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