Women's Empowerment Weekend

Last week I was in Karaganda on Business Travel. I got in on Monday and hung out with some Volunteers there. On Tuesday there was an OCAP oblast meeting reviewing the OCAP program in Kazakhstan. Wednesday and Thursday I went to work with a couple Volunteers, had lunch with a friend and a meeting with my Regional Manager. 

On Friday, I met up with the Women Volunteers of Karaganda and the ladies who attend Women’s Club for the Second Annual Women’s Empowerment Workshop. There were 25 Locals and 5 Volunteers for a total of 30 people. It started Friday at 3pm, when we all took marshootkas 30 minutes outside the city to a sweet looking sanatorium type place. We lost the road at some point, but because it’s Kaz we were able to drive through fields We had 6 rooms and slept 5 to a room. It was quite the set up! There were 5 beds in each room. They gave us all combs, a toothbrush, toothpaste and slippers!! It was great! The Workshop began with journals and journal decorating! That was followed by dinner then by the first session about Body Image. We stayed up too late having too much fun and then went to bed. Saturday morning we had hot water for showers!!! (that was exciting). We had eggs and sausage for breakfast and morning sessions of Exercise and Nutrition. We had lunch – chicken and rice – delicious! We had sessions on Resumes and Interviews. Saturday evening we had a SUPER fun Discoteque!! We had fun decorating the place, coloring our hair with colorful hair spray and putting on Hawaiian Leis – then getting down with our bad selves!! Sunday was the final day and the session was Sexual Health. Then there was the “giving of the diploms” and lots of pics! Of course, then we had to say “goodbye” and load up in the marshootkas for the ride back to Karaganda. 

I hung out with the Volunteers until my train left to come back to site. We went to city mall and to the coveted Ramstore that only Volunteers in BIG cities have the luxury of having. I got on my train in the evening determined to become friends with the people in my platzcar – normally, I say nothing to them and hope they don’t speak to me, but not this time! I became friends with the only other person in my car – a 51 year old woman – she was nice and patient and at least attempted to understand my broken Russian! I got back to site on Monday morning, and although I had fun in Karaganda, it is SO good to be back!!! To be in a place where everything is familiar and where I have a place to sleep and unpack my things!!

May --

I was busy in May and rather than have separate entries I’m going to try to sum up life in May 2009. :)
• At the beginning of May I visited a fellow Volunteer who lives alone in a pretty spectacular house, not far from Almaty! Other Volunteers were there as well and we went hiking in the Mountains! Which are practically in the backyard of this Volunteer! LUCKY! We went all went to Mega Center where we indulged ourselves in the deliciousness commonly referred to as KFC! It was cheaper than I thought it would be and absolutely amazing! Afterwards, we purchased items to make dinner. We were even able to find marshmellows for S’MORES! A little taste of summer! While I was SO close I couldn’t say “no” to visiting my Host Family from Training! I hung out with them for a day before returning back to site. It was good to be back “home”
• My host family had their family over. Here’s a fun riddle: what’s worse than one 4 month old baby? TWO! One of the family members has twins who are 4 months old. They actually weren’t THAT bad and they were cute, when they didn’t cry or spit up
• I’ve become friends with the neighbor children by way of shooting hoops! I purchased a basketball, which has quite possibly been THE greatest purchase that I have made since being at site!
• I got my hair cut and my fear was realized! It is a mullet!! Thankfully, it’s not TOO bad and it WILL grow back! The hair salon woman talked me into it. Of course, she didn’t use the word “mullet” and described something I thought I might like…HA! Well, at least, now I can say that I have had a mullet :)
• I took a train to Karaganda for an OCAP meeting – other Volunteers were there from Karaganda oblast! It was fun to see familiar faces and discuss the OCAP program.
Aside from the WEW (which deserves it’s own blog…coming soon), this sums up my May. Now I’m preparing for Summer Camp, which makes me excited and nervous at the same time!!

Jessik!!!!!

