Happy New Year!

1/10/2010

So, I've let this blog go a little bit. It's not that I haven't wanted to keep you all posted, it's just that I guess I've been procrastinating. Those of you who know me well, know that I have a bad habit of bad procrastination. In the spirit of the new year, I have recommitted myself to telling the stories of my crazy life with the Peace Corps here in Kazakhstan.

What have I been up to, you ask? Well, Christmas was just another day here. The Christians here mostly celebrate Russian Orthodox Christmas which is on January 7th. So on Dec. 25th, a few of us gathered at one volunteer's house with some local friends and toasted the fact that it was Christmas. Not very exciting, but it just wasn't the same as being home. They also don't have all of the crazy commercialization here that gets you all fired up for the coming of Christmas. I think that also may have contributed to the calm celebration of the holiday.

The Sunday after Christmas, I was invited to a "winter picnic" by the professor of English at our local university. We attend his English club at the university and a few times per winter he puts on a winter picnic for the club attendees. I took the bus out to the outskirts of town and the professor and some of his English students picked me up in a car. We drove out near the lake to the site of the picnic.

A photo of the winter picnic site:

Making the soup and tending to the fire:

Professor Petrovich and the almost setting sun:

I dressed in many layers and still seemed to spend the entire time in front of the camp fire. They made soup and we drank many, many cups of tea. It was really nice to look out onto the lake even though it was covered in snow. Our group were the only ones out there that day and the scene was serene and peaceful. It was a nice way to spend a frigid winter's day, although I wouldn't want to do that every weekend!

Some students with the snow tower they were trying to build. You can see our snowtracks

on the frozen, snow-covered lake behind them:

New Year's was an entirely different story. Since Orthodox Christmas is much more religious, New Year's here is like Christmas for us. They have their own Santa, whose name translates to "Father Frost". The children get presents and people often visit friends and family at this time. They put up a "yolka" which is essentially a Christmas tree as we know it.

On New Year's again I gathered with some volunteers who were visiting the city from their respective villages. However, I went home early to ring in the new year with my host family. There are usually fireworks, but it was -30 that night, so we wisely decided to stay in. It was a really fun night all around, with good food and good people and lots of celebration.

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

12/17/2009

So it is almost officially winter here and boy is it cold! Yesterday and today we were off from school due to the observance of Independence Day here. Thank goodness we had today off because it was -26 degrees Celsius (-14.8F) outside. My cell phone has a temperature converter on it and I like to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius to see what I'm actually dealing with. Here they don't get school off when it snows, but they do get days off when it is -30C (-22F) or more. Apparently it's not good for kids to be out in such cold weather. Since the kids at the orphanage live there, and don't have to go outside to get to school, we still work on those extra cold days! In honor of the cold and the few really cold days we've had I've decided to put together a weather-themed list of things I like and things I could do without here. Enjoy!

Things I can do without:

1. going outside

2. days I forget to put on long underwear

3. the 40 minute walk to my Russian tutor's apartment

4. the frost on my glasses, which makes seeing difficult

5. the bus skidding to a stop everyday , because they don't sand the streets

6. the wind (because 30 below isn't bad enough?)

7. wondering which part of my face will fall off first (Will it be my nose? Will it be one cheek or both?)

Things I am grateful for:

1. hot tea and soup

2. long underwear

3. my bulky LL Bean boots, even though the locals stare (Almost everone here wears black leather boots. Many women even wear high heeled boots in these very icy conditions!)

4. Gore-Tex, fleece and any other material whose sole purpose is to keep you warm

5. July and August won't be that hot (I would rather deal with subzero temperatures than extreme heat any day!)

6. indoor plumbing (using an outhouse in this weather?!)
7. that I don't live in Antarctica and it will stop snowing and warm up eventually...

So that is my life here in Petro. I talk about the weather each morning with my host family. I now think that anything above -20C (-4F) is “normal” and “not that cold”. Oh, how perceptions change!

New Surroundings and Celebrations

11/15/2009

So I am slowly figuring life out here in Petropavlovsk. It certainly is different from the village that I was used to, but it is growing on me. I moved in with a new host family and they are really nice. The mom teaches physics at the orphanage, her husband is a businessman, and they have a son who is 14 and a daughter who is 10. The mom and the son speak excellent English and they like to practice their English when they talk to me. They have also been very patient with my Russian and politely listen as I botch their native tongue on a daily basis.

