Friday update

It is Friday night, we are sitting in the front room at the cabin, beloved on her laptop, I on mine. We have been back in the USA for one week now, so I will give a little update.


We stayed four nights with A, which was nice, but it is easy to tell that she has become accustomed to living by herself and that we were in her space. She was a gracious host, and we had a lot of fun talking and laughing and eating together. We love her and it is nice to be close to her again. Even had dinner with her boyfriend one night. He is a fine cook and a fine young man all-around. (Don’t know yet if he’ll ever be part of the family but if it happened it would be fine by me.)

B

Also got to spend some nice time with our son B. He moved to another abode this week, from a smallish apartment to a house. Helped move a bed and a couch and got to spend some time with he and his girlfriend and her son. They are all really neat together. (Don’t know yet if she’ll ever be part of the family but if it happened it would be fine by me.)


Of course my mom is happy that we are close in proximity again, have gotten to spend some nice time with her this week. And all sorts of friends have invited us out or to dinner or coffee just to visit. Also visited Vickie in the hospital--she is beginning the process of dialysis, not a pleasant experience. However, she is putting the best face on it and moving forward in the face of difficult prospects. I love her! Please pray for her strength and rapid recovery in this interesting time of transition, thanks!


Monday Beloved spent almost the entire day researching mobile phone programs and prices to find us just the right deal. Satisfied that we got a good deal we went about getting my iphone unlocked. That was not an easy process. We had it to two different places for a total of seven hours to get the job done.


I spent Monday talking to old contacts and seeing what is available for work and looking for some sort of transportation. I have set my sights on a Jeep Cherokee, and in the price range that I need there are not a lot of options. Several that are in decent shape but have 250-plus thousand miles, several that have 130-150,000 miles but need work--brakes or no air conditioning or need front-end work, and a couple that have 100-130,000 miles that need major work--an engine or transmission. One had a good engine and transmission but had been rolled over. Probably not a good option. Finally found one Tuesday night and made a quick call on it. Ended up getting it, finalized the deal on our way out of town Thursday morning. (More on that in a minute) So now we have a car of our own. Again.


Tuesday morning I went back to work as a contractor at Spirit AeroSystems. I suppose if I have to be here in the Hometown instead of Azerbaijan I would not rather work anywhere else. I love the company, the job, and the fine people that I get to work with there. It is a great environment and good money, so I will be at Spirit several days a week until we figure out what the next step is. (More on that in a minute, too) It is fairly easy to settle back into the group and the work, my manager Tony is as easy a person to work for as I have ever had--he makes me feel welcome and at ease and is encouraging me in the midst of an occasionally-overwhelming change of career.


Tuesday night we are staying at the home of a dear friend we have known for five years now, even as I write this it is hard to believe we have only known her for five years, she is such a kind and good friend. She opened her home to us just before we left back in December, and has done the same again, so we will be spending the next couple weeks at her house.


Wednesday I was at Spirit again, and went to look at the Jeep in the evening. Also went to meet a friend, a pro baseball player that is going on a summer-league tour with his wife, they are looking for someone to stay in their apartment while they are away so they don’t lose the apartment. It is an interesting deal, but a good deal for all of us, since we don’t have anything in Wichita we will get to move into a furnished apartment for four months. Also went to look at the Jeep and drive it, and spent some time with B--Portal2 came out Tuesday and he wanted to play it. His computer won’t handle it right now so we played on my laptop. Good times!


Thursday we got up early, we are going to Oklahoma today. We are meeting the guy with the Jeep at 7:30, pay the money and do the title. We are on the road at 8:30, we have a lunch appointment in Tulsa. More friends to see and tell all the story. The drive is nice, it is a pleasant contrast to the terrible roads and, umm, interesting drivers of Azerbaijan.


Friday we spent most of the day resting and working in the yard. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get some photos. 

We still think about Azerbaijan all the time. Our hearts are still there, we remember all the people that we got to know and can’t wait to get back there.  Even right now I look across the room--Beloved was given an desk-top-sized Azerbaijan flag on a stand for her birthday--it is right there in the bookshelf. It is our desire to keep our relationships up over there, to help whatever way we can over there, and to help people here get an idea of what life is like over there. The time we spent in Ganja made us realize that there are a number of good organizations working in Ganja, primarily The Training House, that we can help by raising awareness and funds for their programs. Still trying to figure out exactly what that looks like, but if you would like to have a part in making a real difference in the lives of children in Azerbaijan let me know--I can help you get some funds to some people that will do some real good with it.


