A New Discovery!

A new Kazakh first--- I found a fitness club! I have been feeling pretty lazy all winter and got the usual itch to exercise once the days started warming up here. I have run down our road a few times which is okay, but I can see how that will get boring after a while, and I really don't have that much patience with running (or life in general).  So my friend told me that a fitness club opened up and we went to check it out.  This gym is an open space above a very smelly public toilet that has been partitioned off with plastic screens.  The workout area has an elliptical machine with a broken internal computer, a treadmill that tires out after 3 miles, a stationary bike whose seat is stuck on the lowest setting, a few hula hoops, a boxing bag, and a smattering of dumbbells and weight machines.  I love this place!  I knew the minute we came around the corner to discover that the next corner was indeed the "fitness club" that this was a great discovery. 

 

OH! I forgot to mention the fat-jiggling machine!  That thing is hilarious. I don't know the logic behind it, but you just strap a belt around your waist and it jiggles away.  The women love it because they don't actually have to do any work, but I have never been a fan of my fat jiggling. 

 

Today was the first day two of my friends and I went to work out there.  They had no idea what to do, but I showed them around and the lady running the club also loves to be a trainer, so she showed us the equipment.  When I was running on the treadmill, she came over and increased the incline to the max, then increased my speed.  When I was stretching on the ground she made me do a back bend.  When I was doing sit ups on the incline bench she told me exactly where my hands needed to be!  I told her that my students were really interested in yoga and asked if she would be interested in doing yoga at this club.  I can kind of teach yoga- at least enough to get beginners stretching and feeling good!  She was very interested, so that is an exciting prospect.  This club is only 200 tenge for an hour and a half which is just over one dollar.  Can you imagine?  I don't think you can even walk into a fitness club at home for a dollar.

 

People's opinions of fitness and health are, as expected, completely different between Kazakhstan and the States.  Just the fact that an hour and a half at this gym cost almost one dollar when I could easily have paid a couple hundred dollars per month at home shows how each culture regards fitness.  Another somber reminder of this is the early deaths of many people in Kazakhstan.  My neighbor and relative (host uncle) just died of a heart attack at the age of 53.  I was surprised until I did the math: overweight, chain-smoking, Kazakh male over the age of 50.  Unfortunately this equation led exactly to the expected result, but left a wife, two college-aged daughters, and a brand new grandson behind.

 

When I asked if heart attacks were a big problem for Kazakhs, especially males, the answer was yes, of course.  When I asked my host mom, a nurse, why she thought they were a problem, she said that men worried too much about having too many children and not enough money.  Of course stress is a contributing problem, but what rarely comes to their minds here is the amount of salt, fat, and oil in the daily diet.  There is not a meal that goes by without something cooked or fried in oil and salt.

 

For example, my counterpart teacher and I are organizing a summer camp for English students and we sat down to plan out the food and the budget.  The summer in south Kazakhstan brings bountiful fruits and vegetables, so I was thinking of meals centered around those foods.  I was not too surprised, but a little sickened when she told me we would need at least five kilos of oil and one kilo of salt for the week long trip.  So, I offered the idea that maybe we could teach nutrition and health as one theme for the camp.  She agreed, but said that sometimes the students just need that hearty, oily food to keep up their strength…? 

 

Kazakhstan certainly has some battles to fight in the future.  The presence of fitness clubs and other healthy lifestyle trends are promising, though, and I am really excited about the gym!

 

Spring is here and almost as hot as June in Colorado.  I am getting excited for my summer projects, though sometimes wish would slow down!  I hope all is well at home.  Keep healthy and safe and eat an extra large salad for me! 

Jennie

Warming up in Kazakhstan

I am so sorry it takes me a while to write in between each blog.  I guess I keep looking for something really exciting to tell all of you, but I find myself living a normalized life, not entirely unlike life back in the US.

I am still living with the same host family, with a mother, father, and three daughters.  Two of the daughters are students at my school and while I am frustrated with my own language development, I am proud of theirs!  Their listening comprehension has significantly improved and their speaking is coming along also.  I enjoy living with the family, though I wish we would speak Kazakh together more often!  I have no immediate plans to move, so it looks like things are going well!  I think living by myself is an unwise move mostly because it would bring my speaking to a screeching halt and because I really hate cooking.  I would live only on carrots, apples, oranges and bread and somehow that doesn't seem like a healthy decision.  However, my heart and thighs might thank me for the decrease in fat-intake.

