One Month Down, 26 More To Go

The last post I made included a picture of our family table and the pictures included in the photobucket album have some of my fellow trainees in my Kazakh language class too. We had sharshlik, which is basically marinated meat on skewers drizzled in piva (beer). Pretty good i must say, but maybe once every 4 or 5 months. Since the 13th many things have happened. I have been teaching more classes, playing more english club games, writing more lesson plans and I seem to be getting the hang of it. Sadly, i have no free time, literally. My books are cast aside, even my language flashcards have been sitting on my desk untouched. I did get out to Issyk with some friends and we did a pretty grueling hike. The point to which we climbed was exactly 35 miles away from the Kyrgystan border, according to my friend Sidd's GPS device. The mountains have acquired a new blanket of fresh snow due to all the rain and the view is breathtaking. I hope to upload pictures eventually, but the system is very slow and the cafes are expensive.
Anyway, last week, Peace Corps took all of the trainees up to a beautiful waterfall in Issyk where we spent the whole day. I have pictures from that day too and I will hopefully share soon. The mountains were bright green and huge! I definetly felt like I was in Central Asia finally. It was a great day and I needed that break.
In a week and a half I will find out where I will be placed. I am really ready to get a move on to my site and start my job. Alas, the training is necessary and I know I will benefit in the long run.

So Far So Good

I was just testing the photo uploading capability. I am currently uploading my photos on a image hosting website since facebook is being finicky here. So as an update:

Yesterday and Today have been amazing! I played ultimate frisbee yesterday with a huge group of kids and some other friends in Panfilova. I took a taxi with my friend Jon all by ourselves without help from the Peace Corps staff. We also had a mini-ghosti (to visit) at our friend Johnny's house. I recieved a compliment on my Kazakh speaking skills, which made all my hair pulling worthwhile. and maybe my biggest accomplishment from yesterday was the fact that I lit the Banya stove all by myself. I went and got the water from the well, I chopped the wood, i started the fire and I was able to wash completely independently from my host family. I am feeling very content with the way of life in Kazakhstan. It is true that simple tasks, such as bathing, involve much more work, but they are so much more rewarding after the fact. Today some friends and I went to Ecik( where i am now), and we found a trail going up to a tower behind the village. The ridgeline was super steep and rivals the hikes i did in Catalina. The hike was short but still was very grueling. We used my friend Sidd's GPS locater and found out that we were only 35 miles from the Kyrgystanian border. Too bad there are major snowy mountains in the way.

After that, we decided to go to the bazaar and eat some samosa type pastries. They were very tasty and we also bought some fruit, some grapes and apples. The bazaars have so much to offer during the spring and summer times. You can really find anything. Some things are more expensive. I found olive oil and I am hoping to make my family something I would usually make at home for dinner. We'll see!

I have uploaded some photos to a photobucket account for now. the link is here.

One Picture!

I am having some trouble uploading multiple pictures so I have to make due with one on my blog for now.. This photo is of my host family's table. That is my host brother Daniel (he's 3) and my Host Dad Aset setting the table. We had Beshbarmak which is the national dish one night. My friend Jon is in the back to the right.

Two Week Mark

I am finally at the internet for the first time since leaving the states. There is too much that has happened to really give adequate detail in the sole hour I have at this internet cafe, but I will do my best to give a concise run-down of my current situation thus far.

I arrived in Kazakhstan at 1:30 am local time just about two weeks ago. We were taken directly from the airport to a hotel where we had a series of cross-cultural sessions, lots of shots given by the medical staff and our first language lesson. The general look of the first sights I saw of Almaty were one of a former Soviet Union-esque style left in the rubble of revolution and independence. Almaty is a very clean and a somewhat posh city, but the outskirts show the former and the new all together in one settting.

After just two days at the hotel, we were then split up by our language groups and taken to meet our host families. I am currently living in a village called Saimasai about 30 to 40 miles outside of Almaty. I am living with a family of 4 and I have a very comfortable room. The mother's name is Acel and the father's name is Acet. They have two boys, Damir(13 months) and Daniel(3). Having kids in the house really breaks the language barrier tension and its been a pretty smooth transition. About every day I have been going to the local school for language lessons. On average, a group of 6 of us are in our lessons for 4-6 hours a day. We have been going over grammar for the Kazakh language which is fairly simple but still challenging because of the different alphabet and way of speaking. In the next few weeks, we will begin teaching English classes, mainly for lesson plan writing practice, and working on community projects. I enjoy my village and every other American living in Saimasai is living with a family that my family knows or is related to. Most of the people in the village know who we are even though we've never been introduced. Since we are the first Americans to ever really "live" in their town, we get alot of giggles and formal hello's from the kids.

I am currently in a group of 6 in Saimasai and there are more groups in Esik, Enbek, Panfilova and Amangeldy. Each site has a Kazakh group and Russian language group. We all meet together for Hub days, where the Peace Corps administration gives us information, safety and security seminars and etc. I learned part of the public transportation today and how to get into Almaty so I am looking forward to spending more time traveling and seeing more things.

Nevertheless,
I feel that I am adjusting fairly well and I look forward to the weeks ahead.

I hope to be back online soon.