See you in two months.

Sunday Morning. Last night I returned from to Issyk (my village now) after a week in Almaty (large city close by) for my counterpart conference*, followed by a night to unwind with friends in the city. As the weekend concludes I am sitting in my room with a realization that I am quite content with my life here. A life that is about to drastically change once again.

Although all along I have been aware of the temporary nature of my life here in PST it has not prevented me from having a real sense of sadness to be leaving my home of the past 9 weeks. This past week probably only exaggerated that feeling. During counterpart conference we received the Peace Corps version of pampering. We spent all day with 35 of our friends, had 3 full meals a day provided for us and had no lesson plans or other extracurricular work to worry about, meaning our evenings were free. The combination allowed a great opportunity to solidify the friendships that will now be torn away from us this weekend as we all venture out into our perspective steppe.

We joke a lot about the “vastness of the steppe” but I don’t think I fully grasp yet the isolation I am about to encounter. Back at home I went to school 5½ hours away from my family and that inconvenience was considered a much larger distance to travel than normal. In Kazakhstan, one should actually feel very fortunate if they are given a group of friends within that radius. Here in Issyk I am a 24 hour train ride away from my future home of Zerenda. I have good friends that will be traveling as little as 2 and as much as 40 hours. It is hard for me to think of distance in terms of days. I will be in the same country, but literally days (yes, plural) away from certain friends. Essentially this means the relationships I formed and appreciated for the past 9 weeks, and that blossomed even further this past week, are about to be ripped away. Consequently, they will be maintained just as I maintain relationships with people back at home. Though in some instances I spent 10 hours a day with these people for 9 emotionally demanding weeks our contact will now be reduced to a monthly email and periodic text.

Now, it is true that our purpose here is not to form relationships with the Americans we trained with but instead to integrate into our villages and assimilate into the local culture and social construct. However, a November arrival into a village along the 58th parallel presents major obstacles to integration. As soon as I get there I will begin teaching around 9 in the morning and likely will finish my day around 5 to 6. This means that until somewhere around the beginning of March I will spend my days void of sunlight for six days a week. I expect it to be difficult to integrate when people cannot see me. Plus, even if there was light outside the frigid temperature of 0 degrees Fahrenheit that Zerenda will average as its high means most sane inhabitants will sit in a cocoon for several months, including myself. (They already have 10 inches of snow). By the time March rolls around I will be encouraged by seeing new things and fresh faces that I had no idea existed at my site. During the first few months when sunshine is infrequent and the town is in hibernation I will really long for the people I just spent 4 great days with in Almaty.

Fortunately, I consider myself the quintessential optimist. I can’t help but take pleasure in that fact that it took me just nine weeks in Kazakhstan to have something I feel blessed about and know that I will miss. I am sad to be leaving all these people in a few days but am encouraged to be in Kazakhstan and be thankful for something. The awareness of ability to find a positive outlook allows a sense of relief. Despite the steppe presenting some real gloom, I know I can be only two months away from finding encouragement and sitting down to reflect/report on that. I can’t wait.

*Counterpart Conference was a four day conference where every volunteer was introduced to the person they will use as their liaison to life at their respective sites. Every counterpart was trained into Almaty from all across the country and the four days was filled with relationship building activities as well as an introduction into Peace Corps philosophy. My counterpart is just a second year teacher and very shy but she gave me glimpses of friendliness that lead me to believe we will get along great. I think the entire experience was a little bit overwhelming and perhaps intimidating for her. On Sunday, I received a text of hope. She sent an unsolicited text that explained she was back in Zerenda and excited for my arrival. Baby. Steps.


Below is picture taken in an American run coffee shop after our night to unwind. The scrabble game and beverages were fabulous. The simple things usually are.

Zerenda!!!

My site has been announced and I could not be happier. I ended up about a 45 minute bus ride outside of the city I requested and I could not be happier. My village is tiny, it has only about 6,000 people and very rarely is there running water. At first that seems a bit daunting but I really do think it will be nice to have the “real” Peace Corps experience with water pumps and outhouses while having a larger city nearby to keep my sanity. People describe the area as the Switzerland of Kazakhstan, and while from the pictures I have seen that’s probably a huge stretch I do think it’s fair to say it resembles the boundary waters. Search for either Kokshetau or Zerenda if you want to find some pictures of your own. There is a bigger resort area not too far from me, but I don’t remember what it is called. If you search around you may be able to find it.

The picture that is included is the lake I will be living next to for the next two years. Its circumference will be frequented many times as I am sure therapeutic runs will be a necessity.

Love you all.

A lot to say

A lot of time has passed since my last post. There is a lot going on and I know that sometimes overwhelms me while I sit here and try to explain all that I am going through. I think my expectation was that somehow I will be able to truly immerse you into my life here simply through a blog and I need to realize that can’t be the case. I’ll admit that I can get a bit discouraged sometimes and will admit it seems the pressured hour or two a week at the internet café challenges me emotionally more than it fulfills me emotionally. I just have to realize that the internet café isn’t necessarily about explaining every minute detail. The internet is a fascinating technology but is not capable of putting people into my shoes when they are half a globe away. What it can do though is allow me to maintain personal connections. If you understand minimally what I am going through and what my general emotions are, that should be satisfactory, and that is my goal.

