24 Jan, 2009 – Much has happened since my last post over two months ago. There are lots of Peace Corps stories floating around, but you never really know what you will encounter personally as a volunteer. To simplify a complicated situation, let’s suffice it to say that I am no longer at my original site, through no fault, request, or problem of my own.
I am now in a larger metropolitan area living with another host-mom. She is a university professor and speaks English fluently. Initially she promised to speak only Russian to me, then after a couple of weeks she figured out I was understanding only about half of what she said to me. So know we converse in some Russian and more English. We are getting along great—I think she enjoys having me here and I am certainly happy staying here.
I may finally be getting used to the fact that I live in a very modern apartment; in all seriousness, this apartment could be located anywhere in the U.S. And yes, it is complete with DSL. (In my bedroom!) While this probably sounds great to those of you still living in the West, it has taken me a while to come to terms with my current living situation. I did not expect to live in a mud hut as volunteers in Africa might, but I also did not expect to be living in an apartment with all the modern amenities and appliances. As I think many volunteers can attest to, there is something to be said for living outside of your comfort zone. But after much deliberation on living in a large city (which I didn’t want to do) and in a very nice apartment, I have decided to accept it as reality for the time being. I should not discount my service as a Peace Corps volunteer because my living situation is beyond what I anticipated. There are other, more important things to focus on.
I now work for a women’s organization and also really like the people I work with. This organization is fairly advanced and I am somewhat happier working for them than my first organization. We have weekly staff meetings, they have a strategic plan that is three years old that we are reworking, they know how to plan, how to use a calendar, and they have accomplished many things during their ten years! Most likely this sounds unusual to some people, but a lot of organizations that volunteers work with here in Kazakhstan need to learn the basics of all of those things I just mentioned. People in Kazakhstan tend to have really big, good ideas, but do not know how to implement those plans. That’s where a lot of volunteers come into the picture, to teach them how to organize themselves and manage ideas and projects.
I feel that I am much better suited to this organization because I can help them with more advanced things. I do not feel real comfortable with teaching basic concepts—I tend to lack patience when I think someone should already know something. I actually feel more like a consultant a lot of the time. Besides advising them on the strategic plan, I am also writing a grant for them and giving them my two cents on the related project. This grant is from the European Commission and must be written in English, so it seems that I arrived just in time. In fact, when we spoke with my director for the first time, she said that in Kazakhstan people believe that when they need something, it will arrive when it is time. It seems that it was time for a volunteer to land on their door step for a number of reasons, and so far things are working out really well.
Aside from what I have already mentioned, I am also teaching English twice a week to the people I work with. I am actually doing ok with this, unlike the English Club at my previous site. With the English Club, I had three meetings a week, anywhere from 10-25 students, an age range of about 6-60, a very wide range of English knowledge and speaking ability, and only about 5 students who really wanted to say much. It was very frustrating, very difficult to plan for, and I dreaded every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because of it. But teaching my current director and co-workers is much better. They all have very limited knowledge so I am starting with basics and it is going well. They are all eager to learn so they participate, asking lots of questions. And there are only three of them, plus sometimes my director’s daughter.
In a nutshell, I am settling in well and I am relatively happy with the way things are going. My next task is to locate a Russian tutor and start tackling that again. Yes I am learning much while I am at work since everyone speaks only Russian, but that isn’t helping me with grammar so I need and want some structured learning as well.
As for other happenings during the last two months, I can think of a few that I should mention.
According to most locals, the weather has been unseasonably warm this year. I know of 3-5 days that were at or just above freezing. January is the supposed to be the coldest month, but that cold really didn’t rear it’s ugly head until three days ago. It was -24C on Wednesday morning and -30C Thursday morning. No one bothered to check on Friday. All I know is that I was miserably cold and that the winter coat I bought is not long enough or thick enough for these kind of temperatures. To my knowledge these are the coldest temperatures I have ever experienced. My walk to and from work is nearly 15 minutes. I bundle up tight and try not to go out otherwise. On the positive side of things, there isn’t a huge amount of snow—maybe a couple of feet. And it starts melting in March and should be gone about two months from now. So my pride in having adapted to the cold weather came to an abrupt halt this week, but I am resolved to survive this cold snap and come out of the apartment in my running shoes as soon as it is warm enough and safe enough (no ice) to do so. (Dear Spring, I am waiting…)
Kazakhstan has lots of winter holidays so I should say something about them. December 16 is Independence Day, and the 17th is also declared a holiday. The Orthodox church uses a different calendar (Gregorian, I think?), so Christmas is actually celebrated on January 7. New Year’s Eve is a really big party here, and Jan 1 and 2 are both holidays. And there are tons of fireworks on all of the holidays. Kazakhstanis love fireworks!!! And our Christmas trees are actually New Year’s trees. Santa Claus and gifts are a part of New Year’s celebrations, not Christmas. It’s been very interesting to be apart of all of this. And next year I will be able to understand and appreciate it more since my Russian will have improved.
As for my holidays, they could have been better. Thanksgiving came and went uneventfully. The day before Christmas I became really sick. On Christmas day my temperature was less but I was still miserable. The following day one of our doctors in Almaty decided via phone consultation that I had bronchitis and I was confined to the apartment for the following three days because she didn’t want me out in the cold air. I started taking antibiotics and was better soon thereafter. Christmas was lonely though, to say the least. Not only was I sick, but I didn’t have a host family yet and I was staying in the apartment of another volunteer who was on vacation. And I had worked only 3 days before becoming sick so I felt really badly that their new volunteer disappeared so quickly. But they were very understanding and my counterpart even brought me soup one day. On the bright side, Sean was able to visit me for New Year’s, which was really good for both of us. I showed him a bit of the city and he got to meet some of the nearby volunteers. At least the last of our three holidays turned out well.
