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!
