Budapest Return, Backyard Fun, and Women's Tea!

Fun, fun, fun! After an all-night flight, our boy finally returned from his big Budapest adventure! We are so glad to have Daniel back home again. Though we know his college departure is imminent, we aren't quite ready for such a quiet house this soon (so we filled it up with the Hampton boys!) We are so happy to have him home again and to begin to hear his stories. Though they were not required to go to school, Daniel and Josiah decided to brave the day after a sleep-less night. Daniel felt bad for all the remaining student council members who had been working hard on the fall festival and wanted to help. After a two hour shift, however, Daniel was falling asleep while stapling papers and decided to come back home for a nap. He came back at 1:00, went to his bedroom, and only emerged after 9:00 pm. He stayed awake for two hours, talking to William, then went back to bed at 11:00 and slept until 6:30. . . I guess he caught up on his sleep!

While Janie and Bill were out today, I had the privilege of hanging out with the younger two Hampton boys. Thomas and Joseph loved spending time with Breeza, particularly since she originated as a Hampton dog. Joseph was a little concerned about this. . . if Breeza was their dog, why did they leave her? why didn't they take her with them when they moved? why did they GIVE her to us and not just LEND her to us? Maybe he was concerned about his eventual fate? We weren't quite sure about that one. I did promise that we would take good care of Breeza and he could visit with her whenever he came to Almaty.

We spent the afternoon preparing for an Almagul women's tea, featuring Janie as our guest speaker!

Twenty-five women gathered at our house for a light dinner, fellowship, and sharing. It was fun to have women from a variety of different Bible study groups and ministries meeting all together!

And even some dear friends from other churches!

After dinner, Janie shared how God worked in her life during her struggle with cancer. . . it was both very touching and encouraging. I was surprised how quickly I started crying as she shared about those months. I have continued to be so thankful for her healing, but I had not gone back to those extreme emotions recently - the worry, the fear, the what-ifs. . . The reminder of those emotions caught me by surprise this evening. We are so thankful that God chose the path of healing for her life and that she is using that healing to bring praise and glory to Him!

(Going for the pomegranate. . .)

Gloria Jeans, MegaMall, and Civil War on the Soccer Field

Since I go to a twice-a-week aerobics group, I signed Janie up as a guest this morning (much to her dismay :-). . .) But, since we had organized a coffee group afterwards, she decided that she probably had better aerobicize to justify the coffee time. So, we jumped and sweated our way through Kim's circuit class, burning lots of calories, then went out for our Gloria Jean's treat. Such beautiful presentation. . . Janie and I then took a tour of our Mega Ramstore, picking up all of the imported Foodtown and ShopRite products that they don't have at home. It is good that they each have 20kg baggage allowance!
I spent the late afternoon at the TSIS soccer game. TSIS has three girls' teams in the soccer league. Because two teams are JV, they have to play each other during the regular season. So today was the day of the Civil War. Having a daughter on each team, it was quite difficult to know how to cheer. . . "Go Tien Shan!" was our compromise. Here the teams are, greeting each other. (Such killer instincts . . .)

The final game score was 1-0, with TSIS coming out on top. Of course, only HALF of our passengers were happy on the way home.

And here is the base of the TSIS crazy-soccer-mom-cheering-squad :-)! Gotta love soccer season!

Girls' Day Out

When we were discussing the week's schedule, one of Janie's first requests was to go on a girls' hike. Being up in the mountains is one of the things that she misses most in their current location. So, Monday was declared HIKING DAY! As we anxiously checked the weather forecast, however, we saw showers were predicted for the entire day. Oh no! To hike or not to hike. . . Fortunately, AccuWeather came through for us, displaying sunshine and clouds instead of rain. We decided to believe them and packed our daypacks. Michelle hikes regularly with the International Women's Club and knows some good single afternoon hikes. Thus, she was our guide for today's adventure. We spent a fabulous afternoon together, strolling through the woods and enjoying the changing leaves.

Though it was hard to have deep discussions on the inclines, we made up for it on rest breaks and downhills!

Not only was Michelle our guide, but she also was the hostess of the day. She packed us the most delicious lunch - chicken salad with apples, pears, and grapes (from their own little harvest), cheddar cheese on nut bread, apples and pears, roasted almonds, snickerdoodles, and hot Honey Rooibos tea in a thermos (we didn't even have to wait for the water to boil!). Delicious! Far better than anything we ever find in our backpacks :-)! We enjoyed the scenic overlook and conversation. The dark clouds even seemed to pass us by as we sat and enjoyed the afternoon.

We then continued on our way around the scenic loop.

No one was even tempted to pick these mushrooms. They found the most fertile ground around, it seems. . .

