I have two days left before I can be considered a real life Peace Corps Volunteer. The past 9 weeks have been filled with teaching, Kazakh language learning and Banya visits. I have already learned an enormous amount about myself and living and working in another country. I do not feel completely assimilated into this culture yet and I don't expect to for some time, but at least I can say I feel comfortable. That is a big step forward in my book. I will go ahead and give another update from the past few weeks. Two weeks ago we finished our language classes for training and said goodbye to our Teacher, Nagima. She lives in Toraz in the south and had a nice long busride back home. She will be very missed! After that we started planning for teacher training for local village teachers which we finished yesterday. For two days, about 4 hours each day, we held a TEFL training for local teachers in surrounding villages. I gave an hour long session on visual aids and why they should be used in the classroom. The other trainees gave sessions on teaching lower level students, speaking, writing, listening and reading. We had a great time with the teachers and they were happy to learn new methodologies from us. I will hopefully be posting pictures soon. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures I posted and if you have not looked at them yet, there is a link on the left side of the blog entitled Pictures HERE!
As far as my last week goes we are closing out the time here in Almaty. Today I went to a huge clothing bazaar called Barahoka. You can find almost anything you need there and we had a good time. I bought all the winter clothes I will need for the -30 C wintertime in Zhez. I have also heard from a fellow PCV there that it is already snowing! I am so nervous for the weather but I know I will get through it. So my next moves are as follows: Saturday we all swear in as PCV's in the morning, 54 of us! Then I will spend one night in a hotel in Almaty with 15 other people and leave for Zhez on Sunday at 11pm. The train from Almaty to Zhez leaves only 2 times a week and takes a total of 31 hours in one straight shot. I will be reading a lot i am sure. I will arrive on Tuesday at 6am and from there my counterpart and I will go to her house where we will relax, sleep and have breakfast. If I am up to it I will go visit the school, meet the Director and visit my host families. I will move into the host family i choose on Wednesday at the latest. I can't wait!
So far I have been getting many postive responses from locals at the bazaar and the store when I speak Kazakh and that makes me very happy! I have even recieved discounts! They always start out in Russian and when I ask them to speak Kazakh to me, i automatically get a smile and then the questions start. Where are you from? You speak Kazakh? Mala Dietz ( Very good), How long have you been here? How long have you studied? You speak so well!
It really makes me happy I chose to study Kazakh.
I know I have many people reading my blog and I am so grateful that I have to many people interested! You all are helping me acheive the goals of Peace Corps whether you all realize it or not. Thanks again for all your support!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Multiple Posts 09/07-10/12
September 7
Today was a good day. I had lessons this morning and made some progress with the cases in Kazakh. (dative, ablative, accusative etc.) Learning grammar with an entirely foreign alphabet is a whirlwind. So frustrating but so rewarding when you have those breakthroughs. For being in country for less than a month, I am satisfied with the amount of language I can understand thus far. I am getting much more comfortable with the actual structures of the language and can better point out the verbs in questions asked of me. Everyone around me, especially my host sister, is very animate about me learning Kazakh. She actually knows some substantial English but will only speak to me if I really can't understand what she is asking (which right now is pretty often). My teacher Nagima said all i need to do is work on my spelling skills and the rest will follow. My reading skills are improving but writing alongside my regular studying will expedite my learning. The semantic knowledge we learn in class doesn't seem to really come up into outside life until a few days after the fact. In this respect, it is difficult for me to remember a lot of basic nouns. My main focus at this point is to understand the overall picture and get the cases down. Once I do that I feel I can focus more in depth on the vocabulary that is not basic for "survival" within my host family.
My one year old host brother has had a cold for a few days and as i predicted, I have picked it up without a hitch. The cold itself is nothing serious, just a bit of annoying sniffling and sneezing. All in all I am feeling great. I was going through a bit of a hard time physically adjusting to a few aspects of my new surroundings. Mostly the food, which is very heavy in red meat and sunflower oil, did not settle well with my stomach for many reasons. For the most part though, I have done well with jetlag etc. I did have some pretty intense back pain for about a week which really got me down, but luckily I bounced back and if it happens again I know how to self soothe in my new environment which I feel is a monumental breakthrough.
