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