Kazakhstan

I'm so grateful to have so many people in my life who care about me and are interested in hearing all about this trip. I would love to tell you more about it in person but I also wanted to write it out as a way of sharing my experiences with you all!  It's pretty long but you can also scroll to the end of this post for the shorter version.

Long Version:

When: May 27-June 10, 2012

Where: Taraz, Kazakhstan

Who: A group of eight Americans – through Interlink Resources

Why: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress…”

It’s 11 pm on Sunday at the Washington Dulles Airport, as we wait to board our redeye flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Once on the large plane, I find myself seated right in the middle of a large group of Turkish teenagers who appear to be returning home from some sort of study abroad program in the States. I immediately wished they would have studied good hygiene because they all smelled as if they hadn’t showered their entire trip. I was at least glad to find that I was seated on an aisle seat so I could stretch a little bit. I ended up moving seats a couple of times as I allowed different ones to sit by their friends but after my second seat change and realizing that I couldn’t make them all happy, I just settled in to my newest aisle row seat and fell asleep before we even took off. The engines woke me up of course so I browsed the movies available and found one that put me right back to sleep. So in case you weren’t aware, over the past few years I’ve developed this crazy fear of flying. We’re talking fear-bordering-panic-attack. I’m not exactly sure where it’s come from but it’s certainly there. I always joke that God blocks off His calendar for the entire day whenever I fly because He knows He’s going to be hearing from me non-stop. Anyways, from the second we took off I could tell that people were praying for me – prayer is an incredible thing only because it’s to an incredible God who listens. So anyways, thank you all so much for lifting me up, I’m so thankful for His peace! The low clouds and light rain didn’t allow for us to see much of Istanbul as we landed, but I was just thankful to be safely on the ground after the 10+ hour flight. 

We blew through customs and found a table in the food court. A few people went in search of food while I sat around (I’m not quite sure why it wasn’t the other way around) but then my friend Becky came back with this Belgium waffle piled high with fresh fruit and absolutely smothered in milk chocolate. Kendra and I knew we had to have one of our own and –wow- you would not believe how insainly delicious that thing was! Not long after coming out of our chocolate coma it was time to board again (we had about a 1 hour delay) to head to Almaty. This was a 5 ½ hour flight where I slept only a little, making it feel uber long. Next came one of the biggest, best surprises for me. So we’re preparing to land in Almaty and I look out the window on the other side of the plane (because that’s always where the best views are) to one of the most breathtaking views of my life. It reminded me of my first glimpse of the Rockies driving into Jackson Hole, I have never had anything take my breath away like mountains do and I never forget that feeling. I couldn’t take my eyes away. Okay, enough about the mountains, Marissa – seriously. Well you would think we’d had enough travel (I haven’t figured it out exactly but I think it was Tuesday morning by then – we’d lost Monday somewhere in our time travel) but as soon as we stepped off the plane we hopped on a charter bus that was to drive us the remaining 12 hours to get to Taraz where the team house and orphanage are.  

The first hour of the bus ride consisted of me staring out the window at those mountains while getting my first taste of KZ driving. Vehicles would stop within inches of the car in front of them, fly by one another with only inches on either side, and were constantly swerving and honking. I used to wonder about Virginia drivers but this sight couldn’t be beat. A main road that would normally be two lanes was easily turned into three with no regard for staying in a ‘lane’ – Kazakh drivers are experts in the field of defensive drivers. Let’s just say that the Dramamine was the only reason I slept 90% of that crazy bus ride! We made one stop for lunch in a roadside café which was pretty good and gave me my first experience of KZ bathrooms. It was basically a large outhouse with short walls separating the ‘stalls’ and that’s it as far as privacy goes.  Between the stories I’ve heard from friends who’ve been before and my experiences with camping in the woods, I wasn’t completely shocked but squatting over a hole still isn’t nearly as nice as sitting on a porcelain throne. J The remainder of the ride was filled with pothole hitting and swerving but thankfully, I still slept through most of it! 

