Friday when I got home from class, via an ecotourism agency where we scoped out the possibilities for a mountain adventure next weekend, I was put straight to work. To be fair, I did walk into the kitchen bearing a bag of strawberries and asking if I could help. In short order I was slicing pickles and carrots and potatoes for soup. Host mother, host sister, sister’s friend, host brother: we all jostled for counter space and the stove. It was an amiable mess, with some moments of concern, such as when the oven door opened inches from my leg…
Hot oil, boiling soup, steaming oven. Good thing it was such a cool and beautiful day in Almaty. We’ve had a couple days of rain and cold (I’ve been vindicated for bringing along a few articles of warm clothing), so it was a joy just to walk home from class in the sun. Almaty is oriented with the mountains as compass rose. The whole city is on a slant. Class is “up” from where I live, so I take the bus. Coming home is all “down,” which makes for a pleasant walk through the heart of the city.
Of course, living on a mountain slope has its disadvantages. On Tuesday I was caught out on a walk when it started to pour. There have been a couple of thunderstorms so far, but this was a riot of rain that quickly turned into a flash flood. Rain in the city means it’s been raining for a while up above, and all that water has to go somewhere. Most of it seemed to end up in my socks.
Fortunately enough, the place I was going for an interview was not deterred when I showed up soaking at their door. From here on in, I’ll be spending a few hours a week with the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia. There are quite a few interns on board this summer and currently we are all housed on the fourth floor of the building around a conference table. We are basically a secretary corps; my current task involves translating cross-tabulated data sets (don’t tell my Kazakh teacher that most of it is translation from Russian to English…). I am enjoying the chance to see how the organization works, and also the chance to shake up my schedule a bit!
Kazakh is difficult, but it is rewarding to be starting to recognize new words. Watching television is no longer quite such a mystery; I’ve even glimpsed a Turkish soap opera dubbed into Kazakh, which was my favorite way to learn Russian, so maybe I should re-develop my addiction. Speaking Kazakh in Kazakhstan is still a magical key. Yeah, people will stare at you like you are even more crazy than usual, but it’s fun to watch the reactions when they match your face to your words. I like to think I brighten the day of the two young people working in the samsa stand near the university when I make it to the front of the line and order my hot pastry puff filled with salty cheese. Russian is still far and away the lingua franca, but there is more Kazakh on the streets than I remember from two years ago.
Did you know that just last week in Ankara, Turkey they unveiled a new statue of none other than Our President? Whose birthday is on July 6, which just happens to be a national holiday (ok, so technically it‘s a holiday for Astana…)? Who was referred to in a poem in the state newspaper as “Ata-Kazakh”?
Really, I have no comment, just wanted to frame some rhetorical questions.
Also, for those who are concerned, we are keeping our eyes on Kyrgyzstan, though there hasn’t been too much in the local press about the on-going situation in the south. Osh and Jalalabad are both very far from here. I met an fellow ex-pat last weekend who drove through the region sort of accidentally (he had been out of contact for a few days before driving from Tajikistan north to Almaty). His report involved being shot at while driving around a road block; I’m sad to say this is probably the least harrowing of the stories coming out of the area. Let’s all just keep hoping for peace, and maybe for some answers.
My homework this weekend involved writing a 5-page paper in Kazakh. The theme was Human Relations. Somehow the length was both too short and far, far too long, especially after I spent two evenings in a row at Kazakh theaters.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Week 1
This past week, after three days of the Kazakh language reminding me that every word is a tongue twister, I met up with some current Peace Corps volunteers. They are a part of the group that I worked with during training, way back in the fall of 2008. I remember them in their worst possible moments (just getting off the plane, during their first round of vaccines from doctors with Russian accents, struggling with their experiences in front of Kazakhstani classrooms); so it is wonderful to see them accomplished and feeling comfortable in this country. Their experiences have been very different from mine, yet I understand how they feel right now with just a few months left of service. Ready to go home!
They had plenty of gossip to pass along and also plenty of recommendations: a new Mexican-American restaurant, couches to surf around the country, and the marine-hosted Fourth of July party in Astana. It made me smile -- I remember well how it felt to have Almaty (and the Peace Corps office lounge) as a haven. How astonishing and wonderful it was to find carrot cake or a real pizza.
I tried to explain that, really, I have just come from America. That I’d lived another couple lives between my last time in Kazakhstan and now. That two weeks ago I was at the Ultimate Frisbee nationals tournament and spent an hour eating bratwursts and riding carnival rides. That I’m only in Kazakhstan for a few precious weeks. And that all I really want to do is stuff my face with laghman, manty, and cups of hot milky tea.
I am living with a great family near the center of Almaty. Our neighbor is the Esperanza café and discoteka. The family is helping me with my above food requests and has in general been very welcoming. Adizhan, the four-year-old youngest child, provides me with constant entertainment. I like to think we find each other equally fascinating. I’ve recently, at his mother’s urging, taught him to ask “May I?” with a good American accent before barging into my room. My first night here, blurry with jet lag and already falling asleep in bed, he came in to give me an impromptu goodnight hug. On the less fun side of things, I made him cry yesterday by telling him that he could not continue to play ping-pong against the wall (he lost the ball multiple times under the bed/couch). We do appear to be friends again today, though.
It is more than a bit strange to live in Almaty. For a recent Kazakh assignment, I produced the following sentence: “I think that the foreign students studying at KIMEP are not seeing the real Kazakhstan.” This is a bit harsh -- Almaty is certainly a part of Kazakhstan (though KIMEP, a regional powerhouse university, raises serious doubts), and city life in general is found throughout the country. But there is just something so unreal about being here. The traffic is crazy, but people still stop for pedestrians at marked crosswalks. Strangers on busses offer up their laps for the bags of standing passengers. The Mc Burger restaurant is near the bubble tea cart which is near restaurant with free wi-fi. Almaty is not an intimidating city, I don’t think. There is a sense of law and order, there are those looming mountains with their dramatic weather, there are fountains and many parks with rows and rows of blooming roses. I am enjoying having the time and motivation to wander.
One of my favorite things about Almaty is that no one ever seems to know where anything is located. I have already been asked for directions more times that I can count, and I was even able to help once. People ask what the next street is, where the bus stop is, how to get to the nearest pharmacy. Asking strangers is standard operating procedure, even for people who have lived in Almaty all their lives.
Then there are the wonderfully bizarre moments that I love. The bar, for example, with numerous prominently displayed signs reading “Smoking is strictly forbidden” that brings its patrons ash trays and makes no comment when cigarettes appear. The conductor who collects bus fare and passes out tickets while wearing a t-shirt that reads in large, friendly, pink letters: “I’m student. No money.”
I’m working on my collection of great t-shirts, by the way. Let me know if you have any to add. Personal favorites so far are: “I make boy cry” (so close!) and “party ou of bound” (and also out of space). There is a fabulous fake-newsprint plastic bag that I’ve seen a few people carrying on the street. I think it might be the Holy Grail of fake English, even better than the cartoon print shirts Jeff and I bought. Wish me luck finding one of my own the next time I go to the bazaar!
I’m spending plenty of time studying (3 hours of one-on-one Kazakh 5 days a week is motivation enough to do my homework), and I’m also catching up with friends. Saturday was my former co-teacher’s wedding, which came as a huge surprise when I called to tell her I was back in country. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get away or the tickets to make the trip to Zhelezinka this weekend. Last Friday was the circumcision ceremony for the Hooligan, who is now an astonishing 5 years old. Still not sure if I would have gone if I had found out in advance -- we had tickets to a concert at the grand Abai Ballet and Opera Theater, and the ceremony seems a bit, well, personal somehow. Might get a second chance if I’m still here in August, as Adizhan is approaching 5. At any rate, I’m hoping to get out to see my first host family soon.
That’s the news for now! Hugs to you all.
They had plenty of gossip to pass along and also plenty of recommendations: a new Mexican-American restaurant, couches to surf around the country, and the marine-hosted Fourth of July party in Astana. It made me smile -- I remember well how it felt to have Almaty (and the Peace Corps office lounge) as a haven. How astonishing and wonderful it was to find carrot cake or a real pizza.
I tried to explain that, really, I have just come from America. That I’d lived another couple lives between my last time in Kazakhstan and now. That two weeks ago I was at the Ultimate Frisbee nationals tournament and spent an hour eating bratwursts and riding carnival rides. That I’m only in Kazakhstan for a few precious weeks. And that all I really want to do is stuff my face with laghman, manty, and cups of hot milky tea.
I am living with a great family near the center of Almaty. Our neighbor is the Esperanza café and discoteka. The family is helping me with my above food requests and has in general been very welcoming. Adizhan, the four-year-old youngest child, provides me with constant entertainment. I like to think we find each other equally fascinating. I’ve recently, at his mother’s urging, taught him to ask “May I?” with a good American accent before barging into my room. My first night here, blurry with jet lag and already falling asleep in bed, he came in to give me an impromptu goodnight hug. On the less fun side of things, I made him cry yesterday by telling him that he could not continue to play ping-pong against the wall (he lost the ball multiple times under the bed/couch). We do appear to be friends again today, though.
It is more than a bit strange to live in Almaty. For a recent Kazakh assignment, I produced the following sentence: “I think that the foreign students studying at KIMEP are not seeing the real Kazakhstan.” This is a bit harsh -- Almaty is certainly a part of Kazakhstan (though KIMEP, a regional powerhouse university, raises serious doubts), and city life in general is found throughout the country. But there is just something so unreal about being here. The traffic is crazy, but people still stop for pedestrians at marked crosswalks. Strangers on busses offer up their laps for the bags of standing passengers. The Mc Burger restaurant is near the bubble tea cart which is near restaurant with free wi-fi. Almaty is not an intimidating city, I don’t think. There is a sense of law and order, there are those looming mountains with their dramatic weather, there are fountains and many parks with rows and rows of blooming roses. I am enjoying having the time and motivation to wander.
One of my favorite things about Almaty is that no one ever seems to know where anything is located. I have already been asked for directions more times that I can count, and I was even able to help once. People ask what the next street is, where the bus stop is, how to get to the nearest pharmacy. Asking strangers is standard operating procedure, even for people who have lived in Almaty all their lives.
