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