Most of my students are making progress which makes me so happy!  We have one group of 9th grade students that take a national standardized test on Friday.  They have been working so hard in my class to review every bit of grammar build a stronger overall foundation for their English language.  I hate the idea of putting so much emphasis on a test, but we have tried to show that this grammar is useful for their speaking.  Their scores are improving, though, and that makes them really excited and significantly decreases the stress of my counterpart teacher which makes everyone's life happier J

Another group of students- my 10th graders- is one of my favorite classes.  They are a spirited class and are interested in learning English, but lack the ability to formulate sentences.   Basically for the past five years, they have gone through the motions of learning grammar in terms of formulas.  For example, Present Simple's formula is: noun+verb1.  I eat vegetables.  Past Simple's formula is: noun+verb2.  I ate vegetables.  The problem is most students have no freakin' idea what "noun" means in that formula.  They are given these stupid formulas, but lack the big picture.  When the heck do we use noun+verb2?  They have no idea.  The thing I like about the 10th and 11th grades over here is that their testing in English is over after the 9th grade.  We technically have to follow a curriculum set by an irrelevant book, but we mostly just follow that curriculum on the lesson plans and are able to do some cool stuff in actuality. 

This unit was international relations, so my counterpart and I created a unit that focused solely on the students speaking.  We chose 5 countries with important international relations to Kazakhstan and spoke primarily about education.  We told them about scholarships and programs they can use to travel and study abroad and taught them some important vocabulary words.  The teachers would teach one class about a country and the following lesson, the students would teach about the country using what they learned and additional research.  In hindsight, we could have made some big changes and we will next year, for sure.  We didn't give the students enough practice in creating sentences, so while they want to convey what they learned, they simply can't, they don't have the skills.

I still think this was largely successful, however, because their writing skills have significantly improved.  About 2 months ago, I asked the students to write a half page about Kazakhstan- their motherland!  They all panicked and nobody, not one student, wrote the assignment.  I am proud of us as a teaching team for truly focusing on reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and I think our efforts are paying off.  Since that first disaster of a writing piece, this class has written a one page (8.5 by 11) about themselves and Kazakhstan which we sent to American students, and have written one page about what they learned about international relations.  Some students even complained that it was too easy!  On top of that, we just finished the term test and I made it pretty difficult, with no multiple choice and a lot of writing.  The most missed was 7 points and the students stormed the room to find their results the following morning.  These two classes make my days happy!

Spring came to Turkestan on March 8th. On that day, the sun was shining and it was almost hot here.  Since then, people have put away their winter coats and boots and welcomed spring.  One of my students and I celebrated the warmth by walking all the way home from school one day!  Driving to school takes us about 30 minutes, so this was a big feat in this country.  Most people do not walk for fun and certainly don't go jogging, so people were surprised at our idea to walk home and even more surprised when I put my Nikes on over my tights for the trek.  Some students even made bets that we couldn't do it and I got plenty of weird looks for my sneakers!  The walk took us only an hour and a half and I loved every minute of it!  I am addicted to spending time outside now and go on walks as much as possible!

That's the news from this side of the world!  I hope all of you are doing well and enjoy your upcoming Spring Breaks!  Keep in touch!

Jennie

Almost 6 months!

Sorry about the delay between blogs. I have been waiting for some anecdote to write about, but no inspiration has come! It is almost the 6 month mark, though, and that deserves some commentary.



It has been almost 3 months since I have been in Turkestan. I am teaching about 25 hours at school, but am actually working at the school about 50 hours per week. We work Monday through Saturday and it has been difficult adjusting to a one day weekend. In fact, I am not yet adjusted. This last weekend definitely didn’t feel like the rest I needed. On Sunday we usually clean the house and do laundry. We have a semi-automatic washing machine so we have to rinse and wring all of the clothes by hand. That chore takes some time! I also try to prepare for at least half of my lessons for the week and study Kazakh, too.



