One down

One week down, 102 left to go! The first week here at site was full of highs and lows. Some highs: I did manage to find where the internet café is located, I can take the bus to work alone, I have made friends with a woman from my workplace who speaks English well, I have a schedule and will begin English clubs this week, I got acquainted with my town and know where the important things are located, I was able to walk through the bazaar and have a favorite seller, I met two local people who speak English (one has agreed to help me with translation of seminars!), I was able to sign up for my own PO box (all by myself), and made spaghetti for the fam while listening to English music way super loud! My sister from Karaganda (like 6 hours away), came for the weekend just to see me J She studies English there and her English is very good

I’m still adjusting to life here and trying to figure out just what my role will be at the school since I will not be teaching.

So I'm at site!

The end of PST marked a new beginning! I actually hate when people say stuff like that, but I guess it’s true. I know that I will miss my OCAP friends a crapload (you be the judge of how much that is). We all swore in as “official” Peace Corps Volunteers last Friday! Yea for no longer being a Trainee, but now a REAL Volunteer! We had to take a bus from our site to the site of Swear In. On the way there our bus broke down a little and we all had to get off the bus and stand on the side of the road. Thankfully, we had left early enough that a minor set back really was not a big deal and after all, when going to a ceremony where we were the guests of honor, the ceremony really had to wait for us J Our setback was really only like 25 minutes and then we were on the road again in the same bus. At the site of Swear In there were lots of speakers then the actual Swearing In of Volunteers, followed by a wonderful reception with lots of food! Bkycha!

Some people had to leave on Friday because their sites a really far away – I got to stay with my hosts an extra day! But that meant I had to say goodbye twice. Friday I had to say goodbye to some of the best friends I have made over the last 3 months! It was sad and many of us cried, even though, we know we will see each other in just a few short months – yea March!

My host mom prepared my favorite dish Friday night and we exchanged gifts! My host mom asked me why I wasn’t laughing and then I began to cry – I wasn’t ready to leave them. As a girl who has never had to live with a host family, I could not have asked for a better 1st host family! My whole world was changing – and as many of you know – I HATE CHANGE! Saturday my family dropped me off at the school where the Peace Corps van would pick me up! We went there at 1:15pm and the van pulled up at 1:30pm! The minute the PC van pulled up it was time to go and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I glanced at my host mom and sister, who were both crying. We all hugged and my host mom told me that “This was not goodbye, but see you later,” and “Their door is always open.” I will definitely be back to visit them!

I had to sit for 2 hours at the bus station alone – I was kind of scared, but felt like an accomplished woman in doing so! It gave me a greater sense of independence in this large country. I boarded the bus in the evening and was here by daybreak. I took a taxi to the house of my new host family, where I went back to sleep as sleeping on a bus proves to be rather difficult most of the time. Later in the day I unpacked the pieces of luggage that I had with me, I still have 2 more at another family’s house, that I hope to gather really soon. I had a successful first day of work and am excited to be here!

“Live and let live, do not judge, take life as it comes and deal with it, everything will be okay”
– James Frey

Charin Canyon

We went to a Canyon on Sunday! Here are some sweet pics! I'm still sore!

Okay so I don't have Canyon pics with me, but I will upload them soon! So save the link and try it tomorrow!

My BIRTHDAY cake!

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!

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 still only have Dial Up at our site, but I have prepared this at home and saved it to a flash drive so that I would not take too long on the computer and could write more to all of you (LUCKY!) I have been in Kazakhstan for a week and have already fallen in love…with Kazakhstan ! It is SO beautiful here! The view outside my window looks out to mountains where I can see snow at the VERY tops of them! I will upload pictures when we get DSL, which is promised by next week Wednesday, but that doesn’t REALLLY mean Wednesday, it means whenever someone gets to it, no one here really follows a schedule, which is so abnormal for us Americans, but we all seem to be adjusting okay…although who of us can live without facebook!

My days here are very LONG. I go to Language training from 8am-12:30pm. Then I have one hour for lunch and we have sessions in the afternoon where we learn the ins and outs of Peace Corps. What is expected of us, what we should expect, etc. and we get shots aka: random vaccinations. Lunch is probably my favorite time of day. Host families pack lunches for volunteers and it generally includes some form of vegetable and / or fruit and leftovers from dinner and possibly a boiled egg or two, AND definitely bread. I have learned that bread is a very special thing here and should NEVER be thrown away! I didn’t learn that until my 3rd day here and unfortunately had already thrown some away L OOPS! At lunch time all the Community Development Volunteers (there are 20 of us) gather and trade lunch items, like grade school…it’s pretty much a great time! Leftovers are utilized here, we throw NOTHING away. One time I had Monte, which has actually become my favorite meal here for dinner, then breakfast, then my mom packed it for lunch and we had it for dinner again! Good thing I liked it! We certainly never have breakfast food for breakfast, but rather leftovers.

We have Chai a lot here…I’m not sure how often, but definitely with every meal and if someone drops by and after people get out of the shower / banya (Google that and know that I refused banya) I still have a hard time figuring out the schedule, but I don’t really think there is one; Kazakhstanis don’t schedule anything and it is not uncommon to stop by someone’s house unannounced. The people of Kazakhstan are SO nice! They know who is an American and will talk broken English saying “Hello, how are you?” I generally smile and speak my best Russian, which is just about as good as their best English. All cars here are taxis and I am told it is safe, I had to take one today to the Bazaar, but it was with my translator, I would be too nervous to do it by myself and it costs 100 tenge, which is a little less than $1, but my PC salary is very small. I live near the bus stop and it only costs .40 tenge…much more manageable, although my language skills are not great enough to take the bus quite yet…I am learning lots everyday though!


There are some things I already miss from home…some of the other PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) and I were talking about wheat thins and cereal today! I miss hot water! Unlike some of the other volunteers I have a home with no hot water and actually no shower! Can you say “bucket bath?” They boil water for me so that I can bathe!