Keira is walking well now. In the video above she is walking around Natalie's apartment, finding Alesia hiding in our bedroom and falling down the slide. The slide incident caused no lasting damage and was a direct result of big sister bullying. Keira can go down the slide perfectly herself, but when the camera was out Alesia decided to help her along... Keira also loves showing off her belly button, having endless stories and climbing up everything that she can (computer desk, dining room table, etc).
Today (Saturday) is Women's Day in Mongolia. Yesterday afternoon the men at work presented all the women with red roses, cream cake (fake cream - why is it in the land of dairy products we can't get good cream?), pizza and karoke (in that order, the pizza got stuck in traffic). Alesia and Keira got to attend, so they also received cake and pizza, much to their delight. We were blessed with renditions of all varieties of Mongolian music - from country ballads to a piece of rap.
This week we have been out to dinner twice. The first was to a Chinese restaurant recommended by a Peace Corp Volunteer as good for vegetarian food. Our order of spicy tofu with no beef came out as plain tofu with plenty of beef. Otherwise the food was ok. The next night the Finance Director at ADRA suggested we try a Thai/Malaysian restaurant he knows. We walked into the posh part of town, next to the Russian Embassy, and had a reasonable meal of nasi goreng, vegetarian curry and cheesy chicken (not sure which country that one comes from). Natalie and a friend found us towards the end of the meal and finished off our leftovers, so we managed to feed 5 or 6 people for $19. We decided to catch a taxi back home. Getting a taxi here just means standing on the side of the road with your arm out to flag down any car that decides they would like to earn some additional income. It helps to know the approximate rates for distances, but you can pretty much get anywhere for between $2-$5. There were 6 of us and Keira, and we were having trouble flagging down a car. Then a lovely new Honda CRV four-wheel drive stopped. We think it must have been due to them taking pity on our baby - as it was 8:30pm. We all fitted in nicely and the driver put a dvd of American pop music on the dvd player - which greatly impressed Alesia. So much so she did not want to get out of the car when we got home.
We will be going out for dinner again this weekend, as Chris was sick when it was his birthday and he will be away on our 10th wedding anniversary (oh the things I have sacrificed to ADRA). So Natalie is baby-sitting and Chris and I will be trying another of UB's restaurants.