So here goes…
Since my last post the biggest addition to my life here has been the introduction of “Mr. Myles” and my initiation into the classroom. After three weeks of it I have to say teaching is an enthralling profession. The students are fantastic, I love being in front of the class and basically I am spoiled rotten. For the five weeks of PST I was placed at a private liberal arts school that concentrates in language training. The school is not at all typical of Kazakhstan, and my experience at site will be quite different. For now though, I am taking advantage of an opportunity to teach 10th graders that for the most part function at a conversational level. I am teaching them about things like money and occupations. Last week I had them write a few sentences about what they wanted to be when they grew up. It was a question many Kazakhstani students are never asked to think about until they reach university level. Education is valued here, but the fact that it is a means to an eventual end is not something that is ever understood. In fact even when they are pressured later on many girls will admit, void of any shame, that their time at university is a way to meet a husband. All the students here are great, but the girls especially are so bright and have so much potential that they are completely unaware of. I approached my task of questioning them about their future very seriously and was thrilled with my results. I heard from many future oil business men (which I guess means that means they understand economics), but I also heard bankers, teachers, an international organization worker and even politician from my least advanced student that has only volunteered maybe once or twice in class before. The amount of time in the classroom has progressed each week, starting with just an hour the first week until next week when I will have the class for five hours, their entire English schedule for the week. At the end of next week they will be asked to write a 3 paragraph essay, the first they have written in any language. As important as writing composition and essay writing skills are they seem to be totally ignored here. My last class with them I will introduce the concept of a beginning, middle and end and ask them to come up with a story according to the prompt I give them. Some in the class will excel, others will probably really struggle but that’s not really the point. They should just understand how important the skill is and the places it could someday take them.

While I am on the topic of education I want to include another small tidbit about the Post Soviet world. As I said, these students really are bright; they have a desire to learn and the intellectual capacity to compete amongst anyone at the international level. What they are no able to do is understand how education could be considered some sort of competition, that there are a limited number of jobs out there and they need to strive to achieve them. In the post-soviet world competition is still very much unnatural and at times even uncomfortable. This is engrained in them and is without a doubt the biggest problem with this educational system. The fact the students are uncomfortable competing against their peers in a classroom game is something that can be overlooked, but the notion that there is zero concept of cheating and that “helping” each other on tests is accepted and at times expected is a huge concern. So far I have only seen the former, but I have heard stories from current volunteers about national testing days that can make stomachs turn. Unfortunately this is not something I will come close to changing in my two years here. My hope is just to engrain in my students the value of individual work, so that when a 3 paragraph essay is turned in they have something that they themselves can truly be proud of.

Lastly, I want to share a bit about an incident that a few of you already know about. I hesitated to put this on here simply because it is not something people should be worrying about without knowledge of the full details. I changed my mind when I realized there are important lessons about this country and this could be seen as an opportunity. A group of my instructors, who are current volunteers and American, got shot with rubber bullets by a prominent local business man at a café(bar) in town. All real bullet guns are outlawed here which is definitely fortunate but the rubber bullets penetrated the skin and did their damage too; the three guys spent the night in the hospital. The volunteer that was attacked had a beer or two (not drunk), was dressed in flashy attire and after being asked to dance did so in an unaccustomed way. All three of which we have been suggested to avoid, nothing truly provoked any violence though. Although this sort of thing is very rare it is a great reminder of the problem this society has and that although we are welcomed here by the people who need it most, the people who have interest in the status quo consider us an unwanted target. Ultimately after learning about this and processing the details the story has become a motivation tool for me. I am not going to the save the world while I am here but situations like this means I have a great opportunity over the next two years. The essence of PC is an effort to open up dialogue and facilitate conversation at a localized level. The hope is that will lead to understanding and not only prevent anything like this from happening but to develop into an appreciation of the values we live for. My job as a teacher is only one third of my duties here. The other two are to promote better understandings of the American people, and to promote better understandings the local people amongst Americans. As I left I think a fair amount of people still had a hard time grasping why I would spent two years of my life in some Kazakh village. It is a difficult thing to understand and even more difficult to explain. So, if at some point my friends can understand why I’m here, I’d consider that a great start. But I can pack my bags and come home if the man at the café grows to understand that I am here not only to provide the English language but also to establish a relationship and connection between him, the average Kazakh man, and the American values I am embody. I guess that means I have some work to do.

I find out what city I will in for the next two years of my life on Friday. Because this country is so vast the differences between cities and regions can be quite different. Last Thursday I was interviewed about my preferences. I went into the interview with pretty specific preferences and feeling pretty good about my chances to have them achieved. I came out of the interview with much less of a specific site in mind and feeling much more uncertainty about whether any of my preferences would actually be considered. As the interview progressed and I was asked questions about my ideal site it became apparent to me how selfish my specific choices were. In the relatively short conversation I realized I’m here to address needs and not have mine met. I also realized that about one year ago I was explaining to a Peace Corps recruiter that I would be willing to go anywhere that was necessary. Had I been sat down at the point and asked specifically where I would go if I could control it, I am pretty positive I would not have chosen Kazakhstan. One year later I am sitting in a post soviet country, learning Russian and I could not be happier. What this tells me is that perhaps Peace Corps knows what is good for me even better than I do. Saying all these things in the interview pretty much gives the PC Kazakhstan the flexibility to send me anywhere. Although I had not planned or intended to mention them, I mean it sincerely, and that has given me much more peace of mind as Friday rapidly approaches.

Love and miss you all. I promise to be a little more available over the next few weeks. Hope to hear from any of you soon.

Myles