My Kazakh is finally beginning to improve thanks to my wonderful tutor. Perhaps I am just deficient at learning languages, but it has been more difficult to learn Kazakh than I expected. I understand much, much more and my vocabulary is expanding. However, it is very difficult to learn and replicate grammar structures simply by being surrounded by a language. I usually only listen for specific words to pick up the meaning of what someone is telling me; my brain doesn’t even register the tenses and endings necessary for creating sentences! Therefore, I usually just blurt out a series of verbs in the infinitive form and some nouns here and there. I convinced my tutor to teach me grammar and to let me speak during our sessions (though it is clearly painful for her). I think we have made progress!



The first 4-5 months was a time of constant adjustment. My life seemed to oscillate daily between ups and downs. I couldn’t figure out the best way to go about my job or my existence here. I haven’t been too homesick (though I think about you all every day!), but approaching 6 months feels different. The things I missed in the first few months were all superficial. I miss some foods, coffee, my coffee shops, TV programs, etc. Now a two year experience seems more real. I find myself missing the way Americans interact, the way I communicate with my friends and especially my family. I miss the freedom to ignore traditions and to protest injustices and irrationality. Being practically mute has made me realize how much I like voicing my opinion! Look out- when I come back to America I will have saved up all my opinions and you all won’t hear the end of them!



It seems that my life here has settled and normalized, though I don’t have every thing figured out and my days are certainly not boring! Just the other day, I got onto the wrong public bus going from lunch with friends back to school. I got shoved into the seat farthest in the back of this packed bus before I realized it was the wrong one. It started going the wrong direction and I had to yell at the driver to stop. Everyone was laughing at my obviously foreign accent as I climbed over 20 people to get out of the door. I then had to walk about 6 more blocks to get back to another bus stop. It has been raining here, so the road was disgusting with mud that I was getting all over my nice school boots. Then a car drove by and sprayed me with muddy water! I was rushing to get back to school for my last lesson, but when I finally got there, the schedule had been changed yet again and my class was moved until the next day. Like I said- it is never boring here.



That is one thing that I am really enjoying about teaching- my days are never the same. One of my greatest fears is falling into a routine that sucks my life away and so far teaching has provided variety and excitement (and a fair share of exhaustion.) Every day is a new day, some met with endless frustrations and some met with the smiling faces of my (progressing!) students.




On that note, I would like to ask a favor of everyone. My students' English level is pretty low all around. We are working on listening, speaking, grammar, and writing. Those things can be done with relatively few resources. However, I would like to get the students interested in reading English books- of which there are NONE here. If you have the time and are willing, I would love to receive ANY reading materials! This can be magazines (even old magazines), childrens books, and "young reader" books. If anyone has Highlights magazines, those would be amazing. My address is posted again below. Thanks for all of your continued support!






Jennie

Jennie Vader
Abishev Aupkhan
Edige Batyr Street 36
South Kazakhstan Oblast, Turkestan 161200
Republic of KAZAKHSTAN

SUPRISE!!!!!!!!

