All Peace Corps Volunteers (including myself) left Kazakhstan the last week in November. In mid-Nov, all volunteers received a phone call from our kazakh managers telling us the Kaz program was being closed and we had one week to say goodbye to our friends and family, finish any running projects, and pack all our things.
I was in disbelief and it did not seem real that all of us would really have to leave our schools and towns. It was very difficult to say goodbye to everyone especially since volunteers had been working in Ust-Kamenogorsk since 1995. I wrote this in next sentence in an email to friends shortly after I found out about us leaving "I am devastated, upset, and sad like many people here in Kazakhstan. Basically we have been told that in 7 days we have to say goodbye to many friends and coworkers we may never see again. "
I still had about a year left in my scheduled 27 month service. Peace Corps has given us the option to re-enroll in another program in another country. But at this point it is something I am not interested in for personal reasons.
Right now the Kazakhstan program is currently "suspended" so it is possible for Peace Corps to reopen like other countries have in the past. But Kazakhstan couldn't really open back up for at least one year.
Why? Is the question a lot of people ask. There are two big reasons: 1) Some elements of the Kazakhstan government did not want Peace Corps in their country. In the last year, those elements have grown stronger to the point where over the last 6 months it was very difficult for volunteers to work and live normal lives. 2) In the last year there was a spike in the number of sexual assaults against female volunteers. Nobody is really able to explain why this happened. For 18 years, volunteers worked in Kazakhstan without major problems, but then this past year a big number of female volunteers were attacked.
What I am doing next in my life? Well today I am going to get a Christmas tree with my family to celebrate my first Christmas at home since 2008.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Halloween-3 days of parties/events
On Saturday I had a small Halloween event at a university with 10 students. I did the event with another PCV. On Sunday I was part of a large halloween party with 50+ people at the local library. On Monday I ran and organized a halloween event for 30 students at a university by myself.
At most of the events there was a mummy wrap, bobbing for apples, and carving pumpkins plus some other activities including a pinata with candy
Mummy Wrap
Carving Pumpkin
everyone at the big library party
this halloween I was the Pajama Bandit!
At most of the events there was a mummy wrap, bobbing for apples, and carving pumpkins plus some other activities including a pinata with candy
Mummy Wrap
Carving Pumpkin
everyone at the big library party
this halloween I was the Pajama Bandit!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Photos from September and October 2011
In early September, Ust had an International Honey Festival! Two weeks later I was taking the train to Almaty and met 3 bee/honey managers who run a company in Ust. They were actually going to Almaty to take an airplane to Argentina for a honey convention there! no joke
Sean buying some honey
A few weeks later, I went on a excursion with teachers from my university to a place called Ak-Baur. It is a site where people lived a few thousand years ago about 20 miles outside the city. There are cave paintings, and some other astronomical devices in this area
guide showing cave paintings
lunch!
In the Ust-Kamenogorsk city square in front of the government building there was huge statue of Lenin. However, in 2009, Lenin was replaced by Abai(he is a Kazakh poet.)So now the Lenin statue now sits in a nearby park. I should remind you that this Lenin statue was atop a 25 foot stone foundation--making him look even bigger!
we went on a day work trip to a town a few hours from the city
a mural from inside the school
Here is the full gallery on my photo website. Link
Here is a photo from my 1st apartment. You can see what my apartment looks like in this gallery (6 photos)
Sean buying some honey
A few weeks later, I went on a excursion with teachers from my university to a place called Ak-Baur. It is a site where people lived a few thousand years ago about 20 miles outside the city. There are cave paintings, and some other astronomical devices in this area
guide showing cave paintings
lunch!
