In the newspaper again...

This is old news but we just discovered it now so it is new news to us:) David was interviewed way back in January but we never found out if it was in the paper or not. David wasn't expecting them to interview him that day so he was just in his t-shirt and had hat head and extra facial hair (which is not very respectable here). Funny that they put such a close-up of him this time...

The article is titled "Why are you helping other people?". David's response basically was that we love people, we see the tuvans all over the streets drunk and hopeless and we want to help them have hope in whatever ways we can. He explained the kind of projects we have done and hope to do and why we would come all the way to Tuva to help.

Tonight we had the first English Class with the journalists (one of them wrote this article). We knew that they were beginners but all the exercises we had prepared were way too hard for them. Now we will know for next class to really start with the basics. I'm not sure how this class is going to work out as the journalists are much older than we expected them to be and not the liveliest bunch. We'll have to be creative to get them writing and talking in a new language. There should be about 18 of them once we figure out a time that works for everyone. They aren't just journalists but they work for the local tv channels and newspapers. I don't know how far we will be able to get them in the 20 lessons that we will be able to do before we leave but we are glad that we will be able to get to know them better anyway. We are planning on giving them lots of cookies and good grades so that they only have good things to say about us in the news:)

Tomorrow is a very important day- it is the day that David and Christy finally get to apply for residency. We really really really hope it all goes well. It has been so much work and expense for them to get to this stage and have all their documents in hand- we sure hope they are accepted..... please remember them tomorrow, we are hoping that they have helpful people working tomorrow and that all the papers are just right and there isn't any unexpected problems or extra paperwork that will need to be done.

The power is out again- we never know why but it is happening pretty often lately. So I am just going to post this quick before our laptop battery dies.
We are having a great time catching up on all that is new and just enjoying having David and Christy around. Baby Micah is soooo cute and so little. It has been a long time since we have seen a baby- especially such a new one. They won't be here long but it is so good to have them around. We will meet often this week to do some planning and they will hand in the paperwork to apply for temporary residency. We are still waiting for David's fingerprints/police check to be done.
We start teaching the group of journalists tomorrow. I was just making up a sort of quiz to try and figure out what level of English they are at. Tomorrow we will just spend the lesson getting to know them and gauge their level. Because the group is too big and too formal to meet in our living room we won't be able to both be at the class so I will probably make the lessons and then David will teach them. We might switch it up once in a while too. We are going to have class twice a week at one of the buildings downtown.
It is pretty windy out and kinda rainy... battery is dying, better post this!

Catching a bit of sun...

It was another beautiful day yesterday. We had a busy day yesterday with a language session in the morning with Sayanna, Emma's schooling, getting a few things ready for our co-workers arrival (they are here! yay!) and preparing for English Club (we had a big group yesterday) but we had to get some sun in too:) The kids had a lot of fun playing in the now dry sand and walking around on the rocks. David and I rolled up our pant legs and tried to get a little sun on them- unfortunately it got a little cloudy once we were down at the beach so no tans yet...

As I was walking around the other day past the little houses I noticed for the first time how they were going to get their water. I had heard that they don't have running water but had never actually seen them going to get it before- I don't know how I've haven't seen it... There were quite a few filing up their metal jugs when we were out that day, some have to go pretty far to get it. I can't imagine us living without water- David would spend the whole day going back and forth to the water spout! Sometimes we wonder if we should try to get a house here eventually with a yard for the kids to play in and a fence:) and have a place for bikes and sleds and be able to make our home cute and cozy instead of just a concrete apartment but when you walk around the houses here and think about having no indoor plumbing- no toilet, no washing machine etc. we realize our apartment is much more luxurious:)
Emma really enjoyed being at her class the whole day and going to the special colouring contest with the two other girls that were chosen from her school. I didn't understand everything that Emma's teacher said about it when I picked Emma up but I did understand that Emma came in Third! As far as I know there were kids from all the different kindergartens. Emma won some toys for her classroom. She didn't have to draw anything today- I guess they had some drawings already that she had done.

Tomorrow is a big day for our Emmachka... She has been selected along with 2 other girls from her school to go to some sort of drawing competition. We don't really know what it is but we are proud of her that her teacher picked her to go. She does draw pretty good, but we wonder if she will know what they are looking for tomorrow. What if they ask her to draw something that she doesn't know. Her Russian is still pretty limited of course... Maybe her teacher will pick something easy for her. Emma is pretty excited.

