibetian Script...pictures telling stories etc. Aidash has been there many times so he knew what a lot of them were, wetting the walls makes the pictures/writing easier to see. They took many pictures but I'll just put a couple on that are easier to see.
It was really great for David to be able to spend that time, getting to know Aidash and his culture and family and background a little bit more. He is a super nice guy, we really appreciate him and his wife Era. She is having a really rough pregnancy (really bad morning sickness, she's been in and out of the hospital for it for months) so we haven't seen her much- we miss being with them. Please keep Era and Aidash and their son Aidiir in your thoughts. They are pretty special to us...

The Wishing Cave/Mountain

The top part of the climb up wishing mountain. You can see the cave in the middle of the picture.

Some of the items left in the cave- cars, dolls, houses, letters...

Aidash getting ready to climb through the little passage/cave.

Aidash took David to a very special mountain where it is said they hid all the important Buddhist temple items- relics that would have been destroyed during communism. Now the mountain is sacred to them. Because of all those items were buried in the mountain the mountain is very powerful now- the power comes out of a special cave. They say that it is true that your wishes will come true on that mountain.
It is a pretty good hike up the mountain to get to where the wishing cave is. The wishing cave is the place where people leave a symbol of something they want. You can see in the pictures that people have left things like toy cars or dolls or little toy houses representing their wish for a real car or a son or daughter or a house. They also leave money if they would like to be rich or a stethoscope if hoping to become a doctor or just a note listing what they are hoping/praying for. It is a very popular spot to go- you can't see in the pictures how many things there are in that cave- hundreds and hundreds. Aidash and his wife are expecting so he left a baby girl doll as they are hoping for a daughter this time. They also hang a prayer flags- the sides of the mountain are covered in flags.
To make the wish come true one should climb through (spalunking David says:) a wee little cave that is next to the bigger cave. Aidash tried but he got a little stuck and a little scared- it is a very narrow dark cave...even David had a lot of trouble getting through but he made it eventually. Aidash had to actually push David through- David would have been stuck too if Aidash wasn't there to help! Inside the little passage way the walls were rubbed shiny because so many people have squeezed through. I'll put the next and last installment of Western Tuva pictures on tomorrow if blogger lets me- I've been having trouble uploading photos lately.

Aidash took David to see this Buddhist temple that was taken down during communism. Every summer for the last 10 years they have a big music concert (with all the major throatsingers) to raise money to rebuild the temple. They plan to build a new one inside the remains of the old one. It is a very important/sacred/holy place. Aidash took off his hat and walked around it three times. I'll put some more pictures of Aidash's favorite places on later. The music festival is around the middle/end of July this year- maybe we should go as we haven't been able to go to any throatsinging concerts yet.

Happy Easter!

We have no one to celebrate Easter with here so we went on a morning walk today searching for some symbols of new life. We couldn't find anything, no buds, no blades of grass, no green anywhere... All we saw was dead things around- old leaves from last year, old grass poking up from the snow and even a cute dead little puppy:( Wasn't quite what we were looking for... So on the way home we bought some pretty tulips:)

It was nice and warm...We had fun wandering around... I like this area alot. I think I've said that a few times already:) I love being just a few blocks from the center of Asia and the view of the mountains and being so close to the city center and the rocky beach...nice.

We also had another yummy turkey dinner. I know it isn't the normal easter food but it was good! We found cranberry jam (they don't have cranberry sauce) and had gravy and corn and mashed potatoes and punch...mmm. a good day.

Easter Walk

Josiah at the centre of asia monument.

Ice Surfing-there is a lot of ice these days...

Huddy Buddy

English Club

Dolgarmaa and Togi deciding what to order and Zhenya ready to take their order.

They got a little silly and a little too demanding in the end, I think Dolgarmaa would have been kicked out of the restaurant if it was a real one:) Emma helps them out when they can't think of how to ask for something or what to say.

I made about 10 different menus for different types of restaurants from Sushi to Italian. Just thought Sandy would like this one- named it after you:) Though I'm not sure you even like coleslaw:) Don't know why I made beer cheaper than juice. Must be in Russia...

