November 26, 1999

I'm sorry that over three months have gone by since I have written. It is indicative of how involved we have gotten in our lives here in Almaty. I no longer have long days of plenty of time to write long letters on the computer. But, our lives are full of plenty of adventures to share with you, our families and friends in the states.

This morning, I wrote our annual Christmas letter and realized that I can take the time to catch you up on our activities. Since I last wrote, we came to the states in late August/early September for a visit. We spent time with Ted's family in Illinois, my family in Oklahoma, and with our friends in West Virginia. The plane trips reminded us how far away we are on the other side of this world.

The girls started school at the new experimental school in Almaty as we had hoped. We have been happy with their experiences, although the school is still not yet the dream school that we had hoped for. Most of the instruction is still in Russian as are the few textbooks. But the girls, as all of the English-speaking students, have the professional help of the half of the teachers who are American. The teachers help them translate and tutor them past any language gaps. The girls are learning Russian faster than any other system would allow them to because of this almost total immersion. The school has wonderful academic offerings and after-school activities and the girls are happy there.

We started taking advantage of all the wonderful mountain climbing opportunities there are here. The mountains just out of town are very similar to the Rockies in the United States. The tops, past the tree lines, are covered in snow year-round. You can hike up to glaziers, although I tend to not trust them not to shift. We have discovered a wonderful waterfall about 20 minutes from our home. We found a camping ground with round wooden tent platforms with electrical hookups. Round platforms to accommodate the round yurts that are the local version of shelter, made of leather over wooden frames. I continue to be fascinated with yurts, and still have the dream of acquiring one to carry with me when we leave our home in Central Asia. Not a very practical dream, I agree.

In the school, the international students have been learning about the local holidays and have been teaching the local students about Halloween and Thanksgiving. The school had a Halloween dance with the help of the American teachers. Students learned to carve pumpkins, using a form of large local orange squash. Costumes were great and I went and took many photos of the evening. The party ended with a great bonfire, where they burned the cardboard they had used to create a haunted house in the gym.

We celebrated Thanksgiving twice. The first time we hosted over 60 people in our large home, including many children. It was a potluck and one of the contracting companies that Ted works with provided two 20-pound turkeys that a local hotel baked for us. We don't have a large oven. The evening was great, with many local friends sharing local food dishes and local dances and music. Last night on the "real" holiday, we had a family over to share a much smaller turkey dinner with us. The wife and the three daughters are from Estonia, the husband from America. He works here for Peace Corps. The daughters are my girls' closest friends here. They are often here for sleepovers. We let Rose and Lydia skip two days of school to celebrate this American holiday.

The Russian language is starting to lose its puzzlement for me. I can't speak it yet, but I am starting to be able to understand some and read signs and some text. I take lessons twice a week. Rose comes home from school and teaches me what she has learned from her conversational class.

Lydia is learning to sew and both girls are taking wonderful art lessons through the school. Both girls are learning photography with our digital camera that allows you to delete any pictures you are not happy with. Lydia has started taking photos of scenes she wants to oil paint and then painting from the photo.

I continue to believe that our family is thriving here with these experiences. The girls walked out to the local kiosk at the end of our road yesterday to buy bread for Ted to make the stuffing for the turkey. A loaf of bread costs about eight cents and is handed to you without any wrapping around it. The girls are embarrassed to be seen carrying loaves of bread in their bare hands, so they take cloth bags to carry it in. When it is not minus five degrees, as it is today, they also buy ice cream bars to eat on the way home. Ice cream bars come wrapped, so don't cause embarrassment. When Ted is out of the country on business, I walk the girls out each morning to catch a ride to school. That cold morning air really wakes us up! The roads are covered with several inches of ice so I leave the car in the garage and we walk carefully so not to slip on the slick surfaces.

We went to a concert organized by a museum of musical instruments. Musicians used antique instruments and costumes to demonstrated music and dance native to this region. Most of the instruments are stringed. One tradition that has a similar component in Appalachia is a small jointed toy that moves or "dances" as music is played. Here, the animal was a small carved dancing goat that moved on the top of a drum as the musician played.

One of our friends here has a small country cabin outside of the city called a dacha. Water is carried from a glazier-melt artesian well for drinking. He and his family grow a garden and we were given bags of fresh greens to take home. We ate a picnic lunch in the yard and took a nice hike in the mountains. On our drive home, we bought local apples and pears.

Several times a year, we attend art and craft fairs organized by USAID here. The fairs are a way of teaching the artists to market their products. Usually artists travel from five surrounding countries to display and sell here in Almaty. The local arts are incredible, including fabric art, pottery, jewelry, leatherwork, knife and sword making and carving, dolls, costumes, rugs, wall hangings. Each artist is willing to talk about his or her craft and it is a wonderful education and experience.

Please let us hear from you and how you and your families are doing. Our lives are full and busy here, but we remember each of you and wish you health and happiness.

Brecken