Independence Day=2 days to integrate

On December 16, 1991 due to the fall of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan followed the lead of other Soviet Republics and declared its independence. So in true Kazakhstani fashion we got two days (Wednesday and Thursday) off for the occasion.

Come a long way

Kazakhstan is still a very young nation but citizens who have lived through the Soviet rule can argue that it has come a long way since the early days of independence. The other day during my Russian lesson my tutor was telling me about how difficult life was in the first few years of independent Kazakhstan. Utilities that were once run by the U.S.S.R. no longer functioned since Soviet influence was out of the picture. For two to three years residents here faced shortages in electricity and in gas for cooking and heating. Now that winter has begun here it painful to imagine how those first few winters were spent. These days those basic utilities are available in the city as Kazakhstan takes advantage of its abundance of oil, gas, and mineral reserves.

Our independence

During English discussion club, following the two day break, some locals and I got to talking about independence in the U.S. and what it means. Two of the locals had lived in the U.S. for a summer as part of a program called Work and Travel. I asked them what they missed the most about the States. One woman answered, "Freedom, it's in the air. There is freedom in everything. You can do what you want and be who you want". I thought it was an interesting answer because if someone asked me right now what I missed the most I probably would not have the same reply. Sometimes other people remind you of what you are grateful for and should not take for granted.

Celebrating

In order to not take my two days off work for granted I enjoyed them to the fullest. On Wednesday, I caught up with a few chores at home and just relaxed. That evening I met up with volunteers for dinner and ending up going out to the disco at night. The disco, called Cinema, is attached to a movie theater. It was a fun night of dancing to a lot of loud electronic/dance music.

At Cinema with volunteers and local friends.

The next day I got up bright and early to get ready and head off to the Burguluk Mountains about 40 minutes away from Shymkent. I was a bit apprehensive about the trip since the weather has been funny. One day it's snowing and the next day it's gross out, but it turned out to be great weather. There was fresh snow on the mountains and it was sunny out. I went with local friends who regularly attend English club: Olessya, Tanya, Sasha, Olga, Artur and Masha. And we were accompanied by our very own alpinists, Vitalya, Saveli, Dima and Vadim. It was a beautiful but difficult 3+ hour hike up through the snow.

If you thought hiking up was difficult, getting down can be just as tricky.

In Kazakhstan there is chai time no matter where you are.

Thanksgiving in Kazakhstan

It's been way too long since I've posted but that means alot has happened! For the last few weeks I've been settling in to my new city, with my new host family, and at work. I can pretty much get around the center of town without getting lost, which is an achievement for me. Work is still slow but I've been keeping busy with weekly activities. On Mondays I will begin training the English Olympiad team from the school where my office is located; on Tuesdays I have an English club for the students at School 8; Wednesdays we have Women's club and an English movie club; and Fridays we have a English discussion club. In between those clubs I try to make it to our local heated, outdoor swimming pool once a week, Russian tutoring and hip hop dance classes.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day itself was pretty uneventful since it falls in the middle of the week and we don't get a day off for it. A volunteer from a town a few hours away from Shymkent came into stay with me for the weekend so we did have a nice Thanksgiving lunch: pizza and Pepsi. Many of the volunteers from the oblast (state) came into town during the weekend so we celebrated Thanksgiving together on Saturday with tons of food and costumes. Traditional food matched with what might be a new tradition. I dressed up as Judy Funnie from Doug. Check out the pictures below to see other costumes.

It was nice to have so many volunteers in town since I hadn't even met everyone in the oblast yet. A few people handled grocery shopping and we spent the day cooking and hanging out at Joe's apartment. For dinner there was: turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, corn bread, salad, apple pie and pumpkin pie. Like after any good Thanksgiving dinner we were stuffed. More than half us could not move while the rest entertained us by dancing.

Galadriel and Edward Cullin

The spread!

Apple pie....mmm!

My new host family

In other news, I've been with my host family for about 5 or 6 weeks so it's about time I tell you about them. When I moved to site I stayed with Britt, a current volunteer, for a few days while I looked at host families. My organization had 3 potential host families for me to look at but after visiting all three I wasn't sure I wanted to live with any of them. During the course of this search I happened to meet Ira, a local friend of Britt and Joe's. So once I found myself scrambling to find a host family, they suggested I speak with Ira about living with her. And that's just what I did!