Then there are the wonderfully bizarre moments that I love. The bar, for example, with numerous prominently displayed signs reading “Smoking is strictly forbidden” that brings its patrons ash trays and makes no comment when cigarettes appear. The conductor who collects bus fare and passes out tickets while wearing a t-shirt that reads in large, friendly, pink letters: “I’m student. No money.”
I’m working on my collection of great t-shirts, by the way. Let me know if you have any to add. Personal favorites so far are: “I make boy cry” (so close!) and “party ou of bound” (and also out of space). There is a fabulous fake-newsprint plastic bag that I’ve seen a few people carrying on the street. I think it might be the Holy Grail of fake English, even better than the cartoon print shirts Jeff and I bought. Wish me luck finding one of my own the next time I go to the bazaar!
I’m spending plenty of time studying (3 hours of one-on-one Kazakh 5 days a week is motivation enough to do my homework), and I’m also catching up with friends. Saturday was my former co-teacher’s wedding, which came as a huge surprise when I called to tell her I was back in country. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get away or the tickets to make the trip to Zhelezinka this weekend. Last Friday was the circumcision ceremony for the Hooligan, who is now an astonishing 5 years old. Still not sure if I would have gone if I had found out in advance -- we had tickets to a concert at the grand Abai Ballet and Opera Theater, and the ceremony seems a bit, well, personal somehow. Might get a second chance if I’m still here in August, as Adizhan is approaching 5. At any rate, I’m hoping to get out to see my first host family soon.
That’s the news for now! Hugs to you all.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Almaty!
Made it.
After two long, but not too terrible, flights we are here! Got in around midnight, made it through passport control, and then had that wonderful sinking sensation of,"Uh, where is my bag?"
Luckily, the rest of our small group (just five students, all graduate) got their luggage without any trouble. When I went up to make my complaint, the Lufthansa people had already been notified that my bag was left in Frankfurt. So it should be in either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Not really a problem, not really unexpected, but here's hoping that everything arrives intact!
I'm staying with a family in a downtown apartment. It's pretty luxurious to be able to walk to a cafe with wi-fi. Our next door neighbor is a large diskoteka. Should make for some entertaining evenings. The family hosted a student last summer, which makes my job easier. They have some expectations already of what this experience will be like; so far their ideas line up with mine. I'm getting in some good Kazakh practice with their four-year-old boy. No huge communication mishaps yet, but I'm sure they are on the way.
Classes start Monday. I'll have three hours a day of one-on-one Kazakh language class. That sounds a bit intimidating to me, but I am looking forward to some serious language improvement.
No phone yet, but I am happy to report that the accordion player with the music stand and the pleasant voice is still sitting on the same door stoop that he was two years ago. And there are still doner kebabs and hot samasa on every corner.
Now the real test: can I wander back to my new home?
Hugs,
Nora
After two long, but not too terrible, flights we are here! Got in around midnight, made it through passport control, and then had that wonderful sinking sensation of,"Uh, where is my bag?"
Luckily, the rest of our small group (just five students, all graduate) got their luggage without any trouble. When I went up to make my complaint, the Lufthansa people had already been notified that my bag was left in Frankfurt. So it should be in either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Not really a problem, not really unexpected, but here's hoping that everything arrives intact!
I'm staying with a family in a downtown apartment. It's pretty luxurious to be able to walk to a cafe with wi-fi. Our next door neighbor is a large diskoteka. Should make for some entertaining evenings. The family hosted a student last summer, which makes my job easier. They have some expectations already of what this experience will be like; so far their ideas line up with mine. I'm getting in some good Kazakh practice with their four-year-old boy. No huge communication mishaps yet, but I'm sure they are on the way.
Classes start Monday. I'll have three hours a day of one-on-one Kazakh language class. That sounds a bit intimidating to me, but I am looking forward to some serious language improvement.
No phone yet, but I am happy to report that the accordion player with the music stand and the pleasant voice is still sitting on the same door stoop that he was two years ago. And there are still doner kebabs and hot samasa on every corner.
Now the real test: can I wander back to my new home?
Hugs,
Nora
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Return to KZ
That's right, folks, I'm off to Kazakhstan again!
Rumor has it that blogspot is difficult to access in Kazakhstan (thank you, KZ government!), so posts may be sporadic or non-existent. "How will this be any different from your blog track record in the past?" you ask. Good question.
I'll be in Almaty, arguably the most lovely city in Kazakhstan, from early June to early August. The academic program is focused on Kazakh language acquisition -- I'm looking forward to being able to put together a complicated sentence again. I'm guessing there will also be ample opportunities to brush up on Russian.
My hope is to travel back to all my favorite haunts (Pavlodar, the village, Turkestan, etc.) and add some new ones after the program ends (maybe an Uzbekistan visa will come through this time... or Georgia!). So if you are in the area and itching to travel, let me know.
More as soon as I've got it...
Nora
PS -- Minneapolis and Madison kids, I'll be around for a bit between Bloomington and Almaty (May 22 - June 7 ish). Let's catch up!
PPS -- DC kids, I'll be around from June 7 - June 9 ish. Ditto the catching up bit.
Rumor has it that blogspot is difficult to access in Kazakhstan (thank you, KZ government!), so posts may be sporadic or non-existent. "How will this be any different from your blog track record in the past?" you ask. Good question.
I'll be in Almaty, arguably the most lovely city in Kazakhstan, from early June to early August. The academic program is focused on Kazakh language acquisition -- I'm looking forward to being able to put together a complicated sentence again. I'm guessing there will also be ample opportunities to brush up on Russian.
My hope is to travel back to all my favorite haunts (Pavlodar, the village, Turkestan, etc.) and add some new ones after the program ends (maybe an Uzbekistan visa will come through this time... or Georgia!). So if you are in the area and itching to travel, let me know.
More as soon as I've got it...
Nora
PS -- Minneapolis and Madison kids, I'll be around for a bit between Bloomington and Almaty (May 22 - June 7 ish). Let's catch up!
PPS -- DC kids, I'll be around from June 7 - June 9 ish. Ditto the catching up bit.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
One Year Back
A year ago, I came home from Kazakhstan.
Honestly, the exact day escapes my memory. I remember that it was snowing in Almaty the day I left, and the streets were dark as we drove away from the Peace Corps office so early in the morning.
It is good to be back in America. I am throwing back on the personality I once had -- the person who has a full day, every day. Graduate school, work, and other obligations will make a person busy, and these are the aspects of life that I have chosen.
Sometimes I am shaken and I see my life through Kazakhstan eyes. What am I working for? Where is my family? Will I catch a cold from that open window?
There is not a day that I don't think about Kazakhstan or Liberia.
Part of that is a factor of this life that I am choosing: I work in an office draped with Central Asian paraphernalia. I got to colloquium lectures about the evolution of steppe pastoralism. I discuss public service reform in class and think about Liberia. I study the effects of language and educational achievement and think about my students.
I still find it hard to talk about. Yesterday I gave a video conference presentation to 7th graders in Ohio about the Silk Road (my job has included stranger things...). At the end, one of them asked me, "Was it difficult to live abroad for 2 years? What was is like?" How do you answer that? Of course it was difficult. But leaving was the scariest part.
It is so good to be home. I am learning how wonderful it is to be able to call people. I can think about someone, and then talk to them a minute later. This is an amazing thing after those long months of wondering, of having my weekly phone calls with the parents and the beautiful letters from friends as my only lifelines. It is incredible to feel like I am again a part of the lives of the people I love.
Sometimes I forget, though, and I let myself get sucked into this daily grind. I am trying to honor where I was and what I was. But I forget that for hours a day, for months at a time, I was a teacher. That my life was students and crazy English textbooks and a cold school building where I did squats between classes to stay warm.
I miss it. I miss the language, the banya, and I even miss the food. My first Kazakh teacher was here for an exchange program this fall -- we got to meet and talk for a few hours last week. And both of us complained about how American food lacks soup. Our other mutual pet peeve was shoes on carpets.
Mostly, seeing him reminded me of the people I miss. I get emails from my former host brother, who is now studying in Russia. His phrasing makes me laugh out loud. And berate myself for not properly teaching him: he still writes like a gangster (sista instead of sister, lil' instead of little). When I go back, if I go back....
In any event. I've survived the past year. I've lived in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Minneapolis, MN; Zwedru, Liberia; Minneapolis again; Montpelier, VT; and Bloomington, IN. I guess I'll recover from it all soon enough.
Honestly, the exact day escapes my memory. I remember that it was snowing in Almaty the day I left, and the streets were dark as we drove away from the Peace Corps office so early in the morning.
It is good to be back in America. I am throwing back on the personality I once had -- the person who has a full day, every day. Graduate school, work, and other obligations will make a person busy, and these are the aspects of life that I have chosen.
Sometimes I am shaken and I see my life through Kazakhstan eyes. What am I working for? Where is my family? Will I catch a cold from that open window?
There is not a day that I don't think about Kazakhstan or Liberia.
Part of that is a factor of this life that I am choosing: I work in an office draped with Central Asian paraphernalia. I got to colloquium lectures about the evolution of steppe pastoralism. I discuss public service reform in class and think about Liberia. I study the effects of language and educational achievement and think about my students.
I still find it hard to talk about. Yesterday I gave a video conference presentation to 7th graders in Ohio about the Silk Road (my job has included stranger things...). At the end, one of them asked me, "Was it difficult to live abroad for 2 years? What was is like?" How do you answer that? Of course it was difficult. But leaving was the scariest part.
It is so good to be home. I am learning how wonderful it is to be able to call people. I can think about someone, and then talk to them a minute later. This is an amazing thing after those long months of wondering, of having my weekly phone calls with the parents and the beautiful letters from friends as my only lifelines. It is incredible to feel like I am again a part of the lives of the people I love.
Sometimes I forget, though, and I let myself get sucked into this daily grind. I am trying to honor where I was and what I was. But I forget that for hours a day, for months at a time, I was a teacher. That my life was students and crazy English textbooks and a cold school building where I did squats between classes to stay warm.
