Q & A

I have had a few questions posed to me and although some answers are long overdue, I am getting to it!

“Do you have hot water yet?”

Well, yes, as a matter of fact we do. The hot water was out from Thursday to Monday our first week here. It hasn’t gone out since, although the cold water was out for about half a day a week or so ago… That was a fun shower…

“What are you up to all day?” “What would you say is your avg day, if there is such a thing? What time does it start for you specifically, and the general population? What activities does your day include?”

I would have to say that it really depends on the day. Each day is a collage of different activities, but generally speaking, it seems we spend most of our time at home. When we first got here we had to go shopping pretty much daily to pick up more water (it is not easy to stock up on 6 liter jugs of water when you walk everywhere and have 5 flights of stairs to get to your apt), but we purchased a water filter and are now able to do our grocery shopping much less frequently than in days past. I am trying to get in the habit of doing a load of laundry every day, or close to it. Since we are using cloth diapers this is a necessity… it is not fun to have a full load clean and wet with only 6 clean and dry diapers to go and a rainy forecast. Been there, done that, trying to avoid it in the future… I tutor three times a week so that definitely gets me out of the apartment. We usually have something going on other days of the week. That “something” can be anything from going to the U.S. Embassy, to market, to one of the shopping centers, or to convert money. We have found that going out takes a lot of time. It’s not that the actual task is necessarily time consuming, but getting out of the door IS. So a simple errand isn’t usually very quick. I have previously devoted a lot of my time in the mornings before my lessons to preparing for them. We were able to make it to an English bookstore (which sells materials for teaching & learning English) where I was able to locate some supplies. They have helped to dramatically reduce my preparation time so far, and we hope that will continue to be the case! I doubt I have adequately answered the question… Our schedule is getting more regular now, so I will hopefully have a better answer in a few weeks. Perhaps the questioners should remind me then?

“How are you, personally, doing?”

For some reason, I don’t think that question is as easily answered as one might think it should be! I guess I sometimes make things more difficult than they should be! Regardless of how difficult some things may be, I am enjoying being here. I hope that any attempt on my part to explain some of my various thoughts and feelings will not be interpreted as complaining or disliking the experience.

I don’t think I’ve really had too much of a culture-shock experience. Chris assures me that I’ll have reverse culture-shock when I return to the U.S., but so far things have been good in adjusting to life here in KZ. I attribute my easy adjustment to Chris—he prepared me for the different and possibly difficult situations and circumstances, and luckily, we haven’t been in the worst, so it really hasn’t been as different or difficult as I was geared up for.

Chris has been pleasantly surprised with how well I have taken to the food. If it tastes good, I’ll eat it! There have been a few things I’ve had to will/force myself to eat because either it just sounded gross or I had to get over my disdain for mayonnaise. For the most part, I haven’t been disgusted by anything that’s entered my mouth—in fact, I’ve rather enjoyed pretty much everything. A very good thing!

Back in the U.S. I could pretty easily say that Sunday was my favorite day. Call me a nerd if you will, but over the years I have really come to love going to church and having that day set aside from the rest of the week. Attending church has rarely been a leisurely experience (if you know me from my pre-marriage days, you really know what I’m talking about) where I go and easily partake of a spiritual feast, but I always feel at home. Enter Kazakhstan. I still love Sundays, but they are much more difficult than I have ever experienced. Again, I must state, **I hope that any attempt on my part to explain some of my various thoughts and feelings will not be interpreted as complaining or disliking the experience.** The language spoken at our meetings is Russian, so I participate by listening to the talks as translated by one of the missionaries via a headset/earphone. This is a huge blessing as they have not always had the equipment to do this—in fact they got it shortly before we arrived. Of course, like anything, it has its drawbacks. Translating is not an easy task and most of the missionaries have known the language for less than two years, so they sometimes have difficulty translating certain words or phrases, or keeping up with some of the faster-speaking natives, plus there are simply some things—and not necessarily words—that are lost in translation. Even so, that is rarely the hardest part of the experience… As much of a blessing as she is, Addie has put a little twist on the listening part of my experience at church (this did start once she was born, but we don’t have conveniences like mother’s rooms/lounges here in KZ). If I leave during sacrament meeting I oftentimes end up out of range of the radio signal for the translation, or else the signal is spotty. If she is awake and “demanding” during Sunday School either I get up or I lose my translator (Chris). And, if she is awake in Relief Society she has a tendency to make me work to keep her happy—as in, she wants me to stand (and often walk around too), which usually puts me out of range of the sister who is translating for us. Of course there are also diaper changes which are done wherever I can find an infrequently traveled spot… And let’s not forget feedings… Chris is pretty great though. He has a way of finding out what my needs are and helping me come up with solutions—which has enabled me to actually sit-in on and even hear most of the meetings the last few weeks. Some of the differences I’ve noticed here are adding another dimension to my understanding and testimony of the gospel, and one thing that remains consistent to me is that the Church is the same everywhere (structure, organization, lessons, etc.) and the members are amazing.

One of the weird things I am slowly getting over is seemingly forgetting how to cook. I spoke to Chris’ mom about it and she completely understood not only what I am talking about, but how it feels. There is something about coming to a completely foreign country that has caused me to feel like I don’t know how to cook. While there are a lot of things I am used to cooking with that aren’t available here, it is more than that. We have eaten a few home-cooked meals from locals (mostly thanks to our friends & neighbors, Aundrey & Anya) and I have been able to sort of copycat the meals we’ve been served. I am also (very slowly) trying out new recipes with some of the things easily available to us.

So, I don’t know Russian. That can obviously create some barriers in communication in a country where everyone does speak Russian. I am learning the alphabet and doing my best to read things that I see and get the correct pronunciation. Now I need to focus on learning what those words mean, as well as learning the grammar. For the most part, my inability to understand and speak the language hasn’t been quite as bad as I expected it to be. With that said, there have definitely been times when not knowing the language has been difficult. A little over a week ago we had dinner with a couple Chris was connected with for his research. They did not speak English so the conversation was in Russian. There were a few points in the conversation when they addressed me or were talking to/about Addie so Chris translated, but for the most part the conversation was amongst them. Chris told me what they talked about afterwards, but it definitely made for an odd experience. I have been in situations where I was more of an observer and not a contributor, but it was definitely weird to pretty much be a deaf and dumb attendee, and thus feel a little bit like an outsider.

If any of you have questions (specifically regarding our experience here) you are welcome to put them in a comment or send them via email. We'll do our best to answer them, though it may not be very quickly.