Sheep Face!!!

While walking around Zharkent’s bazaar we were invited to eat dinner at the house of a student. This isn’t uncommon for many volunteers to be invited to госты, but it was the first time I was ever asked, *direct translation*: “do you eat sheep?” One of the first things I remember from our language training was our teacher holding up a paper cutout of a sheep's head, to which we would point and say, “Спасибо, но я не ем" (Thanks, but I don't eat it). I've never said this phrase because I like sheep. I think they are cute and they taste good. So...I'd say we knew what we were getting into when we replied that we thought that sheep was tasty. All of this led to an awesome госты experience.

First we sat outside and talked with the student's father for about an hour. I enjoyed talking to him. He had many interesting experiences and stories. He served in the Soviet army and was stationed in Germany in the late 80's. When independence arrived, he drove trucks across Kazakhstan into China, where he learned Chinese by listening to the radio when he drove. Currently, he has over 1000 sheep and lives in the house that his grandparents built with his family.

In a mixture of Kazakh, Russian, and English we all talked about a variety of topics: religion ("why does your Pope change his name and add numbers after it?" he asked. We didn't know the answer.), Bill Clinton (which sparked a debate on the purity of humans and whether we should judge them if we are not pure ourselves, especially if we are electing them), and something about circumcision that everyone understood but me. There were two things that he said that will always stay with me. The first was an answer to the question of whether Kazakhstan was better now than under communism. He simply pointed at his children and said that this is now their world, and as long as they are happy he would be too. He was also one of the few people that I've met in both Kazakhstan and America who understood why many volunteers pack up; leave their homes and families for two years to work without pay at the ends of the earth. In his words *roughly translated*, "when you get married you shouldn't leave for a long time. But you all are young, without children. Now is the time to see the world and live in it." I found him very insightful, wise, and a joy to talk to. He seemed like a person secure in himself and content with life. It's hard for me to explain, one would have to meet him. I would seriously go back to Zharkent just to talk with him again.

The cow was not interested in participating in our intellectual discourse and kept on sniffing my pants and licking my arm.

After the talking came the food. First we drank kumis, which is fermented milk. Once taken from the horse, the milk sits for 2-4 days in special barrels. It is a very popular drink and people usually drink it out of the chai cups. Kumis looks like coconut milk but doesn’t taste anything like it. To me kumis tasted like milk about to go sour mixed with water with a sharp cheese aftertaste. It wasn't bad, but I believe it may be an acquired taste. I've heard that there is a similar drink made from camel's milk that tastes "milder", but I don't have a clue what "milder" means in the context of kumis and I haven't come across it.

Next up was the beshbarmak. It came on two huge plates and one small one. The two big plates were familiar: they were heaped with noodles and sheep meat. The third plate contained the unfortunate sheep’s head. It is tradition that the eldest male of the guests has to cut the sheep head. Since I was the only male in our group, the duty fell to me. I was passed a knife and basically told to go at it. I am not good at carving. I was banned from turkey cutting at Thanksgiving because my hack and slash methods tend to create a mess. Cutting the sheep head wasn't so bad and was a lot easier than a turkey. First, I took off a piece of the cheek (the right side of the sheep) and ate it. Then with two big hacks I took off the ears. I looked around, and saw everyone staring at me and nodding in approval, so I kept on cutting what I could get at. They finally took the knife from me when I started on the nose. Nobody eats the nose. There were three things I failed to get with the knife: the tongue and both eyes. Once these were removed, each of us was presented with a certain part by the father with a short explanation of what the part meant. According to him:

• Ears: The person who receives an ear will be able to listen very well and hear the true words/intentions of others
• Eyes: The person who receives an eye will be able to see their true friends
• Tongue: The person who receives the tongue will be able to speak well and be understood by all.

I received an ear and eye. The ear wasn't bad (kind of chewy), but I couldn't bring myself to eat the eye. I remember my mother telling me stories about when she was a little girl in Antigua she would fight over the fish eyes with her 2 sisters (someone always lost out), but I just couldn't do it. I was disappointed at myself because this was the first time I violated my "try everything once policy" in Kazakhstan. We also tried a spoonful of sheep brain, which I did not like at all. It was grey/yellowish, kind of lumpy, and reminded me of grits gone wrong mixed with cat flavor. I had a small mental crisis when I realized that the only thing I had to wash it down was kumis.

