Where Is My Mind?

      

      Here it is, the blog post you've been waiting for!  Yes, it's that time of year again.  Time to shed all fears about the cold, having wet hair outside, catching pneumonia and dive in to the frozen Ishim River.  Yes folks, I'm talking about Kreshenya.  Loyal readers (all 3 of you) may remember a post from last January about some crazy volunteers and local folks who jumped in the river in -30 degree weather.  Around these parts, that day is known as Kreshenya.  It's a religious holiday for those in the Russian Orthodox faith and is supposed to act as a "re-baptism".  Believers do it once a year on January 19th.  The water is believed to be holy on this day and folks who don't take the plunge take some water to keep in their homes for the year.  They use it to calm crying babies, ward away sickness, etc.   

The frozen Ishim River on Kreshenya.

       A lot of local people who are not of this faith also participate in the festivities because people do believe that dipping in the river keeps you healthy for one year.  In past years, volunteers have invited other volunteers from around Kazakhstan to participate in the fun.  I did the same, and found 8 brave souls willing to make the trek up to Petropavlovsk.  They helped out at my orphanage and did teacher trainings so that their time up here would also be work related.  My students really enjoyed having them around and I'll post soon about that.  

Waling single file on our short detour to the river.

    
     We gathered at around 11 AM to get the bus out to the river.  Some miscommunication with the conductor meant we got out about 2 stops to early.  No worries, we just added another 10-15 minutes to our journey in some pretty cold weather.  On the bright-side, my friends got to see a little more of my city.  We got a few stares from the locals.  It's not everyday that a giant group of Americans comes traipsing through your neighborhood. 



Waiting my turn to get some water. 

    We arrived at the river, and I was surprised to see a large number of people there.  Last year is was probably -35C or more.  This year it was closer to -27C/-16F, and so more people came to participate.  My counterpart from the orphanage had to work and couldn't make it to the river.  She asked me to bring her some water, which was our first order of business. 



Getting the water with bare hands. 
Makes you think twice about jumping in!



My Russian tutor Lena, and me.

    Once we had the water it was time to do the dip.  About 10 of us were dipping so we decided to go in shifts.  We needed to be quick bcause we knew once people had dipped they would want to get out of there quicly and go to the banya (kind of like a sauna).  I kind of handn't decided if I would really do this, so I was able to procrastinate a little more when I scored a spot in the second shift.  



    I prepared myself for the worst, and thought I would feel like dying when I got out of the water, so I was pleasantly surprised that this experience wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  My fingers and toes were not happy with me, but other than that, it wasn't that bad.  I was glad I participated, as this was my last opportunity to do so.  It was nice to share this experience with some equally crazy volunteers.  So, enjoy these frozen photos and leave some comments.  If this post doesn't generate some comments, I don't know what will!

This guy makes it look easy.

Waiting my turn...

Testing the waters...

Are we having fun yet?

Afterward, my feet wouldn't work.  I needed help to put my  flip flops on!



After the dip, some really cold volunteers got on the marshrutka  and headed straight for the sauna!  The look on Hannah's face (on the right) says it all!





Reflections and the Road Ahead

      Two updates in one week!  What is going on?  Well, there have been a lot of changes here in the past month and the upcoming months will yield a few more.  Thought I should keep you guys updated.  So after my family left in September, I attended a conference with my training mates at the Peace Corps office in Almaty.  We got to bring one person from our workplace and learned some new information to apply at our sites.  As always, it was good for the 9 of us to get together and here about the good work that everyone is doing.  It was also helpful for my work situation and I seem to have more freedom this year. 

     After the training, I went back to site ready to start work on some real projects.  I started this school year more confident in my Russian skills and with a greater understanding of what I wanted to accomplish in my time at the orphanage.  I got a few clubs up and running and want to start a volunteer group, but have had a few road blocks in my way.  My project will hopefully be successful, but is kind of on hold until December. 
    
      October brought a lot of changes.  Two of my site mates, Niall and Katie, had finished their two years in Petropavlovsk as Peace Corps Volunteers and have left the city.  Niall left early in October as he had some job prospects in the U.S.  Katie left at the end of October and she and I will travel together to Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey.  It is really hard to imagine Petro without them, but time will tell.  I moved into Katie's apartment and left my host family that I have lived with for one year.  That was really hard on all of us, but it was time to live on my own.  Those Americans and their love for independence...