Our Front yard

When I took the top picture of the boys I was thinking how cute they look playing together in the dirt- josiah didn't used to like getting dirty but I think he is starting to realize that being clean isn't an option if you are going to play outside here:) But now looking at the picture I realize how ugly it is, the dirt, broken things everywhere, walls falling apart, everything is grey unless they paint it. We are so used to it now that I hardly notice it. I think it will be shocking to us all to see a canadian front yard with green grass and intact buildings and playground equipment instead of scraps of metal and grey sand. I think the boys will miss all the rocks.
Today we met with the journalist again. She didn't come to interview us but rather to see if we would be willing to teach English to the journalists. I think it is a great idea to get to know and hopefully become friends with the journalists in town- they will have to write nice things about us:) We start next thursday. The journalist is a tuvan lady who is married to a finnish man. Pretty interesting couple. He doesn't speak Tuvan and she doesn't speak Finnish. He speaks Finnish to their little girl and she speaks Tuvan and a little bit of Russian to her. The husband and wife speak to eachother in English. But of course she speaks Russian to us. How confusing her day is!!!! Her husband would probably like to meet other English speakers- we'll have to have them over for supper sometime. I'll try to use the finnish words I know too:)

There's my man.....

This time you can see him!!!! I took this picture from outside our front door. I had David move over to where there is a break in the trees above the circle thing and wave his packsack in the air. It is pretty warm up there- he's just in his t-shirt (and pants:).

David had a great time yesterday with the climbing guy- Dima. We were invited to go to the school where he teaches to climb on the wall and just use the gym for fun- the kids would love it! We will probably go over there some evening this week if we get a chance. Dima has a wife and three kids too so we are excited to get to know them better. The guys that were there at the school last night were pretty thrilled to have David climbing with them.

If you are interested in the writing on the mountain click here for information about the mantra. You can even get an audio sample of how it sounds.

Friendly Day!

Yesterday Emma introduced herself to a group of girls that were playing in our yard. She became instant friends with one girl named Ailena. Then today she went out to play with Ailina and met all the other girls- Vika, Nastya, Danya, and Oolana. She was so excited to now be as she says "in their group". These kids play out there from noon till 9 or 10pm! We had Emma out there for maybe 4.5 hours today- which I thought was pretty long but of course she wasn't quite ready to come in yet:)

I watched her from in our apartment- the pictures are through our double glass so they aren't so clear. It is nice living right next to the playground so we can keep an eye on her but not have to sit outside with her like she is a little kid. She has been hoping to meet some of the kids in our building and finally she has- hurray for warm weather! It is so fun watching her from the window- can't tell what she is saying to them but she sure talks a lot- her mouth was always moving!!!!

Even David is out making new friends today... We've been hearing about a guy named Dima who teaches rockclimbing in the schools and has a small indoor rockclimbing wall. He teaches some of our english students and others we know have told us about him too. David's been reading a mountaineering book in Russian by a Tuvan man and this guy Dima is mentioned in the book so David knows a little bit about him already. Well.. just a few hours ago, Dima called David and invited him to come over to the school this evening to do some kind of sports thing- not sure what yet... I'm sure Dima and David are having a great time talking about rockclimbing and hopefully planning some climbing trips! We have a bag of climbing equipment waiting to be used under our bed....

And I got to visit with Sayanna and Era today! We haven't seen much of Era because she is pregnant and has really bad morning sickness so she can't visit and doesn't go out much. But I bumped into her twice at the food store this week and got to give her some hugs and have a little bit of a talk. We sure miss being with Era and Aidash.

Emma is reading this post as I write it. She is a pretty good reader now. She is always asking me what things mean that she reads around the house like "Mommy, What does inspiron mean?" Or "What does Samsung mean?" or "What does Yahoo mean?" She thinks I don't know much perhaps cause I usually end up saying "I don't know!" or "It's just a name I think" She is way ahead on her reading schedule- but we have lots of other books she can read...she even reads David's climbing magazines in the bathroom:) She isn't fast yet but she rarely needs help reading if it is a kids book. Kinda fun. We love it as she can read to the boys- so sweet to see the three of them curled up on the couch reading a story together...

Can you see David?

I can't either:) But I know he is in the picture... David hiked up the mountain again- this time with a heavier pack. He called me from up there to see if I could see all the people up there from our apartment. I went out our front door and took the first two pictures. You can see on the paths by the Tibetan Script that there are maybe a hundred or more people up there. He was the only one there last time but this time there is some sort of Buddhist ritual going on. He said they were hanging prayer flags and had a big fire going burning up milk and other offerings.

He watched them for a while, chatted with a few people and then headed up furthur to the peak again. Now he is resting on the back of the mountain where there is some nice sunshine and even a bit of grass. Next time he hikes up we'll have to go down to the beach- I'm sure from there we would be able to see him.

The last picture is one I took yesterday when we were wandering just so you can get a clearer picture of the mountain.

A little bit of cold...

Friday and Saturday were pretty cold- had to use our winter jackets again. We were in the house all day on Thursday and Friday with language sessions and English Club and other things so we really needed to get some fresh air/open space on Saturday. We went down to the beach and had a walk through the park- it was pretty chilly but was still nice. We played with the ice that is left on the beach.

