Off to Thailand!!!

This has been a busy week for me. I am leaving tonight on the train for a couple weeks in Thailand (I will try to post pictures). I am really looking forward to the rest and the time with friends.

This morning started off pretty busy. Before 10 am (too early to even be awake in my opinion), I drove to the office to drop Beth off and get my nice shoes, drove to school # 40, enjoyed a concert, spoke to a group of 45 people, and drove back to the office. I was the plenary speaker at a seminar for English teachers in the city. I spoke about the use of computers in the classroom. They seemed to enjoy the talk.

Side note about the concert: At this specialty school the children study English exceptionally. They did a great job singing, reciting poems, and dancing. There were three times when I wanted to laugh, but contained myself. One was when a tall Kazakh boy started rapping. The second was when a cute little boy who had written a poem about a clock got up and was very expressive as he said “I am a clock”. He was wearing a paper clock pinned to him. (I wished I had my camera) The third was during a very dramatic rendition of a poem in which it at first sounded to me like she said “my heart is a deep bowl.” All jokes aside, they did a great job. Everything was in English.

I have been involved with a program to provide life-skills training to youth that have left the orphanages (Youth Impact) since November. This week was our last group time for this course. Of the seven Kazakh kids that we started with, three will be able to move on to the second phase, Employment Training. I will not be involved in teaching this course. A few months ago we hired a wonderful Kazakh young woman to lead the Kazakh groups of Youth Impact. For the last several weeks, she has been leading the groups that I was previously leading and I have been observing and giving advice. She has done a great job and the youth enjoy spending time with her. I am happy to turn this all over to her.

Article from Savva Boarding School

Check out an article written about us by the Head Caretaker at Savva Boarding School on the Interlink Blog. This was such an encouragement to me. What I appreciate the most is that our love for the kids is described before our monetary help. It is nice to know how much the adults see the benefit of the time we spend playing with their children.

What's New?

I am feeling better after a couple days being down with a migraine. I've even had a few days without a headache in the last couple weeks, which is exciting. I have had to begin a very strict diet (no sugar, white flour, mushrooms, vinegar, etc) in order to get back to a good pattern of sleeping and to eliminate my headaches, allergy, and asthma. I did this a couple years ago for about six months and it worked great. It's not fun to be back at it again, but it hasn't actually been too bad.

On Sunday we celebrated birthdays with two boys from Saramoldaeva and their two friends. One of the boys will be graduating from high school this year and is trying to decide if he wants to go into the military or work for the railroad in the future. He commented that this was his last birthday that he would celebrate with us. Hearing that reminded me of how uncertain life after the orphanage is for these kids. Although growing up in an orphanage is not the easiest thing, it is often a fairly secure environment. The fear of the unknown always haunts those that are preparing to graduate. I can't even begin to imagine the idea of going out into the world after high school without family to help and encourage me. Hopefully, we will be able to remind them that we are here for them even after they graduate.

I have about one week left before going on vacation. I will be spending two weeks in Thailand with Olya, Ken, and Jason. I am looking forward to this break as I have been putting in a lot of extra hours at work this fall. It will be a nice rest before our summer delegation season begins at the end of March. I will try to post some pictures and stories while I am gone.

Excerpts from Letters

Last weekend I had a migraine. As a result, I was unable to go to Savva orphanage for our monthly visit. It was a very difficult decision for me to stay back since I will be on vacation next month on the weekend that we visit Savva. When my coworkers returned, they brought about 10 letters with them for me from the children. They really encouraged me and I thought I would share some excerpts with you.

"In our free time we like playing with the toys you got us for New Years. You are my best friend. I am glad that you write letters to me."

"I wish you could visit us every day, but I understand that you can’t. If you were able to be here with us, I would spend time with you all day long. I want summer to come quickly, so that you can come and be with us for a week with the other Americans."

"I worry about you when you aren’t with us. My life is happy, but when I think about you I sometimes feel sad because you aren’t here."

"Thank you for helping us and writing letters to us. Thank you for getting us presents. I want you to come for my birthday. We will be waiting for your next visit. Please visit us, even if you don’t bring us presents, we want to see you."

"I am glad that you visited us. I really want to have a friend that I can write letters to. I think you are my best friend."

"You visit our family group often and you live in our hearts. We all love you very much. I like spending time with you. You are always happy."

*If you want to see more about this visit, you can visit the Interlink blog*