• Nepal: A Motorcycle Trip to Lake Kulekhani

    So I’ve been in Nepal for three weeks now, and I’ve gotten to experience a good bit. The focus of this post will be on the three-day motorcycle trip Lea and I went on last week. Our host Nischal took us (for pay) with a friend of his, Manish, and we got to do and…

  • Nepal: How I Came into the Possession of Holy Flip-flops

    Namaste! I have been in Nepal for the better part of a week now, and things have been interesting. I arrived incredibly disoriented from twelve hours of flying that started way too early. And I got stuck in the middle seat on both flights next to smelly people. Wonderful experience that was. Anyways, I got…

  • Kazakhstan: Balkhash and My Final Days in Almaty

    Between Karaganda and Balkhash I have spent about a month in Kazakhstan now, and I’ll be heading out for Nepal tonight. But before I do that—and because I have seven hours to kill at the airport—I’d like to recap some of my recent experiences in this country. The following is not a chronological recap in…

  • Conversations From Around the World: Dima from Kazakhstan

    The following transcript is largely unedited and therefore has many grammatical errors that reflect the difficulty of English as a second language. Occasionally when the language barrier makes the content of the story unclear I will insert bracketed notes. Adam: Hello everybody and welcome to Conversations From Around the World, an interview series where I…

  • Kazakhstan: The First Week in Balkhash

    When I arrived in Balkhash early in the morning, my first impression was that the city smelled like smoke—a wonderful start to my two weeks here. That and the fact that the entire city looks like it has recently undergone civil war. But it’s not all bad. What the city lacks in aesthetics it makes…

  • Kazakhstan: What’s Up With All the Punching Bags?

    So I’ve been in Kazakhstan for almost two weeks now between Karaganda and Balkhash, and one thing that has stuck out everywhere has been the punching bags. These are like street arcade games: you put in some coins and get a chance to show your strength. But why does Kazakhstan have so many of these,…

  • Kazakhstan: Horse Milk and Hockey in Karaganda

    So I have been in Karaganda, Kazakhstan for about a week now, and my experience has been nothing short of wonderful. Let me walk you through some of the highlights. I arrived in Karaganda by train late last Wednesday 10/1, and the next day began with breakfast with Rada, the director at our English center…

  • Is Everywhere the Same?

    Is there anything of which one can say,    “Look! This is something new”?It was here already, long ago;    it was here before our time. Ecclesiastes 1:10 I have been in Kazakhstan for a few days now and by far the most profound impression I have had is that life is the same here as it is everywhere….

  • Kazakhstan: First Impressions

    It is a well-known fact that taxi drivers around the world can smell foreign currency, and thus my welcoming in Almaty was ordained. Apparently there is an app called Yandex Go that you are supposed to use here (like Kazakh Uber), so I was using it to look for a taxi. But before I could…

  • Prelude: What Does It Mean to Have a Home?

    For the past few weeks now I have been planning and packing for my yearlong volunteering trip around the world, and one question has been flittering in and out of my mind: what does it mean to have a home? Is home a physical place? A group of people? A sense of belonging? Or some…