I take the bus to and from work, as it is too far to walk. Petro has a pretty reliable bus system, although I don't know how I'll feel about waiting for the bus when it is 40 below. For now it's not bad. My round-trip fare on the bus each day costs less than 50 cents, what a deal! Although the way some of the bus drivers drive, they should be paying me to take the bus. The roads are icy now and they peel out of each stop, because that's how you drive when the roads don't get sanded? I hang on for dear life on the days when I don't get a seat.

Work is picking up now that the kids are back to school. I mostly help with English and help teach some English classes. It may take a few months to carve out a role for myself, as Peace Corps told us. But in the meantime, I get to meet the kids, who are all really nice. They all say hello and good-bye in English, and give me weird looks when I speak to them in Russian. They have classes most of the day, then have extra-curricular activities in the afternoon. It will be part of my job to help plan some of the extra-curricular activities, which I am looking forward to.

The kids live in dormitories and the school is attached. Nice in winter, they don't even have to walk outside to get to school in the morning. They live in “families” of about 20-30 children. Each family has a large living area, two large bedrooms (one for girls, one for boys) and maybe another room or two for studying or recreation. They have people who look after them and they all have chores to complete.

Some kids are in the orphanage because their parents' rights were taken away, and some of the children are true orphans. Some may have parents either in prison or who are unable to care for them due to alcoholism or other issues. The kids are able to visit their extended families such as grandparents or aunts and uncles with the permission of the orphanage. It's only been a short time, but many of the children seem remarkably well adjusted given their circumstances. The staff at the orphanage seems very kind as well and the kids appear to be very well cared for.

Don't have many pictures of the city yet, but this website does a much better job than I ever could. Many interesting photos for you to see of Petropavlovsk and what it actually looks like. http://aboutkazakhstan.com/Petropavlovsk_city.shtml

12/6/2009

So, I've officially been here for one month. I'm still adjusting, but overall things are going well. November brought two celebrations: Thanksgiving and my birthday. For Thanksgiving, volunteers from our oblast (county) and the oblast closest to us, got together for a weekend of celebration and fun. We went to Zerenda which is a small town with a cross-country skiing lodge. All 24 of us stayed there and cooked Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday after the holiday. We got in Friday night, had a nice pasta dinner, then chatted with other volunteers all night.

Saturday was mostly spent cooking, hiking and playing frisbee. Sunday we packed up and left for home. I got to see Hannah, who was with me in Enbek. She's now in Kokshetau which is about 4 hours by bus from me. This was the first time we'd seen each other since leaving our training village, so that was really cool. Overall, it was a really fun weekend and a nice way to meet some of the volunteers who have been here for one year already. I've included some photos from the trip.

Hannah & me:

View from the top of a hill we climbed up:

Thanksgiving frisbee (who needs football?)
Me with a glorious mountain of mashed potatoes:

My birthday celebration was also cool. My site mates threw me a party, which included some local friends who have welcomed us into their community. Also, I invited my Russian teacher, Anya, and two other Russian teachers that worked with us in Almaty, but who are from Petropavlovsk. A good time was had by all. We had vegetarian burritos, improvised from ingredients found here, but spiced up with a packet of taco seasoning Megan had sent from home. Everyone thought they were surprisingly tasty, even the meat eaters.

We played a game where you had to pop a balloon and do whatever the slip of paper inside told you to do. Most were pretty tame, such as crawl around under the table, pat your head and hop on one foot at the same time, etc. After doing what the balloon said, the person would say a toast to me. That was really cool and a lot of fun.

Anya (my Russian tutor) before giving a toast:

Sitemates Katie and Megan with my birthday sign:

The Big Time

10/28/2009

So we are in Almaty this week for our Counterpart Conference. We all met our counterparts yesterday. They are the people from our organizations that will help us adjust and will work closely with us for the benefit of the organization. My counterpart's name is Lyudmilla. She has been working at the orphanage since it opened in the 80's and is the English teacher there. She seems really nice and is excited to get to work. Her English is excellent, so that takes some of the pressure off my Russian but I do want it to get better. She had many ideas for projects and things I could do for the kids at the orphanage. It sounds like I have my work cut out for me.

