The Long Winter – Around Kazakhstan and Where Did My English Go?

International Women’s Day
8 March 2009
Aktobe

Each time I have started to write over the last few months, I get overcome with the present. Life has been normal life and consequently overly busy. I love it still, but only recently realized how stressed I had become. Writing is relaxing and helps put everything in perspective – but when the immediate issues are glaring at you, its distracting from putting words down.

Since I last wrote, my friends and I hosted a second “Tres Hombres” charity party (http://www.treshombresaktobe.blogspot.com/), I travelled around Kazakhstan, returned to a brief Spring in Aktobe (which quickly again turned cold), celebrated International Women’s Day many times, and began to relax.

When I left for my recent travels the day after the charity party, I was incredibly excited; extremely tired but very happy to see more of the country for a few weeks. I started in Astana, arriving a few days before my organization’s director to prepare for the grant signing ceremony at the Japanese Embassy. Two days ago, we received the $84,411.00 we won from the Japanese Embassy’s “Grassroots Development Program” Grant for the renovation of our wheelchair factory site. We begin renovation as soon as the weather warms-up – which could be anywhere from tomorrow to two months. The goal is to finish the massive renovation effort – basically gutting the building, installing new equipment, and making it friendly for disabled employees – by the end of July. Then, in August we plan to hold the training for employees in wheelchair assembly, managing, and marketing as well as for regional rural disability activists, in conjunction with our American partner NGO.

From Astana – after experiencing the young cultural scene – I travelled up to Pavlodar, a brief overnight train ride from the capital, to spend a few days with two of the Peace Corps Volunteers – Jeffrey and Maher. Jeffrey works at an organization for disabled children and Maher at a hospice. As I also work with disabled children and Jeffrey is starting a volunteer club, we thought it would be a good chance to learn from each other while I was in the area. Pavlodar is much more Russian than Aktobe. There seem to be less Kazakh people than in Aktobe and there is definitely more Russian and less Kazakh compared to my city, despite Aktobe not being an extremely Kazakh language heavy city. Pavlodar is a nice city – freezing cold, down to -35C when I was there with a burning wind – but it has some good restaurants and a river front that is likely nicer than last I remember of Detroit’s.

The three of us took the train down to Almaty for one of the other PCV’s weddings. Greg, who lives in Taldykorgan, a city about a four-hour taxi ride from Almaty, had his wedding on Valentine’s Day to a local Kazakhstani young woman. The wedding was beautiful. After a night in Almaty, I arrived in Taldykorgan at 11 in the morning. At about noon, we began to decorate the cars. You decorate the cars – in our case a few white Mercedes, a limo, and a Peace Corps (driven by the KZ PC Director) Land Cruiser – and then drive around the city for a few hours, first stop a ceremony where the groom has to earn the bride (planned by the bride’s friends), then more driving, then stopping at monuments to let the doves out to embrace their love, honking a lot, more driving, going to “Zaks” for the marriage certificate signing ceremony, more honking, a few circles around the city, and then to the restaurant for the party.

The marriage certificate signing ceremony is in a building specifically devoted for this purpose. Due to the fact that Valentine’s Day is a very popular wedding day, there was a line and the process seemed rather brisk. We went inside, waited with a big crowd, then our group went up the stairs to the signing hall. A few minutes later, the bride and groom make their way through the hall, to the table at the other end. They sign. Place the rings on each others’ fingers. Dance a waltz. Then, we are invited into the side room for champaign and chocolates. There is a receiving line for the bride, groom, and her family (as his is not there – they’ll be doing another ceremony when they all return to the States), then one toast – then we are directed out by the director of the facility. Time for the next couple.

A few more circles around the city and then to the restaurant. The party was wonderful. Over 20 Peace Corps Volunteers were in attendance, lots of local friends, and lots of toasts. Kazakhstani wedding toasts seem to usually involve each person in attendance (often by table) standing in the middle of the room and giving their toast to the bride, groom, best man and maid of honor, and video camera. The wedding party’s table has to stand-up for each toast. This entails them eating very little, drinking a good amount, and having tired legs by the time of the first dance. It was a lot of fun.

After the wedding, I returned to Almaty for a few days to delve into the issue that’s been recently providing my stress. Along with a few other Peace Corps Volunteers and local friends in Almaty and here, I am organizing a seminar on “volunteer organization development”. Since working with our volunteer club in Aktobe and learning about the expansion of volunteerism throughout Kazakhstan, it hass struck a number of us that while there is a great drive for volunteer development and activity on a local level, often the local organizations and activists do not have a great deal of training or experience in how to work with volunteers. Rather, it’s very much a “learn as you go” type of activity. That’s important and makes for more exciting programs than a cookie cutter organization, but not having the opportunity to share ideas and gain perspective from other organizations engaged in similar work detracts from the possibilities available – as expressed by a number of local organizations.

As a result, we have planned this seminar, which will bring together over 30 organizations working with volunteers from around Kazakhstan – around 65 participants. Unfortunately, the funding that we thought was committed to the project from certain organizations was not as committed as we believed. As a result, we have had to deal with financial stress that we had not initially anticipated. The program is great and there’s such an incredible amount of interest from local organizations. My stress results from the issue that a week prior to the program, we’re still short a few hundred dollars.

Earlier this week, to begin the celebration of International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, my local organization in Aktobe organized a festival for disabled girls (http://picasaweb.google.com/treshombresaktobe/2009#). The event was organized in a week by my colleagues and our volunteers and sponsored by “Tres Hombres”, as one of the uses of the money we raised from our party. We invited 35 disabled girls, 15 disabled boys, 5 of our male volunteers, and about 5 female volunteers (we didn’t want to put the female volunteers to work on their holiday – but these five sang and danced for the performance). We also invited the parents of each of the children. However, that side of the hall was empty as almost every child kicked their parents out – so that they could spend their event as individuals, rather than having their parents watching over them like kids. The event was really nice.

The week continued with more celebrations and the holiday extends one more day – tomorrow is an official day off for the holiday. On Friday, I leave for Almaty for the Volunteer Seminar – it’ll be a busy week.

Happy Spring and Happy International Women’s Day!

Year 3

11 January 2009
Aktobe

Part of the explanation for why I haven’t written is simple: I’ve been really busy and when I return home, simply tired.  The other, and more difficult reason to explain, is that I have felt slightly overwhelmed.  Not because work or life here has been overly stressful, but simply the breadth of what we have been working on and what I’ve done since I last wrote has been a lot.

Since “Golden Heart”, in November, I planned and hosted a charity party in Aktobe with two friends, traveled to Almaty for our “Mid-Service Training”, attended two charity concerts in Almaty planned by a friends, took a trip to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan, delivered presents for disabled children dressed as Grandfather Frost with our local volunteers, helped my organization move into a new office in an apartment building built solely for disabled individuals in Aktobe, finished reading Solzhenitsyn’s  “Gulag Archipelago” (Volume 1), did a lot of work with our Volunteer Club: DAR, English Club and English classes, and am planning a second charity party for the end of January.  And there was Hannukah, Christmas, New Years’, and Old New Years’.

