This Christmas Eve, along with all the past 6 eve’s and all the future ones, we celebrated  Hosanna’s birthday! It was a bit of a bummer as we were all quite sick. But, she got to open her presents and seemed to be okay with doing a meal and cupcakes later.  
She has been practicing on her favorite gift…..(NOT over those wires, though)

…and these bad boys got devoured today. 

And as per an infrequent tradition; an interview.

1.  What is your favorite color?

Black

2. What is your favorite thing to wear?

Jeans

3. What is your favorite book?

Piggie and Gerald

4. What is your favorite movie?

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carry)

5. What is your favorite breakfast?

chocolate cereal

6. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Chef

7. Who are your best friends?

Judy

8. If you had $1,000 (6,500¥) what would you do with it?

buy a house

9. If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change?

I would change people. 

10. What is your best memory?

Going swimming at that swim park in Dali (this last summer).

Ephrem turned 11 this last week! We celebrated with egg rolls….

…cake….

…and a trip to the local hot springs with friends. 

And no your eyes are not decieving you. It really is a medium sized pool filled with water the temperature of a hot bath.  They get the water from 2,000 meters underground. 

And as per an infrequent tradtion; an interview.

1.  What is your favorite color?

Camo

2. What is your favorite thing to wear?

Pants and a t-shirt

3. What is your favorite book?

Howl’s Moving Castle

4. What is your favorite movie?

Star Wars

5. What is your favorite breakfast?

Pancakes with chocolate chips

6. What do you want to be when you grow up?

I have no idea.

7. Who are your best friends?

Levi, Baden, Lukas, and David

8. If you had $1,000 (6,500¥) what would you do with it?

Buy a motorbike

9. If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change?

No school

10. What is your best memory?

All my birthdays

Black Friday has come and gone and we didn’t notice a thing. This Friday, after Thanksgiving 2017, we went on a rock climbing expedition. We hadn’t been to this specific location before and could probably say no else has either. 

It was a short 20 feet but a great first time in the open wild. The bonus is that this rock face and all it options are located in our village. I see more rock climbing adventures in our future. 

The kids also discovered this tree that gives them super powers. Score!

We get to take lovely walks around our village regularly and on these walks, we see a many splendid thing. 

This post will feature one of those things we get to see in progress; the building of a local home.

These homes are built with mud-packed walls. You can see below how the frame is put up on the ends of these walls. There are men along the top of the wall that are pounding dirt to add to the height of the walls.

They use a carved, large wooden stick that looks like this one below to pound the dirt.

As the layers are added and pounded, a movable frame is elevated too as the height of the wall advances. 

A lumber yard is normally located on the property. 

After the mud is packed, a hand-crafted wooden frame is added on the inside, along with wood flooring and wall panels. All of the wood is hand-crafted on site. 

Decorative wood is also added into the framework and is sequenced as follows. 

The building of the home takes several months. I hope to post some more finished pictures of this house as they work on it. Below is an updated photo or two.

The children found some random blocks not far from this home.

Hoping they were not going to be used, the kids decided to build their own structure. Here’s to hope!

We recently were invited to a friend’s family wedding. Here is a brief look at what it was like.

This wedding was hosted at a village about 45 minutes outside of town. The people here benefit from a new copper mine nearby. We were quite impressed with the quality of homes the people of this village had. 

People were first served snacks and treated to a nice, hot coal fire (if you were seated inside. Outside guests just had a snack of candies, treats, and fried dough varieties).

A  meal was then served to those waiting for the bride to arrive. 

This is clearly a Pepsi family. 

Here are the groom’s men and groom waiting for the bride and maids. 

The bride arrived by car parade with her family an hour or so after the meal. The cars all stopped at the roadside entrance to the groom’s family house. The men leaders of her family, from their cars, then sang a song to the groom’s famly leaders. While standing at the entry way, the groom’s family sang a song in response to the bride’s family.  They went back and forth a few times singing to eachother from cars to roadside and back. Then, it was time for the bride and bride’s maids to park, get out of their cars, and enter.  The men in her family surrounded the ladies as they entered, both protecting and escorting them into the house. The ladies all quickly entered the house with their heads down so you couldn’t see their faces and took a place of honor upstairs in the family room. 

The groom (also shielding his face) and groom’s men quickly entered after them, and sat down downstairs in a different room.

All the other guests and family members then came in and sat down to another meal. I’m not sure when the bride and groom got to see eachother because we had to leave.  I was told, however, that lots of dancing and drinking were going to take place in the evening. Maybe the next wedding we go to, I will get to see the whole thing.  But, here is the full picture of the lovely couple together in one of their engagement pictures. Stunning, right?

This natual phenomenon occurs about 90km away from our home. 

As the water flows down from this spring….

…these natural terraces are formed. 

They are quite beautiful and wonderous.

This is also a place then that is devoted to rituals and worship. The people here are known for their animal sacrifices for absolving and favor. Please join us in remebering. 

We discovered this fall that there is a government sponsored raspberry farm 60km away from here. This 60km turnes out to be 2 hours for twisting, turning, nauseating adventure! But we made it! 

Then, what to do with loads of  fresh rasberries?

Jam! And while we’re at it, apple butter. Yum. 

After the major harvest for this year, we noticed a woman by herself gleaning from what barley was left behind.  It was a natural time to bring up the stories we knew of women and people who did this long ago and why.  The harvest is ready, but the people are few. 

The first week of school has come and gone…..long gone actually, and we’re all still alive!

The kids are officially in the following grades: Ephrem 5th, Jada 3rd, Hosanna 1st, and Jubilee K.  But as we are homeschooling, their actual grades are a bit more nebulous. 

Hosanna and Jubilee are also attending our village preschool this year 3 mornings a week.  We are hoping that they will learn more of the local language and that it will help us build more relationship with our neighbors. 
During our very first day, we got to do some nature observations right from our desks. See if you can spot the weasels!

It was extremely distracting to have these little guys racing eachother and exploring in our front yard the very first day and hour we began our studies. But when homeschooling, I’ve found it’s better to lean into these sorts of distractions. Afterall, whats the point of homeschooling if you cant take a little bit of time to learn about things that fall in your lap….or this case, yard. 

The other animal we found that morning was this bad boy. 

I found it dead and half smashed into the road earlier that same morning. Any guesses as to what kind of snake this is?

We were created to create! This is some of the art we are doing this year. 

Do you have art that you like to create? Pass it on and share with us!

This is Jada posing for a quick sketch by a friend.

See a likeness?