Site Assignment

Yesterday was the big day where all got to find out where we'd be serving for the next two years and just about everyone had been nervous all week, waiting to see whether they'd gotten their preferred choice. It's a rare thing that Peace Corps trainees get to choose their sites, mostly because that makes things much more complicated but since Kaz-14 is the first NGO group in Kazakhstan the training staff wanted to place us at a site where we could use our specialties more effectively. Over the past week everyone had interviews with the country director as well as with the regional managers of the sites that we were interested in and we were all presented with their top matches for us while we told them what our preferences were. In some cases they didn't match at all but I was lucky enough to have my top site match theirs but in spite of that I was still nervous because I wasn't 100% sure whether I'd be sent there or not. Saturday morning it was confirmed though that I'll be working for the Social Fund "Local Center of Self-Governance Development" in Ust-Kameongorsk (Oeskemen in Kazakh) for the next two years. The city is located in the northeast of Kazakhstan, not far from China and Mongolia, and has a population of about 334,000. There is a lot of natural beauty in the area with mountains and nature reserves to the north and east and it looks like the city itself also has plenty to offer. The organization I'll be working for promotes civil society development through information and educational programs as well as through local administration development. I know this must sound like Greek to some of you but until I'm there and can actually see what my daily routine will be I'll only be able to pass on descriptions that are passed on to me instead of putting them in my own words. The reason I really wanted to work here though was because this position lets me do some project management and also lets me work on more "business" type activities - both things I really wanted to do within the Peace Corps. From the sound of the position it looks like I'll be kept busy and that was another important reason why I wanted to work with this NGO. I'll get into contact with them this week and will go from there - I was also provided with a choice of three host families, one of which I'll be staying with for at least the next six months. So as you can see there's a lot of preparation going on but I'm really looking forward to finally getting started with my assignment.

Comments

[susanne]

hallo hasli baba,

fein dass du wohin kommst wo du es dir gewünscht hast..ich muss erstmal auf der karte schauen wo dass denn liegt.
bitte bitte date keine kopftüchl frauen - wenn rgendwie möglich. stell dir vor die frau körmendi hat dem 'Sultan ihr häusl vererbt..also der erste stchusch zieht in der siedlug ein....
leider hat dr ferrero waldner nicht die budnespräsidenten wahl gewonnen jetzt msus ich mir diesen komsichen fischer jahrelang anschauen .
bumu

[Glenn Mason]

Hi Tom,

Just wanted to see how you were doing. Sounds like things are going well, I see you got the assignment you wanted, glad to hear that. You must be there already and working away. How is the owrk going? It must be very rewarding doing somehting you know will be a help to people.

All is well here, Paul found a job in Simsbury. Lot's of outsourcing going on, though.

Take care of yourself and I will pray for you.