In Kazakhstan

We’re in KZ for the next month trying to get back into Russia with a new 3month visa. Meanwhile we’re hotel hopping and sightseeing in Pavlodar. Today we ran into our first American family at the fountains as ourbabes were frolicking topless. It’s the first extensive verbal conversation I’ve had with another woman in a real long time. Nice.

Below are some pics of the city. These are highlights – don’t let them fool you into booking your next family vacation to Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.

Getting off the day shift at the Pavlodar Waldorf? Nope. Highschool graduates. Who needs a cap and gown when these little numbers are the rage!

The Russian Orthodox Church. We had a spectacular view from our hotel.

This was the playground in the shadow of the church. Thebabes loved it. I was rather on edge as everything was made of metal from what had to be soviet era, most of the equipment was rusting and jaggedy. The human hamster thing in the center was a big hit, as you can imagine. When the big kids occupied it, we were breathless.

In the same day we marched over the Mosque. Spectacular! It was so exciting to see a mosque again – it’s been since my trip to Dubai in ’98. I love mosques and hope to see several more in KZ and UZ!!
Here’s Des being provoking with his orthodox Jesus icon here on the Mosque premises. Where does he get these ideas?

So, goodbye urban metropolis we’re heading next week to rural KZ to wait out the Russian visa game. Nate’s promised I’ll love the longdrop facilities and bringing in water from the neighborhood well. Anyway, I’m living it up now in our hotel by taking showers everyday again and lounging around in my new housedress purchased at the rynick (bazaar) down the street. I’ve decided it’s cool to be a hausfrau and decided I’d dress like they do here. So comfy and quite liberating! I’m lovin’ it! Nate makes regular trips to the market to get me fizzy water too. He brings it home baby.

Cooking with Luba

I've struggled a bit with cooking.

I have no cookbooks, which I am a bit dependant upon for variety. The foods I'm used to having around are either hard to come by or there's no chance at all. Tahini? Ha! Are you joking? Fresh herbs? Nope. Romaine lettuce? Forget about it. Gummy frogs? Oh! Great, there they are!

Luba knows what she's doing.

Last month they gathered up some sorrel (!) in a huge potato sack from somewhere (the woods) and then brought it home and stemed every leaf.

We're stemming.

Then she washed it and sauted it.

Then she wrapped them in dough and fried them into peroshki's. What was unexpected was that they were sweet and veryveryvery tasty!

I blogged earlier about the color of the eggs. Someone made the cheeky comment that our chickens were eating our non-biodegradable diapers thus the pale colors. But that was before we came -- now things are looking a bit brighter!

Another night I decide to make one of those Russian mayonaise salads with cabbage and various interesting things. Luba saw that I was about to embark upon something perhaps too ambitious and joined me.

We added to our mayonaise:
-shredded cabbage, of course
-shredded carrots
-shredded apples (!)
-corn
-crab meat
-pressed garlic
-green&yellow peppers

mmmm mmmm good! seriously!

Some Things Stay the Same - Part II

So, Lenin, what's your opinion of the free world?

Podsosnovo, Russia

Random Pics from March/April

They are called shashliks and they're mighty tasty!

There were two shashlik stations one with pork and one with chicken. I made sure we went to both.

She expertly speared her lunch. She's very dangerous.

It wasn't so much that he was pleased with the shashlik but more that he was pleased to have been given one all his own to hold.

Here they are posing with our friend Andre. Nathan met him on one of his reconnaissance trips to Russia a few years ago. He's been veryveryvery helpful and great to us.

Des was quite happy to have harvested some eggs for himself

Just goofing around on a fence.

(doesn't it look like dpj gained 20lbs in this pic? his 20-pound-smile)

The Amazing Family We Live With

A P r o f i l e

The Kondrativ Family

Nikolai and Luba. Married 35 years and still quite happy about it.
(or it could be my mom's creamy broccoli potato soup that they just ate)

Pavel. The malchick magnet (more on that in another post). He's about to brave the cellar to fetch some potatoes for Luba to make borst.

Sweet little Yulya in new Spring dress from Baba Luba.

Yulya and her loving babushka Luba.

(Nikolai has recently been promoting the moniker 'Baba Luba' for the babes to pick up and use -- which I think is very sweet and it also prompts me to break out into song everytime I hear it, "Hey BabbaLubba she's my ba-bay. Hey Babbalubba, I don't mean may-bay")

Here's Yulya putting up with Des and Zoe.

