Summer Adventures

Alex

Hello again,

This is my end-of-summer update, having finished with my travels and summer projects. I’ll give you a brief summary of what I’ve been doing, and then I’ll look ahead to the upcoming year. There will be a few changes in my schedule compared with last year, and I’ll address those changes later on.

Classes ended during the last week of May. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I presented a paper at the National Association of Teachers of English of Kazakhstan at the end of May, after which I helped organize a two-week summer camp at my school. By this point in time the average temperatures in Kyzylorda were already well over 100 degrees, so most of our activities were indoors. For those of you who have never experienced extreme heat, I can tell you from personal experience that it’s like nothing else. Walking outside between 10AM and 7PM is essentially impossible, lest you enjoy being in a big, open-air sauna. Your energy levels drop to zero. All you can really do is drink water. And pray for rain. In Kyzylorda it never rains.

That being said, you can probably imagine why most volunteers in this part of Kazakhstan spend most of their summers away from their permanent sites. I left at the end of June and headed to Astana, the glitzy new capital of Kazakhstan. Astana is essentially the pet project of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is seeking to create a modern urban masterpiece deep within the steppe (some refer to it as Las Vegas on the Moon). Billions and billions of (oil and gas) money are being thrown into this project. The product, as my photos on Facebook demonstrate, is a bizarre collection of ultra-modern buildings and monuments. The most recent addition to the Astana skyline is a giant Norman Foster-designed Yurt, containing a lake, several shopping malls and a beach. You get the picture. I spent a few days tooling around the city with my site mate from Kyzylorda, and on July 4^th we celebrated independence day at the US Embassy. Nothing says America like hot dogs and hamburgers. And Marines.

On the 7^th of July I flew to the States for two weeks. I would have loved to spend a little more time at home, but it was still great to catch up with people and reacquaint myself with civilization. Taking a hot shower everyday was far better than I ever remembered! Upon my return to Kazakhstan, I had about ten days of freedom before I flew to Uralsk, a small city near the Russian border, and took part in a teacher training seminar. I worked with about 25 secondary school teachers from the small villages surrounding Uralsk, instructing them in pedagogy and offering them games and activities to do with their students. I enjoy working with adults, and I look forward to doing more trainings in the fall in and around Kyzylorda.

The last bit of news concerns my living arrangement: I have an apartment. I am very excited to have my own place, although I did have a good relationship with my host family (I’ll be sure to visit with them on a regular basis). It’s not exactly a palace mind you, but the location is great. Plus, it’s nice to have my own space and to be able to cook for myself. Hopefully, I’ll have internet soon enough, so that should greatly ease communication with all of you.

Now that I’ve finished moving in, I have about a week until school starts. This year I’ll be dividing my time between two different assignments. Three days a week I’ll teach at my school (as is the local custom, I will probably get my schedule after school has actually started), and the rest of the week I’ll work at a teacher training institute. Essentially, I’m taking over some of my site mate’s responsibilities now that he’s left for the States (the new volunteers will arrive in my region in early November). In any case, I’m looking forward to the change of pace.

Best to all of you!

Alex

Dear loyal readers,

First of all, I apologize for not having posted in so long. There was a lengthy period where I couldn’t access blogger.com because the government blocked the website (facebook too). Everything is okay now.

I received several messages from people asking about the violence in Kyrgyzstan. First, let me stress that I am perfectly fine. Thankfully, the upheaval did not spread to Kazakhstan, although there was a brief period where we thought that might be the case. There were rumors of possible demonstrations in Almaty, but nothing happened. Kazakhs are pretty apathetic when it comes to politics. The former President of Kyrgyzstan did make a brief stop in the city of Taraz (where we have several volunteers) before heading on to Belarus, but that was about it. I do appreciate the concern that some of you expressed, and, admittedly, I did briefly consider the possibility that I might be heading home sooner than expected. For what it’s worth, I understand that most of the Peace Corps volunteers in Kyrgyzstan are back to business as usual. Apparently about twenty of those living in the southern part of the country were sent home.

