Week at Lake Issyk Kyl

I think this might be the post with the most pictures ever...and truly, this is less than half of what I took over the course of the week.

Enjoy!

When we arrived, we found a hammock and a peaceful garden.

There were also apple trees galore!

This is one of the houses on the property that many of the youth stayed in during our week long retreat.

Gwangi, climbing up in the apple tree.

Some of the flowers we saw on the property.

More flowers...

A few more...

I have missed lovely gardens like this!

The yurt we stayed in for the week.

Inside our yurt. We were up off the floor for sleeping each night...pretty nice!

The yard and other part of the facilities. Our "camp shower" is the orange and yellow house on the right and the restroom is the blue "house" across the yard.

The front gate. We commented that we miss our gate from living in Tanzania...something safe about living in s compound, having a yard and a gate!

Each morning we started with some devotional time, a lesson, small group activity time, and then after lunch some beach time for group sports and swimming.

This was our first day at the beach and this little guy is so cute!

Ilgiz, we love your boy! His facial expressions are amazing.

The kids burying each other in the sand.

The clouds coming over the mountains.

Ball games and group activities.

And guys zooming across the lake with parachutes that were being pulled by boats.

Oh, and the camel the kids could ride with the lake in the background.

I couldn't decide though, is the picture better looking with the camel and the mountains in the background?

As we left the lake on our first day, we saw young boys training falcons. It is truly a national sport here in Kyrgyzstan.

Each night, we had group skits and songs, dances and talent shows.

They had so much fun expressing what they had learned that day.

Sitting together, working in groups.

Us, sitting in the back of the room with Ilgiz's family, listening to him speak.

Watching one of the other groups perform.

A skit on sharing with others.

A human music video

A skit about the Prodigal Son

Our group, at Lake Issyk Kyl...it's called the "hot" lake, but it was really pretty chilly.

Almaz, letting Sissi jump off of his shoulders and into the lake.

This group has totally taken us in and made us feel welcome and like family.

Talent Show night...Ilgiz, bending spoons.

And eating matches that are on fire.

Lots of dancing.

And more dancing!

Sissi put in a picture she made of her favorite stuffed elephant. It says "Name: Elephanty," in Kyrgyz.

Then, they surprised Sissi and one of the other girls, Albina, with Happy Birthday cake and the Kyrgyz song - бугун бугун сенин туулган кунун which has a pretty catchy chorus that says today, today, today, is your birthday.

An afternoon of team activities. Here they had to pass a ping pong ball from spoon to spoon without dropping it.

Carrying a cup of water on their head from Indy to me, and the whole team had to do it without spilling water or else they all had to do it again.

Get your whole team through this maze of ropes, without touching, and each person on the team has to go through a different way...or else start over again. This one caused quite a bit of hilarious laughter.

While we were waiting for one of the teams to finish their other activity and come to us, this little girl had been watching them with the cup. She wanted a turn, too.

Jumping over the ropes is an option as well.

Krypto got in on the fun and played with one of the teams. He really enjoyed it!

Indy talking college and life plans with one of the guys.

Sissi drew a picture of Almaz, and he said it was great!

She really wants to be an artist.

Hanging out, under the apple trees, waiting for dinner to be ready.

The path that we walked each day to get to the beach. It is lined with blackberry bushes.

We stopped each day to get a snack to eat.

The outside cooking area for many of their local, Kyrgyz dishes.

The dining hall and kitchen. I got to make my apple pie and blackberry cobbler inside of the door on the right. I'll share that story later this weekend.

I couldn't resist, more garden pictures.

Tag team effort with translation going on here as the students asked for advice about how to find your spouse...guess they thought our almost 18 years of marriage made us the ones to ask.

Some of the students this morning, our last day in Cholpon-Ata.

I wasn't able to get pictures in the dark on Thursday night, but we went to the beach and had a bonfire and roasted potatoes...not marshmallows like in the US, but potatoes!

They handed out these bracelets and yarn and they went around giving each other compliments and thanking each other for the things that they appreciated about them. It was so sweet and heartwarming to get so many pieces of yarn from this group of amazing youth.

One of the traditional dishes we ate this week, manti, a dumpling that is filled with ground beef, onions, and potatoes. It's Krypto's favorite Kyrgyz dish.

The group that we were with this week.

We hope for many more exciting adventures with them all!