We finally arrived Wednesday evening to the team house which is a house owned by Interlink and used for long term delegates as well as trips like ours. We were greeted by Sara, who now lives in Traz and works for Interlink, and Adam who is interning with Interlink this summer. The house was quite spacious and very comfortable. Kendra and I shared a room upstairs. Sara had spaghetti and garlic bread made for us which tasted delicious after all that traveling! Soon it was time for bed and I slept pretty well thanks to the sleeping meds I had taken. I remember waking up, hearing the Muslim call to prayer through the chirping birds and rooster crowing. Our team leader, Frank, made us a delicious American breakfast and then led our morning devotional. 

These next three days were a part of our training and preparing to teach at Ulan. We spent much of the days working out the kinks in our lesson plans and gathering and preparing materials for teaching and activity time with the children. I was feeling pretty nervous about teaching. The children at Ulan are broken up into classroom ‘groups’ which for the most part, are age and gender separated groups that the kids remain in for eating, sleeping, and classroom times. There was the perfect amount of people on our team to each be assigned a group and I was assigned to the ‘special-ed girls’ group. I was informed that they weren’t really special needs but they may just be a little more difficult to deal with. There were ten girls and they ranged in ages from approx.11-16. Kendra had been the year before and taught most of them so it was extremely helpful to have her there during my lesson planning and preparing. When we weren’t preparing for camp we did a couple of things around Taraz. After taking a little tour of Taraz that afternoon, we headed to our first traditional dinner in a yurt. 

The people of Kazakhstan were once known as a primarily nomadic people and the yurt was the style of house that they stayed in and traveled with. Our meal was Beshbarmak – probably as common among Kazakh’s as spaghetti would be to Americans. Beshbarmak was a very large platter of flat noodles topped with meats and it literally means ‘five fingers’ because the dish is eaten with one’s hands. The contents that I remember were horse meat, horse sausage, lamb, and sheep butt. Horse meat is as popular as a roast beef and actually tastes quite similar. Horse sausage is horse meat wrapped and cooked inside intestine, and sheep butt is just that…fat. I sampled a little of everything on the platter, yes, including the butt. All it was was a square of fat and I was able to choke it down despite its disgusting texture. We were also served fermented horse and camel’s milk which are popular drinks so I decided to take a sip – possibly the most strong, awful tasting drink I have tried. Anyways, by this point I had just decided I wasn’t going to say ‘no’ to anything put in front of me because it’s more fun to have a good story! So next comes out a platter of something different. I had been told of this Kazakh tradition but experiencing it is a completely different story. If you haven’t noticed already, the Kazakh people are a people very rich in tradition and this tradition is one that would take place on a holiday or special event in a family. A boiled sheep’s head is brought out on a platter and given to the eldest male at the table. He then is expected to shave off different parts of the head and distribute them, along with a blessing, to various family members at the table. Let me just say that if it were me at that table, I might happen to have something else planned that night, but blessing one another is very popular in the culture as well. So for example, he may shave off the ear and pass it to a child with a blessing that the child would wisely listen to the advice of his parents. A cheek would be served with a blessing of beauty and the tongue with a blessing of wise advice and teaching, etc… With this being a first experience for many of us, we shared a lot of laughter over the head parts that we were each given and tasted. I had some sort of ear, the taste and texture are not worth describing – it was terrible, but I guess that isn’t the point. Just when my stomach thought it had experienced enough new things that evening, someone brought out a platter of brain from the sheep. They said this is also generally a part distributed with a blessing. I was handed a spoonful and ate it without thinking because I knew that even a second of thinking wouldn’t allow me to actually swallow it. I didn’t think it had much of a taste, just a very soft, mushy texture.

                

Thankfully my stomach didn’t get too upset with me after that adventure and I was able to sleep pretty well that night and wake up for another day of preparation. We went to the Bazaar in the morning which is like a large flea market filled with venders selling everything from bread to clothing, tools, tea, jewelry, meat, school supplies and actually pretty much anything you could need – Kazakhstan’s super Wal-Mart! It was pretty crowded but a neat experience. I imagined myself doing all of my everyday shopping there and thought it might be kind of fun! After the Bazaar we went to Interlink’s office in Taraz to meet our translators and have lunch with them. My translator’s name was Gulzhahan. She was a sweet, 19 year old about to start her second year of University and knew English very well! This was her first experience translating in an organized setting so I think she was a little nervous but I was nervous too! After lunch our entire team, including our translators, went to the Ulan Orphanage to meet our students. In my journal on this day I wrote, “I am so overwhelmed with new words and names and teaching a room full of girls who don’t understand me. I am angry at myself for losing control so easily. At the same time, I think of my ‘I’ve got everything under control’ life in Virginia and realize how that rarely leads me to trusting in God as I should. You have to realize a true need to truly trust God. It’s only the beginning of my time here yet I’m at my end. God, show me how to depend on you because I don’t do it enough to know.” Looking back, I am so thankful He brought me to my end because otherwise I wouldn’t have experienced what it’s like to cast all of my worries on Him and feel His loving peace.

