Unfinished Work

in the hills and mountains overlooking Almaty on a hazy day

After doing some hiking in the hills and mountains above Almaty, I took a quick trip to Karabulak. My reason: to check up on our grant project and grab documents to start the final report. My grant project involved starting Kazakh classes for adults in Karabulak, a large village and my old site. You can read about the details about the project here.

When I got transferred to Issyk last year, I had a talk with my old director and Peace Corps about continuing the project. Because I was leaving Karabulak, I was given a choice: either scrap the project, or continue on remotely. I decided to do the latter, mainly because I knew how excited the community was about this project. Although I wouldn’t be able to come to Karabulak as much as I’d like (I originally planned on visiting once a month, but things got in the way), we had so many community partners like the local government, schools, teachers, and interested people that I was confident that it would still be successful without me being around every day. When we received the funds in early December, we went to Karabulak and bought the materials to build tables, chairs, a whiteboard, and the books. I haven’t been back since.

Going back to Karabulak wasn’t as weird as the first time. It was as if I never left. My host mother still scolded me in rapid fire Russian about how I need to eat more. My old director still told everyone about how I thought I almost blew up my host families house. The young woman on the third floor of the Akimat (government building) building still hit on me, and I still shot her down like I did during the 10 months I worked there. And everyone thought this awkward exchange was just as funny as the first time it happened.

Some things never change.

But what did change was the project. For the first time, I got a chance to see everything first hand. In the basement of the Akimat, a huge room was converted into a classroom. I saw all of the chairs and tables we bought in December. In addition to the Kazakh/Russian textbooks we bought, I saw 9 Kazakh/Russian Dictionaries. I asked my director where they came from, and she said that they were donated. My director and I then went to lunch with my host mother, and while we ate she told more about our project.

She said that after I left in December, they built the tables, found a teacher, and organized everything. In the first group, 30 adults came, but 7 dropped out because there was “no homework”. They finished the basic course, and then the community decided that the courses be opened for youth in the summer. Currently 10 kids are taking Kazakh courses. Since I left, Karabulak has had 3 different Akims (mayors), and each endorsed the project. Furthermore, the current Akim said that as long as the courses are going and that there is interest in the community, that the utilities and rent will be free, and they will continue to pay the salary of the teacher indefinitely.

It also seems that the community has plans to expand the courses. Karabulak has a sizable portion of emigrated Kazakhs from China. Although it is way complicated, the short story about them is that they left for the western portions of China when the Soviets came into Kazakhstan. Because they left so long ago, they did not learn Russian. Many do not speak Chinese, although some families have lived there for over 50 years. They only speak Kazakh. And although Kazakh is an official language, enough people in Karabulak (and nearby Taldykorgan) speak Russian, so that knowing some Russian is very helpful. Therefore, people in the town are looking at starting a Kazakh - Russian course, where people who only know Kazakh can learn some Russian. This has been pushed especially by the director of the local hospital (where I went the first time I was hospitalized), who says that his doctors, who are mostly Russian and Korean, are having a hard time properly treating people. It’d be easier, he said if his patients knew some Russian, in addition to the Kazakh that his staff knows.

But overall, everyone is very happy and proud of the project, and it looks like it is going to continue in the future. I had a fun time running around Karabulak talking to the stakeholders and getting their accounts of how the project progressed as well as collecting receipts for their purchases chairs and books. With their stories, and what I have saw, writing the final report will be an easy process, one that I hope to complete by the end of September.

The thing that makes me the happiest is that the people who donated to the project were not forgotten. “Do you know who they are? Do you have their information? We’d like to thank them!” I was told on several occasions. While I do not know all of the people who gave to the project, they said that when I come back for the final time, they will have something for me to give to the people that I know who donated, either personally or through the official donor list that Peace Corps provided me earlier during the summer.

What they are planning to do, I do not know, and they wouldn’t tell me. But the main message from the people of Karabulak to everyone who made this project possible, named or unnamed is a hearty thank you. And also a thank you from me.

I had pictures, but my USB on my camera is corrupted, and need to get another. My old director said that she will send them to me. When I get them, I’ll post them.