First Impressions of Kazakhstan

Well, now that I’ve been here a week, it’s about time I filled you in on what’s going on over here in K-stan.

Cat and I arrived early Friday morning, around 3am here, after about 31 hours of traveling. Having slept on all three planes as well as the 3-hour car ride from Astana, we both stayed up to unpack and check out our new apartment. Then we got about 4 hours of sleep before one of the English teachers from ASSOL, a beautiful Kazakh woman named Saltana, came to take us to the school for lunch. Larissa, the school director, had a typical Russian meal prepared for us, including salad (really just cucumbers, parsley, tomatoes and mayonnaise… lettuce is not common there), palmeni, and borscht. I promptly declared borscht to be my new favorite, which amused Saltana to no end. During the course of the meal, Larissa invited us to a wedding the next day! Another English teacher, Mila, was getting married, and Larissa got us invited to the whole thing. And I mean the whole thing… we showed up at 1pm, gift in hand, and the bride was still getting her nails done. But more about that later.

After lunch another English teacher, Luciana, took us to the supermarket to show us around. I was so relieved that we wouldn’t have to do all our shopping at the magazine (Russian for ‘store’- a place where everything is behind the counter and you have to ask for it… that requires much more Russian than I’m comfortable with as yet!) Be prepared to hear a lot about Luciana, or Yana. She is without a doubt the most beautiful girl I have ever known in real life, and she’s one of the sweetest, too. She has especially taken to Cat. I suspect that she will figure in a lot of entries and emails to come.

The next morning there was an orientation meeting for all the new Americans in the city, and then we went to Larissa’s apartment for the first part of the wedding. Since Mila’s parents died when she was young, Larissa was acting as her mother and giving her away. When we got there, Mila was still getting ready, so we helped set up the apartment for the bride-buying ceremony. It was truly amazing, really, how many cool traditions they have. When the groom showed up all the girls but the bride and the one giving her away went downstairs to meet him. Then he had to go through all these obstacles and tests to get to her. First, they handed his best man a guitar and made the groom come up with a song about Mila on the spot. Then, on almost every step going up to the apartment, there were little cards with questions about Mila that he had to answer. Once he had to pick her lip-print out of a sheet of them (all the girls at the wedding has kissed the paper, including me and Cat). Anytime he guessed wrong, or answered a question wrong, he had to pay more money. Then, in order to get the key to the apartment he had to drink an entire bowl of salt water (I think there was some symbolism in that, but I didn’t catch it). Once inside he had to pick her hand print out of about 6, and then get through the last obstacle to the room in which she was waiting. There were 10 strings taped across the door, and he had to call out sweet things to her. Anytime she heard one she liked, he got to cut one string. When he finally got in, there were glasses of wine for everyone, numerous toasts, and a few other traditions that I didn’t quite get.

Then we all piled into cars decorated for the occasion and drove to the courthouse for the signing of the papers. It was packed. I have never seen so many brides in one place! Apparently it’s like this every weekend, but I can’t imagine how there can be that many people in the city to get married! Waiting outside in the parking lot, we saw about 6 different wedding parties. And every few minutes another couple would come out the door. They stood at the top of the steps, the wedding march played, everyone cheered, and family and friends threw rice, rose petals, or small coins. Then everyone would go back to talking and 3 minutes later it started all over again. When it was finally our turn we went upstairs, they had a very small ceremony, and they gave us about 30 seconds to congratulate them before kicking us out for the next group. Then there were group pictures taken in a various decorated rooms (they actually included Cat and I in the official wedding pictures!), and we drove around town for a while getting pictures in various locations. There were brides everywhere! I found out later that that one courthouse had had 80 weddings that day! I seriously thought of naming this entry “Look, it’s another wedding; First impressions of Kazakhstan”

Then to the restaurant for the reception. They had a veritable feast spread out for us. It greatly resembled many American receptions, with a lot of food, dancing, and fun little games for the couple to play to determine who would be the breadwinner, who would do the most household chores, etc. We had so much fun. At one point in the evening, they had various people get up and make toasts and gifts to the bride and groom. All the English teachers from ASSOL got up there, and they took us with them. Someone translated for us so that we could make a toast too, and then we sang “Going to the Chapel” for them. It was amazing. Russian weddings are full participation events. Unfortunately, we had to leave early. By about 10pm we were exhausted, so Luciana’s husband came to pick the three of us up and dropped me and Cat off at our apartment. I heard afterward that the reception continued until almost 2am!

After church on Sunday was the first down-time we had had since we got here, so I’m not ashamed to say that we slept most of it away. And then we watched movies on Cat’s laptop. It was good. The last two days have pretty much been getting settled in to life here. Cat did her first load of laundry by hand yesterday (I still have that joy to look forward to). Luciana took us shopping and showed us how to cook a very simple but delicious Russian meal Monday night. And we have officially had our first faulty plumbing incident (besides the usual no hot water/no water at all). It was an amazing experience, involving multiple attempted home-solutions, a handful of decidedly unsuccessful phone calls in Russian, and an absolutely brilliant conversation of hand gestures and drawings with Giayana, ASSOL’s maintenance man. But we got it all worked out in the end.