As for my business—I finish teaching next week, which is a very exciting development indeed. I have enjoyed teaching more than I thought I would, but I’m looking forward to the break. The week after next I’ll be presenting a paper at the 11^th annual National Association of Teachers of English of Kazakhstan (NATEK) conference (I imagine my work will be published in the Chronicle of Higher Education shortly). Then I am running a summer camp at my school during the first two weeks of June. In July I’ll be in the States for two weeks for some much needed R&R.

Here is some basic information about my life in Kazakhstan:

Money: I am paid about 500$ a month in Kazakh Tenge (the local currency). While this may not seem like much, it does allow me to enjoy a perfectly acceptable standard of living in this country. The rent for a typical apartment is about 200$ a month, and food and other incidentals are also fairly inexpensive. Peace Corps pays us additional travel and living allowances in the event that we have trainings or workshops far away from our permanent sites.

Food: The national dish of Kazakhstan is called Beshbarmak, which is essentially chopped up pieces of horse or beef spread out over a bed of what we might call lasagna noodles. This is served only on special occasions, or whenever guests come to visit. In practice, this means that Kazakhs eat Beshbarmak all the time. And, as a frequent guest of honor at celebratory events, I often get the added bonus of getting to eat a piece of the head of the animal. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Beyond that, the diet here pretty much consists of potatoes, pasta and beef (or occasionally horse). Fruit and vegetables are very hard to come by during the winter months, as everything has to be imported from Uzbekistan or China. In general, Kazakh food can be quite bland, so I usually try to go out on the weekends and eat out with friends. As Kazakhstan is home to over 100 different ethnic groups, you can find lots of good food if you know where to look. For example, Kyzylorda has several good Korean places, a decent Chinese restaurant, and a good Georgian place. I tend to order things like Plov, an Uzbek dish consisting of rice, carrots and beef, or Shasklik, skewers of barbequed meats. All in all, pretty good stuff (albeit not all that healthy).

Housing: I still live with my Kazakh host family, although I am looking forward to moving into my own place. In principle, I could have moved out at the beginning of May, but I have decided to wait an extra few months until one of my Peace Corps friends here in Kyzylorda moves out of his apartment (he is going to graduate school in Scotland). As of August 9^th I will move into his place. All are welcome to sleep on my floor.

Weather: The winters are brutally cold, and the summers are brutally hot (at least in this part of the country). A week ago it was already 35 degrees Celsius, and I am told it can get up to 50 degrees in July and August. We’re talking Dante’s Inferno hot. I can usually deal with the heat pretty well, but my body is going to need some time to adjust to this. At least it’s a dry heat. The other issue is the constant wind, which blows sand and dust up into your eyes whenever you go outside. The only really bearable time to live here is April and October, when it’s comfortable temperature-wise and the winds die down a little.

Politics: I would be happy to discuss the political situation in Kazakhstan via e-mail. I will not comment on it here.

Gender Relations: See “Politics.”

2010 Buffalo Bills’ Playoff Outlook: Not good.

Thanks for the many supportive e-mails/comments. I hope this post finds all of you well—wherever you are in the world—and I look forward to hearing from you soon. I promise to post again in a more reasonable amount of time.

Take care for now.

Alex

New Year's at the Aral Sea

Dear All,

First of all, let me wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed the holidays with your families and friends. It’s been a little while since I last updated the blog, but I will try to keep it to once or twice a month from here on out (or whenever something particularly interesting happens).

A quick glance at the calendar tells me I have been in Kyzylorda for just over two months (not necessarily a landmark, but impressive nonetheless). Time really does fly, although I imagine the next few months will be a little slower as we wind through the winter months. The last few weeks were particularly eventful, what with the holidays and such. I spent most of December teaching my students about Christmas and attending various holiday parties. Kazakhs don’t celebrate Christmas, but they have adopted all of our holiday symbols and themes (as has everyone, I suppose). So yeah, jolly old Saint Nick is plastered just about everywhere. That being said, there was a definite lack of yuletide joy this year. We have no snow, just slushy rain, grey skies and endless amounts of mud. As Christmas is not a holiday, I had to work on the 24^th, although I skipped out the following day to celebrate with two Peace Corps Volunteers in the neighboring village of Zhalagash. We had a nice little Kazakh Christmas, but it’s certainly no substitute for home. I think most of us in the Peace Corps were happy to put the holidays behind us.