I miss it. I miss the language, the banya, and I even miss the food. My first Kazakh teacher was here for an exchange program this fall -- we got to meet and talk for a few hours last week. And both of us complained about how American food lacks soup. Our other mutual pet peeve was shoes on carpets.
Mostly, seeing him reminded me of the people I miss. I get emails from my former host brother, who is now studying in Russia. His phrasing makes me laugh out loud. And berate myself for not properly teaching him: he still writes like a gangster (sista instead of sister, lil' instead of little). When I go back, if I go back....
In any event. I've survived the past year. I've lived in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Minneapolis, MN; Zwedru, Liberia; Minneapolis again; Montpelier, VT; and Bloomington, IN. I guess I'll recover from it all soon enough.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Stumping for Discs
In the summer of 2008, six intrepid Peace Corps volunteers gathered in a small town in northern Kazakhstan. Their mission: to teach thirty 5-9th graders the fundamentals and joys of Ultimate Frisbee. Meeting every day for a week, the camp exceeded all expectations and a royally good time was had by all. We formed four teams, each with a volunteer leader, and throughout the week, calls of "Superstar Monster forever!" "Alright, Counterstrike!" "Yeah, Flying Crocodiles!" and "G-unit!" rang across the steppe.
Girls love Ultimate
Ultimate is a wonderfully addictive game, and soon these kids were hooked. Their leaders, older and a bit more prone to wear and tear, had to drag them off the fields at the end of morning practice. Afternoon activities included designing team logos, video clips of Ultimate, and one amazing project:
It would not be Ultimate without some tie-dye!
There are more photos and camp commentary on the June 28, 2008 post of this blog. Check it out!
Recently, my site mate Jeff told me that he is resurrecting the camp this year. Sounds like there has been a lot of interest from both the community and other volunteers. He is hard at work organizing and scheming for funds -- I'm writing here to get you all to help!
You can't have an Ultimate Frisbee camp without Frisbees. And discs are impossible to purchase in Kazakhstan. Last year, Discraft sent us some free reject discs (we covered shipping costs) and family, friends, and teammates came through with some beautiful new and almost new discs. THANK you for everyone that helped out.
This year, Discraft has said no more -- they have sent as many discs as they will to Kazakhstan. So I hope that loyal readers and passionate Ultimate stars will step up to help us out. Bring a disc to give away to Get Ho, or toss a few bucks my way to help purchase discs and mail them.
Just to head off the inevitable question of, "Hey, what happened to the discs from last year?" We made a rookie mistake and gave the discs away to the participants. Great idea, right? They could keep playing all year, remember the summer fun, etc.
One problem: all the Americans signed the discs and we used them as awards for participation. This turned the discs into precious mementos, not sporting equipment, and none of the kids want to use their discs, for fear of erasing those signatures and accolades. This year, in light of the growing interest in Ultimate, donated discs will be kept, either for future camps or for school sports programs.
Let me know if you are interested in helping out -- we would greatly appreciate discs, cash, cones, cleats, or any other Ultimate-related sports gear. I will ship what we've got in mid-May: every little bit helps.
Peace,
Nora
norawebbwilliams@gmail.com
Girls love UltimateUltimate is a wonderfully addictive game, and soon these kids were hooked. Their leaders, older and a bit more prone to wear and tear, had to drag them off the fields at the end of morning practice. Afternoon activities included designing team logos, video clips of Ultimate, and one amazing project:
It would not be Ultimate without some tie-dye!There are more photos and camp commentary on the June 28, 2008 post of this blog. Check it out!
Recently, my site mate Jeff told me that he is resurrecting the camp this year. Sounds like there has been a lot of interest from both the community and other volunteers. He is hard at work organizing and scheming for funds -- I'm writing here to get you all to help!
You can't have an Ultimate Frisbee camp without Frisbees. And discs are impossible to purchase in Kazakhstan. Last year, Discraft sent us some free reject discs (we covered shipping costs) and family, friends, and teammates came through with some beautiful new and almost new discs. THANK you for everyone that helped out.
This year, Discraft has said no more -- they have sent as many discs as they will to Kazakhstan. So I hope that loyal readers and passionate Ultimate stars will step up to help us out. Bring a disc to give away to Get Ho, or toss a few bucks my way to help purchase discs and mail them.
Just to head off the inevitable question of, "Hey, what happened to the discs from last year?" We made a rookie mistake and gave the discs away to the participants. Great idea, right? They could keep playing all year, remember the summer fun, etc.
One problem: all the Americans signed the discs and we used them as awards for participation. This turned the discs into precious mementos, not sporting equipment, and none of the kids want to use their discs, for fear of erasing those signatures and accolades. This year, in light of the growing interest in Ultimate, donated discs will be kept, either for future camps or for school sports programs.
Let me know if you are interested in helping out -- we would greatly appreciate discs, cash, cones, cleats, or any other Ultimate-related sports gear. I will ship what we've got in mid-May: every little bit helps.
Peace,
Nora
norawebbwilliams@gmail.com
Sunday, February 08, 2009
An end to a journey
Most of you loyal readers likely already know the latest news: I've returned home to the good old USA after almost 8 weeks in Liberia. This is more short-term that I'd originally intended. And let me say first that I am in good health and was mostly safe for most of my service in Liberia. I came home voluntarily for many reasons; the two easiest are that my work was not what I expected and that personally I felt it was time to reconnect with America. Regarding work, there was no job ready for me... I was assigned to teach English in a high school, but with scheduling issues I would have ended up teaching 6 classes in 10 weeks. This is frustrating because I went to Liberia expressly to work, to share my expertise, to really be of use. What is hard is to think of the students I left -- bright 10th and 11th graders who need all the learning they can get so that they might rise out of conflict and into wisdom. The classes were between 90-120 students each, a challenge certainly, especially as most were young men and some were older than me. I feel that I was up to the task, however, and I think that we made the most of the 3 classes we had together. It was curious to be addressed as "Madam" by students, but as the only female teacher on staff, it was understandable that they didn't take easily to calling out "Ms. Williams". I wish that we could have had more time; they deserve a long-term educator. Preferably one who knows the curriculum they are expected to cover and is paid by the Ministry of Education (as in the Soviet reconstruction period, most teachers have gone months without pay).
The second reason for my resignation from Peace Corps was personal. In Liberia, I had many interactions with international workers -- experts from the UN, consultants, NGO staff, etc. One unifying theme they all shared was a distance from their families and home cultures. Yes, it has always been a dream of mine to travel, to live abroad and feel the rush of being foreign, but not at the expense of my family and friends back home. I would like to be a better friend, sister, daughter, or if not better, than at least closer. I may still be awful about picking up the phone to chat, but at least now I have that option.
Liberia itself is a country still struggling, still trying to recover, still trying to hold onto peace and rebuild. Never before have I lived in a place where humans and nature were so bolding interfering with one another. The bush reclaims fallen homes; farmers and road builders burn the bush. The termites and cockroaches believe they own everything; humans try to convince them they are wrong. In many ways it feels like a losing battle: at times I wondered if it wouldn't be better to just leave this land of malaria and mold to the birds and spiders and jungle vines.
Of course, I had the option of leaving. The people of Liberia are boldly choosing the other option: they are coming back. Back from Guinea and the Ivory Coast, back from Sierra Leone and back, even, from the USA. They are brave, they have struggles, and I have nothing but hope and prayers for their success. I wish to see the day when, eventually, the UN will leave, the international NGOs will trickle out, and Liberia will try to stand on its own feet.
Peace Corps will probably still be there on that day, and probably will be there for as long as the government will have them. It was very inspiring to be in a country with such a history of Peace Corps -- former volunteers and FOL, you made some big impressions. My favorite landmark on the drive to Monrovia was a sign in Saclepea boldly proclaiming that they had a PCV from 1963-1965, "mentor, teacher, coach, you will never be forgotten."
Thanks for reading, let you know where the next adventure leads!
The second reason for my resignation from Peace Corps was personal. In Liberia, I had many interactions with international workers -- experts from the UN, consultants, NGO staff, etc. One unifying theme they all shared was a distance from their families and home cultures. Yes, it has always been a dream of mine to travel, to live abroad and feel the rush of being foreign, but not at the expense of my family and friends back home. I would like to be a better friend, sister, daughter, or if not better, than at least closer. I may still be awful about picking up the phone to chat, but at least now I have that option.
Liberia itself is a country still struggling, still trying to recover, still trying to hold onto peace and rebuild. Never before have I lived in a place where humans and nature were so bolding interfering with one another. The bush reclaims fallen homes; farmers and road builders burn the bush. The termites and cockroaches believe they own everything; humans try to convince them they are wrong. In many ways it feels like a losing battle: at times I wondered if it wouldn't be better to just leave this land of malaria and mold to the birds and spiders and jungle vines.
Of course, I had the option of leaving. The people of Liberia are boldly choosing the other option: they are coming back. Back from Guinea and the Ivory Coast, back from Sierra Leone and back, even, from the USA. They are brave, they have struggles, and I have nothing but hope and prayers for their success. I wish to see the day when, eventually, the UN will leave, the international NGOs will trickle out, and Liberia will try to stand on its own feet.
Peace Corps will probably still be there on that day, and probably will be there for as long as the government will have them. It was very inspiring to be in a country with such a history of Peace Corps -- former volunteers and FOL, you made some big impressions. My favorite landmark on the drive to Monrovia was a sign in Saclepea boldly proclaiming that they had a PCV from 1963-1965, "mentor, teacher, coach, you will never be forgotten."
Thanks for reading, let you know where the next adventure leads!
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
On the road again
I was never really sure that I would be in this position again.... that is, sitting and humming with anticipation, ready to go back over the ocean. The bags are packed, the visa is attached, and the tickets are in order.
It is hard to imagine a more different country from Kazakhstan than Liberia, and yet Peace Corps is ready to take me to both. This time around, it is education from a more administrative position (at least as far as I can tell). I don't know much about the assignment or the organization I'll be working with, but I am comforted in knowing that this is just how the Peace Corps works. Anything that they told me now would be outdated by the time I arrive. We'll just have to wait and see and learn as we go! I'm most excited by the children's books I'm bringing. It was great fun to sort through all the books from my childhood and pick out a few.