Luba frying fish. They go fishing a lot and I've seen and smelled a fair amount of fishiness to last me for sometime. I do enjoy eating it though.

A fish massacre.

The babes making peroshki with Luba.

(She gave them beer bottles for rolling pins -- handy!)

A early Spring composition.

(zoe in foreground on swing, luba at left and nikolai in middle and pavel on the right, in background)

Luba's tulips! The flowers finally starting blooming last weekend!


Here is the dom sweet dom in March

[I intend to upload a few more pics to the Russia in March photo album in the sidebar -- so avid photo watchers keep checking. done 6.6.08 -- now russia in march&april]

Some Things Stay the Same

Future leader of the free world.

Podsosnovo, Russia

15 Years with Jones

Today is our 15th Wedding Anniversary!

F i f t e e n y e a r s .

When Nathan P. Jones walked into my life we knew within 6months that we wanted to get married (not so unique) but we didn’t get around to it for another 2years (I thought I was the most long-suffering fiancé!) It was nathan’s mom who casually pulled out a calendar one day and flipped through it and pegged us down to a month and a day. She’s cool like that. As it turns out our babes were more long suffering as they waited 10years for us to grow up and decide it was time for them to join us. (love those babes in mylife!)

I am so grateful for my marriage and the way Nathan&I have grown together and the way we will continue to progress together. I feel that’s what the concept of eternal marriage teaches me the most: Progression. With Gods involvement we grow, we change, we improve and in the process our love and commitment deepens and our happiness together is more sure. I have a belief in my ability and Nathan’s ability to live this out and to become more like the type of person the other wants to be with eternally – it’s a way of living consciously with the decision we made long ago to be together and it steadies us when we need to remember.

Preschool Days in Podsosnovo

Sometimes I feel like we've stepped back in time. For most of my childhood (age 4-13) I grew up in a small little country town called Enoch, also known as 'the valley', which was basically an outgrowth of Cedar City, Utah. It was a wild, open place to play and be free with plenty of dirt trails and lots of grass to roll around in. Enoch was overrun with children and the culture was definitely happening outside. We had a vegetable garden and I remember reveling in the abundance of corn and being obsessed with the swiss chard. . . my mouth is beginning to water.

Walking around Podosonovo is similar to what I remember Enoch being like – wide-open, peaceful and filled with the expectancy of busyness. Everyone here in Pod has a vegetable garden and at least a few farm animals – it's probably what Cedar City was like when my father was growing up. Some of the highlights for me are the constant exclamations of roosters, punctuating the moment like church bells do in European cities; the smells&sounds of the farm animals and the rituals that develop around caring for them; the general spirit of productiveness and self-sufficiency which is evidenced more as the weather warms and people start spending more time in their fields preparing them for planting; and even dodging the cow dung (instead of dog dump as in NYC) as we walk about.

Another significant discovery is the preschool. Though Des and Zoe don't speak Russian yet it was ultimately decided that they would be welcome to attend the collective farm preschool.

Because this is a community established by Russian-Germans, and the county or rayon itself has significant German government involvement, there are a lot of German influences here (which is a part of what Nathan is looking at). The school aesthetic reminded me very much of this influence as we toured it on our first day and were shown room after room of decorative old-world-euro craftiness – marionettes and elaborate puppets with a theatre, paper mache animal helmets and all sorts of homemade, imaginary play, folk-art things. Ahhh. . . it was like stepping back into your ideal of what an early-twentieth century European childhood must have been like. Disney-fied even. I suppose Walt got some things right. It all looked like something he'd conjured up in _Pinocchio_ (minus the dark, child snapper elements). There was also a large science room and music room/gymnasium. There is a little museum that a bunch of German grandmas put together depicting German interiors and children's rooms from their decade – it all looked so picturesque-Bavarian. There was a German language instruction room with all these cute little chairs arranged in a circle with crocheted mats on each them. Ahhhh. . . on&on&on. The children are so polite. On our first morning, as we sat out in the hall listening to ourbabes sound out their objections to being left in school, and each child who passed by us greeted us courteously. It was so cute.

In the classroom, much is similar to others I've seen the U.S., where they are organized into little play sections and tables. The bonus is the little room off of the main room which has about 10 cozy, clean, little beds for naptime. It made me think of the boarding room scenes from the French children's story _Madeline_. This school is a bit of a boarding school as it's running from 8am-6pm.

