Golden Hearts…Running Around a Hotel Together for 48 Hours

Sunday, November 23 2008
Aktobe

Last night was my first night home in three days.  Thursday and Friday we had our festival, “Golden Heart”, for disabled children and their mothers.  The event was outstanding.  26 disabled children.  25 mothers and fathers (two of the children are sisters).  27 volunteers.  1 hotel. 7 hours of sleep over two days.

“Golden Heart” had four goals.  The first – to provide a forum for the parents (particularly mothers) to come together to share support, resources, and think of ways to help each other.  The second – to provide an opportunity for the children to relax and see that they are not alone.  The third – to further develop the relationship between volunteers and disabled children; both the specific one-on-one bond between each child and his or her volunteer, as well as strengthening the importance of local volunteerism.  The fourth – to bring additional attention to all of these areas to the general community.  I think we accomplished all these goals.  And, especially important, despite the conclusion of  “Golden Heart”, we’re continuing to expand our work in these areas.

The volunteer club will continue to work with these volunteers continuing to assist these, and other disabled children and their families.  We currently have around 100 volunteers that will also be working with other children, visiting their homes and also meeting in groups at a local coffee shop, “Black and Brown Coffee”.  They have been working together ranging from a few weeks to around a year.  Each of the disabled children and their parents created an abundance of artwork which we sold at the festival.  Unsold pieces will be displayed at “Black and Brown Coffee” with information about each child and our program.

I almost cried many times during the program.  The “children” ranged in age from 4 to 31 and of course different types of relationships could develop between volunteers and their children.  One of our volunteers, Tanya, ran around like crazy “playing” with her young child.  She never seemed tired out and kept going for two days straight.  Another volunteer, Sana, who has been working with her 31 year old “child”, Nastya, and Nastya’s mother for a year, spent the two days with Nastya, sitting together and tirelessly trying to entertain her.  Nastya is fully immobile.  One time, Sana was playing with her.  She was throwing marbles up and down, up and down – and expressing her excitement, and just trying to cheer her up.  Nastya had  minimal, if any response.  It was at that moment that I realized how much Sana had done and meant to Nastya’s family.

The first night, volunteers went home after the end of most of the day’s programming and didn’t stay for the Discotech, because it was late and everyone needed to get home.  The second night, however, we had extra hotel rooms for volunteers (since some of the families went home the second evening, as there was no program the next day, just breakfast), so about 10 volunteers stayed.  After the Discotech, the volunteers and four disabled children of the same age (17-21) stayed up talking and playing games together until 5 AM.  At about 2:30 AM, I left them to go to sleep.  Waiting for the elevator, I just smiled at the fact that this group developed a real friendship.

Earlier in that evening, before the late night games was the “Mother’s Ball”.  We honored each of the mothers (and two fathers), presented them with a letter of thanks and put on a show to honor them for their on-going and unceasing love of and work with their children.  The brass section of the Aktobe Philharmonic performed, four Kazakh dancers did a series of dances, there were a few singers, all the mothers were all given these beautiful hand-made shoulder wraps from Orenberg, Russia, and finally Vika and I reprised our waltz.

After the “Mother’s Ball”, we had a “thank you” volunteer meeting with our staff.  They surprised us (Maral, Gulmiera, Kurulai, Rima, and I) with a poster they had done as a thank you to us.  And, the volunteer who presented it made a speech, during which she cried.  She said to us, “Both you and we knew how important this program would be for the parents and for the children.  But, we want you to know (and here she started to cry) how important this was for us as well.”  I joined in with some tears.

Later in the evening, after I left our late-night partyers, I went down to the bar to get some work done.
The father of one of the disabled children, Alibek, a 25 year old young man who is nearly completely  paralyzed due to a disease that continues to affect him and has made him blind, also came down to the bar.  We had met a few times before and talked, but never one-on-one and over beer.  We looked at pictures from my travels and from America, and talked about politics, and life.  We also talked with Greg, a former PCV in Aktobe, both of whom were glad to make the connection with each other again.

I am incredibly proud of my organization and our volunteers, and thankful to Dastan Hotel and the many businesses and individuals that made it possible for the disabled children and volunteers to run around the hotel next to oil and gas businessmen and to play keep away with balloons in the front lobby coffee shop.  My friends and I are planning a charity party for next Saturday, more volunteer meetings, and our wheelchair factory.  There’s a lot coming up on the agenda, but for a moment – I’m able to take a breath and see what we have accomplished, for everyone involved.  As I said to our volunteers in our meeting, “Everyday when I come into our office, I am inspired by my coworkers.  After spending these two days with you, I am similarly and immensely inspired.  Thank you.”

