The day after our holiday fun we left by train to help with a summer English camp. We had an interesting train experience because our seats were actually beds, but after switching with some nice people we were able to get a table-bed seat together and practice our vocab for a while. In the A-town we stayed with the director and her husband for about two weeks total. They were such a sweet couple and so hospitable to have us in their home, feeding us lots of wonderful food and taking care of us with our tummy troubles. It was like we had the homestay experience that we actually should have had from the very beginning.
We ate all the time, all day long. It was a marathon: Coffee with sweets at 9am, lunch around 12 or 1pm, tea anywhere from 3-5 (with sweets), dinner around 7, and then lastly, tea again around 9 or 10pm. Basically any time of the day is time for tea with sweets and bread. The most interesting treat I had was a candy called zafere, which is very similar to divinity. Unfortunately, some fresh food products, like the whole milk babushka got for us, did not sit well with my stomach. A couple days I was pretty miserable but I took pepto, talked to papa a lot and was encouraged by his book. Since returning from the wild I am so much better. I’d like to think that maybe now I am getting used to the food.
We spent 5 days before camping preparing food and organizing supplies. This included buying things like a huge strand of kielbasa, two dozen loafs of bread, 2 pounds of cheese and lots of rolls of toilet paper. Gabi and I shredded numerous carrots, beets and onions. There were no hot dogs, potato chips, cheese wiz or s’mores. This was not your average camping excursion to Pome de Tar or Bennett Springs! I was expecting to stay in yurts, but we had only regular tents, eight in all. There were 10 students from ages 14 to 18 years old.
Our English teaching time was very good. The theme of the camp was “Safety,” so we tried to relate every subject back to that. Topics of discussion included fear, superstitions, peer pressure, substance abuse, CPR/first aid and even finances. We did other activities like hangman, word games, and campfire songs. There was some great theatrical performances as well, including the Three Little Pigs, a courtroom scene and even Gabi’s recitation of Hamlets’ “To be or not to be” speech. The camp was a great time for them to practice English because it wasn’t just a one hour session for the day, but multiple sessions in the day. And there were two Americans available for conversations 24/7. We tried to stay up late with them around the campfire, but didn’t make it very long.
Every day I am learning new Russian words. We challenged the students at camp to give us 10 new words each day and quiz us on past words. It had helped a lot. Of course they gave us words we wouldn’t necessarily need in the city, like “pine cone,” “lake,” and “bonfire,” but it was very good practice. We learned more about the culture through language learning as well and they even taught us some slang! Getting to know the students was so great and I hope we can continue the relationships that we made throughout our stay in country. They are already planning for Gabi and me to come back at least once a month. We are asking papa to keep us in his favor with opportunities of traveling back often.
We were camped at the perfect spot. There was a lake which we swam in 5 times a day and also ate the fish we caught. I am not a big fan of fish anyways, so eating small carp that you had to pick the bones out was interesting. One morning we even had fish soup for breakfast. Yummo. I have to say I did not love that experience, but I tried it. It really just tasted like the lake, as if I just took my bowl down to the lake a scooped up some water. Our host had become quite the ‘economist’ in camping so we took advantage of the local food resources. In the fields grew wild strawberries, which were used in compote and the leaves infused in hot tea, and used wild mushrooms in stews and soups.
Mosquitos were ravenous in the wild. They were so sneaky and even OFF! couldn’t stop ‘em. There was very good weather our entire stay in the wild. Only the last two days did it get really hot. It was a great time to enjoy papa’s creation and give him glory for all the blessings he’s given me.
There was supposed to be a painting camp for disabled children after the English camp, but some plans changed and we weren’t able to do that camp. However, two different ch. groups came to the camp. The first was a group of 15 that stayed for two days and the second was a group of 55 that stayed for a day and a half. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t really have any responsibilities (no teaching English) so it was rather relaxing. This first group was that of the gathering that our hosts attended, so they were familiar faces. One of the leaders played the accordion and lots of time was spent singing and dancing around the camp. During a group meeting Gabi and I sang a worp song in English for them and of course they loved it J One of my favorite memories was with the second camp when all the women around the campfire started singing “Open the Eyes” in Russian and we were singing in English. It was a cool picture of how papa’s love stretches so far that it is not restrained by language barriers.
With these last two camps it was a struggle to know what was going on because not many people spoke English. I could sort of follow conversations by picking out a few words here and there, but most of the time I was lost. I had lots of opportunities to use the few Russian words that I do know tho! A group of little girls (maybe ages 10 to 12) ambushed Gabi and me several times asking us tons of questions.
We met some sisters about our age and became good friends with. One works in the city as a teacher and will be back here in a few weeks. She invited us to her group which is actually very close to our apartment. I am excited to see it!
After camp we rested and gathered with Nat’s (our host) group. It reminds me a lot of my home ch. (WBC), only in Russian. They have a big heart for families and restoring and maintaining broken relationships. In this culture substance abuse is a big problem, especially alcohol. It destroys families and hurts everyone involved. Affairs happen often and divorce is common, leaving the children to wonder what is wrong with them and why they are not a ‘normal’ family. Their hearts for families in their community was so big that they opened a rehab center on their ch. campus. It is maybe a few years old, but has helped numerous families. This center helps men and women with addictions, marital problems or family counseling needs. Their goal is to help people grow in the truth of papa’s book and to live, move and breath all to the glory of papa. This does not come without hardships and struggles, but the vision of life and min. that papa has given the people here is so huge. This area is also full of people in need of good, steady jobs. Unemployment is high and pressure/stresses of everyday life are part of the reason for substance abuse. Nat says the town’s poverty level is rising; not bad yet, but rising. Many kids live on the streets. Nat’s new vision for her organization is a children’s shelter that seems similar to Isabel’s House in Springfield, where children can go to sleep, eat some borsch or just come in form the cold. This is a cool picture of caring for the orphans in need (Jam 1:27).
After fellowship last Sunday, Sunny*, one of the sisters we met at camp, invited us to her house for lunch. They served bishparmak, the national dish, with chicken and horse. This was the first time since being in country that I had tasted horse. It’s like roast beef and actually not too bad. This started a marathon of eating while looking at her family photos, even some old ones from soviet times. By that point we had 3 cups of tea in our bellies but it was just the beginning. We decide to watch an Uzbek movie which Sunny translated into English for us. It was a very cute movie. About every 20 min or so, Sunny’s mom would pop us out of her chair and say, “You want more chai?!” {I have learned that although language is direct, usually when people ask “You want to go now?” it actually means, “Alright I’m ready to go now, so let’s go.”} Without even a mutter from our mouths of yes or no, the tea was already in our cups. How wonderful was their hospitality! They really made us feel at home.
Now we are back in the city and currently our building doesn’t have any power. It is not uncommon for short power outages every now and then. It would not be so bad except our apartment is on the 11th floor. After climbing the stairs a couple times a day, I’ll be really fit for another marathon!
Yesterday we were able to visit an orphanage to give some notes and chocolates that another team had left for them. That is a huge step and a great answer of pr. from papa. Please talk to him about our relationship with the kids and the ability to have a continued presence there.
