We went to a Canyon on Sunday! Here are some sweet pics! I'm still sore!
Peace Corps Kazakhstan is closing
12 years ago
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
UPDATE
Life is good, crazy as always and down to only two weeks left of Pre Service Training! Afterwards, I will be living in the middle of KSTAN on the Eastern side. The city lies approximately 500 km west of the Chinese border. It is a small town with a “Gi-normous." Which is actually the second largest lake in Central Asia! A sandbar effectively divides the Lake into a western half, which is fresh water and an eastern half, which is saline. It has been reported that the Lake may be on its way to the same fate as the Aral Sea; the lake has already shrunk by over 2,000 square kilometers.
There is already one Volunteer living there, who has been there for a year and has one more year to go. There are two main streets just like my town back home! I will be working at a boarding school / orphanage. It is a Kazak speaking school. Kazak is the national language of Kazakhstan; I have only studied a few hours and have minimal skills with that language. The nice thing is that everyone here speaks Russian AND Kazak, but foreigners who speak the Kazak language gain more respect (and get better bargains at the Bazaar) and Kazak is actually a really pretty language and I wish I knew more. I visited the town last week, for the week, it is 10 hours away from where I live now by bus. The people were so nice and the children were SO hungry for attention kind of from anyone, even people who don’t speak their language! This works out well for me because I have about 200 “helpers” to “help” me and a really good base for “volunteers” to help me with future projects! AND I SAW STRAY CAMELS!
The Peace Corps requires that Volunteers have secondary projects in addition to their main “baby,” of course some people have to rely more on secondary projects for work because their organization sucks, I don’t think that will be the case in my organization, but I am more excited about secondary projects than about what I’m actually going to be doing, which I don’t even know what that is because my director doesn’t really know, the only thing I know for sure is that I will be in charge of English club and an Ecology club at the school (I am now learning about Ecology :-))
D you know about the free website you can use to text me? http://www.sms.one.kz/ in the little box put my phone number 323-7862, then hit the button that starts with an “O” I hear it’s fairly easy. Please remember to sign your name to them though, I wanna hear from ya’ll!
There is already one Volunteer living there, who has been there for a year and has one more year to go. There are two main streets just like my town back home! I will be working at a boarding school / orphanage. It is a Kazak speaking school. Kazak is the national language of Kazakhstan; I have only studied a few hours and have minimal skills with that language. The nice thing is that everyone here speaks Russian AND Kazak, but foreigners who speak the Kazak language gain more respect (and get better bargains at the Bazaar) and Kazak is actually a really pretty language and I wish I knew more. I visited the town last week, for the week, it is 10 hours away from where I live now by bus. The people were so nice and the children were SO hungry for attention kind of from anyone, even people who don’t speak their language! This works out well for me because I have about 200 “helpers” to “help” me and a really good base for “volunteers” to help me with future projects! AND I SAW STRAY CAMELS!
The Peace Corps requires that Volunteers have secondary projects in addition to their main “baby,” of course some people have to rely more on secondary projects for work because their organization sucks, I don’t think that will be the case in my organization, but I am more excited about secondary projects than about what I’m actually going to be doing, which I don’t even know what that is because my director doesn’t really know, the only thing I know for sure is that I will be in charge of English club and an Ecology club at the school (I am now learning about Ecology :-))
D you know about the free website you can use to text me? http://www.sms.one.kz/ in the little box put my phone number 323-7862, then hit the button that starts with an “O” I hear it’s fairly easy. Please remember to sign your name to them though, I wanna hear from ya’ll!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
I'm still alive
So I realize it’s been almost a month since I’ve updated this, and SO many things have happened! Here’s a brief re-cap:
We have had some pretty amazing times together and I love all the field trips we have taken, I think my favorite was the trip all the way to Almaty to marvel at the train station! ;-) But really I have come to enjoy everyone’s company and get sad about leaving them too soon! I feel like we’ve become a family – love you all! One night we all went to the Country Director’s house where we had lots of delicious food: hambugs, brownies, ice cream. It’s crazy how much I’ve missed them and it’s only been 2 months. Having a quick drive through is definitely a luxury I didn’t think I was going to miss…
Last week I found out where I would be living for 2 years! There was a fun ceremony and refreshments followed. There was a map of KSTAN on a table with little hut thingys placed on the map at each of the sites. We went one-by-one to locate our hut. It seemed SUPER long, as I was number 17 out of 20! But I am really excited about my site and, although, I don’t want to leave my Kaz 20 family, I really want to work! It sounds like I will be working at a Boarding School assisting with English and an Ecology Club! Next week I visit my site and hopefully learn more as I am eager to start!
