Cultural Differences and Experiences

This Saturday was an interesting day. This morning we had a team meeting, and I offered to make the breakfast. I cooked scrambled eggs and bacon- very American, but I have heard that they eat pretty much the same thing. Well, everyone liked it and was commented that it was very tasty. So I thought, good another well liked breakfast.
After our meeting I went to play baseball. Ira picked me up and we went to the park. It was a very nice park, though I’m still getting used to seeing garbage everywhere. There is no law against littering here. So I find it very sad and often have the urge to pick up all the garbage. But alas, that would take a very long time. Back to baseball….we had a lot of people show up enough to have at least 8 on each team! Ira said that I could explain the rules. So I stated the basic rules without getting too complicated. And we began the game. It was a lot of fun!! Everyone did really well and liked the game! Which will make it easier to get people to come back for more baseball! :) Maybe I’ll add on more of the complex rules as they get more familiar with the game. We only played two innings. After the first inning, there was a water break, and after the second inning, more water and snacks too! It was a good time. When baseball was done I walked with Ira and two other girls and we were going to get ice cream (I guess baseball and ice cream just naturally go hand in hand).
On our way we passed a street vender selling ‘sho-ro’, a national drink here in Kyrgyzstan, and one of the girls asked if I had tried it yet, and I said no. So we stopped and we each got a cup. Well, let me tell you that there is nothing comparable that I have ever had back home to even describe the taste. But I will tell you it is made from corn, wheat, spring water and maybe another grain like substance. It is like a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick in the mouth! With a weird aftertaste. It wasn’t terrible, just extremely different!! I couldn’t help but to make a face after every sip- because of that kick in the mouth. We finally made it to the ice cream shop. It is in the food court of a very nice shopping mall. You have to walk through a metal detector as you enter! They even have the GAP. They had many nice looking treats like ice cream cakes and different drinks. I ordered my ice cream, 2 scoops of chocolate and 1 strawberry, and got mine in an ice cream cone. Though they use this tiny little scoop and you only get three of them. But with the exchange rate I guess it cost less than $1 so really it was proportionate. It was interesting as I looked around. They had four big screen tv’s set up near us and kids and people can just sit down and play video games! They had Playstation2, and a few other consoles. It was pretty weird. It was the first time I’ve seen anything like that here. It is definitely not the norm. But I don’t think the average people of Kygyzstan shop at designer stores either. After our nice treat I returned home. But the cultural lessons were not over yet!
Soon after I returned, Tanya also came home. We were both hungry so I made some pasta. As we were in the kitchen, we started talking about this morning and how I had cook the bacon good and that it was tasteful. It turns out that, they don’t usually fry their bacon. They don’t cook it at all! They just eat it on bread, raw. And it isn’t called bacon. They have something called ‘saloo’ which is just pig fat, and bacon is called ‘saloo’ with meat. As we continued to talk, I also found out that scrambled eggs are considered an omlet. Whether it has other stuff in it like cheese and meat or just milk, they are called omlets. So when I said that I was making scrambled eggs, and cooking them on the stove she thought I was making a bunch of fried eggs, which would seem really odd if you thought someone was making fried eggs and went to the corner store for 25 eggs to feed around six people! So it brings my view of their reaction to breakfast this morning in a whole new light!

The Big And The Little Things

As many of you know I get pretty excited about things, usually the little things that happen. So I will share with you my exciting adventures that happened these past two days. Yesterday, I was invited to be a guest on the radio show- Accents In English. It was really neat! There is a couple who does the show now, but before, they also had a guy from England and a guy from Australia, so including them from the US they were accents in English. Anyway, it is a 2hour program all in English, and they play every kind of music: country, jazz, contemporary C., some oldies, really whatever they have, which also includes Swing and the OC Supertones!! Two of my favs. So how did I get invited? Well I had met them on Sunday, and they had asked if I was interested in coming to the station and being on the show to be interviewed. And I said sure. Well, it wasn’t a straight up interview, it was just hanging out in the sound room talking in between songs and news. It was fun! I had a good time, even if they did play country music. :) Well, that was the BIG exciting thing.
The little exciting thing- I rode the marshruka all by myself!!! Yeah, that’s what I said! I waved it down to stop, and when it was time, told the driver where I needed to get off! I was so proud of myself. It is pretty easy to remember what to say, it is very close to “asta la vista” (like from the Terminator). That is how I remember it. You just have to be careful not to say “baby” after it, or the driver might get the wrong idea. :)

Happy New Year!