      While I'm on vaction with Katie, the new group of volunteers will come up to their sites on November 7th.  In my city, we will get one new volunteer and two more volunteers in surrounding villages.  It will be nice to have some new faces in our neck of the woods.  It's hard to believe that one year ago, I came up to Petropavlovsk for the first time as a newly sworn-in Peace Corps Volunteer. 

    It's been a crazy year, but one I wouldn't trade for anything.  It was a dream of mine for a long time to join the Peace Corps and while it hasn't been easy, I have no regrets.  This has probably been the most challenging thing I've ever done.  It's difficult to describe what makes it so challenging, maybe it's the language barrier, the new surroundings, different culture, 24/7 work environment, who knows?  Regardless of the challenges, it's still a lot of fun: meeting new people, having crazy experiences, working with kids, exploring cultural differences and similarities, among other things. 

     So, I have one year left.  There is a lot I want to accomplish in that time so that I can leave here next November feeling like I made good use of my time.  Then I can return home to all of you and share my crazy stories in person! 

9/16/2010

Johnsons in Kazakhstan!  Most of you have read Sarah's blog about my family's trip to Kazakhstan.   If not, I'll direct you there to read all about our trip: http://sarahjb.posterous.com/   I've decided not to rehash it here, since she did such a great job of describing everything. 

We had a busy two weeks as we traveled from Almaty to Shymkent to Astana to Petropavlovsk.  It was great to see my family and words cannot express what it meant to see them after all this time.  I'm lucky they traveled here to see me, and I know the 24 hour train trip, squat toilets, and stiff beds were not their idea of a relaxing vacation.  They were good sports and they left with a greater understanding of my life here and met some great people on the way.  So enjoy some photo highlights of our trip and I'll post an update soon.  In the meantime, if you happen to run into my parents I hear they have a 200+ photo album of their journey.  They may even ask you to look at it, so beware!  Make your excuses early, unless you have a few hours to spare...

Mom in wearing some traditional dress in Almaty.

Turkestan Mausoleum

The "sardine can", otherwise known as our train to Astana.

Baiterek Monument in Astana.  It has become a national symbol for Kazakhstan.  You can take an elevator up it and look out over Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan). 

Some modern buildings in Astana.  The city has been greatly built up since being named the new capital in 1997.

My apartment building in Petropavlovsk

My counterpart and some of our students on the first day of school.

Some of the kids at our orphanage, waiting for the 1st day of school festivities to start.

Two of our students, Indira and Olya doing a dance for our opening bell ceremony at school.

Us at the art museum in Petropavlovsk

My host mom and sister in Petro.  Ready for the 1st day of school.

Me and some of our 1st and 2nd graders.  They are so cute!

Dad at the bazaar in Petro.

Dad dressed up like Ablai Khan.

Sarah wearing a traditional Turkmen hat. 

  

Our last photo together for a while...It was a fun visit!

Walking in the rain in Enbek to visit my first host family.

My host mom and my mom making noodles from scratch.

Feast that greeted us in Enbek, prepared by my host family from training.

The main bazaar in Shymkent.  If you can't find it here, you don't need it!

Sarah's getting a call on her cell phone cookie.  These were her favorite.

Sarah, Stacey , my host mom, her son and his new wife, Guzyela, me, Dad

Toasting to new friends in Enbek.  It was neat that my real family got the chance to meet my host family from training.  We had a great time visiting them, and my family got to experience village life!  Can you say outhouse?

World War II monument in Almaty

View of Almaty from Kok Tobe Cable Car

Family we met at the cable car.  They were very excited to meet and be photographed with Americans.

Train to Shymkent.  Tight quarters, but a nice ride!

Selling melons in Shymkent

Dried fruit and nuts at the bazaar in Shymkent

\

Turkestan Mausoleum

Flea market in Shymkent.  There you could buy old soviet coins, car parts, busts of Lenin, pots and pans, anything you could imagine!

\

Sum- Sum- Summertime!

8/19/2010

Boys in the group that I stayed with all summer. 

Great group of kids, endless amounts of energy!

