Chain Chomp and Northern Exposure (Kostanai)

Happy 2010! I wish I had an awesome story about New Years, but I don’t. I went to bed at 10pm and not even the neighbors lighting off fireworks and screaming “Happy New Year!” in the streets could wake me up. This is because on the next day, a fellow volunteer and I hopped on a northbound train from Almaty. Our destination: Kostanai, a city in northern Kazakhstan about 250km from Russia.

We went to help out a volunteer at her school with a winter camp. The camp was focused around learning about new cultures. I gave presentations on Jamaica and Ireland. The kids learned about the game of cricket, hurricanes, the Blue Mountains, and Bob Marley. I think my godmother would approve.

Presentation on Jamaica

We also showed how to build piñatas, a two day activity that everyone loved. The model piñata was called “Chomp” (after the Chain Chomp from Mario Brothers. Yeah, we are nerds). The kids made some really great piñatas, and loved destroying them to get the candy inside. We also cooked some Mexican rice and beans. They loved the rice (“it’s like spicy plov”, one kid told me) but generally they didn’t like the beans.

The death of Chain Chomp

Anyway I had quite a great time, and hung out with great people. I’m happy I went, even though it was in the winter and everything was frozen. It was great to get “out of my element” and see a different part of Kazakhstan. There is a lot I could write about, but to keep it as short as possible, here are 5 things that I think about regarding my trip north:

1. Things made of ice are “cool”

In Kostanai, and the surrounding towns and villages, ice sculptures are very popular. Many small towns have ice sculpturing contests, where the winner gets a prize. It’s also popular to make ice mazes, and sledding tracks in the city or town square. The temperature almost never rises above freezing, so the sculptures will last all winter.

Perhaps this is Russian Santa and the mysterious lady in blue, riding panthers? Anyway, it's pretty cool.

Ice maze.

ice slide...a hit with the kids

2.It’s cold in northern Kazakhstan, but not THAT cold all of the time.

This makes more sense when I give my definition of “THAT cold”. Simply put, it’s -40. -40: the magical temperature where both Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same. Whenever I said that I was going to Kostanai, the most popular response from both volunteer and local alike was, “oh God! It’s -40 there!” But in reality, -40 is not a normal occurrence. It happens a couple of times every winter, but not very often, and not for very long (hopefully). According to a babushka on the train who lives in a town outside of Kostanai, on average it gets to -40 perhaps 3-5 times during a normal winter season.

I’m not trying to say that winters in the north are not cold, because they plenty are. Kazakhstan is the coldest Peace Corps country. When it gets too cold things shut down. Students don’t go to school, busses don’t run, and people don’t go outside, and rightfully so.

The average temperature in the Kostani area in winter ranges between -15C to -30C (for the Fahrenheit people, this is +5 to -22). That’s pretty cold, but comparable to the cold snaps that tend to hit the Midwest every winter.

While I was there, the coldest it got was to -32C at night. That wasn’t very fun. The rest of the days were more “balmy”: usually between -15C to -25C. I was ok with the cold (as reasonably ok as a person could be when it is cold), as I followed the directions that are universal to all people in cold climates: Wear layers; it is easier to trap body heat. Don’t get wet; it will freeze and you will be miserable. Cover all exposed skin, including your face; you can get frostnip in minutes if you are not careful. Don’t lick metal poles and things made of ice; only idiots do that. Most importantly, don’t go outside if it’s too cold!

Ninjas are impervious to cold.

However, all of this doesn’t count if your coat breaks, which is what happened to me two days before we were scheduled to leave. The zipper broke while I was grabbing my backpack, and it was unfixable. Walking outside in Northern Kazakhstan without a coat is akin to suicide. Fortunately my friend Ashley patched up my coat enough so that I could stay warm long enough to run to the store to get a new one. Not only that, she was patient enough to not knock my head off while I was looking for a new coat. I hate shopping, and the Green Eyed Lady can attest to how difficult I become when it comes to buying clothes. Thanks for helping me out!

3. Train travel is boring, but it’s better than the bus.

The first time I blogged about traveling in Kazakhstan, I wrote that if I had to choose between traveling by train or bus, I wouldn’t know what to do. Now, I know. The train wins, hands down. The travel time by train from Almaty to Kostani is 36 hours by train. Even if you threatened me, I wouldn’t get on a bus for that long. Trains have bathrooms, places to sleep, and are less bumpy (mostly) than the bus. So for now the train is the victor.

4. Smartboards are awesome, and Peace Corps teachers are too.

Teaching isn’t my main job in Kazakhstan, so whenever I get to enter a school I always learn about something interesting. This time, it was the Smartboard. A smartboard is a dry erase board combined with some nifty technology that allows you to electronically write on it. It’s great for Hangman. Speaking of Hangman, the students were excellent at Hangman. I could not stump them. The hardest word I gave them was “Constitution”, and the hint that “Kazakhstan and America both have this”. It took them 5 tries and 3 letters, and they solved it.

guess the subject! The kids did it without missing a letter!

Also, Peace Corps education volunteers are pretty cool. Despite it being winter break, 2 teachers, and at least 10 kids showed up every day to the camp, even though the temperature never rose above -15C. None of them had to come. They could have stayed at home playing videogames and watching garbage on tv, but they showed up with great attitudes, ready to learn and to have fun. That’s some impressive stuff that attests to the rapport that some volunteers build with their teachers and students.

5. Even up north, speaking Kazakh can make you as awesomer than Bono

I’m still working on my Kazakh skills, but my travel mate was trained as a Kazakh speaker. By ourselves, we get by and function in Kazakhstan. Together, with her Kazakh language skills and my Russian, we became an unstoppable force of language comprehension. I won’t lie; understanding what everyone was saying, regardless of whether they were speaking in Kazakh or Russian was pretty sweet.

Kazakh is spoken up in the northern regions but Russian is more prevalent. And just the same like every other place I’ve visited in the country, people are impressed when a foreigner speaks Kazakh. Learning Kazakh is tough, especially if it isn’t your first language. Whenever I introduced my friend as a Kazakh speaker, people would smile and say “Amazing! Great job!” Then they would tell anyone in hearing range that she spoke Kazakh. They would also come over to say good job and congratulate her. This is how my travel buddy became a Rock Goddess. My favorite story about my friend’s Rock Goddess awesomeness happened when I overheard a conversation between a babushka and a male relative on the train. Her end (translated from Russian) went like this:

“There are two Americans on the train. One is normal, but the girl speaks Kazakh! I told her “great job”!

Some silence, as she listened to a question.

“Well…no, I won’t ask her to marry you!”

One day, I hope I will become that cool.