I'm a bad poet. Now everyone knows it.

Christmas, as many Americans know it, is not celebrated in Kazakhstan. This day is a working day, and I’ll be at the office. Although I wish I could be home with my family, I don’t feel so bad about working. This is because I really haven’t worked a lot this month. There are so many holidays in the month that it is hard to start projects; something that I was angry about last year, but not this time around. (Independence day: December 16-20, New Years: Dec 31-Seeming like whenever people want to go back to work) Christmas for Orthodox Christians is celebrated on January 7, and for Kazakhs, March 22-24. I love the idea of celebrating multiple Christmases, although I miss my own.

Because there are so many days off, it is hard to start any sort of project in December. Last year, I was angry about not working, This year, I feel better about it, perhaps because I wrote a poem. I needed something to do with my free time! Why I'm placing this on my blog, I don't really know. Enjoy it. Go ahead and laugh it up at my horrible prose. It's ok, because something like this will never happen again. Perhaps OCAP stands for "Oh Crap! Abysmal Poetry!"

Anyway, Clement Clark Moore wrote my favorite Christmas poem. He was American, but if he lived in Kazakhstan, I think his famous poem “Twas the Night before Christmas”, probably would have turned out like this.

Enjoy! Happy Holidays!

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the land
Not a single soul cared, for this was Kazakhstan;
No stockings were hung by the fire at all,
For fear they would burn if they would fall.

Children were sleeping all snug in their beds,
While visions of beshbarmak danced in their heads;
Babushka in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap.

When out on the street there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away out the door I flew like a flash,
Then I slipped on the pavement and fell on my ass.

The ice on the top of the new-fallen snow
Added to the pain in my bum below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
Not a miniature sleigh, and not eight small reindeer,

But a little red Lada, that pulled up so close,
I knew in a moment it was Дед Мороз (1).
He opened the door of his rusted red car,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called out afar;

"Where’s Aslan? And Pasha? And Arman? Давай (2)!
And Sergi! Where’s Maxim? And you! Let’s ride!
Get into the Lada! We’ll go far away!
Hurry up! Come on, and do what I say!"

The Lada was ancient, but oh could it fly,
Where the roads were too slippery we took to the sky.
Over the houses and rivers we flew,
The Lada full of friends, and Дед Мороз too.

And then, in a twinkling, we were on the ground
And I got out and looked all around.

A yurt was the only thing I could see,

My friends saw my face and they laughed with glee.

“

"Come on in!” they said, “and do not be scared!”

“Our guests are all here and everything’s prepared!”

As I entered the yurt I was royally stunned
Because the big feast had already begun.

Bottles of kumis(3) stacked eight cubits high

Mountains of beshbarmak(4) touched the sky!

At the head of the table sat Auezov (5) and Abai (6),

Writing poetry so beautiful it made Nazerbaev (7) cry.

…And the man in red?

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his task,
And filled all the glasses with his hidden flask.
And standing up as quick as a flash,
He said the first toast, and then drained his glass.

The time passed quickly, we had so much fun
All too soon the night was done

We were there ‘til half past four

.Дед Мороз dropped us at our doors.

As we shook hands goodbye hand he gave me a grin.

And I heard him exclaim, as he left faster than sin,

Zhanga zhyl kutty bolsyn!

Russian/Kazakh Words Explained (it rhymes! I just needed 3 languages to do it!):

1. “Ded Moroz”: Russian version of Santa…but for New Years

2. “Da-vi”: Lets go in Russian

3. “ku-miz”: Fermented milk. Very traditional, but not very fun to drink.

4. “Besh-ba-rmak”: National dish of Kazakhstan

5. Mukhtar Auezov (1897-1961): Famous Kazakh writer, poet, and storyteller

6. Abai Kunanbaev (1845-1904): Famous Kazakh writer, poet, and storyteller

7. Nursultan Nazarbayev: President of Kazakhstan

Kazakh Classes: Karabulak’s Community Project

Last week, the director of my current organization graciously gave me a week to travel to help start a Kazakh course for adults in Karabulak. The last time I was in Karabulak was about 4 months ago. Due to a lack of work in the area, I had to move to Ecik. I hadn't been back to Karabulak and Taldykorgan since. At first, I was very nervous. How would I be received? Did people resent me for leaving? Would I even be remembered?

In Karabulak, I didn't have to worry about any of these things. It was like I never left. People were surprised to see me, but were happy. I walked around town, saw my host family, and hit my host brother Calvin and Hobbs style with a snowball. I went to my favorite café, visited a teacher at a school where I had a song and games club, and went to grandparents of my host family, but they weren't home. Their dog, usually psychotic, didn't even try to bite me.

