Winterization

Well, September is almost over and Fall is already in full swing. At the moment, walking around Olgii sort of feels like a scene from a movie set in medieval times where all the people in a village are getting ready for battle. Only in our case, instead of waging war against the French (or a horde of orcs for all those LOTR fans) we will be fighting the elements.

What I mean is that everyone is busy "winterizing" their homes, apartments, and offices. This is basically where they double-pane all of their windows and seal every nook and cranny with anything they can: wool, Scotch tape, and (in the case of Laura's school) a home-made mixture of water, flour, and dirt.

You will also be happy to hear that our hashaa family installed an opening window in our house. Now we have a little piece of mind when our carbon monoxide detector goes off because of our coal fires.

Anyways, like I said, September is almost over. In fact, we are sitting here on a lazy Saturday morning (although we did spend an hour handwashing an entire load of laundry) thinking about what we were doing exactly one year ago. That's right, tomorrow is our 1-year wedding anniversary! We will be celebrating with a night out on the town tomorrow. Note, when I say night out on the town, I mean dinner at the only real restaurant in Olgii: Pammukale (sp). It's actually a nice place -- we can even get grilled chicken! Is this really the Peace Corps??