Who knew that the girl who was in my Aunt’s house just weeks before I met her in Philadelphia for “Staging” for the Peace Corps would become my Best Peace Corps friend? And what a pleasant surprise to realize at only 6 hours away she would also be the closest Kaz20 to me! Unfortunately, she had to return to America due to medical reasons last month and won’t be returning back to us in Kaz. Although we had only been in PC 9 months (3 of them in training; the other 6 at site), we still had amazingly fun times!! This is not an exhaustive list and we will definitely add more to this list in the future –

• Nose warmers – yes, these should be a new trend!
• Our “Language Group Date” with Dasha at the Shashlik place
• Club Sexy Bar
• Your crazy H.F. stories – waiting to eat or the dog stealing AND returning you shoe!
• You purchasing a lovely coat in Almaty; us missing the first Issyk bus stop and walking home in     the pouring rain because the local bus never came
• Watching movies at Dasha’s – I think we both fell asleep
• GIRLS NIGHT – let’s all take a personality test – Question 3 1 = patient and understanding 5 = impatient…oh good times!
• Your boxing glove mittens and the ultimatum you gave your mom to get them
• Leading the group in Almaty, even though neither of us had ABSOLUTELY no idea which way to go – sorry I let you fall…
• A million trips to the store near Dasha’s everyday
• Peeing outside at Charin Canyon behind the van  
• Banya during PST
• Swearing-In
• Getting stuck in Natasha’s apartment
• You eating like 100,000 tomatoes during training
• “Dozaftra” “Poslizaftra”
• Chocolate/coffee candy
• You and Michelle “gosting” at my host fam’s house for Monte!
• Two words: Party Van!
o Never-have-I-ever
o Listening to early 90s music with Hotard’s speakers
• Introduction of “The Dinosaur” picture – a nice touch – I love the 4 pics!
• Crocheting randomly – creating “new” things – like wrist warmers…oh wait…
• My first trip to Kgan – Thanksgiving!!
o The ticket window asking us to speak to the police – weird!
o Hotel Karaganda
o A New purse!
o Christmas Tree
o Gros Beir
o The Orchestra
• Christmas in Karaganda
o Making Kool-aid
o Reindeer Crafts with Ken
o Ice Skating
o Singing Karaoke – attempting “Black or White” by Michael Jackson – what were we thinking?!
o You singing that creepy Celine song
o Eating poverty cones outside at the picnic table
• Visiting in February when H.M. was out
o Text messaging all our Kaz20s from beeline website
o Tomato “soup”
o That weird bus break down
o Me purchasing a wrong way ticket back to site
• Bus trips from Issyk to Almaty
o Playing “Who Would You Rather Banya With?”
o And “matching” everyone up with most/least compatible partners
• The Boys walking us home, even though we probably should have walked them home on a few occasions
• Baby haters club – are we bad women? I don’t think so
• Starting “Fun Club” – we REALLY do need a “fun club.” We should plan one for our rendezvous!
• Me not ENTIRELY understanding the bus system in Karaganda
• TEXT MESSAGING!!
• Naryz!!!
o Hanging out in an empty apartment eating LOTS of those yogurt covered peanuts!
• Turkistan
• IST
o Free poverty cones (by free I mean someone else paid)
o Going out the last night with CPs; which could have potentially been weird, but was VERY enjoyable
o Club SOHO
o A bazillion trips to Ramstore like everyday
 COKE LIGHT
• Attempting at every possible moment to have a Kaz20 OCAP Karaganda Oblast moment by squishing Jamie in the middle – I’m going to think of another way to “torture” him – or another way where he will “pretend” he’s being tortured, but secretly like it
• I miss you

Thank you for your friendship (future) Dr. Kolb!! Can’t wait to see you in a few years!! GOOD LUCK with EVERYTHING!!! I hope you are enjoying all the comforts of America and I promise to return with yogurt covered peanuts, just for you…

Abandon Buildings

At site there are LOTS of abandon buildings! These buildings have become one of my greatest obsessions! Some of them are boarded up and difficult to get into, others are fairly easy and it’s suspected that people who are homeless live here. Unsure of whether or not we would be breaking some unknown law about entering abandon buildings, my site mate and I decided to venture into the abandon apartment building near his house. There really is ABSOLUTELY nothing left in these buildings except rubble. We walked into different apartments and attempted to read the graffiti on the walls, evidence that someone had been here. Some areas clearly had people living in them, as they had a “bathroom corner” and what appeared to be a “bed” where someone most likely slept. The building had five floors and as we ascended the building we became a bit more fearful that the people who lived there would be home or would be coming home, but still, we pressed on. Of course, floor 4 was not that different than floor 1. One particular apartment in the building had been cleaned out; it lacked the rubble that had been present in all the other apartments and had something that resembled that of a table. It was then that I felt like I was actually in someone else’s house.

