March 16, 2009 email update from Armenia

March 16, 2009

Hey!

I've been trying to remember a few things to pass on to you guys... let's see here...

Ants
A week or two ago I was sweeping, which we have to do all day long, and I saw things moving in my dust pan! Ick. Tiny ants. They come in right by our door in the hallway! Ick. So we got some nasty ant poison that's bad for people, too... I don't know which is better or worse. But we were told that where there are ants, nasty spiders may show up, too! Uff da. So you can pray that we don't get any of those. I guess Nick and Olivia had a bunch in their basement last year and they're just down the block. But they were only in the basement and they didn't find any upstairs. So hopefully that's good news for us since we don't have a basement. They had people come and fumigate so we will, too! They're only out in the summer. Sigh.

Tourists
We spent a week, or at least a few day, just being tourists. Olivia and Oliver went to Holland where her parents are missionaries and she had a good ultrasound there – it's a healthy girl. But while they were away, we all packed into the SUV with Nick and saw the sights. The Cascade and and old monastery that I can't remember how to spell... Heh. If you're on facebook, you can check out a few pics... There's also lots of statues all around Yerevan. We also ate at Yum Yum Donuts, pizza places, and the Russian KFC... Heh. Pizza dough is soft and bready here and they like mayonnaise on it!! But we ask for it without mayo! :)

Churches
Last Sunday we went to an Armenian church in the morning and the international church in the evening. It got to be a long day. We heard that the Armenian pastor(s) goes longer, even! And there isn't much for children's programs during church. So two or three hours of Armenian speaking (and sitting for three hours...) gets kinda long for the kiddos. They liked that they spoke English at the other church, but they mostly just drew on paper with like 4 other kids there, too... We were hoping it'd be a big children's program for them. At least it was in English – they liked that! We liked both, I guess. It'll be nice to go to the Armenian one and understand. I really want to learn to sing the worship songs in Armenian! The preaching was actually by a Canadian missionary with a translator, so we did understand that part anyway! Preaching with a translator will be tricky... it was all choppy. Not a smooth sermon, you know.... anywho.

I have been asked to preach next Friday, with a translator! They're having a women's program at a smaller city about 45 minutes out of Yerevan! Only 15 minutes but that'll still be something, huh?! Last night I went with Nick and Olivia up there to be a part of some of the organizing.

Bathroom
After church, at the Armenian one, the assistant pastor Hiak and his wife Monny, went out to eat with us and Nick. They took us to the Russian KFC that was close by! It had a waterfall in the basement part with goldfish in the pond below. Fancy. While we were there, Ruth had to go to the bathroom... and she got herself locked in the stall!! And it was a little room, with no opening at the bottom of the door or whatever. Not the metal stalls we're used to. So I had to go get help because the door needed a KEY to open it. She was crying and the Armenians who worked there were busily trying to get her out! The manager had a million keys so it took a while. He found the key and got her out. She hung on tight to me and hid her face... Quite an adventure! All this while Kev was upstairs ordering. He didn't even know about it until afterwards... when the manager brought both Ruth and me ice cream cones! Ha. Leave it to our Ruthie... :)

Snow
This week we had some snow! The kids came running in to my room and opened the window! Snow, snow!! It was like Kansas City snow... melted later that day, I think. But it was still exciting. It's been around 50, I'm guessing, for the average temps here.

Homeschool
We're back to homeschooling. Trying to juggle that and language learning! Whew. The kids will already be schooling into June so we need to be off and running.

Meals and Mt Dew...
We're trying to figure out good meals with what they have here and with our oven that has no numbers on it for temps! Goofy. Looks like we'll be eating a lot of chicken. We did find hot dogs! Heh. And they have lavash, which is flat bread, and we like that rolled with cheese or peanut butter. The kids wanted to try it with sugar since it looks like lefsa! :)

Power
Twice, so far, our power has gone out. Once it went out about a half an hour before Nick and Kevin came home with tons of stuff from the grocery store! They said it'd be out for 7 hours but it came back on before that! I guess that doesn't happen too often!?

Teeth
Sharon, for you I thought I'd tell you about the teeth. Lots of people have golden teeth! The kids asked Tom, one of Nick's friends (and now ours too) why he had gold teeth... he said he didn't obey his mama and didn't brush well enough. One of the kids thought it was cool and wished they had gold teeth, too! :)

Smell
I'd wondered what it would smell like here because I'd heard that's something people really notice when they go overseas. It's not that different, I don't think. Some individual things smell different, but it'd not a huge difference overall... just fyi! Ha!

Marine
The kids have a babysitter when we tutor. Her name is Marine. She's great. They love her. She's babysat Oliver since he was 8 weeks old and is very involved in ministry stuff with the Puccinis so we trust here and are so thankful for that answered prayer! She has long black hair, which Hannie says is long purple hair! Heh. It has a tint of red or something so it looks purple to Hannie! She spent some time braiding it yesterday! :)

Nadala
Pronounced Na DAY la. Nadala (sp?) is our tutor. She is a believer, too! Yea. And we think she's good although we've never had a tutor before! :) She challenges us, which doesn't take much! Heh. But she's also encouraging. Nick said their first tutor called them lazy and stuff for not learning the whole alphabet in a day! Like 39 funky letters! Nadala says, “Shat Lav, shat lav” -Very good, very good. We're learning a few things anyway! She speaks in Armenian most of the time but uses English words to help us understand sometimes. She comes right to our home. Which is another blessing, too!

Jilljon
Two days ago, I asked Kevin when he thought we'd become Jilljon and Kevinjon. That's like dear or something like that that friends put at the end of names. The very next morning, Marine and Nadala came over (the come together in a taxi) and Marine said “Barev Jilljon!” And I hugged her! Ha. I'm Jilljon to a friend in Armenia! :) Whoo. Nadala said I was Jilljon to her, too! Heh. Sweet.

I love you
Tom, Nick's friend, has been helping him do yard work lately. So we've visited with him some. He's Armenian and speaks English well. We stopped and shared a few of our new Armenian words with him while we were going for a family walk around the block and when we were saying goodbye and walking away the kids were saying goodbye and see you soon and he said “I love you!” to them. They skipped down the street with a smile! :) He has a motorcycle with a side car. The other day when he was out by it, I said, “That smells like my dad and his garage!” :) He said it smells like Russian oil! Heh.

When I was out of town the other day getting ready for the women's conference, I got to eat with an Armenian pastor and his wife and 6 of their 7 grown children! The youngest is 16 and will be coming to Yerevan for college in the fall... They were a great family. Two of the girls work at the office translating the Fire Bible so I'd met one of them earlier. Tamar and Shushan. The pastor/dad's eyes reminded me of my dad, too... He was an older man with smile marks along the corners of his eyes. Must be thinking of you, Dad, huh?! :) While we were there, I was talking to the mom, with the help of Tamar who speaks English, and in the end she said, “Yes kez sirum!” (sp) “I love you.” :) I told her that I love her, too!

Internet!!