As I've solidified my work at my primary assignment, I'm beginning to concentrate on getting more involved in the community. There are a lot of interesting and nice people in Esik, and I would like to meet them and work with them. Currently, most of my community interaction is through sports with kids. Soccer is a given, but I also play basketball at the local high school. My jump shot is garbage, but I've dusted off the rust and I'm racking up assists and steals like this guy. Although it's useful, Russian isn't a requirement for meeting people in Esik. There are also a lot of English speakers in the area and also an ex-pat community.
While I've gotten pretty good at identifying community needs, it usually takes me awhile to start community projects because of my personality. I'm a quiet person, not really outgoing, kind of awkward, and it takes me awhile to open up to people. It also takes time for people to get to know me. Combined with talking in a different language, it can take me a long time to find the right people to work with. It was about half a year before I started a community project at my first site. Knowing that I have about a year left in Kazakhstan, I can't afford to wait like that again. It is my goal to start or maintain some sort of community project in the next two weeks. It could be an English club for kids, helping out another NGO, or something else. I don't have a concrete idea but there is so much to do here.
I'm not the only one who believes this. Since I've moved here, I've been sharing Esik with the newest group of trainees, called the Kaz-21s. Most of the time I tried to minimize my interaction with them because they are terribly busy with training, I don't like big groups, and I felt like they needed to learn about Esik and Kazakhstan on their own. I'm a big fan of self-learning and besides, I didn't want to ruin their fun! However, because my primary assignment also doubled as a training organization, I had the chance to see many of the Kaz-21s in action in a work setting. They created a survey for my organization, a survey that we've adapted to use to learn about the needs of youth in Esik. They have also taught English, worked with several NGOs in the area, and played a lot of soccer and basketball. They have done a lot, but I worry about what will happen to some of the projects they have set up and people they have worked with when they move on. I know that I will try and take a couple projects, do what I can, but I know that some of their projects and ideas will end with their departure.
And the Kaz 21s? I like them and have been very impressed with them, both professionally and personally. On average they have more life and work experience than my group, the Kaz 20s. Some have work experience that doubles my age. Their group also includes some wicked talented Russian speakers, many world travelers, and a person that is doing a second tour as a volunteer. On average they are older than my group and are more diverse in all senses of the word. When I first met them, I was a little bit intimidated of their collective experience and skills. However, they are very nice, professional, and I think they'll do some awesome stuff in Kazakhstan. I hope their future organizations and schools will realize what talent and dedication they have and work with them.
Some of them have blogs of their own, and I'd recommend checking them out:
1 comment:
Thanks for the shout-out Kyle ;) You are pretty baller indeed...esp. with the new overly-bouncy "TEAM USA" monstrosity, free of all tape, glue and white-out ghettoness.
Btw that camp needs to happen, post-January. I'm counting on you! :D
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