No Trip to KZ Next Year

I got the official word today that East-West Ministries International has decided to cancel the 2006-2007 version of their normal school-year institute, CALTC, where I have been teaching, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I'm not surprised. Ivan, one of the Russian-track teaching assistants had hinted that this decision might be made. And indeed, the student enrollment had declined in each of the past five years to just 9 students this year. This time off will give the Central Asian leadership time to consider the needs for pastoral training in their area and various methods they might use to meet these needs.

But for the time being, seems my trips to KZ have run their course. Thanks again for your support.

Home again!

Following a day of souvenier shopping and resting on Saturday, I flew home on Sunday. Since one gains 11 hours returning home, Sunday was actually 35 hours long. And it felt like it as I sat on airplanes for 6, 9, and 2 hours flying to Frankfurt, Chicago, and Austin. With some time in between to enjoy the Frankfurt and Chicago airports.

I'm now in my second day of recovery from jet lag and I think in one or two more I'll be recovered. Thanks to all who supported and prayed for this trip.

Friday Evening in Almaty

Here are my friends, Dana (sounds like Donna) and Barzhan (sounds like Barzhan) at a little indoor/outdoor cafe not far from the faculty apartment. We met for dinner on Friday night and had a very nice visit together. I first met Dana 4 years ago when Mark Roberts and I travelled to Almaty together. Mark had met Dana earlier and invited her to one of our student dinners. (That evening Mark and I laughed harder than anyone in the history of the world and afterwards Dana has always been known as Crazy Dana in our family.) She and Barzhan met and got married a little over a year ago, and now are expecting their first child. After dinner we took a stroll down Rozabakieva Street to a store where they insisted on buying some candy and tea to send home with me to our family. Nice time, good friends!

Mission Accomplished

Student Teaching was the order of the day for Friday. With just 8 students it was possible to assign each one a 20 minute slot to present the sample lesson that they had worked on all week. To a person, they all did a great job. I'm not just saying that, because I was their teacher, but they really all did super. Two taught in a classroom setting and then the rest taught as in a home group as pictured here.

After each teaching session we spent time as a group discussing the things the presenter did well and any suggestions for improvement.

By the time we finished all of the student teaching there was just 15 minutes left to review for their final exam, which will be administered on Monday morning (after I'm safely back in the States -- an excellent strategy!).

Thursday Night in Almaty

Four days of teaching are now complete. Most of today was spent watching and discussing the film, The Miracle Worker. It's a 90 minute film, but we had to stop frequently to explain what was going on, especially if there was a period of intense dialogue. As always, the film's powerful emotional impact was not lost on these prospective teachers, despite the language barrier.

Tonight was the second of two student dinners. Two students with their wives and combined four children joined me along with an interperter. We had a nice time of the home-cooked meal. And then enjoyed a rousing game of "spoons."

Here are a few pictures from class and from dinner.

May Day dinner with the Leytner Family in Almaty

Here from left to right are Valentina, Sasha, Levin and Galina. These are the Leytners with whom I had dinner on Monday night.

I went back to their house after teaching on Tuesday because I had forgotten my Penn State cap there. I thought I would just drop by and pick up the cap, but of course, they insisted I stay for a bite to eat. Then Levin and I walked a few blocks to the mall where he needed to get milk, and I found a video store and purchsed a couple of Russian/English videos to aid my oral comprehension of Russian.

Teaching went well on Tuesday. The students seem to be grasping the lesson planning ideas I'm giving them.


Here is one of our students in the classroom test driving one of the wooden cars that I brought to give to orphans and other needy children.

After the first day of teaching

Even though today was a national holiday, CALTC Russian track held class. Overall assessment is that the day went well. The enrollment is down this year to 9 students. One of them is out of the country right now, so there are 8 students. Even though the numbers are fewer than in other years, the enthusiasm of these students is very high. They all seemed to be tracking with me during the lectures, and most importantly, they laughed at my jokes!

They were assigned 4 chapters of the text to read tonight with a quiz to follow tomorrow morning.
Tonight I went as a guest to the home of Levin and Valentina Leytner. Their daughter, Svetlana is a friend of mine in Austin. I delivered a package to them from Svetlana and picked up twice as much to bring back! This is normal. This is the 4th year I've had this experience as part of my Almaty trip. Valentina cooked an incredible meal, including (learned after I started chewing) smoked horse meat -- I thought it was ham : (

Now I'm back at the faculty flat and ready for bed.