A Two Day Weekend

Last weekend, I actually had two full days off! Usually we (the youth department) end up working on Sundays because in Kazakhstan it is the only day that children don't have school. This makes it the best day to celebrate birthdays and do other activities with the children. We end up taking other time off during the week to make up for our busy Sundays.

Well, as I mentioned previously, we didn't have plans last Sunday. As a result, I was a little more adventurous on Saturday. Usually my Saturday consists of sleeping in (which I still did), reading a book, playing on my computer, taking a bath, and basically accomplishing nothing all day (which I think is the way everyone should spend one day every week).

After sleeping in on Saturday (which is mandatory any day I don't have to be at work), Beth and I went to the bazaar. We picked up some food and some home repair items. Fresh produce (lettuce, mushrooms, green onions) are plentiful again! On Sunday we spent some time putting up netting in our windows to protect us from the bugs this summer. I also bought the supplies to build a screen door for myself for the door on the balcony in my room. We'll see how that turns out. After returning from the bazaar, I put up some fixtures in our bathroom, while Beth prepared some of the food we bought at the bazaar. We are slowly getting our apartment put together the way we want.

In the afternoon, Beth and I took an adoptive couple on a drive through some local villages. We had the chance to experience all sorts of things on our drive. We saw the beauty of the mountains, the remains of a charred bus, cows crossing a stream, lambs crossing the street, the cows returning home, and we even got to pet a camel. It was a beautiful afternoon and a relaxing way to spend the first day of my two day weekend!

Fixing a Telephone System

Ken and I went to Shymkent last week to fix the telephone system in Shymkent. Working with telephones is another fun skill that I have acquired over the years I have lived in Kazakhstan. Ken deals with the wiring, while I deal with the programming side of making sure the systems work the way we want. It is fun, yet can also be frustrating.

Ken and I spent 1 1/2 days in Shymkent. We set up new phones and fixed a few things that had gone wrong since the system was set up a couple years ago. At one point the phone line that we were working with went completely dead. When we called the phone company, they said that they knew about the problem (they had cut the line) and would send someone out to fix it. This just happened to be on the one day we came all the way from Taraz to fix phones. Well, we went about the other tasks that we could work on and just hoped we were not messing something up.

When the telephone man came, he first blamed our phone system. He said that our phone system was sending an electrical current through the line and that caused them to have to shut it down. After some frustrating conversations in the phone room and in the attic where the lines come into the building he admitted that they were having some technical difficulties at the station and would try to restore the line later in the evening. At about 5:30 everything started to work correctly. Ken and I spent a little more time that evening fixing things up and were able to leave fairly early in the morning the next day after having checked to make sure everything was the way they wanted it to be.

Our drive back was filled with amazing beauty. It had just rained in Shymkent, so we could see the mountains really clearly. The fields were green, which is something that we look forward to each spring, since it only lasts for a month or two. During our drive, we caught up to the storm and so we got to see some pretty neat clouds as well. It was a nice trip, although I was pretty tired when we returned.

Hanging out with Kids

These last couple weeks have been pretty busy. Instead of writing about each event separately, I thought I'd just highlight some things for you.

Last week we spent the evening with the four children at Rakhym. We were planning to go roller blading at the square, but shortly after we arrived it started to rain. We decided to go back to the office instead and play games. It was so fun to be able to talk with them in Kazakh and just have a good time together.

Last Sunday we celebrated the birthday of one of the girls in our group at Saramoldaeva. We ate pizza, watched a movie, and played games. The most entertaining game that we played was "Pass the Pigs." Those of you that have never played this game are missing out.

On Tuesday we visited Saramoldaeva orphanage to play with the youngest children. While playing, one child who had been in our group but had gone home to live with relatives, came into the room. We didn't know why he was back, but took him outside to play with us. About halfway through the play time, a female relative came to get him to take him home. He came running and hid behind me because he didn't want to go. It's hard to know if he didn't want to go because he was having fun playing or if he didn't want to go because his home life was harder than his life at the orphanage.

On Thursday, we went to play with the kids at Ulan Orphanage. I was in Shymkent during the morning, so I didn't get to play with the youngest children. Since I had a cold last week, I hadn't been there for about two weeks. In the afternoon, as we were about to leave, the youngest children came outside. The kids saw me and came running, yelling Sara Mama - which is how they usually greet me. One of the boys, who has a difficult time expressing himself, came over to me and when I squatted down in front of him he just grabbed my face with his hands and dug his little fingers into my cheeks. I quickly got rid of the things in my hands so that I could better direct his excitement. It was fun to be reminded that I had been missed.

Well, those are just some snippets from my last two weeks. Hope you enjoyed them.

My Humour

Tonight I was remembering back to my first year here, when one of my teammates shared a joke with us that I found hilarious. There are just days when you need a laugh - so I pulled it back out tonight and Beth and I had a good laugh. I hope you enjoy it.