A Year of Daily Bus Trips…and Horse Milk

Monday, November 17 2008
Aktobe

This morning when I was running my normal morning route: walk the four minutes from my home to bus #1, gently scramble to find a seat on the bus, sit for 20 minutes listening to my music and often awkwardly take a call in English as everyone again looks at me (which is only a stronger gaze when I switch between English and Russian), lightly pushing my way to the front (today with the three boxes of Monopoly, Risk, and Othello for “Golden Heart”), pay, get off, and walk the five minutes to work, get the keys from the security guards, and then start the day, I had a moment of remembrance of why I enjoy my time here.

The last couple of months have been really busy – a lot of running around (Aktobe and Almaty) and focusing on programmatic details for projects at my organization and a number of secondary projects.  It was starting to get to that border of tiring.  Fortunately, I have good friends, family, and projects which have kept me focused and relaxed.  Thinking about what I’ve been doing, however, made me realize how tired I was.

Then, this morning, I had one of those moments that brings relaxation.  Life isn’t meant to be a series of fights and stress over the details that will work out well whether they happen my way or another way.  The challenge, the fun, and the success is in all of the accomplishments and the inspiration.  My organization could accomplish their projects without me.  I bring, however, that other perspective and maybe that little bit of additional support.  If that little bump can help us not just accomplish the projects but make them even better than they thought they could be – that’s success.  I’m learning a lot from my colleagues and friends here.  Expanding the big picture and helping to bring all the small details into greater focus, both parts are important and thinking about things that way is simply really relaxing.

Sunday, November 16 2008
Aktobe

New Volunteers and the one year mark.  I feel as if I’ve been traveling a lot over the last few months and trying to balance that with a lot of work in Aktobe.  Work has been very busy.  My organization has really embraced the Volunteer Club concept and our volunteers are one of the key parts for our upcoming program, “Golden Heart”.  We heard back from the Japanese Embassy regarding a grant we applied for to fund the renovations of our wheelchair factory site.  We won the grant and in December, our organization’s director and I will be going to Astana to officially sign the forms.  Barack Obama won the U.S. Presidency.  Horse therapy finished on a strong note, with more people expressing interest just as the cold weather arrived.  I went to Almaty, twice.  English Club has consistently had 50 to 60 people on Thursdays and 30 to 50 on Saturdays for Movie Club.

As the 365 days since arriving in Aktobe passed, it seems that things are going relatively smooth.  As I’ve been watching my colleagues at my organization plan “Golden Heart” since returning from Aktobe, it  struck me how little they need a volunteer in some ways.  A good amount of how they’re planning and running the event is different from how I envisioned it, but that doesn’t make it bad.  Rather, I’m glad that they have this strong ownership over the program.  The program will be two days and two nights at the newest and nicest hotel in the city (http://dastanhotel.kz/en/aktobe).  The primary focus is on the mothers (and a few fathers and grandmothers) of disabled children.  The secondary focus is on the disabled children.  Over 27 volunteers will be working with the children while their parents are attending the conference.

Children is not the most accurate term as the “children” range in age from 6 to 35, with most around 15 years old.  They all have different types of disabilities.  Some have Cerebral Palsy, some are physically disabled, a few are partially deaf, as well as a variety of other disabilities.  One of the most important parts is that our participants are not just from the city but also from surrounding villages.  Even more important is that our volunteers have been visiting these children and their families for between a year and a few months, to spend time with them, to get to know the people they would be working with at the conference, and to establish friendships with the children.  We have lots more individuals (who include school students, university students, and young professionals) who want to volunteer; after “Golden Heart” finishes, we’ll be back on to running more trainings for working with disabled children and pairing our volunteers with our clients.  Then, we’ll again look to expand the Volunteer Club to work with other local non-profits and bring more volunteer leadership into the program.

I thought it would be strange with new PCVs arriving and taking the “place” of my friends who I spent such an intense amount of time with.  All of us Kaz-19s definitely talk about our site-mates who have left a lot (we miss you guys), but the new Volunteers transitioning-in feels pretty normal.  They’re at their jobs, we’ve talked pretty daily this week, went out for drinks, are still getting to know each other and well, basically, they’re great.  I’m excited they’re here and I think they will do a great job.  Having been here for the year, it’s normal to want to offer advice and keep saying “we did it this way, but we don’t have to keep doing it that way”; although I think I make the second part of that statement a little too often.  When I realize I started to buffer my comments too much, I also realized how little time a year is and despite all the experience I’ve gained in that year, it’s still only a year.

I’m enjoying myself and am looking forward to the next year.