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.