A Trip to the Village

Let's take a trip to the village- the countryside of our area, waiting to explored and discovered. There are some interesting things to contemplate, both delightful and detestable. One of the most detestable is the road that leads there. Can you imagine the main highway across a country looking like this?! There are no painted lines down the middle, and about as many potholes as there are mosquitoes in the evening air around here. Once we get there, we can show up to just about any neighbor's house and know we are going to get some amazing hospitality. First, they might offer you some fermented mare's milk, called "kumiss". People all over Central Asia drink this beery tasting, slightly alcoholic milk product. Before the Soviets came to this area, anything stronger was unknown. Here is how they collect the mare's milk. Serving an entire meal is certainly not uncommon, and if needed a place to sleep is offered as well.

Speaking of sleeping, here is how the littlest ones sleep. They love to bind up the babies in a cradle and rock them- a lot. See that little "pipe"?? Those are the ancient predecessor to Pampers!!! The pee goes through the little pipe, and down into a jar that is attached under the bottom. That gets emptied occasionally. Most villagers are very fond of their animals and most would have at least some of kind. Sheep and goats are the most popular, but the more wealthy ones would have a herd of camels or cows or horses. These baby camels will, one day, provide milk for the other fermented drink they love so much around here called shobat.

Life takes on a slower pace around here, there isn't much to do, and that breeds boredom and hopelessness. Those in turn breed alcoholism, which runs rampant in the villages. Some see moving to the city as a way to find work, and a change. The village, which could really use MORE work, not less, is losing people and work, which makes the problems worse.

Back from the village,

Your SteppeSister

The Good, The Bad and the WAYYY Ugly!

Yesterday was quite a day; it was emotional, bringing both joy and pain and a tinge of fright.


As I've mentioned many times before here and there, alcoholism is a rampant social problem. Most of you know that the SteppeSister family has been sent to do a job here. One of those tasks is bringing Words of life and hope to those who are lost and hurting.


For many years, I've had a burden for my neighbor. Like us, she is a bit of an "outsider" in our neighborhood, being from a different people group. Other neighbors have warned us to "be very careful of her, she has the evil eye!" I'm sure they think the same of us.


Perhaps this is why our sons are such great friends. Both have few other pals to hang around with, and neither seems to mind that they don't speak the same language. It's a great bonus that Macaroni can have a friend that won't laugh at his, all to obvious to everyone else, speech issues.

Anyway, I'm off-track. I went to visit this dear lady with a friend of mine yesterday, and about 10 minutes into our conversation her VEEEEEEEEEEERY drunk son showed up. Stumbling, stinking, and slurring, he proceeded to plop down and babble at us. His mother implored him, "to go take a shower, you stink", and "this is a ladies time, give us five minutes to chat". The volume was increasing with every heartfelt plea, but to no avail. Instead he, in his near comatose stupor, proceeded to pull the phone out of the wall, slam a few doors, and then wander aimlessly around the yard. This apparently wasn't satisfactory, so he came back in and began to tell us about his liver that was hurting him. He, at one point, reached out for my friend's hand so he could have her feel it, which pretty much freaked all of us out!!!

Again, he left after more screaming on his mother's part, only to have him reappear with a lit cigarette. You must know in this culture, having a lit cig. in the house, and especially around women, is a huge taboo. You just don't do that! When his mother reminded him of this, he simply reached out, took my friend's, not yet empty, tea bowl, and proceeded to use it as an ashtray!! By this time, the vodka was winning; he had no choice but to make his way into his bed and passout.

Thank God! He was out for a while, which gave us a wonderful chance to then share some encouraging things with her regarding the One who made her, and indeed sees her pain and cares. We also shared with her that we know a local man who runs a rehab center in town and not only has had wonderful success getting men clean, but also teaches them furniture making skills so they can start a new life with a hope and a future- both here and forever!

When I shared with her that I was starting a quilting class next week, she was very eager to participate, and acknowledged that it will be nice to have 3 hours a week just to do something for HER! I told her we'd be sharing each other's burdens and she really liked that idea.

Later that night, she had to make the the painful decision about whether or not to call the police to come and get him. The choice, although very difficult, was made easier by knowing that this man's 5 year old daughter (her grandchild) was in danger with him like this (this drunkeness has been going on for months). So, he is now in jail for 15 days according to the law. You can only imagine the hurt and pain and anger that must abound in that family. If you think about it, please remember them :)

Suffering alongside so many like this,

Your SteppeSister

SteppeSister's family had a wonderful weekend! We laughed, we played, we worshipped.