Our new office is a much larger space than the old place.  Before, we were in one small room with a window-divider down the middle, situated at a law institute.  Now, we have between three and five rooms on the ground floor of this new apartment building, built specifically for free housing for disabled individuals.  There are currently 30 families living on the five levels.  On December 31, I went to deliver gifts to each of the families, dressed as Grandfather Frost.  Some apartments only have one person living there, but others have huge families, up to ten people in one two bedroom apartment.  Since many of the new residents moved there from the villages, their apartments are two bedroom reconfigurations of their previous home: old blue dressers, big wooden cabinets, and lot of carpets, but now with running water (that very often is not available in the villages) and an elevator.  We received office space on the first floor due to the extent of work our organization, and particularly our Director put into making the apartment complex a reality.  The entire building was paid for by the government and the Prime Minister came for the official opening.  It now feels like we have a space to match the depth and amount of work the organization pursues.  In addition to offices, we’ll be installing rehabilitation rooms, including weight lifting equipment and massage beds, a conference room.  There is still a room or two that may be available and we have a number of ideas for how to best make use of the space to help not just disabled individuals, but the poor and hungry in the area.

The next event after “Golden Heart” was a charity party, “Tres Hombres Party”.  This was the first time a party of this nature occurred in Aktobe and I was amazed by the outpouring of local business support.  Two of my good friends and I were sitting at a bar a few months ago and came up with the idea of planning some sort of event for the 20 and 30 year olds that could raise awareness about social needs and bring needed resources to these populations.  Our first event raised around $2,500, all of the money was donated to my organization to assist in paying for “Golden Heart” and to buy New Years’ gifts for ten extremely poor families with disabled individuals around the city, which we then delivered.  Tickets went before we started selling them, with only 100 spots we managed to squeeze around 120 people into the cafe for hours of performances, competitions, shows, and dancing – all with a Latin American theme.  Due to the success of the first event, we’re organizing the second party for the end of January – new space, new theme, new charity, and continuing to grow the idea of corporate and individual social community responsibility.

Mid-Service Training and the charity concerts in Almaty were fun, but the highlight of the trip was my vacation to Kyrgyzstan.  It is a beautiful country with amazing mountains, only a six hour drive from Almaty.  I recommend it to anyone interested in mountain sports – lots of backcountry, steep, and high snow-covered peaks.  Sleeping seven people in a room meant for three (and one night eight) was another highlight, especially with everyone in the room being sick at some point.

There’s lots more to share, including the amazing work of our volunteers, the upcoming trip to Astana to sign the grant forms for our wheelchair factory, Kazakhstan New Years’ number two, the Hannukah concert in Aktobe, and a visit from another friend from America.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years’ and holiday season.  Our eulkas (Christmas trees) will be up here for another few months, usually until the snow melts in mid-March.  Happy Year of the Cow and best wishes for a new year of happiness, peace, and excitement.

Golden Hearts…Running Around a Hotel Together for 48 Hours

Sunday, November 23 2008
Aktobe

Last night was my first night home in three days.  Thursday and Friday we had our festival, “Golden Heart”, for disabled children and their mothers.  The event was outstanding.  26 disabled children.  25 mothers and fathers (two of the children are sisters).  27 volunteers.  1 hotel. 7 hours of sleep over two days.

“Golden Heart” had four goals.  The first – to provide a forum for the parents (particularly mothers) to come together to share support, resources, and think of ways to help each other.  The second – to provide an opportunity for the children to relax and see that they are not alone.  The third – to further develop the relationship between volunteers and disabled children; both the specific one-on-one bond between each child and his or her volunteer, as well as strengthening the importance of local volunteerism.  The fourth – to bring additional attention to all of these areas to the general community.  I think we accomplished all these goals.  And, especially important, despite the conclusion of  “Golden Heart”, we’re continuing to expand our work in these areas.

The volunteer club will continue to work with these volunteers continuing to assist these, and other disabled children and their families.  We currently have around 100 volunteers that will also be working with other children, visiting their homes and also meeting in groups at a local coffee shop, “Black and Brown Coffee”.  They have been working together ranging from a few weeks to around a year.  Each of the disabled children and their parents created an abundance of artwork which we sold at the festival.  Unsold pieces will be displayed at “Black and Brown Coffee” with information about each child and our program.

I almost cried many times during the program.  The “children” ranged in age from 4 to 31 and of course different types of relationships could develop between volunteers and their children.  One of our volunteers, Tanya, ran around like crazy “playing” with her young child.  She never seemed tired out and kept going for two days straight.  Another volunteer, Sana, who has been working with her 31 year old “child”, Nastya, and Nastya’s mother for a year, spent the two days with Nastya, sitting together and tirelessly trying to entertain her.  Nastya is fully immobile.  One time, Sana was playing with her.  She was throwing marbles up and down, up and down – and expressing her excitement, and just trying to cheer her up.  Nastya had  minimal, if any response.  It was at that moment that I realized how much Sana had done and meant to Nastya’s family.

The first night, volunteers went home after the end of most of the day’s programming and didn’t stay for the Discotech, because it was late and everyone needed to get home.  The second night, however, we had extra hotel rooms for volunteers (since some of the families went home the second evening, as there was no program the next day, just breakfast), so about 10 volunteers stayed.  After the Discotech, the volunteers and four disabled children of the same age (17-21) stayed up talking and playing games together until 5 AM.  At about 2:30 AM, I left them to go to sleep.  Waiting for the elevator, I just smiled at the fact that this group developed a real friendship.

Earlier in that evening, before the late night games was the “Mother’s Ball”.  We honored each of the mothers (and two fathers), presented them with a letter of thanks and put on a show to honor them for their on-going and unceasing love of and work with their children.  The brass section of the Aktobe Philharmonic performed, four Kazakh dancers did a series of dances, there were a few singers, all the mothers were all given these beautiful hand-made shoulder wraps from Orenberg, Russia, and finally Vika and I reprised our waltz.

After the “Mother’s Ball”, we had a “thank you” volunteer meeting with our staff.  They surprised us (Maral, Gulmiera, Kurulai, Rima, and I) with a poster they had done as a thank you to us.  And, the volunteer who presented it made a speech, during which she cried.  She said to us, “Both you and we knew how important this program would be for the parents and for the children.  But, we want you to know (and here she started to cry) how important this was for us as well.”  I joined in with some tears.

Later in the evening, after I left our late-night partyers, I went down to the bar to get some work done.
The father of one of the disabled children, Alibek, a 25 year old young man who is nearly completely  paralyzed due to a disease that continues to affect him and has made him blind, also came down to the bar.  We had met a few times before and talked, but never one-on-one and over beer.  We looked at pictures from my travels and from America, and talked about politics, and life.  We also talked with Greg, a former PCV in Aktobe, both of whom were glad to make the connection with each other again.

I am incredibly proud of my organization and our volunteers, and thankful to Dastan Hotel and the many businesses and individuals that made it possible for the disabled children and volunteers to run around the hotel next to oil and gas businessmen and to play keep away with balloons in the front lobby coffee shop.  My friends and I are planning a charity party for next Saturday, more volunteer meetings, and our wheelchair factory.  There’s a lot coming up on the agenda, but for a moment – I’m able to take a breath and see what we have accomplished, for everyone involved.  As I said to our volunteers in our meeting, “Everyday when I come into our office, I am inspired by my coworkers.  After spending these two days with you, I am similarly and immensely inspired.  Thank you.”

