Summer

All right, so I'm experimenting with this whole posting blogs by email thing. Hope it works! If it does, I no longer have an excuse to go so long without posting! Alot of my posts have been loaded with pictures but I'm getting requests for more substance, "TELL us what it's like"! Plus, when I post through email I can't add pictures (if someone knows how, please tell me). With all the info and links this post should keep you busy for awhile when you get back to work from Labor Day weekend! Enjoy!

EUROPE
At the end of June I went to Munich, Amsterdam and London with my brother. It was amazing. The first few days felt strange and everything was extra-amazing! We spent 3 days in Munich and met up with a couch surfer there. She showed us around every evening when she was done with work. It was so helpful to have a local resident with us. In Amsterdam, we stayed for 5 days on a houseboat and met some really cool people there. On the first day my brother and I went to an excellent photography exhibit (click the link for the winner's gallery) held in an old church. Over the next few days we did a city walking tour and a countryside bike tour. The city is very beautiful and historical. And it doesn't hurt that the food was delicious! In London we stayed a week with my cousin, her husband and their kids. We were lucky to catch my uncle and aunt there. The flew back to India the day after we got in. Being in London was relaxing. Just hanging out with the family, playing with the kids, grocery shopping, and watching the world cup! It was really hard to take the flight back to Kazakhstan. Quickly you are so far from everything.

SUMMER CAMPS
A week or so after getting back from Europe I was back on the road! First I went to Asa, a small village near the southern city of Taraz, where my friend Jessica works. She put together a week-long baseball camp. We spent half the day in the hot, hot, heat teaching kids how to play baseball. To be honest I still don't know how to play. I spent my time with the little kids playing pre-T-ball! While baseball camp was fun, it was the time outside of camp hours that I enjoyed the most. Cool experience #1: we stayed in a yurt. Cool experience #2: we watched half of the World Cup Final there...okay not even, most of us fell asleep. Alright, I'll stop counting the cool experiences and just tell you about it already! The days were spent downing pounds of watermelon and the nights were spent Milky Way gazing and playing word games in the dark. Jess introduced us to her local friend Raushan, who was an excellent host in Asa. She invited us over to her house to gosti (be guests). We helped make vereniki and then had a picnic in her family's garden. They grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables there. We picked fresh raspberies! My favorite day was when Raushan and her family planned a riverside picnic for all of us volunteering at the baseball camp. To start things off right some of us rode over to the river on a donkey cart and the other half walked from the house. By the time they got to the river everyone was ready for a swim! The water was sooo cold, but refreshing! Then we picnicked with a never-ending amount of food. Since in Kazakhstan no good time is over without a dance party we did exactly that. We walked back to Raushan's house during sunset and her family prepared the banya for us when we got back. On the last day of camp Mark's (a volunteer) parents and sister who were visiting from the States handed out baseball caps that were donated by the Atlanta Braves to all the campers. Pretty cool!

The second camp was in Zhanatas, a city a few hours away from both Shymkent and Taraz. Zhanatas used to be a huge city but there was a mass exodus of Russians and now many buildings are left abandoned. Nevertheless it is the site of my friends, Laura and Chris.Together they put together a day camp full of summer campy activities. There were 14 volunteers in town to help out with it and it was nice to see them and spend time with them because for the rest of the year we are all really far apart and so it's hard to get to know other. A pair of volunteers was matched up with a local teacher and a group of 8-10 kids. Each team had to come up with a group name, chant, and flag. My team came up with the name Big, Fast, Fire! I love it! For the next six day we did so many activities: human knot, create a group monster, Amazing Race, water balloon games, kickball, egg drop, Frisbee, relays and friendship bracelets. What a blast for the kids and volunteers. In the evenings a few people would cook up a delicious meal and 14 or so volunteers would eat together in a one room apartment. Add to that the fact there was running water for about only two hours a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Doing dishes was no easy task! We had a fun time together going for walks, eating ice cream nightly, swimming in a lake and banyaing, but after a month away from site (two weeks in Europe and two weeks at camps) I was ready to get back to Shymkent.


ONE YEAR
The big one year mark! A year ago on August 21st sixty-some new trainees stepped off a plane at Almaty airport at an odd hour in the morning after traveling for over 24 hours. We made it to Kazakhstan, now what? So much has changed since then. This was "the land that disappeared" or the land of Borat, a joke made to play on the fact that most Westerners know nothing about Kazakhstan. It's almost weird how much I've learned since then. Meeting the new group of trainees (KZ-22) helped me realize this. I didn't know a word of Russian that wasn't on the first few lessons of Rosetta stone. I didn't know ANYTHING about ANYTHING!!! I think that's why going to a new country is so nerve-wracking for both volunteers and their loved ones back home. Note to my parents: I've learned alot: I can get by with my Russian, I have a general sense of how to live life here and yes, I'm eating well.

Time has gone by so strangely in the last year. Sometimes it s-l-o-w-s down and at other times it's so fast. It hasn't always been easy but on the other hand Kazakhstan has a way of surprising you. A few months ago, KZ-20 volunteer (one year ahead of me) told me that Kazakhstan is magical. Now that I've spent one year in Kazakhstan I can finally see why. It's hard to believe I'm almost half way there! November will be one year at site. It's almost scary because volunteers say the second year goes by faster. Not that I want to prolong my stay, but I feel like there is so much more I have left to accomplish.


CONSTITUTION DAY
On August 30th, Kazakhstan celebrated Constitution Day [День Конституции], but this was not any ordinary Constitution Day. It was a special anniversary. Fifteen years ago the constitution was adopted as the highest law in Kazakhstan. This day served as a reminder of how young this country really is. Even though I could have celebrated by attending a parade, I chose to enjoy the day off relaxing at home before local schools are back in session.

FIRST BELL CEREMONY
Here schools always start on September 1st, a holiday called the Day of Knowledge [День Знаний]. The day is celebrated with a First Bell [Первый Звонок] ceremony in the courtyard of each school. Students are dressed up even though they wear "uniforms". At the school where my office is students can wear basically anything as long as it's black and white. For First Bell many young girls wear big, white, pom-pom looking bows in their hair. Students often bring with them big bouquets of flowers to give to teachers or the director (principal) of the school. The ceremony begins when the director makes a speech welcoming the students and teachers back to school and wishing them a successful year. Then some students are acknowledged for awards they have won, guests of honor are recognized (I was one!) and students perform dances and sing for their classmates and teachers. Now the most important part, the ceremony ends by ringing a bell, the first bell, which means school is now in session. The school where I work has grades 1-11. This day is very important for the students of 1st grade who are beginning school and the students of 11th grade who are starting their last year. After the first bell is rung the students of the 1st and 11th grades get to parade around the courtyard before going to class.

COMING UP...FALL
So even though temperatures in Shymkent are still hitting 100 these days I think the start of school marks the end of summer. People here keep telling me it will cool down in a magical 2 weeks. I hope they are right.Soon, like right NOW, I leave for Almaty, the land of higher elevation and cooler temperatures, to attend a four day Youth Development (YD) conference organized by Peace Corps for YD volunteers and their local counterparts. After the conference I'll stay through the weekend to do Hike 4 A Kaz, a charity hike created by a Peace Corps volunteer.

See you on the blog when I get back from Almaty!

Ohhhh and by the way if you haven't seen my summer album, take a look! I updated it recently...