10/31/2009

Today was our Swearing-In Ceremony. We went from mere trainees to full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteers. It was a very exciting day! The Country Director of Peace Corps Kazakhstan gave a speech, as did someone from the Ministry of Education and the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan. Two volunteers gave speeches, one in Russian and one in Kazakh. There was even an entertainment portion of the ceremony and our training group performed an original song, written by a girl in our group. It detailed our time here so far and was pretty funny.

After the speeches and performances were done, we all got to go up to the microphone in front of the stage, say our names and the name of the places were were headed. Next we shook hands with the Ambassador, had our picture taken, then shook hands with the Country Director and received our Peace Corps pin with the Peace Corps logo and the American and Kazakhstan flags on it. Pretty cool. My group mate Jessica shaking hands with the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan:

Following the ceremony, a large group of volunteers had to leave for the train station to catch their trains. My group, those of us going up north, doesn't leave until tomorrow for some reason. So we said good-bye to our friends, and wished them luck. It was hard to say good-bye to everyone but we will see each other again in March when we meet for a training conference.

11/7/2009

I have officially arrived in Petropavlovsk, after an amazingly long 32 hour train ride. I have included a picture for you to see the vast steppe that makes up a large part of Kazakhstan. You can see nothing but flat land for miles and miles. The pictures I took are of bad quality because my camera did not appreciate the moving train. You can also see a short video I took of the scenery. Again, I apologize for the quality. Occasionally, a man on a horse, sheep herder or random smattering of farm animals would be grazing the land. Other times there would be small villages clustered near the railroad tracks, but otherwise there seemed to be miles and miles of nothing.

The train itself was pretty fun, as there were 14 or so volunteers heading to their sites on that train. So there were plenty of people to talk to, play cards with, or eat some snacks with. My counterpart also took the train with me, so she was there to help with luggage and to speak to the conductor.

We arrived in Petro late Monday night. Out of the 14 of us, only 4 of us were left to get out at the last stop, which is Petropavlovsk. Everyone else got off at their destinations earlier. Of the 4, two of us will be in the city and two others will be in villages outside of the city. When we stepped off the train, the current volunteers were there to greet us with some of their friends. The orphanage had sent a van for me and my counterpart along with two older boys who had the unfortunate job of carrying my luggage. I tried to help them, but they wouldn't hear of it.

I went into work this week to meet the staff and the kids. Unfortunately, they have a week off that started Thursday (11/5) and will continue until next Thursday (11/12). The vacation has to do with the end of the term and all students in Petro have the week off. Teachers still report to work, as they have to calculate grades and write many reports. Thus, there is not much for me to do this week, but it is good to meet the staff and see how things work.

Last Days in the Village....

10/26/2009

Today was our last full day in the village. Crazy! My stuff is packed, can you believe it? Tonight we had a party with our host families. They all cooked wonderful dishes and we danced and had a good time. My host family made plov (see photo below).

and “francayski salat” (french salad). Basically, it's shredded beets, cabbage, carrots, fried potatoes, meat and mayonnaise. Very tasty, especially without the meat!

They also taught me how to dance “Uighurski” style, so I could dance at the party. See photo of the girls teaching me in the kitchen.

The party was a nice way to end our time with them and show our gratitude for their hospitality. We wrote wishes for our host families in Russian (with the help of our teachers) and they wrote some to us. Here is a picture of me reading my wishes to my host mom.
We played some games, danced Uighurski style (see photo below of me and my host mom)

and ate a lot. It was a great time, and we will not soon forget the exceptional hospitality shown to us by this community.

10/27/09

What a day! Did nothing all morning, but waited for bus to meet us at 12:30. Walked the girls to school and took some photos of my house, because I realized I didn't have any. I know it's kind of late, but I wanted to have pictures in order to remember my house in the village. You can see the front of the house which is covered with trees. You can also see the backyard, where the outhouse is. The garden had many flowers in the summer, but as it is late fall, everything is brown. The apple trees were on the other side of the driveway, which you can't see unfortunately.