Today is Wednesday, the 21st of March, a National Holiday, yes the third holiday since I have arrived. It is the Kyrgyzstan (Muslim) New Year. Well, this morning was a day of firsts for me. It was my first Russian lesson and the first time traveling by myself! Yeah, but all I had to do was get on trolley bus #11 and get off just after the University, so it wasn’t too hard- that was good! I met my teacher at her apartment. She is a very nice lady and is a good and patient teacher and I will be meeting with her twice a week. So that is an answer to prayer! Now I will be able to begin to have a normal schedule or routine of things to do. Afterwards, I met with our leader’s wife and a girl from her church who does an English club and would like to have a native speaker to help with it. We went to a café, and it was really nice. We talked a bit about what she does and how maybe I could help her. She also invited me to play baseball on Saturday!!! Yes, I said baseball!! I was pretty excited about that! When we left the café, Ira and I went to the main square because I wanted to see what was going on there due to the holiday. I heard there would be lots of venders and things to see. There was a mass of people walking to and from the square and a ton of people there! They had a large stage set up for a band that will be playing there tonight. They are a Kyrgyz band that has become very popular all over Russia, so the country is very proud of them! Plus there were different venders and places to get you picture taken, and things for kids. It was neat. So after walking around a bit, she walked with me back home. I took some pictures but for some reason I have not been able to post them. Either because they are too big or because of the dial up connection, I still haven’t figured it all out. But when I do you will be able to see some pictures!

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together..Almost

So the plan was to meet the teacher at noon before the class that started at 12:10. Well I got a little lost on the way and didn’t get to the university until 12:15- oops. But it worked out just fine. I was able to talk with this class and it was a good time. The teacher took my number and hopefully she will call and invite me to come again, and also another girl, who would like to contact me to practice more English. So maybe there is an opportunity for a “conversations in English” club?

Convienieces

I have been thinking of things that I miss that are often very convenient back home. First of all, tools. Hammer, screw drivers, drills, and screws. All very useful, and when you could use them, you realize how nice they are to have. Also a step ladder; very helpful when you need to change light bulbs on the ceiling. In general, hardware stores. When you would like to get such things that one does not have, or some wood glue to help stabilize the broken, rocky chair needed to stand on to change the lights. I’m sure there are places with such things, I just haven’t been there yet. Secondly, the most wonderful technological advancement in baking: my air-bake cookie sheet. The one cook wonder for baking anything and everything! Also a mail box. That way the dog doesn’t open your mail before you do.
But I have found some very useful and wonderful things here. First of all, the radiators and pipes that go along two sides of my room. On cold nights it is wonderful to have your bed right in the corner! They are also great at drying clothes, towels or just warming up your hands and feet in no time at all. Segmented windows, (for lack of a better way to describe them). They are easy to open, and you can choose if you want the small part open or the large part. And if you want both sides open or just one. Also, house slippers. I think more households in America should resort to putting on house slippers upon entry into a home, they are very comfy. Another wonderful thing is the swing in our courtyard! I like it! And oh, the fresh bread at the store, and pretty much everywhere!

Volleyball & English

Tuesday night I went to Volleyball club, the one that the church has, the one that many people go to. These guys play pretty serious, they are like professional. They do the whole, bump-set-spike drill and get into formations and yeah, I knew right away it was not Jeff Birt’s backyard volleyball like I was hoping! But I joined in and I think I did ok. There is much room for improvement! So today my wrist is a little sore, but that is about it. I was invited to go to the university by one of the guys there, he is in an English class and he will ask his teacher if I can come in and participate in a conversation class, I’m not too sure what exactly but Tanya said she could bring me to the University. That sounds pretty cool.

Well, it is Thursday and I went to the University. It was really cool. I talked with the class and they asked me questions about myself, and the US, and I asked them some things about here. Then afterwards, me and three others from the class walked around and they showed me some neat places in Bishkek. It was very good! ‘Klosna’ (cool, or awesome). Then they walked me home. I was invited back next week to speak with another class! How great is that! I am excited!

Fried Potates

Monday March5 :Today I mastered the phrase ‘fried potatoes’. Tanya said that I needed to learn this in order to eat them. With that kind of incentive I should be fluent in no time!

