Broccoli and fun simply go hand in hand

What a week and a half it has been! To give you the basic layout of my trip, I left Pavlodar with three other volunteers from our Oblast for Shymkent on the 20^th of March. We arrived in Shymkent 36 hours later at 1am on the 22^nd of March. Then on the evening of the 23^rd, many of us took the bus to Almaty and arrived at 7am on the 24^th. My counterpart and I left Almaty for Pavlodar on the evening of the 30^th and got back at night on the 31^st.

But what happened in between all of those dates? Well, I’m glad you asked, because a whole lot of fun as well as a little bit of training happened in that time. Our train ride down to Shymkent started well by automatically making friends with the train conductors in our particular car. We had a few beers and played cards for a big portion of the trip because 36 hours is a long time to be on train with loud kids with loud toys and loud, snoring people. But I got to box a four year old kid, so that was cool. Except he won, because he head-butted me into submission ;-)

We got in late and split our separate ways to different apartments. The next day, we got cleaned up and ready and went out to the Hippodrome to watch all of the events happening there. There were all kinds of traditional dances, music, food, horses races, wrestling, and the big event, Kokpar, which is basically the same as polo, but instead of sticks and a ball, they use a dead goat carcass. Got to see a lot of volunteers out at the games, which was cool, and my language teacher from training was out there as well.

The weather? Well, it snowed the day before we left Pavlodar, but in Shymkent it was already hot; in the 80’s already. After the games, we went to get some dinner, some drinks, and then we headed home to get some good rest. Saw what we could of Shymkent the next day and then took an overnight bus to Almaty. Arrived in Almaty at 7am or so and hung out until check-in at the Sanatorium.

Funny story about our arrival to Shymkent: when we first arrived to Almaty, there was a lot of confusion about how to get to the Peace Corps office to drop off our bags. Several taxi drivers approached us with their ideas of how to get us all there (we were 15 with lots of luggage), but I decided I was done sitting around and went to the local bus stop to catch the next bus to the Peace Corps office. Several others followed and we ended up on a small bus with all of our luggage. Not a smart thing to do at 7:15am, by the way. It was fine when we got on, but more and more people were getting on. In fact, by the time we got to our stop, it took a solid minute to get everyone off of the bus. People were pissed because we had gotten on with our bags and most of the other Americans were trying to be proper, holding their bags and asking people to move so they could get off. I just took my duffel bag and, like a battering ram, blasted through, somehow making a path where there was no path previously. I could tell the others kids with me were stressed, but it was totally worth it and I’d gladly drop another 40 tenge (32 cents) to do it again. Lord knows I’ve been pushed around enough on buses...

I’ll shoot through the rest of the week quickly: lots of boring “training” sessions, lots of people complaining about how tough their sites and jobs are, and lots of good conversation with a few select individuals. I roomed with Zach for the week and we had some good night conversation as well. Then Asiya came on Thursday and we had a project design and management workshop that I didn’t think was going to help, but it certainly did and I’m glad Asiya was there to take part in it. We’re sort of trying to indirectly change Asiya’s role at the organization from simply a typist to someone who can fill my spot when I leave, which, after talking with my director, I think is a good idea.

Went on a really good walk & talk with my regional manager Friday evening... Went to a ridiculously over-priced Jazz club Saturday evening (a piece of cheesecake was $16 and I wish I could say that was an exaggeration)... Took Asiya around the city a little bit, went to Medeo, but it was closed in preparation for the Olympic torch passing through... Bought a pineapple and fresh broccoli at the “Green Bazaar...” That was really exciting, actually. First, you simply can’t buy it up here and secondly, I haven’t had fresh broccoli since... at least last August. I didn’t even cook it - didn’t want to potentially ruin it. Instead I made a tasty omelet with black olives, broccoli, and cheese and cleaned and ate the rest raw.

We had a fairly pleasant train ride back. One of the other passengers in our sleeper car liked to smoke at the end of the train (like he’s entitled to) with the door open and then come back and smell the whole place up something awful with his nasty, cigarettey breath. It was also a little warm, but there was one window open near the conductors’ rooms, so I hung out there a lot, watching the Steppe and enjoying the wind. Consequently, the conductors found out I was foreign and we talked for a while and had good conversation. When they asked how long I had been studying Russian, I said seven months. And then it hit me - how crazy it is that in seven months, I’ve been able to get such a basis of this language. Sure, Russian frustrates me almost daily, but I must have talked with these two guys for well over three hours. I can’t wait to see what my language level is in another year and then where it is when I leave here.

I’ve got lots of pictures from the journey - indulge yourself:

From left: Jeff, Andrew, Nora - playing the great game of Durak.


Andrew was so happy with his purchase - a nicely smoked fish.


Thanks, Zach, I love to be captured on camera after 4 hours of sleep.


"Nauryz 2008: Happy Holiday!"


Dancing


More dancing


Three dancers (matching the flowers on their left)


Some really good Kazakh music.


Spring's here!


Cutest girl ever in the cutest dress with the cutest smile. Ok, no more using the word cute for the remainder of the pictures.


This game involves a race between a man and woman: the first half, they race one way and the guy has to catch up to the girl and kiss her. The second half, back the other way, the girl chases after the boy and beats him with this whip/ stick thing.


Wrestling... on horses. Chuck Norris has nothing on these guys.


Kokpar - it's basically polo but instead of sticks and a ball, you use a headless goat carcass.


The goal is to throw the carcass into the goal, which is hay wrapped with tires apparently. And there are some beautifully dressed Kazakh girls.


From left: my good friends Zach, right, and Perry.


On the bus ride to Almaty, this guy fell asleep on Zach's shoulder. Aww, how cute.


Eating breakfast at the sanitarium.


My car! How the heck did Smart cars get to Kazakhstan!?


The Jazz Club "Twiggy's."


It's a rabbit! It's a squirrel! It's a squirbet!


The sign language for "Pavlodar" is two steps: the first being shown by Andrew. You then slide down the face and pull away (as shown by me). Represent!


A sunset in Almaty - I don't know why, but it's what I'd imagine some city in the Middle East looking like.


My counterpart, Asiya, and I at the PDM workshop. Our pretty nametag won us a bag of M&M's.


The view from our confernce room.


The old Soviet nuclear testing site is not too far from here. According to the train conductor, these were bunkers used to observe the explosions that happened up until the late 80's.


The window was finally open on a train and I didn't suffer the heat! This is pretty much the same landscape I see for 30+ hours every time I go anywhere in this country.