On Saturday, the last time I wrote in this blog, I was in Almaty. Which supposedly translates literally to "The Big Apple", (alma= apple). Almaty is very European with extremely clean streets, big monuments and parks, mosques, bazaars, high end fashion and advanced technology. There are new buildings going up continuously and a growing economy is evident. I witnessed a Kazakhstani wedding, which isn't very different from an American one, except for the fact that most wedding parties will take pictures and "hang out" in front of popular local monuments. This seems to be a tradition and there is a specific word in Kazakh for it. Irregardless, it was cool to see.
I am feeling more at home than ever today. The weather has been very cold already and my host family keeps the house nice and warm. They have a furnace in which they burn wood to heat the house. There has been a few rain storms this week but mostly the sky is clear and the sun is out. Today the mountains to the east of the village were absolutely breathtaking. All of the clouds were gone and the view was crystal clear. I didn't have a good opportunity to take pictures but I hope tomorrow they will be just as beautiful. There is already a fresh blanket of snow and we're only in the 2nd week of September. I am looking forward to getting better with my Kazakh and also learning more about where my permanent site will be. At this juncture I feel absolutely calm. I was talking to some of the Kaz-19 PCVs and they were telling me that I should tell the PC staff when I get interviewed that I want to have option to move out of my host family and obtain my own space. This would probably ensure running water and a real toilet. Both are limits of mine that I have discovered within the first month of staying in Kazakhstan. A real, indoors, bathroom is a must for me. I got the impression that saying I want this for my permanent site will be seen in a positive way and the staff will actually listen to me. Let me back up, Every Trainee will be interviewed before they are assigned to their own permanent site. This time is for people who want to request a site mate, a chance to move out on their own and other preferences. Many other trainees I have talked to feel that living with a host family would be the best way to go for them and I salute them. I know myself and the best way for me to be effective is to have my very own space and the ability to choose when and what I eat, as well as the freedom to come and go without having to check in with anyone. To make a long story short, I am looking forward to that interview. I know for at least the first 3 months at my site I will have to live with a host family.
September 9
I just had a crazy coincidental cross continental experience! I was just sitting in the living room with Damir (the one year old) and all of a sudden the stop-motion short "western spaghetti" just played on the Kazakh entertainment channel. I am still dumbfounded. that short film was one I had seen on geekologie.com many months ago back at CSUCI. I absolutely think its brilliant. How bizarre that it would randomly show up on this obscure channel at exactly the time I am watching TV while i'm in Kazakhstan. I wish I could understand how they found it and why they decided to play it. CRAZY. I remember showing my art teacher that short back at school. Maybe its because I have such an affinity with that film, that I am freaking out a bit about it. Regardless, seeing something so American and so close to me in this environment feels really really weird.
anyhoo, BIZARRE.
In other news, I am super duper tired. I still have a bit of that cold left, though i feel that it is on its way out. (thank goodness). Tomorrow I am going to Almaty for another Hub Day. We are all going to meet at the Peace Corps office. The office itself is actually about a 1/2 an hour out of the way in a far corner of the city. Taxi drivers never know how to actually get there fully, so most volunteers have to walk a length of the way up to the gate. The compound has two beautiful house-like buildings complete with a volunteer lounge, kitchen, free internet and a huge library. The floors are marble and there are real bathrooms (my favorite part). The area surrounding the office is what can only be described as a dump. There is one long alley that has a few car garages on it and some businesses and the next walkway is filled with trash and an old refrigerator. Quite a different sight than the rest of Almaty. Friday I am giving my presentation to the class I will be teaching for the next two months. I have to create a simple "lesson plan" to share information about myself to the kids. I plan to talk about where I am from, what I do in my free time and who my family is. I have the opportunity to use visual aids and I have incorporated some drawing into my presentation. It's such a great stress reliever for me and it shows that I put in some effort.