People always, always joke that we (the volunteers) will get married
and stay in Kazakhstan. When we don’t jump at their offers to find
Kazakh boyfriends, they exasperatedly ask whether their Kazakh boys
are good enough, pretty enough… I usually deferred with, “I can’t
marry a Kazakh boy because I would miss my family too much.” This
worked wonderfully until I met the love of my life. I can’t express
enough how much this caught even myself by surprise. I am a vehement
believer of not needing a man in my life (as I have often preached to
all of you), but couldn’t control fate forever.
I think that you all know me better, but I hope that got some of you!
Haha! I didn’t meet the Kazakh man of my dreams, but my theme will be
marriage because I was lucky enough this week to be invited to a very
traditional marriage ceremony in my host mother’s village. Her nephew
was recently engaged and my mom was generous enough to take me with
the family to watch the unveiling of the bride.
We traveled for about 45 minutes to the village to the family’s
house. The festivities actually began the night before, but I was
sleeping cozily in my bed so I don’t know what happened. I just know
that most of the family members had been there until really late and
started working early in the morning, preparing a feast for about 200
people. When the guests first walked in the house, they went to see
the bride. She was behind a white curtain in the corner of a room
with a white veil over her head and shoulders. She stood all day with
her hands together at her chest and her head bowed. The guests came
to congratulate her (I think- I’m not sure exactly what they said to
her) and she bowed to every new person. Then the guests feasted for a
couple of hours and made a lot of toasts to the family, particularly
the eldest person, in this case the grandmother.
After the feast we all went outside for the unveiling. Again, the
bride stood with her head bowed in front of the whole audience. This
time there was an MC of sorts. At all wedding ceremonies, they hire a
guy who plays the dombra (traditional guitar-like instrument) to
entertain the crowd. For this occasion, he read the names of the
guests and their families and joked about everyone. As he read a
name, the person or group went up and put money in the “bank”- mason
jars- and the bride bowed again. I am not sure who the money goes to-
I heard it was for the musician, but I saw the family take the money.
I don’t think it goes to the bride for her patience all day! Once
everyone had been called to donate money, (I had to donate money twice
for some reason and was the butt of many jokes I didn’t understand.
Always a pleasure!) the mother of the groom took off her veil. I
think at this point, the couple is actually married, though the groom
had virtually nothing to do with the ceremony. He was dressed in
jeans and had to be searched for to make an appearance in the end.
This is not to say he was uninterested, he is a nice guy; I think this
ceremony is simply more about the “welcoming” of the new woman into
the family.
In about one month, the couple will have another wedding ceremony
that closely resembles our wedding reception. We will all go to a big
wedding hall and sit at large tables with lots of food. Every group
at the wedding (hundreds of people will attend) will make a lengthy
toast to the bride and groom who sit at the front of the room. There
will be drinking and dancing, etc.
I don’t know want to give you any bad impressions of Kazakhstan or
seem culturally insensitive, but feel it necessary to give some
personal thoughts on the unveiling ceremony. I should say that I
don’t fully understand the customs behind this day, yet I know it
would be hard for me to bow in respect to hundreds of people I don’t
know. The display of respect in general here is much different than my
concept of respect.
Young children are taught from talking age to give respect to elders,
no matter the person or occasion. Unlike in English, there is a
formal verb tense and noun endings used when speaking to important
people or elders. Young wives in particular are expected to give
special respect to their new family members. (This account is of my
observations in the south of Kazakhstan. Traditions vary widely from
region to region and of course family to family.) Many new couples
live with the groom’s family for up to 4 years in the same house and
the wives must bow to the family members in the morning or when seeing
them for the first time in a while. This new bride even bowed to me
when I saw her on New Year’s Eve. I wanted to give her a big hug and
tell her that I am absolutely undeserving of such deference.
Growing up in the informal state of Colorado, in the relatively
informal country of the USA, and being relatively head-strong, I am
impressed and awed by people’s unconditional respect in this country.
They are far more patient and better behaved than I am. My parents
taught me, of course, to always respect my elders and show respect to
all people until they didn’t deserve your respect. That’s where my
patience ends and a Kazakh’s keeps persisting.
You can form your own opinions on the subject, as mine are not yet
solidified. I have months worth of observations left! My day to day
life is very similar to what my life was in the States, though less
hectic (sadly). This experience reminded me of the differences in my
two close-to-heart cultures. Don’t worry though- you won’t be
receiving an invitation to my unveiling any time soon!

Jennie

Looking Back

Looking back on what I have (sporadically) written in my journal, I am
amazed at how much the fear of the unknown can consume me. At least
three times during the month of October I wrote about how scared I was
to leave the familiar and leap once again out of my comfort zone. I
remember thinking on the morning I left my host family in Almaty, why
is it that I am always leaving one family or another, always moving
somewhere else, always causing myself this stress!? It’s irrational,
really. And I hate being irrational.

Yet, I often find myself in irrational situations with irrational
fears. My fears of the unknown and jumping into what I once called “a
frozen, foreign openness with no outside contact and no reprieve from
loneliness,” really hasn’t been that bad! I have adjusted to every
new experience surprisingly well and found Turkestan to be no
different. I felt immediately at home here and knew I could spend the
next two years comfortably here. Though I can’t say everything feels
familiar, it is certainly comfortable. My trip to the outhouse every
morning, layering on the clothes and putting on my (new, furry, and
heeled) boots for school, my ride with the neighbors, lunch with the
teachers, and dinner with the family still seem new and different. I
still have to plan most of my moves and certainly have to practice all
of my conversations in my head before actually speaking! I am okay
with all of this still feeling new- I don’t want my time here to go
too fast!

