9/1/2009

    Today was the opening day of school for all of Kazakhstan.  We were invited to the school in our village for “First Bell”, which is what they call the opening ceremony for school.  It was neat to see such a big deal being made out of the first day.  All of the students showed up in their uniforms, from kindergarten to the 11^th grade.  The school board, teachers, and parents were all there as well.  Many    people gave speeches and we had to introduce ourselves (in Russian!) to the community

.  There was dancing and singing and even an accordion player.  Unfortunately, our dog decided to accompany us to the ceremony, as he likes to follow us around town.  The ceremony was outside and he kept getting in the way of the students and the teachers.  People kept trying to shoo him away but he just wouldn't go.  He mostly stood next to us, but occasionally he would get out in the crowd or generally disrupt the ceremony.  I guess he really wanted to experience First Bell.

 

9/6/2009

 

    We went to Almaty yesterday, and saw the big city for the first time.  It was really cool, although we didn't have much time to enjoy it.  We went to the Peace Corps Office, which wasn't that exciting, but we need to be able to locate it in the event of an emergency.  We took the bus over there and then took the bus back to the city center.  We then walked around and saw the Central Mosque, the Zenkov Cathedral, Panfilov Park, some monuments and the arbat, which is a pedestrian mall. 

 

    It was a cloudy and rainy day, as you can see from the pictures.  Otherwise, you would have been able to see the mountains in the background of many photos.  But we could barely see them since it was so cloudy.  Our group leader said it is sometimes difficult to see them anyway due to the smog issue.  When I get back there, if it is clear, I will take more pictures of the amazing view. 

   

   This week we should be going to schools.  We have to present an English lesson to two English classes at the school in our village.  Even though we won't be teaching when we get to our placements, they want us to know how to present a lesson and get a feel for the Kazakhstani educational system.  A few of us have teaching experience, but it will be a very different experience from teaching any teaching I've done before.     

 

  Sorry this entry is all over the place, but I guess that's how my mind is working these days.  I do need to share a funny story that happened.  Those of you who have been to my parents' house and have tried to sneak out empty handed (without any food from my mother) will appreciate this story.  Last week, my language group came over to my house for a study session.  My host mom brought in a bowl of apples from our tree out back.  Everyone took one and there were plenty left over.  So, I offered everyone another apple to take home.  There were still a few left in the bowl when I brought it back to my host mom.  From what I could understand, she was upset because they didn't take enough.  She lead us out to the apple trees in back and had me pick some more for my friends.  They each went home with about 4 or 5 apples.  I felt like I was back at home and that my Kazakh mom and my real mom were one in the same person.

 

 

9/12/2009

 

    So you are probably wondering what my days are like (or maybe you're not, but I will tell you anyway).  Monday through Saturday, I wake up around 7, get dressed and washed, then eat breakfast with my host family.  Breakfast could be eggs, rice, macaroni, or last night's dinner.  Chai (tea) is always served, as is some bread, butter and homemade jam.  Around 7:40 or so, my friend Cindy picks me up and we walk to our Russian teacher's house for our class.  Class usually goes from 8:00 to about 12:30.  We then walk back home for lunch, which is usually rice or macaroni with tomato and cucumber salad, more bread and more chai.  After lunch, we walk back to another house for our afternoon technical training sessions.  The session usually starts around 2 and goes to about 6.  We then walk home for dinner.  I usually play with the kids for a while and we have dinner around 8. Then I do my homework and go to bed around 10.

    Not super exciting, but so is the life of a Peace Corps Trainee.  Although we are comfortable with village life and enjoy the company of other Americans, we are all eager to survive training and get to our permanent sites in November.  That is when the real Peace Corps experience begins. 

     

"Cause I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane"

August 21, 2009

So that song was playing while I was waiting in the Providence Airport for my flight to Washington, DC. Pretty appropriate...After a tearful good-bye with the fam, I was on my way.
I arrived in DC on time and went to the hotel to meet all my fellow Peace Corps folk. They were easily recognizable by the tremendous amounts of luggage each carried with them. It was cool to talk to people who had been going through the same emotions that I had been over the last few months. Almost everyone had a horror story about packing and the things they had to leave behind. My list of things left behind includes several books, sneakers, a knitting project and newly purchased boots. Trying to adhere to the Peace Corp's 100 pound luggage weight limit was nothing compared with meeting the luggage dimensions requirement. Anything that protruded from the bag had to be discarded.
After checking into the hotel, we proceeded down the hallway, dumped all of our stuff in a hotel conference room and lined up to hand in our paperwork. Once everyone (all 66 of us) handed in their paperwork, we started the never-ending staging session. The staging session included some ice-breakers, skits, and group discussions about Peace Corps. The room had a “summer camp” vibe with all of our enthusiasm and energy and I swore we were going to join hands and start singing “Cumbaya” at one point. Don't worry, we didn't.
We stayed in that conference room from 1 pm to about 7:30 pm, with 1 short break. Working on 1 or 2 hours of sleep, those last few hours of the session were painful. We got some money for dinner and headed over to a near by restaurant. Some bonding ensued, but most of us just wanted to get to sleep.