All the children eat breakfast, lunch and a dinner snack in their classrooms and there is a little cupboard that holds all the dishes (porcelain!) and utensils for each student. The food is brought into each class 3-times a day by bundled up women coming in from the outside – we also witnessed this on our first day at breakfast time: each woman carried a tea kettle, bread wrapped in a cloth, a dish of preserves and an old metal bucket which perhaps contained hot cereal (gruel!) Its little details like this that send me into complete ecstasies of appreciation for the variations in living and doing. It all felt so dated and pastoral and charming and I loved it!!!

Another detail which I totally appreciate is the necessary changing of ones wardrobe. There are shoes which each child should bring that are only worn inside (this goes for adults too). We had to go out and buy D&Z special shoes/slippers for school. Also, an extra set of clothes needs to be available and each child must decide which set is for indoors and which is for outdoors. They must change their clothes several times: when arriving at school to put on their inside clothes; when going out for morning recess (weather permitting); when returning from morning recess; for naptime (removing everything but undies); after naptime, putting clothes back on; and when going out for afternoon recess, which at this point is pickup time for most kids and so they stay outside till each kid has been fetched (which could be a couple of hours). I institute similar clothing changes at home and appreciate the level of control they've taken on at such a massive scale. Other little bits of detail in organization are the decals on each child's locker (Desi's are balloons) which correspond to the decal on their beds and the towels on hooks in the bathroom.

We give a shout out to Alice and Aga and all of Desi's friends at the preschool in New York City! Yeah for the Y and thank you for all your love.

Y-ly was here and he loves Russia!

Why We’re Here – Russia/Kazakhstan 2008-2009

Below is Nathan’s award winning proposal abstract. It’s confirmed, we’re spending a total of 16months on his dissertation fieldwork in Russia and Kazakhstan. We hope to be able to stay in Podsosnovo, Russia until September08 – pending our visa renewals – then relocate to Sherbakty, Kazakhstan for the remaining 10months.

===

From Perestroika to the Polka: The Politicization and Everyday Life of “Germanness” in Kazakhstan
Nathan Paul Jones, Kazakhstan, Anthropology

Residing throughout Kazakhstan is a population of nearly 300,000 Germans whose ancestors either immigrated there in the 19th and 20th centuries, or were deported there from western Russia during World War II. Since the USSR’s collapse, many of them have left Kazakhstan for their purported ancestral homeland, but once there other Germans perceive them as Russians or Asians, devoid of “Germanness.” Alarmed by this lack, German-funded NGOs such as the Technical Cooperation Society (GTZ) have deployed personnel and money to Kazakhstan with the belief that language and cultural education can reconnect these erstwhile Germans to their ethnic roots and stem their need to seek the same in Germany. Kazakhstan’s government officially sanctioned this effort by authorizing a similar indigenous organization known as “Rebirth” and establishing the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan, which promotes multiculturalism in cooperation with the GTZ and Rebirth. The GTZ believes it can moderate the desire for migration by providing authentic ethnic identity for Germans, while Kazakhstan’s government expects this increasingly ethnicized minority to contribute to its multicultural political image.

What influence does such an ethnic-based project have on its subjects, and how do the subjects influence the construction, implementation, and outcomes of the project and its sponsoring institutions? How do NGOs purport to “regermanize” Germans, and how might these attempts interact with local government objectives? If Germans have indeed lost their Germanness, what has replaced it? Do they possibly represent a non-ethnicized, postsocialist identity in the highly nationalized global politics of the 21st century? If so, could they be seen as an alternative model of political identity rather than a failure that needs correcting? Why don’t the Kazakh or the German governments see it this way? How might de-ethnicized identities interact with the NGOs and their work? Finally, do the ethnic projects accomplish the intended outcomes or something altogether unexpected – do they affect migration, economic and political opportunities, and relations between ethnic Germans and others in Kazakhstan?

Stalin’s fear that ethnic Germans living in the USSR might collaborate with invading Nazi troops during the war prompted their exile from western Russia. Deportation to forced labor camps, followed by settlement in collective farms in rural Siberia and Central Asia, characterized the early phase of exile. These experiences influenced the gradual withering of German dialects spoken in western Russia, as well as other cultural repertoires associated with “Germanness.” Nonetheless, in 1989, the USSR reported its total German population at just over two million. With political liberalization in the early 1990s, Germans were permitted to leave for Germany resulting in the departure of over a million people from the former USSR between 1991 and the present.