When it was time to go, my host mom's son-in-law drove us to the cafe, so I didn't even have to carry my stuff. Good thing, since it has gotten heavier since my arrival. Cindy (another volunteer) and I technically live in another village different from everyone else. My host mom arranged for the bus to pick us up at the cafe, since it was too far to carry our stuff to the training site. The bus was late of course, so we took many pictures at the cafe and park before the bus arrived. I realized I haven't shown any photos of my host family, so here they are. My host mom is wearing the leather jacket. Cindy's host mom is wearing the purple jacket. The little girls and the baby are my host mom's grandkids. The woman holding the baby is the girls' mother, my host mom's daughter. The girl next to me is Cindy's host sister and the other girl is her friend. We said good-bye when the bus came, and many tears ensued. I hope we can go back to visit the next time we are in Almaty.

Siberia or Bust!

10/9/2009
Very exciting day today! Today was Site Announcement Day, where we found out what our placement will be for the next two years. All 65 of us went to Issyk and had a full day of lectures and presentations on volunteer safety, security and health. We sat in a room from 8:30 to about 4:00 with a lunch break and a few other short breaks. We only wanted to know out placements, but they made us wait until about 4:30! All week we have been going crazy wanting to know where we'll be placed and what kind of work we'll be doing.
The moment finally arrived, and we were ushered into an auditorium. All of the regional managers were there, along with the Country Director for Kazakhstan and other Peace Corps VIPs. We watched a slide show, which only heightened the suspense, and then the main event began. They did the announcements by oblast (county) and we are all spread out throughout about 9 or 10 oblasts all over the country. Each Regional Manager would describe each placement in their region and then name the volunteer that was selected for that assignment. That person would stand up, and we would all clap for them. Everyone looked like they had just won the lottery, instead of a two year assignment in Siberia!
My placement is in the city of Petropovlovsk, population 300,000. I will work in an orphanage, that serves children in the 5th through 11th grades. They live there and go to school there. My job will be to teach some English classes and plan extracurricular activities for them. As a secondary project I can work at a school for children with disabilities. I'm very excited about my placement and can't wait to get to work!
Petropovlovsk is about as far north as you can get in Kazakhstan. There is a Peace Corps Volunteer who is placed in a village a few miles north of the city and apparently he has the distinction of being the northern most volunteer in all of the Peace Corps. So basically, I am on the Russian border, but still in Kazakhstan. Petro (it's nickname) is also located in Siberia, so when I arrive on November 1st it will already be snowing. Winter lasts for about 6 months, so yay for me.

10/13/2009
For the past several weeks, we have been planning a camp for thirty 8th graders at the local school. It was one of the assignments given to us by our trainers. Today was the second day of camp. Yesterday and today went very well. We divided the kids into three groups, and three of us lead groups around to three different stations. We have sports, arts and crafts, and work/career planning. I lead the career planning/work sessions. I tried to make it fun and interesting and I think the kids liked it. We made visual resumes, did mock job interviews, and talked about the skills needed for certain jobs.
Tomorrow is the last day of camp and then we do a community project (another assignment) on Thursday. For our community project, we are having graffiti artists come in from Almaty to paint a mural on the school. The mural will be something community related, and it had to be approved by the director of the school. We are really excited for them to come and to work with the kids. We will also have many arts activities for the kids to participate in.


10/15/2009

Today was my Russian teacher's birthday. She turned 23, can you imagine? We had a small party for her during language class and we brought her some presents. One girl in our class brought her a blow-up flamingo (not sure why she had that) but Anya, our teacher, loved it. I brought her some nuts and some candy that my host family helped me buy at the store.
Today was our Community Project day and it marked the end of our time at the village school. We had a school-wide art day, open to anyone who wanted to participate. We had bracelet making, painting/drawing, face painting, book making, potato prints and more. The kids had a good time and we were exhausted by the end.
The teacher we have been working with at the school invited us up to her room at the end. She and her 11th grade students (who were our camp leaders and whom we have worked with closely for these two months) sang us songs and gave us gifts. They said many kind words to us and thanked us for working with them. We all teared up a little at how moving their speeches were. We said a few words of thanks to them as well (through our translator) and that made them tear up as well. It was definitely an emotional moment and an unexpected one as we haven't been here that long, and did not realize that we had made any impact at all. One of the 11th grade boys had to leave the room because he didn't want us to see him crying, which of course made us cry more!
They walked us home and one boy insisted on carrying my bags, which were heavy. We had what felt like a good part of the village walking us home. I sort of felt like Angelina Jolie on her UN Ambassador visits. However, my celebrity was short-lived, as I got home and was instantly put to work peeling potatoes for tonight's soup. Ahh, how the mighty fall. You have to love that about Peace Corps. Just when you feel smug and accomplished, you get the wind taken out of your sails. I think they do that on purpose to make sure you don't get a big head!