Wow, this is a long entry! But hopefully the updates from now on will be more regular and therefore a little shorter. I love and miss you all! Please leave me comments, send emails, etc. I would love to hear from you.

Love,
Molly

The Talent Show

I am on a total high from the CIS talent show skit tonight. It was amazing. Basically, we rewrote the opening town song from "Beauty and the Beast" (the one that starts with the 'bonjour's') to be about training. We rehearsed twice, and performed it tonight, and it was amazing! We got a standing ovation! And when they announced that we had won 1st place, the entire audience started chanting "One more time!" until we did it again for them! Have I mentioned that it was amazing? Because it was.

Practicum Party

Well, practicum is over. Tonight was our last night. It was so much fun, but also so sad. The first half was a presentation each class prepared to show what they have learned over the last four weeks. The beginning 1 class did a game which involved playing telephone with names of foods and the beginning 2 class sang a song. Then the high intermediate (the group I worked with most, especially in the last week) held a debate about capital punishment. Yeah... they are really advanced.

Over the last four weeks, we have all grown to love these people. They are all so sweet and funny, and they try so hard. I grew especially attached to the high intermediate class. In fact, here's a picture of me with them tonight (and Cat in the top left corner, sneaking into the picture):

From the left is Socorro, Maria, Jose, and Sarah. They are amazing. In my last lesson, I was teaching them things like psychologist and objective v. subjective. What was great about tonight was that after the presentations we got to just hang out and eat with them. We provided cake, and several of the students brought their favorite dishes. I ended up getting two recipes from Maria. I could tell how excited she was to be able to teach me something. Most of them are married and have children, and they are all older than us, so it has been odd that we are the teachers and they are the students. I wish we'd gotten more time to simply socialize with them, because I know they would have a lot to teach us as well.

It was such a fun evening all around, and we there was much shaking hands and hugging and thanks at the end. Most of the students came up to each of us to thank us, and Socorro kept telling me how much she was going to miss us. I'm sad that it's over, but so thankful that we have had the opportunity to work with and get to know so many wonderful people.

Boot Camp- Weeks 2 and 3

As anyone, myself included, could have foreseen, the second and third weeks of training were nothing like the first. Well, the schedule was pretty much the same, but that's about it. Emotionally and spiritually, it was a whole different experience.

Having gotten used to life here, less things are stressing (and therefore stretching) me than that first week. The ways that God is working in my life now are much subtler, and much less fun. But I can still see Him at work in me, so that's all that really counts. I've had a humbling talk or two with Him (never much fun), and my future roomie and I have had our first "we need to talk" talk. But it all turned out better than I could have hoped.

I love the people here more than ever. After practicum (teaching) on Wednesday, we went downtown to celebrate Jeffrey and Charlene's birthdays this week, and it was the most fun I've had in a long time. On the way home Alicia, Michelle, and I were just about delirious from lack of sleep, and we decided to 'practice' for the lack of personal space overseas by practically laying on top of one another, randomly poking each other, and staring Alicia out of countenance. It's hard to get the general hilarity of it if you weren't there, but just take my word for it... we were about to cry with laughing. And Michelle and I start each day with a rousing rendition of the Russian alphabet song (you should hear me sing it sometime... it's great) which I suspect will soon be joined by the new "I don't know" song (to the tune of "Frere Jacque"). I'm surprised Amy, our roommate, hasn't killed us by now, except that she's pretty awesome too.

Even our students at practicum are great. We are fortunate enought to be teaching at the same location every night and rotating among 4 classes of 2-4 students, so we've been able to get to know the students. Francisco, in the Beginning 1 class, is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I want to hug him every time I see him. And Jose, from High Intermediate, is hysterical. He is such an extrovert. The day we talked about career, I asked them to use their new vocabulary in a sentence, and he breaks into an entire story about being a pilot and flying over a jungle in Mexico, making sure that I understood that it was "just from his imagination." It is such a satisfying experience teaching English to them. They want to learn so much, and they are so good-humored about everything. I may volunteer as an English teacher someplace once I get back, if there's a need for it wherever I end up.

I'm really getting spoiled for the 'real world' here. I swear, I haven't met a single person who isn't wonderful, nice, friendly, Christian... even the people at Starbucks are really friendly. One girl asked where we were going, and said "God bless you for what you are doing." And I'm starting to get used to it. It's nice. We should try for this on a societal scale... yeah, that would be great.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the long weekend ahead. A group of 8 of us are going to San Diego tomorrow, and that's going to be fun. But I'm also glad we're going to get back and have a whole day free, to just chill out. I've realised since I got here how important alone time and down time are.

A few prayer requests- humility and general discernment for me, as well as the will and ability to focus on God more than myself. For Michelle (one of my roommates here), comfort on the recent death of a close friend. For Catherine (my roommate over there), strength to face certain trials. And for all of us, that God might continue to prepare our hearts for what we will face in the coming year, and that He will also prepare the hearts of our students.

Thank you.

Love,
Molly