Uzbekistan

Where to begin? So much has happened and changed in the last month. We have some pictures, mostly of Saileey and pretty much none of the city of Tashkent. This weekend we are going on a tour of the city, I'll be sure to bring our camera and actually use it.

Saileey on the plane from London to Uzbekistan

  Saileey has been doing so many new things lately! She will get up onto her hands and knees, rock back and forth, or push up onto her feet and start swaying. Usually she ends up face planting. She is trying to move from being on her belly to the sitting position. Crawling is not far away for her. Saileey's appetite is growing as well! So far she has loved everything I've given her; oatmeal, plums, bananas, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, squash, apricots. We are waiting for our amazon order of those puff cereal things. She wants so badly to eat everything we do.  It's hard to get a good picture of Saileey, she wiggles too much!

 HOH or "non" for us normal people (just bread)

 Our house is great! Having 2 bedrooms and a den has been wonderful. We haven't been able to fill our pool yet. We would need to have someone come take care of it anyway. We have a completely separate dining room which we haven't used either although we will when it's our turn to have church at our place. Right outside our wall there is an apricot tree which has been raining apricots. I've been singing Popcorn Popping to Saileey and next spring it will be very true for us, we missed the blossoms this year. We have a washing machine!!! The only problem was that its all in Russian. Our sponsor sent over her housekeeper so she could translate it for me. Now I know how to read spin, rinse, basic, wash and temperature in Russian!

Kitchen 

 Kitchen

 Living room (we just got our unaccompanied air baggage)

All the veggies and fruit we buy have to be soaked in bleach water then rinsed in distilled water. We've been to a couple bazaars where it's expected that you haggle for the right price. Luckily we weren't there by ourselves so we had someone to haggle for us. The supermarkets will probably be my scene until I can learn enough of the language. The currency is called soums (sooms) and everything is paid for in cash so you can forget your wallet. Their largest bill is 1,000 soums which is worth almost $.50. 

 How did a picture of this adorable girl get in here?

 About $4

Going to church

The driving here is...well they are all over the place! And for good reason. Potholes. Everywhere! I have been told that walking outside by myself is very safe, the biggest worry I should have is getting hit by a car. They don't give pedestrians the huge gap like drivers do in the states.  Lines are more like suggestions. If you aren't watching you might rear end someone who cut very closely in front of you. But it works. And no one seems to get angry or have road rage.

Church is great! There are three of us families now and an intern who will be here until mid July. And then there are two more children who come for primary. So in total there are 4 priesthood holders, 3 women and 11 children. Sacrament meeting is just noisy as any other so it feels normal. We have the sacrament then we are graced by an excellent speaker, usually one of the twelve apostles. Okay, we watch a General Conference rerun. Then the children (7) have primary and the babies (4) go to nursery with the men. I have offered to play the piano for sacrament meeting and for primary. After all the meetings we have lunch together.



Any questions?