My dissertation research will compare two villages with significant German populations located in neighboring regions of Kazakhstan and Russia. I will conduct ten months of research during the academic Fulbright year in Kazakhstan’s Pavlodar region. This period will follow six months of research conducted across the border in Russia funded by an IREX IARO Grant from March until August, 2008. Studying the local-based institutions and those originating from Germany operating in two countries will help separate the effects of the German projects from the programs supported by local states, and will reveal which institutions have more influence.

My research will examine NGOs’ attempts to regermanize Kazakhstan’s Germans, the Germans’ own notions of identity, and their ability to influence regermanization. Germany has gradually decreased funding to the GTZ in Kazakhstan, forcing it to employ local Germans and Russians to operate its programs. This affords opportunities for locals to apply identities and practices from their socialist and postsocialist experiences. I once attended a GTZ-operated German youth camp in Kazakhstan employing local Germans and Russians, many of whom worked with youth in the socialist period as leaders in the Communist Union of Youth (Komsomol). While German kids learning to dance a polka from a former Russian dance teacher and Komsomol leader may not be what the German government had in mind for its funding, it provides an amazing laboratory for studying the interaction of politics and ethnicity. Understanding how the NGOs and locals produce such interactions and how, through everyday social life, locals challenge notions of Germanness and the authority to impose identities is the basis of my inquiry.

I will conduct my research between September 2008 and June 2009 in Sherbakty, a village in Kazakhstan’s Pavlodar region. Sherbakty maintains a large population of Germans and is also a site of intervention by the GTZ and Rebirth with assistance from the above-mentioned Assembly. My research there will employ open-ended interviewing and participant observation. I will interview village residents, NGO employees, and local administrators, asking them about their experiences regarding marriage, religion, migration, education and labor in both the socialist and postsocialist periods. In my past experiences in Kazakhstan, these topics provoked richer elucidations about Germanness than responses to direct questions about ethnic identification. My participation in the daily life of German villagers and in the NGO-supported festivals and activities will help me to identify how these organizations attempt to regermanize, and how their subjects’ react to and attempt to influence the process. Participant observation will also reveal variations in the presentation of German ethnic markers in different contexts over time.

Provincial Observances

Hot water is in the bathroom, cold in the kitchen. We need to pass through to the outer chambers to get to the bathroom and the hot water. As needed, hot water is carried into the kitchen and cold water out with buckets. I have instituted a couple of my own buckets, newly purchased, for the occasion of carrying kitchen only water and one for holding bathroom only water. There is also a bucket, which is Nikolai's, that is used to scoop questionably clean bathwater out of the tub to flush the toilet. I observe this demarcation of bucket usage strictly. After briefing N8 on all the purposes of the buckets, I was appalled to find out that he had used the toilet bucket to rinse himself and the babes off while taking a bath one evening! Gross! And then a couple of days later, I noted that Nikolai used the same grimy toilet bucket, that always rests on the floor of the bathroom, to bring in hot water and add it directly to his soup pot to begin to boil his potatoes!! How O.C. are You?

Bread is left out on the table all night long and there is most surely mice (I've heard them) but it seems that it is never nibbled nor have i seen any mice tracks (poop) anywhere. What gives? nyc mice are so in your face!

The milk tastes like hay. Which leads me to question what the cows in the US are fed . . . corn? Soybeans? The eggyolks are a pale yellow, very subtle. What makes the eggs in the US such a brilliant yellow/orange? Again, the food the chickens eat? Nevermind . . . eat your heart out organic disciples! I get hormone free milk and free-range organic eggs for free! (And when I pay for a ½ gallon of milk or 8eggs it's only about a dollar! I know, I know stop rolling your eyes LaurieB and quivering with envy L&NMc!)

Children's morning cartoons on the standard TV channels here in Podsosnovo are over by 8am! What's up with that? Give me another hour at lease on weekends, please!

The snow is melting and now its mudmudmud and massive puddles to navigate with a stroller and one puddle-loving 4yearold. Most people's driveways are currently complete ponds, impassable. Some have created stepping stones with bricks or rough bridges with boards or ladders. Nate and I had to balance along a narrow line of bricks once while carrying the stroller, he holding the front and me at the back, with Zoe in it! [I've posted some photo's to the right].