Dear Sir,
I am writing in response to your request for addition information in block #3 of the accident reporting form. I put "Poor Planning" as the cause of my accident. You asked for a fuller explanation and I trust the following details will be sufficient.

I am a bricklayer by trade. On the day of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a new six-story building. When I completed my work, I found I had some bricks left over which later were found to weigh 240 lbs. Rather than carry the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley which was attached to the side of the building at the sixth floor. Securing the rope at ground level, I went up to the roof, swung the barrel out and loaded the bricks into it.

Then I went down and untied the rope, holding it tightly to insure a slow descent of the 240 lbs of bricks. You will note on the accident reporting form that my weight is 135 lbs. Due to my surprise at being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded at a rapid rate up the side of the building. In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel which was now proceeding downward at an equally impressive speed. The explains the fractured skull, minor abrasions, and the broken collarbone, as listed in Section 3 of the accident reporting form.

Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley which I mentioned in Paragraph 2 of this correspondence. Fortunately by this time I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope, in spite of the excruciating pain I was now beginning to experience. At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground, and the bottom fell out of the barrel.

Now devoid of the weight of the bricks, the barrel weighed approximately 50 lbs. I refer you again to my weight. As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the building. In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles, broken tooth, and severe lacerations of my legs and lower body.

Here my luck began to change slightly. The encounter with the barrel seemed to slow me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell into the pile of bricks and fortunately only three vertebrae were cracked. I am sorry to report, however, as I lay there on the pile of bricks, in pain, unable to move and watching the empty barrel six stories above me, I again lost my composure and presence of mind and let go of the rope.

Now, I am guessing that some of you are shaking your heads at my sad sense of humour, while others of you are wiping tears from your eyes. I hope that some of you were able to laugh and relax as much as I was able to tonight.

Training English Teachers to Use Power Point

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I taught a seminar to 30 English teachers in Taraz. The goal of the seminar was to teach them how to use power point in their classrooms. It was such an enjoyable time. To see more details about the seminar, you can go to the Interlink blog. I thought I'd use my blog to tell some stories from my time.

On the first day, I spent time showing them how to do some very basic things on Power Point. Due to the fact that half the class had never used Power Point before, it was extremely basic. Those that had already used Power Point, played on their computers while I talked, while the others followed my step by step instructions.

One of the teachers in the seminar, Oksana, could have taught the class by herself. She knew more about Power Point than I do. Since the computers were in Russian (which makes it difficult to find something that you don't know how to do in your sleep) I enlisted her help at several times throughout the class. She teaches very young children and the presentation that she created was really fun and complex.

Other teachers were apologetic about their presentations, but I reminded them that they had never done a presentation before. Those that had just learned how to do power point actually did far better than I expected.

As a thank you for my presentation, they gave me some earrings. The earrings are the kind that have a stud and then a chain that hooks to a designed hoop-thing that hooks over the top side part of your ear (where a lot of people have a second hole). At first I thought they were just dangly earrings - I know I'm not really fashion conscious. They told me that if I wanted to look young, I could put it up on the top part of my ear. I laughed and left them hanging down catching on all my clothing. What they were really trying to say, but were too polite to say was "you silly person, those are supposed to go on top of your ear, not hang down - you look really silly that way. Don't you know that you don't wear this hoop thing hanging down from your ear on a really long chain?" But, they were too polite to say more. When I got to the office and tried them on the other way, I realized that they looked much better the way they were supposed to be. We all got a bit of a laugh as we thought about what the entire group of 30 teachers thought. Oh well, I'll just have to wear them to the next seminar the right way.

My Trip to the X-Ray Room

Last week I hurt my foot playing soccer. It wasn't too bad, but on Thursday I woke up with it throbbing. Since everyone had already been trying to convince me to get x-rays (even though I could walk on it), I thought I'd go ahead. Why not when it only costs about $7. I went with one of my friends to the local hospital. There was a room with a sign saying not to enter and a price list on the door. We asked who was last (the Kazakh solution to a line) so that we would know who we were after.

Upon entering the room, I saw what had to be one of the oldest x-ray machines I had ever seen (it looked like a mix between an old sci-fi and horror movie). I was a bit relieved when I looked to the left and saw a much newer machine with one of those moving tables underneath it. The x-ray technician asked my name and then told me to get on the table. She also informed us that there was no doctor there to read the x-ray (he had just gone home) and so she could take the x-ray and give it to us, but we wouldn't know the results.

I took my shoes off and went to use the small chair sitting next to the table as a step stool. Upon touching the table, it started moving away from my hand as if it were sitting on top of a skateboard. I was a bit nervous putting my body up there because I didn't know if there was some sort of mechanism to stop it from dumping me on the floor and causing a real injury. Well, I made it up on the table and even swung my legs up and onto the table (very cautiously) without being deposited on the floor below, so I guess it was fine.

