The Return of Satan

The horrible dog of pure evil, Satan, has returned to my apartment complex. I thought he was dead or found a random soul to feast upon, but he's back and angrier than before. I saw him rooting around the trash pile while I was leaving for work today. He saw me too, and we exchanged the usual pleasantries reserved for mortal enemies: He growled and bared his teeth, and I picked up a large rock. I would have taken a picture, except I was afraid he'd rush me and then my soul would have been consumed.

If Satan knew what was good for him, he'd move on. It's summertime, and as the temperature rises in Ecik so does my temper toward devil canines.

I'll smite that mutt if he gets too close

Almaty: The biggest apple

Although I still believe that Taldykorgan is the best city in Kazakhstan, I must admit that during this past week I have become fond of Almaty. Almaty is about 50 kilometers from my small town of Ecik. It is the largest city in Kazakhstan but not the capital (it was switched to Astana). Nevertheless, Almaty is still the main banking and financial center of the country and serves as the main transportation hub for air and rail for people who travel within the country. Chances are that if you are traveling somewhere in country, you'll go through Almaty first.

Almaty (translated from Kazakh, means "grandfather of the apple") is very beautiful all year around, and it can be argued that there is more to do in this city than in any other in Kazakhstan. My personal favorite things to do include shopping for strawberries at the Green Bazaar, admiring all of the amazing statues and the Orthodox Church in Panfilov Park, and hiking in the mountains outside of the city. There are lots of plays and concerts to attend for the culturally minded, and just as many cafes for the culinary minded, and twice as many bars and pubs for the socially minded.

The Orthodox Church in Panfiov Park, Almaty.

The statues in Almaty and Kazakhstan are usually big, badass and very intense. This is the monument to veterans that served in World War II, and my favorite monument in Kazakhstan, Located in Panfilov Park.

For all the fun and cultural things that one can do in Almaty, it comes with a price. Literally. Almaty holds the distinction of being the 44th most expensive city in the world according to Mercer's Cost of Living Index of 2009. This doesn't sound like a big deal, until you consider that according to this list, it is more expensive to live in Almaty than Chicago or Miami. And those cities aren't cheap either. This is one reason that it is rare for a Peace Corps volunteer to be assigned to Almaty, and the main reason why I avoid spending too much time there. It is a money sucking pit of fun and good food.

While the city is amazing, the expensiveness of Almaty can be harmful to the account of a volunteer that is not disciplined with their money, because we don't get a lot of it! However, after going several months without fresh brewed coffee and American style food, volunteers who go to Almaty can't help to spurge at Pizza Hut or Gloria Jeans Coffee, or running inside the supermarket called Ramstore for some type of American food that is hard to find in Kazakhstan (and expensive) like peanut butter or Pop Tarts. And this doesn't include getting a beer at one of the many ex-pat bars in town to catch up with other volunteers who are also passing through.

Between hanging out with the Kaz 21s, who must come to the city to do their medical exams this month, stopping in for a day to help out with an English summer camp, and charting hiking routes for this awesome project, I spent about 5 days and around 10 000 tenge in Almaty this past week. Converted to dollars, it is close to 75. It may not seem like much, but on average what I spent in Almaty in one week equals I spend on food in a month.

But I'm not complaining, because having the opportunity to get a white mocha coffee and blueberry scone for breakfast, a vegetarian pizza for lunch, burritos with salsa for dinner, and a pint of Belgium white beer was totally worth it.




Only this week, though.

Me: The reluctant worker

Tomorrow is a new month. Time seems to fly when you are having fun, or something like that. While my self imposed time off was beneficial, it wasn't exactly what I envisioned. In my fantasy world the words "Taking a break" means just that. In reality it meant "saying that you will do nothing, and then people knock on your door to drag you outside to do something awesome". I never did have the willpower to say no to doing interesting things or going on adventures. The odder, the more obscure, the more interesting, the better. And although all I wanted to do was stay in my apartment, cook, and watch movies by myself, my local friends, director, and co-workers had other plans for me. There was fun to be had, work to do, and new people to meet! And although at first I hated it because I wanted to be alone, in retrospect it was for the best. So what was I doing over the past couple of weeks? Here's a quick run down:

Failure: Mission Kokpar. Success: Everything else (Shymkent)

One of the things I must do before leaving Kazakhstan is to see a game of kokpar. It involves two teams on horseback fighting over a sheep carcass to throw into a hole. I think this is totally badass. Kokpar is most popular in the southern regions of Kazakhstan so while my organization went to Ukraine, I paid a visit to Shymkent in order to hang out with volunteers and to witness this totally awesome sport. Just like last time, kokpar was elusive and it didn't happen. But getting the chance to spend quality time with friends, play basketball, eat great food, and meet new people was better than any kokpar game. Thanks to all of the volunteers in the area for letting me tag along for a couple of days, and especially to Becca for hosting me in her sweet new apartment!

