If you’ve clicked on the link to check out this blog, you’ve probably noticed how long it is and how many pictures there are (because technically they span over 2 months and 3 countries). I wasn’t sure how else to break them up, ok! But I’m hoping y’all won’t mind scrolling through a few more since you reeeeaaaaally love me? 😉 You don’t mind? Well, great! Here we go…
KAZAKHSTAN
During our first week-long visit to Almaty, Kazakhstan myself and some quality friends from my squad ventured out of the city for 24 hours to this lake 45min away from Almaty. We camped and enjoyed some break time since we had just endured a 26-hr train ride and a 25-hr bus ride.
The fine people I accompanied to Issyk Lake. The location was great, but these folks made for an unforgettable camping experience.
While there, we attempted to fish with water bottles and live bait (we didn’t catch anything, unfortunately)!
KYRGYZSTAN
We had a 10-hour drive through gorgeous Kyrgyz mountains to get to our next ministry location, and this was one of the many neat views we saw. It put a lot of Kyrgyzstan into perspective for me.
The street where we stayed included a group of young boys who always seemed to be down to play a game or two of “professional futbal”. And one of my teammates, Thad (or Suárez, according to the kids), joined them a few times for a game or two.
This is the city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan where my team and I were planted for 3 weeks. Fun fact: This region of Kyrgyzstan use to be part of Uzbekistan until the boarders of Kyrgyzstan were redrawn; so a large population of Osh is actually Uzbek!
We arrived around 10pm on the 16th of June, and dove straight into assisting with school camps the next day. Our hosts were so thoughtful, and tried to create opportunities for us to share with the students and feel useful despite the language barrier.
Brio Coffee, Osh’s first coffee shop, was opened less than 3 months ago by one of our hosts, Norus. It served as a sort of meeting/eating/hanging out place for us and our hosts. The food was delicious, and we were always met by warm smiles and hugs upon arrival.
At the end of our first 4-day camp, the students came to Brio for their celebration time! Their workshop groups from the week danced a little and we even did a little someth’n-someth’n ourselves. Hizot, one of the owners of the guest house we stayed in and sister-in-law to the son of our main hosts, taught us a new dance to a song, which we performed for the students in this picture.
Our hosts (almost all of them) surprised us one day by bringing food over to our guesthouse. We chatted and got to hear the testimonies of our host “mom” and host “dad” (they really were that for us), and it shook a lot of us to tears.
On day one of three of our second camp in a nearby town! These camps are personal development workshops where the students can learn about things like “what is success?”, how to set good goals, time manage and “who am I/identity”. It did me some good to review these things, too.
That’s where I got to meet Zena and Aurora! Check out my blog about them here.
Our hosts were very good at helping create opportunities for us to interact with students who wanted to practice their English. One such instance involved hiking up to the top of Sulayman Mountain in Osh with 4 students.
As we hiked, I got to chat for a good bit with a student named Merim. A shy but curious girl with a debilitating laugh, Merim taught me a lot about Kyrgyz’ culture and asked me about American culture.
After reaching the top of the mountain, we decended via a different route and passed a natural slide in the rocks! So we all became 5 again and, giggling, slid down on our stomachs, in trains of people, flat on our backs…until an 86-yr-old lady clued us in on the secret of the slide. If you go down flat on your back at least three times, it is said to help prevent back problems. So…she demonstrated for us. 🙂
We visited some local churches and had remarkable translators who allowed us to feel the weight of the messages being shared. We also partook in communion, which was quite powerful for all of us.
On two of our off days, we went camping in some mountains with Norus, a cofounder of Brio. Little did I know we’d be scaling up a literal mountain. I took this picture while dehydrated and incredulous whether I’d really make it all the way to the top. When I arrived, I laid down on my back in the shade, closed my eyes and felt a dizzy, floating sensation. But hey we made it!
And this is where we camped that night. Very much worth it.
The following morning, we awoke to these beautiful creatures curiously checking out our campsite… So we greeted them. It was a welcome break from all of the cows roaming around our area.
One of the final, organized things we did was teach a two-hour English class for students, Brio employees and other friends of our hosts. We had a lot of laughs and played some fun games with the students.
On the 4th of July, Rosie, Arlene and I went roller skating with some of the English speaking girls we had been hanging out with frequently (Merim and Hidai). It was a lot of fun and, dare I say, I got better towards the end, thanks to everyone elses’ freely-given counsel.
It was difficult to part ways with our good friends in Osh, but we are praying the Lord will be their protector and provider…and perhaps…we will see each other again “here, there or in the air”. From Osh, we drove back to Bishkek and from Bishkek, we traveled on to Karakol near Issyk-Kol Lake for our debrief.
Our first full day in Karakol, some of us went hiking…but, again, little did I know we’d be scaling a mountain. This is us (Jenny, Caleb and Luke) on the top of a mountain, after hiking at a constant incline for 5 miles.
Our squad had the immense joy of getting to meet and live with another Expedition squad that launched in April (H squad). It was great to visit with them and hear about their experiences, especially since they just came from countries we are about to travel into.
AZERBAIJAN
Debrief ended on July 13th and then it was craziness. We rode back to the Azerbaijan embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to get our Azerbaijan visas, but, upon arriving at the embassy, we discovered one of our teammate’s visas as well as one squad leader’s visas weren’t ready yet so my team and the SQL’s hung back in Bishkek while the rest of our squad went on to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Believing the rest of our squad to have already gotten on a train, we booked plane tickets to Aqtau, Kazakhstan, but after getting our friends’ visas and arriving in Almaty, we found out our squad was still there waiting to get a train (surprise!) sooo…our team got on our already-booked plane to Aqtau to board our ferry across the Caspian. *breath* This is us on our way out to the pier.
Arlene and I did some preliminary exploring of our ferry (Professor Gül). This is from the top deck.
This isn’t our ferry, but it’s the exact same make/model. We got in trouble when we tried to take pictures of our ferry…so I settled for this. We had beds, a shower and 4 meals in our 25 hours on the ferry. Nicer than we could have hoped!
We finally arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan on the 19th of July and were shocked at the upscale-ness of the city. One AIM employee who is going ahead of us and scouting out our route called Baku “the architectural love-child of Paris and Dubai”. He was spot on.
Our hostel owner in Baku organized a day of sightseeing for us which included a trip to Gobustan National Park to see ancient petroglyphs and rock carvings, a visit to a beautiful mosque on the outskirts of Baku and…an active MUD VOLCANO. *see below*
We arrived at the top of a ridge to see a man lathering himself with, yes, sulfuric mud from the mud volcano. The mud itself was cool to the touch and we had probably way too much fun playing in it (our taxi driver thought so, at least haha…oops).
One does not simply…visit a mud volcano without bathing in it.
Hey Mom and Dad ;D
That’s as thorough a summary as I dare give of the last two months. But I’ll clue you in on what’s happening here and now. We’re currently stationed in Tbilisi, Georgia, waiting for our leaders to determine where we are to go since they have, understandably, determined the situation in Turkey to be too volatile for our whole squad to go.
Regardless, please pray for Turkey, for it’s civilians and it’s standing officials. The last month has been a hard time for the country and we cannot imagine the unrest and confusion in the hearts of all who call it “home”. Petition the Lord for peace!