We hope it warms up again as our co-workers are coming back for a couple of weeks and we'd love it to be warm for them! We are very excited to see them! Please remember them as they travel- won't be an easy journey with the kids and Micah's cast and all the flights it takes to get here from Germany. They have their paperwork ready to apply for temporary residency and there are still about 17 spots left so we are really hoping that it works out for them to be accepted. We are still waiting for our documents...not sure if we will be able to apply before we have to leave in July... You can follow their blog by clicking on David and Christy at the right. We can't wait to meet their little boy Micah!!!

Huddy's favorite place in our neighbourhood...

Today Josiah wasn't feeling so good- probably just tired or maybe he is getting David's cold... so just Huddy and I went for a walk while Emma was at school. I knew Huddy would like to go ride the motorbike.

Most of the playground equipment- well all of it:) is very old and broken etc. but he sure likes this bike. It is kinda cool as the front wheel turns. Huddy had a great time on it- you should hear his motorbike sounds.. If you stand too close to him you get kinda damp:)

Warm again today...20 C. I'm tempted to put the rest of our winter clothes under our bed...

Another warm day...

David's little hike close to home....

Today was nice and warm again...don't need jackets if you are out of the wind. I took this picture today as the kids and I were wandering around. David has a pretty bad cold today but he hiked up this mountain anyway.

He has been invited to climb/hike up a mountain (Mongun-Taiga 3970 m.) with some alpinists in May when they have a yearly climbing festival. He is excited about it but is not quite sure if he is physically up for the challenge as it has been so long since we have done any physical activity. Of course we walk all the time- having no car does that to you but as far as intense activity we haven't had anything of the sort. So he thought he would try hiking up our little mountain and see how he feels about doing one 10 times as hard:)

You can see where he hiked up if you look close- there is a path that passes by the Tibetan script and then heads to the right and up to the very top. There is also writing on the top on the right but it is hard to see this year- especially in a small picture:) The path goes up and down over all the hills. There are lots of prayer flags and piles of stones up there- holy places. It only took him 3 hours to walk to the mountain and hike up and down again and walk back to our house...seems pretty good. Next time he'll try it with a heavier pack on.

Hot and Sticky Huddy

18 degrees C in Siberia!!!!

We have been hearing about the snowstorms in Canada but here we are having beautiful, dry heat. We had a few days of sandstorms but now there is little breeze and lots of warm sun. You can see the forcast for the next few days by clicking here....nice. 21 C! We spent a long time out in the sun today. Everyone else still had their coats and jackets on so I tried to keep jackets on the kids but we all ended up in our t-shirts- and we were still too hot. It is very warm in our apartment as the heat is still on, we've got the windows open but there isn't much breeze so it might be a hot night for us. Now you can all stop feeling bad for us in Siberia:) Maybe you are having a heat spell now too?

Yuri Gagarin

When Emma and I were walking home today past this statue she said, "Oh..that is Yuri. He was the first man in space. He's Russian." I pretended like I knew:) She said her teacher taught them about him. If you need to learn about him too click here.

Our beach

Emma and I went for a little walk to our beach today. We've had really warm weather and even some wild sandstorms lately. The sand really gets in your eyes all the time...tricky walking with your eyes closed. As we were walking on a sandy road today Emma said, "Sure is like a desert here- except for all the wine and beer." Everywhere you look there are wine bottles and beer bottles. guess she figures there isn't litter like that in a real desert. The skies are very dark today and we had a few rain showers- I think we have some colder weather coming...

We had fun trying to throw rocks into the holes in the ice and trying to get them all the way to the open water. Neither of us were very good at it:)

Upcoming Field Trip

Right now in Emma's homeschooling curriculum there is a section on China. We are learning all about the Great Wall, Confucius etc., reading "Little Pear" which is a story about a little boy in a small village in China and we are also studying about the Mongols. Well, I figure Emma must be one of the luckiest kids in her program because we are going on a little field trip...

We are about 98% sure that we will need to go back to Canada this summer. Even if we get our fingerprints back in time to apply for residency, we probably won't find out if we are accepted until after our visas expire (when we need to leave Russia). This is not what we were hoping for but it seems to be what we need to do. So...

We have booked tickets from Beijing, China to Vancouver leaving July 31st. We chose this route instead of through Moscow as it is way way cheaper. Of course it is a nice bonus that we get to see the Great Wall and visit yet another country! Emma is pretty excited...I think she has hopes of meeting Little Pear....

In Mid-July, we will first drive up again to Abakan, then take the train up and east and down to Mongolia and get our Chinese visas. Then we will take the train to Beijing. We will stay close to the Forbidden City for a few days and then we will have an 11 hour flight to Vancouver. I'm so glad David researched this more adventurous and cheaper route...I think it might be easier too- shorter flight at least. I'm trying not to think about the long train rides....

Oddly enough, we also just read about the Olympic games... maybe they planned it that way as they knew it was going to be in Beijing this year. We will be in Beijing just a week before the games open- too bad we will miss seeing it all but at the same time it is probably good to beat the crowds... should be all nice and clean and ready.