It seems so fast already, faster even then high school and college. I
find myself awake in the middle of the night wondering when in the
world I will get everything done if time goes this fast. I worry
about my students and if they are actually improving and I worry about
my teachers and if they will actually change their attitudes and
methods. It’s harder and harder to find my zen when I know that every
move is my own and this experience will be no more and no less than
what I make it. If I wait patiently for things to happen at school or
in my lessons, they just won’t happen. Though I lose my zen now and
then, I manage to keep my happiness. If I suspect a difficult day, I
put on my comfortable clothes, put on some perfume to feel clean, play
my happy music, and pack some extra coffee for school!

Some experiences have helped abate my worries and feel integrated into
the community. There are a lot of young teachers at my school that
really want to be friends with me and for this I am equally surprised
and grateful! They invite me places and teach me Kazakh words that my
tutor won’t teach me! They bring me snickers bars and help me set up
Skype at school so I can talk with my friends and family (Dima). I am
so so lucky for these guys. My most loyal new friend, Maral, invited
me to her brother’s wedding, then over to her house for dinner, then
to banya. I am getting to know her family they rejuvenate my mood
immensely!

The banya experience was certainly one to remember. Banya in many
countries in this part of the world is a public sauna/bath. Men and
women are separated and everyone bathes together completely naked.
There are various types of these banyas, some with big open rooms
where everyone is together and some with private rooms where just one
party bathes together. Maral, her mother, little sister, my
counterpart, and I went to a banya in the middle of the steppe about
30 minutes from Turkestan. The banya is a dome-like structure (called
the egg) built over a natural, underground hot spring. We all went
into this huge egg and then into our own room which consisted of 2
shower heads and an old bathtub. Basically, you seal up your room and
the hot water runs constantly, steaming everything up. You shower
like usual and sit in the bathtub of really hot water. The most
surprising thing about banya to me is the exfoliating process. You
take a course scrubber-thing and rub the same spot on your skin until
it starts to peel off. We have a surprising amount of dead and dirty
skin just hanging out! You can try this at home if you want- after
showering, when you are still a little damp, just rub your fingers
pretty hard on one spot for a while, until you feel your dead skin
peel right off! Good places usually include under the collar bones,
ankle bones, behind your knees, right by your armpit, etc. It hurts a
little, but just think of all that gross skin you don’t need any more!

My counterpart and Maral also thought we needed to drink some beer
while bathing, so we bought a few bottles to bring to the community
event! Imagine going to a public bath in America and bringing your
glass beer bottle in with you! Welcome to Kazakhstan. After our bath
and beer, we went to the middle of the egg to eat fish. Yep- fish in
the middle of the steppe in a country with very few sources of clean
water to be fished. It was surprisingly delicious, though. We picked
at this filleted, fried fish with our fingers until there was nothing
left, and climbed back into the car to make our way to Turkestan.

So- as it turns out, integrating and finding friends is as easy as
being willing to drive into the steppe, scrub off your skin completely
naked with strangers while drinking a beer in an egg and sharing a
fish afterwards. What was I worried about?!

Peace and Happy Holidays from the Beyond,
Jennie

Clarification

Салем!!! Hello!!!

I hear there is some confusion about what I am doing in Kazakhstan, so I want to clear that up!

I flew into Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, in August with 70 other Peace Corps trainees. We were split into about five different groups and sent to smaller villages (like suburbs) around Almaty for training. My group was located in a village called Taldybulak. There were 10 of us (in the beginning, 8 of us in the end) who were trained in teaching techniques, lesson planning, and cultural experiences. The 10 of us were split into two smaller groups for language training and our teaching practicum. I was with three other girls named Sarah, Clara, and Carrie. We studied Kazakh 3-5 hours per day in a teeny tiny classroom and also taught and observed lessons in School 34. We frequently saw the other “language group” of 4 students that studied across the street at School 35. The pictures you might have seen on Facebook are of training and my friends there.

