Although I found a power cord that worked for my laptop, this month has been the hardest communication-wise. This was because August turned into the "month of travel". Several posts ago, I lamented that I wasn't getting out enough. After being away from Karabulak for more than 3 weeks, I think I've fixed that. Traveling wasn't all fun and games. I helped an English camp, translated a letter of intent for an NGO, and taught the basics of marketing to some college students.
Because this post is very long, I've broken it into two parts so that it uploads faster. Dial up can be a pain, but it's better than nothing at all.
The first place I went was the large town/small city (depends on whom you ask) called Tekeli which is about 30km from Karabulak and about 50km from Taldykorgan. Because it's so close to Taldykorgan/Karabulak I've become very familiar with this town. Tekeli is one of my favorite places because it has a pretty location at the edge of the mountains and the people are very kind. I went to help out with an English language camp called "Bastay". The camp was in an awesome place up in the mountains and had beautiful weather and plenty of hiking opportunities.
As for the camp itself, I enjoyed the kids and my time there. Bastay is a young camp and the teachers were inexperienced with enforcing camp rules and discipline. They are teachers, brilliant teachers, but teaching is different from running a camp. While they did a great job with what they could, I think the whole camp can be even better. Regardless, the teachers turned counselors and the director are willing to listen to new ideas, and I believe that Bastay has the potential to be a premier language camp in the region in addition to its already successful language school for students in the Taldykorgan area. Next year I plan on helping out again.
Many of the kids at the camp were amazing. I had a great time helping kids with their English, helping them write things, and just generally hanging out. There was one incident that I'll never forget. On the last day, one miscreant attempted to put toothpaste in my hair. He was an idiot, or new to pranks, or both; his timing was horrible (I was awake and reading a book). I confiscated his toothpaste, yelled at him in Russian and English and sent him on his way. However, I wasn't done. The next day, I returned his toothpaste in front of his family and explained to him that toothpaste is only for teeth and not for hair. His folks didn't seem very pleased with him. I hope the kid had an awkward ride home.
Let this be a warning for the future pranksters at the camps I will be attending next summer: don't try me. I'll crush you. J
Halfway through the Bastay camp, I left to go to Ecik. This was the training town for OCAP Kaz 20. I've always had a fond spot for the large town and I will be spending a considerable amount of time there in the future. I'll write more about this later.
In Ecik, I went to a fundraising event sponsored by a local NGO called the Local Community Foundation (LCF). When I learned that the fundraiser was an auction, I was very curious. While auctions are popular events in America, I've never seen or heard of an auction occurring in Kazakhstan. People bargain all of the time (my new hobby), but I wasn't sure how shouting for a higher price instead of a lower one would be received.
In the end, it went better than I thought. I started the bidding on a couple of items because nobody else would (a very risky strategy for a PC volunteer with only food money in his pocket), but once people got the hang of it everything went well. I spent the next day hanging out with a volunteer close by and helping out the LCF with writing a letter of intent for a grant they were seeking. I left midmorning the next day to go back to camp by taking a bus to Almaty, and then a taxi to Taldykorgan and a bus back to Tekeli.
The road to Tekeli from Taldykorgan goes through Karabulak and because of this I was able to stop at my host family to grab my dress shoes; a critical item for my next stop, Ust-Kamegorsk. However, getting to Ust-Kamengorsk would be a very different experience. Up to this point, whenever I have moved around Kazakhstan and Central Asia, I had done so by bus, marshuka (very big van), on foot, or taxi. Ust-Kamengorsk is over 1000km north from Taldykorgan, or in other words, a very long way. I had two choices to get there: A 20 hour bus ride from Taldykorgan, or a 15 hour train ride. I opted for the train.
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