Long Post (Scott)

Since I haven't made an update in over a week, this post will be long and a little scattered. Please bear with me. I'll try to help a little bit by including subtitles.

SNOW!

Last week we had our second snow of the season, and it came as a bit of surprise. As the year is rapidly slipping away and we are already at the tail-end of Fall, the days are getting shorter. Short enough, in fact, that the sun doesn't rise until about 8am. So last Tuesday when Ashlee woke up at 6:30am and fumbled outside in the darkness, she was greeted by 4 inches of gorgeous white powder on the ground. She immediately let out a yelp of glee, ran into the bedroom to wake me up, grabbed the camera, and headed outside to take some pictures. She took the picture above around 7am.

As it worked out, I only had one class to teach that day and Ashlee decided to work from home, so we got to spend most of the morning snuggled up across from a crackling fire watching a movie. Here's a few more pictures from later that day.


This is a picture of our outhouse. Can you imagine doing your morning duty here? Also, the snow was built up against it so the door wouldn't close. Jealous?

This is a picture from a walk we took down by the river. Our friend Laura told us about a herd of camels that were grazing on the other side, but unfortunately we couldn't get close enough to take a good picture of them. All in all it was a really nice day!


PEN PALS!

The Peace Corps has a program where it matches currently serving volunteers with classrooms back in America. The point of the program is for the American students to learn about life in another country by corresponding with the volunteer. I have been matched with a first-grade classroom at an elementary school in a small town in New Mexico. I've been emailing back and forth with the teacher of the class for the past couple of weeks and I'm very excited about the program. The teacher is incredibly kind and she seems to share my enthusiasm. We have decided to match her group of kids with one of my classes. Our hope is for the kids to directly communicate with each other by sending letters and pictures through the mail.

Here's a picture of my class. It's a group of 7th graders. The picture is a little outdated because since I have taken it, the class has doubled in size. The woman in the picture is my main counterpart. We have a great working relationship and everyday she is coming up with new ideas of things for us to do.

From what I can tell, my students are really excited about the opportunity to exchange letters with an American classroom. We actually got out first set of letters from New Mexico yesterday. While the American students are a few years younger than my students, their English level is about the same. The letters the American students sent were very cute. They all introduced themselves and drew pictures of their favorite activities. My students were so thrilled with the mail that my counterpart and I had a difficult time getting them to focus on writing their own letters back.

It was a really great class and it was just the high I needed to really put things in perspective. As you can imagine, being here is a bit of a rollercoaster, and lately there have been a few more dips that I would like. But honestly, yesterday I felt like I had the best job in the world. I was so touched by the care my students were putting into their letters. A few of them pulled out fancy cardstock from their bags (I didn't know they had that!) and they were all sharing one pack of color pencils to draw pictures for their new American friends. After I collected their letters, one girl came up to me and asked for hers back so she could decorate it with stickers. It was awesome.

HALLOWEEN!

Well, the holiday season is upon us. As some of you may know, it is incredibly difficult to enjoy the holidays when you are away from home...especially when you are outside of the country. Just the other day I was imagining what it would be like to be back in California. Places would be all decorated and every single coffee house would be pushing their pumpkin spice lattes. I don't even want to think what Disneyland must be like. The other day I tried to explain to my students what a pumpkin is. They kept asking me if it's like a cabbage.

Anyways, we're trying to make the best of the situation. This year, the four Americans in town will be bringing Halloween to Olgii! We will be having a little celebration at the town rec hall. We've asked all the kids to dress in costumes and we'll plan different games and crafts for them to participate in. Laura said she'll even bake tons of cookies for them to decorate. While it won't be the same, I'm sure it will be fun.

WORLD VISION!

There is an NGO in town called World Vision that has asked the four of us to help with an upcoming project: they have 5,000 winter jackets that they would like to give to the underprivileged children of Bayan-Olgii and they would like us to organize and handle the distribution. It will be quite a challenge, but I think we can do it. Luckily we have a school break coming up in a week when we can focus our attention on the job. We will be giving the coats out here in Olgii and also in several small towns around the province. It looks like we'll get to see the countryside!

AND LASTLY!

I just got word from home that my dad is having a little medical scare at the moment. If you can, please send some positive thoughts in his direction. Thanks!