Michelle, testifying to the healing properties of the banya. . . :-)

In order to get a picture of the five of us, we propped the camera on our backpacks and set the timer. Voila!

Leaves in process of turning. . .

We all really enjoyed spending this beautiful fall day out in the hills with Janie!! What a gift!

Coming Home

Oh happy day. . . it is so fabulous to have the Hamptons staying with us! Because we spent so many years on the field together - raising our children, celebrating holidays, home-schooling, working and ministering - it is just like having our siblings (and nephews/cousins) coming for a visit! And because so many memories are wrapped up in our physical house, they felt like they were "coming home". Not enough hours in the day to catch up. . . The Hamptons spent most of today out -enjoying worship and ordination ceremony with Rakim friends, but we knew they would come home to us eventually!

Featured here are the beautiful flowers given to Janie by Azim and Anara which we all get to enjoy!

Ghost Children and the Hamptons

In order to raise crosswalk awareness, cardboard likenesses of children are set on the edge of school crosswalks throughout Almaty. There are two different images - one male and one female - which are seen all over town. The common consensus is that these life-size models are rather spooky - to note a child in your peripheral vision and then to discover it is just a "ghost" to make sure you are paying attention. On the way to the airport today, we saw one of the "ghost children" who apparently had a rough day. Even more disconcerting to see her taped back together after some kind of accident, with a pole sticking out of her eyeball. Still, I couldn't resist documenting the sight. We were on our way to the airport in order to pick up our dear friends, the Hamptons!! Although they lived and served for us for many years, the entire family has not been here since their move four years ago. How excited we are to get to spend this week together. Here is a very poor picture taken at the moment we saw them coming out of customs! After that point, we were too busy visiting for me to bother with more photos!

It Happens So Fast. . .

There we were standing in the kitchen, chatting about the school day. Abby had come home from school, thrown her backpack on the counter, poured herself a bowl of chocolate cereal, and was animatedly telling me about her day. . . about the soccer schedule, verse recitations, the seventh grade social scene, etc. . . And it hit me. There was something in her manner, the way she was holding herself. . . there was a glimpse of the present and the future at once. The child was disappearing, the young adult emerging. A bittersweet moment. . .The future is a wonderful thing - we have a house full of adolescents who bring us so much life, joy, animation, worry, laughter, love, dirty laundry, noise, excitement. . . I love this life stage. But our days of childhood have passed. And there is some sadness in the passing, too. In a month, we begin our BIG YEAR of birthdays. Each of our children will hit a milestone this season - we will turn 13, 15, 18, and 20. . . No more toys. No more theme birthday parties. They are definitely growing up. Wonderful young people they are becoming. And it happened in a blink of an eye.

Kokpar - Not for the Faint-Hearted

The traditional game of Kokpar has been likened to Kazakh polo (though slightly less refined since the ball is a beheaded goat carcass). Tracing back to the days of life on the steppe, Kokpar displays great horsemanship, strength, and skill. It is played all over Central Asia, though called by different names (Buzkashi in Persian speaking countries, Kok-boru in Tatar, Ulak-tartysh in Uzbek, etc.. . ) Up until today, I had only seen paintings and heard stories of this unusual competition. Thus, when my friend Michelle told me there was to be a national competition just outside of Almaty, I jumped at the chance to watch. We really had no idea what to expect. . . Truthfully, I thought I might be slightly grossed out. I mean, guys fighting over the carcass of a dead animal. . . The game was far more interesting than that, however. So much horsemanship, athleticism, skill, strength, and strategy were involved - oh so much more than my original presuppositions. And, once the initial shock was over, I didn't even think much about that goat carcass. . .

For those of you who did not grow up watching Kokpar matches every Sunday afternoon, here is the game. . . There are two teams playing - each with ten mounted players; four players from each team are permitted on the field at a time, and substitutions are allowed between "plays". One mounted referee is also on the field. There is a beheaded goat carcass, weighing 25 kilograms (35 kg in the men's division), which serves as the "ball". (We were told that a goat is chosen over a sheep since the leather/skin is much more elastic. The goat is also treated in various ways so there are never any flying parts. . .) There are two goals - very large, deep kazans (steel cooking woks) which are elevated and protected by thick earth and tires. The object is to grab the goat from the ground, ride furiously to the appointed goal, and get the goat into the kazan. When it is FULLY inside the kazan, the scoring team gets one point. The referee rides along side the jigits (cowboys) to make sure no rules are broken. We tried to find out exactly what kind of action causes a penalty. "Putting the life of a player at risk" was the first answer we received. Oh. I see. Risky game. There are more specific rules, however, some of which we understood, plenty that we didn't. Apparently, the players aren't allowed to touch each other, though their horses are allowed to lean, shove, and crowd one another endlessly. There were boundary lines, also, and it seemed that they had something like a "jump ball" (except it was on the ground) in a ring whenever someone went out of bounds. Two twenty minute halves with a ten minute break in between. Simple enough. As we watched the various matches, however, we saw so much more of the strategy involved. . .