There was no protective gear placed on me and the lady that was taking the x-ray just went through an open door behind me as she took the x-ray. She was extremely excited when I spoke Kazakh to her and informed me that there was a doctor down the hall that could read my x-ray for me. Afterwards, we waited in the hallway until she handed me the only copy of my x-rays. We took them down the hall to the doctor's office. When we talked to him, he went down the hall and yelled at the lady for sending us to him. I think she must have told him I was a Kazakh speaking American, because he came back a lot more friendly than he left. He told me that it was not broken and gave me some suggestions for the pain.

Overall, I think the $7 was worth it. I got all that entertainment for what it would have cost to go to a movie in the States. I also have a set of x-rays sitting on my desk as a memento.

SalesForce Help Needed

I am once again having the opportunity to learn something new. Due to our growth and the challenge of keeping track of information across the ocean, Kids Connection is moving towards having our database online using Salesforce. Jason Walke has helped with the initial setup. I am learning how to do a lot of things that I never really thought I would want to know how to do. Jason and I are both new users of SalesForces, so there are some components to setting our database up that we are having trouble with. If any of you know how to set up SalesForce and would like to help me out, please let me know.

One thing that this has reminded me of is how thankful I am that we now have access to high speed internet. It would have been impossible to do on dial up.

Judging an English Competition

Today I went to school number forty to judge an English competition for 37 students in grades 5, 6, and 7. School number forty is a specialized English school. Students graduating from there have a high level of English and are able to go on to University and usually are able to get jobs as translators.

I spent three hours listening to students describe a picture that they had randomly selected from a table. They had 15 minutes to prepare and then they had to come before a panel of three judge and describe their picture to us. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to speak in English to a native speaker, especially when many of them have never seen or spoken to one before. There were a lot of trembling hands as they held their pictures.

Most of the time, my scores were very different from the other two judges (I guess I score a little too tough). It was my first time doing something like this and I wasn't really used to paying attention to grammar, phonetics, content, and vocabulary. It is hard to know how to judge a student when you don't know what is expected of them. Although it was a bit challenging (and probably not something that is one of my strengths), I had a really fun time interacting with the English teachers that were there. After the competition we had tea. Although most of the conversation was in Russian, I was able to follow it. The teachers seem to really enjoy each other.

Next week I am doing a three-day seminar for English Teachers. I will be teaching them how to use Power Point in their classrooms. I am looking forward to getting to know them even better.

What a Week!

I am at home this afternoon resting after having a delegation here this last week. They were such an encouragement. Sometimes, I look around and wonder if what I am doing makes a difference in the lives of these children. Having a group here and watching them be able to interact with kids and youth here because of the work we have done, helps remind me of how special my job is. Every day brings new joy, despite the busyness and challenges (Thanks Ember for taking this picture of me with some girls at Ulan).



While the delegation was here, we had the opportunity to spend some time with several different groups of kids (going bowling, going to the park, doing a photo scavenger hunt). It was such a joy to watch the delegation interact with children of all ages in many different activities. I loved to see the smiles that were brought to the kids faces as they spent time with the delegates. You can read more about our time with them as well as watch a short video from their time here on the Interlink blog.

One of the highlights for me was watching the interaction between one of the delegates and her sponsored child. When she arrived, he didn't know that she was his sponsor (because he recently came to the orphanage). He and his brother came to the orphanage about six months ago after some difficult circumstances. He has always been fairly distant. She introduced herself as we stood in the parking lot waiting to go bowling. He didn't know what to do. Many of these kids just don't know how to express emotion. It is especially difficult for them to know what to do when someone expresses love to them. As I was choosing groups for bowling, he indicated with his eyes that he wanted to be in Marion's (his sponsor's) group. I don't know if I have ever seen him show particular interest in another person. They spent and afternoon together talking and getting ice cream. The next day, they had to say goodbye. After some initial awkwardness, he took her hand and walked with her the entire way to the car. He didn't want to let go. Seeing this from a boy that is usually causing trouble and distant meant so much to me. It reminded me of the importance of our child sponsorship program. For many of these kids, their sponsor is the only one who believes in them and loves them.



Another highlight for me was taking the Saramoldaeva youngest children to the park. We had 18 children and about 15 adults. We divided into three groups. I had the opportunity to roam from group to group instead of staying with just one group. We have done this with the kids before, but never on such a big scale. As I came upon the different groups, I had kids running up to me and telling me all about what they had done. They spotted me coming and started running, dragging whoever was holding their hand behind. I was also encouraged to see that they listened to my instructions (stay with your American, listen to the adults, come here, sit down, etc). It was encouraging for me to see that I could call the name of a child and pass on instructions and have them followed. Even just a year ago, if I tried to give instructions to a child they would often not listen. It is fun to have the relationship with them that they want to do what I ask and realize that I am serious.

It was a special week in which I got to spend a lot of time with the kids that we work with. I am encouraged and energized after the time with this delegation and am looking forward to the delegations coming throughout the year. Thank you to all of you that make it possible for me to do this job each day! I couldn't ask for a better job!