“Who’s your favorite kid, dad?” Olivia add
“Are to trying to kill me? ” Dad replied wisely.
“Answer wisely dad. One day you’re in, and the next day you’re out!” Joani added slyly.
(A scene at the Korean Center in Almaty, Kazakstan)
Category Archives: Central Asia
So This is What a Christian Country is Like – The Caucus Region
“Dong…Dong…Dong…Dong…”
“Hey, do you hear the bell?” Olivia asked looking at us doing our work in the AirBnb apartment in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. “Isn’t it interesting?”
“What do you mean?” I responded, not sure why she found the bell sound so interesting.
Continue reading So This is What a Christian Country is Like – The Caucus Region
Overflowing Cups
“Mom, what should we expect when we arrive at the bus station in Kazakhstan? Who are we going to meet and where will we be? ” I asked repetitively.
“Mom, you haven’t answered my questions every time that I asked you, what are we to expect in Kazakhstan?”
Soon enough, my question was answered through a phone call. Continue reading Overflowing Cups
Restored, Renewed, Rejuvenated
“Is this where we will sleep tonight?” I asked with an incredulous look.
An Russian looking man wearing military camouflage cap and T-shirt gestured us in Russian to put our backpacks onto an outdoor wooden platform in the middle of an large wooden yard.
“Is this where we will sleep tonight?” I asked again not understanding what he said because our “survival” Russian was only good for basic greeting and bargaining of prices.
The man smiled in a funny way and continued to speak in Russian and to gesture us to put our backpacks on the platform. Although he was more than a meter away from us, we could smell the vodka in his breath.
The Miracle of Routine – Urban “Camping” in Bishkek
“Dad, isn’t that an abandoned building?” Nathan asked with a slight fear in his voice.
The abandoned building had broken doors and windows that were patched with wooden planks or locked up with metal bars and padlocks. The surrounding walkways were overgrown with weeds. The lot was surrounded by fences made of shiny grey aluminum sheets, the type that one normally see at construction sites.
“Let’s first go in and see…and see if it will work out. If not, we can always leave,” I encouraged the children. Continue reading The Miracle of Routine – Urban “Camping” in Bishkek