A Year of Daily Bus Trips…and Horse Milk

Monday, November 17 2008
Aktobe

This morning when I was running my normal morning route: walk the four minutes from my home to bus #1, gently scramble to find a seat on the bus, sit for 20 minutes listening to my music and often awkwardly take a call in English as everyone again looks at me (which is only a stronger gaze when I switch between English and Russian), lightly pushing my way to the front (today with the three boxes of Monopoly, Risk, and Othello for “Golden Heart”), pay, get off, and walk the five minutes to work, get the keys from the security guards, and then start the day, I had a moment of remembrance of why I enjoy my time here.

The last couple of months have been really busy – a lot of running around (Aktobe and Almaty) and focusing on programmatic details for projects at my organization and a number of secondary projects.  It was starting to get to that border of tiring.  Fortunately, I have good friends, family, and projects which have kept me focused and relaxed.  Thinking about what I’ve been doing, however, made me realize how tired I was.

Then, this morning, I had one of those moments that brings relaxation.  Life isn’t meant to be a series of fights and stress over the details that will work out well whether they happen my way or another way.  The challenge, the fun, and the success is in all of the accomplishments and the inspiration.  My organization could accomplish their projects without me.  I bring, however, that other perspective and maybe that little bit of additional support.  If that little bump can help us not just accomplish the projects but make them even better than they thought they could be – that’s success.  I’m learning a lot from my colleagues and friends here.  Expanding the big picture and helping to bring all the small details into greater focus, both parts are important and thinking about things that way is simply really relaxing.

Sunday, November 16 2008
Aktobe

New Volunteers and the one year mark.  I feel as if I’ve been traveling a lot over the last few months and trying to balance that with a lot of work in Aktobe.  Work has been very busy.  My organization has really embraced the Volunteer Club concept and our volunteers are one of the key parts for our upcoming program, “Golden Heart”.  We heard back from the Japanese Embassy regarding a grant we applied for to fund the renovations of our wheelchair factory site.  We won the grant and in December, our organization’s director and I will be going to Astana to officially sign the forms.  Barack Obama won the U.S. Presidency.  Horse therapy finished on a strong note, with more people expressing interest just as the cold weather arrived.  I went to Almaty, twice.  English Club has consistently had 50 to 60 people on Thursdays and 30 to 50 on Saturdays for Movie Club.

As the 365 days since arriving in Aktobe passed, it seems that things are going relatively smooth.  As I’ve been watching my colleagues at my organization plan “Golden Heart” since returning from Aktobe, it  struck me how little they need a volunteer in some ways.  A good amount of how they’re planning and running the event is different from how I envisioned it, but that doesn’t make it bad.  Rather, I’m glad that they have this strong ownership over the program.  The program will be two days and two nights at the newest and nicest hotel in the city (http://dastanhotel.kz/en/aktobe).  The primary focus is on the mothers (and a few fathers and grandmothers) of disabled children.  The secondary focus is on the disabled children.  Over 27 volunteers will be working with the children while their parents are attending the conference.

Children is not the most accurate term as the “children” range in age from 6 to 35, with most around 15 years old.  They all have different types of disabilities.  Some have Cerebral Palsy, some are physically disabled, a few are partially deaf, as well as a variety of other disabilities.  One of the most important parts is that our participants are not just from the city but also from surrounding villages.  Even more important is that our volunteers have been visiting these children and their families for between a year and a few months, to spend time with them, to get to know the people they would be working with at the conference, and to establish friendships with the children.  We have lots more individuals (who include school students, university students, and young professionals) who want to volunteer; after “Golden Heart” finishes, we’ll be back on to running more trainings for working with disabled children and pairing our volunteers with our clients.  Then, we’ll again look to expand the Volunteer Club to work with other local non-profits and bring more volunteer leadership into the program.

I thought it would be strange with new PCVs arriving and taking the “place” of my friends who I spent such an intense amount of time with.  All of us Kaz-19s definitely talk about our site-mates who have left a lot (we miss you guys), but the new Volunteers transitioning-in feels pretty normal.  They’re at their jobs, we’ve talked pretty daily this week, went out for drinks, are still getting to know each other and well, basically, they’re great.  I’m excited they’re here and I think they will do a great job.  Having been here for the year, it’s normal to want to offer advice and keep saying “we did it this way, but we don’t have to keep doing it that way”; although I think I make the second part of that statement a little too often.  When I realize I started to buffer my comments too much, I also realized how little time a year is and despite all the experience I’ve gained in that year, it’s still only a year.

I’m enjoying myself and am looking forward to the next year.

Watching Time in Front of the TV

27 October 2008
Aktobe

This past weekend was Republic Day.  Our organization sponsored an arm wrestling competition for the disabled on Saturday, and then on Sunday we sponsored a celebratory lunch.  And today, Monday, there is no work due to the holiday.  But, schools still have classes and some businesses are working.  Even after a year, I have absolutely no idea where it is decided which organizations work on which days and what days constitute official holidays compared to the equally numerous pseudo-holidays.  Republic Day is a celebration of the Republic of Kazakhstan.  How this differs from Independence Day and Constitution Day is similarly confounding.  It seems, however, that there were not as many concerts in the park this weekend as for the other holidays.  I did see fireworks last night, though.

The past few days have been a nice time of relaxation compared to the last few weeks.  Things have been incredibly busy.  We’ve had some wonderful press coverage, appearing on multiple local TV channels at least three times over four days (including once about Volunteer Club in the morning show and then Hippotherapy for evening news on the same channel).  The free publicity is a nice touch and good compliment to the newspaper articles over the past few months, especially as we haven’t had an article recently, until last week for the program, “Blue Bird”, a disabled children’s festival that we also co-sponsored.

“Blue Bird” was really nice.  Many of the students that I teach at “Chaika”, the TB sanatorium were there – and it was nice to see them outside of the lessons.  I focused my next lesson, after the event, on their performances and what happened at the event.  On top of these activities, a friend came to visit from Israel.  I didn’t really realize how busy my schedule is until she told me that that her final day in Almaty, after spending around a week with me in Aktobe, she slept all day.  Apparently, not everyone agrees that the best vacations are those where you spend little time sleeping, and every minute running around.  We had fun though.

Next week, I return to Almaty for a Volunteer Advisory Committee meeting and Swearing-In of the new volunteers.  I remember so clearly my Swearing-In and can still remember the emotions that accompanied the transition from PST to arriving in Aktobe for my site visit.  It was incredibly overwhelming.  I remember getting off the plane.  The first thing I saw was flat and this small building that apparently was the airport.  Since then, I’ve become very familiar with the two room airport  and have been impressed by its efficiency, compared to Metro – only a few less flights.  Then, my colleagues were there to greet me; I only knew Maral, I had never met any of the others, I had no idea how many there were, what they would be like, what they were expecting.

We took the early flight from Almaty, another aspect of Kazakhstani travel with which I have since become very familiar.  When we were driving through the city, with Gulmiera narrating the tour in part-English/mainly-Russian, I was so confused.  She was talking about all these different “regions” of the city.  It didn’t seem large enough to have so many regions.  Three weeks later when I moved to Aktobe, I still had no idea how the city could have over twelve regions.  When I got here in November, I took all these walks just to orient myselfyou  with the area.  They helped but it still took many more months to get a really good feel for the city.  I’m still learning more about the city, how can you expect to learn everything, or even the majority, in a year, but I understand it better now, especially the map of the city.  For so long, looking at a city map, placing my work in relation to my house in relation to Jennie’s office simply didn’t make sense.  Now, I can picture the Google map view in my head (though not quite as clear as of West Bloomfield on Google Earth).