Also I went to volleyball club with Dima today. No one showed up, except his helper. He said that he does a Word study in the beginning, and for that reason he thinks that they are not coming. Because on other days when there is just volleyball he sees them there. So please pray that the young people will come out, if not them, then others maybe. It is good for me to go around and see what each of them do; I see what their needs are, their successes and their struggles. It helps me better to know what to pray for and what to expect as I begin to help. Also, for you, to help pray for the needs of these ministries.

Well, yesterday, Thursday was Women’s Day. Another national holiday! That is two in two weeks! I think they like to celebrate :) Anyway, it is like Mother’s Day but again, not so seclusive. It is for all women. So at our Tuesday team meeting, the guys brought us a cake. It was very nice and very tasty!! And Natasha had invited several friends and women she knows to our house for a party. It was pretty fun. I learned some new games, and of course there was plenty of food!! There was also a traditional Kyrgyz holiday treat, I forgot what it was called, but it is like pieces of fried dough!! Yum! I think when they are in smaller pieces one has a tendency to eat a lot of them, but not me. And then we all watched the movie ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’, in Russian of course. Indiana Jones was the other option but was out voted. It’s good when I watch movies I’ve seen before, that way I don’t have to worry about not knowing what’s going on. So it was a good day.

It is Friday, and I was invited to go to football club with Sergy. Well, it is hard to know if everyone is running late or just not coming. I told him it must be me because no one showed up for volleyball either when I went. I may not get invited to see any other activities if this keeps up. :) Though I guess holidays are celebrated all week long, so that might have been the reason. But there were four of us from the team so we went up to the gym and played and one guy eventually showed up. I haven’t played soccer since I don’t know when, but I think I did alright. Though it doesn’t take long to notice when one is out of shape, I of course will say that it is the higher elevation. My face was as red as my sweatshirt so next time I’ll be bringing lots of water!

On Sunday I visited another church with someone from the team. I met some other people from the States there. It’s kinda nice to meet others who have come here and what they say about it. Anyways, the church was also very nice. Some of the songs weren’t too fast so I could sing along as best as I could. There was also an outline of the sermon on the bulletin so I was able to listen for the passages and look them up as the pastor spoke. So it looked like I knew what I was doing and understood, but not so much! But that will be my translation homework this week! Afterwards, there is a time for tea and fellowship. Then the youth group met, and that was great! Other than being in another language and in another country, it was like being in a youth group back home.

Snow Day!

When I awoke Tuesday morning to my surprise there was snow! It had been about 50 degrees the day before and very nice. But this morning there was a couple of inches of snow. Feeling like I was back home, I got out and shoveled our walk way. It has been cold since, but no more snow. Shrek, Tanya’s dog was not much help. He is very cute and very playful. But has a thing for my mittens, and wants a pair of his own I think, because he kept going after mine.


On Tuesday mornings we have team meetings, and whenever there is a meeting there is food. :) The six of us- Dima, Sergy, Tanya, Natasha, and myself and Sasha, our team leader. We have a time of worship in song and then a Word study. Afterwards, they discuss the week’s events and things that are happening in their ministries and what we will be doing as a team on Saturday. Here I will explain that each of them have separate ministries during the week and on Saturday mornings we do something together as a team. This month, March, I will be visiting and taking part in eachone’s ministries to see what they are doing and where I may see myself serving. So please pray that God will direct me to where He will be able to best use me! I was also assigned to make breakfast for this Saturday morning meeting! I’m a little nervous about this because I don’t really know what is a typical Kyrgyz style breakfast nor do I really know what foods are available to me. We shall see.

The later half of this week has been pretty full, which is a good thing. On Thursday, I went to the bazarre, or outdoor market with Natasha to pick up somethings I was needing and she had some shopping to do too. It is a giant maze of venders. Selling everything from toys, food, clothes to meat. (fresh meat). It was very neat, though I was glad to have Natash with me to help navigate to the items on our list. You definitely want to bring your own bags and make sure they are pretty hefty. She also brought me to the post office and to, what would be like a mall back home, there they have ATM machines which is a good thing to know. I just need to get a map of Bishkek so I can see how to get to everywhere. It will be a while before I know what number marshruka(minibus) to take where. Or where the trolley bus goes. Speaking of marshrukas, they are like vans, with so many seats and when the seats are full you stand up and hang onto the overhead bars, but you can’t always see when you stand straight up in them so you hunch over so you can see where you need to get off and to let the driver know where to stop. It is much fun!

