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!