Mom! Brian! Poppy and the Sleeping Giant!!! You're Famous!!!

(that is if you consider being in the Tuvan newspaper famous:) Another good article... The journalist talks about life in Canada- enjoying fresh air, walks in the forests, green grass, gardens and blue lakes. She talks about the boys sleeping peacefully in the DOUBLE!!! stroller while walking with mom and dad, Josiah helping Grandma Marilyn (my mom) and Grandpa Brian in their yard making the place beautiful as is evident in the photo (imagine if they really saw your place mom:), Emma playing with Poppy (her grandpa, my dad) by the lake and the Sleeping Giant in the horizon (though almost impossible to see:). It's too bad the newspaper is just in black and white. We have a bunch of copies so I'll bring some back for you dad, mom and brian! Who will be next?!.... I think it might be my turn next:)

Relationship Building

David and Edik flying. The kids loved watching their daddies go up and around.
David and Edik flying some more. The lady just tied a string around them and the seat. This was one of my favorite rides growing up but I thought I'd let David safety it first:)

We are really trying to focus on building closer relationships with our friends here during our last couple of weeks. We aren't so good at calling people up and asking them to do something- most of you know that:) If you ask us what we want to do we say "doesn't matter" "I don't know, anything would be fine" those kinds of answers even when we really really want to do something:) So we are so glad when others call us up and tell us what to do. Yesterday, Edik (Edward) and Aldunai called us up and told us to come down to the main park to hang out with them for the day. That is exactly what we wanted to do- spend the day with them!

It was very very very hot but we had such a good time as you can see. The men had fun on the rides and with the guns while us ladies chatted and the kids enjoyed watching their daddies shoot and fly. The kids went on a little carousel but the rest of the rides looked a little too old, wonky, and scary. (even for the daddies but they were brave:) The rides weren't scary as in high, or extreme but as in lack of straps and screws. The rides were so exciting to Edik. Hard to believe these rides are the biggest rides they have ever seen. Not everyone in the world grows up with places like Canada's Wonderland, Calgary Stampede and Disney World.

We had a dip in the river and bought some icecream. Then we walked back here and I made them try the 2nd? strangest thing they've ever had- baked beans:) They really didn't like them too much though Edik ate 2 good sized bowls- they had never had sweet tangy beans before, maybe they haven't even had beans before... Their son Tumiin was still fascinated with the strangest thing we've served them to date- ice cubes:) He just kept feeling them in the tray and saying "What kind of things are these?!" We are really going to miss this family... we are so thankful for their friendship and willingness to try things like Ice Cubes in their pop.

Here is the carousel ride that the kids went on, it started up while I was getting the kids on so I got to ride on it too:) It wasn't too exciting but it was Huddy's first time on a ride so he loved it!!!

Aldunai, Edic, and Tumiin (below in orange)

We popped in the river to cool off- it is actually getting pretty warm even in the water. Then where will we cool off!? Technically we could just swim home from the park we were at as we just live further down the river. We'd need a tube or raft for the kids though. And life jackets wouldn't be a bad idea I guess.. Ok mom, I hear you.... we won't do it...:)

I better stop blogging and get back to preparing the English for Journalists lesson. Only 3 more official classes and 2 more English Clubs (which the journalists come to as well). I think we are going to be in the paper again tomorrow. Not sure which photos they will use this time... We'll find out soon!

We got to watch Khuresh!!!

A huge part of Tuvan culture is Khuresh (tuvan wrestling). I have been wanting to go watch it for sooooo long. I knew that there would be a huge festival with wrestling and throatsinging at the end of June but unfortunately we'll already be gone. So I was thrilled today when David rushed home and said "Everyone get ready to go watch some wrestling!"
All the wrestlers marching around the arena. I've got some good videos you'll have to see sometime:) It looks like no one is watching but on the other side, where we were sitting there was a huge crowd. It was super hot (36? C) so no one wanted to face the sun (on the other side). I think we were the only non-tuvans that were watching. The program/commentary was all in Tuvan so maybe it wouldn't be so interesting for the Russians. We just asked the people next to us what they were saying:)
The judges in traditional tuvan clothing.
They sell these outfits at many stores around town- even for little boys. Maybe we'll get one for Huddy and Josiah:) I love the boots.

There are no weight divisions so sometimes it doesn't take long to get the other guy to the ground.
They definitely don't do it for the prizes! The winner got this colour tv and the next four guys got a hot water thermos:)

This guy was the favorite. He didn't win but he did come in the top 5.
They get a hold of the other guy to throw him down to the ground by grabbing on to the strings on the shirt or the briefs:)
One of the best drops we saw. Have to watch our videos for the real action shots:)
As soon as a hand or knee or anyother part of the body above the boot touches the ground, the other guy wins. They spend most of the fight like this, spinning around or just getting a firm grip and then all of a sudden one of them is on the ground and the other guy does the victory dance.