In the beginning of November, we packed our bags and were sworn in as real Peace Corps Volunteers. We attended a conference and met the teachers and organizations that we would work with as volunteers. This is where I met my counterpart teacher Gulshat. From Almaty, Gulshat and I boarded a train to Turkestan where I have been since. I have been here a month now! Gulshat and Ardak are two local teachers in the school I work at. The school is called Daryn School. It is a school for gifted students who must pass a test to get into the school and subsequently pass monthly tests to make sure they are studying well enough. I teach 21 hours of lessons every week with Gulshat and Ardak (there is another teacher, but due to family problems, I haven’t taught with her yet). We lesson plan and give lessons together every day, soon we will hold topical clubs for the students I hope!

I will be in Turkestan for the entire 2 years and will stay at the same school. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the students at the school. When I am stressed and frustrated with the constant tests and interruptions and cultural differences and and and…. I go out to a common space for students and sit on the sofas. They are set back in this little cove that is surrounded on three sides by hanging fake flowers and vines. I sit there until my students come by and say, “Hi Miss Jennie! How are you?!” They make me so so happy. They are so open, so diverse, and so honest. These are the only students I have ever met that speak such truth. When they do poorly on their tests and I ask them why, they say, “Because I’m lazy and I don’t study enough.” They are taught from a very young age that they fail because of not working hard enough. I tell them that I don’t know a single student in the States that would blame their own laziness for failing. We often blame teachers, schedules, the test, etc. I have the utmost respect for these students and know they are anything but lazy.

The students study from 8:30 or 9am until 5pm from Monday to Saturday. I also work at the school during these hours and am known for carrying a huge bag of work home with me every day! I spend any free time I have during the day speaking to students. I am slowly learning their names, but am ashamed for not knowing more already. There are so many of them and their names are so difficult for me! Anyway- I could carry on forever about them. They make my day every single day. They light up life here!

I hope that the situation is a little clearer for everyone. If you have any questions or just any news- please email me! If any of you out there are interested in Peace Corps, definitely email me! Jennie.vader@gmail.com

And while we’re at it, here is my address. I have already received letters (from my mom and Peace Corps…..hint) at this address, so it is a-okay!

Jennie Vader

Abishev Aupkhan

Edige Batyr Street 36

South Kazakhstan Oblast, Turkestan 161200

Republic of KAZAKHSTAN

Working Hard to Make a Difference

Just as I thought the initial frustrations of being in Turkestan would
consume me, I had the best day at school. I have been met with many
of the frustrations that PCVs always encounter. I knew I would
encounter different teaching styles, different perceptions of being
prepared, different lesson plans, etc, but I couldn’t do anything to
prepare myself for these differences- who knows what you will find
once at site?
The three teachers I am working with all speak English very well, but
we are all concerned with how little the students can speak.
Everyone, even the students, is aware of this problem. However, a
young, single, energetic, new PC volunteer doesn’t always fit in with
the status quo of teachers in Kazakhstan. The teachers and I were
taught by drastically different techniques in completely different
worlds. I was also trained very differently than they were, in a
crash course of lesson plans, practicum, and basically learning a lot
of ways to make class fun! They were mostly taught grammar and give
lectures. Two of the three also have families and currently one’s
mother is very ill. You might be able to see where frustrations can
come from all sides!
I started actually teaching lessons on Friday the 19th of November.
As a prerequisite to teaching lessons, I must plan the lesson with the
teacher. This is very important to Peace Corps, and of course (for
all of you who even remotely know me!) planning is very important to
me! Finding time to plan is difficult, especially when the teachers
are used to mostly winging it using the textbook. I had to convince
them to meet at least two days before the lesson because it is very
hard to find fun activities and prepare them the night before the
lesson. I had to keep nagging the poor teachers to meet with me. We
had to plan at least 4 or 5 lessons in one or two sittings, which is
grueling. Usually we are planning after already giving 3 or 4 lessons
that day. Yesterday, I was pretty sure the two teachers I was working
with were about to call Peace Corps and ask them to take me back.
I was starting to get nervous about the situation. I didn’t want to
have to ask to meet every five minutes and was afraid that they would
start to hate me for it. Then…today my counterpart got to school a
solid 20 minutes before she usually does, told a friend she couldn’t
talk because she had to lesson plan, and we stayed at school to plan
until 6pm. She took on an additional lesson to tutor struggling
students and our lessons went really well today! The students actually
thanked us at the end for a “really interesting lesson.” I was the
second person at school today and Gulshat and I were the last ones
out. I left the house in the dark this morning and returned in the
dark, but it was definitely the pick-me-up I needed.
Of course, I am not naïve enough to imagine that everyday will feel
this good or be as successful. However, I think we will make progress
if all of us persist, remain motivated, and force each other to be
disciplined! (I sound like a damn inspirational tape people listen to
in their cars during traffic jams.) I can’t even imagine how tiring
this process will be, though. I hope we see results in the students so
that the teachers (and I!) are convinced that the extra work is worth
it! I am going to need to bring back some of that youthful energy
from years past and find a way to manage without my standard 8
(extremely large) cups of coffee.
Wish us luck! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Jennie