On Friday, we started off our weekend with the boys purchasing a MOTORCYCLE! Yes, it's old, it's Soviet (meaning crappy quality at best), and it doesn't work- yet. But that's okay; it's the perfect father/son project to spark conversation, teach useful skills, and promote comraderie.
For those of you who actually care, it is a Minsk brand cycle. That's all SteppeSister can file away.
The Water Guy also had time to finish up the little motor kit/boat that he's been working on with Macaroni. Okay, I'm impressed, it actually moves- no even better, the boat does not sink:

See?!

Each one of us had something to keep us occupied at our special spot this weekend. Pixie kept herself busy catching frogs.

Here is the fruit of her labor:

Macaroni wanted to swim:

The Away One wanted to shoot the BB gun:

Roo sat up in the tree reading The Upstairs Window (a story similar to Anne Frank's Diary)And SteppeSister kept tabs on S'Mores quality control- with NariLoo's help, of course!

Well, another weekend come and gone.

Oh, and big news! I found and purchased the 2 sewing machines for the quilting class I will start in 2 weeks. 5 ladies will join me for a 12 week class in basic quilting, and have a beautiful keepsake at the end. I am so grateful for the fabric and other materials and the money for the sewing machines that was donated and sent over! Thank you friends in Portland!!!

All for now,

Your SteppeSister

A Day at the Lake

Let's face, we live in a pretty bleak place. You've seen pictures of our typical landscape, which is barren by all standards. There is very little elevation change, small sand dune sized hills are all that exist on that front. Plant life is scarce and hardly diverse, and there is certainly no overabundance of fauna either. But, we have found a few havens of beauty amidst our world. Come with me to a place where spiders weave, dragonflies dance, and colors bloom with muted tenacity.

I love to walk around here in our little lakeside haven. It is not a lake of Oregon proportions, rather it is a small slough created by the water held back by a very small dam. However small it is though, the birds find it a nice place to stop and rest on their long journeys north and south each year. Some call it home for the summer months, like the pheasant. I spotted this elegant feather from one, artfully dropped into this graceful plant. I love the way the colors mix together here:

The geese find a safe haven, too. They enjoy making quite a din of noise!

The dragonflies also enjoy the coolness of the water's edge.

The variety of plant life increases dramatically around the water. True to the desert, though, they are generally all small, with both few, and waxy, leaves to keep the evaporation of its precious life-giving water away to the environment to a minimum.

I'll have to pick this up again another time, Blogger is having a really rough time getting my pix uploaded for some reason.

Until then,

Your SteppeSister

For My Dad

During my last visit to the US, my dad shared with me that he REALLY likes hollyhocks. Being as that is one of the very few flowers that grow really well here, I thought I'd share a few of our beauties that we've grown with him here.

Enjoy, Dad!!

His nickname is Bumblezilla!

We have many shades of pink from very light, almost white, to dark maroon. They are all very lovely!

Some grow as tall as 8 feet! Here they reach almost to the top of our grape trellis!

I love this shot against our storage shed- with its faded door.

Enjoying the colors and scents of summer,

Your SteppeSister

One of the most frequently asked questions of me has been, "What is your house like over there?" Well, let's see...

It actually consists of 2 parts, one 80 years old and basically made of mud bricks, and the other newly built by us, made of clay bricks. Both parts are covered in a mixture of dirt, cement and lime-well, we think it's lime. Maybe you chemistry folks can help us out. This white stuff is sold in chunks, and when immersed in water is immediately boils and reacts. It gets blistering hot and actually bubbles. Then, after it sits for about 5 hours, the reaction is over and people use it to whitewash. Like you see here. But see the bottom part?? It is weathered and needing a fresh coat of not just paint, but also the "stucko" that goes underneath.


Every year or so, the entire bottom meter of our house must be re-mudded with this mixture. It is not very strong and flakes off making the house look very untidy.

So, what exactly is that process?? We had this done, again, this year, and I thought I'd chronicle it for you. The house looks like this before- and to be quite honest, there is quite a "keep up with the Jones's" mentality here. BIG TIME, in fact. A house that has gotten this bad, is gossiped about, so we try to keep it up.

By the way, see the pipes along the house? Those are the hot water pipes that bring our hot water for heating to us in the winter. The water circulates around the house keeping us nice and toasty from October to April.

The whole outer layer of the mud mixture has to be taken off all the way down to the brick underneath. This part is kinda fun, but very messy! Then a large batch of mud, cement, and the white stuff get mixed together. See the white stuff in the bucket behind there?