There is a group of Volunteers (technically, we are Peace Corps Response Volunteers, or all returned Volunteers coming back for more -- this time in short term, high impact assignments) already in country. I'll be arriving with just one more gal. She is working on the midwifery project, which sounds like quite the job. After just a few days of training, we'll be out in the field!
As always, for safety reasons I will not identify where I'll be working or living by name or exact address. For that information, you can email me.
Well, time to go get the rest of my things in order. Wish me luck and traveling mercies!
Love,
Nora
It is hard to imagine a more different country from Kazakhstan than Liberia, and yet Peace Corps is ready to take me to both. This time around, it is education from a more administrative position (at least as far as I can tell). I don't know much about the assignment or the organization I'll be working with, but I am comforted in knowing that this is just how the Peace Corps works. Anything that they told me now would be outdated by the time I arrive. We'll just have to wait and see and learn as we go! I'm most excited by the children's books I'm bringing. It was great fun to sort through all the books from my childhood and pick out a few.
There is a group of Volunteers (technically, we are Peace Corps Response Volunteers, or all returned Volunteers coming back for more -- this time in short term, high impact assignments) already in country. I'll be arriving with just one more gal. She is working on the midwifery project, which sounds like quite the job. After just a few days of training, we'll be out in the field!
As always, for safety reasons I will not identify where I'll be working or living by name or exact address. For that information, you can email me.
Well, time to go get the rest of my things in order. Wish me luck and traveling mercies!
Love,
Nora
Monday, October 27, 2008
Home, where my thought's escaping...
I'm just going to put this out there once: two weeks from today, all things willing, I'll be on a plane, winging it home to Minneapolis... So anyone in the Minneapolis area, I expect to see you soon!
There's been a huge shift in my thinking from last week to this; suddenly the end seems so close and my energy is moving away from the new trainees and onto more serious questions like, "how many beautiful pieces of embroidery can I carry on a plane?" The trainees themselves are restless, itching to get out from under the watchful eyes of trainers and teachers.
The culprit that prompted all this distraction is site visit, the week long trip that trainees take to check out their new homes. I used this time to travel to my site, too. Only mine was a farewell tour, a last chance to see the people I've grown so close to. A lot got packed into 4 days: a birthday party, Republic Day concert, the Fall Ball beauty competition and school dance, a good-bye concert and tea at school, a good-bye cafe evening with my host family, a small but important send-off at the train station...
I snuck into my favorite classes at school and sang my favorite songs with students, made cookies with Jeff, helped the new volunteer who is replacing me settle in, got many, many, many presents...
In short, we wrapped things up and I finally feel like I have done good here in Kazakhstan. It was a very affirming week. Thank you, KZ.
Maybe more coming, maybe this is the end of the KZ blog? More stories, of course, but I can share them with those that want to hear face to face in just a few weeks!
There's been a huge shift in my thinking from last week to this; suddenly the end seems so close and my energy is moving away from the new trainees and onto more serious questions like, "how many beautiful pieces of embroidery can I carry on a plane?" The trainees themselves are restless, itching to get out from under the watchful eyes of trainers and teachers.
The culprit that prompted all this distraction is site visit, the week long trip that trainees take to check out their new homes. I used this time to travel to my site, too. Only mine was a farewell tour, a last chance to see the people I've grown so close to. A lot got packed into 4 days: a birthday party, Republic Day concert, the Fall Ball beauty competition and school dance, a good-bye concert and tea at school, a good-bye cafe evening with my host family, a small but important send-off at the train station...
I snuck into my favorite classes at school and sang my favorite songs with students, made cookies with Jeff, helped the new volunteer who is replacing me settle in, got many, many, many presents...
In short, we wrapped things up and I finally feel like I have done good here in Kazakhstan. It was a very affirming week. Thank you, KZ.
Maybe more coming, maybe this is the end of the KZ blog? More stories, of course, but I can share them with those that want to hear face to face in just a few weeks!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
19, 31, 53
19, 31, and 53... Not only are all three of these numbers prime (I've been studying for my GREs, can you tell?), they each have a particular significance in my life right now, and they each represent a number of days. Curious? Read on!
31 is easy: that's the number of days the new trainees have been in country. They have started their teaching practicum and soon will find out where they are being sent after training. How exciting! I'm still enjoying working at training, though I miss my own site every day and can't wait to see them again in October (I'm going for a week to say my goodbyes).
19 is the number of days I've been observing Ramadan. Ramadan, the most holy of months according to the Islamic calendar, is known as Ramazan or Orazai in Kazakhstan. Kazakhs, like most other Central Asian ethnic groups such as Uzbeks, Tatars, or Kyrgyz, are nominally Muslims. They consider Islam to be a cornerstone of their ethnic identity, but they practice a strikingly secular version of the faith. Most Kazakhs rarely go to the mosque, don't know the words to Arabic prayers, and have never read the Koran They are similar in their practices to people I've heard referred to as "Christmas/Easter Christians," meaning they are moved by a faith and enjoy fun celebrations and joyful moments without the rigor of real religious structure. Perhaps needless to say, this means that very few Kazakhs observe the traditional Ramadan fast, in which it is forbidden to eat or drink anything from just before dawn to sunset. Besides the fast, throughout the month of Ramadan devout Muslims try to make peace with enemies and avoid conflict and be particularly careful around the always forbidden alcohol and pork.
I've known select people throughout my two years who have kept the Ramadan fast, including teachers, students, and fellow volunteers, but I've never lived with anyone who is keeping it before. This is the third time I've been in country for Ramadan, and in my third host family there are three of us keeping the fast: grandmother, oldest granddaughter, and myself. The first four days were rough, I tried to limit my physical activity, but my job involves travel and lots of presenting, not exactly conducive to saving energy. I whined about how lucky Muslims are in the Middle East: they are blessed with a late dawn and an early dusk, whereas we had to rise at 3.30am to finish eating by 4 and were not allowed to let anything pass our lips until 7:45 in the evening. Really, I'm just lucky the fast is in September: it moves back every year, so next years' fasters will have an even longer day. Somewhere around day 5, though, my body got used to it. There are still the occasional grumbles in my stomach and thoughts about a nice cold drink, but now the difficulty is mostly in reminding myself not to accidentally taste anything. As the days go on, breakfast tea gets later and dinner happens earlier, and I've only had one day where I felt I might faint. The culprit on that day? Not lack of food but lack of tea: I'd forgotten to have anything with caffeine at the pre-dawn meal and was hit with the corresponding symptoms of withdrawal as soon as I woke up for good. My 7.15pm emergency bottle of Coke on the ride home instantly erased my headache and nausea. I'll have to get over my caffeine addiction, but quitting cold turkey doesn't appear to be the way to go.
53 is.... the number of days I have left in Kazakhstan! Really, I've never been one of the volunteers with a daily countdown till the end of service, and I had to think pretty hard to come up with that number, but now that I look at it, that's a pretty small number. Less than two months... Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and globetrotting adventures will just have to wait. I decided last week that I'll need some recoup and recovery time back home once training ends. Seeing my name on a flight listing to Minneapolis was a heart-pumping moment: I'm not done with Central Asia yet and just thinking of leaving KZ brings tears to my eyes, but to see home again.... to speak to my family in person.... to have hugs.... to laugh with friends.... to eat all those foods I've missed.... It will be a joy to be back.
So plan a trip to Minneapolis in November! I'll be sitting in a coffee shop wrangling with the question of what comes next and planning my own trip around the country to visit you all.
Lots of love,
Nora
31 is easy: that's the number of days the new trainees have been in country. They have started their teaching practicum and soon will find out where they are being sent after training. How exciting! I'm still enjoying working at training, though I miss my own site every day and can't wait to see them again in October (I'm going for a week to say my goodbyes).
19 is the number of days I've been observing Ramadan. Ramadan, the most holy of months according to the Islamic calendar, is known as Ramazan or Orazai in Kazakhstan. Kazakhs, like most other Central Asian ethnic groups such as Uzbeks, Tatars, or Kyrgyz, are nominally Muslims. They consider Islam to be a cornerstone of their ethnic identity, but they practice a strikingly secular version of the faith. Most Kazakhs rarely go to the mosque, don't know the words to Arabic prayers, and have never read the Koran They are similar in their practices to people I've heard referred to as "Christmas/Easter Christians," meaning they are moved by a faith and enjoy fun celebrations and joyful moments without the rigor of real religious structure. Perhaps needless to say, this means that very few Kazakhs observe the traditional Ramadan fast, in which it is forbidden to eat or drink anything from just before dawn to sunset. Besides the fast, throughout the month of Ramadan devout Muslims try to make peace with enemies and avoid conflict and be particularly careful around the always forbidden alcohol and pork.
I've known select people throughout my two years who have kept the Ramadan fast, including teachers, students, and fellow volunteers, but I've never lived with anyone who is keeping it before. This is the third time I've been in country for Ramadan, and in my third host family there are three of us keeping the fast: grandmother, oldest granddaughter, and myself. The first four days were rough, I tried to limit my physical activity, but my job involves travel and lots of presenting, not exactly conducive to saving energy. I whined about how lucky Muslims are in the Middle East: they are blessed with a late dawn and an early dusk, whereas we had to rise at 3.30am to finish eating by 4 and were not allowed to let anything pass our lips until 7:45 in the evening. Really, I'm just lucky the fast is in September: it moves back every year, so next years' fasters will have an even longer day. Somewhere around day 5, though, my body got used to it. There are still the occasional grumbles in my stomach and thoughts about a nice cold drink, but now the difficulty is mostly in reminding myself not to accidentally taste anything. As the days go on, breakfast tea gets later and dinner happens earlier, and I've only had one day where I felt I might faint. The culprit on that day? Not lack of food but lack of tea: I'd forgotten to have anything with caffeine at the pre-dawn meal and was hit with the corresponding symptoms of withdrawal as soon as I woke up for good. My 7.15pm emergency bottle of Coke on the ride home instantly erased my headache and nausea. I'll have to get over my caffeine addiction, but quitting cold turkey doesn't appear to be the way to go.