Today, class was great but super tiring. We went to the post office, barber, and the market after we observed two English lessons. With this cold, I have been dragging my feet even walking the short distance to school. After our walk (which was not short), we came back and had another hour and 1/2 of lessons. My group consists of 6 people including myself. During the "toss the ball" game, which is a little like popcorn, we were all feelings very fatigued and tired. so, I introduced the "vegetable off" game. The game consists of two people standing and facing the rest of the group. The group has to come up with an adjective and a fruit or vegetable for the two people standing to act out. For example, "Crazy Carrot" or "Emotional Eggplant" etc. The object of the game is to get the kids to be a silly as they can be, as well as adults. Today, my language group used this game to study adjectives, since we had just learned them. It was so fun! I can't wait to play that game again. I have to go study and make the rest of my visual aids for my presentation.
September 12
Today was a big day of firsts. Today, I rode in a gypsy cab for the first time without a peace corps employee. I asked and received directions in Kazakh successfully, which is a huge step up for me. I received my first compliment on my Kazakh speaking skills. Today I played ultimate frisbee for the first time since being in Kazakhstan. Some other trainees and I played at a school in Panfilova with about 15 school kids. They ranged from ages 7-15. We had such a great time today. I hope to go back next weekend and play more frisbee. It was such a great release for me. Today was the first time I lit the Banya by myself and finally today is the first day of feeling actually independent in Kazakhstan. HOORAY! Tomorrow I am going hiking in a town called Issyk. We are all meeting up in the morning and I will go to the bazaar in the afternoon. I need to go to the post office and send some letters and also try and use some internet.
TODAY!!!! October 12
It's been a few weeks since the last time i reached the internet and so many things have happened! They announced our site placements and I am going to a copper mining city smack dab in the middle of the country called Jezkazgan. I will post in cyrillic when I can and I will make a link from wikipedia or something. The city has about 100,000 people and an actual indoor market! I am very excited to be working in the college with the older kids. I will be able to work on things like writing papers and resumes and working towards opportunities to travel abroad for school (specifically Britain and the states). The other major plus for working with the college kids is that they WANT to be there. They are self motivated in learning English. Therefore my classes will be infinitely more productive. YAY!
I talked to my Grandparents and my Uncle this morning and it was such a nice surprise to wake up to! My mom and Gene were over there and they decided to call me. I've never felt so loved and supported! I certainly do have a wonderful family. I've heard that many people are reading these postings and I should write more about what the people do, what they eat and so on. SO... here we go!
Kazakhstan is part of the former USSR and the evidence shows everywhere. First of all, Kazakhs were originally nomads and their language is considered Turkic. This is the traditional side of the people, the more recent remnants of Russia can be seen in the fact that everyone, in most of the -stan's, speaks Russian. Mostly the men here speak well of Stalin, particularly my host dad. He says that under Stalin the roads were good, the electricity stayed on and everyone had jobs. It's interesting to hear the argument why such a man was actually good from the source and seeing where it's coming from. It really makes me stop when I want to coil back in strong oppostition. As far as the people, there are Russians and Kazakhs mostly, but also Turkish, Mongolian and some specific tribes (whose names I am not sure quite how to spell). There is very deep rooted racism here just like anywhere else in the world. Kazakhs are also very superstitious. Maybe a mix of their nomadic traditions and Islamic reference the the "evil eye". Many people here believe in the "evil eye". This would be something to look up if you are curious about it. It does drive a lot of how some people interact. Very fascinating!
Despite the deep current of USSR mentalities, the sometimes compromised school integrity system and superstitions, the people here are fantastic. They are very open, ready to share with you and get to know you. The food dishes that are national here are: lagman- noodles in broth with usually mutton, horse or beef. peppers, onions, carrots and dill. very tasty! This dish is Russian by origin. Beshbarmak-This dish is also noodles, but with only onions and usually horse or beef. This dish is the national dish of Kazakhstan. The name itself means 5 fingers, "bes" =5, barmak=finger. Subsequently, because as nomads, Kazakhs ate this dish with their hands. Barsaock- This is a type of fried dough, cut into elongated squares and served for special occasions. I can't really thing of anything in the states to equate it to except a thick puff pastry maybe, and not sweet but really really good. The other more traditional dish is called Plovf- This dish has slightly fried rice, carrots and lots of garlic. mmmm. its one of my favorite dishes here. The other dish seen everywhere is Borscht- beet soup. My host mom makes an excellent Borscht. This dish is all Russian. Most of the food here is cooked with sunflower oil, lots of it. The oil is cheap to buy and serves the purpose. Olive oil, which i love, is very expensive here. But at least I can buy it! The main ingredients I see repeated all the time here are : potatoes, onions, peppers (red and orange), garlic, beets, cabbage, dill, green onions and of course meat! lots of it. The most common are mutton and beef. On special occasions horse will be served but usually during wintertime since it's easier to keep the meat longer and horse is very expensive. I have yet to experience the shortages of vegetables and fruits during the wintertime and im sure the menu of items available will change drastically. Luckily, I will be going to a city where most everything is able to be bought, only for many more tenge. The exchange rate for every US 1 is 150 tenge. Therefore, 30,000 tenge equates to 200 US $.
