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| Catching a bus to work on my first day. Since then I have cycled... |
I (Jim) started work at the Oasis office formally at the beginning of September, and have now been there for two weeks. It has been quite a whirlwind...
We have a fantastic team and I have really enjoyed getting to know them a little and learning about what they are doing. Some are able to speak English and I have been able to have good conversations with them; others have no English but nevertheless we have struggled through and learnt a little about each other! It is very frustrating not being able to communicate easily what you want to. Fortunately the two people who have been leading Oasis in the period before I arrived are both fluent English speakers and have been able to start my induction into Oasis Kyrgyzstan.
There are some really good things going on: we have just started a new project, working with more young people from government institutions (who are there because they are orphans or have families that are unable to look after them). The young people in our two transitional homes have started back at school or college; and indeed, one boy, who graduated in the summer from school with 'A's in every subject has started at a local university, which is an inspiration to all the boys at the reform home where he spent a number of years.
There are also a number of significant challenges. Not least, in the immediate future we need to recruit new house parents for the girl's transitional home, and find a new property for them to live in; and whilst Oasis Kg is in a better place financially than it has been for some time we still need to raise money to cover the budget for this financial year (just started). And personally, there is the challenge of simply getting my head around all the work that we are doing and all that is behind this - the financial processes and so on. And then there is also the small matter of learning Russian, and building relationships with people using the little language that I have...
Roll on week three...