Tumiin, Emma and Huddy playing during English Club.

After class fellowship time. I try to make foods that are american/canadian so that they can learn English words like cupcakes:)

Edward and Aldunai are on the couch. Edward is such a nice guy, always smiling and he is just so interested in us and in learning English, makes teaching a pleasure.

English Club

Here are some pictures from English Club. Every Friday night I teach a 1 hour English Lesson and then we have one hour for food and fellowship (usually ends up being just in Russian which is good for me:). Last week we ended up with Japanese written all over the white board but we try to stick to English and Russian. We have had about 12 different students- if they all came our living room would be quite full but usually only about 5 show up. It is tricky figuring out how to teach them- even though it is a small class they are all at such different levels... I try to just pick a theme (like clothing, eating out, the family etc.) and teach some real basic things and include some harder stuff for those who need more. We might need to split them up- confusing for the beginners.

Aldunai and Edward bring their son Tumiin along so our kids get to learn Russian too while they play:) Emma much prefers being in with the adults or more specifically being right beside Dolgarmaa though so it usually just ends up being the boys in the other room.

Yesterday at home Emma was jabbering away in Russian and asked Josiah a few things in Russian- he answered back in Russian and then after a while it occurred to him "Hey, we're talking Russian!!!!" The boys don't have much opportunity to learn Russian so it is so fun to hear them speaking a few things anyway.

We were at Aldunai and Edward's for supper last night. Aldunai made Manti (like big juicy meat tortellini) and we also had bread, pickles, beet salad and also a salad made with potatoes, mayonnaise and sea weed. It was all good. I'll have to learn how to make Manti from her because so far she makes the best ones we've had. I'm not used to eating sea weed but it wasn't so bad...just very very salty. We had a great time visiting with them again.

Hi! I need to go through David's pictures with him again- most of the pictures need explanation and we have only rushed through them once. So I'll just put the ones on that don't need explaining for now... hmmm...nevermind. they won't upload- I'll try tomorrow:)

We had English Club tonight- really fun and crazy. I have pictures from that too to put on at some point. I am tired but can't sleep- still feel like there are a bunch of giggling girls in here:)

Tomorrow we are going to our friends Edward and Aldunai's house again. So glad to spend more time with them. They were at English Club but it will be nice to spend some time just with them.

Back from Ak-Dovurak

He's back again. I'll wait to put all the pictures on. Too much adventure for one week:) David had a great time going to Ak-Dovurak (300km west of Kyzyl) with our friend Aidash. There was an actual road so it was an easy drive. Aidash grew up there so it was really fun for him to show David around, they had a great day together- hiking, exploring caves, visiting important monuments and buddhist and shamanistic places, visiting the school he went to when he was a kid, drinking tuvan tea with his mom and aunt... We'll share some of the experiences later. I'm so glad to have him back again. He didn't have to eat anything too strange which is good because he is still recovering from the raw bear fat:)

More Pictures of David with the Herders

These guys (who had been drinking all morning and afternoon) begged David to spend the evening/night with them instead of going back to the hotel. Probably would have been an interesting evening but seeing as David got very sick it was a good thing he didn't accept.
I have so many pictures I'd still like to put on but I'll try to wait...sorry...picture overload:)

David with his new friends drinking tuvan tea. Tuvans traditionally drink from bowls. David was just getting a picture of him with one guy and they all ran over to be in the picture with David.
David with a reindeer herder. This guy didn't really talk but David liked just sitting with him.

More food- pike, pine nuts, breads and jams. I like the look of this bunch of food.

Reindeer Herding

Ask George what these are...
Tuvan Tea (made with melted snow, milk and salt)
Reindeer Milk (slightly frozen, kind of like sour cream?)
I have lots of pictures to put on... here are a few of them. David took lots of good, interesting pictures. Good man. Speaking of David.... he's gone again! Just for the day though as our friend Aidash (who is driving him somewhere west) has to work tomorrow so he only had today to bring David around the countryside. We are so glad Aidash is willing to do this- much easier to travel with someone then solo especially when you don't know the area or Tuvan. He'll probably have more interesting foods to try- probably more along the line of sheep though this time. We'll see!