Potholes and Volunteers

Monday, October 13 2008
Aktobe

The last few weeks, it’s been very difficult for me to find a clear narrative to write about my experiences.  Life has been full and busy, but it seems so regular.  Spending a week in Almaty to work with the new volunteers and spend a few days relaxing with my friends was a nice break, though I really missed Aktobe while I was there.  My activity today reminded me how to share stories.

Our Volunteer Club is growing, and we are getting more calls from students who want to volunteer – but still not at a level that I think it could be at.  Sometimes, however, someone calls and then they don’t follow-up.  The schedule gets busy, they don’t have time to come to a meeting or to the office, it happens.  Yesterday, a Medical Academy student sent me an SMS saying that she really wants to volunteer.  Great.  I invited her to my office today in the afternoon.  Especially if you don’t know the city, it can be tough to find.  When the streets are a big mud puddle, like today, it does not help either.  She made it, on time, and we talked about the volunteer opportunities and our big festival: “Zoletoy Certze” (Golden Heart).

We will be holding a festival for disabled children and their parents two days at one of the local hotels.  Each family will be paired with two volunteers, who are supposed to be working with them until the big event; next week.  Our initial goal was 50 families and 100 volunteers.  We’re currently on around 20 families and 60 volunteers; but that’s okay, there are still 6 days to go.  Additionally, there’s a chance that we’ll be using a different hotel and the event will be pushed back another two weeks; so we may have lots more time.

Our new volunteer, Marhaba, loved the idea and wanted to go visit her child today.  Our plan is that I go with our volunteers for at least the first visit, so I said sure.  The first child we called was sick, so we went with another child, Aisuly.  Both, however, live in the same area.  Marhaba is from another city and in her first year at the Medical Academy and I was entirely unfamiliar with where they live.  The area, Sazdah, is the same name as a bus stop, but on the phone, Aisuly’s family said it was a village outside Aktobe.  I held out hope when we were told to go to one of the bus stops I was familiar with, still inside the city.

We arrived at the bus stop and discovered the bus to the village comes once an hour, and it was only 4:23.  We opted for a taxi.  I had no idea there were villages outside the city the direction we went.  The road for this route outside the city is worse than any pothole in Detroit.  At least twice a week for the last few months, I have been going out of the city to the horse therapy for disabled children and to teach English at the TB Sanatorium – but those are a different direction.  I thought that road was bad before the Summit construction.  The road to Sazdah is dirt and asphalt and piles of dirt, and holes, and mounds of dirt, and holes, and huge crevices.  Our taxi driver on the way back, who does the drive twice a day, still complained.  This is one place a Hummer would be well-served.

The village is about 20 minutes from Aktobe and small, roughly 1,400 people.  It seemed much poorer than other nearby villages.  There were no apartment buildings, everyone lived in one-story houses, most of which were somewhat spread out from each other.  The bus stop is where a few of the streets cross and a big dirt area.  All of the houses have a gate.  Aisuly’s father was outside when we arrived,  chopping wood and directed us to avoid the dog.  The cow was calm and stayed in its barn.  Aisuly is a sweet 15 year old who has hearing problems and extreme difficulty speaking.  She knits and draws beautifully and we spent a lot of time looking at her work, particularly because this week there is a show of disabled childrens’ art and then at Zoletoy Certze will be another show.

The family speaks basically only Kazakh.  This made it very difficult for me.  Fortunately, Marhaba is great, and she took the lead.  Living in the city, I forget how important Kazakh is in Kazakhstan, even just outside heavily Russian-language infused areas, Kazakh is the primary means of communication.

This was not Marhaba’s first time doing this type of program.  When she was in high school, she participated in a similar program, visiting and working with disabled children  After spending about an hour with Aisuly and one of her sisters, the rest of the family arrived home.  We talked to everyone and then had chai.  This visit was great – everyone enjoyed themselves and wants the visits to continue – but it also brought a few challenges to light.

Even though we called, Aisuly’s family did not expect us to arrive.  Apparently, a few weeks ago, another one of our volunteers called, said they would be coming, and then never showed up.  These volunteers also did not call me to tell me they did not go.  Complicating this, my hard drive crashed of a few weeks ago and I lost a few weeks worth of work, including my volunteer database.  Fortunately, we  called and arrived today.  It went a long way to re-establish some trust and a relationship.

I have loved our horse therapy and I have really bonded with some of our other children, but today’s visit struck me in a different way and reminded me of how much more there is to learn, the value of  individual relationships and how much there is still (and always) to do.