Back in the swing of things

They made paper snakes and held them above a heater while learning about how heat rises. The snakes turned around and around - they loved it.

Already green grass growing in the mountains. I even found some mint. The kids love getting out like this.

A walkway in our neighborhood. Perfect for Emmett to drive his car on. His sister does a good job of keeping an eye on him.

We've been back in our home in Tajikistan for three weeks now. Jet-lag is a distant memory (thankfully) and we've got a decent schedule going. The weather has been really mild for winter. We've had just as many days in the 60s as we've had in the 40s and pretty good electricity to boot. Hannah enjoys making mud cakes outside as often as she can and Emmett is perfectly happy riding his "car" around. He's funny - he can't stand his hands getting messy or his shirt getting wet but he'll tear through mud puddles on that car, totally disregarding how muddy his pants and feet get.
We've been doing school for the last two weeks and Hannah really loves it. Even Emmett likes to be part of some of the reading, the science and memorizing scripture - otherwise he stays close by, building train tracks and mazes for his cars to go through.
I'm enjoying home-schooling too. I really like the curriculum (Sonlight). It has a lot of reading involved in it and explores all the people of the world. She's already been learning about Ancient Egypt and can find it on the map and sees where things are in relationship to our two homes: Seattle and Tajikistan. After one of the stories we read about two girls returning to India to volunteer, we were supposed to talk about what it's like to go to another country and think about anyone we know who maybe went to another country. Well, I obviously had to modify that discussion subject so that it would be more relevant to her. I asked her what she thinks about going to other countries, if it's scary or exciting or what. She said she liked going to other countries and that it's not scary at all. We talked about what's good about going to other countries and she was quick to point out that we get to learn some other languages when we go somewhere else. I informed her that not every kid her age has been to other countries. She looked confused. I told her, "certainly many of your Tajik friends haven't been to another country but even some of your friends from preschool in America haven't been to another country." Her response was shock, "No! That's IMPOSSIBLE!" I left out the tidbit about it being generally difficult to travel with small children and that most people in their right mind save that for when the kids are a bit older.
Rees presses on with the opening of the new business, Trade 41. This name comes from the well-known Tajik proverb: "Forty skills/trades for a man is still few." They got official permission from the Ministry of Education to begin classes after many months of hard work figuring things out by our coworkers who have been in the country this fall - way to go guys! They start their English classes on Monday and hope to add other classes like Russian, German, accounting, computers, sewing, etc to the mix as they go. Our local friends and acquaintances are still adjusting to the fact that Trade 41 is a totally different business. At this point, there is no option for reduced tuition and stuff like that and the cost for classes, though still a great price, is more expensive than it was when offered by a non-profit. When people ask us why Millenium is gone, we frequently refer to the Chinese Bazaar that had been here for years. It was a huge area of freight containers lined up in rows where textiles were sold - not as crazy and crowded as the big bazaar. It was run primarily by Uyghurs (from Western China) and Uzbeks and, of course, some Tajiks. Well apparently it was still there, business as usual, one day during the fall and suddenly the next day - it was totally gone. Freight cars and all. There's a new bazaar just on the way out of town and there's been all kinds of scandals surrounding getting people to move their business from the old bazaar and Chinese bazaar to the new one (which is owned by a family member of the president). I explain Millenium's closure to the moving of the Chinese Bazaar. "You know how it is, it was there one day and the next it wasn't. If someone with power wants something to be moved or closed, it will be." People immediately understand that. They don't understand the court-case and all that, but they do understand how people in power get to decide how things work (or don't). Another example is the huge, black SUV I saw zooming (totally wrecklessly) up and down the middle of one of the main roads that goes by our apartment. There were some young men driving in it and they'd zip right past a group of four policemen each time. The policemen did nothing. I was out on the sidewalk talking to a neighbor and mentioned that those boys could kill someone and that they were zooming right past a whole group of policemen and why didn't they at least tell them to slow down. She said (translated), "Oh they won't stop a car like that. They know someone important must own it." And so that's they way things go, but I digress...
Our biggest news is that we found a house we'll be moving into in the next few weeks. It's in a great location and we were surprised to find it so quickly. Actually, our handyman found it for us and helped negotiate our lease. We'll post pictures once we take some.
As for me and the bun in the oven - we are doing well. I can't believe how uncomfortable I've gotten so early. This kid is taking up plenty of room inside already and I already have to heave myself up from wherever I'm sitting with some effort. On the positive side - I'm not swollen at all and though I wouldn't say I have a lot of energy - I have energy sufficient for each day. We still plan to go to Chiang Mai, Thailand in early May and have this baby (due June 3rd) there.
Thanks for your faithful prayers, thoughts and encouragement. We love to hear from you too.