I think everyone’s getting a little bored with the show. This looooong break we’ve had has made us ‘out of practice’ and having to throw a new Ruffiana into the mix means that we’ve got to seriously rehearse.  It’s a bummer that we can’t just do the run of the show, boom boom boom, One after the other, for audiences that always understand it and cheer really loud and laugh really loud. We’ll see what happens in this next tour.  We have added some hilarious little bits which I’m quite excited for…Capitano has become a very interesting dancer! Working with Kate has been fun, but it has definately made me aware of the differences in energy when working with someone new-that whole chemistry onstage thing isn’t just between the romantic leads.  I have to figure out what things Kate does that are her signature so that I can immitate it onstage when necessary and react to it instead of waiting for something else.

I got to go visit with some of Galina’s friends last night with Jessica. We went to Ed’s parents house, which is barely finished, to swim and hang out.  Let me just say that I have never seen such a fancy house in my entire life! (yes, even in America) There are three floors, each filled with huge rooms, an indoor pool and dry wood sauna, a billards room, giant entertainment center, and private quarters for Ed.  This guy lives with his folks and gets his own living room, bedroom, bathroom, and loft for guests!!! Quite amazing. But I’m glad I don’t live there because I wouldn’t want to clean it It was nice though to hang out with people outside the troupe and church folks. (Thanks Gala!)

I am sad that the tour is slowly coming to an end. I’ve spent two months of my life here and met some great people.  I have no idea if God wants me coming back here again, so who knows if I’ll see some of my new friends again.  I’m beginning to think about preparing for another school year (especially since I still need to chose a play for my Directing showcase), but I’m trying to push it aside until I’m buckled into my seat and flying over an ocean. I haven’t left Kazakhstan yet and I want to live in the present before it slips away.

I woke up this morning with a message for me, which is weird since I’m not home; it turned out to be the man in charge of the Lutheran witness branch here in Kazak. He apparently is working with the Concordia’s and wants to get a group of Concordia students together to come over during break to do some witnessing with theatre and worship. It’s pretty cool, especially since I literally thought last night, “I don’t think I’ll ever have anything to do with this country again!” So we’re going to squeeze in a meeting tomorrow morning before the train to talk about how best to set up a team to come out here. Who knows if I’ll be on it, but I guess I’ll be helping get people ready if it all works out. So, hey, say a quick prayer for another team getting in motion.

We had family group today, which is the worship time set aside just for ex-pat’s within this particular ‘M’ group.  A bunch of families gathered together in Jason and Alisha’s house for lunch (crunchy lentils and mushy cake) which was delicious (really) and chit chat and finally worship.  We sang songs, prayed together, and shared the Lord’s supper. I was so happy because I haven’t taken it since I left home, and the last service I attended wasn’t a  communion service. I love the community felt when sharing the Lord’s supper with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, it just build me up.  I heard this pastor speak once about how cynical people won’t believe in Jesus/God because they can’t feel him or touch him physically. But God has given us ways to physically know him: we can taste him in the wine and bread, we can feel the water of baptism running over us.  It’s pretty cool and I think about that alot when I’m taking communion.  Another thing I love about fellowshipping with this group is their comraderie and support of one another. They have just opened their arms and included Jessica and myself. It’s wonderful. And it’s made me think about how some people are crippled in their relationships with people of another denominations. There are definately some things that clearly distiguish some denominations, and they are seperated for such huge differences in doctrine.  but being here in another country where the message of salvation is sooo desperately needed, these man made differences are of little importance compared to knowing the saving grace of the one and only son of God. And for that matter, the same is true in the States. Time spent squabbling over what age children should commune takes precious moments away from those people who haven’t even heard the message of salvation! So I appriciate how simple things are with this group of believers; their love and faithfulness permeates their whole lives and touches those around them.  I pray that in my life I continue to grow in my faith and share my love so readily.

 Tonight Jess, Dias, Zman, and I ate at the Three oranges (probably for the last time since they upped their prices). Us girls wanted to say thanks to the nice waiters who knew our usual drinks and were so nice when we couldn’t communicate and didn’t make fun of our Russian (at least to our faces)-so we gave them New York hats (per Jessica), which they took politely and then left. We then had to call them back so we could take a picture with them. All the other waiters were cracking up and making fun of them, but I must say that sometimes I love being a tourist because you can get away with stuff like that! Oh, and Jess, sorry for spitting water on you (even though you deserved it

one thought: It bugs me when people think of hymns as seperate from worship songs just because they are accompanied by an Organ and not a guitar. Hymn are amazing works of praise and worship too, just in a style that is not our current pop music.

