More on Life in KZ

Jeepers, only a few days ago I was on the Internet. I’m feeling a bit spoiled, but I’m ok with that! And even though only a few days have passed… Each day brings a new adventure, so prepare to swim through some stories – don’t go and drown, alright?

Bell Day
September 1 is a huge day. Across the country, schools begin the school year with a morning full of festivities. Here in my village, children had prepared performances ranging from taekwondo to traditional Kazakh dances. We also were expected to perform. Being the talented group we are, we altered lyrics to “Free Falling”. (Let’s be honest… without Sid’s amazing musical talent, we would’ve been in trouble. He purchased a guitar in Almaty on Aug 31 and played the song with ease.) But I’m getting ahead of myself.

That day, my language group gathered for an hour of Russian before the ceremony began. When we went outside, where everything was to happen, the schoolyard (aka stadium) was filled with hundreds of people. Children and adults stood around the perimeter of a huge paved section. In the middle of them were two rows of chairs: one row for a few school administrators and another row just for us. Talk about front and center!

To begin, two different school staff spoke, followed by a parade of “seniors” leading in “kindergarteners”. (Labeled differently here, but you get the point.) Soon after on the agenda was handing the microphone over to us. Just as we began introducing ourselves, the rain came. Light enough for us to continue, but distracting enough to fluster us and others. We did belt out our song in the rain and watched an adorable girl ring a bell as she was carried in a big circle before ducking for cover. Sadly, the school doesn’t have an auditorium large enough to accommodate the group gathered. Thus, the rest of the ceremony was cancelled. We were disappointed, but have no fear- Kazakhs view rain as a sign of blessings on the upcoming academic year. (Good thing they start school during a rainy season. : )

More on Kazakh Life
We eat lots of ethnically Russian food, so it seems. I’m slowly learning the names of different dishes. Often there’s either potatoes or a type of pasta, with either vegetables or meat. And to have the best of both worlds, I’d describe one dish as potato ravioli (varenika). Sometimes the entrée is accompanied by a vegetable salad, which consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, and maybe some scallions. That’s mixed together with a mayonnaise-type sauce. And at every, every meal, there is bread. Often the whole “loaf” looks like a fluffy flatbread, about the size of a large pizza crust (called leepioshka). Pieces are torn or cut off and piled on a plate. During the meal, each person can take either a whole piece, or tear off a smaller piece to eat, leaving the rest on the center plate. Apparently, sometimes people will bite off a mouthful and replace the piece of bread to the center plate. Bread is rather sacred, so it cannot be wasted. Therefore, you take only what you are going to eat. I’ve heard this mindset comes from the lengthy and involved process necessary to make bread. Also, there have been times in their history when bread was difficult to acquire. So now, we get it all the time! It’s tasty, especially when it’s fresh and soft. More importantly, it seems to be agreeing with me so far. Thank goodness!

Power Outages
These past few days, electricity and water have been much less reliable. Thank the Lord, my timing has been great. Yesterday I had to go with my host sister to her parents’ apartment for a hot breakfast. (They’ve got a gas stove, which was still working.) When I came home from school, the water was back on, so I rushed to get some laundry done. As I was ringing out my last piece of clothing, the water and electricity went kaput. I left to play Ultimate Frisbee for a couple hours, and when I returned, we again had water and electricity. Thank God! I desperately needed a good bath and headed for the tub. I had been clean and dry for five minutes when we lost both water and electricity yet again. But hey- I did laundry and bathed in the midst of the off’s and on’s. Success!

Ultimate!
September 3, 2009. The date of our first game of Ultimate Frisbee in the “stadium” of the school. Johnny, a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) absolutely LOVES Ultimate. So, he mentioned it to a few PCTs that he wanted to play after school. That’s all it took to bring together 8 PCTs and dozens of school children. Thanks to Leah (current PCV in her 3rd year), the kids got basic rules of the game. Thus, team Pizza and team Cheeseburger were formed. (You’d never guess, but some PCTs already miss American cuisine.)

The game actually went really well! The kids were told to shout out their team name, so as to know who to throw to. Hearing kids yell out “pizza!” and “burger!” in Russian accents: adorable. Learning their actual names: impossible. Before, during, and after the game, kids came up to me and other volunteers, wanting to know our names and try out a bit of English. Being surrounded by youngsters was such fun. I must have asked the same children a dozen times what their names are. Yet, Acema is the only one I’ve semi-mastered. With her 10 years of wisdom, she grabbed my hand, opened up my palm, and wrote out her name before I could say otherwise.

As you may guess, the game turned out to be a wonderful way to hang out with a lot of kids. Building those relationships will be huge. I’m sure I’ll recognize that truth more and more as the weeks wear on.

Randomness
I’ve gone jogging once and ran by a harvested wheat field! I got all excited and felt a little like I was at home. Good stuff. I and my co-PCTs have begun observing classes at the school. There may be more on that to come. The differences between a classroom in the US and Kazakhstan are pretty freaking huge. On September 5, my Russian language group and I had our first Kazakh lesson. We’re supposed to focus on Russian and develop survival skills in Kazakh. Oh boy. Also on the fifth, we were taken into Almaty. With that done, we’re free to travel on public transportation between cities. Question is, with our new-found freedom, will we get ourselves lost in the middle of Kazakh steppe?

Oh my! I almost forgot! For those of you who haven’t yet drowned, here’s my best explanation of a banya. A banya is a building, separate from the house. It’s got two rooms, one in which to undress and one in which to bathe. In the bathing room, there are a few containers of water. Two are large containers, one holding cold water, the other holding hot. The container of hot water is part of a contraption under which they build a fire, with the fire being contained outside of the building. (Genius.) The result: super hot water, which in turn heats up this tiny bathing room. Using another container and a pitcher, you combine some of the cold water with the hot water. Again using the pitcher, you dump water on yourself, lather up, and rinse off. Now, this is often done in groups. In that scenario, people may hit each other with a bundle of small branches. My strong preference is banyaing alone, so I can’t say more about the branch bit. I do know banyas can get awfully hot. The idea is to sweat toxins out of your body. For people like me who despise sweating immediately after showering, this holds zero appeal. Also, heating up the banya is quite the ordeal, and is therefore typically done only once a week. For many families, this is their only method of really getting clean. Mmm, showering on a weekly basis… I’ll stick to my tub, thanks.