They do this Eagle dance when they first come out to fight a match and then the winner of the match does the dance around the flagpole. This guy looks like he was one of the younger ones- I think the youngest is 18. The oldest today was 29- we think it was just the junior league today. not really sure. There weren't many really big guys.

There were usually about 5 or 6 matches going on at one time. Hard to know which ones to watch and photograph:)
For more info about Khuresh follow this link: Khuresh

and then click on the see also Mongolian Wrestling as it really is the same thing as far as we can tell:)

Novosibirsk

I better stop with pictures from the conference trip and get back to Tuva pictures since we've been home for a while now. The above picture is from our room at the Novosibirsk Train Station. We looked into various hotels as we had to spend the night there but then we decided to stay at the train station. They have special rooms for mothers with babies/children to rent by the hour. You can also get it for up to 12 hours so that is what we did. The kids all wanted to be the one to sleep in the crib but we decided that Huddy was still slightly the smallest so he won:) He looked pretty cute in his baby crib. It was hard to get him to wake up in the morning (that is when I took the picture). We had to get on the train at 5 am so we were glad we didn't have to go to a hotel that was far away. The Novosibirsk train station has to be one of the best buildings in all of Russia. We were really impressed with it.
OOOh. and in Novosibirsk they have an Ikea/ Mega Mall!!! We really enjoyed looking around... It's a good thing we are coming home soon cause otherwise I would have been arranging a delivery truck to Tuva! Maybe we'll make our way back to Tuva when we return via. Novosibirsk:)

Train Pictures

Seeing as we spent more time getting to the conference and back then at the conference I thought I better put some travelling pics on:) Our train car was next to the restaurant so we thought it was a hint to try it for the first time. It was nice to go and sit and have someone bring us food and have real dishes instead of pulling out bits of things from our bags in our coupe. They gave us a big long menu and then once we started ordering they let us know that infact the only things they had was salmon, pork and kolbassa on bread. So we got one of each. The most interesting part of the train restaurant was the man at the next table with no shirt on, a few tattoos and a big belly (sorry no picture:) who couldn't stop talking about how wonderful we are to have 3 kids in between his sips of vodka. He tried to make us promise to have more kids and ordered us a big box of fancy chocolates as a thankyou for our childbearing that we've done so far.
I wonder how many hours our kids have spent in taxis, trains, buses and planes. They do like it though which is a wonderful surprising thing. I go crazy sitting still for so long. Huddy asked to go on the train again today. He'll get another chance soon... only 2 1/2 weeks till we'll be on the train heading to Mongolia and then China!

Fun with friends...

Emma really enjoyed being with Timothy, Karina and Lydia and the other kids again. She's been waiting for the conference to see them again!
The russian lady in orange was Emma's teacher for the week (they had ladies to watch the kids while we were in meetings). Emma is singing the song that she taught them right now. Actually she sings it all day long...sigh:)
Campfire- complete with marshmallows from America!
Karina and Emma

Meetings

Just so you don't think that our conference was just about horse watching and suntanning I found a couple of pictures of us actually in meetings:) We really enjoyed the meetings- see how I'm even smiling!!!

P.S. Phyllis- you'll see some more familiar faces in these ones... There was a picture taken of almost the whole group of us but I don't have a copy- maybe Julie has it.

Afternoon Hike

Here is most of the gang that went on the hike. It was naptime for many of the young ones (and some of the parents:) so not everyone went. I really enjoyed the hike and chitchatting along the way.
Can you see me?
Me and Julie
The final destination of the hike- a waterfall.

Beautiful Altai

We had the conference on a beautiful lake, with horses, cows, butterflies, waterfalls, and tons of trees and even grass! It really reminded us of Canada- very nice:) We had such a good refreshing time, catching up with our co-workers that work in different parts of asia, hearing about what is going on, encouraging/challenging meetings and lots of time for fellowship, good traditional russian food and we even had time for a hike, campfire, frisbee golf game, scavenger hunt, fun on the beach, and singing and games etc. We are so thankful that we could be with our friends for the week. We came back really excited about the work that we are doing here... (and even more sad to have to be leaving it for a bit)

One of our favorite things about Altai was the horses everywhere. Emma and her friend David didn't even notice the horses at first. I'll put on some more horsey pictures later- I know Char and Sara will like them!