New Year’s—a leftover of the Soviet period—is a big deal over here, and a few of us rented an apartment downtown to hang out for the night. I think we had a good time, although my recollection of the evening is somewhat hazy (sorry mom). Then, perhaps still feeling the effects of the previous night’s festivities, I decided to join three other volunteers and one of our local friends on a weekend trip to the Aral Sea. For those of you not familiar with it, the Aral Sea is considered by many to be one of the greatest ecological disasters of the 20^th century. What was once a great body of water straddling the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is now little more than a big lake (and getting smaller), a product of disastrous Soviet irrigation strategies dating back to the 1950s. We visited the town of Aralsk, which was once a bustling port and holiday destination before the sea disappeared. Today, the settlement has largely been adandoned, and what remains is little more than a bizarre and strangely haunting tourist attraction for those interested in the Aral Sea saga. The port is still there, as are the remains of several large fishing boats that lie in a state of complete disrepair on the dry sea floor. You have to drive 12 kilometers outside of town to actually reach the sea. Pretty depressing. The UNDP used to have program out there, but international organizations have essentially given up hope of restoring the sea to its original size. The emphasis now is on saving the little water that’s left and trying to improve the lot of the people who still live in the region.

For those of you interested in learning more about the Aral Sea, I know there is a lot of literature out there. As depressing as it was, going out there was, in certain respects, a very profound experience, although the bitter cold and nagging fatigue did take some of the joy out of it. Perhaps I’ll go back in the summer to get a second look. We’ll see.

That just about does it for now. I have a few more days off before classes resume, so I’ll be taking the opportunity to catch my breath and lesson plan. This past Thursday was Russian Christmas, so I hauled myself to the Orthodox church at 8AM for the service. I enjoyed it, even if most of the elderly Russians didn't really appreciate having an American in their midst on their most holiest of days (not that I said anything that would give away my nationality, but somehow I think they knew). Oh Russians.

Thank you for all of the supportive e-mails/messages! Please write if you have any specific questions. I love hearing from all of you.

Best,

A

Greetings once again,

I write to you now from the desert sands of the southwestern corner of Kazakhstan, the delightful little stretch of paradise where I will, in all likelihood, be spending the better part of the next two years of my life. The nature lovers amongst you will be disappointed to learn that I have forsaken the mountain peaks and verdant fields outside of Almaty for far more, well, bleak surroundings. Out here there is essentially nothing green, just endless expanses of desert interrupted by towns and small settlements. That being said, I am enjoying the novelty of my new surroundings, and I feel as if this is more in tune with the Peace Corps experience I had imagined in my mind before arriving here.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am living in the city of Kyzylorda, the first capital of Kazakhstan and the current administrative and economic hub of the Kyzylorda Oblast (one of Kazakhstan’s fourteen regions). The Oblast itself is actually enormous from an area perspective, but it is one of the least populated in Kazakhstan (and one of the least developed). Kyzylorda is the most ethnically Kazakh city in the whole country and is thus considered by many to be the heart of the “real Kazakhstan,” as supposed to the predominantly Russian north and the ethnically mixed southeast. Most people here are fluent in Russian as well as Kazakh, a Turkic language, but I have resigned myself to the fact that I will need to learn at least some basic Kazakh expressions.

I teach at City School #2, which draws some of the best students from across the city and specializes in English. Students start taking English classes in the 2^nd grade (around age 7), and by the time they reach the end of high school they are practically fluent. Having trained in a small village school with fairly weak students, one of my greatest challenges during these next few weeks will be adjusting to such advanced pupils. As I understand it, I will be teaching 5^th graders and 9^th graders, and I am very much looking forward to it. I arrived in Kyzylorda at the beginning of a school break, so these past few weeks have been less about teaching and work than about taking care of a few administrative things and getting to know my new surroundings. Among the many exciting tasks I have undertaken is registering with the local authorities, including the department of education and the immigration police. I also had the first of what may be occasional run-ins with the local police, some of whom don’t take too kindly to foreigners running around the country. I look forward to working with them in the months ahead.