Nikolai often sets a plate of lard on the table that has been dusted with cayenne pepper and spreads it liberally on his bread. I noticed, when his granddaughter Yulya was visiting, he took a piece of bread and rubbed raw garlic on it and gave it to her. She'd been sick and I wondered if it was another preventative flu cure, similar to the eating of raw onions which we've seen at the preschool.

At Desi&Zoe's school, each class has its own 'bedroom' off the main classroom filled with soft yummy beds where all the babes sleep for about 2 ½ hours in the middle of the afternoon. Everyone strips down to their skivvies and the funny thing is, Des&Zoe have so far refused to do this. Those who know them know that they love to get 'naked' all the time!!! Most puzzling.

At all the shops here the shopkeepers expect to fetch everything for you – even if it's in a freezer case right in front of you and it would be so convenient just to get it yourself – it's still expected that I point and grunt my fledging Russian to try and get what I can reach myself.

Russian's love to sing – there have been concert events every week we've been here. Some sing with there own accompaniment (I love the accordion tunes!) and some actually lip-sync to popular tunes swaying like they were on Lawrence Welk. Nikolai once asked Nate to check with me and see if I would mind if he sang around the house sometimes.

Law and Order (Russian style) has been co-opted – including the opening music and the in-between text placement update chime – along with all the grisly murder scenarios. It seems I can't escape that franchise! They regularly filmed in my former NYC hood and whenever we travel to see family the TV seems to always be tuned to it. I still don't get the appeal.

Nate and I agree that television commercials aboard have a certain appeal and we enjoy watching them. Whereas it's the complete opposite in the USA, in fact that's one of the reasons I tune to PBS (and public radio!) so frequently.

The banya (Suana) has got to be the coolest invention EVER and I have to figure out how to have it in my life on a regular basis post Russia/Kazakhstan.

I love having a slop bucket accessible for all perishables. I've decided that it's got to be one of my favorite ways to recycle. Strangely, it doesn't bother me having it as close by as in the kitchen.

I think I must have to live with a cat while here. I have not wanted to go near them since childhood. I am not a pet person. But there is much to adapt to that is foreign to me and a lot of it I am welcoming but there are some things I am resistant to and foreignmice are one of them. Whats the difference between nycmice and siberianmice? still processing. . .

Nikolai has a granddaughter, Yulya, that we see quite a bit. She is 6 and really sweet. It's nice to have another child around that is not yours, adding to and legitimizing the general child atmosphere here in this house (that our babes have loudly imposed.) BTW, LaurieB, if you're reading this, she looks sososo like your Julia – the Russian equivalent seriously – and to further the similarity her name is basically the Russian counterpart to Julia! It's crazy!

We are such consumers and are contributing greatly to a big rubbish heap at the back of Nikolai's house. Nate took me back there the other day to show me what the chickens were up to and they'd pecked their way into most of the neatly tied bags and strewn it all over! It was devastating to see what we were responsible for! N8 has asked what is done with the garbage and as far as he can understand Nikolai buries it from time to time (or perhaps burns it!) Zoe has been going through quite a bit of diapers due to her little body's difficult adjustment to all that she's been eating. DIAPERS DON'T BIODEGRADE, RIGHT? So ashamed!

Zoe en Voice

Zoe funny!

"Stop it talking me Mom!" I was explaining to her why she couldn't have any treats after a dinner she didn't eat.

"Spiderman!" I returned from my first internet session here in Podsosnovo and upon entering the kitchen I saw little Zoe in Desi's Spiderman costume (!) then she did the little hand movement to shoot webs. Ha!

"Nikolai funny!" After playing peek-a-boo through the kitchen door.

Upon waking one morning, Zoe looked out the window and greeted the day by saying,

"My Russia!"

We had just returned from buying some milk which is sold in plastic bags, I was trying to transfer the milk into an empty water bottle and began spilling it all over the table&floor. Zoe, who was sitting right there, responded empathetically, "Oh-my-heart!"

After singing 'Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree' together, Zoe said "My favorite".

Upon waking too early in the morning Zoe comes to my bedside and says, "Hungry mom". She has never desired food like this before. She and Des have switched places he's become the indifferent one and she's the normal one.

Zoe always like's to take roll and confirm our relationships with each other. Over and over again she'll look around and point and say, "Daddy, Mommy, Desi, Zoe".