I saw even more friends in Taldykorgan. I visited more English classes, hung out a lot with the volunteers in the area, and saw my old Russian tutor. I rediscovered tofu, went ice skating, and met my match on the chess board. Random kids stopped me on the street to say hello and to ask if there would be more whiffleball and soccer in the park next summer. They remembered me and the Kaz 19's who started it.

Although it was great to renew friendships and hang out, the main reason I went was to help Karabulak with their community project. We didn't get as much done as we thought, but we made a good start.

It's probably best to explain why I was still involved in a project at my old site. When I moved, my manager gave me three options regarding our project. I could pass along the project to another volunteer in the area, cancel the project entirely, or do it myself. I chose the last option because the Kazakh courses are a true community project. One group alone could not implement this project. For example, my old organization, the Karabulak Community Learning Center, knows how to publicize and organize the courses, but doesn't have a teacher or money. The local government decided to pay for the salary of the teacher. Local citizens in the town contributed their time and effort and are building tables, donating a room free of charge for one year as well as utilities. I helped get everyone working together on the same page. Together, we can make it a success, and I wanted to be a part of it.

Receiving the funds from Peace Corps took a lot longer than we anticipated. This pushed back the timeframe of our project. Originally, we wanted to start in September, but due to several reasons outside of our control, we received the funds in late November. Just like with last year, because there are so many holidays in Kazakhstan in December, we decided to open the courses in mid January. Therefore, this trip was limited to finding equipment, buying the Kazakh textbooks and formal advertizing.

We also had great talks about grant management and project design. My favorite conversation was an argument between my old director and I about buying a chalkboard. The chalkboard was 50% off because of a New Year sale, but I didn't understand the word for "sale" in Russian. I thought it was 50% more expensive, and out of our budget. My old director wanted to buy it, but was nervous because it was way less than our budget, which is a great thing. It took over an hour but we figured everything out and bought the chalkboard.

I will be going back to Karabulak after the holidays when the courses start, and will have pictures and a full update.

One of the most powerful moments during the trip was the gratitude expressed by my old director and some of the local people to the people who donated to our project. We all thank you, and will have pictures and more information, pictures, and a full update when the classes finally begin.

 

Time: It’s on my side

How my housing situation was solved:

The crazy landlady who told lies about me wanted me to vacate the apartment by December. Packing up my things and cleaning the apartment wasn’t difficult, as it took me only 45 minutes to put my belongings into a big backpack, a day bag, and a large rice bag.

On December 1, I still hadn’t found a new place to live. This wasn't my only problem.

Due to a banking issue, I was unable to access my bank account in Kazakhstan for about 3 days. It really wasn’t even the bank’s fault. To make a long story short, I could not find my account number (the landlady had a habit of taking down the lock to my room and rearranging my stuff. I eventually found my bank number and a great many other random things of mine while cleaning for the last time), and it took the bank longer than they thought to issue me a new one.

My director, manager, co-workers, and family were very concerned for me, especially with the housing problem. I wasn’t really alarmed. I was without a home and without money, but the reason I did not worry (much) was because I had a very powerful resource on my side: time.

I was very lucky that Mid Service Training (MST) happened to be the 1st week in December, when I was without a place to live and when I couldn’t access my money. MST is a big conference that is a chance for volunteers to reflect on what they have done in their first year, and begin planning for their second year and beyond. For me, MST gave me enough time to find a new place and to sort out the banking problem.

Outside of giving me time to solve my problems, I was worried that MST would be a waste of a conference. However, I was pleasantly surprised. MST allowed me to step back and really take a look at what I had done this year. I really have accomplished some of my goals such as:

• Assisting people and organizations. This is unrelated to MST, but during the last week, I received phone calls and text messages from people who I worked with over the past year. Some called to wish me a late birthday, others just to update me on their lives (I’m especially proud of 2 students that are attending university in Astana studying English, and my old director that has finally started construction on her new NGO).

• Language acquisition: I took an optional Russian language test that is offered at MST. Back in training all of the Kaz-20 OCAPs made a pact to never tell their results, and I will never break that promise. I will say that my results “exceeded my expectations”.

• Professional/future career: I’m getting closer to narrowing down what I want to do when I’m done with Peace Corps.

My gamble of using MST to buy enough time to find an apartment paid off. With the help of my manager, we located a small apartment. As soon as the conference was done, I moved in. My new landlady is nice, prompt, and above all, sane unlike the last one. While I like the place, I barely had enough time to catch my breath before I hit the road again; this time back to start a community project in Karabulak.