Thanks for reading, I will continue to post as regular as I can. Hello to my dear friends in Azerbaijan, Yaver and Amalya, Turab and Namiq and Gunlar, Gulbaniz and Gulmira, all the rest of the staff at the Training House, England and Mrs. P., Indy, Manchester, Berry and her family, Farshid, (somebody tell him hello for me!) all the group at the Bank, N&L who will be returning to London this summer--Godspeed, and all the rest. We love you and miss you.

Day 89 Monday

Well, the day has finally arrived, and we are up early again. Beloved and I spent most of Sunday afternoon packing--right up until we were invaded by Indy, Berry and Berry’s two brothers. Then Manchester dropped by, and later that evening two others stopped by to wish us well and send us off. We love you all and you will forever be in our hearts.


Finish packing and Yaver arrives about 8:45. I leave the house at 8:50 to walk down to the bank, arrangements have been made for one of the bank employees to drive us to the border, then we will walk through the station and get a taxi  the rest of the way to Tbilisi.

The ride out was uneventful enough, and about two and half hours later we were pulling up to the border control. We had not been stopped twenty seconds when four or five guys approached the truck--”Are you going to Tbilisi?” All speaking in Azeri, all wanting to take us in their taxi. I upset Beloved a little bit by making an agreement on this side of the border even though our friend had told us to acquire the taxi on the Georgian side. Nevertheless, after some bargaining, we agreed on a price and set off for the passport control. They x-ray’d our luggage and stamped the passport and that was it. exit on the other side and our taxi driver was waiting on us.


We drive about a hundred yards and stop to show our passports again, we get a Republic of Georgia stamp. That’s new!


The taxi driver knows where Tbilisi is and makes good time, however, has no clue where the hotel is and is very grumpy. I showed him the address when we were negotiating the cost, and of course his answer was “yes yes, no problem,” but we stop three times to ask directions and he paid another taxi driver to lead him. He stopped to ask for directions too. I have nothing to do but be patient and check out this ancient city. 

Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia, 1.48 million inhabitants. We are in the older section of town and there is still evidence of a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in 2002 that was centered right below us. There are shattered houses and apartments all around, with people still living in some portions. There is a lot of new construction too, and our small hotel is one of them.


Only 11 rooms it has four floors. It is a little over-priced for what we are getting, $65.00 per night, but the staff is friendly and it has a little bit of a view.

We go for a walk in the afternoon and find a place to eat. We have been recommended some of the local cuisine, so we let our waitress read what our hotel receptionist has written down for us. The waitress asks, “How many?” Beloved and I exchange looks, shrug our shoulders and reply, “Bring whatever is normal.” Shortly the first part arrives, meat and mushrooms wrapped in a small dumpling-type package. It is okay, not what I would eat on a regular basis, but filling. About the time we are finishing up with these the second part arrives, it is like pizza, but the dough is sweet and there is no sauce. The cheese is thick and hot, and it is pretty good but also pretty rich. We don’t finish this nor do we decide to bring it along, so we pay the bill and depart.

It is a beautiful day, sunny and warm, and we walk very leisurely back to the hotel. We are tourists today, and we stop to buy a carmel latte that is pretty good--our first non-instant coffee in over three months! We walk through the old city and take photos. One building stands out in particular, an old church that split down the middle by an earthquake. Here is a great photographic metaphor of a church split--HA!

Other things catch our eye and our camera, castles and statues and modern architecture all mixed together.


We get back to the hotel and call it a night after a long day.

One more thing about our departure from Azerbaijan. Georgia is a Christian nation--Azerbaijan is Islamic/Atheist. Many people talk about the “feeling” of a place and I usually try to down-play it as much as possible. However, not even ten miles from the border it was abundantly obvious that this was a different place. There are trees all over. The air is cleaner and I’ve only seen two Ladas--a sign of prosperity. There can be no denying that a nation that recognizes God and His provision enjoys a level of blessing that other areas do not. It is not just the American sentimentality of seeing a church on every other corner that makes us feel safe and blessed, in this case it seems to be the truth.

Day 85 Thursday

Woke up early (the consequence of going to bed early) and saw a golden light radiating in yonder window pane. Hark, be still my heart--could that be, lo, the sun? Well, it was for about 15 minutes, just enough to peek in under the clouds. However, since we were up Beloved and I chose to take a walk and see what we could see.