So that was my morning into afternoon. Usually in my down times I do my language studies. Which tire out my brain. I’m still in the process of finding a language helper to meet with on a regular schedule. And thanks to Krista, I have started learning how to knit. And my knitting skills, like my Russian, have much improvement to be made.

Thursday evening, I went with Tanya and her youth to tennis club (ping pong). We meet up with Dima’s group at a church. It is quite a ways to get there. The tennis club was good. We play tennis with the guys and girls and also got a game of hacky sack going in the next room. Hacky-sack in Russian is ‘langa’ , and in Kyrgyzstan they make their langa balls out of leaves. Which during the spring/summer I hope to learn how to make. But at the church we had a typical hacky-sack like in the US. We stop the games after an hour or so, maybe longer? And have tea and snacks, then Word study. Many of these boys that come, have graduated from the orphange, which the team has a ministry to.They now go to school to train in an occupation, and also work. They live in the school dormatories. But others, like Sasha, who have run away from the orphanage, live on the street. Tanya says that sometimes they visit church but usually have to work so they come to the Bible clubs that happen during the week.

On Friday I went with Leeza to the Beta store to buy the food for Saturday’s breakfast that I was making. Natasha had informed me that they had had eggs the past two Saturdays, so scrambled eggs were out. So I thought why not home fries. Well, I brought my back pack because I figured it would be a lot easier to carry everything on my back than in plastic bags, and I’m glad I did! I didn’t remember the store being so far away. :)
When we got back it wasn’t long before it was time for Tanya’s youth club. And incase you’re wondering, each of the team members have volunteers that help with the ministries. I have been meeting many of them and they too go with us on Saturdays, some of their names are harder to remember because they are Kyrgyz names. But in time I will know them all! At youth club it is many of the same boys. Which is good because I’ve gotten to know some of them by name already. One of Tanya’s prayer requests is that there may be more guys in the leadership and involved in her ministries because there are so many boys that come out, and only a few girls. As with many of the ministries, food comes first. We prepare a meal for the youth that come out, with tea. Though probably they have not much to eat elsewhere. So it is good. It reminds me of something my Bible college professor used to comment on- a lot of Jesus’ ministry was done around food, and eating.

Well, Saturday came, the big day for breakfast. I was feeling the pressure early. I got up around seven, and we weren’t to eat until 9. But I knew I had to peel potatoes which I do not do speedily! Eventually all the potatoes were peeled and cut and the onions too. So I put them into two pans(a little after 8) because there was so much. And I season them with salt and pepper- what I know we had. And they seemed to take forever to cook. So we eventually ate around 9:30ish, to which I just claimed adapting to the culture because nothing and no one is ever on time. Which I think I was already adapted to back home. But I guess it was good, everyone ate it and some even had seconds. It seems weird to stress out over cooking breakfast. But I wanted to make a good first impression. I guess I did ok. Praise God!

I’d like to take time and reflect upon some things I’ve learned and have made some conclusions about. The first is, when cooking on a gas stove, make sure you have a match before you scramble your eggs. Luckily for me, I found an unused match among the used ones. Next, I have made a conclusion from crossing the streets in Bishkek and from riding in vehicles while others are crossing the streets in Bishkek, and this is that the creator of the game Frogger obviously has tried crossing the streets in Bishkek. I have also found that as I work on my Russian, my English tends to get worse, as far as sentence structure and phrasing. Hopefully by time I home visit remember I enough English will to communicate well.

Birthday Fun

On Sunday Natasha celebrated her birthday, which was on Monday. I had gone to church with her which was nice. I guess their pastor who was a missionary died last week or so, so there wasn’t as many people there because they had gone back to the Ukraine for his funeral. So pray that they are able to get another pastor for their church.
I met some more people there: Marsha, Tiffany, Becky, and Anna. Well after the church service they were going to the movies for Natasha’s birthday. I went too, not that I had too much choice seeming how I could not find my way back home by myself. We saw Ghost Rider. There is nothing like sitting in a movie theatre watching a movie in a language you don’t understand. Luckily I was a bit familiar with the plot from previews back home. Afterwards, Natasha and I returned home and everyone was going to meet again for dinner at Natasha’s favorite Chinese restaurant. Well, when we got there, there was a sign on the door saying that it was closed for repairs. So we went somewhere else, another Chinese restaurant and it was very delicious. Then we went to the Beta store for some Baklava and ate it in the café upstairs. It was great to get to know everyone and it was a plus that pretty much everyone spoke English. So needless to say I had a good time.