Unfinished Posts

Happy Thanksgiving!

While deleting files from my computer after everyone passed out from food comas after dinner, I came across some unpublished blog posts. I didn’t post them initially for many reasons: I didn’t know where they would fit in the scheme of this blog, I didn’t know enough about that particular topic at the time, or wasn’t able to express my feelings properly at the time. I had around 12 potential posts and I thought about getting rid of all of them, but kept two of them because they could still be useful to current or future Peace Corps volunteers or people who are interested in Kazakhstan. I am posting them as is… literally just copying and pasting into a Google documents, so they are rough, unedited, and contain more spelling and grammar mistakes than usual.

On being Black in Kazakhstan- The most popular question I’ve received by far, is “what’s is your experience like being black in Kazakhstan?” I got this question from everyone: Family, friends, Peace Corps staff, Peace Corps volunteers, and my local director and co-workers. While I’ve talked about it in a limited context to trusted family and friends, my thoughts on what it’s like to be black in Kazakhstan is not something I talk about often because conveying what I felt is very difficult. At the same time, I think it is an important question that is worth answering. I wrote this in September.

On being a Volunteer Training Assistant - My thoughts about the last couples of months in Kazakhstan as a VTA. I wrote this in October. I hope it can be useful for 2nd year volunteers who are considering applying for the position next year.