53 is.... the number of days I have left in Kazakhstan! Really, I've never been one of the volunteers with a daily countdown till the end of service, and I had to think pretty hard to come up with that number, but now that I look at it, that's a pretty small number. Less than two months... Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and globetrotting adventures will just have to wait. I decided last week that I'll need some recoup and recovery time back home once training ends. Seeing my name on a flight listing to Minneapolis was a heart-pumping moment: I'm not done with Central Asia yet and just thinking of leaving KZ brings tears to my eyes, but to see home again.... to speak to my family in person.... to have hugs.... to laugh with friends.... to eat all those foods I've missed.... It will be a joy to be back.
So plan a trip to Minneapolis in November! I'll be sitting in a coffee shop wrangling with the question of what comes next and planning my own trip around the country to visit you all.
Lots of love,
Nora
Monday, August 25, 2008
Round Three
Quick, who can tell me how many gold medals Kazakhstan won in the Beijing Olympics? First person to answer correctly gets a free cheap ice cream cone dedicated to them before I eat it!
I won't ruin the surprise of your frantic Google searches, but I will say that I have watched Kazakhstan win gold, and it is an amazing thing. Kate (the other volunteer working at training) and I were literally jumping up and down in the Peace Corps lounge with tears in our eyes. It was a moment that attested to just how assimilated we two are; it really was like our country was winning. Or if not exactly our country, at least our cousin-country that we can't help but root for.
Peace Corps has long told us that our final three months in country would be our most productive, the time when we feel the most at home, and there have been other signs these past weeks of our final acceptance of Kazakhstani culture before we head home. Both of us have moved into new host families for the duration of training; mine is a couple with a large extended family and a good deal of respect/power/money in the community. To be honest, even after Kate and I were presented as the experts in host family living to the new trainees, I am surprised by how fast I've been adjusting to this new environment. Already grandmother is treating me as her oldest granddaughter, chores and treats included. Yesterday was a big party for almost the whole family; a bit of people overload but again, I felt adjusted. I was aware enough of traditions to know that I was not being tested but rather honored when they presented me with a large chunk of gelatinous sheep face to chew and an entire leg bone of mutton to pick apart. I felt especially respected, not especially repulsed, when the elders offered me a tidbit of brain and a cut of the hip bone meat.
There are different ways of showing love, respect, and affection, to be sure. Consider the event for which we had all gathered: a circumcision. This is an important moment for Muslim men in Kazakhstan, but I think every man I know in America will cringe when I say how old this little grandson was... the ceremony is usually performed for boys between the ages of 3 and 5. Our guest of honor had the surgery done Wednesday and the party Saturday to give him some time to recover, but he still walked bowlegged in a pair of pants with the crotch cut out. A wise parent safety-pinned a brown derby hat onto the hem of his shirt to keep him from bumping into anything.
Our new trainees are just starting out in Kazakhstan; they had a rough first few days with jet lag and a tightened schedule due to a flight delay, the toughest part of my job was staying awake myself and holding hands as exhausted trainees sat through a barrage of vaccines. Now they are starting their on own long paths to adjustment. I'm trying to get used to my new role as expert and guide; I'm also trying to stay out of their way. So far they are still humming with the new and problems have been small. However, there are a few who are already ending their time here. This is hard to see, as we have tried so hard to prepare for their arrival and there are so many sites waiting eagerly for a volunteer.
On a happier note, I'm preparing slowly for my own departure. In the works: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan (visas willing), GREs (who knew you could take them in Almaty?), grad school aps (Central Asian Studies, Russian Language, Creative Writing?), and the holidays at home. Less than 3 months left! Can you believe it?
Love,
Nora
I won't ruin the surprise of your frantic Google searches, but I will say that I have watched Kazakhstan win gold, and it is an amazing thing. Kate (the other volunteer working at training) and I were literally jumping up and down in the Peace Corps lounge with tears in our eyes. It was a moment that attested to just how assimilated we two are; it really was like our country was winning. Or if not exactly our country, at least our cousin-country that we can't help but root for.
Peace Corps has long told us that our final three months in country would be our most productive, the time when we feel the most at home, and there have been other signs these past weeks of our final acceptance of Kazakhstani culture before we head home. Both of us have moved into new host families for the duration of training; mine is a couple with a large extended family and a good deal of respect/power/money in the community. To be honest, even after Kate and I were presented as the experts in host family living to the new trainees, I am surprised by how fast I've been adjusting to this new environment. Already grandmother is treating me as her oldest granddaughter, chores and treats included. Yesterday was a big party for almost the whole family; a bit of people overload but again, I felt adjusted. I was aware enough of traditions to know that I was not being tested but rather honored when they presented me with a large chunk of gelatinous sheep face to chew and an entire leg bone of mutton to pick apart. I felt especially respected, not especially repulsed, when the elders offered me a tidbit of brain and a cut of the hip bone meat.
There are different ways of showing love, respect, and affection, to be sure. Consider the event for which we had all gathered: a circumcision. This is an important moment for Muslim men in Kazakhstan, but I think every man I know in America will cringe when I say how old this little grandson was... the ceremony is usually performed for boys between the ages of 3 and 5. Our guest of honor had the surgery done Wednesday and the party Saturday to give him some time to recover, but he still walked bowlegged in a pair of pants with the crotch cut out. A wise parent safety-pinned a brown derby hat onto the hem of his shirt to keep him from bumping into anything.
Our new trainees are just starting out in Kazakhstan; they had a rough first few days with jet lag and a tightened schedule due to a flight delay, the toughest part of my job was staying awake myself and holding hands as exhausted trainees sat through a barrage of vaccines. Now they are starting their on own long paths to adjustment. I'm trying to get used to my new role as expert and guide; I'm also trying to stay out of their way. So far they are still humming with the new and problems have been small. However, there are a few who are already ending their time here. This is hard to see, as we have tried so hard to prepare for their arrival and there are so many sites waiting eagerly for a volunteer.
On a happier note, I'm preparing slowly for my own departure. In the works: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan (visas willing), GREs (who knew you could take them in Almaty?), grad school aps (Central Asian Studies, Russian Language, Creative Writing?), and the holidays at home. Less than 3 months left! Can you believe it?
Love,
Nora
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Time flies when you're having fun...
Truly, it is incredible. After almost 21 months, I'm leaving my village today, still in shock, heading down to Almaty where I'll be working for the next few months. The new job is helping the next batch of Peace Corps trainees get through training and become real volunteers in November. After that, I'll be on a plane home, somewhere around November 11th. I considered staying here in KZ for a third year long and hard before realizing that if I stayed any longer, I would never get over my black tea addiction and would soon be wearing a full-fledged mullett.
My good friend Em came to visit recently; now my sister is lounging on the bed reading and waiting for me to get off my butt and make her some more local delicacies. Both visits have been so good; sort of easing me back into the world of English and Americans and backpacking and coffee. Em and I ended up bumming around Kyrgyzstan for around 10 days; it was my first and only time outside of the Kazakhstan border during my service, I am both proud of and embarrased by this fact. We met many other foreign tourists, great people travelling for months or even years around the world. Sometimes we met people wedded to their Lonely Planet guidebooks; in jest we began to refer to ours as the Bible, aka, the Good Book. Mine, from 2004, was clearly the Old Testament; 2007 is the New Testament; anyone still trying to use 2001 might as well be using the Dead Sea Scrolls. Only once did someone overhear us and think we were missionaries...
In my role as both fellow tourist and translator/guide (Kyrgyz sounds a lot like Kazakh, Russian is still widespread, I know how to handle my fermented mare's milk), I felt between the worlds of tourist and local, but mostly I was a tourist and mostly I had a wonderful time. Em has written about the trip on her blog, there are also a few links to pictures and blogs from people we travelled with listed on the right.
This village has been so good to me, I can say that without hesitation. Last night, over a few beers at a cafe with Evie (my sis) and my host parents, my dear Tatar mother looked straight at me and sprang the question: "Do you at all regret coming to Kazakhstan?" The answer was, and is, an unreserved absolutely not. The truth is, I know other volunteers who do regret coming here; life is not always easy, service is not always what we expected, we have sacrificed much from our lives in America. But I, for one, would do it all over in a second. Now, ask me that in half a year, when I'm dealing with the brute force of reverse culture shock and we'll see what I say...
In evidence of my luck in finding this village and this life and this work, witness how many people in the last three days have called me their daughter, their granddaughter, their girl. I've been taking Evie around town and picking up compliments like daisies; how I teach, how I'm active, how I sing... but these daughter comments still surprise me. What did I ever do to deserve such acceptance from women as talented as my Kazakh tutor or as strong as my Tatar host grandmother? Who ever said that my dear host parents had to adopt a second American into their home and support her so completely?
Oh, nostalgia, you're a dangerous thing. Some day soon I'll think objectively about my work, my teaching, my challenges and successes. But for now, I think I'm allowed to enjoy the positive spin on the past that comes with leaving. I will return for a few days in October for a proper good-bye. I must; I'm leaving my fur hat here as a guarentee! Until then, it's back on the road and hello new trainees.
PS -- Henry, thanks for the response to the Frisbee post, by the way. I think you contributed to the discs, right? Thanks; good luck spreading the good word around the continent!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Ulimate Frisbee in Kazakhstan
Oh, those silly hippies... these are the kids that wore their shirts the last day; not everyone.
This is my Kazakhstan doppleganger, she even has the same catches
I almost subtitled this entry "The Revolution Begins;" that would be an overstatement, but it would also express just how excited I am after the Ultimate Frisbee camp we had last week at my site. Six Peace Corps volunteers taught thirty six kids from 5-9th grades the basics of Ultimate, from throws and catches to fouls and self-officiating. And while our success on that last topic is debatable, our kids were able to play without our help by the end of the week. More importantly, they loved it and it took a real effort to get them to stop playing and go home! They ran us into the ground; at every break the volunteers would collapse onto available flat spaces and fall asleep.
To compliment and complete the hippie spirit of the camp, we made tie dye shirts, like the one I'm wearing in the above picture. This was probably the aspect that my school administration liked the most; something no one had ever seen before that we could show as tangible proof of the camp. Thanks to Jeff's parents for the dye and t-shit kit.
cultural centers that wanted to kick us off the fields. Enjoy the photos, especially those of you that are either Ultimate addicts or enablers.
