Monday 21 November 2016

Gifts

One of the challenges of this journey was the receiving of gifts.  Having learned as a child that giving presents is 'better' than receiving and wanting to be good and kind I developed a preference for giving over receiving.  Indeed I often feel embarrassed or awkward about receiving - sometimes feeling unworthy of the gift or uncertain what is expected of me in return.  And I always feel that I must give SOMETHING in return!

So this journey began with my first challenge to that: the whole journey was a gift paid for by the generosity of the supporters of my fundraising campaign.  This blog is my way to offer something in return!

Then the flights out to Almaty happened to be on my birthday and I was given gifts by the flight crews.  These I simply had to receive as there was no way of giving in return!



I had taken a present for Svetlana, the Reiki master I stayed with in Almaty, to honour the gift of being able to stay in a local person's home and being met at the airport at 2 am.  I was therefore surprised when she gave me some gifts at the end of my stay.  However I saw that it would be rude to refuse, so accepted them with gratitude.  One of these gifts was a beautiful pair of embroidered felt slippers with toes that turn up.  I learned that this is supposed to be so that when you walk on the grass you don't harm it.  The other gift was a model yurt also made of felt which even has the bed and table inside.  Although many people now live in houses in towns and cities many of them still have yurts where they spend the summer - we saw some on our day out to the lake.

During the retreat several people came up to me with various gifts which it was clear it gave them great pleasure to give. 


I learned more about this aspect of Kazakh culture of when one afternoon I admired the Kazakh embroidered coat a fellow participant was wearing. "If it fits you, it's yours" she responded and insisted I take off the jacket I was wearing to try it on. It fitted! I protested that I couldn't accept such a generous gift, but she insisted, telling me that it was a tradition in their culture that when a guest comes to stay in your yurt you would give them a gift of a sheep or goat or one of these coats!  At a fundamental level this is to sustain life, I realised.  So I accepted and show my gratitude by wearing it.  I know that it gave her as much joy to give it as it does me to wear it!  

I also received gifts from people from other countries in the region who were at the retreat; it seems this tradition of honouring guests with gifts is widespread in the former Soviet Union countries.   

I think one of my other favourite gifts was a carrier bag that contained 2 boxes of Kazakh tea, two packets of toasted sunflower seeds and a packet of sunflower seed halva.  I loved this gift because it was what was available at the local supermarket - and also something I have been able to share with others on my return home when I made Kazakh tea for some of my students at a workshop.  

I had taken some things to give as gifts too and enjoyed giving them.  They were only very small things - such as some of my postcards, lavendar bags and a tea spoon rest with a robin on it and so on - but seemed to bring pleasure to those who received them.

The other gift I took to share of course (as well as the Reiki) was the songs, which I think brought joy to the whole group.

Overall I feel I received far more than I gave, but that's OK.

Daily Docent Meetings

Each day at around 4pm the docents met with Phyllis to plan the next steps for the group.  Phyllis and Paul had a number of questions they wanted input about but the docent group were also asked for input and on the first day the participants had also been asked to contribute to what issues they wanted to discuss.  They had also been asked to indicate which of the topics we had already decided on they were most interested in.

Every docent meeting was interesting and involving.  We had translation because over half the group were Russian speaking.  We therefore sometimes had input from the interpreters as well.  Every opinion was listened to and held as a valuable contribution to the whole - even when we didn't agree.  Out of these discussions would come a decision about what to do next: what question to put to the group and how it would be discussed.  Some questions were discussed by the whole group, some in small groups.  Sometimes the results of these discussions were reported, sometimes we just asked the question 'so what did you learn?' and listened to the responses.

The docent group also decided about other aspects of the programme, such as whether to include singing, when to take some time off and how to open and close each day.

We were always made comfortable with snacks and tea, but it was clear we were there to 'work' not socialize!  However through our discussions I felt a strong bond with everyone else.

In preparing the questions for the group to consider we often had far ranging discussions.  One of the things I most appreciated was that in spite of our diverse backgrounds and cultures we shared common understanding about Reiki practice.  Much of this came from the fact that we shared Usui Shiki Ryoho as our form of practice and in particular had all benefited from the teachings of the OGM - our lineage bearer Phyllis and head of discipline Paul.

One afternoon a chance comment led to the telling of a wonderful story.  The background to it is this: on our first evening we had visited a market where there was a cheese stall.  Looking for an easy to carry protein snack for the days ahead I had noticed some 'cheese balls' - small round pieces of cheese shaped like a marble - and had been given one to taste.  It was nice, but very salty so I asked if she had any that were less salty.  She showed me some larger cheese balls - about the size of a golf ball - which she told me had been carried by the Kazakh soldiers when traveling and were very good for bone strength!  So I bought some.

When I came to try one a few days later I discovered they are so hard I could not bite them!  No wonder they made people's bones strong!

So in one of the docent meetings I mentioned that they were too hard to eat and I didn't know what to do with them.  Phyllis commented that that is why it's a good idea to try before  you buy!

However one of the docents who is from Almaty then went on to tell this wonderful story:

During the second world war some German prisoners were held in camps near Almaty.  They were not properly fed and were starving.  One day some local people came to the camp and started throwing stones through the fence at them.  Only they weren't stones: one of the prisoners discovered that they were in fact some of these cheese balls!  Apparently there is a poem written bu one of the survivors thanking the local people for their kindness which saved the lives of several of the German prisoners - all thanks to the cheeses that look like stones (and are as hard!).

I still didn't know how to eat them as I was told that people would just put them in their mouth and let them dissolve slowly - but they were too big for my mouth!  I decided to take them home, where perhaps I could grate them or find some way to re-hydrate them!  But if I hadn't mentioned this problem I would never have heard the wonderful story about the kindness of the local people to the German prisoners.