I'm really happy with my decision because my host family and their apartment are great. My host family is Korean. I have a host mom named Luisa. She is retired from a long career of teaching. My host sister's name is Ira (short for Irina). She's 24 and used to work at a place that sells massage beds. Actually when I came to check out Ira and her mom's apartment before deciding to move there, she tricked Britt and I into going to her workplace and getting massages. I can't complain! Ira studied music and dance when she was in university. She can sing, dance, play piano and draw. On top of being multi-talented she speaks English well. This is pretty helpful since my Russian is still not so great. She mostly speaks to me in Russian but I speak to her in English and broken Russian when I can. Sometimes Ira and I go to the local movie theater on the weekends. Recently we saw 2012 and New Moon, but of course they were dubbed in Russian so I can't tell you what happened. No spoilers here!

Unpacked my few belongings.

My room, but the piano is now gone!

Friends came over to gosti (visit/guest) with me and my host family.

L to R: Luisa (host mom), Ira (host sister), Alex (local friend), Zach (volunteer, KZ-19), Becca (volunteer, KZ-21) and Janara (neighbor).

Link to Pictures from PST

I've been at my site for over a week now which means I get to go online more often than when I lived in the village. That means it's time to catch up on posting pictures from my first 10 weeks in Kazakhstan. I want to share photos of pre-service training (PST), projects, waterfalls, nature, Enbek (training village), food, fellow trainees, sites of Almaty, train travel, Russian language, Karaganda, dance, culture and many more things. Right now I've only uploaded a few pictures but in the next week or so I'll get going on filling up the album. Enjoy! Feel free to ask me any questions!

http://picasaweb.google.com/siprabihani/KazakhtanPreServiceTraining?feat=directlink#

My New Address!

Here is my shiny new address that I share with the other Peace Corps Volunteers that live in Shymkent:

Корпус Мира
а/я 62
160000 Шымкент
Казахстан

Sipra Bihani
PO Box 62
Shymkent, Kazakhstan
160000

Please be sure to include both the English and Cyrillic if you write to me!

Everything is going well here... it has been interesting. I am still looking for a host family but I think I will have that figured out by tomorrow. My first two days of work have been slow but I'm sure that will change soon. Hope to hear from you!

Site placements....SHYMKENT!

Blogging has been more difficult than I imagined because I live in a village with no internet. When I do get a chance to get online it is usually for a very short time. PST, pre-service training is a busy time. We are busy all day, 6 days a week. Not just learning Russian, but teaching English, holding extracurricular activities and planning community projects. After PST we swear in on October 31st and become volunteers.

As part of our training we went to a city called Karaganda last week. It was quote a trip especially since it started and ended with an eighten hour train ride. In the city, we got to meet with different organizations, orphanages, and schools. It was a great practical experience in working in Kazakhstan. We also got to meet current volunteers and hear great stories from them. The last night there we went to an amazing Georgian restaurant. I got lobio (spiced kidney beans) and kachapury (flatbread with cheese). It was the best meal I've had in Kazakhstan. The field trip was a much needed break from the day to day schedule of training, even though we worked in Karaganda.

Since the field trip we have been eagerly looking forward to site announcements. This is the day when all 65 trainees gather together and find out where we will be living for the next two years and which organization we will work with. I don't know if I can stress the level of anticipation that day. In Peace Corps style the announcements were made at the very end of the day. Each regional manager gave a brief description of the site then announced who would be going there. Of course I was talking while my description was given, my technical trainer is hushing me and then all of a sudden I hear my name. It was funny because alot of people were sad or really excited about their placements but I didn't even know where I was going. After announcements we met in oblast (state) groups and got more detailed information about our sites. I will be spending two years living in the southern city of Shymkent. It is a mix of traditional Kazakh culture and the modernity of a big city. I am excited to get the best of both worlds. Another nice thing is that I will still be able to speak Russian there and maybe learn some Kazakh. The city has many universities so there is a youthful vibe. Volunteers there enjoying going to jazz clubs on Wednesday nights and swimming in the heated outdoor pool. Once a week the hold events at the American corner of the libraray and a movie night. I will primarily be working with an organization called Intellect. The are working on many things: civil and economic development, healthy lifestyles, debate clubs, summer camps and prevention of youth delinquency. Needless to say I am very excited about my new city and organization!!!

