I will work for cookies (The best week. Ever.)

Today, the summer volunteer at the Local Community Foundation (LCF) remarked that lately I've been smiling a lot and asked what was so funny in my life. I told her that there was nothing funny in particular, but that things in my life are going very well. It's not a singular event that has made me feel this way, but a bunch of smaller things grouped together. And while maybe even talking about it may cause it to end, I figure that if I'm going to blog about the difficult times, I should also talk about the good times too. (After I typed that, I knocked on wood, spit air three times, and moved my evil eye from my bag to my back pocket. I should be ok now.)

So why have I been so happy lately? I'm happy because:

• The LCF gained 2 new employees, a summer intern, and a lawyer. This is very important, because in August, the LCF will lose their grant and project managers to different work. However, now we have replacements. Even better, the project manager decided to continue to work with the LCF into July part time to help train her replacement! Our office is a little bit crowded right now, but I love it because there is always someone to work with, and everyone is so nice. And the new people and intern insist on stuffing me full of cookies every day. On the other side I shared some Girl Scout Thin Mints that my loving mother sent me, and among 6 people, they ate only 3 cookies! They said they were "interesting", which is code for "not very good". Their loss, as I will eat the rest.
  

  
  

• I also learned that I too have a new job. In August I will become a training assistant for the newest group of Peace Corps volunteers to Kazakhstan. While my exact role and duties are to be determined, I'm very excited. If you told me 2 years ago that I'd not only still be in Kazakhstan but helping to teach new volunteers about Kazakhstan and Peace Corps, I would call you a liar. Even reflecting about where I was at physically and mentally even 4 months ago, I think this would have been unimaginable. This Peace Corps journey has been a long and winding one, and I think that this will bring a sense of closure to my time here. This new job also brought me one step closer to learning the exact date I can leave Kazakhstan since I will staying until the completion of the training of the new volunteers. So now I'm targeting somewhere around the 6^th of November.
  

  
  

• I also took a mini vacation to the large town of Zharkent. Situated about 350 kilometers to the east of Almaty and about 50 kilometers from the border of China, Zharkent is unforgettable to me as it was the place where I cut a sheep's face with a kitchen knife. I went mainly to hang out with a fellow Kaz 20, relax, and see a project that a new volunteer designed during the PDM conference that I helped organize in Taldykorgan a couple of months ago. The project was a summer English camp, where interested students at the local college could get extra grammar lessons and practice talking in English in a fun environment so that they wouldn't forget what they learned over the long summer. It was cool to see this project evolve, from an idea scribbled on butcher block paper to being realized in a classroom. But best, was just hanging out. There was chili, French fries from scratch, chili with French fries, a Southpark episode about Kanye West, great conversation with friends old and new, an outdoor picnic, and a Kazakh spaghetti style dinner where we talked about centered on obscure magical pagan traditions.
  

  
  

• For the really random things. I bought a mango in Almaty from a strange man in the Green Bazaar; the first one I've eaten in 2 years. I got a free ride from a Serbian man because we talked about the World Cup and how awesome soccer is from Almaty to Ecik. Kids in my apartment complex have been nice. My neighbor gave me some homemade bread. When I find cocoa powder, I'll try to make brownies for her. Dogs haven't troubled me. A good friend from Kostanai will visit me soon on her way to paradise (Europe). It's summer. Tomorrow is July; I have only 4 full months in Kazakhstan. I don't have to work from July 4^th through the 7^th, as it is a national holiday in Kazakhstan. My father called… all the way from Afghanistan. Fanta has a new flavor called "lemonade" which tastes like diet cream soda.
  

And I love all of it.