In the Ust-Kamenogorsk city square in front of the government building there was huge statue of Lenin. However, in 2009, Lenin was replaced by Abai(he is a Kazakh poet.)So now the Lenin statue now sits in a nearby park. I should remind you that this Lenin statue was atop a 25 foot stone foundation--making him look even bigger!
we went on a day work trip to a town a few hours from the city
a mural from inside the school
Here is the full gallery on my photo website. Link
Here is a photo from my 1st apartment. You can see what my apartment looks like in this gallery (6 photos)
Sunday, October 16, 2011
World Food Day #BAD11
Today, October 16th is World Food Day
World Food Day 2011 PSA
video link
Today is also Blog Action Day. every year "BAD" an issue and encourages people to all write about the same issue on the same day. In 2008 the topic was poverty. In 2009, the topic was climate change. In 2010, I didn't write a post! because I was in Peace Corps training and didn't have much free time or access to the internet.
Today I have 4 pictures of food taken in Kazakhstan in this most-recent summer. But most importantly today I will be leading the Pushkin Library discussion club for 20-40 people. Every week a different PCV picks a topic for an hour-long dicussion and today the topic will be FOOD.
at a korean restaurant
the dinner we cooked for my birthday
at a cafe---we were so surprised the chefs had the heart to do this, so we took a photo
picnic near some lakes outside of Ust
World Food Day 2011 PSA
video link
Today is also Blog Action Day. every year "BAD" an issue and encourages people to all write about the same issue on the same day. In 2008 the topic was poverty. In 2009, the topic was climate change. In 2010, I didn't write a post! because I was in Peace Corps training and didn't have much free time or access to the internet.
Today I have 4 pictures of food taken in Kazakhstan in this most-recent summer. But most importantly today I will be leading the Pushkin Library discussion club for 20-40 people. Every week a different PCV picks a topic for an hour-long dicussion and today the topic will be FOOD.
at a korean restaurant
the dinner we cooked for my birthday
at a cafe---we were so surprised the chefs had the heart to do this, so we took a photo
picnic near some lakes outside of Ust
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Summer Spent Traveling around Kazakhstan
My last few posts were from a month ago before I set off on my 3 week trip around Kazakhstan. This new photo gallery has been created with photo captions.
First Jenny and I took a 25 hour train and spent a week at a friend’s site. The nearby national park which people refer to as the “Switzerland of Kazakshtan” because it is so nice. I’ve never been to Switzerland so I can’t comment on this idea but it was a really nice place. It is 3 hours from the fancy city of Astana, so the idea that lots of rich families go there for the weekend. Almost everyone in Kazakhstan has heard of it and thinks that it is a wonderful place.
Next we went to Astana for the July 4th party at the USA Embassy which was awesome. The staff members of the embassy were very nice and hosted us in their apartments so we got to live like Americans on Independence Day. Also, Astana had a short fireworks display that night! Not for USA, but to signal the start of the 3-day holiday for the President’s birthday on July 6-which is also “Capital Day”. Here is some information about July 6 in Astana
Next we headed out to a PCV’s site that is in the middle of the steppe. The closest volunteer to him is 2 hours away and his town/village is very small. Outside his bedroom window is a chicken coop and a 10 minute walk and you find yourself in the steppe. With his youth organization we headed out farer into the countryside and camped next to a lake for his birthday. The youth camp is an annual event that is in its 4th year and involves actual tents and youth activities-like an American summer camp. We meet a Russian hermit who lives alone out there with a dog that has been named Hillary by the youth center director. The dog is named in honor of Hillary Clinton—in a good way, not in a bitchy way.
Then we took 2 shared taxis a few hours all the way to Petropavlovsk which is only 60 miles from the Russian border and very different than southern Kazakhstan. There we had a week of Russian-language learning camp organized by a PCV with 3 different teachers. After the camp, we took a 35 hour train ride back to Almaty.
First Jenny and I took a 25 hour train and spent a week at a friend’s site. The nearby national park which people refer to as the “Switzerland of Kazakshtan” because it is so nice. I’ve never been to Switzerland so I can’t comment on this idea but it was a really nice place. It is 3 hours from the fancy city of Astana, so the idea that lots of rich families go there for the weekend. Almost everyone in Kazakhstan has heard of it and thinks that it is a wonderful place.