First two weeks

I only have half an hour at the internet cafe so I'm going to try to edit a letter to my parents into a quick blog entry.



In D.C. we had one day of training. August 19th we left for Almaty via Frankfurt. We had one day of training together in Almaty and left for our host families on Saturday morning. Everything happened very quickly but Peace Corps preps us for it.


My host family consists of a mother, a father and a helper. My host mom, Yurkiz is on of the top 50 important Uighers (ethnic group). She is the leader of an NGO called International Ecological Association of Women of the Orient. My host father is/was an electrical engineer. But he is often working around the house. One day a pile of coal will show up and the next day there are stacks of bricks. I usually don’t have enough Russian skills to ask what he does or what is going on.

Arai, is living with the family and does all the household chores. She cooks and cleans. She is 30 years old and has a 6 year old son who was staying with her sister until recently. Now he is living with us but I cannot fully understand why. My host parents have two daughters, one lives in Almaty and other lives in St. Petersburg and plays violin professionally. The one from St. Petersburg had her son staying here till his school started. He was here with his grandparents and left on August 2nd. He is 5 or 6 years old. One day I brought out my markers and let him use them. He drew and drew on maybe 10 or more sheets of paper and taped all of his art in a row on the wall.


Their house is pretty nice for Enbek standards. They have an outdoor squat toilet and an indoor one. If the water is not running we have to use the toilet outside so I’m not too sure how that works in the winter. There is a shower outside. The water is heated by sunlight. There is also and indoor bathtub which I think has only been used once since I’ve been here. People here in Kazakhstan use the banya or suana as a shower once a week. My family doesn’t have one but I used they banya at Elena’s host family’s house. The banya consists of two rooms - one that is "room temperature" where you take off and put on your clothes and the then the actual sauna room. You go in there and sweat it out. Then you can soap up and take a bucket bath to get it all off. I’ve only used it once and I had to hurry but it could be a nice experience if I took my time.


The village we live in is called Enbek. It is about 20-25 minutes away from Issyk, the next largest town. It is a very small village and most of the volunteers in my training group of 10 live here. Two or three trainees live in the neighboring village, Octagai. Enbeck is bordered by a major road and has 6 parallel streets and one or two cross streets through the village. No one has been able to give us the actual population but there are about 300 families that live here. It is a farming village so daily I see cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, and chicken. And of course dogs. There are street dogs but often families will have a guard dog. Nothing like the american concept of pets. Some roads are paved, some are cobblestone and some are dirt but they all have poop on them. Most of the village people have some small garden and others have full fields.


There are 10 trainees in my training class. Cindy, Tes, Jessica, Brandon, and Becky are in one Russian class. In my class is Ford, Hannah, and Jonny. They are from all over the U.S. and go from age 22 to maybe 32. Everyone in the group has had some experience working with youth and development so they have something to offer. Everyone is really nice and we all get along well.


That's all I have time for now but there is so much more to say! Next time I will prepare a post in advance so I'm not rushing in the internet cafe to get something online. Miss you all very much. I will write more soon!

Hello Family and Friends,

Sipra has reached Kazakhstan safely. She and 9 other volunteers have moved in with their host families. Once Sipra has her internet set-up she will write more in detail.

Sipra's Mom

The Journey Begins!

Written 8/19 in Washington, D.C. It's short because I'm posting this from expensive German internet that a fellow volunteer purchased.

Yesterday I said my goodbyes to my family and left Jacksonville for D.C. where orientation was held. We spent our time filling out paper work, meeting each other and getting tons of information from the Peace Corps. We discussed our fears, aspirations, safety, and Peace Corps policy. It was nice to meet the 65 other trainees who are thinking, feeling and going through the same thing I am.

Today we are heading out for the international leg of our journey. We fly to Almaty, Kazakhstan via Frankfurt. I can't say I'm too excited about the long flights, but I do feel prepared from my previous travels to India. For the first day or so we will be staying together but soon we will meet our host families and move in with them for the 3 month training period. Let's see how it goes!