While playing one day she approached me in a panic saying, "Help, help mommy! Shark on me!" She's learning all kinds of interesting imaginary play from DPJ.

During breakfast preparations this morning, Zoe was hanging on the warm water pipes which run along one of the kitchen walls, and calls my attention to her trick, "Watch me mom, watch me Heather!" After this I ask her, "What's my name?" and she repeats it again (which is the first time she's called me by my name) and then, now curious, I ask her, "What's daddy's name?" She replied, "Tuna!" I asked her again, and she finally admitted, "Nathan".

Back at the dom, after dropping Desi off at school, Zoe was playing with a toy phone and said, "Hi Desi school! I love you Desi!"

AN ODE TO FAMILY

Dear beloved – I appreciate a public platform such as this (indulgent) blog to acknowledge your faith and support and struggles and love on our behalf.

I know all this hasn't been easy for you. For years we've been talking about this eventuality and I'm sure you were hoping that this particular dream would not be realized. I understand that with the addition of grandchildren/niece&nephew this separation makes it all the more painful for you. We think of this all the time and the affect our choices have on all of you and we pray for that great Comforter to be with you and to confirm to you our delicate, earnest wish to proceed with our lives in a careful, prayerful way that always considers but cannot always be swayed by your feelings. WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Thank you God for the nature of family and the potential to be together for the eternities!! Our testimony of this is so strong and we love our God for it. May you each feel his love for you!

AN ODE TO NEW YORK

Let this battery whirl on. . . it's late and an electrical outlet is not convenient to my recline in bed.

One month ago today we flew out of JFK airport. I have since remained in a continuous state of grateful well being as I remember all the good people in New York City who rallied about us to enable such a seemingly impossible departure from such a beloved place. For months I had struggled with gloom over leaving – not for a home somewhere in NY State or Connecticut or Philadelphia or Utah or even NewJersey (!) as so many we've know here have done – but for Siberia, Russia and ultimately unknownville, Kazakhstan, to some undetermined habitat that may or may not have electricity, or heat, or water; to enter a culture that would require of me a cache of pioneer-like survival skills that I was sure I didn't have; a society that would linguistically isolate me, which was a position I'd been in before while living in Germany over a decade ago and knew well what to expect. I regretted most of all leaving New York, a place where I enjoyed richrichrich sociality, a small but cozy apartment, a job that was, at times, really quite remarkable for a girl like me to find herself in. So counting my blessings over the last 5+ years and feeling so grateful for them – and not wanting to give it all up. Most painful!

But it was ultimately that act of acknowledging the goodness that surrounded me and a really great conversation with my mom&dad that helped me turn the corner (with 5 or so days to go before departure!) When one feels so blessed, one errs greatly by fearing – there is no faith in fear. My mother highlighted this for me and I thank her from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you good friends in the great city of New York for loving us so well and helping us make this difficult transition. May you all feel as blessed as I do by the people who surround you – feelings like these really create true brotherhood/sisterhood and that is what each person and community needs in this world. I pray for this!

Desi Candor

“Do you know how to speak New York?” Des asked of his new Russian friend, Ellionna.

Nate and I were talking about the likelihood of the school admitting Des as a non-Russian speaker and DPJ interrupted with a hopeful, “I can speak Russian. . . Kapish? Kapish? Kapish?!” but Nate informed him that ‘Kapish’ was Italian.

“It’s cold like Russia out here! It’s cold like Russia out here!” Des began to shout this several times after we first stepped outside the Moscow airport.

Why did I have to go to Russia anyway? Why didn’t you leave me with a babysitter?

“How do you say Spiderman in Russian?” Desi asked this of a little girl, Ellionna, who was also staying at the ‘hotel’ with her family here in Podsosnovo.

Why don’t they know about Spiderman here?

You know what’s cute mom&dad? Zoe hugging me!

After planting a big kiss on my cheek Des said, “Delicious kiss!”

Don’t scatter your stuff around. I don’t want my bed all girly, I want it all boyly.

“I wish I was a girl like Zoe.” Des said appreciatively after watching and laughing at her dancing and being silly. [He said this not an hour after saying the above ‘girly’ remark to her! Ha!]

