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Trip To The Aral Sea 2003 Page 4 |
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They had an open house for us at one of the relatives house. This was the same guy who had come to meet us at the train (Zekeah). We got to meet 5 or 6 other families over freshly slaughtered lamb and tea. Of course the sheep head and the brains were eaten with great pleasure as well. The men had tea in the house and the women had tea in the summer kitchen which was in an adjacent building. Zekeah's father was a Molda, the head of the mosque. But Zekeah has gone his own way like many children who are brought up in a legalistic "religious" home where the forgiveness of God and a living relationship with Him is unknown. Since he smokes, he knows he is not a good Muslim and surely not trying to earn his way to heaven by living a good life. Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners." Pray that Zekeah will one day understand this. |
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Roozilla standing in the summer kitchen. Molly has tea with the other ladies. |
The woman on the left is making noodles for the Beshparmak. |
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Even though the village has only 40 houses. There are 100 students and 28 teachers in the school. Our last day there, they had the graduation ceremony. It is called the "last ringing of the bell" because it marks the beginning of summer vacation and of either entering the working world or University. After about 2 hours of speeches, dances, and music, the oldest senior carries the youngest first grader around the school yard on his shoulder. The first grader gets to ring the school bell as they walk and everyone sings a special song. |
Lucy spent time with the 11th graders who were graduating (High School ends at 11th grade.) We hope that some of these students will visit us when they come to Almaty for university or for visits. |
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After the "last ringing of the bell" we had a big meal of horse stir fry and drove 2 hours to a relatives house to spend the night. We had Beshparmak of course but avoided the eating of the head because our host was not home until after we went to bed. The next day we went by car instead of bus and cut our travel time from 12 to 6.5 hours! There were no tickets for the train (you can't buy tickets more than 4 days in advance so we couldn't get them when we came.) After being told 3 times to come back in 2 hours we finally got tickets on the 4am train back to Almaty. Noah drank 1 gallon of fresh (non mineral) water and the rest of us took showers and ate fruit to celebrate our homecoming! |
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