I am one of three Peace Corps Volunteers in the city, and we have two more in a village about an hour from here, so I am not completely on my own. One of my colleagues here has already been serving in Kyzylorda for two years and decided to extend his tour for one more year. He has quite a network of friends and contacts in town, and I have gotten to know a few of them. Peace Corps has actually been active in Kyzylorda for almost twenty years, so there is a substantial group of locals here who are familiar with the work of PCVs and welcome us with open arms. Most of them also speak very good English.

My new host family is, not surprisingly, ethnically Kazakh. They seem like lovely people, and I have no concerns about my housing situation. Truth be told, I live in what might best be described as a palace by local standards. Sit toilet, shower, big screen TV (I almost feel guilty……almost). I have a 15 year-old host sister who is a student at my school and a 17 year-old host brother who is preparing to study law in college. My host father is a fairly high-level police chief, which means I have an important ally in the local administration. All in all, a pretty nice deal. Peace Corps mandates that we live with a host family for the first six months of our service, after which we can look for our own apartments.

Well, that should do it for now. My best to all of you. Also, my new mailing address can be found below:

32 Zheltoksan St. O/C 14, P/O 46

Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan 120014

32 Ул.Желтоксан о/с 14, А/Я 46

Кызылорда, Казакстан 120014

Alex

10/17/09

Hello all,

I am now almost two months into the Peace Corps experience, and I am happy to say that all is still progressing according to plan. The last few weeks were incredibly hectic, but at this point I can finally catch my breath. As of yesterday, I have officially finished my teaching practicum, which consisted of 18 lessons taught over the past five weeks. This included six team-teaching lessons with my local counterpart here in Amangeldy. She is in her early 20s and desperately wants to study in the US or in the UK, so I am helping her out with a fellowship application in the hopes that she can go abroad. I really want this to work out for her, so keep your fingers crossed.

Beyond the successful completion of my teaching responsibilities for the training period, the other big news I have to report is site announcement. Last Friday I learned that my site for the next two years will be the city of Kyzylorda in the southwestern part of the country (close to the border with Uzbekistan and about 24 hours from Almaty by train). I am told that Kyzylorda has about 600,000 inhabitants, almost 90% of whom are ethnically Kazakh (as supposed to say Russian, Uzbek or Uighur). To be quite honest, I am very excited at the prospect of working and living in an urban environment, particularly given how isolated I feel here in the countryside. From the little I gather, Kyzylorda may not be the most fascinating place around, but it is civilization (or at least the Kazkhstani equivalent of civilization). Whereas as most volunteers will be in fairly rustic surroundings, for example, I should have access to internet, coffee, shopping malls, movie theaters and a lot of other creature comforts on a fairly regular basis (it’s what we like to call the “Posh Corps”). Frankly, I would be lying if I said this wasn’t appealing, and I am also looking forward to the possibility of working with local NGOs, which I certainly couldn’t do out in the boondocks. There is a volunteer out there now who is working with an HIV/AIDS outfit and a sort of local narcotics agency, and I hoping to continue some of his work in addition to my teaching responsibilities. Apparently I will be teaching at what might best be referred to as a local magnet school that attracts the best students from all over Kyzylorda. As such, I will likely be dealing with much more advanced students than I have for the past few weeks. I am told that I might even be able to conduct history classes or science classes in English, which would be great. All in all, pretty exciting stuff. Also, there will be camels all over the place.

My schedule for the next couple of weeks is as follows: I will be in Almaty from Tuesday until Saturday for what Peace Corps likes to call “Counterpart Conference.” Essentially, I will be getting to know my English teaching counterpart from Kyzylorda before I actually head there myself. On Saturday I will be back in Amangeldy for the final week of pre-service training, during which time I will be conducting teacher training seminars along with my Peace Corps colleagues here in the village. From what I gather, we will help train local English teachers and share our insights regarding lesson planning, activities, etc. Should be an interesting experience, and I will be expected to do much of the same when I get to Kyzylorda.