Next we went to Astana for the July 4th party at the USA Embassy which was awesome. The staff members of the embassy were very nice and hosted us in their apartments so we got to live like Americans on Independence Day. Also, Astana had a short fireworks display that night! Not for USA, but to signal the start of the 3-day holiday for the President’s birthday on July 6-which is also “Capital Day”. Here is some information about July 6 in Astana
Next we headed out to a PCV’s site that is in the middle of the steppe. The closest volunteer to him is 2 hours away and his town/village is very small. Outside his bedroom window is a chicken coop and a 10 minute walk and you find yourself in the steppe. With his youth organization we headed out farer into the countryside and camped next to a lake for his birthday. The youth camp is an annual event that is in its 4th year and involves actual tents and youth activities-like an American summer camp. We meet a Russian hermit who lives alone out there with a dog that has been named Hillary by the youth center director. The dog is named in honor of Hillary Clinton—in a good way, not in a bitchy way.
Then we took 2 shared taxis a few hours all the way to Petropavlovsk which is only 60 miles from the Russian border and very different than southern Kazakhstan. There we had a week of Russian-language learning camp organized by a PCV with 3 different teachers. After the camp, we took a 35 hour train ride back to Almaty.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Matt's Presidential School Camp and Almaty
After the Kazakhstan World Series I spent the next week helping two teachers prepare an application for a program to teach at a university in America for 1 semester. The application was extremely long and required a curriculum vitae and a 3 page personal statement--all in english. Then a few PCVs were in Ust for training on how to write and complete a Small Project Assistance grant from USAID..... Next it was June 1st and summer.
The first two weeks of summer began on June 1st-which is "children's day" in Kazakhstan and a working holiday. Every morning at Matt's school there was a one hour lesson by a science teacher followed by PCVs English practice followed by lunch and then 2 hours of research/project time followed by sports.
The research project is to create a botanical garden. The school wanted one before the camp, so the aim of the camp was for the students to research and plan a garden for the school. There was about 80 kids broken up into 8 groups and each group had a different topic. I think the camp was very successful because the kids had a good time and their projects were well-done. "President school" in Kazakhstan are a new idea and this was the first ever summer camp in Kazakhstan at one of these schools. President schools have more resources available to them and students must score high in math, science, or english to gain entrance.
New Photos Here
One student working on the project
On Saturday the camp had a field trip on a boat on the lake above the Ust dam.
The second to last day of the camp was Matt's birthday!
The first two weeks of summer began on June 1st-which is "children's day" in Kazakhstan and a working holiday. Every morning at Matt's school there was a one hour lesson by a science teacher followed by PCVs English practice followed by lunch and then 2 hours of research/project time followed by sports.
The research project is to create a botanical garden. The school wanted one before the camp, so the aim of the camp was for the students to research and plan a garden for the school. There was about 80 kids broken up into 8 groups and each group had a different topic. I think the camp was very successful because the kids had a good time and their projects were well-done. "President school" in Kazakhstan are a new idea and this was the first ever summer camp in Kazakhstan at one of these schools. President schools have more resources available to them and students must score high in math, science, or english to gain entrance.
New Photos Here
One student working on the project
On Saturday the camp had a field trip on a boat on the lake above the Ust dam.
The second to last day of the camp was Matt's birthday!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Interesting New Photos
I have uploaded some older photos into a few random galleries in the Kazakhstan section of my website. Here are some of my favorites with links to their respective galleries.
From Almaty Gallery
Can you guess what this is? This is a place you can pay to have your teeth cleaned (just like in a dentist office)!!!!! It is located in a shopping mall right next to the big supermarket.
From Astana Gallery
this is the golden handprint of the President of Kaz. everyone puts their hand inside the print for this classic photo
From Almaty Gallery
From Spring gallery
From Summer gallery
From Almaty Gallery
Can you guess what this is? This is a place you can pay to have your teeth cleaned (just like in a dentist office)!!!!! It is located in a shopping mall right next to the big supermarket.
From Astana Gallery
this is the golden handprint of the President of Kaz. everyone puts their hand inside the print for this classic photo
From Almaty Gallery
From Spring gallery
From Summer gallery
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