Here are some excerpts from the first game we watched. We think one team was from Almaty and the other was from Ak Tobe area. (We were at a slight disadvantage since all the announcing was done in Kazakh, though PLENTY of people were happy to answer our questions. Perhaps they were slightly amazed that we were out there.)

This was a great "play". The blue shirted guy in the middle has the goat. Follow the red shirted player on the left. First he stands up in the saddle (you must remember that these guys are riding REALLY fast.)
And reaches across two horses to grab a leg of the goat on the far side of the second blue rider. . .

By holding onto the leg of the goat, he prevents the blue team from throwing it into the awaiting kazan.
The blue team misses the opportunity to score. . .

Then, he continues to hold onto and pull on the goat.

And, with a deft yank, he knocks the defending rider off of his horse!

What an incredible play. . .

And, then, while the blue rider gets up and re-mounts his horse, He gathers momentum and rides down to the other end of the field to score!

The second game we watched was between Chimkent (navy blue) and Pavlodar (turquoise). We could immediately tell that Chimkent was going to dominate this match. From what we could tell, it is likely that Chimkent will be the team to beat in the finals. They won this match 12-1. . . Some incredible horsemanship was going on here.

The Pavlodar player tried to reach across and grab a leg. . .

No such luck. The Chimkent "holder" swung wide with his horse, then cut in front of all of them to score. We also saw the players using various team tactics, just like basketball plays. Again, the Pavlodar player was following the Chimkent goat possessor. . . Another Chimkent rider came in from the side to intercept him.

He was the "post" that caused the Pavlodar player to slow down and have to change his direction.

Check out the way he is leaning his horse to push the other guy out of the action!

Setting up the shot. . . I believe I yelled, "GOAL!" at this point. . . much to Michelle's amusement!

The Chimkent rider looked over viciously at his opponents at this point. I could just picture these guys in ancient times, fighting over territory, honor, women. . . This game really takes you back in history.

The Pavlodar cowboy got one of the serious penalties for this move. He rode his horse FULL TILT into the side of the Chimkent athlete, knocking both horse and rider to the ground. The sound of the impact was horrendous. For that, the Pavlodar player got a 2 minute time-out in a penalty box. I didn't think that was enough.

The third match was between teams from eastern and western Kazakhstan. I thought someone said one of the teams was Ust-Kamenagorsk, but I couldn't figure out which one.

The blue team did a successful block on this play. . . Watch the blue rider come from behind here.

Because the goat is so heavy and the horses are moving so fast, momentum plays an important part in scoring. By breaking the movement of horse or rider, a score can be successfully prevented.

The maroon rider had to circle the goal several times to have another opportunity for a shot. (He should have handed it to his awaiting partner here, but he didn't. I guess he was going for the glory.) He never did score. . . He got the goat half-way into the kazan and the blue rider snatched it back out and rode back down the field with it. We didn't know that was a possibility, either, until we saw that play.

Frequently, scenes like this occurred as crowds were gathered around the goals. When we first started to watch the game, we were told that four riders from each team were on the field. Michelle and I couldn't believe it as it seemed like there were hundreds of people out there!

Here was another strategy we frequently saw. . . The blue rider is reaching across to grab the goat.

And the rider simply lowered the prize closer to the ground, putting it out of the other's reach.

In order to keep their hands free for horse handling and goat grabbing, the riders frequently put their whips in their mouths. About half of the time. . . I thought that was rather gross.

There were numerous instances when I thought the animal was going to be ripped to pieces.

That is one elastic goat. . . The maroon team saved it from the invaders, however. . . Check out the third maroon player - he is stepping in to help direct the horse. We saw a lot of that, too.

Overall, it was a very entertaining and educational morning. Michelle and I enjoyed spectating this traditional sport and feeling the history of Central Asia around us. In the afternoon, I returned to the city and picked up the seventh grade girls' soccer team to drive them out to their game. On the way, I described what I had seen. Although these girls have all grown up in K-stan, none of them have every been to a Kokpar match. They have seen animals sacrificed, jacks played with sheep bones, and been served a variety of meat delicacies, however. When I described the ball and the object of the game, one girl commented, "Oh, that is SUCH a Central Asian game." Exactly. It was fun to be there.

After photographing stampeding horses, the action on the girls' soccer field did seem quite mild. I did think Abby looked awfully cute, though, standing out there, defending the goal in her too-big-jersey. The seventh grade girls had a HUGE victory this day, too. Although they did not win, they were playing a high school team and they SCORED for the first time! Big victory for these little girls!