New Location!

I got to Turkestan on the morning of Sunday the 7th. My counterpart (CP), the teacher that is in charge of me for the next two years, and I met in Almaty at the Counterpart Conference that Peace Corps holds. We went to training sessions together to get to know each other and then got on the train to Turkestan together. My CP’s name is Gulshat and she is 29 years old. She has been teaching English at the gifted (Daryn) school for 8 years, since it opened.

Getting on the train was a really interesting experience. There were about 8 PCVs on the same train and each of us had an average of 4 REALLY heavy bags. The CPs also had their own bags and couldn’t help much, so some of us gave them to a porter right in front of the train station. Being Americans, we were all pretty leery of giving our bags to anyone; some PCVs kept their luggage, but some of us were strongly recommended by our CPs to put the bags on the cart. As soon as we gave our luggage to the porters they disappeared and we couldn’t find them! We wandered all over the train station, still with the heavy baggage of other PCVs, trying to find our train platform and our luggage. People were getting pretty frustrated at this point. We were relying on the CPs to help us find the way, but they were as lost as we were. We got across one set of tracks to our platform then spotted our bags with the porters on the other side of the tracks.

I think PCVs have the tendency to hope and act like our CPs know everything in this country and can carry out any action without flaws. We wanted them to snap their fingers and find our way because of course they knew what they were doing--they’re from Kazakhstan (but not Almaty…) It is funny, though, some of the things my CP asks me. She took me with her to buy an electric heater and kept saying, “Advise me…do you think it’s warm enough? Can I buy a heater with a stove on top so I can heat my room and tea at the same time?” I have no idea! Being an American doesn’t mean I know everything about electronic appliances! She also asked me one day if her dress was too short to speak with the director--whom I had met for about 2 minutes. I think some of these things are reciprocal questions, but they still leave me laughing.

My new host family is really nice and really wants to learn English. The father owns a van that people can rent to drive to a nearby city (I think) and my mom is a nurse. There are two daughters, one in 9th and one in 10th grade, that go to the Daryn school and there is another daughter in the 7th grade that goes to another school. I teach them basic words in English every night, but we have a long way to go!

Actually, the students in my school have a long way to go in general. They seem to be wicked smart at math and science and most of their school hours are spent in those classes. These types of schools all take tests at the end of the year and compete to be the best school in Kazakhstan. Supposedly, last year they were the TOP school in the country! There are, as we have in the States, consequences to being so test-oriented. Their gymnasium is filled with desks for taking tests and gym classes are non-existent. The students were amazed at the fact that we study art, music, leadership, and other subjects that don’t involve math or science. Their English scores are also high, and I looked through some written work they were doing. Their grammar is impressive, but they couldn’t speak any of the sentences I read for a million dollars. Their speaking level is about the same as mine in Kazakh (though I don’t think they would admit it!). They love telling me how much I don’t know in Kazakh. I really enjoy the students and have spent 2-3 hours everyday for the past few days just speaking with them. It is exhausting!

Turkestan isn’t the thriving metropolis that I pictured (even though I promised I wouldn’t picture anything). It is a pretty desolate place plopped in the dusty steppe. There is the large mausoleum, but it takes about 20 minutes to look at. The streets and the air are dirty. I feel quite at home here and think I can find some really good projects at this site! I have about 19 hours of teaching per week and we are hoping to open a yoga club, sports clubs, and maybe a drama club and debate club. We have also discussed some teacher trainings and gatherings for more English teachers to have an opportunity to speak English regularly. I will keep you all posted.

Jennie
N

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

“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!