Today I am going to Issyk again to observe some college classes with my friend Echo, who is also going to be working the college at her site in the south. Originally both of us were titled "secondary" school teachers and just at site announcement found out we were going to work in the college. I am so happy because that is what I wanted to do from the beginning! I will also stop by the internet cafe and put all of these postings today. I also have to buy some supplies at the bazaar for my classes.
If anyone of you reading this has any specific question that I haven't answered please leave a comment and ask! I am more than happy to answer the best I can. I want to deliver as much information as I can about this great country to you all.
Today was a good day. I had lessons this morning and made some progress with the cases in Kazakh. (dative, ablative, accusative etc.) Learning grammar with an entirely foreign alphabet is a whirlwind. So frustrating but so rewarding when you have those breakthroughs. For being in country for less than a month, I am satisfied with the amount of language I can understand thus far. I am getting much more comfortable with the actual structures of the language and can better point out the verbs in questions asked of me. Everyone around me, especially my host sister, is very animate about me learning Kazakh. She actually knows some substantial English but will only speak to me if I really can't understand what she is asking (which right now is pretty often). My teacher Nagima said all i need to do is work on my spelling skills and the rest will follow. My reading skills are improving but writing alongside my regular studying will expedite my learning. The semantic knowledge we learn in class doesn't seem to really come up into outside life until a few days after the fact. In this respect, it is difficult for me to remember a lot of basic nouns. My main focus at this point is to understand the overall picture and get the cases down. Once I do that I feel I can focus more in depth on the vocabulary that is not basic for "survival" within my host family.
My one year old host brother has had a cold for a few days and as i predicted, I have picked it up without a hitch. The cold itself is nothing serious, just a bit of annoying sniffling and sneezing. All in all I am feeling great. I was going through a bit of a hard time physically adjusting to a few aspects of my new surroundings. Mostly the food, which is very heavy in red meat and sunflower oil, did not settle well with my stomach for many reasons. For the most part though, I have done well with jetlag etc. I did have some pretty intense back pain for about a week which really got me down, but luckily I bounced back and if it happens again I know how to self soothe in my new environment which I feel is a monumental breakthrough.
On Saturday, the last time I wrote in this blog, I was in Almaty. Which supposedly translates literally to "The Big Apple", (alma= apple). Almaty is very European with extremely clean streets, big monuments and parks, mosques, bazaars, high end fashion and advanced technology. There are new buildings going up continuously and a growing economy is evident. I witnessed a Kazakhstani wedding, which isn't very different from an American one, except for the fact that most wedding parties will take pictures and "hang out" in front of popular local monuments. This seems to be a tradition and there is a specific word in Kazakh for it. Irregardless, it was cool to see.
