Day 42 Wednesday

We invited several people over for Sunday Dinner, including a couple that we recently met walking down the street. One day last week we were walking back from downtown and heard a couple talking in English (American English) so we introduced ourselves briefly then and invited them to dinner the other day. They are here with the Fulbright Scholar program, they are both instructors at the University. They have a guest visiting them and ask if she can tag along, another Fulbright Fellow instructing in Moldova. We also invited N & L, a British couple who have become friends, and one of their co-workers comes along too, a German woman, so there are eight of us and N & L’s 13 month-old baby, Annabel.

N & L arrive first, “Where’s the baby?” “Oh, she's asleep in the stroller.” One thing that is common place over here--if the baby is asleep--is to leave the baby in the stroller--outside. Why not--it’s not raining...? She was all bundled up (it was about 35 degrees) and slept nicely for almost two hours.

The German woman arrived shortly after, and then the other Americans. Beloved has prepared Tex Mex Chicken Fajitas with refried beans, sauteed onions and bell peppers, corn, sour cream, salsa--man it was good! Everyone there said so as well, and ate two helpings all around.

I meant to get a picture of everyone but it didn’t happen. I’m sure we will do it again.

The conversation was wide and varied, from local election coverage to Tajikistan to a week's journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Yes, our American guests, widely traveled people, came to the mideast by traveling west, through Beijing, China, then across Siberia, Russia by rail. It was a really good time, and good to be entertaining again as well. We will definitely do it again.

 Finally got the telephone wire changed. It has made a huge improvement in the reliability and quality of my internet. I was concerned that it might be expensive, but unduly so--the workman and an interpreter from the Training House arrived, looked at the house for about five minutes and then they were off to buy the wire. They arrived back about 45 minutes later with a loose roll of telephone wire--about 100 feet. The Ustasa (work man) set to work right away, and in half-an-hour I had brand new wire from the pole all the way into my house (about 75 feet) for 22AZN--about $27.50. Not bad at all. Maybe I should have paid him a little more so he could get a better ladder... (check out that quality!)

Another new experience yesterday, the gas and the electricity went out at the same time! Good thing we had language lessons, we just turned off all the furnaces and left the house. Got home in the afternoon and the electricity was back on but the gas did not come back until about 6:30PM. It was fairly chilly in the house by that time, so we didn’t sleep super-great. The heaters are not the fastest things in the world, and when the 18-inch-thick stone walls get cold it takes some time for them to get warm.

We are finally ready to submit permit documents this week. All the pertinent papers have been collected and signed and stamped and notarized, so we are off to Yavlar on Friday. I’ll let you know how that goes.