Marshmallow Cream

This is a personal invitation for Malia and Josie from Ethan and Elli. Come and visit us! We found the greatest thing at the bazaar . . . Marshmallow Cream!

A man sells it in a huge pot. You can even buy it by the 10 kg bucket full if you want. They say it comes from the mountains surrounding our town. Who knew Kraft was taking jars of Marshmallow Cream from the mountains of Aobistan and selling it in WalMarts across America. And here kids are fed all things sweet and sugary from the earliest of age! We just know you would love it.

As you can tell . . . we love it!

Come soon. We'll save some for you!

Elli going ethnic!

The sun is out these days and we are out in it! I can never keep track of Elli's hat, so today at the bazaar we bought her a local head scarf. These are what all the little girls wear. I think she pulls it off well and she's already reaping the benifts; free candy, cheeries and cookies from random salesmen who think she's cute!

Some of the process

We are moving forward on some of the repairs and set up of our home. It's never as fast or as smooth as one would hope, but we are moving along.


We have the veranda almost all ready. I figure I need a place to host people, as one never knows when a neighbor will come by for tea. The kids play area is at the end and we have red carpet and our little dining room table on the other side, near the kitchen.

This is the man who laid it using his Swiss army knife. And has earned the right to rest on it!

The kitchen is a work in progress! We have removed the massive heater that was taking up a large amount of our kitchen space.

the beast

Austin giving it his all to remove "the beast"

In the end it took a disc grinder to cut the thing out and four grown men to carry it out. Two of those men repaired the mud walling, where it had previously gotten wet. It was a quick and very messy process that now has me cooking out in the entry way. I'll keep cooking in the entry way until the plumbing is finished, possibly another week or week and a half away. Though notice I did find another work table down in our cellar. After some good scrubbing and then staple gunning (sorry Dan, probably not the exact terminology) cute plastic table cloths to the top, I really love my counters.

The very disheartening part though, is that the night they patched up the wall with a mix of cement and mud, Austin and I laid awake listening to a large mouse chew through our newly repaired walls. He had been sealed in and didn't like it. I HATE mice/rats. They are disgusting. So now our mission is to get the mouse. Last night's trap attempt failed, so we'll try again tonight.

We are making slow headway on the bathroom too. Austin, also my plumber, has removed the rusted through tub and gas water heater. I've used comet (or our equivalent) and a scrub brush on the floor and it's starting to feel a little cleaner. The sewer smell that backs up through the pipes is one thing we are eager to get ride of. Until we get those sealed off, Austin has wrapped them with plastic bags, and last night was the first night we slept without being awoken by the awful stink. Though one night I did sleep with Viks under my nose and that helped.

So there is our progress. Slow and steady but at least it's starting to feel a little "homeier," minus the mouse of course!

In the meantime

Moving into our house, before things have been repaired, means we are constantly trying to figure out how to make life work with what is currently working. I thought you'd enjoy some pictures of life in our new home "in the meantime," that being before we have everything up and repaired.

This is my kitchen. We have one outlet for the kitchen, so we are using an extension cord to plug in what we need to. My electric kettle serves as my hot water heater. We haven't decided if we'll buy the pre-made cabinets or have cabinets made. Until then, I'm using a work table the landlord left in the house. The red buckets are my water; the white bucket (which was once upon a time our "bathroom" bucket during our home stay) is used to haul old dishwater to the bathroom to flush the toilet; and the blue bucket is for food scraps to give to the little boy that comes by each morning at 6:30.

This is our bathroom set up. The tub is rusted out and currently drains all over the floor. So we inherited this large basin and are using it both as a tub/shower and as my washing machine! The bucket . . . the water necessary for bathing. Preheated on the stove, of course.

We are looking to buy a water storage tank when we go to the capitol the first part of July. I can't wait. I can't imagine what kind of time it will free up to not have to lug all my necessary water. But until then, my biceps/triceps are getting toned.

We're in!!