I wanted, if possible, to take a photo down by Yaver’s house. There is a nice drop-off where the ridge comes down through that part of town and you can see the Mountains to the south pretty well. Should be really nice if we could get a glimpse of sunshine on them. We got there and clipped a few shots of the mountains and the cityscape, then discussed whether or not to continue up the hill when we noticed that we were being watched pretty closely.

There is a gentleman standing about 75 feet away. When we turned to come up his way I nodded to him and gave him a greeting but as Beloved came past him he came to life and began to make us feel a little unwelcome. I spoke to him in english, but that was no good. When I started to walk away he pulled out his phone and started saying, “Police! Police!” When he was done with his phone call I spoke to him again and was able to pick up the word “why?” and pointing to my camera. (The camera is not a consumer grade point-and-shoot it is a pro series Canon with a double battery pack, so it looks like serious business!) “Man touristeyam,” I answered--I am a tourist. (More true today than any other day in my 90 day stay. “Shekillar manim dustum,”  which, though probably terrible grammar, indicated that the photos were for my friends.


This seem to satisfy the man and defuse the whole event. He sheepishly put away his phone and made his way off to the left. I nodded to him and smiled, and he gave a little hint of a smile back. However, we did not stay in that locale any longer just to see what happened!


We walked back toward the house trying to to be paranoid about a police car wheeling around the corner and being accosted. 

We are not in our usual neighborhood, we are about 15 blocks from our house. There is an unused (duh) church building of Georgian/Armenian origins that we walk around and get a few photos of. We would love to go in the gate, and perhaps one day we will.


Walking home we are finding several quiet streets with no traffic whatsoever. Being a very family-oriented society, weddings and funerals are big deals, and part of the deal is a tent that is set up in the most convenient place--right in the middle of the street in front of the home. This creates a little bit of an interesting situation with the traffic (especially since there are so many one-way streets--but no one really seems to mind because it is so ingrained in the culture. So, on our walk back to the house this morning we encountered four such tents, and walking on these streets is very easy because there is no traffic.

At noon it is time to go to the Training House for our last Azeri language lesson, this time around anyway. Spring is coming and we grab a couple of shots of the blossoms and daffodils, small patches for color in a grey world.

There are lots of things we will miss over here, and the primary thing will be the people. In three short months we have made many friends and will miss them when we leave. Our language lesson is not the most effective lesson we've ever had, there are many pauses as we try to overcome tears at the unavoidable change that we have been thrust into.

One last photo of the restroom remodel at the Training House. It is complete now and I want to give a special "thank you" to Indy. I don't know if we would have been able to finish it with out her irreplaceable help and incredible assistance. Thank you, Indy--you were indispensable to this project!

Doesn't even look like the same room. Thank goodness!!

Day 77 Wednesday

We had been asked by Berry’s dad (I really must think of a good handle for him someday soon)if we would like to participate as a host home for a progressive dinner for the ten visiting Americans and several Azerbaijani students that would tag along. “Sure we would!” and we did.  However, as beloved is putting together a tex-mex fajita dinner for 20 people, the electricity went out about 2:00 in the afternoon. Not like this is a huge deal, it does that from time-to-time. You get used to it. It usually comes back on in a couple hours and life goes on. Today, it didn’t come back on. Thank goodness the stove is a gas range! 5:00 came, and then 6:30 and our guests arrived. Fortunately the time change has provided us with more sunlight in the evening hours and the dinner goes off as planned.


One of the locals even offers to look at the electric situation--it is decided that we are the only house on the block with no lights! He is not an electrician, just a guy that has some skill, but he cannot find the reason we are without power. He calls a friend and the electrician will be here at 9:00 tomorrow morning. Well that’s good news...

Azerbaijani’s love to take photos of special occasions and tonight is no different. So I also get to take a few for posterity. Here are a few, including a rare stage-diving incident right here in Ganja!

We decide to forgo the clean up since it’s getting dark--and there is no electricity in the house--and walk with the group to the last house on the Progressive Dinner stop for dessert. It is a very nice time, and on the walk home Beloved and I grab a couple night time shots of the city. Enjoy Ganja at night!

Day 76 Tuesday

Today is the English Gala. We are not sure what to expect, but there seems to be a lot of hubbub about it. It is divided into two parts, the children and the adults. From 2:30 to 4:00 the children at the Training House are gathered up and the Gala begins. Mrs. P. emcee’s the event. There is the first-ever showing of the Drama Club, they have prepared a rendition of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” in english no less. The performance is nice, the giant is played by the smallest member of the troupe. How fun!

