Catch Up Time

Alright, so it has been waaaaaaaaaay too long since posting on here. On one hand, life has been same-o same-o, as my parents like to say. On the other hand, we have quite a few happenings going on. So, in an attempt to consolidate postings, here is a summary of life that should have been posted along the way, but wasn't:

• Meet Lil' Bit. Lil' Bit is the little child that God has growing inside my belly. I took the at home pregnancy test on Matt's 30th birthday (March 9 for those of you who like to keep up with this kind of thing). What a fun birthday present to "give" him! Since then, I've been able to see a British doctor in the capital (who also happens to work as a forensic medical examiner for Scotland Yard...random, but kind of cool!) for a checkup, ultrasound, and blood work. I've gotten a couple blood work tests done in our town, and am leaving on Monday to meet the doctor in Turkey who will be my doctor when we return there for delivery in the fall. To answer the basic questions: a) the due date is Nov. 3; b) we are not going to ask to find out the gender; c) yes, we are excited!! 

•  I have been a slacker with our camera for the last several packages that have arrived. Since Christmas, we have received another box of goodies from Matt's parents (as awesomely covered with stamps as the first one they sent here). In this box they included some cookies that I really liked while living in Zambia (and, consequently, had to take out coffee for Matt in order to fit them in...guess the pregnant lady gets special treatment, heehee), as well as some other baking goodies and ________. Thanks Dwayne and Betty!My

• We also received some wonderful goodies via a friend that was in the States for a bit. At a conference he was part of, one of the ladies there knew us because her niece and I have been classmates from childhood through college, and she was sooooo sweet to send some goodies our way. Thank you Mrs. Betsy Bailey! We've especially loved getting to try the new Buffalo flavored Tobasco! And of course you couldn't go wrong with hot chocolate and candy! Thank you again!

A few of the goodies that traveled with our friend.

• And along with those goodies came some from my parents and a super sweet lady. Mrs. Mobley crocheted a shawl for us that is just beautiful, and honestly is perfect to have around for those days where you just want a little something on your shoulders. Plus, she didn't know it when she was making it, but she picked colors that we'll be using for Lil' Bit, so it was a great start for our collection of goodies. Thanks Mrs. Mobley!

• My parents made sure to help us get some more boxed mac and cheese, which came in really handy a few times over the next couple of weeks when it was one of the only things that actually sounded appetizing as well as some cards that friends had mailed for us to their house and some magazines and language books (hooray for picture dictionaries!). Thanks Daddy and Momma!

•  My sister also sent us a package from Texas, including face wash, some cool socks for me and a nice scarf for Matt, and of course some more snacks. She also willingly and successfully played middle-man for getting Matt a replacement Kindle when his decided not to work anymore. The joy of a Kindle is that you can have soooo many books in one place and they take up virtually no weight or space. The down side is that if anything happens to said Kindle, well, you can read none of them. So thank you Vicky for all that you did to get Matt's nose back in his books and tossing in so many fun extras at the same time!

• We also have some very generous friends from working at REI who got together some goodies for us that we have a hard time getting our hands on here. Ken was the man behind the scheme to send stuff this way, and he did a marvelous job of putting stuff together! I generically said that spices would be great (because many of them, even if I can get them here, I didn't know what they were called in the language here or in Russian), and he sent a slew of them, including some fun spice blends that we've never tried before but are really enjoying! He also got a whole bunch of hot chocolate flavors together, and our other friends, Keith and Sarah, chipped in some of their favorite hot chocolate blends along with a handwritten letter (I may or may not have teared up when reading this...and again while typing about it). So now, as some have alcohol bars and others have coffee bars, we have a hot chocolate bar in our house. Though we don't drink them frequently now, as it gets colder those suckers are going to get downed! And we love the fact that they gave so generously to us that we get to easily share generously with our team mates. Thanks Ken, Keith, and Sarah!

Wow, really didn't realize that there had been that many packages that had come since Christmas...and therefore that it would take that many bullet points to get through them all.  We'll do some more catching up in another post, to share more about what's been going on in life in the little things and giving some more glimpses into our town.

Nav Ruz

Nav Ruz is Persian New Year, a major holiday for any people of Persian descent (Afghans, Tajiks, Iranians). Our little town had a big party in front of the government building, sort of town hall, with stalls, dancing, and displays, sort of a little county fair. It did take place in March, so our timing is a bit late, but with internet this is when we could post pictures. 

Nav Ruz partiers at the line of stalls, showing off and selling wares

Demonstrations from the local martial arts classes.

Traditional dances.

Cooking Osh in big pots. This is a traditional meal, cooked the traditional way. Basically it's flavored rice.

Traditional instruments and dress. The couples in the back are wearing traditional wedding dress.

At several points in the festivities, all the little kids just got up to dance. I think we need more holidays where unsupervised children dance randomly in public.

Everyone carries around plates of grass. I think it symbolizes new life in the new year.

And the dutch aren't the only ones with wooden shoes.

Food types on display.

Traditional dress, bride and her dad.

Wooden and metal handicrafts.

Pictures from Down the Road

Much later than hoped or anticipated, I am finally publishing some more pictures for your viewing pleasure, these from a trip in march to a disaster sight.

Clearing an avalanche the covered the road on the other side of the border.

Driving through a partially cleared avalanche.

This particular one was blocked by a truck stuck in the snow. This was the first delay of the trip.

Yep, the bulldozer is pushing the truck out.

And the second delay. You can catch the size of the rocks by the guys standing next to them.

Blowing the rocks with dynamite, that just happened to be in our car.

Then the bulldozer comes in to push rocks.

Oh yeah, we don't exactly have to stand clear in this process. Yeah, that guy is standing in front of the bulldozer.

Caves in the hills. People used to use them to hide out from the raiders in the 4th Century.

Another avalanche, this one that crossed the river.

Mudslide up to a school wall.

Damage to the inside of a local house we are helping to rebuild. It simply filled with mud.

This is the outside of the houses. They are almost buried.

A more open stretch of land that is on both sides of the border.