 The next day was Children’s Day in Kazakhstan. I would almost describe this day as a big birthday party for every child in the country! There was a huge celebration at the city park which we attended. Colorful costumes, cotton candy, rides, music, dancing, singing… it was so fun to be a part of. This is one of the reasons that I so love other cultures, sometimes we think we have everything that’s right and good but seeing the way that people around the world celebrate and the things that they celebrate, it’s just so exciting to me. After lunch we prepared some more for our classroom and activity time at the orphanage and then Kendra and I were sent to Interlingua which is an English teaching school for young people and adults. We were sat in a classroom that kept filling until there were probably 20 students in there with us. It was fun because we just talked. We asked them questions about their culture and they asked us all kinds of questions about movies, singers, actors, if we were married, if we had boyfriends (haha their reactions to our ‘no’ answers still make me laugh), if we drank or smoked, what America is like, how old we are, and what we do for a living. It was interesting to see the presumptions they had about us from the American movies that they see. They were all very kind and we shared a lot of laughs. Dinner that evening was spent in the home of the director of Interlink. Her and her husband were so kind to invite us over and prepared a delicious dinner complete with dessert and tea.

                

Today was finally our first day in the classroom – our schedule looked pretty much the same from here on out. Breakfast at 7, devotions and morning meeting at 8, prepare and leave for the orphanage at 9:30. We had a little time to review lesson plans with our translators and then taught from 10:00-12:30. Our team and the translators traveled by bus back to the house for lunch prepared by a Kazakh woman, we would return to the orphanage and lead activity time for the children until 6:30 pm every day. Every evening we had a meeting after dinner and then usually headed straight to bed (if we could even stay awake through the evening meeting!).

                

I loved my classroom time. The biggest challenge that I had was when I wanted to really get to know my girls individually but saw the limitations in that with not knowing their language. God still used other ways of showing me how to communicate and connect with the girls and that was really special. Each day we had a theme for the day. Some of them were respect, problem solving, emotions/anger, cooperation, self esteem, and responsibility. I completely have taken for granted the different means that have allowed me to learn these lessons over the years – these children don’t have good families or churches to teach them. I’d attempt to have an activity alongside each lesson to help them remember/understand. One day I split them into two groups and asked them to write and act out a play having to do with our theme that day – they did great and I really enjoyed that because I didn’t have to speak their language to understand the stories they were trying to tell! For problem solving I borrowed an idea from a team member. I split them into four groups of two and gave each group a puzzle and asked them to put them together. What I didn’t tell them was that the pieces weren’t to their puzzle, but instead, went with their neighbor’s puzzle. They weren’t allowed to talk and even though they all became very frustrated early on, I enjoyed watching as they realized what was going on and started swapping pieces. My translator would read a story every day to the girls, relating to the theme, and they really enjoyed that and discussing it afterwards. We also had a few English vocab words each day that we would learn. My group of girls all live in one room. When you walk in, there is a large area with a sofa, the aide’s desk, and two tables that the girls sit at during our lesson time. Off to one side is a window looking into their bedroom. The bedroom was filled with about 12 beds, all exactly the same and kept up to look very neat and orderly. On the other side of the room was a small, very basic bathroom with two sinks, a hose for a shower, three small toilets, and cubbies with a towel and toothbrush for each girl. That week I thought a lot about their lives and prayed for them. They seem to be well taken care of at the orphanage and everything was very neat and clean on the outside but what I really wanted was to get to know their hearts. I heard a few stories of individual children’s lives before the orphanage and they would just break your heart. I loved seeing so many smiles on little faces that week - I pray that the Lord allowed His hope, peace, and love to shine through us and pour into hurting hearts.

