4/19/99 Morning, Mom! Well, I guess my comments about how dry it is here, how desert like it is, and how little it rains have come back to haunt me. And our decision last week to send home our winter/rain coats does not look as good in hind sight. We work up yesterday morning to find that it was POURING rain. So we promptly went back to bed. Luckily the weather cleared up and became quite sunny as Joan had planned on making their class video with some of her students that day. Her friend, Kris Cody, is a high school teacher in Wisconsin, and their classes have become pen pals through the World Wise Schools program. Joan's class recently received a large package full of brown paper bag Valentines filled with letters, photos, and candy. Joan reports that her students almost died when she handed it all out. I think it made all the hassle worthwhile for her to see her students so happy. The video is a tour of KO for Kris's kids, showing all the different parts of the town with students explaining what it all is in English. They went to the museum, the beach, the park, the bazaar, etc. At the beach, there were some camels. The girls (all the boys left after the introductions because they were too cool and so will get a bad grade) were all excited and ran toward the camels, shouting, "Camels, camels!" The camels were not pleased and started moving toward the girls. The girls started running the other way, shouting, "AIIEEEE!" Joan said it was the funniest thing she ever saw. At the bazaar, there was a man selling dohmbras (the Kazakh guitar), so the students asked him to play. So on tape, there is a local man, sitting in the bazaar, playing the dohmbra and singing a Kazakh song. She also said the students bossed people around - "Move out of the way. Stand there!" - strangers on the street. The best thing about all that is that we get a copy ourselves. I think we will be able to send it to Wisconsin this week with a Hurricane American. Hopefully a copy can be made or sent on to you asap. It should be a wonderful souvenir of the city. But back to the weather... We were at Paul's house last night, playing Monopoly (the British version) and eating pizza. Paul has come into his own in terms of pizza making and now creates a version that I would pay money to eat. After dark, the rain came pouring down, again, this time with thunder and lightening - first time for us here in KO. It was really nice to go to sleep to the rumbling and flashes. Gooby was not too impressed with all the flashes and bangs. And of course, this morning, it was pouring down. We have one lightweight raincoat that Joan, the dirtbag, took to school. That left me with the windbreaker. Considering there was no wind and all rain, it did not do me much good, so here I sit, damp. It was a good weekend. We taught the family on Friday night, but Isak didn't get home until after nine so the teaching was short and ineffective. On Saturday, no students showed up for both my classes, so that was difficult. We played a really intense game of soccer for an hour and a half followed by a half hour of basketball at five o'clock. It is so amazing that there is light so late in the day now. It doesn't get dark until near nine. After the winter and the five PM blackouts, it is too good to be true. The green leaves and buds are freaking me out as well. Dinner was at Dixie's - she made a tofu coconut cream dish with the ingredients we brought her back from Thailand. It was the hottest meal I've had here. I had a hard time eating it, and I like hot food. Paul and I also watched the South Park Christmas special. I had seen the first four episodes in Almaty during COS and thought that they were pretty funny. However I am a bit disturbed that this is the show that is so popular with kids. I don't like to be a fuddy duddy, but that show is a bit raw for the wee kiddies! Sunday was just lounging, banya with the family (whew, was it a hot one!) and pizza at Paul's. We are getting very lazy now that spring is here, and we getting ready to go. There is a party in Taraz on the first of May that I may try to get down to. However, as Paul said last night, our lives here are pretty pleasant and there is no real desire to get out of town. Last year I looked for every opportunity to get the hell out, but this year, I can't be bothered. Got an e-mail from the Ticketplanet guy - we can fly out of Almaty on Uzbek Air to Tashkent to Bangkok. Or Joan and I could fly to Turkey to meet you there and then go to Bangkok. We had a long talk about you coming to Kazakhstan. If you come, it will take at least a week to see everything. If you want to come out to KO as well, then it will take at least two days of travel time there and back. We figure that once you see Kapchagai, Talgar and Almaty, you really won't need to see KO as well. So I guess it depends on how much time you want to take off and where you want to spend it - Kazkahstan, Turkey, Bangkok, Bali, etc.? Oh yeah, last week, I met two missionaries who were visiting Shawn and Beth's organization out here, and one offered to take something back to the states for us. I gave him the big Kazakh chess board that Joan gave me, filled with pieces, two watches, a book, and two bracelets. Let me know when you receive it. I would also like to know when Dorothy receives the load of stuff from Shawn's mom. I know you are probably bitter that we didn't have it sent to you, but we want it to be there when we arrive in Wisconsin. Well, I'm going to take a stab at finishing off the darn Thailand missive - I'm almost done! love and peace, Rich