While I am still on the subject of awesome things, I was also in Shymkent for Victory Day. Celebrated on May 9th, it is a holiday to remember the soldiers and people who were in World War II. Kazakhstan played a part in the war, fighting on the Russian side. There was a parade, complete with a marching band, tanks, and a couple of WWII veterans with so many medals that the shine messed up my photos. I even heard an all female capella group sing a rendition of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "In the Mood". That brought back a lot of memories of the days when I played in this dixieland jazz festival.

From Shymkent, Kazakhstan, introducing the Southern Kazakhstan Oblast Marching Band!

Veterans with lots of medals. Check out the shine.

Me with awesome Kaz 21s and my Kaz 20 roommate from staging. It was great to hang out!

The Mid-May Meltdown (I'm not 100%, but I'm getting better)

Every volunteer goes through a period of trying times, and for a variety of reasons, I almost made the third biggest mistake of my life by almost leaving Kazakhstan early. It wasn't pretty, but I'm getting back on my feet. In the meanwhile, I decided that I will remain in Kazakhstan until the end of my service in early November.

The "State Youth Forum in Ecik"

While I was on my break, my "counterpart" came to me with this one. Her request: to help prepare the Youth Bank of Ecik for a statewide youth festival.

A quick explanation of the Youth Bank: It is a collection of youth in Ecik between 14-20 that were given money to finance projects for youth in the region. These projects must be initiated, led, and organized by youth. They financed 4 youth led projects in the region: A soccer tournament, a play, a dance competition, and a photo contest. Helping the Youth Bank was my major project from September until February, and was a lot of fun. I sit on their board of directors, and am a mentor to many of the youth. In addition, I got to teach them about budgeting, grant writing and reviewing, time management, leadership, basic project design management, and some other stuff. They taught me slang, how to swear in Russian (when no adults were around), showed me around town, and gave me a recipe for how to make Russian style pancakes (blini). And lots of chocolate. I'm proud of the Youth Bank, and proud of the kids who participated. Although we finished our work in February, many Youth Bank members still stop by the office to say hello, and I see them around while I'm doing errands in town.

Oddest Peace Corps secondary project ever: guest judge for the Youth Bank financed youth dance competition. I'm not qualified to be a dance judge at all (my dancing skills are better now, but still very bad), but the students requested me because I was impartial and didn't know any of the dancers personally. We had to give on the spot critiques! I was *slighty* nicer than Simon, and wittier than Randy Jackson and all in Russian too! This dance duo won second place.

Working together with Aigerim, my "project counterpart" (I don't have an official counterpart), we met with the original Youth Bank members. This was easier said than done, as they are busy with finals in school. Together, we designed t-shirts, printed out a banner with our emblem, and marched in the parade. They did the designing, Aigerim and I did the leg work.

I love parades! There was dancing, shashlyk, singing, and lots of cheering. The pictures aren't as good because I was in the thick of things, but it was very sweet to have our organization introduced to the Oblast Akim (like State Governor?) and yell "We are the Youth Bank! Hooray!" in Kazakh.

Check out our banner and t-shirts.

Hooray Youth Bank!

Mission: to march around the track and be presented to the Oblast Akim (State Governor) in the big wooden structure .

Me with the Kazakh equivalent of ROTC of "Al-Farabi" School and the Enbekshikazakh District boxing champion in the 10-12 age group bracket. He's small, but fast, and could easily beat me up. Probably you too.

Festival at Ecik Stadium: Kinda a big deal.

Me with Aigerim, my "counterpart of right now". My eyes are closed because evidently I still have trouble understanding the difference between the number "3" and the word "now" in Kazakh. To the left of Aigerim, you can see a young girl in traditional Kazakh dress.

Project Advisory Committee for the new Youth Development Program in Kazakhstan

This committee brought me to Almaty for a day to provide recommendations for Peace Corps Youth Development (YD) Program. My program, OCAP (Organizational and Community Assistance Program), has gone the way of the dinosaur, and in its place is a program for youth development. This is the program's first year, so Peace Corps wanted recommendations on how to make it better.

When it comes to demographics, Kazakhstan is a very young country with a lot of youth. This is a big deal, because today's youth become tomorrow's leaders, doctors, teachers, and stuff like that. Youth are important. So much so that the government has a made youth development in Kazakhstan a national priority.

So NGO leaders, Peace Corps staff, and government officials came together to review the YD project plan objectives and talk about what a Youth Development volunteer can do in Kazakhstan. My role in the committee was to give a volunteer's perspective, to give a first hand account of what a volunteer could realistically do on the ground. Although I was giving my opinions and ideas, it was very eye opening because I got a glimpse of exactly how much work goes into designing a Peace Corps program (a lot). Now I am very excited for the new Kaz-22 volunteers who will come in August and get to be a part of this program!

My Summer Camp Campaign

In addition to winter, spring, summer, and autumn, America has other seasons such as football, season, BBQ season, pool season, and wedding season. Kazakhstan has something of the same: Holiday season, when there are a ton of holidays for about 2 months straight, Shashlyk season, when it gets warm enough to eat meat on a stick outside, and my personal favorite: Strawberry season, when everyone sells strawberries and they are dirt cheap. Strawberry season will start soon and only lasts for about 2 weeks according to my fruit lady at the bazaar.

