Our students

My other teammates may disagree, but I really believe that Cat and I have the best students ever. I simply adore them all. Every night we come home and compare stories about classes that day and talk, once again, about how freaking amazing they are. And they really seem to enjoy our classes, too (yay!!!!!). The first lesson, I taught them ways to greet and say goodbye to people beyond simply “hello,” “hi,” “goodbye,” and “bye”. And now every time they see me, whether in school or not, they call out “yo” or “what’s up” and then start laughing... it’s fabulous.

On Saturday we met a group of students to go downtown to the new Ramstore (a great, though very expensive store/mall that sells a lot of American brands you can’t find anywhere else). Once we got there we split up into groups, and about five of them went with me. I felt like I had an entourage! They just followed me around the store. Even when I told them that I was done shopping and just wanted to walk around with them while they shopped, they kept taking cues from me. One girl wanted to go into a store to buy makeup (it was very Sephora-like... makeup, perfumes, etc.) but we ended up walking the store trying to find lotion for me because I’d mentioned earlier that I wanted some. As soon as we walked in the door they swooped down on a saleswoman en masse, told her what I was looking for, and then led me all over the store, telling me which brands were better, cheaper, smelled good, etc. It was like having a whole team of personal shoppers! It was amazing.

They are so considerate and helpful. It’s a cultural thing, I think. They will do just about anything to help you out and be friendly. If you invite someone to something, they will go. It doesn’t matter if it’s not something they are particularly interested in or not. They will go. If you need help with something, they will bend over backwards. It’s unbelievable.

When we left the store we went to a cafe nearby for dinner. Cat dropped one of her bags and a huge bottle of hot sauce she had bought broke in the bag. Some spilled on the floor, and I got some napkins to clean it up. Apparently that was not okay! Dias, a friend of one our students, yelled “No!” at me. He wasn’t being mean or trying to startle me, but he was just apparently horrified by the thought of me cleaning it up myself. So I just let it go and chalked it up to a cultural discovery. All in all, it was pretty humorous. We were still chuckling about it ten minutes into the meal.

The group got smaller as the afternoon progressed, until finally it was just me, Cat, Asem (Asyem), Julia, and Dias on the marshrutka home. And the two drunk German guys hitting on Cat. If we had been alone, it would have been pretty awkward, but Julia and Asem were running interference via language, and Dias was there just as a male presence. We invited the three of them up to our apartment for coffee. We mutually amused each other (Cat’s dancing, Julia and Cat singing Shakira songs, me asking them how to say things in Russian and then trying to write them down using the Cyrillic alphabet, Cat and I trying to communicate with Dias using our extremely limited Russian, his slightly better English, and our handy Russian-English dictionary, etc), and they finally left around 9pm. All in all, it was a great day.

And tonight after my 4 o’clock class, they all swarmed me, asking what words I knew in Russian. It was so funny. I counted to 100 for them, and then started recounting random phrases and food names that I knew. They just thought that was the funniest thing ever. Then they started teaching me new words and telling me how to spell them in Russian. I’m not sure why it is so funny to them when I try to write things in Russian, but it seems to be pretty universal.

Have I mentioned that I love our students?

(Written Tuesday, September 19)

PS. Thank you to everyone at First Baptist! I just recieved four CD's of the August services in the mail today (Friday). I almost cried. I loved every bit of it... the sermon, the children recieving their Bibles, hearing our beautiful choir. I loved just hearing the familiar voices. Thank you to everyone, both the people who took part in the service and the people responsible for recording and sending it to me. It was only the second sermon I've heard in English since I've been here! Thank you!

Water, water, everywhere!

And I do mean that quite literally. Apparently they are shutting off the water to the entire city of Karaganda for the next few days. They said at least two days, which could mean anywhere from three days to a week. Yay. And the water shuts off every night at 11. So Cat and I have spent the last hour frantically filling every container we could lay our hands on. We have numerous bottles we’ve saved from cokes and such, all four of our wash tubs, our teakettle, three giant pots from our kitchen that we don’t use, a random 5 gallon bin in our bathroom, and a bucket. It’s awesome. I sure hope that we won’t need this much, but you never can tell. And if we run out, there’s not a whole lot we can do about it. So we have water everywhere! Good times.

