...to be continued

Moving On

Five days ago the big day came when it was time to leave Ecik. The night before there was a big birthday party for the training director at her house and the departing Peace Corps volunteers took the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone until September when we return to Ecik for one week of In-Service Training. In a way it was hard to believe that the group that I had spent the past ten weeks training with was splitting up but it was also a relief that we'd finally be able to put the things that we had learned into practice. The next morning my group was one of the first to depart with our train leaving at noon; five of us were to travel to Ust-Kamenogorsk with two continuing on to Ridder once we arrived at our first destination. We boarded our train with only a few minutes to spare so there were no tearful goodbyes but I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't a little emotional to wave goodbye to the family that had acquainted me with Kazakhstan and that had taken care of me for the past few months. After a 30 hour train ride which included a crossing into Russia and tons of document checking we finally arrived and we were sent to our host families. My family is an older couple in their late 40's with a 19 year old son but since the father spends much time taking care of his ill mother I haven't had the chance to see much of him so far. The mother teaches German at one of the local universities so you can imagine how tempting it is for me to revert to that language if my Russian isn't going too well. She's happy to be able to talk German to someone but I want to keep working on my Russian also - fortunately there are plenty of chances to do that every day. I live on the fourth floor in one of the many microregions (apartment blocks) in Ust-Kamenogorsk and I'm already making friends with the babushkas in our building. To be honest I don't understand everything they're saying but if I can practice Russian and make new friends in the process then it's all good. During the four days that I've been here so far the weather has been stifling hot with temperatures reaching close to 90 every day. That might not sound so bad but when you don't have air conditioning it can get pretty nasty. On Sunday we had a chance to meet some of the other volunteers here and they all seem to be a good bunch; they showed us some of the important buildings (post office, bank) and invited us to their Sunday afternoon movie club where "Dude, Where's My Car?" was shown so you can all rest assured that we're doing our part in educating the population in Kazakhstan. The city itself has a unique layout as compared to other cities here as it lies at the confluence of the Ulba and Irtysh rivers (the latter river is one of the longest in the world) and therefore has a lot of riverfront parks, cafes, etc. The streets in the center of the city are very wide as they are in Karaganda and some of the buildings there are towering pieces of architecture from the Soviet era. One building that stands out from the others is the mosque which towers against a backdrop of hills. With the Russian population being dominant here it's not something that I expected to see in the middle of the city but it seems as if people in Ust-Kamenogorsk take great care to respect other cultures. There's a building here that's solely dedicated to friendship and cooperation between the cultures and after reading up on some of the history it seems as if they've all had a part in things here. When I arrived here I learned that I'd be named warden shortly as the former wardens are all close to finishing their service; in a nutshell this means that I'd be responsible for relaying information to the other volunteers in my area, for knowing their whereabouts when they aren't at their sites and for consolidating everyone at my apartment if an emergency occurs. From what I hear the job doesn't entail much aside from the required yearly drills so it shouldn't be too tough. Today I took a walk along the banks of the Irtysh and got to soak my steaming hot feet in its icy cold waters until I felt them cramp up - life is good. While we're talking about water all hot water in Ust-Kamenogorsk will be turned off on May 23rd for one month for maintenance; apparently this is an annual occurrence. Looks like I'll be taking cold showers to cool off from the heat come next week - I'll let you know when I find out which alternatives people here use!

The Past Week

I'm just going to write about a few odds and ends that happened over the past week. Last Saturday we were all invited to the opening of the new Peace Corps headquarters in Almaty after our site announcements and it was rather impressive. The headquarters is made up of two buildings in a gated compound and they contain everything from computers, showers, and storage to a resource center where all kinds of useful information can be found. Getting there is a little hard since it's on the other side of Almaty if you're coming from the Sayakhat bus station, the airport, or the train stations but it's definitely worth the trouble. After several speeches a ribbon was cut to officially open the headquarters and food was served in the form of shashlik and many vegetables. It was interesting to talk to some of the volunteers who had already been in the country for a while and to get their perspectives on things but while Kaz-14 is the newest group for now Kaz-15 (a teacher trainee group) is scheduled to arrive in June. The following day we headed to a mountain lake in the mountains surrounding Ecik for poker, impromptu swimming in icy cold water and, yes, more shashlik. Shashlik is actually pretty good when the cook takes his/her time with it; you need to marinate the meat (usually pork or lamb) first for a while before sticking it on the metal rods and grilling it. Many restaurants here serve shashlik with tons of bones and the meat doesn't taste very marinated either but if you are invited to a private shashlik cookout here then you should definitely accept the offer because the cook will put the time in to make it a great feast. One of the volunteers had 6 (!) rods of shashlik because he was standing too close to where it was being grilled. I was glad to finally head up into the mountains that I see every day when I'm walking around Ecik because they really are beautiful; Trees don't grow on most of the peaks and some of them are so high that the snow on them never melts, even in the summer heat. This past week we had more classes including how to write a business plan, how to apply for grants and one on introductory Kazakh. Kazakh is a Turkic language which means that words can be hard to form sometimes but I plan on learning at least the basics of the language before the end of my service. Peace Corps actually pays for tutors once I move to my site so there's no reason for me not to keep learning Russian and Kazakh. Today we cooked beshparmak (Kazakh for five fingers because that's how you eat it)in my language class, a Kazakh dish consisting of big noodles, vegetables and lamb which turned out to be a very tasty experience. Since I live with a Russian family I don't get too many of the true Kazakh meals so this was a new thing for me. Once I'm at site I intend to learn how to cook some more, especially since I won't have a microwave! Now it's Saturday afternoon and it's a beautiful day outside so I'll take a walk through the bazaar in search of a new flavor of kirieshki (flavored croutons; great with beer) before heading home. Talk to y'all soon!

Training Nears An End

After two months of Peace Corps training the end of the tunnel in in sight. People have started to take their language tests and the schedule which was packed at certain points during training has become very light. I plan on taking my Russian language test early next week to get it out of the way; it basically consists of a 15 minute conversation where pronounciation and grammar are assessed. My language skills aren't as good as that of some of the other people in my group but I can still pick up a lot from conversations and am able to hold my own at this point. My language class was dissolved because my teacher was chosen to teach Kazakh to the people who were going to sites where the language is more commonly used and so the three people who were taught by her were sent to other classes. The class I'm in now is a little more advanced but it's all good because it's forcing me to work on my grammar and to keep buiding my vocabluary at a faster pace. Next week I also get to give a presentation on grant writing at the town Akimat (town hall) and I need to build an Access database which will eventually contain all available NGOs in Kazakhstan when they're all entered. So I'm still keeping busy even though things are winding down and am counting down the days to my official swear-in as a Peace Corps volunteer on May 13th.