The beshbarmak was amazing and I made sure to eat a lot of it! We ate it in the traditional way, with our hands, as beshbarmak means "five fingered". For future volunteers and travelers: try to use your right hand for traditional beshbarmak eating, as the left hand can be considered unclean. It wasn't a big deal for me this time, but as a left-hander but I was let off with a warning. When we were done, we drank more kumis (mixed in the broth of the beshbarmark. I liked this), then chai and cherry jellybeans (which I guess exist in Kazakhstan, but I don't know where to buy them). We ended with a short blessing in Kazakh. It was amazing!

Zharkent

Since November, I have traveled more than 30 km from Karabulak only once: to Almaty for a Peace Corps seminar in March. Granted, the cities of Taldykorgan and Tekeli are less than 15 km from my town, and I have spent several weekends in both places both for work and to hang out. However I was shocked when I came to the realization that I am 1/3 done with my service but still haven’t taken any personal days and could count the cities in Kazakhstan that I had visited on one hand. That’s pretty sad.

Part of my reluctance to travel was out of fear. After the car accident I was scared to go anywhere. Train travel also didn’t appeal to me. I’ve heard weird and awkward train stories; experiences that I wasn't in a hurry to have myself until I became more confident with speaking Russian.

I also felt like I really didn’t need to go very far: I enjoy Taldykorgan and the volunteers there and Tekeli is very beautiful. I like my host family, and there is enough work in the area to keep me busy (at least for half the day).

Most importantly to me, I did not want my organization or community to think that I am gallivanting around the country and neglecting them or my work. My NGO hasn't done as much as I wanted (or as much as I think they are capable of doing), but the point is that I’m there and willing to work every day. However, after 9 months of constantly being at site I’ve found myself burning out (not because of the work) which does my NGO, my town, and me no good.

The moral of the story is that I’ve got to get out more, I need to take some personal time off and have some fun.

With all of this in mind, I traveled to a city called Zharkent to help 3 other education volunteers with an English camp at a local school. It wasn't a vacation, but it did get me out of Karabulak and I did have fun. I’m not a teacher, but I was put to work assisting the PCV’s and the school by helping them organize and create a work plan for the camp. I also taught the song “Head shoulders knees and toes” and acted as a soccer ref.


After my week at the camp I have a newfound respect for the education volunteers in Kazakhstan. I knew they worked hard, but I had no clue exactly how much until now. They endure a lot of stuff that I am lucky not to experience (this is probably better for everyone). However, they do have the ultimate advantage (or curse for some) in dealing with kids on a daily basis. In Zharkent, I enjoyed the kids. They love to have fun, love to learn, and are always curious. I liked talking to them, playing games with them, and answering their 10,000 questions. I wish that my work in Karabulak would put me in more contact with kids outside of English clubs and the occasional pickup soccer game.

As for Zharkent itself, it is about 40 kilometers from China. The city is very dusty and sandy. Although it is only a 4 hour taxi ride (2000 tenge) from Taldykorgan, I am amazed at how much the climate is different from Karabulak. It is hot and dry and there is a perpetual wind that whips sand and dirt everywhere. This created a new problem for me. I found sand and dirt under the collar of my shirt, in my hair, and in my ears every day. I wore my contacts for one painful day before switching to glasses. It rained once the whole time I was there, and it was only a 10 min downpour that didn't even soak through the ground. I was also surprised at the language breakdown: Kazakh (a lot more than Russian) is both spoken here and I even heard some Chinese in the bazaar.

The notable things I saw in Zharkent and the surrounding area were a beautiful mosque and a holy tree. The mosque, pretty but not currently in use, was made without nails to withstand the earthquakes that are prevalent in the region. I experienced the earthquake situation first hand. On my first night in Zharkent we had a magnitude 5 quake. I have never been in an earthquake before, and it was a situation that I didn’t particularly care for. Later I found out that the epicenter was less than 25km from Tekeli and, which meant that Karabulak got rattled pretty badly. When I arrived back in Karabulak, my host family was thankful; there was only minimal damage to their house. The holy tree was located slightly outside of town. The tree didn’t reach my expectations mainly because I was imagining a tree like from the Secret of Mana. The tree did have a holy vibe as people were praying around it. It is said that if you tie a piece of ribbon to a branch and walk around the tree 7 times, your wish will come true. I was in a bad mood (I was coming down with a cold/sinus infection), so I didn’t wish for anything. It is also said that if you drink the water that collects in the crevasses of the tree that it will give you good health.
All in all, Zharkent isn’t a bad place and while it wasn’t a vacation, I enjoyed my time there.