As life happens, a lot has changed in a year.  I’ve made friends, my two city site-mates have left (two new ones will be coming when I return with them from Almaty), more village site-mates will be arriving, I don’t sit in the office anymore and have nothing to do.  Especially with so many people leaving, it’s tough not to fast-forward the year and think about what I’ll be doing exactly a year from now.  I’m doing my best to avoid thinking that far ahead.  It’ll be too sad and there’s too much more to do in the meantime.  Before PC, two years seemed like it would be a long time, now it just feels like it’s already moving faster than I’d like.

Potholes and Volunteers

Monday, October 13 2008
Aktobe

The last few weeks, it’s been very difficult for me to find a clear narrative to write about my experiences.  Life has been full and busy, but it seems so regular.  Spending a week in Almaty to work with the new volunteers and spend a few days relaxing with my friends was a nice break, though I really missed Aktobe while I was there.  My activity today reminded me how to share stories.

Our Volunteer Club is growing, and we are getting more calls from students who want to volunteer – but still not at a level that I think it could be at.  Sometimes, however, someone calls and then they don’t follow-up.  The schedule gets busy, they don’t have time to come to a meeting or to the office, it happens.  Yesterday, a Medical Academy student sent me an SMS saying that she really wants to volunteer.  Great.  I invited her to my office today in the afternoon.  Especially if you don’t know the city, it can be tough to find.  When the streets are a big mud puddle, like today, it does not help either.  She made it, on time, and we talked about the volunteer opportunities and our big festival: “Zoletoy Certze” (Golden Heart).

We will be holding a festival for disabled children and their parents two days at one of the local hotels.  Each family will be paired with two volunteers, who are supposed to be working with them until the big event; next week.  Our initial goal was 50 families and 100 volunteers.  We’re currently on around 20 families and 60 volunteers; but that’s okay, there are still 6 days to go.  Additionally, there’s a chance that we’ll be using a different hotel and the event will be pushed back another two weeks; so we may have lots more time.

Our new volunteer, Marhaba, loved the idea and wanted to go visit her child today.  Our plan is that I go with our volunteers for at least the first visit, so I said sure.  The first child we called was sick, so we went with another child, Aisuly.  Both, however, live in the same area.  Marhaba is from another city and in her first year at the Medical Academy and I was entirely unfamiliar with where they live.  The area, Sazdah, is the same name as a bus stop, but on the phone, Aisuly’s family said it was a village outside Aktobe.  I held out hope when we were told to go to one of the bus stops I was familiar with, still inside the city.

We arrived at the bus stop and discovered the bus to the village comes once an hour, and it was only 4:23.  We opted for a taxi.  I had no idea there were villages outside the city the direction we went.  The road for this route outside the city is worse than any pothole in Detroit.  At least twice a week for the last few months, I have been going out of the city to the horse therapy for disabled children and to teach English at the TB Sanatorium – but those are a different direction.  I thought that road was bad before the Summit construction.  The road to Sazdah is dirt and asphalt and piles of dirt, and holes, and mounds of dirt, and holes, and huge crevices.  Our taxi driver on the way back, who does the drive twice a day, still complained.  This is one place a Hummer would be well-served.

The village is about 20 minutes from Aktobe and small, roughly 1,400 people.  It seemed much poorer than other nearby villages.  There were no apartment buildings, everyone lived in one-story houses, most of which were somewhat spread out from each other.  The bus stop is where a few of the streets cross and a big dirt area.  All of the houses have a gate.  Aisuly’s father was outside when we arrived,  chopping wood and directed us to avoid the dog.  The cow was calm and stayed in its barn.  Aisuly is a sweet 15 year old who has hearing problems and extreme difficulty speaking.  She knits and draws beautifully and we spent a lot of time looking at her work, particularly because this week there is a show of disabled childrens’ art and then at Zoletoy Certze will be another show.

The family speaks basically only Kazakh.  This made it very difficult for me.  Fortunately, Marhaba is great, and she took the lead.  Living in the city, I forget how important Kazakh is in Kazakhstan, even just outside heavily Russian-language infused areas, Kazakh is the primary means of communication.

This was not Marhaba’s first time doing this type of program.  When she was in high school, she participated in a similar program, visiting and working with disabled children  After spending about an hour with Aisuly and one of her sisters, the rest of the family arrived home.  We talked to everyone and then had chai.  This visit was great – everyone enjoyed themselves and wants the visits to continue – but it also brought a few challenges to light.

Even though we called, Aisuly’s family did not expect us to arrive.  Apparently, a few weeks ago, another one of our volunteers called, said they would be coming, and then never showed up.  These volunteers also did not call me to tell me they did not go.  Complicating this, my hard drive crashed of a few weeks ago and I lost a few weeks worth of work, including my volunteer database.  Fortunately, we  called and arrived today.  It went a long way to re-establish some trust and a relationship.

I have loved our horse therapy and I have really bonded with some of our other children, but today’s visit struck me in a different way and reminded me of how much more there is to learn, the value of  individual relationships and how much there is still (and always) to do.

Aktobe Today: The Russians (and Kazakhstanis) are Coming!

Friday, September 19, 2008
Aktobe

Two days till the Summit.  The Summit has defined the life of the city for the past few months.  A number of months ago, the government awarded the hosting of the Summit to Aktobe.  This involved more than rolling out the red carpet for our guests.  Playing host in Kazakhstan apparently means rolling out new streets, new building facades, new billboards, new flags, new colors, new buildings, new flowers, new grass, new parks, just as a start.

As a result of the months of preparation work, the city has basically been rebuilt from scratch – and looks beautiful.  All it took was every road in the city being closed, at least twice; tearing up just-laid flower beds to replace them with new flowers, two to three times; painting and putting up new and matching colors on the apartment buildings around the city; completing a new building on the main street over halfway, tearing it down to the first floor, and rebuilding; and rumors of street closings, gas station closings,, vacation day, and a warning not to leave one’s home off and on for the days of and surrounding the Summit.

The Summit is now upon us, from Sunday to Monday, plus the opening of the new mosque and church on Tuesday.  There’s a mix of excitement, frustration, pride, and cynicism running through the city.  The event is big and it is appropriately exciting.  The Presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia will be attending, along with basically every minister and mayor from both countries, and then lots of lower level government officials, and lots of media.  I’m not exactly sure of the agenda, but I have heard it covers the economy, bilateral relations, economic development, and friendship.

There are banners around the city proclaiming the friendship between Kazakhstan and Russia.  Probably over 80% of the billboards in the city have now been replaced with Summit billboards –of President Nazerbayev of Kazakhstan, of Kazakhstan national pride, of Astana, or of the Summit information.

Due to the amount of work and stress that comes with the Summit, apparently for everyone, many plans have been delayed until post-Summit.  The city does look beautiful, the water works again, and nice roads, and the Fall weather help with that perception, as well.

While the city has been preparing, I’ve also been busy.  Our Volunteer Club has again picked up momentum, and we are now also working with an organization that works with the orphanages, so students also volunteer there, as well as with disabled children and adults.  Horse therapy for disabled children has been expanded to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, every week.  We’re waiting for a little more news on the wheelchair factory, but I’ve been to the site many times, and we’re ready to renovate, hopefully we’ll get the roof done before the snow hits.  In early October, I’m going to Almaty to work with the new PCVs.  Then, there’s a few other project.  It’s been a good month.