Then there are skits performed by the various classes of the Training House. Indy, one of the teachers, tells me later that her kids put together the concept and the acting-out of the presentation. There were four skits, and Indy’s team won the prize!

The American guests that arrived Sunday morning were also taking part in the Gala, they did a presentation of American Culture and were very well received by all the kids.


At 4:30 the whole thing was produced again, only the skits were performed by older students and most of those in attendance were adults.

Beloved and I skipped out midway through the second gig--we were pretty hungry after having been there most of the day. We walked down to Ala Turka and visited with our friend Farshid the waiter. The food and discussion was good as always, and having our tummies full we walked back to the Training House and out in two more hours on the tile floor. We’re getting close now!

Day 73 Saturday

Today is yet another Work Day at the Training House, and England is determined that it should be one of the last. For some reason, three projects have converged on this one particular day--the yard, the rest-room, and repainting one classroom--so the whole place is swarming with people. Here are a few pictures...

Turab decided he would wear an apron to help save his clothes from the dust of sanding plaster. Here is Turab, Namiq and one of the Teachers.

Vagev. Check his shirt--we see this many times--the print is spelled SECCESS CO. Apparently when you can't read the language it doesn't matter that it's mis-spelled...

And Indy. Oh yeah.

Day 70 Wednesday

The combination of dust from the construction and the beginning of springtime pollination beginning to come in really has given me some grief--my nose has been running and my eyes watering. So on the way to the Training House this morning we took our last remaining allergy-relief pill down to the local pharmacy to see if they had something like it.


Interesting side note, you can purchase amoxicillian over the counter here...


We talked a little bit and the phamacist figured out what we were looking for and sold us 10 little tablets, “take one each morning.” I’ve taken them two days now and they do seem to help. Funny thing, the expiration date was July 2010! Oh well, they were cheap!!

Got down to the Training House at about 10:30 and started laying tile. The work progresses slowly, there is a lot of cuts to be made working into the corners and around the radiator, but we fall into a steady rhythm and begin to make pretty good progress.


Lunch time is coming up, and I am not looking forward to another donar. A donar is sandwich-type thing that is made of chopped up meat, sometimes beef sometimes chicken sometimes lamb, mayo, and cucumber. So I asked if Indy would be willing to go to Ala Turka and pick up some pidas for us. She agreed and headed that way, about 20 minutes later I get a call from Farshid--he was calling to make sure what we wanted. He is such a good waiter! Indy arrived back about 20 minutes after that and we had pida! Much much better...

Manchester came by tonight. She just “popped in” to use the telephone--she had been to Baku for the weekend and left her mobile phone there. She and I have been having some fun with me learning how to serve a decent English tea. It is a whole ordeal, but lots of fun to try and outdo the last time that I served tea to her! The tea is prepared in a little teapot--very strong, and hot water in the kettle. The other elements are brought to the table--the milk in a small pitcher, the sugar (in cubes of course) and the bisquits (cookies), and a napkin or two. The cup is warmed (hot water from the kettle is poured in the cup and then tossed out) then brought on a saucer to the recipiant. The tea is poured, about a quarter cup, and then topped off with the hot water. It is a lot of work but a lot of fun to make her feel so special! She and Beloved talked for almost two hours catching up on her trip to Baku.

Day 53 Sunday

When you don't speak the language, and you don't get a bill in the mail, how do you know when your telephone bill is overdue? When the phone and internet quit working--this would be an indication thereof.


Soooo, I spent a good chunk of the day at a friends house on their network doing email and other various on-line tasks. I also played a very loosely-interpreted game of volleyball with Indy, Berry and her brother. The stairwell pit is definitely OUT!

Day 52 Saturday

Today is Saturday, and it's a full one!

9:30 Off to the Training House, the sun is out again and we are working in the yard again. Another tree to take out and begin to start making some ideas about the grade. We spend almost three hours working the dirt.


12:30 Back to the house, clean up and get ready to go to Yaver's house, her daughter's birthday was the 3rd.

N and Beloved looking at fruit

1:30 Meet N & L at the intersection and walk down to Yaver's. Unfortunately my camera battery died just as we were rounding the corner. Maybe I shouldn't have taken so many photos along the way...