But enough about that. Our two week tour of Kazakhstan just seemed to fly by! We visited places with more dust than I imagine is in the Sahara, but saw lots of new things, like Camels, one of the worlds longest pedestrian bridges, a traditional Kazak wedding (sans food), a crazy kitty, the Caspian sea from 2 sides, and many wonderful people.  I’m glad our tour got turned around with the final performances in Atyrau. 

We performed twice, one right after our train ride (which got in 3 hours before curtain) and the other on Monday night at an oil company’s training center. The first performance was mainly for women and some kids who crowded around us asking for autographs and pictures. It’s was pretty cool to feel like a celebrity being followed (breifly) by the paparazzi. The last performance was by far our best (getting better every time) and the audience just ate it up! Our stage was pretty small, everyone was cramped together behind our backdrop in order to not be seen, and we had to use the floor as well.  The audience was full of testosterone at one point when I’m alone on stage one of the guys started whistling.  But they really got a kick out of Capitano, he got a roar of applause, and Jessica went CRAZY with Pantelona.  I won’t say what she did because she yelled at me yesterday for mentioning it outside of a theatre So, if you want to know I’ll show you the video. The audience also lovedthe fight scene. It appeared quite realistic too since I actually punched Pantelona–on accident I swear Another cool thing was that one of the girls who came to the Sat. performance also came to the Monday performance, she liked it that much.  Things like our theatre troupe are not common here and people like seeing their fellows onstage. I hope this encourages people to start thinking about creating their own groups.

Today, we’re spending one day in ‘recovery’ and will pray that transportation to Astana will come through. It’s our last city to tour before our home performance and the troupe will be a bit different.  The amazing Gala, whose mother y’all prayed for, isn’t going to be able to come. Thankfully, God worked everything out and one of the girls who was a part of the troupe originally will be able to step in and take Galina’s part. Kate is quite funny and already comfortable with us, so I think it will work out well.  We just need to practice all together at some point. When Kate wasn’t able to join us I was very disappointed and frankly upset, however I can see that God worked it all out because our play had just enough characters to make it work, and with Gala being MIA for Astana having Kate as a backup is perfect. So, we’ll still get to tour all together and hopefully have more big audiences.  Hey, another cool thing about Astana is that we’ll be staying in a nice hotel via Arad’s dad. THANKS Arad’s dad! Such a blessing and I’m excited to sleep on a bed!

Well, let’s just say that this trip has had all sorts of obstacles thrown at us. Arad almost got deported in Baku, our stage in Baku was a tiny cafe with an audience of 10 ppl, we were sandblasted at the beach in Baku, we got dropped off in Aktau with no certainty of a place to stay, and we still don’t know if our sponsor will come through to reimburse the travelling costs. but, we are having a great time! I am at least.

The group has really come together and has reached that level of comfort where we all make fun of each other–for example Jessica and her pleasure noises, my tight spandex shorts, zman’s inability to get out of bed until a meal is made, and Nathan’s old age. It’s quite fun.  We’ve also been able to transfer that comraderie onto the stage. Our show last night was one of our best with all sorts of random stuff thrown in that the audience found hilarious (ie Pantalona taking Dottore’s shoe as a love token). We didn’t have a big audience and there weren’t many English speakers, but they loved it! We were forced to be a physical as possible to help with the comprehension, except for Gala who just decided to talk in Russian the whole time , and the audience’s response of taking a million pictures with us was great. We’re also going to be on the local news on Monday; they did an interview and took footage of the show. The stage was really nice with actual stage lighting, curtains, and room backstage to run around. The women who worked at the center were also sooo nice and gave all of us the entire outfits of their local green peace program-Hat, pants, shirt, and jacket.

Tonight we board a train for Atyrau-20 hours. We’d love your prayers that nothing happens on the way because we arrive at 6pm and perform at 7pm!!! Luckily we’ve gotten a system for prepping our props/costumes/backdrop so we’ll make it as long as the train is ontime.

Galina and I finally got to sing together and we improved some random songs while Nathan played piano for us.  It was sooo much fun! I love to sing anywhere, anytime.  But I feel bad belting around Nathan’s house or in my dorm room because I don’t want to disturb anyone. Ah, but singing today and filling up the great hall was marvelous! I’ll have to record Gala and I when we improv for an audience.

 Oh, and here’s a fabulous quote I was sent today:

              There are two ways to live your life- One as though nothing is a miracle, the                 other is as though everything is a miracle.

                                                                  –Albert Einstien