Our afternoon outside

Late this afternoon, the girls and I went outside to play for a while. (The ‘men’ stayed inside. :D) All three of us had a really nice time! There were quite a few children outside, and the girls enjoyed playing with them. What were they playing? I asked one little girl what she was doing, and she said that they were playing with trash. They would go and gather all the different trash that they could find… empty ketchup bottles, potato chip bags, beer bottles, candy wrappers, bottle caps, etc. Then, they would line them all up in a row and fill them with sand. Very creative, indeed! They didn’t have any toys, but they definitely had a lot of fun filling empty containers and bags with sand! Aria and Nina thought it was the greatest, and began helping them. At one point, I looked and saw Aria holding an empty beer bottle and filling it with sand. My first instinct was to tell her not to touch that and take it away from her. But then I thought, these children play with them, why should Aria be any different? Plus, that’s what warm water and soap is for! (And believe me, we washed their hands really well!)

While the girls were busy playing with trash, I was able to talk with one of the other moms. I really, really enjoyed that. It was such great language practice for me (Russian)! But more than that, it was great getting to know one of our neighbors a bit, and learning some more about their culture. Sure hope that I will be able to meet her again sometime!

After the mom that I had been talking to went back inside, I began talking with the children who were playing with Aria and Nina. I would ask them how to say different words in Tuvan. They would tell me, I’d repeat the word they just said, and then they would look at each other and just laugh and laugh. I never really considered myself a funny person… until today, that is. :D

This evening before bedtime, during our time of thinking together, Aria said, “thank-you for the children that we could play with today”. Then she turned to me and said, “mommy, do you think that we can play with them tomorrow too?”