I am feeling more at home than ever today. The weather has been very cold already and my host family keeps the house nice and warm. They have a furnace in which they burn wood to heat the house. There has been a few rain storms this week but mostly the sky is clear and the sun is out. Today the mountains to the east of the village were absolutely breathtaking. All of the clouds were gone and the view was crystal clear. I didn't have a good opportunity to take pictures but I hope tomorrow they will be just as beautiful. There is already a fresh blanket of snow and we're only in the 2nd week of September. I am looking forward to getting better with my Kazakh and also learning more about where my permanent site will be. At this juncture I feel absolutely calm. I was talking to some of the Kaz-19 PCVs and they were telling me that I should tell the PC staff when I get interviewed that I want to have option to move out of my host family and obtain my own space. This would probably ensure running water and a real toilet. Both are limits of mine that I have discovered within the first month of staying in Kazakhstan. A real, indoors, bathroom is a must for me. I got the impression that saying I want this for my permanent site will be seen in a positive way and the staff will actually listen to me. Let me back up, Every Trainee will be interviewed before they are assigned to their own permanent site. This time is for people who want to request a site mate, a chance to move out on their own and other preferences. Many other trainees I have talked to feel that living with a host family would be the best way to go for them and I salute them. I know myself and the best way for me to be effective is to have my very own space and the ability to choose when and what I eat, as well as the freedom to come and go without having to check in with anyone. To make a long story short, I am looking forward to that interview. I know for at least the first 3 months at my site I will have to live with a host family.
September 9
I just had a crazy coincidental cross continental experience! I was just sitting in the living room with Damir (the one year old) and all of a sudden the stop-motion short "western spaghetti" just played on the Kazakh entertainment channel. I am still dumbfounded. that short film was one I had seen on geekologie.com many months ago back at CSUCI. I absolutely think its brilliant. How bizarre that it would randomly show up on this obscure channel at exactly the time I am watching TV while i'm in Kazakhstan. I wish I could understand how they found it and why they decided to play it. CRAZY. I remember showing my art teacher that short back at school. Maybe its because I have such an affinity with that film, that I am freaking out a bit about it. Regardless, seeing something so American and so close to me in this environment feels really really weird.
anyhoo, BIZARRE.
In other news, I am super duper tired. I still have a bit of that cold left, though i feel that it is on its way out. (thank goodness). Tomorrow I am going to Almaty for another Hub Day. We are all going to meet at the Peace Corps office. The office itself is actually about a 1/2 an hour out of the way in a far corner of the city. Taxi drivers never know how to actually get there fully, so most volunteers have to walk a length of the way up to the gate. The compound has two beautiful house-like buildings complete with a volunteer lounge, kitchen, free internet and a huge library. The floors are marble and there are real bathrooms (my favorite part). The area surrounding the office is what can only be described as a dump. There is one long alley that has a few car garages on it and some businesses and the next walkway is filled with trash and an old refrigerator. Quite a different sight than the rest of Almaty. Friday I am giving my presentation to the class I will be teaching for the next two months. I have to create a simple "lesson plan" to share information about myself to the kids. I plan to talk about where I am from, what I do in my free time and who my family is. I have the opportunity to use visual aids and I have incorporated some drawing into my presentation. It's such a great stress reliever for me and it shows that I put in some effort.
Today, class was great but super tiring. We went to the post office, barber, and the market after we observed two English lessons. With this cold, I have been dragging my feet even walking the short distance to school. After our walk (which was not short), we came back and had another hour and 1/2 of lessons. My group consists of 6 people including myself. During the "toss the ball" game, which is a little like popcorn, we were all feelings very fatigued and tired. so, I introduced the "vegetable off" game. The game consists of two people standing and facing the rest of the group. The group has to come up with an adjective and a fruit or vegetable for the two people standing to act out. For example, "Crazy Carrot" or "Emotional Eggplant" etc. The object of the game is to get the kids to be a silly as they can be, as well as adults. Today, my language group used this game to study adjectives, since we had just learned them. It was so fun! I can't wait to play that game again. I have to go study and make the rest of my visual aids for my presentation.
September 12
Today was a big day of firsts. Today, I rode in a gypsy cab for the first time without a peace corps employee. I asked and received directions in Kazakh successfully, which is a huge step up for me. I received my first compliment on my Kazakh speaking skills. Today I played ultimate frisbee for the first time since being in Kazakhstan. Some other trainees and I played at a school in Panfilova with about 15 school kids. They ranged from ages 7-15. We had such a great time today. I hope to go back next weekend and play more frisbee. It was such a great release for me. Today was the first time I lit the Banya by myself and finally today is the first day of feeling actually independent in Kazakhstan. HOORAY! Tomorrow I am going hiking in a town called Issyk. We are all meeting up in the morning and I will go to the bazaar in the afternoon. I need to go to the post office and send some letters and also try and use some internet.
