Hi my dear friends...

One of my volunteers, an 11th grade student named Ayagoz, has been working on a social science project that I've been helping out with by getting responses from other Peace Corps volunteers. She wrote out thirteen questions in order to find out more about language learning, living with a host family and cultural adjustment. Below is the questionnaire she sent out (in bold) followed by the answers written in by various volunteers around the country (bulleted). Shout out to Ayagoz for a job well done and thanks to the volunteers that replied!

Hi my dear friends,
I am Ayagoz Ali from gymnasium #8, in Shymkent. I am an excellent 11th grade student. I am also a volunteer like you, but in school. I love the United States very much, and I am interested in learning more about your culture. I know that there are many beautiful places in the US, and if I will have the chance to visit any country it will be America.
We have been meeting with Sipra almost every day. In a short period of time I will defend my scientific project about adjustment of foreign volunteers’ in Kazakhstan, and Sipra helps me with this project. I decided to choose this theme because I am interested in this. It’s very important for me to get more information about you. Here some questions that will help me with my project.

1. Do you like Kazakhstan?

• I like Kazakhstan very much, although it is very different from America.

• Yes, I have come to enjoy living in Kazakhstan. It was difficult at first but as I learn more about how to live, the people and culture it becomes easier.

• I like Kazakhstan very much- I am having a very big adventure in your country!
• Yes, I love Kazakstan. I think that it is a vast, beautiful country that more people should know about.

2. Do you like the people from Kazakhstan?

• I like the people I work with and the young people I meet at English clubs and trainings. I randomly meet some people out at the bazaar or on the street who are very nice. On the other hand I have met some very rude people.
• “People” is a very broad term; there are 15 million of them in Kazakshtan. There have been many people I have liked and many people I have not liked. There have been many traditions I have liked, and many traditions I have not liked. Generally, I find that the people here are not intentionally rude, and they are generally friendly. Some rudeness is because of cultural misunderstanding.
• Yes. They are very hospitable.
• For the most part yes. There are good people and bad people just like everywhere. People are people, and people in Kazakhstan are no different.

3. What relations do you have with Kazakh people?

• I work with local people every day. I work at an office with locals, teach English clubs with local students, have local friends, etc. All of these people are important to me, and I have loved being their friend, colleague, and teacher over the past two years.
• I am friends with them. I have a Kazakh girlfriend.
• I have friends, coworkers, students, roommates, and a landlord.
• I have lots of Kazakhstani friends and I love all my students and co-workers. I have been here for one year and I know many people already!

4. Is it hard to learn our national languages?

• Learning a new language is always hard.
• Very difficult. Especially in the south. I learned Russian, but many people here do not speak Russian or maybe speak with a mix of Kazakh. This is very difficult for someone trying to learn a language. It would be like if you went to America and lived in south Texas where many people’s second language is English and they speak predominately in Spanish and mix in English words.
• Since I live in the north, I am only learning Russian. It is a difficult language, but I love studying and learning it.

5. Where are you living? (in what city)

• Shymkent
• Ecik
• Taraz
• Aksukent
• Zhanatas
• Kostanay

6. Do you like this city?

• I do like Ecik. It is pretty, has mountains, and lots of Kazakh history (Golden Man)
• I do! It has become my home.
• I love this city. It is my favorite in Kazakhstan. It has become my home.

7. How is your relationship with members of your host family?

• Great, they are Kazakh and I haven’t lived with them for over a year. But I still go visit them. I am especially close to my younger host sister who is 11 years old now. When I go over there, we usually play cards and sing karaoke.
• I live by myself now but I try to keep in touch with my host family through SMS.
• I don't live with them anymore but I go back often to visit. They are really important to me.
• My relationship with my host family is great. I just moved out but I know I will still see them often. I had a host mom and a host sister. My host sister calls me her sister. We have a lot of fun talking together.

8. Is it hard living in Kazakhstan? (in your city)

• There are some difficulties. I live in a village so we only have water a few hours away. I am also very far from other volunteers.
• No, it is not hard. It was difficult adjusting at first due to language difficulties. Things, however, are much better now. Also, I definitely miss my family and friends from America. But, through the internet, I am able to communicate with them so that helps too.
• Sometimes it's really hard, when I miss home, but usually it's not hard, just interesting! I love living in Kazakhstan because I am always learning something new.

9. What did you think about when you first came here?

• This place is an interesting mix of Central Asia and Soviet cultures.
• Learning the language
• I thought about my family and friends.
• I didn’t really know what to think because I didn’t know much about Kazakhstan. I do remember getting off the plane at the airport in Almaty and thinking, “Those policeman hats are huge!” This is my first tangible memory of a thought I had about Kazakhstan.

10. Do you miss your Motherland?

• Yes, of course. I miss my family, friends, and American way of life.
• Every day.
• I miss many people from America, and I miss many things about American culture, but I'm happy to be here right now!
• Yes, I do. Everyday. I love Kazakhstan, but I miss my home.
• Of course!

11. What new hobby did you get here?

• I love singing Kazakh music!
• I’m taking dombra lessons.
• I enjoy baking more.
• It’s not a new hobby, but I did start to read a lot more once I got here. I think I was just hungry for English!
• I have been learning Uzbek and Kazakh dances!

12. In which language do you speak with the people around you?

• Russian or English
• Mostly Uzbek and some Kazakh.
• We all speak Kazakh.

13. Why do you think it is difficult to learn our national languages to fluency?

• It’s always difficult to become fluent in a language that isn’t your own. For foreigners, I think its hard to learn Kazakh fluently because many people also speak Russian, and mix the two languages together so its easy to get confused.
• All languages are very difficult to learn to be fluent. It is of course easy to have conversational speech.
• Because Kazakh and Russian have different alphabets, sounds, and grammar than English.
• Turkic languages are very difficult, but it is also difficult to find resources for learning these languages. On the internet there are millions of resources for learning English, but not for learning Kazakh or Uzbek.

14. Can give your photo with people from your city or students.

Thank you very much for your answers, I sure it will help me to win the competition.

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...