And lastly, in accordance with Anton’s wishes, I will share a few more details about my general surroundings and life here in Amangeldy. For those who may have missed my first e-mail, I have spent the better part of the last two months in a tiny village about an hour from Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. The house that I share with my host family is small but fairly nice by local standards. That being said, I don’t have most of the basic amenities that we take for granted in the States or in Europe. No indoor toilet, no shower, intermittent electricity and equally intermittent running water. I run water through a Peace Corps-provided distiller before drinking it, as to do otherwise would seriously endanger my health (although the locals just drink straight from the tap). I bathe about once or twice a week in what is locally called a “Banya,” a sort of sauna-like steam room where you can also pour warm water on yourself. It’s actually quite a pleasant experience, although it would be nice to use it more than once or twice a week. Oh well.

As for Amangeldy itself, well, there just isn’t much of anything to do or see. The highlight of village activity thus far has been the grand opening of the local mosque, which was accompanied by singing, dancing and a massive feast. It was actually quite fantastic, but events of this nature are few and far between. On the rare days we have off, the five of us who live here usually go to Almaty or a neighboring town to get to an internet café and have a taste of civilization. Thankfully, training has kept us so busy it hasn’t been all that bad, but I think two years in a village like this would be quite difficult (read: exceptionally boring). On the plus side, we are right at the foot of the massive Tien Shan mountain range that straddles the border between Kazakhstan and China, so the views from my window are positively spectacular. I had the opportunity to go hiking in a national park a few weeks back, and that was quite lovely. I will certainly miss the mountains in Kyzylorda, which is located in the middle of the desert.

Well, I think that’s enough for now. I hope all is well with each and everyone of you, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
A

Hello all,
I am now a little over one month into my sojourn here in Kazakhstan. From a scheduling standpoint, things have certainly started to pick up. I have taught five classes thus far and have five more this week. In total, I will have taught 18 classes by the time training is over and I depart for my site. This includes six team-teaching classes for which I share the teaching responsibilities with one of the two local teachers in my village. So far I am actually enjoying teaching more than I thought I would. I have taught 7th, 8th and 10th graders (as in 11 year-olds, 12 year-olds and 14/15 year-olds), and I feel as if it’s gone quite well. If nothing else, the kids certainly get a kick out of having class with an American. And, needless to say, my teaching style is a little more relaxed than what they have grown accustomed to. I play a lot of games with them and try to make things as fun as possible, so I enjoy myself as well. The older kids are a little more problematic from a behavioral standpoint, and, unfortunately, corporal punishment is not as widespread in these parts as I had thought. Clearly, I will have to come up with other motivational techniques.
Beyond teaching, my site-mates and I are also required to run an English club as a sort of after school activity for the kids. We try to make things as educational as possible, but we’re also pretty realistic. For the most part, English club is just a way of keeping them out of trouble and out of the house. And they love it. Amangeldy is completely bereft of anything even remotely entertaining (people can’t even pray because the mosque is under construction), so we’re essentially the best show in town. I must say it has been rewarding just to see these kids having a good time, and I hope this site gets a volunteer after we all leave and move on to our permanent locations. I should also add that we are planning a Technology Day to help introduce teachers and students to basic computer-related activities. The local school has about ten fairly new computers, but it doesn’t seem as if a lot of people really know how to use them. So we’ll see how that turns out.
We still have our periodic informational seminars and meetings in Almaty, which gives us a chance to see everyone in the group and catch up. Thus far, only one member of our original group of 65 has gone back home, which, frankly, is absolutely shocking. I would have thought that ten or twelve would have headed back by now, and I think the staff probably made the same assumption. From what I gather, pretty much everyone is please with their host families and the general surroundings, which is nice to hear. The more volunteers we have on the ground, the more work we can do for the locals.
Beyond that, nothing more to report. I should find out where my permanent site is in the next few weeks, so I'm anxiously awaiting word about that. It's amazing to think I've been here for almost five weeks aleady. Time really does fly when you're insanely busy.

Look forwad to hearing from all of you. Please take care. I'll update this again when I have chance.

Alex