Happy Fall!

For more information on the Summit, see below:

From Diapazon, 18 Sept. 2008 (http://diapazon.kz/?nom=88&news=2263)

Guests will Give Busts
There are four days until the the fifth forum of Kazakhstan and Russia.  On September 21-22 in Aktobe will come the presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia, the ministers of the two countries, Russian governors and the mayors of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

On the agenda is: the grand opening of the Aktobe airport, dedication and opening of the new church, mosque, and shopping center in the Twelfth Microregion of Aktobe, a entreprenuership forum, and a trade and industrial exhibition with the heads of State.  Guests may also have the opportunity to fly to Khromtau to see the nearby town.  Over the past few weeks, teams of Russian and Kazakhstani specialists have visited Aktobe to review the agenda, the locations of the meetings, and go over protocal for the two days of attendance.  Rumor has is that along with the President of Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will also be attending.  As of print time, however, the Regional Akimat has not confirmed this information.

Before the official start of the summit, participants have already begun to arrive.  For example, representatives of the Chelyabink tractor factory arrived on September 19.  They will take part in the indusrial exhibition, which will be held September 22 at “Konis”.  The new airport opening is scheduled for September 21.  This past Wednesday, several preparation teams worked at both places; the electronic scoreboard in Konis was put up and the road to the airport was decorated with colorful flags and a light arch was unveiled.

For several days, the Aktobe Hotel did not receive visitors, all of the rooms were booked for the summit.  Some guests have asked for a five star hotels, but they have all been booked.  We have learned that in order to fit all of the guests, some attendees will be housed int he student dormitories.
We know that the governors and other guests of the forum will give a gift of two busts, in honor of folk hero Koblandy Batyr and hero Alija Moldagulovoy.  Two months ago, the Department of culture ordered them from Aktobe sculptor Zhadygeru Kenbayu and Almaty artist Bahytzhanu Abishevu.  In addition, each summit participant will sign the emblem of the forum.  Among the guests will be the vice-chairman of Sberbank of Russia, representatives of Gazprom, Uralsktali, and the Siberian Research Institute.

Гостям подарят бюсты

Алия Турниязова

Выпуск № 38 (763) от 18.09.2008

До начала 5 форума приграничных регионов Казахстана и России осталось 4 дня. 21-22 сентября в Актобе приезжают президенты Казахстана и России, министры двух стран, российские губернаторы и мэры Москвы и Санкт-Петербурга.

Программа примерно такова: презентация аэропорта, открытие церкви, мечети и супердетсада в 12 микрорайоне, форум предпринимателей, торгово-промышленная выставка и непосредственно форум глав государств. Возможен вылет гостей в Хромтау. Сценарием встречи глав государств уже несколько дней занимается бригада специалистов по протоколу высоких встреч. Ходят слухи, что вместе с президентом России приедет и премьер Владимир Путин. Но в областном акимате эту информацию не подтвердили.

Участники саммита начинают прибывать заранее, например представители Челябинского тракторного завода 19 сентября. Они примут участие в промышленной выставке, которая пройдет 22 сентября во Дворце спорта «Коныс». Открытие нового аэропорта планируется 21 сентября. В среду там одновременно работали несколько бригад, запускали электронные табло в залах. Дорогу в аэропорт украсили разноцветными флагами, установили световую арку.

Актюбинские гостиницы уже несколько дней не принимают посетителей – все номера забронированы для участников саммита. Некоторые гости просили пятизвездочные отели, но, увы, с ними у нас напряженка. Мы узнали, что для гостей попроще пришлось освободить даже комнаты в студенческих общежитиях.

Известно, что официально губернаторам и другим гостям организаторы форума подарят на память скульптурные бюсты народного героя Кобланды батыра и Алии Молдагуловой. Два месяца назад департамент культуры заказал их актюбинскому скульптору Жадыгеру Кенбаю и алматинскому художнику Бахытжану Абишеву. Кроме того, каждому участнику саммита достанется значок с эмблемой форума. Известно, что среди гостей – зам­пред «Сбербанка России», представители «Газпрома», «Уральскстали», Сибирского научного института.

Bringing It Home: Family, SCATing, and Translating Basics

The Magical Marvelous Mysterious City: Astana

Our planned early morning flight to Astana was rescheduled to the afternoon as of two days before.  We still decided to get to the airport with solid cushion just in case it was changed again.  All of our other flights were on Air Astana, a comfortable airline that I prefer over any American company.  This flight was on SCAT.  SCAT operates like it sounds.  They fly what look like old Soviet planes, the listed time schedule is in erasable marker, and no one at the airport really seemed to have a good idea what exactly was going on.

I asked the cashier at the airport (as the “Help” counter was closed), when the plane would be arriving.  She said it might be coming at 1:30, with a notable lack of confidence in her voice.  Apparently, no one knew exactly when it would be arriving or where it was, but that hopefully it would arrive in the afternoon.  Good.  It got there eventually and once we boarded at around 2:30, the flight was fine.  The company is clearly not as warm as Air Astana, but we got there and the wings only slightly flapped.

We stepped up to a nice hotel in Astana, the Grand Park Esil, right in the center of the old side of town and near the river.  We relaxed in our fresh A/C and then met another friend for dinner at a fun Kazakh restaurant down the street.  The next morning, we again took a trip out into the steppe, this time for a much flatter experience.  The road to Korghalzhin, the site of another PCV, Jessica, starts out smooth but as soon as the Astana city limit ends, reverts to traditional Kazakhstani road.  We did another home stay at a certified “guest house”.  This woman’s house was very nice and comfortable, with a nice indoor banya.

After getting settled, our guide into the steppe arrived for a day of bird watching, fishing, and steppe immersion.  This area is the northern-most habitat for flamingos.  We saw pink and white flamingos in Kazakhstan.  Then, when fishing later, we saw pelicans.  All of the birds were beautiful and this area contains a huge variety of species that flew right next to the car.  Our guide only spoke Russian and it was just he and my family.  As a result, I was the translator.  Unfortunately, my vocabulary of bird and nature knowledge is limited.  As my family later told me, he would talk for 5 or 10 minutes.  Then, I would turn around and say something like, “There are a great variety of bird species here”.  Presumably understanding I didn’t fully translate what he said, our guide would turn back to me and list the bird species in Russian.  I would then relate those names to my family – in Russian.  Apparently, that wasn’t incredibly helpful.  I found his information really interesting, it was simply finding the right words in English that was the problem, not the initial understanding.  Overall, however, I think I was able to impart a good amount of what he said and we all got something out of it.

After our bird tour, we arrived at the fishery.  The original plan was apparently to have arrived at noon.  When we got there at 2:30, the fishery men were not so amused.  After some argument between them and our guide, a friend of theirs, they made new fresh fried fish and we had the most tastiest lunch yet.  Then, an afternoon of fishing and a small motorboat ride through the river and lakes.  From there, back to the village, dinner at our guesthouse, and sleep.