It seems like a hopeless situation; no job, no money, no family, no where to live, nothing, yet they continue to wake up in the morning with the sunrise, go somewhere to get what they need and return to what they most likely refer to as “home.” They find the hope they need to continue doing what they do. I wanted to help them, but quickly realized they don’t need my help, but rather, I need to learn from them. I want that kind of hope they seem to have, no one was home and I didn’t speak with any of them, these are purely my observations. The hope of getting out of bed in the morning and expecting something better than I got the day before, or just the simple act of “going through the motions” even through the “dark times;” of waiting.

In America there are shelters, welfare, soup kitchens, and other programs for people who lack money. I haven’t seen a homeless shelter here in Kaz and don’t know about the welfare system? I can’t even begin to imagine the challenges of being poor in a developing country. Sitting at rock bottom everyday, knowing that things can only go up and hoping for something more, only to return “home” to the abandon building where one has staked his claim, the smell of feces radiates over the small space where one sleeps atop the rubble; then to have to power to get up and do it again the following day is something I don’t know that I will ever understand. What I do know is that I will be more compassionate to the beggar in the bazaar.

English Competition

At site, there was a 2nd Annual English Competition. This happened the last week in April. PCVs from other areas of Kazakhstan came to assist with the competition. It was really the first time that I had guests since being at site and I was UBER excited to show them my town!! The first Volunteers arrived the day before the competition and were given kind of a “run-down” of how the competition would go down. Then we all wandered to the lake where we removed our socks and shoes, rolled our pants up and walked into the water! We attempted to take pictures where the people in the picture were jumping – we were only successful a few timesJ

Friday was the day of the actual English Competition. It lasted approximately one hour in the afternoon. All people were where they were supposed to be. The test started with an assembly where everyone spoke and then students went to their designated testing areas. As a PCV my role was to wait at the school until the test was over, then collect the tests from the monitors, who were local teachers of anything EXCEPT English. We then began the tedious task of grading all tests! This took some time…thankfully, BridgeTV and brownies were there to assist us through itJ

Saturday the winners of the Written Round were announced and invited to take place in Round Two (kind of like American Idol…only notJ), on Monday morning. In the evening we had a special English Club for those students would be taking part in round two.

Round Two was the oral round. In which the participants would be asked open ended questions and had to respond as best they could – it was a 20 minute interview! These were taped and listened to afterwards so that a winner could be decided and announced. This was time consuming as there were 7 winners from each grade and there were 5 grades – it was a lot of people to get through, thankfully, other Volunteers came to assist with the project. Of course, they couldn’t stay forever, and had to return back to their sites, but not before playing Dance, Dance, Revolution at the local bowling ally!! WOO WOO!!

Final winners have been announced and an assembly is being planned to praise them publicly for a job well done!!

Weekend Work

During the weekends I have more free time than I do during the week. Often, I don’t know what to do with this free time and need things to occupy my time. I have begun going to work on Saturdays (remember this is optional). Right now we have “Subotnik” on Saturdays…this is where all the children from my school clean the school yard and surrounding areas; all school in my town participate in “Subotnik”. This is a good project. I feel like I’m doing something and the children seem to have fun! I cleaned for a while; this was a fun way to get to the kids learning English! We counted in English multiple times! Then I sang random bits of songs that they asked if I knew – you don’t have to be good here…you just have to know the words. Then I was in charge of taking pictures and I passed out stickers! Oh good times!

I also go to the orphanage on Sundays in the afternoon. I try to have something prepared to do. Recently, we played Twister and played with balloons, always a good time! This is a fun activity for me and I think the kids enjoy this as well. Sometimes I run out of ideas to do with them, but then just follow their lead.

Last week, being Easter Sunday, I was sad to be away from home; away from my Church Family; away from all the “normal” things I would do on Easter Sunday. I woke up to several text messages wishing me a “HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY.” Even though I couldn’t be at Sparta Baptist Church for Sunday morning and for “Easter Dinner,” I had an AMAZING dinner here! It was complete with Chicken, gravy, cheesy potatoes, deviled eggs, corn, brownies, ice cream and my personal favorite: FRUITED GELATIN (thanks to a package that contained jello)! Even though it wasn’t pot luck, it was as close as I am going to get!!! 1 word: AMAZING!!

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CrazyLife!