See the area that had been pulled off? All that will be filled in, then smoothed out with a piece of wood. It is extremely hard work, and a whole house would take about a week. For our little piece in the front of the house, our worker took 2 whole (very long) days of mud slinging. Brings a whole new meaning to that term, doesn't it??

Here is our worker starting to smooth out the last bit he threw on there.

And a wider angle.

The corners are rather tricky. You need to put a long, thin board along one side and sling mud against it. As it hardens, you can smooth out a nice corner, but they never really get perfectly straight.

After it's all dry in a few days, we use the "white stuff" to whitewash the newly mudded parts and it finally looks like this:

So, there you have it. The yearly (or bi-yearly) process of re-mudding our house. Someday, it will be nice to back in the land of painting every 10 years!

Enjoying my white, white house,

Your SteppeSister

Summer Bounty

Let's take a walk on the Steppe, shall we?

When we left off, I had introduced to you a most treasured woman- one of character and love. All is well with her now!

Summer has burst forth upon us here on the Steppe, and the land is certainly showing it. Our garden is bursting with fresh veggies to eat, which is a wonderful thing.

Let me take you back 8 years, to when we first arrived here. In the bleakness of winter, in which temperatures can reach a constant low of around 10-20 F BELOW zero. Hmmm... come to think of it, that's pretty cold! Nothing much grows here anyway, but added to the long, long cold season, and the fact that our host people don't venture too far away from their mundane eating habits, very little was available in the way of produce. Potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage were ALL you could get here from October to May. Let's just say, I've become quite a creative conjurer of potato dishes.

If an outsider wanted to have a little more variety in their diet during the winter months, he would have to GROW it. And that is just what we did! We longed for something, ANYTHING! green and leafy during those long winter days, so we took to experimenting with what might grow here in the sandy, salty soil. We discovered that chard did exceptionally well. For those of you who need to know, it is a lot like spinach, but has a MUCH longer lifespan. Tomatoes, squash, and sunflowers also do very well, but it was the chard that we ended up growing the most of. It was (and still is) a joy to pull out a bag of chopped, frozen green delicacy in the middle of winter to get some antioxidants flowing through out veins once again. Besides that, we really like it- even the little ones.

Fast forward. As the economy grew, people began to travel more, and discovered that there was more to life than root veggies, pasta, and rice flavored with grease. Yes sireee! They discovered that God is actually pretty darned creative and that zucchini, green beans, and brocolli exist on planet Earth, and that they are actually good for you. Well, okay, they do agree that they ARE good for you, but we, for the life of us, cannot convince them that they TASTE good too. So, the above mentioned are only available from ONE seller in the city, and only ocassionally. Ah well. It's a good thing that the chard, melons, basil, kohlrabi, leeks, and winter squash are doing well.

Here is this year's progress:

May

Yesterday

The chard in all its glory- a rainbow of yummy colors!

Eggplants almost ready to turn into baba ghanou! Yum!

A beautiful row of sunflower soldiers, ready to march into bloom- complements of NariLoo!

The tomatoes are bursting with blooms as well, and the basil holds its own around the stump. This year's peppers (in the leftish foreground) bit the big one due to an unbelievable aphid infestation. We tried spraying with dish soap, cooking oil, and Coca Cola, all to no avail. I fear no peppers this year... (If you doubt the Coke treatment, it's on the net)

The empty rows just got planted with a second crop of kolrhabi, as it was the champion this year. Hope we like it... it's a new one to us, just this year.

Well this wraps up another walk on the steppe. You'd think the lazy days of summer would afford me more time to be taking time out with you, but alas, it also means the kids have more free time, and you know that adds more computer time competition.

Until next time,

Your SteppeSister

Dear All,

I promise I have not abandoned this little blog of mine, but circumstances have just not let me get back on for some time. Jetlag really spanked me hard this time, and I'm just now getting caught up on my e-mails. I'm several months behind on our regular monthly newsletters as well, so those must take priority :) I know you understand.

But, here is a little list of what will be coming up this summer.

How to "mud" the outside of your home in Blank-a-Stan
The garden is doing very well.
The most frequently asked question is "What do you eat??" I'll show you!
Melons anyone?
Let's get this silly quilt finished anyway!
NariLoo's birthday party extroardinaire. Aloha!
And much, much more!

Hang in there. I'll get back into the swing of things soon, I promise!

Your SteppeSister