The next morning, Jessica took us on a tour of her small town.  Years ago, it had a rather large population, particularly being the regional center.  However, after the Soviet Union fell and collective and government supported farming was dropped from the national repertoire, about 60% of the population left.  As a result, the floor plan of the town is rather large.  Sadly, a large portion of the buildings are abandoned, falling down, and the town has the feeling of a young boy wearing his father’s much-to-large old suit.  However, the government is investing a lot of money in the nature reserves and museums in their “host” towns.  So, a huge and beautiful office and museum is almost completed.  Hopefully, this building will be a draw for tourists and start to rejuvenate the local economy.  After our tour, we traveled back to Astana for an afternoon of big city touring in the magical mystery world of Kazakhstan’s capital and dinner at a tasty Russian restaurant near the hotel.

Home Sweet Home: Aktobe

The next morning we jumped on an early flight to Aktobe.  The time change is great, as we departed Astana at 8:10 and arrived in Aktobe at 8:50.  We stayed with my host family, which was absolutely wonderful.  It was very nice to have my two families under one roof and getting to know each other.  My host family has been so important to me over these past months that the opportunity for my family and my host family to spend time together meant a lot.

The first day was spent walking around the city, going to the city museum (and getting not subtly trailed by an older woman docent after my sister tried to slyly take a few pictures), and doing laundry.  We passed out pretty early that night, after a wonderful welcome dinner with my host family and Jennie, the other PCV in Aktobe.

The next day went horseback riding in the morning and then to visit my office in the afternoon.  We rode at Tau, where we have been doing the hippotherapy for disabled children.  Instead of riding in the arena, however, we went up into the mountains.  Due to my father’s broken shoulder, only my mom, sister, and I rode.  While Tau had enough horses for us, they did not have enough saddles.  So, I rode bareback on a horse that only wanted to run.  My thighs were still sore three days later.  After not falling off, though almost sliding off when trying to go downhill after our quick upward climb, we switched the saddles.  I took the smaller horse bareback, and my runner got a saddle and Zara rode him.  After a while, my mom and I switched, she rode back bareback on the small horse, Boy, and Zara and I galloped up into the mountains on our horses.

My organization completely surprised all of us by having a welcome show prepared.  They had invited a dombra player and singer, a newspaper reporter, photographer, and a number of people I have worked with to meet my family.  It was beautiful.  After our interview, we went to lunch at Kurulai’s apartment, then to the American Corner for English Club, and then to an early dinner at a traditional Kazakh restaurant behind the mosque with Kurulai and a few co-workers (for more beshparmak, though with cutlery for all this time, and shubat, camel milk).  English Club was a scavenger hunt that day.  But, before the students went on the prowl, they sang “Happy Birthday” to my father in English and Russian.  After dinner number one, we joined my host family for a later birthday dinner for my father at home.

The next day we decided to take it easy.  Instead of our original idea of another steppe excursion, we walked around, went to the bazaar with some local friends, and relaxed in the afternoon.  We then went to a very tasty (and only) Japanese restaurant in Aktobe with my host family for one last dinner.  It was particularly meaningful as this was the restaurant where we went for my birthday this past year.  After a tearful chai and goodbye, we had a last good night’s sleep in Aktobe.

Return to the Beginning: Almaty Remix

The next morning, Saturday, we all headed back to Almaty.  Since it’s so hard to say goodbye, I joined my family in Almaty for the day and then returned back to Aktobe on Monday morning in time to get back to work after so long away.  For our last night, we stepped up to a nice hotel in the center, the Tien Shan Grand Hotel.  When I booked the hotel a few days earlier, the reservation desk was startled that we wanted to fit four people in one Deluxe Queen room.  We thought that there would be enough space, thinking there was a couch, space for a cot, and a queen size bed; how could that not be enough space for four people?  When we arrived to our room, we realized the reason for their exclamation: no couch in the room.  Regardless, we stuck with the room, and there was still more than enough space for four of us, as we had extra linens and made up a makeshift bed with the futon and comfy chairs for me.  It was a better bed than a lot of other Kazakhstani sleeping arrangements.

Earlier in the day, we went to the Museum of Musical Instruments and had a private concert on a number of traditional Kazakh instruments.  Saturday was wedding day.  In the big park, in front of the Orthodox Church and Memorial for Fallen Soldiers, were probably over 15 wedding parties.  They took pictures, played some games, and placed flowers at the eternal flame.  It was really pretty, though there were definitely some brides and grooms who were not as comfortable with the public photography as others.

4 AM the next morning we woke-up and headed to the airport at 5.  It was really sad to say goodbye to my family after spending a very full two weeks together.  After saying goodbye, hugging, and kissing, I left the airport quickly to not start crying a puddle in the middle of the large crowd of people there.  Thank you family for coming, it was amazing.

For anyone interested in their own tour of Kazakhstan, please be in touch, while it’s tough to get here, trips are fun.  Pictures are on my facebook page.

More Cups of Tea, Plates of Meat, and Lack of Sleep Than I Can Count: My Family Arrives!

Family Reunion: Almaty

My family arrived at 5 AM.  We went back to the apartment to take a short nap.  They liked to say that I let them sleep an hour after we got to the apartment.  That is not true; I gave them a solid hour and a half.

After that long sleep, we walked around the city, starting Panfilov Park and the Green Bazaar.  Four days before, I had been on the same path with the Tufts students, this was like round two.  Particularly with my family, it felt as if I were sharing a story with them.  They had read and heard so much about this place and now were there and it was new for them, but part of my relatively regular spectrum of activities.  From the Green Bazaar, we went to the Peace Corps office and met Victor, the PC doctor.  Then, back to the center and lunch with Sherali at a tasty little place across from the Bazaar.  We walked the same street back and forth from our apartment to the bazaar so many times that day that they knew it as well as Maple and Orchard.  Then, an afternoon siesta.  I really wanted to visit Bayan in Talgar, but we were unable to get in touch.  After the afternoon siesta, we went to Glen Pub for dinner.  A wonderful Scottish restaurant in the middle of Kazakhstan.  It makes perfect sense.  The lamb chops were great, though I particularly liked the horse goulash.

The next day, we started with seeing the Jewish community offices and meeting with members of the Jewish community.  After our brief Jewish tour and a review of my last week, with much cooler temperatures, we hiked Medeu and drove up to Chimbulak.  We decided to eat lunch before heading up to the glacier but when we finished lunch it was raining and the temperature had dropped to 11C.  Chimbulak is a ski resort up in the mountains, but 11C is still really cold, especially when three of us were wearing shorts and t-shirts.  We manage to grab a taxi on its way down, who took us all the way to our apartment across town, avoiding more rain.

That night we met my friend Diana for dinner and an evening tour of the city.  She took us to a wonderful Uzbek restaurant.  It was a whole dance, song, and acrobatic show.  We ate in traditional Uzbek robes, watching a high wire act, and lots of singing and dancing.  I liked the girl dancing with a goat carcass, followed up by a guy jump-roping on a high-wire without any safety.  The plouf and shashlich complimented the show well.  The nighttime tour of Almaty was beautiful after dinner, although I think the 10-hour time change definitely started to catch-up with them.