10/18/2009
Today the other group in our village did their community project. They cleaned up the soccer field, painted the goals, put up nets and then played soccer against different groups. I played soccer for a little bit, even though I haven't played since I was a kid. Our team, a.k.a. Team Youth Development, or Team YD for short, kept things remarkably close. We didn't get blown out, at all. Most games were pretty close. At one point, we played some adults from the village. To make things fair, we got 2 forwards and a goalie who were from the village. Our goalie was awesome! The first two saves he made, he had his cell phone in one hand, but still managed to catch the ball. The third time, the cell phone was away and he dropped the ball. Go figure.
Their project was cool, even though we were all sore the next day. Kids in the community were asking when we were going to play soccer again. We may get together on Saturday for some rematches although I'm not sure we'll all be recovered by then!

10/20/2009
Today we went to a crazy bazaar to buy winter clothes. Peace Corps gave us all a “Settling In Allowance” which we are supposed to use to buy things we'll need at our new sites. I bought a winter coat, some slippers and some wool tights. My coat is kind of ugly, but as one of my friends put it, “when it's 40 below, you won't care what you look like, you'll only care that you're warm.” Truer words were never spoken. In the photo you can see my host sister Medina wearing my coat and slippers.
Usually when we go the bazaar it is crazy, but this time it was completely nuts. We went to this bazaar in Almaty called “Baraholka”. For 7 kilometers on both sides of the road there are bazaars. Each section has different stuff, and we went to the clothes section. It's like a giant flea market with really tiny aisles. People are going up and down the aisles selling food, perfume, bags, you name it. Periodically someone else would come running through wheeling a large cart of merchandise. It's amazing we all returned with 10 toes in tact. At one point I thought my friend was going to be run over by the plov (a rice dish) cart. It was an exhausting but fun way to spend the day.

10/21/2009
Our language test was today, to see what level of Russian we have achieved in 9 weeks. I can tell you that mine is not that high. We will find out in a week what level we actually achieved, but I am not that hopeful. We all will have the opportunity to continue tutoring in Russian once we get to our sites. I know I will continue because my Russian teacher lives in the same city that I will be going to. She has already agreed to tutor me, even though I told her she could take this time to cut me loose, since I am a terrible student!
We officially leave our village on Tuesday and head for Almaty for week. We had a meeting with all of our host families tonight to plan a party for Monday to say good-bye and thank you. There will be food and dancing and maybe even some pizza. It will be hard to say good-bye, as our families have been very good to us. It's funny to me that I was very apprehensive at the beginning of this experience and was nervous about living with a host family. Now, I feel like a member of the family and am not looking forward to leaving them. Many volunteers keep in touch with their host families and visit them from time to time. I hope I will be able to do that, because they have been great to me and I will miss them greatly when I am up north.

More exciting adventures in the life of a Peace Corps Trainee

9/13/2009
Some things never change...so after my last post, I lost my cell phone. Let me preface the story by saying that on Sundays, some of us like to go to Ecik (the closest large town) to use the internet. I was very proud of myself as me and two friends hailed a gypsy cab, negotiated the price and headed into Ecik. We got to the internet cafe, made some meaningful contact with friends and family and then grabbed a snack at a local cafe. After a very successful outing, we hailed another cab and headed back to our village. Shortly after exiting the cab, I realized that my cell phone had fallen out of my pocket in the cab!

