Three Weeks of Summer

So these last three weeks of summer have each been defined by a certain bent to each one:

Week 1:  Orphanage visits!  Including my first visits to a Boy's boarding school for kids who basically get three strikes in a regular children's home, and a special needs home.  At the first, we played Capture the Flag and tried a couple other games somewhat less successfully.  At the special needs home, we tried to play signs, but that didn't go over well.  Most of the kids there were pretty high functioning, but all the same, I was pleasantly surprised by how...normal the kids were.  Sure, a little more touchy-feely and compulsive, but they recited their Bible verses dutifully (My friend Anya does regular Bible stories with the younger ones) and were...actually somewhat less crazy than some of the other homes I've been in.

Unfortunately for you all, I generally shy away from taking pictures at the homes, because I don't want to be a tourist or objectify/create a separation with the young people there.  Taking pictures right means letting them take pictures of each other, which I'll probably do sometime, but still can be distracting sometimes.

Week 2:  Wedding Time!!  Our youth group leader Olya married an American guy this past week.  It was...an interesting wedding, as any multicultural wedding is bound to be, and quite strange to be the de facto best man for a guy I don't really know.  I was really excited to be DJ'ing, but wasn't informed until the day prior that there was going to be a separate emcee and a live band...meaning  that I basically had fill music, which wasn't what I prepared.  Oh wells.  It was still a fun event, and ended up taking most of the week to prepare, as we practiced a special dance, prepared decorations, and helped clean up their home-to-be.  (Which included burning a large amount of hemp along with some other weeds--yes, much to our amusement at times, marijuana grows all over the place here.) (Don't worry, I stayed as far away from the smoke as possible, I was super paranoid I would get nettles or thistles in my lungs.)

The Love Boat

None of the other wedding photographers got this one...

Ze Groom

Wedding Party

Week 3:  Camping in the Mountains!!!  A group of us from the youth group (10) went camping for three days in the mountains outside the city.  I was in charge of worship and the programming, which consisted of two sharing/discussion times and two morning bible studies.  We went over Hebrews 11+12 and 1 Peter 1-2, as well as sharing our life stories.  Despite struggling to teach and sing songs I hadn't practiced in Russian...and breaking the shovel while trying to dig a hole, I think for the most part things went really well.  It was very cool to watch some of the city girls go from "I can't do this" to boldly striding ahead and asking when we can go back, and it was very good to clear my head and try to refocus some.

On our way up

Waterfall (i.e., our shower)

Playing with hats

Three other things have been happening as well throughout these three weeks.  We've been meeting with various organizations, and one group has asked us to help teach life skills to some orphanage graduates.  :)  Secondly, I got a gig playing at a local café...it doesn't pay much ($6 a night), but it's good practice and experience, I'm playing 2-4 nights a week.  Thirdly, I've timidly stepped out and started some self-study with Kyrgyz...I'm not sure how well that's going to work, I should at least explore some other options.  But for now, you can follow my progress here (there is a dearth of resources on the language, particularly ones in English, so I decided to create a blog as I go):  http://kyrgyzblog.blogspot.com/