Berkh

Today we drove about 70 kilometers northeast of Onderkhan to a smaller town called Berkh. Throughout the day before we left they kept asking me if I was going to be warm enough because Berkh is even colder than here—I thought, can it get any colder than this? They called it the countryside, which made me laugh inside because to me we’re already in the countryside! Anyway, because they kept asking me if I needed thicker clothing I decided to add a few layers so I left wearing 4 layers of pants (underarmor, thermals, flannel longjohns, and jeans) and 5 layers on my upper-body. So the difference between the two is that Onderkhan is -35 and there it is -45 Celsius.
It was a little over an hour drive through the white desert. I was amazed at our driver’s sense of direction because at least half of the journey we weren’t driving on a road—to me it looked as if we were simply driving in the opposite direction of our town. Most of the time there was not a thing in sight except for the intermittent phone or power lines. There were scattered patches of livestock, it is hard for me to fathom that kind of lifestyle especially when I looked around and saw the tiny bits of dry brush, pushing not more than a few inches through the snow. What a hard life.
I spent a good deal of time talking with one of my travel buddies that knows a little more English than the rest. I am learning how to teach and correct her English as that is the only way it can get better right? I am used to just letting things slide but she keeps insisting that I correct her and ends many sentences with, “understand me?” Makes me really think about what I say and how I say it so that I don’t confuse her or any of the other staff.
There is no way I could have prepared myself for what I would see in Berkh. I knew that it is a smaller and less developed town so I had pictured more gers and small buildings. Instead we were met with a variety of 5-6 story apartment buildings which I thought at first to be in good condition. I learned later that these were built by the Russians a long time ago and were top of the line. Then they abandoned that area and the buildings have deteriorated over time and use. This was a wonderful chance to see the impact and importance of the work that World Vision does. We brought firewood and 5 heaters with us to give to some families. Practical, I thought. Understatement of the year. Imagine this. You walk into the main entrance of the apartment complex and you cannot see anything except for whatever the light that leaks through corridor chooses to expose. I could barely see the steps in front of me as we climbed the stairs. We went into 15 different homes and their main commonality was that it was so cold inside that you could see your breath. This is inside! Home is supposed to be a shelter from the cold and yet these people are still so cold in their house! Every apartment is equipped with heater radiators but not a single one that I saw today actually worked. They were all cold and corroded. The only heating for most homes was a wooden stove in the kitchen. I saw one where the bathroom and the kitchen were the same room. I remember another one where there was frost on the walls inside the apartment. They were overcrowded with as many as 10 living in a tiny apartment; some housed two families. Mold and mildew ate at the corners of the walls. So much to take in. How do people live like this? How can we live on while others barely make it through each day? I wonder how they keep motivated to survive? I kept telling myself that I could only suffer through that with the hope I have in Jesus. I couldn’t help but ask God how he can let people live like that. But then how can I ask that? He has given me plenty and given me the chance to see this. So, I feel like the question is being turned right back at me, how can you let my children suffer?
So the question is, what can we do to make a lasting difference in communities like this? True, we helped a few families today, but what about the rest of them? Tomorrow we will be discussing these things and trying to figure out how to tackle this huge problem. We can’t just give everyone a heater and firewood—that doesn’t solve the problem—it only alleviates and delays facing the real issues and also creates dependence. May the staff and leaders here at World Vision have the wisdom they need to make decisions that will make a lasting difference in communities like Berkh.