Power Surge

A recent power surge fried my AC adapter to my laptop. I guess the moral of the story is that I should have brought a surge protector.

I'll update again when I have a stable source of power.

Kazakhstan vs. England

Sometimes no news is good news. After my organization’s success with the Peace Corp Partnership (see last post), the rest of May passed very quietly. This is a "long" list of things that I helped out with during May:

• Planted potatoes with my host family
• Taught whiffleball to kids
• Learned how to cook монты
• Played soccer

Even though it is Peace Corps…some days (or stretches of days) are more boring than others.

However, June has already been more exciting than all of May. Last Saturday the Kazakhstan national soccer team played England in a World Cup qualifier. The game was in Almaty and the tickets were rumored to be around 10,000 tenge (way out of my budget). So my friends and I did what any fan of any major sport would do: we went to a local restaurant and watched the game on a projection tv.

I am happy that I am in a place where soccer is a popular sport. Volleyball is also popular in Kazakhstan, but now that the weather is warmer there is is always a pickup soccer game going on in the afternoons in my town. I don’t speak Kazakh, and my Russian is horrible, but everyone can appreciate a good save, or a pretty header off of a 30 foot crossing pass. I met most of my local friends just by approaching them and asking if I could join a game.

As for the game between Kazakhstan and England, the first half was great. The Kazakhstan squad, while young, inexperienced, and visibly smaller in comparison to the English footballers, played with a lot of heart. They held off the English for about 40 minutes. They even had two good scoring opportunities, with one ball that bounced off of the post and another that missed just wide. However, the size of the English players were too much, and it showed on a goal off of a corner kick where the English player didn’t have to jump to head the ball into the net.

The second half was boring. It reminded me of a high school JV- varsity scrimmage. The Kazakhstan team seemed flat on their feet as the English squad put in three more goals, including a beautiful Rooney full volley/bicycle kick combination which surely must have been an “ESPN’s top ten plays of the day” candidate.

Kazakhstan’s soccer team is very young, and lacking in experience on the world stage. However, I believe that these things can be solved with a little bit of time, money, and talent. Kazakhstan has the money to find, train, and attract top talent and coaching (Through a sponsorship maybe?). They already have a pool of talent to develop and train in its national soccer league, and small youth leagues and school teams are springing up everywhere, ensuring the future of the sport and the development of very young talent. Most importantly, soccer is already a part of the culture. Soccer is everywhere; perhaps not as intense as Brazil, France, Italy, Mexico, and the traditional soccer superpowers. However, it is there: the will to play, the love of the game. Those things can’t be taught nor bought.

Kazakhstan won’t have a cakewalk in any international competition. Since it is actually a member of the European soccer association , they will be consistently playing against the best squads in the world. This means they will be always get a mouthful of the traditional soccer superpowers: Germany, Italy, England, France, Holland and the (re)emerging national squads such as Ukraine and Russia.
Whatever the case, Kazakhstan soccer surely has the time. After seeing the squad against England, I don’t think they will fare any better against the other teams in their group, which includes England, Belarus, Croatia, Ukraine, and Andorra. Kazakhstan has played all of them, and the only squad that Kazakhstan has beaten is Andorra. Hope for this World Cup cycle seems bleak if not impossible at this point. However, their future can be bright. Perhaps one day, Kazakhstan will be able to secure a World Cup berth, if not by 2018, surely by 2030.

Karabulak’s Peace Corps Partnership Project (my answer to “Why don’t you speak Kazakh?”)

It’s been a month since I’ve updated my blog. The reason why is because my NGO applied for and “won” a Peace Corp Partnership Project (PCPP) to start a Kazakh language class in Karabulak. While it has an application process, the PCPP is not a true grant because it allows for interested individuals in America and around the world to donate to projects that they are interested in. I really like the idea of this program.