We have a lovely time at the party, much food and laughter. There is also a piano there, so Beloved is able to stretch her fingers for the first time in a couple months, she is grateful to be able to play even a little, and everyone in the room is grateful to hear her play.


3:45 comes around and we must get back to the house, we have guests arriving at 5:00 for Beloved's birthday party.

 Berry and Beloved

5:00 Our new friends start arriving, it is a pot-luck dinner, Americans, Canadians, Brits, a German, and a couple of Azerbaijani's too! Yaver and Naza and England and Mrs. P, N & L,  Indy and Manchester and Berry.  All told there are about 20 of us. There is good food and cake and a paper crown that everybody signed for "the Birthday Queen." One of the gifts is grass, signifying the new year. It was a lot of fun and a real special time for Beloved. Here are some photos!!

Berry, Beloved and Manchester

Naza, Yaver and Beloved

Manchester, Indy and Berry

Day 47 Monday

Day 47, wow. Sometimes it seems as though the time here is standing still and other times it seems to fly by. I guess today it seems as though we have been here for a while.


Something to do with that might be the fact that we have not seen the sun in eight days. No sun at all. Overcast, grey, occasional light rain and snow flurries. Reminds me of a crazy movie called Groundhog Day--the story of a weatherman stuck in one day, February 2, over and over again. How's the weather? Cold and grey... How's the weather? Cold and grey... How's the weather? Cold and grey...


I crossed an interesting milestone today--in 46 days now we have eclipsed 1000 page-hits on this blog. I am humbled and honored, thank you. I didn't know I was so interesting.


Spent almost two hours this morning troubleshooting a newly-acquired printer. I was at the Bank last Friday and had asked England if he know where I might get a printer. Nothing fancy needed, just want to be able to print out some of the things that I have been designing. Sometimes it's easier to judge the quality of a design when you can hold it in your hands. Anyway, England said he had one for me, it's an HP color laser. Well, that ought'a do! The printer belongs to the bank, so as long as I am doing work for the bank I have access to this printer. And since I am doing most of my work at the house right now, the printer came to the house. Trouble is, it wasn't working properly. I tried it on the network, nothing. I tried it on a USB cable and it would communicate, but only enough to prompt an error message. I bet I cycled the on-off switch 45 times before giving in. I called England and he offered, "I have a different cable for you to try," and that was the issue. We are now printing in color, hooray.


We have been having great fun cooking semi-elaborate dishes and having friends over to help us eat them, so we made American-style Chinese Sweet-and-Sour Chicken over fried rice (of course!) for dinner tonight. Actually Beloved started on the preparations at noon and the sauce at about 2:00, so by the time our guests arrived at 7:30 we had been cooking more than six hours. Not really cooking for six hours but it sure seemed like Beloved had been in the kitchen all day.


Just before our guests arrived at 7:30 we had an hour-long conversation (via skype, don't you love skype?) with Coffeeman and his wife. And the two year old, but that doesn't really factor into this conversation. More than anything else they wish to be back in Ganja. We really wish they were here too, but there will be some things that have to happen with the development of Shah Asari before they get back here. We talked about several options and plans for implementing the website as a vehicle to sell artwork, so hopefully 2011 will be a year of great growth for Coffeeman and Shah Asari and we can see them back in Ganja before too long. 


So our guests arrived, Indy and Manchester, and we all laughed and ate and talked and ate some more. For Indy it was the first Chinese food of any kind she'd had in six months. Beloved is a great cook and it was a lot of fun! We rounded out the long evening watching an old favorite, You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.


Good Times.

Day 44 Friday

Today we are off to Yavlar (which is spelled with an "x" at the end, but it sounds like Yavlar, or Yav-loch, but you'll probably never be here or learn the language so you don't need to know that,) with England and Indy. We are submitting our application and accompanying documents for the work permit and residence permit. Indy is going with us to pick up her work permit, she has finally been approved. 


England calls at 10:30 or so, "I'll be there in five or ten minutes." Which turns out to be five. Beloved is just starting a quick egg (a fried egg--yuck) when he knocks on the door. England is in a hurry, there will be a couple stops before getting under way. We drive about six blocks to the first stop, "I'll only be a minute," he says as he darts into a small doorway. It is lightly raining/snowing this morning, and cold. After nearly 40 minutes he re-appears with the completed documents from the house owner. England is a patient man, but even he comments about the frustration of taking nearly an hour-and-a-half to fill in five lines on a document.

