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Sunday, October 31, 2010

What’s happening in my life now…

This last Saturday we found out our site placement and, as I told you, I am in Turkestan. Turkestan is pretty big (definitely not a village) and is very religious. It might be the most religious place in Kazakhstan; there is a famously huge mausoleum and supposedly if you make the pilgrimage there 3 times, it is like making the pilgrimage to Mecca. It is called the Second Mecca. I will be working at what is called a “Daryn” school which is for gifted students. I am not sure how the students are selected yet, but hope it isn’t based solely on finances or familial connections.



I tried my best not to have expectations or preconceived notions about my site, but was totally shocked by this placement. My training village is truly the size of a village, though it has many amenities not usually associated with the word “village.” It is pretty much a suburb of Almaty. However, in my training, I felt comfortable with my image of what my role as a volunteer would be. The community is small and one could integrate and assimilate into it by visiting neighbors, and introducing oneself to students and families. The level of English is pretty low, so it was clear why a volunteer might work in a place like this. Needless to say, a city with 120,000 people and a school for already gifted students through a hitch in my logic and careful ordering of my life!



I am working to reconfigure my vision as a volunteer, though I obviously understand the need to see exactly what I will be working with at the school before setting strong expectations. My biggest concern is integrating into my “community” and really figuring out what that community will be. I am trying to wrap my head around how to make friends and how to find organizations and projects. I am hoping these opportunities make themselves apparent as they have in the past, because I am committed to my goals of getting as many experiences as I can, learning as much as possible, and teaching as much as is needed. I want to be active and busy (big surprise there!) The trap with such a large site is being able to get your own apartment and remaining isolated. I am worried about, but know I will work hard at, making friends and creating connections. I will also be living with a host family for the next 4 months and hope to find one that I can stay with for longer. PC has found some awesome candidates for me already! I will let you all know my address as soon as possible…though I have only received mail from my family so far…friends, you gotta keep up J



Love and miss you all! - Jennie

Sunday, October 17, 2010

“I love Kazakhstan!”

The last two weeks have been a blur- I realized that I have barely communicated with my family and haven’t checked my email once. Since our site visit I have taught 8 classes, one more trainee from our village went back to the States, and we just finished our culminating community project. Our group chose to put on a talent show because we 1) wanted to showcase community talent, especially among our students, and 2) we wanted to bring everyone together in a fun event to spice up another quiet Friday night in good ole’ Taldybulak! We quickly discovered a strong rivalry between the two schools in our village and also wanted to bring them both together through the event. We definitely achieved the first two objectives, but I am not sure we united the schools, as students and teachers started cheers in between acts for their school and two girls got in a little tiff in the middle of the event. I am not sure what we could have done differently, though.

There are moments here when I have nothing to say but, “I love Kazakhstan!” These are often funny and usually unimaginable situations, but in my quest for zen, I take a deep breath, smile, and say out loud…I love Kazakhstan! When several small children follow you into “bathroom” (a set of squat toilets outside) to see if the American can pull off the necessary maneuvering to make it into a very small hole in the company of other people…what else is there but: I love Kazakhstan!

In preparing for the talent show, I had many of these moments. With the enormous help of school staff members and one of our Peace Corps facilitators, we gathered students and teachers to participate in the show. We, however, had about 30 participants at one point, which was completely unmanageable. We also needed sound equipment and arranged to use Peace Corps equipment, but found out about 4 days ago that we couldn’t use it. Renting equipment would be about 3000 tenge per HOUR and with dozens of acts that was out of the question. We had two solid judges, one that said he should be available (and did end up coming) and one judge that backed out the day of. One judge was a local shop owner that we named Duken Man. A duken (dooken) is basically a shop so we call him Shop Man. We walk by him everyday and buy snacks at his shop so we invited him to be a judge. I love our group for its personality and sense of humor in situations like this!

