Thanks Ember for taking this picture!
We have four people in Taraz that work with Kids Connection. We were able to convince two others from our staff in Taraz to join us (it actually didn't take much convincing). One of them brought her sister to help. There is also a woman in Taraz adopting from a different orphanage that volunteered to come help. This brought our total up to eight, not quite enough to run the six stations that we wanted and have a runner to anticipate problems.
We then asked our Kazakh speaking Youth Impact participants if any of them would be interesting in volunteering to help us. I was shocked by the turnout. We had 11 volunteers show up to help. They did such a great job. There were several stations where the adults didn't even have to do much because the youth did such a great job managing the stations. They were such a blessing to us and we couldn't have pulled off the carnival without them. What a joy to see them giving back to the kids from their orphanage. When we were done, they asked us to let them know if they could help with anything else. We look forward to thinking of ways to have them get involved in our work in the future.
During the carnival, my job was to be the runner. I was able to walk around the carnival and make sure all was going as it should be. This included directing, correcting, and enjoying the kids. One thing that stands out to me as I look back on that time, are the relationships that I have built with these children. I have reached a point where they will listen to what I say and usually obey. It is nice to finally be at a place where they recognize my authority and are able to laugh and joke with me. Our carnival ended up being really organized and not very chaotic at all. This in itself was amazing considering there were probably about 100 children making their way between six stations.
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