Zoe and I were singing songs early one morning after she joined me in bed. Des was still out on the couch bed snoozing and after consecutive rounds of “Jesus Said Love Everyone”, Des stirred in the other room and muttered, “That heart song makes my head struggle – you need a new song.”

Mom’s more funnier that Dad, he’s more serious.

This morning Nikolai climbed down into the pit he has under the floor boards in the living room and brought up a huge jar of raspberry preserves. The babes and I were in complete ecstasies shortly thereafter, slathering it on bread. I declared, “Oh my heart! I LOVE good food!” Des followed up with, “I think we’re in heaven – in Jesus’ land!” and Zoe sweetly summarized, “Heaven.”

Zoe: Moo moo!
Des: Zoe, you’re not a cow!
Zoe: Cow! Moooomooo. . .
Des: You’re not a cow, you’re a lovely baby, a lovely Zoe!

On the Farm in Podsosnovo

We’ve found ourselves a little house and family and farm animals to share the next 3-6months with: Nikolai, his wife (who will join us in a month’s time) and their babyfaced 19yearold son Pavel, who is actually just visiting (curious about us) he goes to university in another city. I’m so grateful to be living with someone – there is so much to learn and I love observing how Nikolai does things about his house. It’s a whole new domestic world here.

Des and Zoe are great (still healthy!) and love Nikolai’s cooking. For lunch this afternoon we had macaroni mixed up with sardines! They ate it! Zoe has become the better eater suddenly and Des the less interested one. She gets treats wherever she goes – the Russians really have great candy and cookies – and Des only sometimes. He’s discovering that having a cute sister around trumps any attention he might get otherwise (though one person commented to Nate that she thought we had two daughters!)

Our goal now is to try and get Desi into the preschool. There was some hesitancy since he doesn’t speak Russian but Nate seems to think they’re coming around esp. since he’s still in preschool. The cost is about $40 a month per child for 5days a week from 8am-6pm. It’s an incredibly long time and I wasn’t sure at first but after such monotonous days together, exhausting all our toy&game resources (and must admit, my patience!), I think going to school will be an important part of his personal experience -- He’s here to learn and grow too. I had envisioned lots of intense family time and having lots of growth in that area – I haven’t given up that dream – but there are a lot of holidays and the weekends, of course. They admit children at 18months and our friends here have encouraged us to send Zoe, and she wants to go too, but I’m still hesitating on that. . . 10 hours!!! Any words of advice?

Nikolai has a sauna and it was wonderful our first night in his place to sit and be seared by such intensely hot air. Ahhhhh. . . really livens up the mind&skin&body! The best part is, after you can’t take it anymore, pouring cold water over your head!! It’s one of those rare uber-exhilarating experiences!

We have found so many good people here to help us and advise us and take us in. Nikolai’s daughter, Anastasia, who lives here in Podsosnovo (different house) with her family and works with Nate’s friend, Alexei (who is the mayor of Podsosnovo), came forward after our other housing plans fell through and offered her father (Nikolai’s) place. Anastasia has since become quite involved with us (she also works for the local German NGO organization so she will now liaise with Nathan in his research) and she is so sweet and pleasant, I love to hear her voice. She’s one more Russian who is helping me do away with my errant notion that all Russians are stoic and unfriendly. I love it when I’m wrong about such miscalculations in humanity! Foolish generalizations!

In sum, we’ve passed through fleeting challenges only to learn that we’re more resilient than we’d known and what a blessed thing being adaptable is. I’ve tried to be honest with my feelings and yet leave my heart open for learning – I don’t want to miss anything I was meant to benefit from. Mostly, as mentioned above, I just want to understand people more and how they live and move and find their being in various circumstances and challenge myself to try and do the same.
I’ve very grateful my children are finding joy in this endeavor and I also want to do all I can to make this experience meaningful for them. Great or small, I thank my God for all.

Perhaps I’ll share a bit of some journal entries on the house we’re now so happy and content to be in. Its as if Nikolai was always preparing for us – where in reality he was most suddenly approached with the idea and 20minutes later met Nate and by that evening the whole bunch of us had moved in and taken over!