9/18/2009

Very exciting day today! We had class in the morning with all of the other groups. All 65 of us listened to Peace Corps volunteers who have finished their 2nd year of service and have signed on for a 3rd year! I can't imagine surviving the first two years, never mind volunteering for a 3rd. They had really interesting stories to tell and had some great successes at their sites. They were also very honest about Peace Corps service and told us about their failures as well.
After the volunteers were done talking we had a one hour lecture from a former Peace Corps Volunteer who was in Kazakhstan from 1998 – 2000. He now lives in Almaty after living in Russia and Tajikistan following his service. He gave us a brief synopsis of Kazakhstan's history which was very interesting. You could tell he had done his research.
Following the lecture, we boarded two buses and headed for the mountains. We went to this place called Tyrgen outside of Ecik. There we completed a short hike to a waterfall. The hike was not long, but was rather steep. Our hard work was rewarded when we got to the waterfall. It was gorgeous and the view was incredible.
It was fun to relax and enjoy the company of the other volunteers. We felt like we were on vacation somewhere and it was a welcome diversion from our usual routine. I left my hiking boots back in the U.S. due to space limitations. So I had to hike up in my Birkenstock sandals. They did the trick fine, but there were definitely some places where we had to cross streams of water on slippery rocks that made me a little nervous. I made it fine, but hiking boots would have been much easier to walk in. However, I put my self-consciousness aside when I was at the top and saw a group coming up with one woman in stiletto heels! I kid you not. Our Russian teachers were laughing, and they said a Russian woman never misses a chance to look good, even when mountain climbing. It was one of the craziest things I had ever seen, but I admire her talent, because if I had done that I probably would have broken an ankle.

9/20/2009
We had a very exciting weekend. We had class on Saturday morning, and in the afternoon all 10 of us from our village went to Almaty. A girl in our group had a birthday so we headed into the city to celebrate. We went out to dinner and then went back to the apartment to play cards. There was a 24 hour store downstairs from the apartment, so we were able to get Snickers, chips and beer. We've been warned not to go to bars, because that seems to be where volunteers have problems, and none of us want to get sent home.
Some folks from other groups that were staying in the apartment with us got a little crazy and were being kind of loud. That mixed with sleeping on the floor, means that I did not get any sleep Saturday night. At about 3 AM one of my friends got up and asked if anyone else was awake. Two of us were, so the three of us went outside and talked. At about 5 AM, we figured it was safe enough to walk to the 24 hour internet cafe. So we packed up our stuff and left the apartment for the l5 minute walk to the internet cafe. We got to get online without having to wait, which was nice, but for some reason none of my blog stuff would load. How frustrating!
After that we went to find some breakfast, and did some quick shopping and then found a bus home. I slept the whole bus ride home (about a 1½ hour ride). It was nice to return to our village after a crazy night in the city.

9/24/2009
This week we did a lot of work on the various projects we are working on. We had to design an extra-curricular activity/club, design a community project and plan a day camp. We have been working on the camp and the community project for a few weeks, but the proposals were due Monday the 20th. The projects are designed to give us some practical experience, as we will probably be involved in some of these activities at our sites.
We will be doing the camp for three afternoons after school in mid October, at the school in our village. We had to plan the whole thing and work within the framework we were given. The camp will be for about thirty 8th grade students and we have about seven 11th grade students who have volunteered to help us out. We'll play some games, do some work on computers, and complete some art projects. The students will also work on team building and leadership skills. It should be interesting. Most of the 11th graders are able to speak some English and should be able to help us communicate with the 8th graders. I'll let you know how it turns out! Here are some photos of the kids we'll be working with at the school. We were doing a community activity with them, that they seemed to enjoy. My language group, and the people that I am working with on the camp.

9/27/2009
This week also marked the end of week 5 of Pre-Service Training, so we are half way through. We have 5 weeks to go before swearing in as full Peace Corps Volunteers on Halloween. Our trainers and teachers presented us with a cake on Friday that we happily devoured!
In two weeks we get our site placements. We can't wait to find out where we'll be placed for the next two years. It's really exciting, but scary at the same time. I've adjusted fairly well to my life in the village and it will be hard transitioning somewhere new, without all of the support we receive here. I think I'm up to the challenge, but it still makes me nervous.