Goat milk, sandstorms and moving from coal to natural gas…

happy goats live here... 

If you want fresh goat milk, just find the nearest “goat milking” market and you can pick up a bag full or get your container filled. Goats can be found on bridges or on city squares. It’s the morning ritual of the goat owners to provide the fresh milk before 7, and the goats seem oblivious to the passing vehicles and the rather urban environment that they have to deal with while their owners milk them, one by one.

lots of building "deconstruction" going on

The first week of May we had our “spring break.” The weather turned warmer and then colder and then warmer again. But the one consistent thing was the howling wind, which brought us a two-day sandstorm and gale warnings. We stayed inside a lot!

But as per his usual holiday routine, Pres got up at 4 am each morning to take advantage of the quiet streets and the windless mornings… to roam around town and soak in the sites. As a result, he found the goats on many occasions. But he didn’t buy any milk… we’ve seen what those goats EAT!

Sunday evening fellowship 

Our spring break started off with a relaxing and fun hot pot dinner with our friends and time for fellowship and Monopoly. It’s always good learning practice for all to play Monopoly in English and Chinese. Lots of laughs and “money” mistakes. Oh well! We were thankful to have had the event early in the week as Krista decided to get bronchitis or “who knows what” that kept her in bed for a couple of days and then hacking for the rest of the week. Pres was a good caretaker, of course, and we had plenty of other excitement that didn’t require us to leave the
house anyway.

sandstorm.. yuck!

this is NOT a video - tried to post it at the end :) but not workin'

We got the windows washed and most of the new screens in before the sandstorm and Krista’s illness hit. The windows still look bright and on the good days, we can see the green fill the mountains and the leafing trees from our 18-floor apartment. We are blessed.

old stove... now a landfill problem :(

Krista’s illness gave her time for lots of r est, letter writing and social media exchanges with our students who were also on holiday. We also have about 50 pronunciation videos to grade this month, so we came up with a plan for reviewing and grading them and giving the student groups feedback on their efforts and English pronunciation. It turned out to be a productive exercise.

This week our apartment complex also switched over from “coal gas" to natural gas for all the stoves in the 25 buildings. There were signs posted in the building about the impending change which would bring everyone a more environmentally friendly burning gas that is 3x as expensive. Our country of residence has been
moving this way for a while, city by city. We are thankful that we won’t be burning as much coal anymore. But the changeover meant that by Friday, we could no longer use our 3-year-old stove. Our landlord had to buy a new one, which has yet to arrive! But there is hope that it will arrive this week. Until then, we have an electric plate that will suffice.

tree planting

Several workers came to our apartment and met Americans for the first time. They were patient and helpful… and we bought a new “natural gas” detection device that will sound if there are leaks. We paid the extra money to change our gas card to the current “natural gas” prices. For example, we put $10 on the card previously and now we need to pay $30 for the same amount of gas. So we paid the extra $20. The workers were impressed with our ability to communicate… we just were thankful for the technology that allows us to communicate with our landlord and colleagues who helped us with translation and decision-making. :) Praise God!

Now, back to the classroom. Excited to see our students’ tired faces.

fields are filling with green