“I know I have a bunch of free days. I feel stupid that I didn't use all of them. It’s just that we OCAPs travel more for business, you know? Different from the EDU/UNI people. I think YD will have the same leave situations in the future, but it’s not in our hands; we won’t be PCV’s for much longer! Can’t wait for the Kaz 22s and PST! And also COS conference! It'll be great!"
Peace Corps loves acronyms and abbreviations for everything. As much as I really hate reducing words and phrases to letters, I've found that I do it a lot myself.
So here is a list of some of the most common abbreviations that are widely used for volunteers in Kazakhstan:
OCAP – Organizational and Community Assistance Program. The people who help with NGO assistance, like me! However, this program is now discontinued.
YD – Youth Development Program. The people who help youth organizations and children. Kaz 22’s will be the first group with only YD volunteers. This program replaces OCAP.
Kaz (insert number here) – Every volunteer that arrives in Kazakhstan comes with a group, and each group is given a number. I came with the 20th group of volunteers to Kazakhstan, so I’m a Kaz 20. The newest group to Kazakhstan will be called the Kaz 22’s. What is important to note that while it’s rare, multiple groups can come within the year. So while I’m a Kaz 20, Peace Corps has been working with Kazakhstan for about 17 years (the first group arrived in 1993).
EDU – Education Volunteers; the teachers at the equivalent of K-12 schools.
UNI – University Volunteers; the teachers at colleges and universities.
PCV – Peace Corps Volunteer.
PST – Pre-Service Training. This is a 10-12 week crash course for Peace Corps Trainees that teaches how to live, function, and work in Kazakhstan. It’s pretty intense, with a standard 6 day work week crammed with language, cultural, and technical sessions.
PST: The time when "things happen"
PCT – Peace Corps Trainee. Newcomers to Kazakhstan are called this until they are officially sworn in to become volunteers at the end of PST.
COS – Close of Service. This is the date for when a volunteer’s service is completed and they get to go home.
TIK - This Is Kazakhstan. This is used when things can’t really be explained any other way. How can a school organize a festival which includes a banquet for everyone in the village, in 20 minutes? How exactly did the taxi driver pass 2 semis on a bridge with 1 lane with oncoming traffic in the middle of winter? Why is lunch at 1pm, and not at 12? Where exactly did that bottle of vodka come from? Some things are better off remaining mysteries. TIK explains this.
TIK ≠ "THIS IS SPARTA!!!"
1 comments:
Hilarious. Science definitely has it's own language of acronyms, and MIT doesn't actually have names of buildings like Presser or Ames...we use numbers. Also, you're not a biology major, you are course 7. (forget words here; they are not of much use!)
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