Monday, February 22, 2010

Week in Pictures

A week in Kazakhstan, but not this week.





Monday, February 15, 2010

More from January

I know it's well into February but as I mentioned in my last post I'm still playing catch up.

An Accident

Unfortunately one of our KZ-20 volunteers, Jaime, got into a serious car accident on her way back home from Shymkent, where she was visiting my sitemate for the weekend. The roads here can be very dangerous when iced over during winter. When we first heard about the accident from Peace Corps she was unconcscious but in stable condition. Peace Corps took good care of her to make sure she got the medical attention needed. She was moved from Kazakhstan to a U.S. base in Bishkek, Kyrgystan, then Germany where her parents met her and finally back to the States. We have been following her journey to recovery thanks to blog updates from her sister-in-law that our country director has been emailing us (because blogs are blocked on and off). Now she is at a rehabilitation center and shows signs of improvement each day. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers. We hope for her full recovery.


Blogger Blocked

Since mid-January there have been problems with accessing Blogger. Volunteers here discovered that we could not get on our blogs to write new posts update or read anyone else's blogspot. Many of us rely on our blogs to keep family and friends updated so it was a big dissapointment. I still don't understand why but the local internet provider, KazTeleCom, has blocked 13 other websites aside from blogger. If you take a look at the list, you've got to wonder why some of the sites were blocked. These days I can access my blog sometimes and from some computers. I will keep posting as I get access so keep reading! I've got some great ideas for future blog posts such as picture only posts and an entry of frequently asked questions. If you have any questions about Kazakhstan or my service leave them in a comment so I can answer them in my FAQ blog!

Packages From Home

I got four amazing packages since my last blog. In fact, three came in on one snowy day and it felt like Christmas. Thank you sooooo much!


From my parents



From Juhi




From Faith




From David