9.18.07

Sorry that the blogs have become less frequent we are still trying to get accustomed to our site and our new jobs. This weekend our other site mates that live in soums came in. Mike and the boys enjoyed a guy’s night, playing video games and watching star wars. Elizabeth and I enjoyed the break! Luckily Elizabeth is a fantastic cook. She made me tortilla chips, queso dip, quesadillas, and biscuits and gravy. For a minute I almost thought I was back in the states.
Finally, Mike has started work. I guess now we will have to share the housewife responsibilities although he was really starting to get good at it. He now will be busy; teaching life skills to both teachers and students, teaching English and leading a yoga class for teachers (thankfully Lavonne gave him a deck of yoga poses). Mike, Elizabeth (our site mate) and 18 10th graders are also working on a world map project. They are painting a world map on a wall that is 6 feet by 18 feet. It is amazing to watch the process and Mike is taking a lot of pictures along the way. They are hoping that they will have it done within the next month or two. We are all very excited to see how it turns out. I am still really enjoying teaching English. This week I have started team teaching with 3 of our English teachers. My schedule is a little crazy right now but I am really enjoying my Tuesdays off.
Wow, it has really started to get colder here. On Sunday morning we were able to see snow on the mountain peeks. The snow made me think that maybe I should learn how to make a fire. This weekend I learned, although it absolutely didn’t seem to last as long as the ones Mike makes. I am sure I will become much better at it throughout this year and if not it can be Mikes job. It doesn’t take long to heat up our ger but it loses heat really quickly. If it is cold we generally have to keep a fire going. I guess soon it will be time to buy some winter clothes.
It is amazing how much you don’t eat when it takes a long time to make anything. Usually for breakfast we have an apple, oatmeal or the wonderful biscotti Mel sent us with a nice cup of coffee. For lunch, we usually have a bowl of rice sometimes if we are feeling a little spicy we will put some carrots or potatoes in it. For dinner we frequently use the leftovers from lunch and make some type of soup. Our diets have significantly changed from how we ate in the states. We obviously eat a lot of rice, noodles, potatoes and carrots. So far it hasn’t really been that bad. We are learning to branch out a little and made pizza the other night for our hasha family (they had never eaten pizza before). Tonight we will try to make burritos.
That is all for now. We love and miss you all- Allie and Mike