For volunteers, the most important season is summer camp season. This season starts on May 26th, and goes through August 1st, which are the days when kids are off from school for the summer. Volunteers love summer camp season because it gives them the chance to hang out with kids and other volunteers, focus on things that are of interest to them such as sports, culture, arts and crafts, and get a chance to see different parts of the country without using precious leave days. Many volunteers organize their summer plans by the end of May, and I was no exception. Last June, I was really into summer camps, but this June I'm keeping things low key by staying close to home. Because of work I'm not sure about my July plans yet, but possible destinations include Taraz, Astana, or Petropavolsk.

My schedule for June. It's pretty bare, except for the camps, which are in light blue. My Organization's travels are in light red (I get those days off, they don't need me then), and dark blue is hiking in the mountains. Black is for Peace Corps work. This is considered a light travel month during summer camp season! :-)

Taking a little break

I've decided to take some time off from work, Peace Corps stuff, and blogging. Normally I'd just not mention anything, but many of my family members read my blog (hi Dad!), and if I go more than a week without posting something, they start to worry that something bad happened to me. There is nothing wrong and I am quite fine, just that during the past couple of weeks I've had a couple of experiences (both good and bad) that collectively were overwhelming, and I need some time to reflect on everything, decompress, and decide what I'm going to do next.

I'll resume posting again in late May or early June.

Why Taldykorgan is so awesome

This weekend, I went to Taldykorgan to celebrate a birthday of a good friend. We kept the party low key, with a cake, lots of movies, and just hanging out and talking.

In many of my posts, and in many conversations, I've raved about the awesomeness of the city. However, I've never explained why this city is so great and why is my favorite in all of Kazakhstan. Don't get me wrong, the other cities I have visited in Kazakhstan are nice, like Kostanai, Ust Komegorsk, Almaty, and Shymkent. They have great qualities: Kostani has insane ice sculptures in winter. Ust feels almost European. Almaty has everything you could ever want. Shymkent is very green, very Kazakh, and gets spring really early.

I know I have a personal bias, because my first site was 20 min from Taldykorgan, but even after living in Almaty's shadow for 8 months, I still think that But Taldykorgan (usually called Taldy) is the best. In fact, Taldy is one of my "top 5 cities I would want to be in right now."

Why? I'll list 5 reasons:

1. Weather, population, climate: Kazakhstan is a country of extremes, with temperatures ranging from -40F in winter to over 100F consistently in the summer, depending on where you are at. However, Taldykorgan doesn't have any this problem. While their winters are cold, it doesn't get as cold as northern Kazakhstan (which still has snow) and doesn't get as hot as the South Kazakhstan. It's not dusty, and the city is very green. Taldykorgan is also a very small city. Almaty dwarfs it, as does Karaganda and Shymkent. But even so to me, Taldy gives off a small town middle america vibe that reminds me of my hometown, Davenport Iowa. It's large enough to be in a city, small enough that if you want, people will remeber your name. And there's something in that which I like.

2. History. One would think that Almaty, because it was the old capital of Kazakhstan and the largest city in the oblast (state), would also serve as the oblast capital. However, Taldykorgan was awarded this status in 2001. I always love it when the small guy wins against gigantic odds.

3. Food: Taldykorgan has some of the cheapest good food in a city in all of Kazakhstan. For the price of 1500 tenge (about 10 dollars), you could eat out for 3 meals, and eat well. 1500 tenge could get you through 1 meal, maybe 2, in Almaty. Taldy, despite its size, has a wide variety of food:

• Laghman place: Get plates of laghman as big as your face for about 300 tenge!
  
• Blini (pancake) place: Denny's, Kazakhstan style.
• Hamburger place: Get *almost* American style hamburgers here
• Shashlyk + place: Eat shashlyk (meat on a stick) outside on a huge patio, and watch the world go by. Now upgraded with nifty couches, a tent, and beer.
• Hessen Pub: The only place mentioned by name. The other places have names, but it's just tradition to call them by the food you can buy there. Hessen pub is a German style restaurant that brews its own beer. It's not bad. Although the most expensive place in town, you can eat, drink, and be merry for under 1000 tenge (if you are smart!) That's practically impossible in Almaty!
• Kvass place: Kvass is a lightly fermented drink from bread. I love this stuff, and Taldy has a place that sells Kvass to go!
• Korean Place: You can eat some pretty ok Korean food in Taldy. It also serves dog. I haven't tried it, although I haven't ruled it out. I have to figure out how I feel about eating something that usually tries to eat me.
  

4. Soccer! Taldykorgan has a soccer team, FC Jetiszu. For the size of the city, it fields a good team and usually finishes middle of the pack in Kazakhstan's premier league.

5. The people: The top reason why I think Taldy is the best city in Kazakhstan is because of all the awesome people, both from Kazakhstan and America who live there, or who have lived there in the past. And there are also the great memories of the PCVs before (including myself) who called Taldy home. Every time I go, I meet someone new that is cool, find a new "place" or get to know someone better.

What's to not like about that!