Well, life certainly is interesting! I'm back at site after traveling for a little over a week! And what a GLORIOUS time that was! My site mate and I took a 17 hour bus ride to go to Southern Kazakhstan to celebrate the Kazakhstani New Year with other Volunteers. It was SOOOOO good to see everyone again!! I was there for two days. One of the two days some Volunteers took a 3 hour bus ride to Turkistan! This is said to be the most historic city in Kaz. I had a super fun time and I took lots of pictures!

The following night I took a “sleeper bus” to my training village. I went with two other Volunteers, Hotard and “Other” Christina from the Education group! I had never taken a “sleeper bus” and wish that I had taken pictures. It’s hard to describe but the beds are TINY. They are big enough for a person to lay flat and not move. There are three rows of beds separated by an aisle. There are top bunks and bottom bunks and the top bunks have metal railing to keep you from falling (too bad the bus steps aren’t equipped with this:-)). In the FAR back there are 5 tiny beds smushed together with no railings, kind of like one big mattress. These beds are the cheapest, although it would be INCREDIBLY awkward to sleep next to someone you didn’t know! The bus ticket seller gave us a pretty excellent deal and we purchased all 5! We were in the WAY back on the top bunk. We kind of had the set up…a VIP lounge!! The bus driver said the bus would leave at 6:30pm, that seemed rather early and then he agreed that the bus would leave at 7pm…what he really meant was “People will start loading the bus at 6:30pm and the bus will leave when it is full.” Nervous that it would leave without us we arrived at 6:30pm anyhow. We had fun, food, and games for the bus ride. The bus stopped at 12:30am for dinner! That was kind of crazy and certainly “a cultural experience one wouldn’t want to miss.” I don’t think that I have been on a bus that was SO much fun! Thanks “Busties”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I visited my first host family. I love them! I REALLY miss them lots and wish that I had more opportunities to go and visit. They fed me well, then we played cards and some other people from the town came over to visit. I miss my training village, but will admit that it isn’t the same without the 16 other Volunteers, but nevertheless, it was still fun! I have plans to visit again in the not so distant future.

The next day was Tuesday; this was the day that we checked into to the “Hotel” like place where we would be staying for the conference. I first went to Peace Corps office; this is where I saw all those who I hadn’t seen in Southern Kazakhstan for the New Year. Afterwards, I went out to lunch with my good friend MyA!

The conference lasted for 5 days and even when it was boring; it was still SO good to all be together! We had lots and lots of fun! I hated that Sunday was quickly approaching and we would all, once again, be breaking up! Some people had to leave on Sunday others got to stay until Monday. I hate goodbyes. In the words of my Best Peace Corps friend, Jessik, “It feels like dropping your kid off at college.” (Although I don’t think any of us have had that life experience, we’re just kind of guessing what it might be like).

I didn’t have to go back to site until Monday night. I hung out at the PC office for a while, checked out books, chatted with my friends and left the office with 2 hours to get to the bus station. I quickly realized that I wasn’t really sure where I was or how exactly to get to the bus station from the office, but I did know that my bus was leaving with or without me. I wandered around, asking questions and looking for something familiar…finally! I saw a woman who works for PC, she tried to help as best she could, and then another person from PC was at the same bus stop!! He told me I probably wouldn’t make it to the bus station in time if I took a bus…I taxied, he assisted me in flagging down a taxi, talking down the price, and getting me to where I had to go! I made it to the bus station with lots of time left to spare when I saw another friendly face, Michael! In the remaining time we grabbed a bite to eat at the bus station where the food costs WAY too much money, and then I boarded my bus back to site.

I got back to site early Tuesday morning and went home to nap for a while…it’s difficult to get any kind of sleep on the bus. In the afternoon I walked to the lake, it’s SO nice that all the snow is FINALLLY gone, I generally like snow, I think it’s beautiful, but I don’t know that I think it’s THAT beautiful in March. The lake is thawing and I’m looking forward to summer! The weather is incredibly nice and wearing a winter coat is a thing of the past!! WOO WOO!!

I’m back at work; slowly adjusting to being back after being gone for a while, but it’s nice to be back. I didn’t realize how much I had missed it until I returned. My friends and coworkers were happy to see me and we chatted about the previous weeks! It’s good to be home.

I took lots of pictures and will upload them soon so to all you regular followers…don’t be disappointed…they are coming:)