bitter cold

Lately, it has been below zero in the morning and evening. For us, this means frozen snot, numb faces, and frosted eyelashes.

For those who have no idea why we are in Kazakhstan, well I will tell you.

Michael is student teaching at an international school called Tien Shan. There are only about 200 students, K-12, however the students are bright and the teachers very talented. The school just moved into a new building further outside of the city. He will be teaching Language Arts and History to 7th, 10th, and 11th graders. I think it will be an awesome experience for him to work under such gifted teachers!
As for myself, I'm a little all over the place. M, the woman I am living with, is from Germany and has started an organization to help women just released from prison. Often, these women return to their former lifestyles just to end up in prison again or to a life of prostitution. So in order to prevent that happening, M has a half-way house (where we live now) where women or girls can come to rest, recuperate, find counseling, and learn a skill to later support themselves financially. In our front yard, there is a small building where M has set up a sewing workshop where these women can learn to sew and later become a seamstress. Later, she hopes to build on the skills training to fit to the interests of the women that come here, so maybe computer skills or mechanics etc. M has begun to sew products so that she can teach the women or girls later on, things like aprons and baby slings. She has sold some to friends and family back in Germany and to some foreigners here in Almaty, she doesn't think that local people would like to buy these things. So one of the things I will be doing is to help her broaden her business by getting in touch with places like The Bridge or Global Infusions to see if her stuff can be sold there... the money would go to these women and the organization (Seven Trees is the name btw). So, I will be working on grants now that M's organization is now becoming an NGO. Exciting stuff! I will also be teaching English to those who stay in the house. I'm really glad to be working with M and using my studies to help empower and better the lives of women and girls in need. It's an awesome feeling!

Since M didn't have the letter of invitation papers you need to get a visa, I will also be working with an organization called REACH who gave me a letter of invitation and since they did so, I have to work with them. REACH works with kids and young adults that come from troubled backgrounds so that they may learn life skills in order to live in the working world. They also work and support a blind school for children so that instead of finding jobs later in life that are limited to blind people, they can really try to achieve their dreams despite their disability. For a while now, they have been in need of an English teacher for their youth home (young adults, 18-29) and I just happened to come at the right time. So every Monday and Wednesday night I will be teaching English for an hour and a half. Kind of nervous about it, but we'll see how it goes!

Stay warm everyone!