We actually have been in our new house for 1 week now. It was an executive decision and a push to get us in, but we moved in last Wednesday. It has been much like camping, as we moved in before any of the electrical or plumbing had been worked on. It feels like there is so much to do to make it liveable and then living on top of that is super tiring (washing clothes by hand and lugging a minimum of 15 2-gallon buckets from our water cistern to our house). We fall in bed every night, exhausted. But we are glad to get in. Blogs with lots of pictures are to come. When we are a little more settled.

Big Brother to the rescue

Yesterday I was sent on an errand for our host family; to take the oldest daughter (40 yrs.) and lifelong resident of our town, to the tailor. The errand in itself is quite funny, but not what this blog is about. We are frantically working to get our house ready to move into, so I tried to squeeze the errand in before Elli's nap. I asked the family to watch my kids while I was gone; seeing as I was helping them out by going. Austin left to work on house stuff soon after I did. He convinced them to lock the gate, so Elli wouldn't escape down the street.

I came home (after a very defeated errand) to find no adults around, a very scared Elli and overwhelmed Ethan. Apparently while I was gone, Elli fell into the full rushing juey (ditch).

Our family usually has the ditch covered, but for some reason the cover was off. Ethan tells the story that Elli fell into the juey and he saw her. He and Baktavar (his 8 year old buddy of almost equal weight and size) grabbed her hands and pulled her out. By the time I got home, her clothes that had been covered in black sludge, where changed and she was sitting hugging her puppy. She wouldn't let me put her down for her nap, I had to rock her to sleep before I could lay her in her crib.

There is no way to explain her safety other than the watch care of God. The juey was really full yesterday, well over her head. The current was quite strong and easily could have pulled her downstream, under the driveway into someone else's yard. I hugged this little girl so tight this morning when she woke up and praised God for her life. She came out of the event with only a scratched nose and eyebrow and it is all to His glory.

I have also resolved that I won't be leaving my kiddos alone again.

A house update

We are slowly chipping away at the layers of dust and yuck that have covered our house. Ethan has loved to jump right in there and help, whereas Elli spends much of her time playing with the spicket that is constantly running to fill up our little cistern. So I now have diapers and a dry outfit at the new house, so I can change her as needed. The house is mostly clean, we are now waiting on the electrician, plumber and the man who will repair the walls that need re-mudding (I couldn't think of a concise English title, as we don't really mud our houses.) Oh for the patience to wait!

Ethan has loved helping wash the floors, windows and sweep the sidewalk.

The last 2 days Elli has taken her morning nap in her stroller. It's a great system that frees me to stay until lunch.

Today I got the floors clean enough (after washing them 3 times) that the kids could play on them. Eventually we'll have carpet to cover them. Right now we are waiting on a bank transfer to come through. We brought over some of our newly inherited toys and they had so much fun building and making it home.

We have a home!

I was getting ready to go with Kaleen to her sister's house to prepare for the first of many wedding days and Austin called to tell me the banker had come back to town a day early and wanted to negotiate. We've been waiting for his return and have been trying hard not to get our hopes too high about the house coming through. Austin called back soon after, with true excitement in his voice, and said that the landlord was super agreeable and we got the house for what we asked for!!! So we now have a home. Take a peak:



There is still some remodeling that needs to be done, but we are excited to finally have a place for our family to land!

Bringing in the bounty

Kaleen's neice is getting married this week. And it has been all the activity of our family. 3 days before the actual wedding, 10 representatives of the groom's family (5 women and 5 men) come to the bride's family with a large pasel of gifts for her family. The bride is not allowed to be present and the mother of the groom does not come, as they say it is bad luck for either to be seen before the wedding.

This is Kaleen, the new bride, and her acquivilant to a maid of honor

Jenni, displaying my newly darkened eyebrows, and the new bride who'll pluck her eyebrows for the first time on her wedding day. It's all about the brows!

Kaleen and I got to her sister's house super early, so we could help get things ready for the future in-laws' arrival. It provided opportunity to poke around and get some pictures of things I otherwise wouldn't have. Thus the picture with the bride. She left soon after we got there.