TODAY!!!! October 12
It's been a few weeks since the last time i reached the internet and so many things have happened! They announced our site placements and I am going to a copper mining city smack dab in the middle of the country called Jezkazgan. I will post in cyrillic when I can and I will make a link from wikipedia or something. The city has about 100,000 people and an actual indoor market! I am very excited to be working in the college with the older kids. I will be able to work on things like writing papers and resumes and working towards opportunities to travel abroad for school (specifically Britain and the states). The other major plus for working with the college kids is that they WANT to be there. They are self motivated in learning English. Therefore my classes will be infinitely more productive. YAY!
I talked to my Grandparents and my Uncle this morning and it was such a nice surprise to wake up to! My mom and Gene were over there and they decided to call me. I've never felt so loved and supported! I certainly do have a wonderful family. I've heard that many people are reading these postings and I should write more about what the people do, what they eat and so on. SO... here we go!
Kazakhstan is part of the former USSR and the evidence shows everywhere. First of all, Kazakhs were originally nomads and their language is considered Turkic. This is the traditional side of the people, the more recent remnants of Russia can be seen in the fact that everyone, in most of the -stan's, speaks Russian. Mostly the men here speak well of Stalin, particularly my host dad. He says that under Stalin the roads were good, the electricity stayed on and everyone had jobs. It's interesting to hear the argument why such a man was actually good from the source and seeing where it's coming from. It really makes me stop when I want to coil back in strong oppostition. As far as the people, there are Russians and Kazakhs mostly, but also Turkish, Mongolian and some specific tribes (whose names I am not sure quite how to spell). There is very deep rooted racism here just like anywhere else in the world. Kazakhs are also very superstitious. Maybe a mix of their nomadic traditions and Islamic reference the the "evil eye". Many people here believe in the "evil eye". This would be something to look up if you are curious about it. It does drive a lot of how some people interact. Very fascinating!
Despite the deep current of USSR mentalities, the sometimes compromised school integrity system and superstitions, the people here are fantastic. They are very open, ready to share with you and get to know you. The food dishes that are national here are: lagman- noodles in broth with usually mutton, horse or beef. peppers, onions, carrots and dill. very tasty! This dish is Russian by origin. Beshbarmak-This dish is also noodles, but with only onions and usually horse or beef. This dish is the national dish of Kazakhstan. The name itself means 5 fingers, "bes" =5, barmak=finger. Subsequently, because as nomads, Kazakhs ate this dish with their hands. Barsaock- This is a type of fried dough, cut into elongated squares and served for special occasions. I can't really thing of anything in the states to equate it to except a thick puff pastry maybe, and not sweet but really really good. The other more traditional dish is called Plovf- This dish has slightly fried rice, carrots and lots of garlic. mmmm. its one of my favorite dishes here. The other dish seen everywhere is Borscht- beet soup. My host mom makes an excellent Borscht. This dish is all Russian. Most of the food here is cooked with sunflower oil, lots of it. The oil is cheap to buy and serves the purpose. Olive oil, which i love, is very expensive here. But at least I can buy it! The main ingredients I see repeated all the time here are : potatoes, onions, peppers (red and orange), garlic, beets, cabbage, dill, green onions and of course meat! lots of it. The most common are mutton and beef. On special occasions horse will be served but usually during wintertime since it's easier to keep the meat longer and horse is very expensive. I have yet to experience the shortages of vegetables and fruits during the wintertime and im sure the menu of items available will change drastically. Luckily, I will be going to a city where most everything is able to be bought, only for many more tenge. The exchange rate for every US 1 is 150 tenge. Therefore, 30,000 tenge equates to 200 US $.
Today I am going to Issyk again to observe some college classes with my friend Echo, who is also going to be working the college at her site in the south. Originally both of us were titled "secondary" school teachers and just at site announcement found out we were going to work in the college. I am so happy because that is what I wanted to do from the beginning! I will also stop by the internet cafe and put all of these postings today. I also have to buy some supplies at the bazaar for my classes.
If anyone of you reading this has any specific question that I haven't answered please leave a comment and ask! I am more than happy to answer the best I can. I want to deliver as much information as I can about this great country to you all.
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