Man and Cat Nap

Week in Pictures

A week in Kazakhstan, but not this week.

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

I've been waiting...

to post this picture since a few days after I wrote my last blog post. Blogger/blogspot has been blocked in Kazakhstan for over half of January. I have a lot to say about this but I'm going to keep it to myself for now, plus I have to go and start my English club!

The shrinking Aral Sea

Does anyone read this thing anyways? Looking at the comments it seems like only my mom reads it!

(photo source: www.columbia.edu/~tmt2120/introduction.htm)

Tale of Two Cities: Uralsk or Aralsk

New years continues the long stretch of the Kazakhstani holiday season. I can't complain because a few days off work is a great reason to head out of town. A few of us decided to check out Aralsk, the site of the Aral sea environmental disaster. The city was actually once a thriving fishing port on the shores of the Aral sea. Today a large part of the Aral Sea is gone, due to Soviet irrigation that took water from the Syr-Darya and Amu-Darya rivers that fed the sea. The water was needed in the southern regions of Kazakhstan because Moscow decided to increase the production of a water hungry crop, cotton. As a result of this irrigation the sea largely dried up, retreated from Aralsk and other ports, and over-salinated water left fishing communities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan ruined. I've read a variety of estimates of how far the sea is from Aralsk. Some accounts say between 60 to 100 km before a damn was built in 2005 to improve the situation. Nowadays the estimate is 12 to 35 km. What is for sure is the former 4th largest lake in the world is now much smaller and split into the Big Aral sea and the Small Aral sea.

The following is a recap of our adventures/misadventures.

Tale of Two Cities: Uralsk or Aralsk

A step-by-step guide

1. Spontaneously decide to meet friends in Karaganda for New Years break.

2. Look up train times online and realize the train leaves in two hours. This is definitely still possible.

3. RUN to the travel agency.

4. Ask many questions to a mean travel agent.

5. Find out there are no tickets that reach Karaganda until two hours after new years eve.

6. Decide it’s still worth it.

7. Find out there are no return tickets.

8. Go back dejected to start women’s club.

9. Brainstorm new travel destination with women’s club attendees. Come up with the genius idea to go to the Aral sea.

10. Test women’s club attendees geography by asking where the Aral sea is – get various answers.

11. Lonely planet book tells you this is possible- Let’s go!

12. Go back to travel agency and find a nicer agent.

13. Go over every possible combination of busses/trains/dates/stopovers and Discuss plans with two fellow volunteers in Kyzlorda.

14. Celebrate new years with host family and stay up all night in order to get to the train station by 4 in the morning.

15. Show up to a train station under construction and try to find a way in.

16. Successfully take the train to Kyzlorda and try to catch up on sleep.

17. Meet fellow volunteers at train station and begin 1 hour tour of Kyzlorda (ie. Delicious lunch at cairo),

18. Eat at Cairo Café!

19. Find out from a host dad that all roads to the Aral sea are iced and closed. Decide to take trains instead.

20. Go to train station IMMEDIATELY!

21. Drop freshly crocheted scarf in Kyzlorda, that means it’s now covered in an inch of mud.

22. Go to ticket counter and wait in mob.

23. Look at departure sign and see a train from Almaty to Uralsk- perfect.

24. Ask for ticket to URALSK but find out there are no trains going there tonight (how are we gonna get to the sea????).

25. Freak out and try to find out about busses despite warnings.

26. Find out roads are ACTUALLY iced over and no busses are leaving until mayyyybe tomorrow.

27. Call crazy bus ladies for more information on tomorrow’s busses and discover that Uralsk and Aralsk are 2 DIFFERENT CITIES!!??!?!

28. Go back to train station and realize we probably asked for tickets to the wrong city. Train to right city leaves in half an hour.

29. Rejoin the mob and ponder bribing others to get to the front of the “line”.

30. Have a local friend save the day.

31. Board the two wagon train. Wait doesn’t that remind you of the short bus?

32. Be told there are no more spaces on train and wonder if this really is the right one.

33. Show tickets to conductor and other passengers to no avail so just stand around in the aisle with drunk people pushing by.

34. Search for 5 seats together- quite a mission to undertake.

35. Questions:

1. Q: Why do they sell more tickets than seats?

A: What would you have them do? Leave people at the train station?

2. Q: Why is that lady laying there taking up three spaces?

A: Maybe she’s sick….or tired (btw, we are very tired!)

36. Take picture of crazy train situation as proof only to be told by old man, “you can’t take pictures of Muslims”. Overhear: Let them take your picture they’ll probably send it to Obama.

37. Watch as fellow passengers take pictures of the same old man as he poses for them

38. Remain steadfast as rude man tries to take bed already occupied by a volunteer, hovering over excessively and trying to read volunteer’s Economist.

39. Step out of suffocating train for fresh air, only to be physically pushed back by conductor in preparation for the fresh hoard of fur-wearing, heat-exuding passengers to board but wonder if this man is actually the conductor due to his track suit attire.

40. Sweat like it’s a banya. Try to figure out ways to strip with so many people around.

41. Realize the toilet is actually the best place on the train

42. Trudge through snow to get to the only hotel in A-ralsk

43. Pass out for an hour.

44. Successfully hire a jeep to take you across the frozen tundra.

45. See bactrian camels!

46. STAND on the frozen ARAL sea!

47. Take pictures with stranded boats!

48. Go to train station to get tickets back home. Get shoved to end of line mob by crazy ticket lady.

49.Eat Korean dinner accompanied by loud music.

50. Return to hotel only to find the hall has been rented out and is BLARING music. You will not sleep.

51. Board 5 am train and get out of A-ralsk, enjoy a nice and uneventful train ride, and be grateful to be going home.

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).