(Written Monday, September 18)

A good day

Since I can’t afford to spend a lot of time online, I am writing all emails and blog entries on Cat’s computer and saving them to a flash disk to take to the internet cafe. There may be occasions when I won’t get to answer an email for a week or more, and I will probably end up sending multiple emails and posting several blog entries at one time. The moral of the story is, please don’t be put off if updates seem to come in spurts. If you desperately need to contact me, you would be better off calling. If you would like my number or my address here, you can either email me (but we’ve already determined that that’s not the best option in a hurry) or you can get it from my parents, Nikki Hardeman at FBC, Kate O’Rourke, Jamie Barton, or Luda Kwon.

It’s all about the little things in life. I know I’ve already written that once since I’ve been here, and I’m sure that I will write it many more times before June. But that’s just because it’s true. It is not meant to imply that it’s horrible here (because it’s not), but that there are so many little things we take for granted that are unusual here.

A sermon in English, for example. Today a fellow American, Scott Tucker, preached at Living Vine church, translated into Russian by another church member. Until now, the only things I’ve been able to understand are the scriptures, because we can usually discern what book they mean and look it up in our own Bibles. Then the Tuckers invited all the ESI teachers over to their apartment for lunch. We had sweet tea, chicken salad, sandwiches, ICE!!! It was great. Their sons showed us their UGA memorabilia and all their Braves baseball cards (yay for Georgians... they lived in Columbus before they moved here), and I played a very exciting game of chess with the younger one.

Now Cat and I are preparing to go back with laundry... they have a washing machine! I have thus far managed to avoid doing my laundry by hand, but it’s only delaying the inevitable. I actually wouldn’t want to avoid it the entire year even if I could. It’s all a part of the experience. Somehow this even feels like cheating a little bit. But I’ll get over that for right now. I have to teach tomorrow, I don’t have anything but t-shirts left, and it’s raining, which puts a damper in the whole clothes-line plan (quite literally. Oh wow, what a bad pun. Eric Lowery would be so proud... someone should tell him).

It's all in the details

I love that, though the whole picture is very different from what we’re used to, the details make up for it, at least for me. There are tiny bits of beauty in things that we usually don’t bother with in America. No matter where we eat, even in the school cafeteria, it is on nice china, painted with beautiful scrollwork or floral patterns. The doorframes and doors in our apartment are downright ornate! They are all carved wood and latticework. Every light fixture is a chandelier, even if not very expensive looking.

And if they do one thing well here, it is curtains! They are gorgeous! In our apartment, our director’s apartment, the reception hall at the wedding, every room in our school, including our classrooms… they all have beautiful, floor-to-ceiling, sheer curtains, often embroidered with small patterns or flowers. I love it. It makes me happy.

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

My fellow soldiers

I love these people! I have seriously never encountered so many amazing, loving, friendly, Christian people in such a concentration. The thing is, there isn't anyone here I don't like. There isn't a single person here that I wouldn't feel safe confiding in or asking to pray for me. It's kind of weird, but amazing. Even the people that I didn't immediately click with turned out to be wonderful. I'm already upset that we're going to be scattering at the end of training... I will probably get to see the Kyrgyzstan girls again, at Thanksgiving, and maybe over longer breaks. But the people going to Russia are going to be a 4-day train ride (or a very expensive plane trip) away.

But I am so grateful for this time we have now... if I'm going to be going through a spiritual boot camp like this one, I'm glad it's with them. I'm making some life-long friends here.

Boot Camp- Week 1

Now for the first entry that isn't purely informational. Yay!

I have reached the end of my first week of training, and it has been rough... probably the most emotionally and spiritually exhausting week of my entire life. When we jokingly compared it to the army, someone pointed out that we really are training for an army, just of a different sort.

I guess I'll try to give you an idea of how it works:

There are over two-hundred of us here, and there are about 4 different kinds of groups that we are in throughout the day. There are the large group sessions, with everyone. Then there are split sessions, with only those from our region (mine, the CIS, includes those going to Kazakhstan, Krygystan, and Russia). Discovery groups are anywhere from 4 to 7 people from our region, and they change daily. Then there are teammates, which are just people who will be living together. So even though there are 8 people going to Karaganda, only Catherine and I are teammates.