So we showed up to decorate the auditorium with a considerable amount of stress about pulling this off…and we find that the auditorium is flooded with water from a busted pipe! One poor woman attempted to sop up the water with a few dirty rags. She worked for 5 minutes and left for 10 minutes…in and out. We couldn’t do much work with all of that water, so we tucked our business casual pants into our black socks and jumped in! We scooped water with cut-up water bottles and a trash can lid until we had hauled about 12 three gallon buckets of water out of the auditorium. Yes, you did your math right- that is about 40 gallons of water that was standing in front of our stage! Life never ceases to amaze. Kazakhstan never ceases to amaze.

Ultimately we had about 20 contestants, 200 people in the audience, 10 Peace Corps volunteers that came to our event (thanks guys!) and 6 winners. There were hip hop dancers, belly dancers, dombra (traditional instrument) players, singers, and lip-syncers. Our group even opened by dancing to Thriller! The hip hop group was so good, I got goose bumps and the whole crowd went crazy!

This project was one of our final tasks towards the end of training, so we are winding down and getting ready to become real volunteers! We still have to do a teacher training, teach an entire unit, and take our language test, but then we are sent to the far reaches of Kazakhstan to spread the peace. Some days I find that I am terrified, but hope I find many more “I love Kazakhstan” moments!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

A new Jennie

This week, the Peace Corps sent us on a "site visit" to see some real volunteers in action. I was sent with a few other volunteers to Taraz, which was about 10 hours away on train (apparently the trains are very slow and it is about 6 hours by bus). The trains were very similar to those in India, with beds stacked to the roof and tons of people with little space, but they were pretty cean (didn't brave the bathrooms though- thank you camel power). 4 of us "trainees" stayed with a PCV (volunteer) in a swank apartment, complete with a hot shower, indoor toilet, and internet! It's like they are trying to see how many times they can make us go through culture shock in a 3 month period! But it was nice; we got to watch a lesson at a pedagogical college (like our vocational schools), a village school, and an English club at a local NGO. We also went to the public banya (like a spa/sauna full of naked people) and to a night club to dance! I definitely understood the idea that some PCV's live like expats. They could surroun themselves only by English speakers if they wanted and were living a pretty easy life!

We are pretty much constantly followed by "best friends" that want to speak English with us. These friends will boldly approach us on trains, buses, in restaurants, on the street- everywhere! It bothers some people a lot- those who want to blend in and are uncomfortable with people always surrounding and bothering us. I, however, have found my zen with my new best friends. Finding my zen is my new coping mechanism; this involves turning off the "high-strung Jennie" button that has been deeply engraned into my character since childhood. Jennie's schedule, detailed plans, and complete control over life have all but disappeared when zen is reached. This is necessary to avoid a heart attach and medical evacuation. You all won't recognize this tea drinking, skirt wearing, zen master when I come back!

Things I did learn in Taraz: 1) There are innate pitfalls and hardships that will occur and 2) for me there are simply 2 ways to handle them: bitterness or what I call "Loving Life or Zen." We are rapidly realizing that there probaby will be unsupportive school directors, unsupportive staff members, English teachers that don't know English, limited resources, loneliness, culture shock, on and on and on. I am also rapidly learning that there are two types of people(obviously this is a simplified theory): those who keep smiling and find ways to be almost unbelievably happy and those that become jaded. I learned that I need to keep perspective and know that even in hard times, my situation is not the end of the world and won't last for eternity. For myself and for my success and effectiveness in my community, I need to remain happy at ALL costs. This is my ultimate goal. I will not let small setbacks make be bitter because that resentment truly harms your job and relationships that must be cultivated (and that I desperately WANT to cultivate)!

Help me stay positive, people! I think of you all at CC and at home to remember why I am here and what I want to accomplish. Everyday I am reminded of how all of you and my previous experiences are helping me adjust and be successful here. Peace Corps is definitely the best fit for me right now and I want to thank everyone who helped me get here! Miss you all!