The next day was our first “out-of-city” experience: Charyn Canyon.  Kazakhstanis bill it as their “Grand Canyon”.  While not as large as our chasm of the States, the Kazakhstani version is absolutely stunning.  The silence adds to the beauty.  Only around 250 km outside of Almaty but barely any other tourists walking through the canyon.  My friend Alina arranged the minibus and we went to the canyon with some of her volunteers from her volunteer center and some friends from Almaty.  One of them, Rustan, had been to the canyon many times.  He was sitting in the back of the bus and as we got closer to the canyon, we passed a sign noting “Dangerous For Life”.  This seemed like a good sign, particularly as we could not see over the next hill of the road.  We all thought, including Rustan, that the driver would slow down.  He did not.  After a stressful five more minutes of driving, we stopped a couple meters from the edge of a big drop.  Beautiful.

After a solid hike through the canyon and no one falling off the unguarded edge, we had a nice classic Kazakhstani picnic lunch: chicken, potatoes, nuts, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, water, and more.  There are a few main differences between how KZ national parks are managed and the American version.  In America, there are guardrails along the edge of cliffs.  There are usually lots of signs detailing the danger of getting to close to the edge.  There would be a ranger station at the entrance with a high entrance fee and rangers who can answer questions.  And lots of tourists.

In Kazakhstan, guardrails are as elusive as a Starbucks in the steppe.  There are signs, but not nearly as many in the States, and with much less instructive information.  The entrance to the park was “guarded” by a building that looked to have less sturdy walls than a Dodge Neon and with two guys in military fatigues who did not seem to be brimming with knowledge about the park.  The entrance cost was around $2.00 per person.  There were less tourists at Charyn while we were there than students on a slow day of a senior seminar.  I loved it.  That evening we had dinner at “Kosher”, the first Kosher restaurant in Central Asia – very tasty and apparently growing in popularity among the general community.

Arbus and Kumis: Shymkent

The next day we took an early flight to Shymkent.  Fortunately, our Southern apartment had air conditioning and, unlike our Almaty apartment, there was a vent in the bathroom so it didn’t turn into a sauna every time you closed the door.  After getting settled, we found our way to Turkestan, one of the holiest Muslim sites.  Kazakhstani and Central Asian Muslims consider three pilgrimages to Turkestan to equal one Hajj to Mecca.  In Turkestan is buried a holy Suffi sage in a huge and grand mausoleum built by Timur.

There are multiple ways to get to Turkestan from Shymkent: taxi, bus, marshutka (minibus), or train.  We opted to take a marshutka there, especially only being a two-hour ride.  I thought it would be a good experience for us to experience this common mode of transportation.  We managed to find one that was just getting full.  My parents and sister got the three seats in the back and I struggled to retain my aisle seat right in front of them.  A father and his 3 or 4 year old daughter on his lap sat next to me in the window seat.  They started off quiet and uninterested in me.  Then, about 30 minutes into the ride, we shared our gum with them.  After the father handed a half piece to his daughter, it started.  The tickling did not stop for another hour and a half.

She immediately exploded.  All I tried to do was protect myself without hurting her.  I would have tickled her back, but she had the unfair advantage of sitting on her father’s lap.  If I tickled her, we were all so close that I would basically be tickling her father as well – and I did not want two against one.  The whole time, he just sat there, smiling shyly to himself.  I am sure he was more than happy that his daughter found another preoccupation after finishing her ice cream rather than him having to entertain her.  Finally, she stopped.  I turned around to talk to my family and suddenly hands are again jutting to my sides and all over my face.  It apparently is particularly fun to stick one’s hands in someone else’s face and try to get them in their mouth, after failing to win sunglasses and a hat.  We took a taxi for the way back.

The next day we traveled to Aksu-Jabagly to spend two nights in a small village.  Danny, another PCV, arranged the home stay with his old host family, as well as our excursion into the Natural Reserve, a particularly difficult feat.  Kazakhstan has an extensive system of natural reserves that are generally closed to the public.  These reserves are in place for conservation purposes with only limited opportunity to hike into them.  Yet, the government is also trying to encourage more natural tourism.  It’s an interesting dynamic and one we saw first hand.  To get into the reserve (zapovednik in Russian), we needed direct permission from the Director of the zapovednik.  Danny had arranged it all ahead of time, but even with that, there were issues.  The Director told us we would have to take a local guide with us, even though our “guide” only went to the reserve maybe once a year.  Then the Director informed Danny that he would have to pay.  Then the Assistant Director told Danny he could not come with us.  Then, the Director changed his mind and told us Danny could go for free and could come.  In our small off-road jeep, we fit 7: the driver, my dad in the front, 4 in the back, and me in the narrow jeep trunk with the arbus and dina (watermelons and melons).  The hour bumpy, hilly drive wasn’t too bad, especially because we stopped at a small village on the way up the mountain.

The village has a population of likely only around 200 people.  In the winter, the only way to get out is by horse, if they can even make it through the snow.  We delivered the fruit and were then invited in for kumis and nan.  Fresh horse milk, fresh bread, and a fresh milk cream for the bread.  We were invited in to sit around a low table and the hostess brought in the bucket of kumis.  Asking for a small amount of kumis didn’t accomplish anything, our hostess served each of us a full cup of the horse milk.  While we drank, she scooped and churned the milk.  Kumis lasts for about a day; it tasted fresh.  Our driver explained it as the “Kazakh beer” and the dried yogurt and salt balls curt as the “Kazakh beer peanuts”, due to the alcohol in the kumis from fermentation.  It was very comfortable to hear our driver explain about the alcohol content in the kumis as he’s drinking his second cup of “Kazakh beer” and we still have to drive the rest of the way up the twisty road on the mountain.

The zapovednik is beautiful and the challenges to get there were definitely worth it.  A much different canyon from Charyn, nobody besides us, and absolutely stunning.  Our host family in Aksu-Jabagly was wonderful.  The food was very tasty and they were very kind.  The last night in the village, we all had dinner together: beshparmak with kanina.  After a few days in Kazakhstan, we all agreed horsemeat is the tastiest.  As is traditional for beshparmak, my sister and I ate the oily noodles, onions, and meat with our hands.  My parents decided to retain their cutlery.

We returned to Shymkent the next morning and took the cross-town bus to go to a big bazaar on the outskirts of the city to go souvenir shopping with one of my local friends as a guide.  On the way back, my mom was confronted with a conversation about the Iraq War from the guy sitting next to her, in Russian.  She seemed to think it strange that he continued to talk to her in Russian after she clearly did not understand.  As I’ve learned, total language barriers are no barrier to international relations and foreign policy discussions.

The Last Month: Shalom Almaty!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Aktobe

Aktobe Shock

The shock of returning to Aktobe after almost a month of traveling around Kazakhstan and volunteering in Almaty felt even stronger than when I first arrived in Aktobe.  The last two weeks I toured around the country with my family.  The week and a half prior to that, I spent in Almaty staffing a trip from Tufts University Hillel, working together with Almaty Jewish university students.  Boarding the bus on Monday back here at home was jolting.

While my family took the city bus to go to the big bazaar in the outskirts of Shymkent, the last month of no rush hour bus wrestling clearly impacted my capacity for aggressive boarding.  I stood with the crowd boarding Bus #1, then quickly stepped out of the way of the crushing wave of morning travelers getting on colliding with those trying to get off the bus.  It turned out to be a good move.  Waiting another three minutes cleared the bus and I got a peaceful back of the bus seat.

There’s a lot to cover from the past month, so I’ll start with the Jewish trip and work forward from there.

