Day 17: Yurt, American-Style

Today was a break from the fevers with Sergey. You know, he's quite a character when he's up to par. Mischief pours from him! His eyes sparkle and we want to run screaming. Both boys show us glimpses of humor and "brotherly love." Now that the windows are allowed to be opened and the children don't have to be overdressed, we all feel better.

From childhood, we remember the joy of hiding places under makeshift tents. Now transform that to Kazakhstan and you've got a yurt, one of the national symbols. A yurt is actually a very practical solution to nomadic life on the steppe. For peoples of the past, a portable dome-shaped home made of leathers and felt could be erected or transported without much trouble. Today's yurt was made of two fine over-stuffed chairs and a Kazakh throw. Once the boys understood that it was safe and fun, they kept circling in and out with each other and with Candace. Sue was the partypooper and photographed it for your pleasure and ours!

We're finding that our time together allows us all to begin routines and find comfort with each other. The boys don't seem to tire of the same old few books. We wish that we'd brought more, especially one with animals, but they are getting quite proficient with names of domestic and wild animals and their related sounds. Lonya often is caught singing songs in Russian that we heard from his music class. It's very sweet but we try not to let him know that we hear it. You know what happens with adult focus---the creativity can suddenly disappear or it gets exaggerated for attention. We've tried to teach them some American songs but the only one that seems to have taken is "Ooo, Eee, ooo, ahh, ahh, bing, bang, walla walla bing bang", etc. We have to ask ourselves, why do we waste our brain cells on nonsense songs when we could devote them to a good Joan Baez or other thoughtful folk songwriter? The answer is, of course, that our public school system cranked them out in mass. We'll teach you some if you're interested. The strangest of all, which we often comment upon, is that schools in rural Oregon and schools in suburban Chicago all taught the same inane songs. Hmmmm...

In the evening, while the boys were napping, we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It's funny even during the second time. The boys joined us for the last 10 minutes and they seemed entranced at it all on a 15 inch laptop screen. What does the future bring?