Here is the link to our project if you would like to take a look or donate:

The good news is that the project is online for everyone to see. The bad news is that to fully explain why Karabulak needs a Kazakh language course requires a lot more than the 200 words than the PCPP website gave us. So, I’m using this post to explain our situation in more detail.

The idea to start a Kazakh language course in Karabulak stems from a larger issue. Kazakhstan is still a country that is still transitioning itself away from its communist past. Under the Former Soviet Union everyone was required to learn Russian. This caused the amount of people who knew the original language of Kazakhstan, Kazakh, to decline. While sitting down for tea with various people who were in Kazakhstan during this period, they tell some eyebrow-raising stories about how they learned Russian in school and what happened to people who openly spoke Kazakh. Once Kazakhstan finally broke away in 1991, people began to speak Kazakh openly and with pride once again.

One question that I (and a majority of Kazakhstan volunteers) get all of the time from interested people is “Do you know Kazakh?” I know just the bare bones of Kazakh: enough to barter for food at the bazaar, my name, where I am from, and how old I am. For me, this is good enough. It is not critical for me to learn Kazakh. My director speaks Russian. My two host families spoke Russian. Everyone else speaks Russian.
However, when I ask Karabulak citizens if they need to learn Kazakh, I get a varied response. Some people (mainly Russian speakers) say that they will never need to learn Kazakh because everyone knows Russian. Many Kazakh speakers say that it is not important now, but it will be in another decade. However, in Karabulak in particular, many people whom I’ve asked do not know Kazakh really want to get the chance to learn. Many of these people want to learn Kazakh because knowing Kazakh leads to greater variety of job opportunities. The Kazakhstan government has designated Russian as “the language of inter-ethnic communication”. However Kazakh is spoken predominantly in government and private organizations in Kazakhstan.

As of now, about 45% of people in Karabulak do not know Kazakh. Karabulak has 5 schools, and the students get their fair share of Kazakh lessons. However, Karabulak doesn’t have a public library, university, college, or any place for adults to learn (Karabulak only has about 16,000 people). There are many talented accountants, architects and college students in Karabulak who want to learn Kazakh or want more intensive study in the language. Kazakhstan is finishing its economic and social transition away from communism and solidifying its identity. Without a doubt Kazakh will play an important role in this. Personally, I may not have to learn Kazakh, but I do believe that Kazakh has the potential to become the dominate language in Kazakhstan, as it was in the past. Kazakh is not a critical language…yet.

I took all of this information to my director, who simply said, “We know,” and proceeded to show me a business plan for creating Kazakh courses in Karabulak that was made 2 years ago. It fell apart due to funding problems. We decided to resurrect the project. However, instead of my NGO attempting to find the funding by themselves (which was why it failed the first time), we were going to get the community to help. It is a community project, after all!

My director and I first went to the local (government) Akimat and asked them for help. They were happy to assist because they are also familiar with the situation. They want to employ the accountants in town, but they need some level of Kazakh. They promised us that if we could raise the rest of the resources, they would pay for a teacher for as long as these promised Kazakh courses ran in Karabulak.

We then visited the other NGO in Karabulak. This was a surprise to me, because I didn’t know that Karablak had another NGO. Anyway, they told us who to get in touch with to get a space to get the courses. We took our plan to them, and not only did they say that we could use the room, they would allow us to use it for one year rent free.

Last, we went back to many of the individuals who I talked with who wanted the classes. When we told them that we were close to our goal, they were very happy and started suggesting all sorts of improvements and new ideas. Through them, our advertising is at a reduced cost, we found an appropriate text book, and they were a good sounding board for the project.

Although the room, teacher, and advertising are either free or at a reduced price, there were still some things that we need to finish the project. The room is bare, and we need to buy chairs and tables for people to sit. The Kazakh workbook problems are on a cd, and we require a printer to print out the exercises. Any American college student can tell you about the crazy costs of textbooks. Unfortunately, this problem also exists (to a lesser extent) in Kazakhstan.

These are the major things that we are asking for and what the donations will go toward.
Anyway, that’s our project! Thanks a million if you donate!