    This update has been ready ready for a while, but I just got around to posting it now.  So what have I been up to this summer? Well, school ended at the end of May and the whole orphanage picked up and moved to our summer location. We have a summer camp on the outskirts of Petropavlovsk. The kids live there from June to August. There we have a pool, basketball court, soccer field, and a makeshift disco. There was even karaoke one day, where I did a lively rendition of YMCA.  Don't judge -- my choices of English songs were limited!  My job is to teach English classes and to do other activities with the kids. I've played a lot of volleyball, frisbee, UNO, red light-green light, and duck, duck, goose.  The kids are crazy for UNO and it's going to be a while before I will be able to look at a deck of UNO cards again...

               

The girls in the group I stayed with:

                                                             Pasha and Vanya at camp

After breakfast every morning the kids have a work period where they have to do chores such as sweep the living quarters, help in the kitchen, clean up the grounds, etc. I was given duties in the vegetable garden. It's pretty cool. We have beets, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, and herbs. We water the plants, pick the weeds, and so on. I think it's cool that they try to grow a significant amount of their own food to feed the kids.

    This past year, I set up a pen pal program with a teacher from the school I used to work at in Massachusetts (Thanks John!). His kids wrote us letters in April and we responded in May. I got their replies in July and my kids will write back in September when everyone is back at school.  They asked every day about the letters, and it was hard to make them understand just how long international mail takes to arrive.  They were so excited when the letters finally did arrive and can't wait to resume letter writing in the fall.   

Kids at camp in Presnovka saying thanks to the sponsor of the camp

     In addition to the orphanage camp, I also had the chance to go to two camps put on by village volunteers in our region. One I was only at for a few days in Bulaevo with my friend Brendan and the other I was at for one week in Presnovka, with my friend Patrick. It was my first time at both of these sites and it was neat to see the villages. We did English grammar, played games, played sports, did art projects and had a lot of fun. The kids were pretty enthusiastic and the teachers we worked with were also glad to have the chance to interact with native English speakers. I was impressed at the work my fellow volunteers did to organize their camps and I can't wait to help again next summer!

Our Bulaevo crew walking to camp pausing to take a photo
near the grain elevator...Patrick, Niall, and Brendan

Wearing traditional dress with Niall at the Museum in Preznovka. 

Students ready for camp in Bulaevo

Here are some photos of my summer and the people who helped make it great. The woman standing is one of Patrick's counterparts from Presnovka (he has two). Her name is Rosa and she hosted 6 Volunteers at her house for a whole week. She cooked for us, chatted with us, played cards, and we had banya everyday. She was amazing and I hope I get to go to camp there again next year!

Our Preznovka crew at the Shykhov Museum
Local friend Ayala, the museum curator, Patrick, Niall, Denise, me, Brendan and Patrick's counterpart

My friend Katie at camp in Presnovka.
A man representing the local Cossacks presented us with this hat.

Brendan in action at camp in Bulaevo

Russian language camp

I also took a week in July to go to Russian Language Camp.  Brendan, one of the village volunteers in my region organized a week long language learning camp in Petropavlovsk.  We had Russian classes for 4 hours every day and then did activities in the afternoon.  We cooked, saw Toy Story 3 in Russian and went to the art museum.  I thought my Russian was getting better, especially since at the orphanage camp I speak only Russian.  However, Russian Language Camp taught me that I still have sooooo much to learn about the Russian language.  It was a really great week, but at the end I had was definitely on Russian language overload!

So what now?  I finished with camp two days ago.  Tonight, I take the train down to Almaty. My parents, sister, and friend Stacey will arrive in Almaty on August 22^nd and will be here for two weeks. I'm beyond excited for their visit and have a pretty packed itinerary. There are many people here who can't wait to meet my family and it will be great for everyone to get acquainted.

Sorry for the long break in updates but camp barely had cell phone reception (though the outhouse was suprisingly conducive--many a text message recieved in there!).  I had limited email access all summer, though things will improve markedly now.  School starts on September 1st, while my family is here, and then I have a training in Almaty on September 6th for one week.  There probably won't be any more blog updates until mid-September. Thanks to all who read and post comments if you can.

Stay tuned to this page in September, for pics from the Johnson family's visit to Kazakhstan. There are sure to be some stories...