More Catch-up

 

    I keep thinking I'll get caught up on our blog... and I don't think I ever REALLY will... but after this one, we'll be closer.  =)  For Men's Day this year 30-40 guys from the area traveled to the village of Zaigraevo.  Several men brought their sons, and they had time to sing, fellowship, study the Bible, eat, and play together!  They even took time for a game of soccer in the snow on the square that our team built a few years ago.

      These were most of the guys from the group (with some of the kids not pictured).  I love thinking of fathers building into their sons and for this next generation to be following Christ and leading by example.


 

Here was Leif's soccer team!  He got to be goalie. 

     On Saturdays Ella and I have been taking swimming lessons together.  It's the kind where parents get into the pool with their kids.  She loves it, and I love getting this time, just the two of us.  

      We took this team selfie when John and Sharon were here.  Right now we're working on setting up a "finish line" with our ministry goals so that we will know when we've done what we came to do and we will know when it's time to move on and celebrate all that God has done!  We will continue this process for the next few months and will hopefully have a concrete "finish line goal" by the end of the summer.  Nettie joined in on skype, as she's in the States on home service right now.

     We continue to have more and more new people coming to English Club, and those who are coming have been coming every week.  We're enjoying getting to know them more.  Leif has been having some good spiritual discussions in his group.

     In school, Anneka read the book Robinson Crusoe and made a whole display of the boat he wrecked on and the island he lived on.  She gave a presentation to our team and did a great job!  I love all of the creative things that she is doing at school.  She definitely thrives off of hands-on projects.

Our neighbor gave us this flower doll as a "bouquet" for our table. 

     Sometimes we act out stories from the Bible before bedtime.  This night Ike was Goliath.

     Ike was invited to his friend Bogdan's birthday party.  He felt so special to be invited and had a great time!

     Our Ella loves to collect treasures.  They are everywhere.  When I open her cubby at school each day, treasures are stuffed everywhere.  She has a special box for her treasures, and it's always filled to the brim.  I went it to kiss her one night, and she'd filled this crate with treasures and fell asleep with it.  I often need wisdom to know what to do about all of the treasures!

     Inka and I trade off teaching the little ones at church on Sundays.  On this week, I taught about how God's love never ends and we made necklaces with circle crackers.  Ike liked this craft and wants to keep his necklace forever.

     Leif still continues to study the Buryat language.  The classes are on Saturdays, so goes sporadically (as often there are other things going on on Saturdays), but it's still been a good experience.  The teacher not only teaches language but culture, too.  On this week, some musicians came and played some traditional music.

     The girls have been wanting new hairstyles lately, so I've looked up how to do different 'dos on YouTube. It's been fun to do this together . =)

     We've put up extra hooks recently, and it's so helpful for backpacks, bags, and clothes that aren't dirty but aren't totally clean.  It helps keeps things off of the floor!

     This week is a work week at our church.  The basement has only had three walls, so when it rains in the summer, the whole thing floods!  We keep camping and hiking equipment down there (among other things), so it's important to keep them protected and in good condition.  The guys built the fourth wall and are now working on a heating system in the floor to help keep things dry as well as to help make the rest of the church warmer.  Sometimes it can be pretty chilly in the building, which is embarrassing when our guests at English Club come and are cold!  It will be nice to have these new changes.

     I made lunch for the workers one day- a soup called salyanka, Greek salad, and pizza. 

     It was a gift to meet this couple this past week!  They are here from Canada, helping to do ministry with the Chinese population here in Ulan Ude.  I picked them up from their hotel to bring them to Leif and Dave for a meeting.  They discussed how we can better work together to help spread the message of the good news of Jesus!

Life Outside Again

     It's always such a wonderful time of year when the kids can play outside again!  When it snows now, it's just a little skiff, and it melts off pretty quickly.  It's always interesting how the dogs congregate around the manhole covers for warmth because of the hot water pipes beneath the ground.  =)

 

     I took this picture the day of the big melt.  There's mud everywhere, but all the same it's a glorious sight because it means that the harsh winter is gone!

Ella and Ike, on the playground with their cat friend

     The kids like to make friends with stray cats.  Anneka keeps food in her pockets that she is always happy to share with these furry creatures.



     Ella liked walking to school in the mornings where puddles from the day had froze in the night.  It was fun to stomp on them and make fun cracks.


