House Guests
I have some “house guests” at the moment … four of the baseball kids are staying with me … they called me late in the evening on Monday night a few weeks ago to tell me that the roof on their house had “fallen in” and landed on two of the girls. They were obviously in distraught state and I could hear the crying in the background.
I automatically switched into “crisis mode”.
Stage one, handle the immediate situation: First of all, assess the situation, (what has happened?, is anyone hurt?, if so, who?, and how badly?, what help do they need?, and so on), … then “make safe” … followed by take action and summon assistance where necessary.
From what I was being told, the weather was bad and there was a hole in the roof through which the rain was coming in. The place was a mess with lots of rubble littering the room where it had fallen. At that moment just one room was affected, but it wasn’t clear if the ceilings in the other rooms were safe. Two girls, (one of them only four years old), were in the room at the time and the ceiling had fallen on them, but everyone else was OK, although upset.
The first piece of advice I could offer was to check the girls for signs of injury and concussion, and call an ambulance … fortunately neither of them was seriously hurt apart from suffering from the shock of the event … there was no signs of serious injury beyond a swelling and what was going to be an ugly bruise, there was no sign of concussion.
The room could obviously not be used … and with the bad weather, it was important to move everyone so that there was no chance of them being hurt, either as a result of the cold and wet from the bad weather, or more of the ceiling falling in. That’s when I offered to take in some of the family. The rest could try their relatives.
In the morning we could see about the extent of the damage and how to effect repairs.
I called one of our staff, telling him what had happened and asking him to be ready to come with me for an inspection in the morning, to advise me what could be done, what needed to be done to make the house safe once more.
To be honest, I expected my guests to stay for maybe one or two nights whilst the roof was patched up, but that was almost three weeks ago … and they are still with me. The repairs seem to have involved far more work than I had anticipated. I suppose that I should have known better … if “the course of true love never runs smooth”, then that seems to equally true when it comes to construction work and repairs. I always used to joke that builders always started a job with enthusiasm, having quoted one price and given a deadline for the completion of the work, only to start shaking their heads, muttering under their breaths and tut-tutting shortly after starting work. They call the client over and say, “We have a problem,” … the bit I really like, (notice the sarcasm there), is the: “if only we’d known that …”. Straight away it is obvious that what was supposed to be a simple job has become more difficult, the price has gone up and the deadline has been extended.
It appears that the problem with the roof wasn’t a localized one … instead of “patching it up”, the roof needed to be replaced … and so did the ceiling inside the building, so that the house was fit for the family to live in once more. “If they do the ceiling, then they really need to do the walls as well … which probably means new windows … and then there is the need to redecorate … and …” … but the rest is another story.
That’s how I seem to have ended up with an instant, adopted family of four teenagers.
The situation has made for some interesting moments.
I admit, for example, that I am getting tired of “youth TV”, MTV and loud music, not to mention, what seems to me to be constant bickering and instant arguments over the slightest irritation.
On the other hand, I quite enjoy seeing them off to school and checking their homework. The Maths is relatively easy, and English doesn’t present me with too big a problem … but although I have always been fond of Geography as a subject and felt I was stumped when it came to the depth of the world’s deepest lake, Lake Balkash, as every website, encyclopaedia, reference book and atlas that I checked seems to have a different figure – which didn’t match any of the four options given in the multiple choice paper. I don’t know the Russian Literature that they have to read, and I can’t help with their Kyrgyz homework at all.
The most difficult moment, however, is when it comes to preparing for mealtimes.
I am used to catering for myself. That often means going out for dinner, but sometimes I do cook for myself.
When I was a student, (many, many years ago), I used to have a “cook book” called “Cooking in a Bedsitter”. I did like that book. The recipes were for one or two people; they were simple and easy to prepare and cook; I can find the ingredients without any problem in the local shops and markets. Now I am having to cook for five, so not only are the quantities bigger and sometimes I have difficulty finding the right ingredients.
I might well cook myself a large casserole, or curry, and either eat it several days in a row or eat some and freeze the rest for later. If I am in a hurry, I can settle for a snack, but cooking for five means that every meal has to be properly prepared.
But worst of all, they are so “picky”!
None of them eat lamb, some don’t eat Chicken, sweet corn is a “no-no” for some of them, and for others it is necessary to avoid mushrooms.
Even when we have some local dish that I know they like, such as Manti, Maxim will dissect the dish, pushing this or that to the side of the plate declaring “eto ne vakoosniy” – “it’s not tasty”.
Maxim has another habit that I find hard to deal with … he will pick something up and hold it to his nose to smell it. Now, I think that I understand this when its vegetables or meat … he’s checking to see if it is still OK to eat and hasn’t “gone off” … but he will also hold of can of peas, or something straight out of the freezer to his nose to smell it … and that I just don’t understand.
Indeed, I don’t know how he survives, yet alone how he manages to find the energy to ride his BMX bike, play baseball and grow something like half a centimeter every month.
Bishkek