“No Sleep 'til Alamaty...”

On Wednesday we ate breakfast, and I enjoyed what will probably be my last everything bagel for a while. We checked out of the hotel and boarded buses for Dulles around 12:00. One volunteer and I were sitting outside waiting for the buses and we met a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Honduras. She wished us well on our trip and recounted some of her fond memories for us. I thought it was a good omen that we met her and that even after 20 years, she still looks back positively on her experience.
Arrived at Dulles at around 1 pm, but our plane wasn't until 5:45. The time passed quickly and soon we were on our flight to Frankfurt. Most of us (including me) did not sleep on this leg of the flight. I had two really nice seat mates and we chatted and laughed for a good portion of the flight. We arrived at Frankfurt somewhat tired and cranky after not sleeping at all on the flight.
On the second leg of the flight we all slept. We arrived in Almaty around 1:30 AM on Friday morning. We had a welcoming committee in the form of some Peace Corps volunteers and officials. We loaded ours stuff onto trucks and rode buses to the “hotel”. Four of us shared the room shown in the pictures below. Needless to say we became acquainted really quickly.







8/22/09

Crazy morning, but we now have a better idea of what work we'll be doing.

Went to our villages today and met the families that we'll be staying with until Halloween. All of the families met us at the gate to the village and seemed really welcoming and excited to have us. They performed a dance for us, and made us do a dance too! We are staying in an Uighur village, apparently Kazakhstan has the largest Uighur population outside of China. I met my host mom and she took me back to her house. She has a daughter, a son-in-law, and three grandchildren who all live with her. The house in the background of the picture is where we have our technical training every day. I met my host mom and she took me back to her house. She has a daughter, a son-in-law, and three grandchildren who all live with her.
They fed me a lot of food upon my arrival including chai (tea), some great bread, some chocolate spread that rocked my world, and some tomato salad with some of the best tasting tomatoes I've had in a while. I would have been content if that was dinner, but alas it was not. For dinner we had some more tomato salad, rice, vegetables and meat chunks, and chai. I'm pretty sure I downed a meat chunk or two, but time will tell if they'll come back up! For desert we had watermelon, which was excellent. My Russian, however, is not so excellent, but I managed to show gratitude for their hospitality.



8/29/2009
Oh, I must be psychic. After writing that last post, the meat chunks and everything else totally came back up. I spent all of Sunday (8/23) running in between the outhouse and the inside tub. I had stuff coming out all ends. When I wasn't getting sick I was sleeping. After one trip to the outhouse, I walked onto the porch and sat down. I was so tired I didn't think I could make back to my room. So I just sat down and rested for a bit. I was sweating really badly and my host sister saw me and made me call the Peace Corps doctor. He said I had the honor of being the first one in our group to call with gastro-intestinal issues, but certainly I would not be the last! I had to drink lots of water and take the equivalent of pepto-bismol (called Pept-Eez) that was in our medical kit. There is nothing like puking in front of strangers to humble you a little! Their kids were totally watching either in horror or curiosity at the crazy American puking in the tub.

So we survived week 1 of Pre-Service Training (PST). The 10 of us who are staying in the same village are adjusting to life here, and I think the host families are adjusting to us. My Russian is definitely improving but it still has a long way to go. As is true with most language skills, I understand far more than I am able to express. My family has had a few guests since my arrival, and I can tell when they are talking about me, because there are always conversations about how I don't eat meat. To which the guest will usually ask, well what does she eat? To which they reply, “ Macaroni, rice, spaghetti, vegetables, and fruit”. Which have pretty much been my steady diet since my arrival here.
We have apple trees in the back yard, so every day on my way to Russian class I can pick myself an apple to take as a snack. Others have peach trees or pear trees in their yards and we all have fruit with us for class each day. Life in our village is pretty good. Some others complain because we are in one of the more remote villages and we don't have internet access like the others do. I try to keep reminding them that that is not what this experience is about, but alas the young kids today want their internet!

Here is a photo taken at our language teachers' house. They were teaching us how to wash clothes by hand, just in case you had to do that. Luckily, my host family has a washing machine!

Here is a picture of our dog, named sabaka, which is Russian for dog. He is super cute and he comes to our Russian class everyday. He walks us home sometimes and we feed him our food scraps. He loves bread!

Lastly, here is a picture of the mountain view from our village. It's not a great picture, I will try to get better ones next time. But we have an amazing view of the Tien Shan from our village. They provide an amazing back drop, and sometimes don't seem real. Supposedly there are waterfalls near by that we may get to hike before we leave.