These are the numerous hats that the bride will wear for her wedding and then anytime she is out in public for the first year of marriage.

These are the new floor pillows that various members of the bride's extended family have given her as gifts. I'm really excited about the "modern" style of fabric young couples are using. One side is almost like chinese "chi pao" fabric and the other side is a cooler cotton for summer. We'll be needing some of these soon.

These were some of the gifts brought to the bride's family. The sacks are full of carrots, rice, potatoes, flour, etc. In the background you can see the shoes and canes of the male guests. The sheep is obviously for killing and eating. And the trunk is full of fabric, shoes, very conservative pajamas, a winter coat, etc for the bride.

This is the grandmother of the groom. She came as the primary representative for the mother-in-law. Each woman in the groom's family was given a wrapped package with beautiful fabric easily costing over $100, a matching head scarf, candy and nan. Before the guests left, this women was presented with special nan made with milk and oil. She broke off half to take back to the mother-in-law and the remaineder was broken into bits and passed out to every woman. We each took one for every unmarried girl in our immediate family. Then as we ate the nan, we said a prayer of blessing for their future weddings. How special to eat this bread and pray for Elli's wedding some day. And to realize my daughter will grow up with one picture of a wedding and then will probably be a bride in a very different culture.

More on Eyebrows

Grandma and all the young girls were huddled around a mirror and small tea cup filled with what looked like green watercolor. Elli and I went over to investigate. They explained that they were putting on "esmal" to make their eyebrows darker and asked if I wanted some. At first I declined, but they were so eager I thought I'd give it a go. As Grandma continued to smear layer upon layer on my eyebrows and explain that it is like henna and will dye them, I progressively became more nervous.

But they weren't at all hesitant to layer the green smear on nice and thick. Luckily I didn't have the uni-brow painted on like everyone else opted for. I'm not quite there yet.

So here we all are, waiting for the grassy dye to dry, darkening our eyebrows ever so beautifully. They really wanted to paint on some dark brows for Elli, but I explained she would rub it all over her face. I can't imagine what her little round, bald head would look like with black brows.

The day quickly got busy and I forgot to get an "after" shot. So Austin took this one in our room right before bed. They turned out better than I thought they would. Luckily not too dramatic. Now the family talk is painting on the uni-brow next time!

Laughing with them

The family is getting ready for a wedding; Kaleen's only niece. So there have been multiple trips to the bazaar to buy all the things that will be needed. I've been told my dresses aren't nice enough for a wedding and I need a new one. Along with some new shoes. Originally Kaleen and I went together to look. But I didn't have enough money; it's amazing how much this "crushed velvet" can go for per meter! I told Kaleen I would go to the bazaar on my own, as she was busy making nan, and get the fabric needed.

We got our stroller out of our friend's "garage" so I was excited to give it a try through the bazaar. Yet another sign that we are settling in and making it home. I found some fabric I liked and made sure to ask the women around me if 1) this was the color for mourning and 2) young women could wear these colors. I was assured that the fabric was beautiful and wasn't for mourning. I proudly returned home with my purchase.

Kaleen said the fabric was beautiful, but I could tell there was more left unsaid. Grandma came around the corner and I was told to show her my new buys. As soon as Grandma saw the fabric she started laughing, hard! "When did you get so old? You can only wear this if you are going to be crying? This is not for a young girl like you." All those gathered around joined in the laughing. I knew it was a risky move to go on my own and was able to laugh with them. Though I will be honest, there are times I get tired of being laughed at. So I told Grandma she could have the fabric as a gift. To which at first she was very pleased.

Grandma displaying her new fabric and fresh nan

It turned out that Grandma didn't even like the fabric for her. So I was sent back to the bazaar with Kaleen and Ethan to try and explain it. What did I tell the shopkeeper I bought it from? "Grandma yelled and me and won't let me wear it. Can I buy something different?" When it's finished, I'll post a picture of my approved new dress.

The Keik Culprit

Well, I thought you would appreciate an update on our "kiek" (flea) saga. It has continued . . . all of us are covered with bites, though Ethan and I seem to be sweeter than Austin and Elli. There are spots where we've scratched so hard (often in our sleep) that we are now fighting infection with daily neosporin and bandages.