     Ella also was happy to show me her birdhouse that has been up for the past few months.  This is a tradition for many school kids, to make birdhouses for the winter and bring them to school.



     Then as the days got warmer, the puddles got smaller and wetter.  I took this picture right before Ike fell through the top layer of ice into the cold water!

Ella, lounging with her friend Nathan

     Our kids are playing outside each week during English Club, now, which is also great.  They love running around and getting dirty and making "soup" out of mud and other such fun games.  They come in during the tea time with filthy faces and huge grins!
    

     Ella's class at school plays outside now, too.  I always enjoy watching Ella play with her friends.  They were doing something with this plant, but I'm not quite sure what!

      Last Monday, Leif arrived early Monday morning from his hiking trip to a blanket of snow everywhere, and we'd been invited to celebrate our friend, Alexei's birthday as an outdoor picnic.  We were all happy when the sun came out and dried up the snow that morning and early afternoon.  We had a lovely day with Alexei and his family- eating grilled meat and salad and other picnicky things.  The kids ran all through the bushes and trees and were in heaven.  It was a little chilly in moments, but so so nice to be outside!!

      It was fun to see Ike and Papa throwing a baseball back and forth.  Leif must have been so tired and sore after so much climbing and then driving through the night.  But he really enjoyed the day, too!

     And here's my little buddy.  I needed to go downtown the other day, and Ike was such a great traveling companion.  We came across a stand that sold hot chocolate and coffee.  This is very common in America, but not common at all here!  I bought him a warm cocoa and something like a muffin and he was so sweet and thankful. 

It's good to be outside again!

From Hats to Friends

     It's very important when you live in Siberia to have a different hat for each season.  Now that we're officially in spring (which still often involves snow but doesn't usually dip below 0F), we need to be wearing spring hats.  We have a neighbor who always has really cute hats.  I got into a conversation with her one day, and found out that she makes them herself!  It was perfect timing, as we didn't have spring hats yet (and the ones from last spring are thoroughly worn out).  She came over and let the kids help in desiging their own special hats.
    


     Ike's was the first one she made- an Angry Bird hat.  When she brought it, she showed us a couple of other hats that she's made for kids, and the girls put them on for the picture.  =)


 
     The cool thing from all of the hat making is that this lady is becoming our friend and has now been over to our apartment several times, and we've had some good conversations.  When Anneka had her spring performance for Butter Week, she came with her daughter to watch.  Butter week is the week before Lent, and Easter is very late here this year... not until May!  I'm not sure exactly all that butter week entails, but I know many people make thin pancakes, and in Ella's class at school they lit a doll on fire.  Hmmmm....


     But back to Anneka's performance, when we got there, Ella saw several of her friends from kindergarten and was sooooo excited.  They happily made room for her to share chairs with them for the performance. 

 
     Part of the perforance entailed bringing up volunteers from the audience for various games.  Ella and her friends went up, and she was thrilled to win a piece of candy!  The performance was long, and by the end, these little girls (with Ella leading the way) were up on stage with the dancers.  I had to crawl up there to tell Ella that that wasn't appropriate!

 
       Ike was happy snuggling on Papa's lap, and Bruce enjoyed coming with us, too.


     Our neighbor took this picture of Anneka and her daughter afterwards....



.... and she gave Anneka this doll that she crocheted as a special gift.


      Here's how Anneka's hat turned out! 


      And here's Ella's specially ordered hat.  I love how their hair pokes out of the top.

 
      We took these pictures at the ethnographic museum.  We went on a little family excursion there one evening.  It started blizzarding in the middle of the time and the wind was CRAZY cold.  But our kids are tougher than Leif and I are.  They could have stayed there forever!

 
     Our neighbor likes our pet rat, and she used to have a pet rat herself.  She even slept with it!  Of course, now Anneka wants to sleep with her rat, too.  ;)


     She also brought several plants to give to Anneka as a gift.  Anneka LOVES plants!  This lady knows just how to speak her love languages.  =)  We're thankful that from a simple conversation about a hat, we now have a new friend!

Women's Day

     Women's Day was already last month, but I'm still playing catch-up with blogs.  It's such a big holiday here, that we can't not post about it.  Ella had this picture taken at kindergarten for Women's Day.  She went to school in a t-shirt and ponytail, and they doctored the picture to make her look like a fancy lady.  The funniest part to me was that Ella didn't even give the picture a second glance when she saw it.  She could take it or leave it.  =)

     I love the picture Ella made of me for Women's Day. 

