Proof

So if you saw the last post in my blog you read about what I've been up to for the first six months in Shymkent, now here are the pictures to prove it!

First 6 months in Shymkent

Six Months At Site

I could write so much to catch up on the past two months but I don’t know where to start. One recent event was IST (in-service training) with Peace Corps in Almaty. On the first day we did an activity where we had to write down the new things we have done, experienced, learned or seen since getting to site in November. It was a great exercise to show how far we’ve come in that time.

Yesterday marked six months of being at site. So in celebration I added a few things for April to complete the list. In six months I…

November

• Met my awesome sitemates
• Moved in with a great host family
• Was interviewed for the local news
• Started journaling
• Observed HIV/AIDS trainings held by my organization
• Had a delicious Thanksgiving with my fellow S.K.O (South Kazakhstan Oblast) volunteers
• Bedazzled my cell phone

December

• Tried cooksi (Korean noodle soup) for the first time
• Started a women’s club with another volunteer
• Hiked around the Burgulook mountains
• Gave and received presents in a white elephant gift exchange
• Celebrated Christmas with the S.K.O. KZ-21s
• Set new year’s goals with friends over pizza

January

• Embarked on an adventure to the Aral Sea
• Joined a gym for a 1000 tenge a month
• Made my own Kazakhstan greeting cards
• Got a site visit from my Regional Manager, Alma, and had a meeting with her and my director
• Introduced my English club to Glee

February

• Was visited by Marissa and Kostya
• Spent a few weeks with Erin (adopting in Shymkent) and her friend Elizabeth (RPCV Bangladesh)
• Started weekly trainings with the student volunteers of Intellect
• Went to a rock party (aka concert) and saw a band cover the Ting Tings
• Had a small role in a play for English week at school
• Got awesome packages and letters
• Made brownies from scratch
• Celebrated my birthday with sitemates and local friends
• Visited a Shymkent orphanage with my organization

March

• Made a summer mix cd for a volunteer freezing in the north
• Helped host 50+ volunteers/guests in Shymkent for Naruz, the Kazakh New Years
• Visited Turkestan
• Conducted a peer-training for my student volunteers with the help of other youth development (Y.D.) volunteers
• Went to an orphanage with volunteers from P.C. and my organization to hold trainings and mini-Olympics.
• Moved up a language level in Russian since the end of P.S.T. (October)
• Presented on Volunteerism Development at I.S.T.
• Ate Indian food for the first time since August

April

• Got to Skype with a few people for the first time since getting here
• Rode a horse at the Hippodrome
• Spent a beautiful day in the Akmechet mountains
• Attended PDM (Project Design Management, a P.C. training) with my director
• Met Erin’s baby, Hannah
• Booked tickets for a summer vacation with my brother
• Started Kazakh lessons

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.