Rosham (rock paper scissors) for pull (kick off)
Thanks to everyone that sent discs (Eli, Jill, anyone that contributed to the box my dad sent). With a last minute addition of cheap Discraft discs (they have a sweet deal to send Peace Corps volunteers rejects), we were able to give away about 25 discs to our most active campers. They were thrilled and when I saw one of the girls yesterday, she said she was already schemeing with friends to meet up and play. Viva healthy living! Viva sport! Viva Ultimate!
How can you not love this picture?
Oleg, Disc, War Memorial
There were problems. The first host family I placed volunteers in turned sour, so I ended up with 3 guests at my house (the fourth visitor stayed with Jeff). This was a blessing in disguise, as this group of volunteers, most of whom I'd met only through email, ended up being kindred spirits. I knew I was in good company on the first day, when Aaron, an NGO volunteer, began giving out nicknames. This is a surefire way of intenfiying an Ultimate officianado. I usually have the ability to shuck off nicknames like corn husks, but at least for this week I picked up a couple: Nora the Explorer, No-no, and Toys R Us (you'll have to ask Aaron about that last one, I'm still confused as to where it came from). Nora, Jeff, Justin, Aaron, Nathan, Mary
To compliment and complete the hippie spirit of the camp, we made tie dye shirts, like the one I'm wearing in the above picture. This was probably the aspect that my school administration liked the most; something no one had ever seen before that we could show as tangible proof of the camp. Thanks to Jeff's parents for the dye and t-shit kit.
Nora and Erkin talk attendance and strategy
There's not much else I can say about the camp; partially I'm in shock that it's really over after months of planning and stress. I think I fulfilled my camp director role well and was able to solve most of the glitches that came up, from bloody noses to rehearsingcultural centers that wanted to kick us off the fields. Enjoy the photos, especially those of you that are either Ultimate addicts or enablers.
Rosham (rock paper scissors) for pull (kick off)
Thanks to everyone that sent discs (Eli, Jill, anyone that contributed to the box my dad sent). With a last minute addition of cheap Discraft discs (they have a sweet deal to send Peace Corps volunteers rejects), we were able to give away about 25 discs to our most active campers. They were thrilled and when I saw one of the girls yesterday, she said she was already schemeing with friends to meet up and play. Viva healthy living! Viva sport! Viva Ultimate!
No! Albert! Don't huck it away again! Gulmira, nice mark.
Now off to Almaty, Em is coming to visit and I need to get us into Kyrghizia. She's blogging about her adventures here.
How can you not love this picture?
Friday, May 30, 2008
School’s out for summer!
First, a huge thank-you to Jill Morrison, Prankster and brand-new Middlebury graduate. She sent me two beautiful discs. This is truly miraculous, not only because I need discs but also because they took only an unbelievable 7 days to get here. Nothing takes 7 days to get her from America, not even letters! So either Jill is magical (possible) or the Kazakhstan postal service rushes discs (not likely, but who knows?) or there is a quick direct mail line from Middlbury, VT to Pavlodar Oblast, Kazakhstan…. Thank you, however it happened.
School is out, and so are the clouds of gnats. We’ve had our final day of classes, our final big ceremony for graduates (called the Final Bell), and almost all our final exams. All that’s left is the big national test, called the ENT, for graduates. It’s a bit like the SAT or ACT in that it determines university eligibility, but the ENT is a much bigger deal than the SAT. It happens at the end of the year and is really the only factor universities look at for admissions. Your score also determines whether you will receive a grant to study. There are four required subjects (Kazakh language, history of Kazakhstan, math, and Russian language) and the fifth is chosen by the students. Many choose biology, physics, geography, or world history.
In my town, there is only one student I know of that has chosen English as his fifth subject. And though technically he goes to Jeff’s school and is Jeff’s student, he’s the son of the local ski guru who I’ve traveled and trained with, so I was recruited to tutor him (with Jeff’s blessing). This kid, Vitya, is probably the top athlete in the village; he’s placed well in both oblast and national level competitions for skiing, biathlon, and winter mnogoborye. We used to meet up fairly often down at the ski trail, he’d get in a few words of English as he lapped me, again. Last winter he was invited to compete in the Junior World Cup competition in Germany but had to turn it down; not enough time to get the visa. Naturally, I think he’s swell and wish I was in high school myself so I could date him. But I’m not, so instead we just get to hang out to discuss the finer points of Present Perfect Progressive Passive and laugh over all the errors in the English of the ENT. One memorable question asked students to find the correct word to describe “the flavor of the English national emblem.” Since the multiple choice answers were all about roses and thistles, not cinnamon and cayenne, I think we can assume the test writers meant “flower” instead of “flavor.”
Unfortunately, I won’t be in town for the actual testing. Fortunately, the results become available the same day (none of this wait three weeks for SAT nonsense) and I made Vitya promise to call me and tell me how he does. I’m impressed that someone from this town wants to become an English translator, especially a boy, as this is considered a more feminine profession. So send smart thoughts and prayers to Vitya on June second!
And if you have extra room in your prayers, send me some travelling mercies. Tomorrow I begin the long road to visit friends in western Kazakhstan, near the city of Aktobe. Officially I’m helping out with a camp, teaching English and games to eighth graders; unofficially I’m finally going to see what it looks like when Roman-agai, the first Kazakh I met in Kazakhstan and my language teacher during training, is in his home element. He is a fine man, a good musician, and he taught me so much. I can’t wait to meet his family and sing with his band!
Tomorrow evening I get on a bus to Pavlodar, then board a night train to Astana, then wake up and try to find a bus to the airport so I can fly to Aktobe. Train, plane, bus… it’s a nice trifecta. I’m hoping to add a car or boat if possible.
But for now, I’m going to pop over to the auditorium for a round table discussion. Today is a holiday of remembrance for victims of political repression. With all the Germans, labor camps, and state farms around, there ought to be plenty to talk about.
Post script: There was indeed a good deal to be said, especially by ethnic Germans from the area. At the end, the vice-governor of the region noticed me in the back and put me on the spot: “Oh, hey, I see Miss Nora back there! Miss Nora, tell us, would this ever happen in America?” And I got to give my two cents to the group of bored middle school kids and politicians, which was this: “Actually, you know, we did the same thing to people in America during the war. You had camps for Germans and we had camps for Japanese. So even though you students just said that today this could never happen in Kazakhstan because now Kazakhstan has a democracy, be careful and listen to these stories. It happened in America with a democracy, it can happen here, too.”
And now I really will sign off. I’m meeting some 9th graders to play Ultimate Frisbee in a minute. We’ll try to run faster than the gnats.
Love,
Nora
School is out, and so are the clouds of gnats. We’ve had our final day of classes, our final big ceremony for graduates (called the Final Bell), and almost all our final exams. All that’s left is the big national test, called the ENT, for graduates. It’s a bit like the SAT or ACT in that it determines university eligibility, but the ENT is a much bigger deal than the SAT. It happens at the end of the year and is really the only factor universities look at for admissions. Your score also determines whether you will receive a grant to study. There are four required subjects (Kazakh language, history of Kazakhstan, math, and Russian language) and the fifth is chosen by the students. Many choose biology, physics, geography, or world history.
In my town, there is only one student I know of that has chosen English as his fifth subject. And though technically he goes to Jeff’s school and is Jeff’s student, he’s the son of the local ski guru who I’ve traveled and trained with, so I was recruited to tutor him (with Jeff’s blessing). This kid, Vitya, is probably the top athlete in the village; he’s placed well in both oblast and national level competitions for skiing, biathlon, and winter mnogoborye. We used to meet up fairly often down at the ski trail, he’d get in a few words of English as he lapped me, again. Last winter he was invited to compete in the Junior World Cup competition in Germany but had to turn it down; not enough time to get the visa. Naturally, I think he’s swell and wish I was in high school myself so I could date him. But I’m not, so instead we just get to hang out to discuss the finer points of Present Perfect Progressive Passive and laugh over all the errors in the English of the ENT. One memorable question asked students to find the correct word to describe “the flavor of the English national emblem.” Since the multiple choice answers were all about roses and thistles, not cinnamon and cayenne, I think we can assume the test writers meant “flower” instead of “flavor.”
Unfortunately, I won’t be in town for the actual testing. Fortunately, the results become available the same day (none of this wait three weeks for SAT nonsense) and I made Vitya promise to call me and tell me how he does. I’m impressed that someone from this town wants to become an English translator, especially a boy, as this is considered a more feminine profession. So send smart thoughts and prayers to Vitya on June second!
And if you have extra room in your prayers, send me some travelling mercies. Tomorrow I begin the long road to visit friends in western Kazakhstan, near the city of Aktobe. Officially I’m helping out with a camp, teaching English and games to eighth graders; unofficially I’m finally going to see what it looks like when Roman-agai, the first Kazakh I met in Kazakhstan and my language teacher during training, is in his home element. He is a fine man, a good musician, and he taught me so much. I can’t wait to meet his family and sing with his band!
Tomorrow evening I get on a bus to Pavlodar, then board a night train to Astana, then wake up and try to find a bus to the airport so I can fly to Aktobe. Train, plane, bus… it’s a nice trifecta. I’m hoping to add a car or boat if possible.
But for now, I’m going to pop over to the auditorium for a round table discussion. Today is a holiday of remembrance for victims of political repression. With all the Germans, labor camps, and state farms around, there ought to be plenty to talk about.
Post script: There was indeed a good deal to be said, especially by ethnic Germans from the area. At the end, the vice-governor of the region noticed me in the back and put me on the spot: “Oh, hey, I see Miss Nora back there! Miss Nora, tell us, would this ever happen in America?” And I got to give my two cents to the group of bored middle school kids and politicians, which was this: “Actually, you know, we did the same thing to people in America during the war. You had camps for Germans and we had camps for Japanese. So even though you students just said that today this could never happen in Kazakhstan because now Kazakhstan has a democracy, be careful and listen to these stories. It happened in America with a democracy, it can happen here, too.”
And now I really will sign off. I’m meeting some 9th graders to play Ultimate Frisbee in a minute. We’ll try to run faster than the gnats.