     She did a great job in her program at school reciting her lines, dancing, and playing bells.  For the morning performance she did a special angel dance with some of the other girls. 



     Some of the ladies from our church put together a special ladies' gathering on the actual holiday. I invited several ladies to come with me, but none were able to this time around.  All the same, it was a nice time and fun to see so many ladies of stages of life coming together to grow and show love to one another.




      I was especially encouraged by one lady, Natasha, who's never shared up front before.  She had some great illustrations about trusting God and the privileges we have as his children.  It's really neat to see people realizing that they can do things they didn't know they could do and beginning to serve.

     I have gotten little Women's Day gifts for the ladies in our church a couple of years.  This year I bought face masks.  We had five left over, so the kids and I, along with our friend, Lena, tried them out.  The kids all quickly decided they weren't as great as they had dreamed.

    On the morning of Women's Day, I got together with these friends from my discussion group.  Regina taught us how to boil bean sprouts and mix them with garlic, oil and soy sauce as a salad.  We enjoyed nice conversation and gave each other gifts.  This was the first time Larissa and Sveta had ever tried bean sprouts.  A little girl took our picture so it's kind of blurry.  =)

    

Fast Food, Borsh Style

     One of the things we really missed when we first moved here were foods that were quick and easy to eat- sliced bread, lunch meat, peanut butter, canned soups (especially cream of mushroom for cooking with), boxes of macaroni and cheese, and let's be honest- frozen chimichangas (and pre-packaged guacamole, no less!).  Of course, the more additives and preservatives, the less healthy. But it's also nice sometimes to have lunch ready in a couple of minutes!

     Over time we've adapted to more food preparation and are probably healthier for it.  (this is probably one of the reasons we don't have any cavities, too!)  But there are moments when we find new fast options here that are simply wonderful.   Our newest treasure is something that I would have never believed 10 years ago that we would EVER choose to eat at all, much less on a regular basis (especially since Leif and I didn't even like beets) .  It's borsh base in a jar!!  Beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, etc... all cut up and ready to make into soup!  I just add water, a little meat, a few potatoes, and Wha-la!  Borsh!  The kids absolutely love it.  The first time I made it, they ALL exclaimed how amazing it was and asked if we could have it again.  So.  Funny.  So now we eat it at least 2 times a week for lunch.  There are other soup bases, too, that we have tried, and they love them all.

     Leif is traveling back from a hiking trip now as I type.  We had two kids stay with us yesterday and until church this morning, as their dad is recovering from a surgery and their mom is also on this trip.  It was nice to have a shchi (cabbage soup) base on hand to be able to serve them, as it's a taste that they're used to (and not strange American food!).  It was a bit crazy getting everyone bathed and ready for church.  Here's a picture I took while we waited at the bus stop:


     They're looking forward to seeing their "mama", and we're ready to see our "papa"! 

Dental Surprises

     A couple of weeks ago I was telling Leif that I hadn't been to the dentist in awhile and wanted to get a checkup.  Our schedule was changed around that day, so he suggested I see if I could get in that afternoon (the dentist is about 100 yards away from our door). They had a perfect space in their schedule and took me right in.  The first surprise of the day was that I didn't have any cavities.  Hooray!  While I was there I asked if they could give me a cleaning.  I had forgotten that the last time I got a cleaning (3 years ago!) I had told myself that I would never do it again here, as it was a pretty horrifying experience.  But time makes you forget, and there's a new dentist here that's super nice (he's given the kids checkups for free).   He whisked me into the chair and began to cover me with protective gear (see picture of Leif above).  This is the point that I remembered the last cleaning!  I told him I was a little scared, and he said, "Don't worry!  It won't hurt".  Then he proceeded to give me shots all over my mouth.  I wish I had counted, but there were AT LEAST 9 shots... and as many as 12!  (the second surprise of the day)  He was right.  It didn't hurt at all.  And my mouth was more numb than it's ever been because it was numb ALL OVER THE PLACE!  It was at this point that I thought, "Leif has to experience this!"  So I called him and in my best effort to talk normally, told him there was an opening for him, too.  It wasn't in his plans, but he hadn't been to the dentist in ten years and decided it was a good idea. As soon as he arrived he saw how crazy my mouth was and couldn't help laughing at me.  I snapped a picture of him before I left (the only thing that's left out is the huge funny ring that held his mouth open). The third surprise was that he didn't have any cavities either.  Hooray!  And he came home with a super numb mouth, too.

