Crawling in the Dark

Since moving to Kazakhstan and to the town of Issyk, my life has settled into something like a routine. I wake up at 7am, eat breakfast and complain about getting up so early with my host mother and then trudge to Russian class at 8. We have non-stop Russian until 12:30. After Russian, I go back home and eat lunch with my host sister, and then go to technical sessions in the afternoon on safety, security, Kazakh culture, and how to work with NGO’s. You get the picture.

The view from my window

After all of the sessions, I go home, eat dinner, study Russian, watch a Turkish soap opera on TV with my host mom and sister, and then go to sleep around 10 I the same thing on every day except Sunday.

On the surface, the ability to have a routine has been great for my acclimation to the culture and language learning. However I’ve found myself as of late beginning to get restless under this routine, because training, living in Issyk, and PST are temporary things. Where will I go in Kazakhstan after training is done? I’ve always had a problem with being told what to do if I cannot see the bigger picture, or what role I have in creating the picture.

The people who run training as well as other volunteers have been extremely tight-lipped about letting any information slip. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but after spending a little under 2 of my 4 years in college as a pledge in various *secret* Fraternities and otherwise, having someone say, “you’ll find out later”, “we can’t tell you”, or some other roundabout answer doesn’t bother me as much.

I will find all of these things at what is called the “site naming ceremony, which from what I can gather, is just that: a ceremony where all of the trainees learn about the sites and organizations where they will be living and working for the next 2 years. Sometimes the site announcement ceremony sounds like some sort of induction to a secret club, just like in the movies. However Peace Corps is supported by the United States government and Congress and not by some college students looking for a laugh or inner truth, so I expect that there will be no capes, candles, goats or other animals, chanting, or any of the stuff on Old School.

Maybe I will be sent to North Kazakhstan, where it has already been below freezing since mid September. Perhaps I will end up in South Kazakhstan, in a Kazakh community (which would be funny, but not really because I only know 5 sentences in Kazakh). Maybe I will live to the west, on the steppe, or maybe I will be assigned in a small village close to Issyk and the relative safety of Almaty. I feel fine with all of those possibilities, because no matter where I go, I will have to adapt. Whether that is finding a warm coat, buckling down and learning Kazakh, or something else, I know I will have to make adjustments. Adjusting to what…that is the question.