Me: The reluctant worker

Tomorrow is a new month. Time seems to fly when you are having fun, or something like that. While my self imposed time off was beneficial, it wasn't exactly what I envisioned. In my fantasy world the words "Taking a break" means just that. In reality it meant "saying that you will do nothing, and then people knock on your door to drag you outside to do something awesome". I never did have the willpower to say no to doing interesting things or going on adventures. The odder, the more obscure, the more interesting, the better. And although all I wanted to do was stay in my apartment, cook, and watch movies by myself, my local friends, director, and co-workers had other plans for me. There was fun to be had, work to do, and new people to meet! And although at first I hated it because I wanted to be alone, in retrospect it was for the best. So what was I doing over the past couple of weeks? Here's a quick run down:

Failure: Mission Kokpar. Success: Everything else (Shymkent)

One of the things I must do before leaving Kazakhstan is to see a game of kokpar. It involves two teams on horseback fighting over a sheep carcass to throw into a hole. I think this is totally badass. Kokpar is most popular in the southern regions of Kazakhstan so while my organization went to Ukraine, I paid a visit to Shymkent in order to hang out with volunteers and to witness this totally awesome sport. Just like last time, kokpar was elusive and it didn't happen. But getting the chance to spend quality time with friends, play basketball, eat great food, and meet new people was better than any kokpar game. Thanks to all of the volunteers in the area for letting me tag along for a couple of days, and especially to Becca for hosting me in her sweet new apartment!

While I am still on the subject of awesome things, I was also in Shymkent for Victory Day. Celebrated on May 9th, it is a holiday to remember the soldiers and people who were in World War II. Kazakhstan played a part in the war, fighting on the Russian side. There was a parade, complete with a marching band, tanks, and a couple of WWII veterans with so many medals that the shine messed up my photos. I even heard an all female capella group sing a rendition of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "In the Mood". That brought back a lot of memories of the days when I played in this dixieland jazz festival.

From Shymkent, Kazakhstan, introducing the Southern Kazakhstan Oblast Marching Band!

Veterans with lots of medals. Check out the shine.

Me with awesome Kaz 21s and my Kaz 20 roommate from staging. It was great to hang out!

The Mid-May Meltdown (I'm not 100%, but I'm getting better)

Every volunteer goes through a period of trying times, and for a variety of reasons, I almost made the third biggest mistake of my life by almost leaving Kazakhstan early. It wasn't pretty, but I'm getting back on my feet. In the meanwhile, I decided that I will remain in Kazakhstan until the end of my service in early November.

The "State Youth Forum in Ecik"

While I was on my break, my "counterpart" came to me with this one. Her request: to help prepare the Youth Bank of Ecik for a statewide youth festival.

A quick explanation of the Youth Bank: It is a collection of youth in Ecik between 14-20 that were given money to finance projects for youth in the region. These projects must be initiated, led, and organized by youth. They financed 4 youth led projects in the region: A soccer tournament, a play, a dance competition, and a photo contest. Helping the Youth Bank was my major project from September until February, and was a lot of fun. I sit on their board of directors, and am a mentor to many of the youth. In addition, I got to teach them about budgeting, grant writing and reviewing, time management, leadership, basic project design management, and some other stuff. They taught me slang, how to swear in Russian (when no adults were around), showed me around town, and gave me a recipe for how to make Russian style pancakes (blini). And lots of chocolate. I'm proud of the Youth Bank, and proud of the kids who participated. Although we finished our work in February, many Youth Bank members still stop by the office to say hello, and I see them around while I'm doing errands in town.

Oddest Peace Corps secondary project ever: guest judge for the Youth Bank financed youth dance competition. I'm not qualified to be a dance judge at all (my dancing skills are better now, but still very bad), but the students requested me because I was impartial and didn't know any of the dancers personally. We had to give on the spot critiques! I was *slighty* nicer than Simon, and wittier than Randy Jackson and all in Russian too! This dance duo won second place.

Working together with Aigerim, my "project counterpart" (I don't have an official counterpart), we met with the original Youth Bank members. This was easier said than done, as they are busy with finals in school. Together, we designed t-shirts, printed out a banner with our emblem, and marched in the parade. They did the designing, Aigerim and I did the leg work.

I love parades! There was dancing, shashlyk, singing, and lots of cheering. The pictures aren't as good because I was in the thick of things, but it was very sweet to have our organization introduced to the Oblast Akim (like State Governor?) and yell "We are the Youth Bank! Hooray!" in Kazakh.

Check out our banner and t-shirts.

Hooray Youth Bank!

Mission: to march around the track and be presented to the Oblast Akim (State Governor) in the big wooden structure .

Me with the Kazakh equivalent of ROTC of "Al-Farabi" School and the Enbekshikazakh District boxing champion in the 10-12 age group bracket. He's small, but fast, and could easily beat me up. Probably you too.

Festival at Ecik Stadium: Kinda a big deal.

Me with Aigerim, my "counterpart of right now". My eyes are closed because evidently I still have trouble understanding the difference between the number "3" and the word "now" in Kazakh. To the left of Aigerim, you can see a young girl in traditional Kazakh dress.

Project Advisory Committee for the new Youth Development Program in Kazakhstan

This committee brought me to Almaty for a day to provide recommendations for Peace Corps Youth Development (YD) Program. My program, OCAP (Organizational and Community Assistance Program), has gone the way of the dinosaur, and in its place is a program for youth development. This is the program's first year, so Peace Corps wanted recommendations on how to make it better.

When it comes to demographics, Kazakhstan is a very young country with a lot of youth. This is a big deal, because today's youth become tomorrow's leaders, doctors, teachers, and stuff like that. Youth are important. So much so that the government has a made youth development in Kazakhstan a national priority.

So NGO leaders, Peace Corps staff, and government officials came together to review the YD project plan objectives and talk about what a Youth Development volunteer can do in Kazakhstan. My role in the committee was to give a volunteer's perspective, to give a first hand account of what a volunteer could realistically do on the ground. Although I was giving my opinions and ideas, it was very eye opening because I got a glimpse of exactly how much work goes into designing a Peace Corps program (a lot). Now I am very excited for the new Kaz-22 volunteers who will come in August and get to be a part of this program!

My Summer Camp Campaign

In addition to winter, spring, summer, and autumn, America has other seasons such as football, season, BBQ season, pool season, and wedding season. Kazakhstan has something of the same: Holiday season, when there are a ton of holidays for about 2 months straight, Shashlyk season, when it gets warm enough to eat meat on a stick outside, and my personal favorite: Strawberry season, when everyone sells strawberries and they are dirt cheap. Strawberry season will start soon and only lasts for about 2 weeks according to my fruit lady at the bazaar.

For volunteers, the most important season is summer camp season. This season starts on May 26th, and goes through August 1st, which are the days when kids are off from school for the summer. Volunteers love summer camp season because it gives them the chance to hang out with kids and other volunteers, focus on things that are of interest to them such as sports, culture, arts and crafts, and get a chance to see different parts of the country without using precious leave days. Many volunteers organize their summer plans by the end of May, and I was no exception. Last June, I was really into summer camps, but this June I'm keeping things low key by staying close to home. Because of work I'm not sure about my July plans yet, but possible destinations include Taraz, Astana, or Petropavolsk.

My schedule for June. It's pretty bare, except for the camps, which are in light blue. My Organization's travels are in light red (I get those days off, they don't need me then), and dark blue is hiking in the mountains. Black is for Peace Corps work. This is considered a light travel month during summer camp season! :-)