...looks more like a Carlos to me, too.

The south KZ team: L-R: Karen, David, Alicia, Moi, Carolina, Katina, Curtis.

It's just as gross as it looks:

Showing Karen (Carlos?) around Taraz:

defying gravity:

WOW. It's really been quite the week. Last weekend, we had our
spring retreat with our team. The four teachers from Shymkent came to
Taraz for a long weekend along with our Regional Director from
California, Karen. It was SO good to see Karen—we hadn't seen her
since we left training in August! It was a fun weekend, with lots of
time set aside to reflect on the past year and what's to come as we
prepare to leave here, some only for the summer, some for good.

A few highlights:
Worsh!p…it's just awesome.
Word study as a group
Ate way too much food, but it was ALL good, and ALL American.
The next two will be TMI for a few people. Read on at your own risk:
Sending Curtis on a tampon run…it was that kind of weekend.
Went shopping for non-rhinestoned underwear. (harder that you might
think.) And, speaking of underwear, let's talk about self-image. My
roommate, who wears pants that are like size -3 needs underwear that
is size xxl. Weird, right? No wonder every single girl struggles
with self image here.
Played a LOT of speed Scrabble.
Ate American Reeses peanut butter cups and little Butterfinger eggs.
Hallelujah.
Facebook stalked the new Russia/Kazakhstan teacher recruits for next year.
Increased our Taraz wolf pack to three and decided that Karen Gonzalez
actually looks more like a Carlos than a Karen.

What a great spring retreat!