Where Volunteerism, Judaism, and Social Services Collide

I landed in Almaty July 21st to begin almost a month of adventuring around Kazakhstan.  About two months ago, a friend from the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint), called me to find out more information about Kazakhstan for a new Tufts Hillel trip to Kazakhstan in late July.  I had participated on a similar trip to Kharkov, Ukraine, the first university trip to the former Soviet Union with the Joint, a few years ago, so in addition to KZ, I had a little experience with the type of program.  The trip would bring 20 American university students to Almaty to do community service with Kazakhstani Jewish students while building global Jewish peoplehood.  The idea sounded wonderful and coincided with my work, a Peace Corps meeting, and my family’s trip to KZ, so I volunteered to come down and help out.

The first three days were pre-planning.  The trip coordinator, Naomi, and I met with the various KZ organizers who she had been working with for months, saw examples of homes of the elderly whom the students would be visiting, began our Almaty taste-fest, and started to get a feel for the Almaty Jewish community.  I ended up translating a lot from Russian to English and reverse.  I’d been speaking and working in Russian for almost a year, but hadn’t had to translate this intensely and over the course of three days.  My head hurt the end of each day, but it was wonderful. Needing to translate was really good for language.  Thank you Sherali.

Our hotel, Zhetysu, had a great location, right near one of the main pedestrian streets.  The hotel also tried to be convenient in other ways.  In classic Soviet style, you register every time you enter and leave on your floor and check your heavy metal key.  Additionally, ten minutes after checking in every evening, I would get a call asking if I spoke English.  “Yes”.  This was followed by “Do you want a girl?”  “No thank you.”  “Are you sure?” Hang-up.  Regardless of what time I arrived, the call was waiting.

Then the students arrived.  The plane ride had apparently been quite the experience, with a Jewish tour of Kiev before arriving in Almaty.  Then, the Ukraine-KZ flight experienced some power issues, sitting on the runway for a few hours as the lights flickered on and off.  It was good preparation for KZ.

After the students arrived, Naomi and I moved out of our classy hotel and up into a sanatorium, “Ak Kain”, in the brisk mountain air.  The air was considerably cooler and fresher than down in Almaty’s pollution valley.  It also rained the first two or three days.  This was a nice change of weather from stuffy city living, except that I only brought one long-sleeve shirt as I expected hot weather the entire time.  Fortunately, it’s a nice shirt as I’m wearing the shirt in a lot of pictures.

During Soviet times, “Ak Kain” was a sanatorium for sick people, then it was relatively recently renovated as a vacation area and campsite.  We stayed in cabins; the Americans and Kazakhstanis living together in each cabin.  Then, the staff had their own cabin on the top of the hill.  The parking lot just outside our cabin also hosted the nightly dance parties and Shashlich fest.  Prime real estate.

This was the Joint’s first university trip to Kazakhstan and the first time the Kazakhstani Jewish community has done anything of this nature.  A lot of planning went into it and a lot continued over the week.  There were three American staff: Naomi (Joint), Ethan (Tufts Hillel), and me.  A team also managed the trip from the KZ side: Galina (Joint), Inessa (JCC), and Vika (JCC).  We also worked with the Hesed Director to arrange the home care visits (the community service component), various other community leaders for different activities, and the head of the Jewish community and President of the Mitzvah Association (the umbrella Jewish community organization in KZ), Alexander Baron.

Unlike my trip experiences with the Uruguayan and Ukrainian Jewish communities (though possibly because I was on the staff side here), the entire Jewish community, from the top leadership to volunteers was on hand for a large portion of the trip and it was easy to see the importance of this trip to the community.  This must have been one of the largest (if not the largest) groups of American Jews coming to KZ in its history, and the only group of students that has come for this type of program.

I saw the trip as having two main goals: (1) building global Jewish peoplehood, and (2) community service.  The friendships and connections made between the students and that I made are incredibly important.  Additionally, the increased understanding of the Jewish communities and of different countries is vital as a window to understand the world.  Unlike a few years ago, now all of the participants have Internet access.  Internet means Facebook and translation programs.  While Facebook isn’t as popular in KZ as in the States (they tend to use vkontakte, Moi Mir, and Odeenclassniki here), it’s easy to sign-up and can provide easier, faster, and more colorful interactions across the world.  Within a day of returning home, it seems that all of the Tufts students had already friended each other and the Kazakhstanis and within two days, all of the Kazakhstanis not previously on Facebook signed-up.

The community service consisted of visiting and working at the homes of elderly Jews in Almaty.  We cleaned, organized, ate, and provided company.  Americans and KZs working together.  Hesed sends home care workers to each of the clients we visited (along with many more) multiple times a week, and these home care workers were with the client when we were there.  We worked for three days, about four hours each, eight groups of four to six people each day.

I visited three women.  In the first apartment, small and well maintained, we cleaned everywhere.  The amount of dust, grime, and dirt took hours to get through.  Then, we spent some time talking with her.  But, she was hard of hearing and the conversation was very difficult.

The second woman’s place was an old house near the bus station.  No running water (it had to be fetched from a pump 30 seconds away), and an outdoor toilet.  There was the house proper, a covered outdoor area, then a back area that included a toilet, overgrown garden, and a good deal of shed space (with the roof looking like it would collapse soon over part of it).  We reorganized the back shed space so it looked cleaner, clipped down the prickly trees, installed new dividers between sections of the property (new big blue heavy tarps), cleaned the house, organized the covered outdoor area, and installed a new, clean toilet seat (and tarp cover).  The woman was wonderful, so friendly, fed us watermelon, and it was incredibly sad how bad of a condition her house was in.

The third woman I worked with had a beautiful apartment.  She used to be an internal medicine doctor and volunteered at Hesed following retirement, but then got cancer.  Since then, she has had so much difficulty even moving around the apartment.  Despite her health, however, she had chai with us and we talked for a while.

This aspect of the trip clarified a few issues of the Jewish community in Almaty.  The community does a lot to help the elderly, both those halachically Jewish and those connected with Judaism through a spouse or family history.  There are a lot of poor Jews and poor people in general, in Almaty.  Especially in Almaty, it’s easy to not see poverty.  New Porsches, Mercedes, Hummers, Bentleys, and BMWs provide a nice mask over the lack of running water, minimal heating, poor medical treatment, and lonely elderly.  One block you have the tastiest hot chocolate I have ever had and the block over is an 80-year-old man living alone, with no family to care for him, and difficulty paying for necessary medicine and food.

The week included lots of time for everyone to get to know each other, learn about the country and the community, eat shashlich, and build ladders over language barriers.  Fortunately, a good number of the Kazakhstani students spoke very good English, making my translation work much easier, especially as there were lots of new words last week, particularly those related to religious discussions and astronomy.

Then the students left and I had some Peace Corps meetings.  This was the first time since PST last August to November that I had been with so many Americans and in such a close environment where I needed to say goodbye.  They were all great, the USers and KZies – it was a tough goodbye and I still miss them.  At least I have had the chance to hang out with and get to know better some of the Kazakhstanis while I had more time in Almaty.

After a day of Peace Corps meetings, my family arrived on Sunday, August 3.  Two days in one week I had to be at the airport at 5 AM.  I love the Almaty airport and the road to the airport is beautiful.  There are as many car dealerships along from the city to the airport as on Orchard Lake Road and more SUVs in Almaty then in Detroit.