***

The house will take some adjustment but it’s coming rapidly. Transitions seem to stir up emotions for me. But I am on the rise. Nathan and I have our own bedroom with firm shared queen bed. Most cozy. I should be able to unpack the majority of our suitcases (there are over 17peices of baggage in varying sizes) into the wardrobe in the bedroom. The babes sleep out on the converted couch just outside our room and have slept well every night so far. The living quarters are relatively clean, tidy, cozy. The kitchen will do. Small fridge, which was filled when we arrived with all sorts of chunks and boney bits of grizzled red meat. Raw, uncovered. It was a ghastly site. Nate cleaned the fridge after Nikolai removed most of it. Nikolai has been remarkably accommodating. Then there is the bathroom, the bathroom. . . what can be said? [what can you envision?] The odor nearly turned me to stone at first whiff. Now it’s taken on a nostalgic old farmhouse smell which conjures up lots of Grandma&Grandpa Simkins old house in Cedar City memories, which are pleasant. I’m conceiving ways in which to have Nate convince Nikolai to use the first months installment of $200 (for rent) on a new toilet! It’s this short, dark, busted up creature that would make most women scream! I could only acquaint myself with it after Nate did an ace job scrubbing with the various chemicals I acquired after setting eyes on it. There is hot water but I’m not sure I’m ready to approach the bathtub yet (me or my babes) again another cleaning job for Mr. Jones.

The house itself, the layout design, which seems to be typical (I’ve seen two house interiors now), is a labyrinth of compartments – to the left, to the right, lots of passage ways with doors. The inner core is the warmest and the further out you get the colder each room becomes. At least one of these outer rooms seems to function as an extension of the fridge. Nikolai also has potatoes&beets&carrots&preserves under the floor boards in the main living room! The babes and I got down on our knees this morning to peer down into the pit. It was so cool!

Eventually, if you take the right route through the house, you’ll find the banya! Russian for SAUNA! Our first night we steamed ourselves till we were bright and friendly to our new lifestyle. OH! And most surprising of all is yet another route that will lead you to open a door to the barn and be faced, quite unexpectedly, with eager pigs and chickens! I can’t begin to express how my heart warmed when on the first morning Nikolai brought me fresh eggs from the chickens in his own house and milk, still warm, from a farmer friend nearby! The littlest things thrill me!

Nikolai has also proved a ready cook. He’s prepared crepes, in which we drizzled his homemade preserves on top, and ‘Dutch oven potatoes’ for breakfast. For lunch he’s served up a yummy soup and, another time, macaroni and sardines! The babes actually ate it! He goes out and gets bread, baked fresh somewhere, every day too. He’s talked of making the Russian version of peirogies (polish potato dumplings) which I really love and can’t wait to try his version – I’m sure it’s far superior that the frozen varieties we’ve been buying.

I’m so greatful for this hospitable friendly place. I’ve had some moments where I’ve felt unhinged emotionally due to the many transitions and unanswered questions we’ve dealt with in order to get to this place. I can’t think of what leaving here will feel like. Must have faith! God be with me!

The Expat Life

Living like expats in Russia. What a dream! lovely boulevards. Tasty food. Glamorous people. Fantastic museums. Amazing architecture. Does this sound like Russia? Oh, and the internet cafe spellcheck it seems is configured to the Russian language so every English word I'm typing is incorrect and therefore my true limitations in my own language are being exposed with every word. Fogive me. understand me. I'm being charged by the bitmat!

Our journey here a few days ago was intense. We have put our babes through a lot. Truly it was normal, all the waiting around, lack of sleep, decline in regular food and drink. I'm amazed by their resilence and ability to find ways of having fun when the adults around them become increasingly annoyed. Ahhh. . . childhood! I know 12 years from now, were we to put Zoe through this, she may very well chew us up and spit us out -- but as it is she only has had occasional moments of contempt for her adoring family and has very much enjoyed running and exploring.

Don't have pictures to post. Wouldn't know how to work that here anyway. I've left Nate&babes in the hotel room and ventured out solo (I speak no Russian) but feel completely confident in moving around Barnaul which is a city in Siberia.

We leave tomorrow for our farming village (Podosonovo) and I hopehopehope thar I love it or at least find something to ultimately love before our 3months are up and we're on to Kazakhstan. So far I feel quite different from my previous visits to Russia. I'm a little kinder on the environment and a lot more excited. It's been over 5 years after all since I've traveled internationally. I'm ready to embrace anything foreign.

We attended church yesterday. Missionaries abroad are always so eager the help. Blessed youth! We received permission to conduct services at home as we'll be too far away to come to church (at all). :(

Hope to post again soon. Wish me luck on expanding my mono-lingual universe.

luvluvluv