I met my counter part this week. A counter part is kind of like a teacher / friend / someone for me to go to for assistance over the next two years. Peace Corps Staff did a BOMBDIGGITY job matching Trainees to sites / with Counterparts. My counterpart is amazingly awesome and reminds me of me. She is incredibly fun and laughs! That was really the only “requirement” that I had – must laugh!
The day after Site Announcement 15 of us travelled into the “Big City,” Almaty. We met up with some education volunteers and rented an apartment (which is similar to a hotel, only bigger). I think I can speak for everyone and say that we all had a super “lovely” time. We went to a place named Guns-N-Roses! There were burgers there and we all devoured them like starving children!
My favorite thing about this town has got to be that there are stray cows! It was totally crazy when I saw a random cow walking down the street. There are also donkeys that eat out of the garbage near the school where I learn Russian. And one day I had to wait for a bunch of sheep to get out of my way so that I could walk home. There are wild dogs here…well, not really wild, just LOTS of strays. It’s kind of like Sparta in Kazakhstan!
My host family continues to be incredibly awesome! My mom quizzes me everyday on vocabulary around the house and every night they try and include me in the conversation. My host mom is genuinely excited in what I have learned each day and she is often the one who will repeat phrases of others in, what I like to call, “slower, dumber” Russian. I taught my family how to play duck-duck-goose, which was hysterical! My host mom thought it was the greatest game ever and arranged us all in the kitchen to play. The funniest part really was that we all squatted because sitting on the floor/ground is not generally accepted here, I had a difficult time balancing, but we were all laughing and they were speaking lots of Russian.
I think that Pre Service Training (PST) is difficult and a time of very little sleep and LOTS of work, but am trying not to wish it away as I know, like many other things in my life, there will be a day a look back and wish I was back in PST. I hope to get better at updating this.
We have had some pretty amazing times together and I love all the field trips we have taken, I think my favorite was the trip all the way to Almaty to marvel at the train station! ;-) But really I have come to enjoy everyone’s company and get sad about leaving them too soon! I feel like we’ve become a family – love you all! One night we all went to the Country Director’s house where we had lots of delicious food: hambugs, brownies, ice cream. It’s crazy how much I’ve missed them and it’s only been 2 months. Having a quick drive through is definitely a luxury I didn’t think I was going to miss…
Last week I found out where I would be living for 2 years! There was a fun ceremony and refreshments followed. There was a map of KSTAN on a table with little hut thingys placed on the map at each of the sites. We went one-by-one to locate our hut. It seemed SUPER long, as I was number 17 out of 20! But I am really excited about my site and, although, I don’t want to leave my Kaz 20 family, I really want to work! It sounds like I will be working at a Boarding School assisting with English and an Ecology Club! Next week I visit my site and hopefully learn more as I am eager to start!
I met my counter part this week. A counter part is kind of like a teacher / friend / someone for me to go to for assistance over the next two years. Peace Corps Staff did a BOMBDIGGITY job matching Trainees to sites / with Counterparts. My counterpart is amazingly awesome and reminds me of me. She is incredibly fun and laughs! That was really the only “requirement” that I had – must laugh!
The day after Site Announcement 15 of us travelled into the “Big City,” Almaty. We met up with some education volunteers and rented an apartment (which is similar to a hotel, only bigger). I think I can speak for everyone and say that we all had a super “lovely” time. We went to a place named Guns-N-Roses! There were burgers there and we all devoured them like starving children!
My favorite thing about this town has got to be that there are stray cows! It was totally crazy when I saw a random cow walking down the street. There are also donkeys that eat out of the garbage near the school where I learn Russian. And one day I had to wait for a bunch of sheep to get out of my way so that I could walk home. There are wild dogs here…well, not really wild, just LOTS of strays. It’s kind of like Sparta in Kazakhstan!
My host family continues to be incredibly awesome! My mom quizzes me everyday on vocabulary around the house and every night they try and include me in the conversation. My host mom is genuinely excited in what I have learned each day and she is often the one who will repeat phrases of others in, what I like to call, “slower, dumber” Russian. I taught my family how to play duck-duck-goose, which was hysterical! My host mom thought it was the greatest game ever and arranged us all in the kitchen to play. The funniest part really was that we all squatted because sitting on the floor/ground is not generally accepted here, I had a difficult time balancing, but we were all laughing and they were speaking lots of Russian.
I think that Pre Service Training (PST) is difficult and a time of very little sleep and LOTS of work, but am trying not to wish it away as I know, like many other things in my life, there will be a day a look back and wish I was back in PST. I hope to get better at updating this.
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