Our Adventures Begin in Almaty

Hi, it’s Ben G. writing. We woke up this morning well rested after sleeping on a bed for the first time in three nights. Living together with Kazakhstanis this week is going to be a lot of fun. In my cabin, the two Americans are both named Ben, and all three Kazakhstanis are named Roman. Someone played a horrible joke on us, but it did make it easy to learn names.

After breakfast, we split up into groups with five or six students each, half Kazakhstanis and half Americans. My group—Coryn, Kelsey, Alex, Dasha, and I—cleaned the apartment of Shlime Gershkovna, an 82 year old woman originally from Ukraine. The journey to her home in Almaty was interesting; we navigated the crazy city traffic (many busy roads do not have lines down the center) and got lost in Shlime’s neighborhood. Once we found her apartment, Shlime had a list of jobs for us. We mopped, cleaned walls, moved furniture, and smacked rugs with sticks. When we finished, we sat down with Shlime and listened to her talk about her family and her experiences. During WWII, Shlime was evacuated from Ukraine to Uzbekistan in 1941, and moved to Kazakhstan in 1947. She showed us photographs of her family and told us of the incredible tragedies she has lived through; her daughter was attacked and paralyzed from the waste down by a random man on the street, both her husband and son have passed away, and she was hit by a car five months ago. It was incredibly moving to learn about her life, and she was very appreciative of our work.

After we left Shlime’s apartment, the five of us walked to a park. The two Kazakhstanis in our group, Alex and Dasha, told us about Almaty and how they spend their time. They spoke some English, and collectively the American contingency of our group knew about five words of Russian, so it was a lot of fun trying to communicate. We learned about traditional Kazakh food (horse), a scam that little kids in the city run (they drop wallets and when you pick it up they accuse you of taking it or steal your wallet), and how Alex loves to dance. Now we’re going to go get ready for Shabbat. Shabbat shalom!