            
Afternoon activity time was generally spent outside with all of the children of the orphanage. We had a hide and seek, find the American night. Festival night. Different stations of basketball, soccer, capture the flag, friendship bracelet making, nail painting, board game playing, and many more. Once again, the thing that stuck out to me the most during this time was the smiles and laughter that we witnessed. I have no idea what life is like for these young people on a day to day basis. I have no idea what’s hurting them inside, what they long for, what they’ve been through in their young lives. But to see smiles on their faces and hear the joy they were able to experience, even for a short time, gave hope. I’m so thankful that I’m not leaving these children ‘in the dust’ so to speak. We came, and in many ways we were able to see a difference being made. But now I’m excited to see how the Lord uses Interlink’s continual relationship with the orphans and staff at the orphanage to shine His light. My prayer is that even though we were in a country where it is illegal to share the Gospel or talk about God with children, they saw a light, like a city on a hill that could not be hidden.

                

Saying our goodbyes was hard of course; I hated to see my girls crying. We all came to the orphanage at 10 that final morning for a concert that the children put on for us. The children danced, sang, acted out skits, read poems, and then we all spent a little time dancing together! We had about an hour with our classes individually and I gave each of my girls a small gift that I had put together for them. We sat around and just chatted like girls love to do. We talked about my family because I had just given them all photo and they couldn’t get over how young my parents looked. We talked about what they all want to be when they grow up, places they’d like to travel… one pulled out a U.S. map and we pointed out Lynchburg and Michigan where my parents live – also places like New York City and Washington D.C. We took a few final pictures and headed outside for final goodbyes with everyone. We were asked to make the goodbyes short and sweet for the kids’ sake so we did and hopped on the bus and watched them wave from their place at the gate as we pulled away.

            
That evening the majority of us (a few were staying around for English camp the following week at another orphanage) packed our bags and headed for the train station. We had a red eye train to Almaty where we would fly out again. I had never slept on a train before but it was actually pretty sweet, I’d rather have a bed than a chair any day when I’m traveling! Kendra and I shared a cabin with our two Interlink friends/translators who were coming with us to see us off at the airport. We arrived into beautiful Almaty (yes, I LOVED waking up and seeing those mountains out my window again, it was perfect). We didn’t fly out until early the next morning so we had the afternoon to tour the city. After cleaning up a bit we went to Shymbalyk which is a ski resort that hosted the 2011 Asian Winter Games. It was a beautiful location. There was a tram that took us from the base up to the actual resort – way closer to those snowcapped beauties! We walked around for about an hour, taking in the breathtaking views and the headed back down into town. We grabbed some lunch at a café and walked around a little. Then we hit up the chocolate factory which was pretty exciting for this girl. After dinner we went straight to bed to wake up early for our flight the next morning.

                

Again, I was so grateful for the incredible peace that God gave to me through all of these flights. After a long, sleepless flight to Istanbul I was rewarded with…. yup, you guessed it – another plate of chocolaty waffle goodness. Our final (praise the Lord) flight to D.C. was on time and other than a few spots of nasty turbulence, went by quickly for me as I found some good movies that put me right to sleep.

                

One question that I’ve been asked a couple of times since I have been back, is what was my favorite part of the trip, or what was it about this trip that has changed me. I would say that my favorite part was getting a sponsor child while I was there and the day that I got to tell Balousa that I would be her sponsor. I still remember that hug she gave me and how excited she said she was. The part that changed me… I struggled with this a little bit because as I was leaving, I realized that I didn’t have the traditional and somewhat expected feelings of leaving a part of my heart there or already starting to plan my next trip back. I questioned my feelings and wondered what my problem was until God led me to this answer. I didn’t leave a part of my heart in Kazakhstan because I had left it all in Lynchburg. As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to work in or own and orphanage so why was I not feeling as strongly as I thought I should towards the Ulan Orphanage? He told me why, because the orphans that He has called me to are right down the street from my house. I am so incredibly grateful for the once in a lifetime, unforgettable opportunity that I had to go to Kazakhstan and spend time with the kids at Ulan and I have no doubt that God had a purpose for me going there. But as I told a friend the other night, what I took away from it more than anything was a confirmation and peace of the Lord’s purpose and His plan for me right now to be building His kingdom right here in my everyday life and I’m so grateful for that!

Thank you SO much for your love, prayers, and support - may the Lord bless you richly so that you can be a blessing to others!


Short Version: I went to Kazakhstan and it was cool.