School's out for summer!

6/13/2010

Sooo....As usual, it's been a while between blog posts. Wish my life were more exciting so I had more to post. May was a quick month and I was looking forward to the end of the school year on May 25^th.

Each class at the orphanage has a class leader, who is a teacher that guides that class from the 5^th grade to their graduation in the 11^th grade. They are responsible for a number of reports, birthday recognitions, determining course of study, etc. My counterpart was the class leader for this year's graduating class, so graduation was especially important for her because this had been "her class" for several years. 

Pic of my counterpart and two of her students in

their graduation outfits:

The graduates at the closing of school ceremony: 

 So the last day of school was very important for my counterpart, with her students graduating and all.  She was giving a tea party for her students and their teachers after the ceremony.  We also had a presentation to make later in the day to a bunch of important visitors. That being the case and the fact that appearances are very important in Kazakhstan, I took extra care getting ready for the day. I put on a dress, ironed my dress jacket and did my hair extra nicely (i.e. tried to tame the frizz). Strike 1 – I got deodorant on the bottom of my black dress. Washed it off as best I could, but apparently it was still visible. Strike 2- later in the day I got a run in my pantyhose....surprise, surprise. Strike 3—was trying to be helpful by washng the dishes after the party. One of the tea cups had a large chip in it and I cut my finger. No biggie, except here they use colored iodine to clean the cut. My hand was dark green! So let's review:

Photo of the chemistry teacher, Sasha - a graduate, and me

tried to look nice for presentation ended up with: deodorant on dress, run in pantyhose, and frog hands! Some days I wonder why I even bother...My counterpart told me to walk into the presentation sideways hoping that no one would see the run in my stockings. Also had to try very hard not to talk with my hands so no one would see the giant green spots on my hands. Never a dull moment.

After the end of school I went to a teacher's conference in Kyzlorda for English teachers. Even though I'm not an education volunteer, I thought my years of teaching experience might give me something to present to some folks. Due to some crazy scheduling conflicts, I couldn't travel down there with my friend Anna even though we had already bought our tickets together. It's a 40+ hour trip on the train and not one you want to do alone if you can help it. Anna found another volunteer to go with her from Kokshetau. My site mate Niall was also going to the conference. I convinced him to go a day late and take the train with me. You can't get a train directly from Petropavlovsk to Kyzlorda. We took a 10 hour train to Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan) and had about a 12 hr. layover. Then we took a train that evening for the 36 hr. trek to to Kyzlorda. Neither of us had been to Astana so we were glad for the chance to see it. It's only been the capital for about a decade, and before that it was a relatively small city. All of the growth you see has sprouted up in the last 10 years or so, which is really crazy.  These photos are from Astana.  The big tower is called Baiterek and you can go up inside and see amazing views of the city from there.  Pretty neat!

 

Me inside Baiterek

The new mosque in Astana

Conference was really fun. Got the chance to appreciate life for our southern volunteers. In Kyzlorda instead of -30 in the winter they have 100+ in the summer. I'll take my northern winters any day over their ridiculous summers! The teachers we met were very glad to be at the conference and to have the chance to speak with native English speakers. Everyone was really nice and they were very enthusiastic and passionate about teaching. I was glad I took the time to go, and it energized me to be around such enthusiastic people.

Following the conference, my friend Anna and I headed to Almaty (via 24 hr. train ride) for our annual medical check up. You'll be happy to know that my health is good according the the Peace Corps doctor. I've lost a bit of weight which was nice to have verified, but still could stand to lose some more. Who knew Peace Corps service could also be a catalyst for weight loss? I sense a reality show in the making?

Now, I'm back at site. Starting tomorrow, I head to summer camp. The orphanage has summer camp all summer at a location in the countryside. I will live there most of the summer, with the exception of about 3 weeks where I will help other volunteers with their camps. Then at the end of the summer my family and a friend will visit. I can't wait! It will be great for them to experience Kazakhstan and see what living here is all about. So, that's it for awhile. I'll try to post some camp picks in a few weeks, but my internet access will be non-existent for awhile so forgive me if you don't hear from me in a timely manner. Hope you all enjoy your summer!