Love,
Nora
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Wowie!
I know, I know, I just posted last week and so it's unreasonable to expect any of you to check back in so soon for an unprecidented note, but this is just so exciting that I have to tell someone back home.
April 22nd was Lenin's birthday, and in honor of the holiday I sent a message to my buddy Jose down south. This is the same friend I visited a few weeks ago for the kokpar and camel tour. His site is very remote and quite conservative, and even though we stayed in different homes and took pains to inform everyone that we're just friends, the rumors still flew that we were a couple.
Anyways, a few hours after my text, Jose called. "Guess what?" he said, "my Kazakh tutor's cow
gave birth to a new calf today!" When I was in town we spent lots of time with this man and his family, singing songs and eating with our hands.
"That's awesome," I replied, "Did they name the calf Lenin?"
"No," he said, "they actually named it Nora..."
Naturally I thought he was kidding, but then his tutor got on the phone and confirmed that, yes, the new calf was indeed named Nora. "Don't be offended, ok?" he asked in his quick Kazakh.
I wasn't fast enough to respond to him, so I passed my response along through Jose, "Tell him this is probably the coolest honor I've ever received in my life!"
And truly, it is. There is a little calf, a sign of spring and a source of milk and wealth, named Nora! Wow. Jose reports that calf-Nora has a mother named Micah and almost reddish hair.
When we were in training, our acting Country Director told us many stories about her 4-year service in Indonesia. Ten years later she returned to find the kindergarten/feeding program she started still up and running, and even more astonishingly, that there were three children named after her. One of them, unfortunately, was a beautiful girl named Schmidt.
I may not be the super volunteer worthy of children named Williams, but there is a special cow!
Love,
Nora
PS Happy Orthodox Easter. Last night I stood at church from 10.30pm -3.00am for the Easter vigil. It was quite an evening.
April 22nd was Lenin's birthday, and in honor of the holiday I sent a message to my buddy Jose down south. This is the same friend I visited a few weeks ago for the kokpar and camel tour. His site is very remote and quite conservative, and even though we stayed in different homes and took pains to inform everyone that we're just friends, the rumors still flew that we were a couple.
Anyways, a few hours after my text, Jose called. "Guess what?" he said, "my Kazakh tutor's cow
gave birth to a new calf today!" When I was in town we spent lots of time with this man and his family, singing songs and eating with our hands.
"That's awesome," I replied, "Did they name the calf Lenin?"
"No," he said, "they actually named it Nora..."
Naturally I thought he was kidding, but then his tutor got on the phone and confirmed that, yes, the new calf was indeed named Nora. "Don't be offended, ok?" he asked in his quick Kazakh.
I wasn't fast enough to respond to him, so I passed my response along through Jose, "Tell him this is probably the coolest honor I've ever received in my life!"
And truly, it is. There is a little calf, a sign of spring and a source of milk and wealth, named Nora! Wow. Jose reports that calf-Nora has a mother named Micah and almost reddish hair.
When we were in training, our acting Country Director told us many stories about her 4-year service in Indonesia. Ten years later she returned to find the kindergarten/feeding program she started still up and running, and even more astonishingly, that there were three children named after her. One of them, unfortunately, was a beautiful girl named Schmidt.
I may not be the super volunteer worthy of children named Williams, but there is a special cow!
Love,
Nora
PS Happy Orthodox Easter. Last night I stood at church from 10.30pm -3.00am for the Easter vigil. It was quite an evening.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Happy Birthday Abeeka and Hopa!
Disclaimer: I am not writing about my birthday as a means to guilt trip those of you who forgot. Really, please don’t send me belated wishes. If you do, it will just make me feel guilty, because unless you are one of my immediate family members, there’s about a 99% change that I don’t even know what month your birthday is in, much less the date. If you do insist on sending greetings, please accept my advanced/belated sentiments for all your past or future birthdays.
It was my birthday last weekend, I turned 23. This is not a huge milestone for most, just a pause on the way to 25 and a source of pleasant memories when scary 30 comes around, but for me it marks something big. When I joined the Peace Corps I was 21, the second youngest in my training group by about a month, and I was pestered by comments like, “oh, man, you’re only going to be 23 when you get out!” as though Peace Corps were a jail sentence and the faster you get through it the better. And now that I am 23, I am very aware that my service in Kazakhstan will soon come to a close. Yesterday I received a form in the mail asking for my banking information so Peace Corps can send my Readjustment Allowance when I leave. That’s scary because it means that a) I’ll be leaving soon and b) I have to find my banking information again. Haven’t touched that in two years…
To celebrate the big two-three I took my younger friends out to dinner/dancing at a local café the night before. It is considered bad luck to wish someone a happy birthday before the actual day begins, so we called it a “Good-bye 22” evening instead of a birthday party. All ten of us had a good time, I think, toasts were made, presents given, and we finished off lots of mayonnaise based salads, steamed meat/potato dumplings, chicken pie, and sweets. I even got cake and ice cream with candles! I don’t think I’ve done that since high school. I can’t help but laugh as I look at the presents in my room from the weekend; they reflect how well (or not) people here know me, from a silver necklace, a shawl and roses to an oversized stuffed rabbit and fake designer wallet. My favorite is a pink t-shit/tank contraption with both “Team International Cheerleading Team Meeting Official” and “Redwood Ranger” printed on in among other less intelligible phrases.
At 1 am, I slipped into a still warm banya and washed away the make-up and stress of hosting locals on their own turf – I think I got through without too many gaffs.
On the actual day, my host mother invited extended family and neighbors over to celebrate. As always, her cooking was delicious and the table was packed with salads, potatoes, stuffed cabbage leaves, my favorite dish of duck-in-dough with a goose substitution, and more sides than I can remember. And then, the coup de grace, I got to blow out the candles (again!) on a cake with “С днем рождения Нора!” written in frosting.
For birthdays in Kazakhstan and Russia, the gathered guests are asked to give well-wishing toasts. It is embarrassing to be praised so publicly but always fun to hear what people think you need. “May you find your soul mate,” “May you complete your work well,” “Health to you and your parents,” and “Love,” were repeated multiple times in three languages (or four if you consider Abeeka’s creative mix of Kazakh, Russian and Tartar to be unique). One aunt said, “Through you America has come closer to us; we are glad to find Americans are just like us.” Two toasts later, a neighbor begged to differ, “I disagree. Nora can’t have brought America closer because she’s not really American any more. She’s ours!” Thank you, dear friends, for your acceptance, if not quite as I am, then at least as much as you can.
As we finished our tea, Abeeka (that’s Tartar for grandmother) had the last word, pronouncing that, “when you get married, I will come and sing a special song for you and you will dance.” We had a practice session right there and then, turned out pretty well, so now all we need is a groom and the deal is on.
Two nights later on Abeeka’s birthday, I referenced her promise in my toast, “Abeeka, even though I am new to this family, I am still very proud of you. You are a window on history for us. Thank you. I wish you health and long life. May you live to come to my wedding!” She nodded her head, saying she fully expected to keep her promise. “Abeeka,” said one of her daughters, “you do realize you’d have to fly 22 hours to get there?” “Ok,” Abeeka said, “no problem.” We all laughed, but I wonder if she’s ever even been in an airplane; if she has, it was probably many years ago in the USSR.
Abeeka was turning either 84 or 86, depending on which source you choose. Her documents say she was born in 1922, her family says 1924. If you ask her how old she is, she’ll wave her hand in the air and scoff. Really, who has the time or memory to keep track of such things? She tells stories of coming to Kazakhstan in 1937, her mother having just died and Tatars migrating east to avoid collectivization. Her trunk was full, jewelry and clothing and head dresses all lost in the years since. On her birthday, her oldest daughter, acting as toast master, asked Abeeka to relate how she first met her husband, the father of this brood of 11 children. Abeeka thought for a few minutes then took us right back to 1937: she was married in 1938 when she was 16. Curiously, the rest of the family seemed equally intrigued by the story; from their reactions, this was a part of their history that they hadn’t heard before. Eyebrows went up, and we looked at each other in surprise.
The gist of the tale is this: Abeeka had never seen her husband, never shaken his hand or even said hello before they were married. She didn’t even know it was her wedding day until it was over. It was a first degree arranged marriage, if not a complete bride-napping like that common among Kazakhs.
“We were in a packed house,” Abeeka remembered, “no room for everyone, so we were sleeping by the corrals.”
“What did you think of Dad?” one daughter asked, “Did you think he was handsome?”
“Well,” Abeeka replied, “after two days they put up a curtain and then I liked him alright.” She’s got sass, this lady who prays five times a day, even if she doesn’t realize it.
In the middle of Abeeka's dinner, a friend from Middlebury called. It was the first time I've talked to non-family in almost 2 years. Letters and emails, yes, but what a strange moment to be talking to him!
Guess I should get used to it...
Love,
Nora
It was my birthday last weekend, I turned 23. This is not a huge milestone for most, just a pause on the way to 25 and a source of pleasant memories when scary 30 comes around, but for me it marks something big. When I joined the Peace Corps I was 21, the second youngest in my training group by about a month, and I was pestered by comments like, “oh, man, you’re only going to be 23 when you get out!” as though Peace Corps were a jail sentence and the faster you get through it the better. And now that I am 23, I am very aware that my service in Kazakhstan will soon come to a close. Yesterday I received a form in the mail asking for my banking information so Peace Corps can send my Readjustment Allowance when I leave. That’s scary because it means that a) I’ll be leaving soon and b) I have to find my banking information again. Haven’t touched that in two years…
To celebrate the big two-three I took my younger friends out to dinner/dancing at a local café the night before. It is considered bad luck to wish someone a happy birthday before the actual day begins, so we called it a “Good-bye 22” evening instead of a birthday party. All ten of us had a good time, I think, toasts were made, presents given, and we finished off lots of mayonnaise based salads, steamed meat/potato dumplings, chicken pie, and sweets. I even got cake and ice cream with candles! I don’t think I’ve done that since high school. I can’t help but laugh as I look at the presents in my room from the weekend; they reflect how well (or not) people here know me, from a silver necklace, a shawl and roses to an oversized stuffed rabbit and fake designer wallet. My favorite is a pink t-shit/tank contraption with both “Team International Cheerleading Team Meeting Official” and “Redwood Ranger” printed on in among other less intelligible phrases.