Breakfast is at 7:00 every morning (not that I ever make it to breakfast, except maybe the tail-end of it) and then we meet with our discovery (or 'disco') groups at 8. They change every day, but Catherine and I are always together, and we are always with people from our region. There are sheets of questions each morning that we go through with the group, and they generally lead to really probing conversations. We are all getting used to taking everything as an opportunity for self-discovery and analysis. And we are getting to know each other pretty well in the process.

At 9 am, we have a large group session for TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) lectures. Then split sessions with our regions at 10:30 for more of the same, and lectures about the cultures we are going to encounter. We have lunch at noon, and then two afternoon sessions (topics vary- ex. "Culture Shock", "Dealing with Anger, Depression, and Grief", and "Who Am I?"). At 3:45 we find out if we are going to be teaching that night, and then we have practicum prep, in which we have an hour to plan our lesson. Then dinner, and we leave for practicum at 6. Even those who aren't teaching go to observe and fill out evaluations. We generally get back around 9 pm, and then we have a de-briefing session with our discovery group from that morning. We answer questions like "What did you learn about TEFL today that will help you overseas?" "What was hard about today?" "What is something you are thankful for?" and "What did you learn about yourself?"

We begin and end every session with prayer, and we will often stop to pray in the middle of things, when it is necessary. Almost every session includes time to discuss things with your teammate and ask how this is going to affect you, and how you will handle it, etc. At any given time people are sitting in corners talking about spiritual matters, praying with each other, sharing testimonies, asking for help and prayer and accountability, and supporting one another as we deal with everything.

Everything is so intense here, it's hard to explain. I've known these people for only a week, but I know them as well as I would after a month or two under normal circumstances. Everyone has moments of intense personal realization occasionally, but here we are having at least one per day, sometimes more. I have cried 5 times since I've been here, once this morning after the service. It is so hard, but it's good hard. It's like everyone is walking up a mountain... the path zigzags up the side, so that the trail is tough but manageable. But, just for these five weeks, God has given us the opportunity to climb straight up. It is so much harder, but so worth it. Even as I struggle, I am so grateful... it is simply amazing.

I miss everyone at home so much. I especially miss First Baptist. All of the worship here is done in the contemporary fashion, which is not something I'm really familiar or particularly comfortable with. But I'm praying to God to open my heart and help me to learn to recieve my spiritual bread in this new form. It is already better. I would appreciate your prayers as well.

Anyway, I'm going to go do laundry, write in my journal, and practice on the (horribly old, slightly out of tune) piano downstairs. If you would like to leave me comments, simply click the link at the bottom of the entry, select "Other" where it askes for a user name, and type your name.

I love and miss you all!

Love,
Molly

Schedule

For those of you who have been wondering about my schedule, here it is:

• Friday, June 30- moving out of my apartment
• Monday, July 3- flying to Las Vegas
• Saturday, July 15- driving to Pasadena, CA for training
• Thursday, August 17- flying to Kazakhstan

I should have my cell phone with me up until we fly overseas and I will check my email regularly, if you need (or just want) to talk to me.

Where is Kazakhstan, anyway?

Since most people don't know where Kazakhstan is, here is a map I found online. It shares it's northern border with Russia and it's eastern border with China. I will be in Karaganda (or Qaraghandy), which is towards the center of the country, south of the capital.

(Click on the map to see a larger version)

Introduction

Dear Family and Friends,

As you know, I will be spending the next academic year in Kazakhstan, teaching English. I know that most of you lead very busy lives, so keeping up a correspondence through letters or email may not always be practical. This blog should be an easy way to keep you updated and allow you to leave me messages.

Okay, this is what I know so far.

• I'll be in Karaganda, Kazakhstan
• The principle language is Russian
• I will be teaching conversational English to high school and university stuents
• The school we're working for will provide a small, two bedroom apartment
• We will not always have hot water (even running water is doubtful at times, I understand)
• But there is a shower in our apartment (yay!) for whenever there is water
• My roommate for the year will be Catherine, who is also 23
• We will be part of a team of 7 people in Karaganda, inlcuding 3 who spent last year there.
• I should have pretty regular access to the internet, through internet cafes and such
• It's going to be really, really, really cold.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. It should be an adventure.

Love, Molly