A rainy day in Ganja

Next stop, The Training House, where we collect Indy as England confers with Mrs. P, "knower of all things for submittal of visa documents."


Finally we are under way, on-track to arrive 20 minutes before 1:00, the lunch break. England assures us that this will not be a good thing, that the attendants would be very grumpy if we want to submit a whole pile of documents just before lunch. So, we are hurrying, hoping to arrive in time to not interfere with lunch.


The drive is not much to write about, the combination of just enough precipitation to make the roads wet thereby filling the air with a residue of windshield-coating mud and the mostly ineffective windshield wipers on England's truck kept the sight-seeing element to a minimum. Not that there is much to see on this stretch of road anyway, it is the perpetually-under-construction main road to Baku.


After 45 minutes or so, we arrive at a wide spot in the road, don't blink--this is Yevlax/Yavlar/Yavloch. Turn off to the right, about 500 yards or meters, turn in on the left to a newish-looking building. Having now been in more than a few Post-Soviet-era bureaucratic offices, police stations, hospitals, etc., between Estonskia and Azerbaijan, I had in my mind a picture of what we would find--I was preparing my spirit soul and body for a thousand-year old building that had worn-out everything, a hundred people waiting inside in no type of a line or que, huddled around one haggard, mean, power-hungry, demoralized government official sitting at a circa 1971 desk under one light bulb hanging by its wire. He would have a dozen stacks of paper on the desk, a ruler to cleanly tear paper in half (I'll tell you more about that one day) and a stamp. God forbid there be no stamp. Shall I go on? Let's see, paint peeling off the ceiling, holes in the wall where the plaster had fallen off, freezing cold because there is no heat on today (maybe next Tuesday), there would be three chairs in the waiting area but they would all be broken, (these would be from the '70's also) and throw in some faded photographs of former directors, presidents, cabinet members, ruling party members, dictators, you get the idea.


This was none of that. Well, almost--it was cold inside the place. And there were photos of the former president, who is dead now, more on that another time too. Other than that, this place was clean, well-lit, the photos of former party leaders were not faded, there were plants and the nicest couch I have sat on yet in Azerbaijan. (Pity it will probably still be there in 25 years) The ceilings and walls were all in good repair and painted, and the three officials were situated more like tellers at a bank. You could sit in a chair that was provided, but they were behind glass. There were only two other applicants before us, so we were able to approach the glass immediately to begin out transaction. One of the officials even smiled.


We have made good time and now have 45 minutes before invading the lunch break. England will do the business, we will do the waiting. After about 15 minutes, any perceived momentum came to a halt--there was a document missing. All of our documents seem to be in good order, this is a different document--a new process that we knew nothing about. True and honest, this is what they were hung up on--England, a senior official of The Bank (where I am employed) could not present the application, he would have to have another member of The Bank present the documents, with a properly stamped document stating that he was acting as power-of-attorney for England. This was the only way they will accept these documents and the application for the work permit. Welcome to Azerbaijan.


Indy got her document (congratulations) and we left. England shrugged, "What else are you going to do? They make the rules."


The ride home was essentially the same scenery-wise, but we ended up using the whole time to work on language, which was actually fun. Well, actually grueling too, but fun. England is an infinitely patient teacher, which I needed today. We spent 45 minutes working on, "I write, you write, he writes, we write, you all write, and they write." Not so tough, huh, well I finally got to the point that I could get 5 out of 6 correct inside of 30 seconds. My afternoons Azeri lesson sounded like this; (I will use the english-sounding equivalents--the Azeri language uses some strange mutations on english letters like ü and ∂ and ç which I will forebear at this time) "Man yazeram, San yazersan, O yazer, (the word for he, she and it are all the same, O) Biz yazeruck, Siz yazersiniz, and Onlar yazerlar."


It's slow but it's coming!

Day 43 Thursday

We have recently been enjoying the company of a young woman from Indianapolis. She has been here since September working as an english instructor at The Training House. She has a quick sense of humor and has been a welcome spot of normal American interaction in this chaotic, complicated city.


She also loves one of our favorite card games, Euchre. Indy is an adept player and has been teaching another young lady the game, which is played in partners, which is also probably the only reason that Beloved and I do as well as we do. We've played twice now, two games in an evening and have split the victories evenly both times. If Indy had a good partner she would very likely skunk us all the time. Especially with her crazy traditions of "milking the cow when you're in the barn!" Don't even ask about that one...