The salt didn't really work, other than making one's bed very uncomfortable and drawing all the moisture up out of the floor and into our foam mattresses we are currently sleeping on. So in desperation we turned to pesticide! Enoch had some good ol' American pesticide someone had brought out. So Austin sprayed our house down. We didn't know how it would go over, as you hate to offend your hosts by blatantly insinuating that they have a keik problem. I left to make jam with the kids and Austin sprayed it down. But once Grandma got word, he was quickly ordered to spray their sections of the house too. I would have loved to have been there, as he said he had various family members bossing him around to spray more here and there. Some expressed concern that he used too much water and not enough "medicine" in the spray bottle. But in the spraying process, this is what he discovered.

Apparently, in the effort to have a soft floor for Grandma and Grandpa to sleep on all winter, a "keik" breading ground has also resulted. This room isn't really used in the summer time, but it got a heavy dousing of the "medicine."

We still have fleas, but they do seem to have reduced in number and we are grateful!

What does this mean?

I loaded my kiddos up this morning for a quick trip to the bazaar. Everything closes here after lunch, so that means we have to get to the bazaar before Elli goes down for her nap (around 10-10:30). Both naps are still very crucial, as bedtime is around 9 p.m. after our late dinner. Anyway, trips to the bazaar all on foot, 2 kiddos in tow, means we are booking it. Anyway, this was what I was hunting.

Awe inspiring, I know! It is a mirror, soap holder, toothbrush holder and towel rack all in one! I hung it up, borrowing my son's "special string" to do so. Now we put our white bathroom bucket (see homestay post) under the mirror and can brush our teeth and put our contacts in with ease. My question is, what does this mean? After the recent falling through of the house, does this mean my heart is settling on the reality that I may be here for a while? Setting up instead of just camping? It has yet to be seen.

A Work Truck

A friend just traveled up from the captiol with our "new" truck. Various parts (engine, seats, tires, etc) have been re-furbished and it is officially new to us. We've buckled Elli's carseat in it and are making it ours. Our roads are quite bumpy here, "basic" to quote a resent stateside visitor. So we all jostle around in it. But as Austin explains, "It's a work truck." And it sure brings out the farm boy in my man! Every night he has to back it down a very narrow driveway, watching out for the only water pipe in the entire house/yard. Each time he makes it look easy and has explained to several on-lookers of all the practice he had backing up his uncle's trucks on the farm.

We're grateful for wheels. It should make looking for a house and lugging our laundry a little easier.

Making Jam

The brief strawberry season is upon us. Though not the most ideal week for either Janel or I (as we both are anticipating moving in the near future) you must make jam when you have berries. So yesterday was jam making day!

We started with 12 kilos (26 1/4 pounds) of strawberries. Janel and I carried these, along with over 8 kilos of sugar on the 1/2 mile hike from the bazaar. We then sat and talked while we removed every top and cleaned them. No doubt, there were a fair number of interupptions; the most of which Elli provided. It was hard for her to accept that she couldn't eat as many strawberries as she wanted.

After cleaning, we crushed the strawberries. This is Janel with her handy strawberry crushing invention! We had 8 active kids, did lunch, and made jam and she did it all with a migraine. Quite the stud!

This was our final batch. In efforts to get finished before the end of the day, I tried my hand at a triple batch. I shouldn't of, as my math was a little off and resulted in 6 jars that didn't set. Goes to show, mastery can't be rushed.

The yummy foam you scoop off of the top. Great for sampling!!!

This was the yield. We filled about 17 jars after we finished making 7 batches of jam. This will be shared amongst 4 families; so it is yet to be seen if we'll need to make another day's worth of jam to last all of us until next spring.

Cherry Art

In keeping with previous posts, I thought I would share Ethan's self-portrait picking cherries. Rather than grass in the for-ground, Ethan captured the "juey" (ditch) that surrounds the garden for watering purposes. This boy loves to draw and create!