nomads

It's been only a little over a week since David and I made a quick exit from Garo Hills and arrived in Delhi on a Thursday night but everything has changed. We are pilgrims once again trying to decide what to give away and what to pack. Airport weight limits and painfully high overweight charges are very purging.

Maranatha is doing budget cuts because of the falling US economy and after a long and friendly talk with our boss we all agreed it would be best for us and the company if we left for awhile. The timing is good for us. David and I were able to save enough working with Maranatha to finish paying off my student loans so now we are free to take a larger range of volunteer positions without worrying about financial responsibilities.

We did some shopping on the Adventist Volunteers website and found a call for English teahers in Almaty Kazakhstan. We have applied with the school and received a positive response from them so we are completing paperwork and applying for a visa. Our tentative departure date is March 9.

Kazakhstan is the largest of the new former USSR countries. It is bordered by Russia on the North, Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan, on the South, China on the East and the Caspian Sea on the West. The geography is mostly steppe, high grazing land, with some very large mountains. The people were historically nomadic shepherds divided by family and tribal groups. Of course many (most?) are settled now. Almaty, Alma Ata on the map above, is one of those larger settlements called a city. It's located in the South Eastern part of the country. Alma Ata means literally, "the father of apples" and that sounds pretty good after all the grainy and creamy apples we have eaten in India. Pictures of the mountains and evergreen forests remind us of Washington State. Just because you have never heard of it you should not assume that Almaty is a backwards place. It is actually a rich and modern city. Kazakhstan, like many of the "stans," has oil. It is also a place of historical interest for Russia's space program. I have found an amateur radio club in the city. Unfortunately, their website uses cyrilic letters so I can understand very little but they have a nice photo gallery. Here's a link: http://qrz.kz/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=205 David's looking forward to making contact with them.

The primary religion in all of Central Asia is Islam. It is not the extremist Islam that makes the newspapers and evening news broadcasts. It is a religion of personal devotion and surrender to the will of Allah. Alcohol, smoking, unclean meats, and immorality are all forbidden by the principals of Islam so that Islam faithfully practiced, is a religion of peace.

Our new job duties will include 24 hrs per week of English teaching, weekly duties at the local church, teaching Sabbath School, Friday night Bible Study, etc. We are sorry to leave India but looking forward to returning to Central Asia where we think we will at least understand a few more words. Russian is the primary trade language in Kazakhstan but many other turkic languages are also present including Kazakh, kyrgyz, Uzbek, tajik, and Uighur. There is even a Uighur population in Almaty. I'm hoping to make some Uighur friends that I can speak with. It's use it or lose it with second languages. God is good and his children are never bored. :-)