     But the biggest surprise was that our kids were totally traumatized by our numb mouths.  They dressed up in costumes and made signs and marched around the house, shouting "Don't ever numb your mouths again!"  There were even tears over our mouths.

     We had planned on inviting one of our neighbors (an older lady) over for tea that afternoon, but I seriously couldn't talk, so we waited until evening to send the kids over and invite her.  By then she was already getting ready for bed, so the kids asked if they could invite a different neighbor and her daughter.  They came back 5 minutes later with these new friends, and we had a nice evening talking with regular mouths about lots of things- some spiritual and some not.  The day didn't turn out how we'd originally planned, but it was good all the same!

The Joy of a Rat

The kids threw colored chalk paint at each other as part of the missionary lesson on India.  It was about 35F degrees outside- a warm day for Siberia this time of year (but still too cold to be out long without coats!)

  Every few months the youth in our church have put together a special missonary story (complete with learning about a country and group of people) for the kids in Sunday School.  It's been so special for the kids, and it's also been really encouraging to see people in our church growing and beginning to lead and serve.  This past missionary story took place in India.  One of the youth brought in a snake for all of the kids to pet.  The next day, Anneka asked to stop into the pet store just to look and see if they had snakes.  I knew, of course, that there was no way we were getting a snake, so I thought "what's the harm in stopping into the pet store?"  Leif and Ike decided to come with us, too, and on our way there was a lady begging.  I stopped and offered to take her grocery shopping and Leif didn't skip a beat and helped by going on ahead to the pet store with the kids.  But the time I caught up with them 20 minutes later, both kids had fallen hopelessly in love with a RAT.  (And we knew that if Ella had been with us, she would have been in love, too.)  Leif is much more low key about these things.  I honestly didn't know if I had energy for a rat.  But he was a baby rat (less than a month old) and very cute.  So how could I say no?  Within minutes we were toting home our new little pet.

 

     Ella was jumping-up-and-down-excited to come home from kindergarten to "A RAT!  A RAT!"
 

 So proud of her new little friend!

Superman, Batman, or Ratman?

     The thing I love most about having a rat is that he brings GIGGLES.  All. The. Time.  Ike really liked having the rat crawl around up and down his pant legs for awhile, but we put an end to that (he could get squished!).  But he loves to carry him around on his head.  We all have enjoyed putting up mazes for him and feeding him new foods.  The girls love to pet him and carry him on their shoulders.  His name is Midnight.  

     We didn't tell anyone about our rat right away, and Anneka got the great idea to play a joke on her teachers and classmates at school.  She told the story to my parents on this skype video message, and it was so cute (of all three kids), I thought I'd post it here, too.

     Within one week's time, the rat has gotten loose 3 times (and one of the times we found him in our bed!).  But thankfully he still continues to be cute and surprisingly not creepy.  I find myself concerned about our rat's social and physical needs.  Who would have guessed?  We read that rats are really smart and can be taught tricks.  This will probably be our next step with him. 

Burgers and Eggnog

We had fun taking a group selfie

      Every 2 or 3 months we have a contest at English Club: the person who bring the most new people wins a prize!  This time Masha and Erzhena both brought four new friends, so they tied for the win!  The prize was a meal at our home for the winners and their guests.

      We asked Masha and Erzhena if they had any special requests for the meal.  Erzhena had heard about eggnog and wanted to try it, and Masha wanted french fries.  Since we always love a good excuse to make really good burgers with all of the fixings, we made it a hamburger night (with eggnog and milkshakes and chocolate chip cookies).  =)  Our Canadian friends enlighted us by showing us how Canadians eat poutine (fries smothered in cheese and gravy).  Everyone enjoyed the burgers and admitted they didn't taste like burgers they had tried before here in Ulan-Ude.

They were huge, too!  Ike only had a half of one and still it filled up his plate.  

       This was a really great chance to get to know these people more and in a more personal way.  I think everyone enjoyed the evening's food and conversation.


     Here are the brave people who tried eggnog.  Everyone seemed a little hesitant at first, but seemed to think it was worth the experience.  ;)

     One of the guys showed us how to take voice-automated selfies, so several people were trying it out throughout the night, while sipping milkshakes.  We're thankful for these new friendships that are forming and were thankful for this casual time outside of English Club to get to know people more!