Overall, we have really enjoyed our first six months here. There has been much that has been great, such as our lovely flat, our Oasis colleagues, and Felix and Rosie's wonderful school. There have (of course!) been plenty of challenges - communicating in Russian is high on this list! And there has been plenty that has been unexpected (walking to school in minus twenty degrees is not as unpleasant as it sounds!) We have made some friends and plenty of mistakes (back to the Russian language challenge again!) and experienced the high and the lows of culture shock. The photos at the end of the post might give a flavour of our first few months.
There is much to celebrate for Oasis over these last six months; we have grown as a team, certainly numerically (there are currently 12 of us), but more importantly in our relationships, respect for one another and in how we work together. We have started a youth centre for young people leaving government institutions (so called 'social-orphans') and have nearly completed a life-skills course at the government 'Reform Home' for some of the more 'difficult' young people that are in government care. And organisationally we are making good strides in developing better finance processes and organisational sustainability.
The review we wrote about in our last post has led us to start working intensively with the ten young people currently in the Oasis transitional homes to help each one of them to live independently within the next six months. Whilst this is a challenging prospect for each one of them, it will be a really positive step and we will walk with them through the transition and for some time afterwards, providing the support, encouragement and help that they will need as they make decisions.
Independence Day Celebrations (August 31st)
Oasis Team Meal at our flat (September)
Mountains 30 minutes south of Bishkek (October)
Rosie in end of term play (December)
Finishing our joint 1,000km run, Bishkek (December 31st)
Skiing in the mountains south of Bishkek, Chinese New Year (February)
The view from our kitchen window (much of December, January and February!)