At 1 am, I slipped into a still warm banya and washed away the make-up and stress of hosting locals on their own turf – I think I got through without too many gaffs.
On the actual day, my host mother invited extended family and neighbors over to celebrate. As always, her cooking was delicious and the table was packed with salads, potatoes, stuffed cabbage leaves, my favorite dish of duck-in-dough with a goose substitution, and more sides than I can remember. And then, the coup de grace, I got to blow out the candles (again!) on a cake with “С днем рождения Нора!” written in frosting.
For birthdays in Kazakhstan and Russia, the gathered guests are asked to give well-wishing toasts. It is embarrassing to be praised so publicly but always fun to hear what people think you need. “May you find your soul mate,” “May you complete your work well,” “Health to you and your parents,” and “Love,” were repeated multiple times in three languages (or four if you consider Abeeka’s creative mix of Kazakh, Russian and Tartar to be unique). One aunt said, “Through you America has come closer to us; we are glad to find Americans are just like us.” Two toasts later, a neighbor begged to differ, “I disagree. Nora can’t have brought America closer because she’s not really American any more. She’s ours!” Thank you, dear friends, for your acceptance, if not quite as I am, then at least as much as you can.
As we finished our tea, Abeeka (that’s Tartar for grandmother) had the last word, pronouncing that, “when you get married, I will come and sing a special song for you and you will dance.” We had a practice session right there and then, turned out pretty well, so now all we need is a groom and the deal is on.
Two nights later on Abeeka’s birthday, I referenced her promise in my toast, “Abeeka, even though I am new to this family, I am still very proud of you. You are a window on history for us. Thank you. I wish you health and long life. May you live to come to my wedding!” She nodded her head, saying she fully expected to keep her promise. “Abeeka,” said one of her daughters, “you do realize you’d have to fly 22 hours to get there?” “Ok,” Abeeka said, “no problem.” We all laughed, but I wonder if she’s ever even been in an airplane; if she has, it was probably many years ago in the USSR.
Abeeka was turning either 84 or 86, depending on which source you choose. Her documents say she was born in 1922, her family says 1924. If you ask her how old she is, she’ll wave her hand in the air and scoff. Really, who has the time or memory to keep track of such things? She tells stories of coming to Kazakhstan in 1937, her mother having just died and Tatars migrating east to avoid collectivization. Her trunk was full, jewelry and clothing and head dresses all lost in the years since. On her birthday, her oldest daughter, acting as toast master, asked Abeeka to relate how she first met her husband, the father of this brood of 11 children. Abeeka thought for a few minutes then took us right back to 1937: she was married in 1938 when she was 16. Curiously, the rest of the family seemed equally intrigued by the story; from their reactions, this was a part of their history that they hadn’t heard before. Eyebrows went up, and we looked at each other in surprise.
The gist of the tale is this: Abeeka had never seen her husband, never shaken his hand or even said hello before they were married. She didn’t even know it was her wedding day until it was over. It was a first degree arranged marriage, if not a complete bride-napping like that common among Kazakhs.
“We were in a packed house,” Abeeka remembered, “no room for everyone, so we were sleeping by the corrals.”
“What did you think of Dad?” one daughter asked, “Did you think he was handsome?”
“Well,” Abeeka replied, “after two days they put up a curtain and then I liked him alright.” She’s got sass, this lady who prays five times a day, even if she doesn’t realize it.
In the middle of Abeeka's dinner, a friend from Middlebury called. It was the first time I've talked to non-family in almost 2 years. Letters and emails, yes, but what a strange moment to be talking to him!
Guess I should get used to it...
Love,
Nora
Friday, April 04, 2008
Where is the women's league?
There are only a few times when yelling “rip it in half” is appropriate at a sporting event. Maybe at an origami competition or a paper snowflake demolition derby? And yet, last week I found myself yelling just that. My friend Jose looked at me sideways on our bleacher bench, saying, “Wow, I didn’t think you’d get this into it…”
But how could you not get into kokpar, dubbed goat carcass polo by English speakers tying to simplify the event? How can you not be thrilled by two men on horseback, each holding onto one hind leg of a headless goat and trying to gallop away in opposite directions? Wouldn’t you, too, cheer for them?
There are not a whole lot of rules to kokpar, though there are two versions: team kokpar, where four riders from each side battle over the goat, and individual kokpar, aka a wild free-for-all with upwards of a hundred riders possible. We were watching team kokpar at the Shimkent hippodrome. I’d ridden a train 36 hours south to get to Shimkent, along with a whole crew of other volunteers, for Nauryz, Kazakhstan’s spring festival. Theoretically, I was there to visit with Americans, warm up after winter, drink some beer, practice my Kazakh language, and explore the rich culture of Kazakhstan. In reality, I’d been hearing about kokpar for almost two years now and the temptation to finally see it was just too great. The irony being that yesterday the head of our local sport school told me that our town was chosen to hold the annual oblast-wide kokpar festival this summer. I guess I didn’t have to go that far after all, though I like to think that northern kokpar will be a very different event. And while I was south, I did get to see and do some other cool things, like visit Kazakhstan’s holiest Muslim site, a gorgeous mausoleum to a 14th century Sufi, and drink fermented camel's milk.
Kokpar came at the end of an afternoon of riding events, most of which focused on skills needed to be a great kokpar player. Wresting on horseback (trying to wrench your opponent out of the saddle, a useful skill in the tight scrums trying to get to the goat), bareback races (you’ve got to be able to ride fast if you hope to make it to the goal), scooping scarves off the ground (quite a trick of balance and trust that riders must execute every time the carcass falls), and jumping (kokpar doesn’t stop if a horse or rider goes down; you need to work around obstacles). These events were all fascinating in their own right, of course. Especially kyz kuu, which translates as “kiss the girl,” and involves women on horseback trying to outrace a male suitor. If she’s faster over a set distance, she gets to whip her opponent on the way back. If he catches her, he throws his arm around her shoulders (still at a gallop) and tries to steal a kiss. People debate over the true rules or intentions of kyz kuu, but whatever the origins, the modern incarnation is fast and hilarious. My favorite was the confident young lady who not only won her race but managed to blow kisses and wave to the crowd as she rode; she was a cross between Miss Kazakhstan and Annie Oakley.
By the time kokpar rolled around, most of the Americans were already petering out of the stadium; it was hot and there was a basketball game scheduled between rival factions of volunteers. I made Jose (my guide for the rest of my southern tour) stay till the end of the first game with me. I if I had known there was going to be a second game I never would have left.
The best moments of the game were the beginnings of each new point. The carcass (soaked overnight and so less likely to fall apart) was placed on one side of the field and at the signal of the referee, all eight riders galloped at it from the other side, each trying to be the first to reach and snatch the goat. Much of the rest of the game was taken up in scrums as knots of riders fought for a chance to break away towards the goals. To score, a rider must toss the goat (cleanly, no points if there’s a leg hanging out) into the center of a large ring, which lies flat on the ground and is surrounded by a moat of old tires. If a rider takes the goat out of bounds, the carcass is brought to the middle of the field perpendicular to where it went out and both teams send one rider for a face-off.
Those are basically the only rules.
Substitutions are on a tag-out basis, unless someone falls from their horse, at which time their team can immediately send in another rider. This happened once and watching the team try to capture the rider-less horse was almost as exciting as the game. The last I saw of it, the horse had slipped through a loose net of riders and escaped into the parking lot.
Pictures of the game are not sufficient, of course, but I’ll try to get some up soon. And maybe of some of the other sights, like the mausoleum, Jose flying a kite on the steppe (a very Peace Corps moment), camels, and me sipping on fermented mare’s milk (kumis, not to be confused with shubat, the camel version).
Happy Spring!
-- Nora
But how could you not get into kokpar, dubbed goat carcass polo by English speakers tying to simplify the event? How can you not be thrilled by two men on horseback, each holding onto one hind leg of a headless goat and trying to gallop away in opposite directions? Wouldn’t you, too, cheer for them?
There are not a whole lot of rules to kokpar, though there are two versions: team kokpar, where four riders from each side battle over the goat, and individual kokpar, aka a wild free-for-all with upwards of a hundred riders possible. We were watching team kokpar at the Shimkent hippodrome. I’d ridden a train 36 hours south to get to Shimkent, along with a whole crew of other volunteers, for Nauryz, Kazakhstan’s spring festival. Theoretically, I was there to visit with Americans, warm up after winter, drink some beer, practice my Kazakh language, and explore the rich culture of Kazakhstan. In reality, I’d been hearing about kokpar for almost two years now and the temptation to finally see it was just too great. The irony being that yesterday the head of our local sport school told me that our town was chosen to hold the annual oblast-wide kokpar festival this summer. I guess I didn’t have to go that far after all, though I like to think that northern kokpar will be a very different event. And while I was south, I did get to see and do some other cool things, like visit Kazakhstan’s holiest Muslim site, a gorgeous mausoleum to a 14th century Sufi, and drink fermented camel's milk.
Kokpar came at the end of an afternoon of riding events, most of which focused on skills needed to be a great kokpar player. Wresting on horseback (trying to wrench your opponent out of the saddle, a useful skill in the tight scrums trying to get to the goat), bareback races (you’ve got to be able to ride fast if you hope to make it to the goal), scooping scarves off the ground (quite a trick of balance and trust that riders must execute every time the carcass falls), and jumping (kokpar doesn’t stop if a horse or rider goes down; you need to work around obstacles). These events were all fascinating in their own right, of course. Especially kyz kuu, which translates as “kiss the girl,” and involves women on horseback trying to outrace a male suitor. If she’s faster over a set distance, she gets to whip her opponent on the way back. If he catches her, he throws his arm around her shoulders (still at a gallop) and tries to steal a kiss. People debate over the true rules or intentions of kyz kuu, but whatever the origins, the modern incarnation is fast and hilarious. My favorite was the confident young lady who not only won her race but managed to blow kisses and wave to the crowd as she rode; she was a cross between Miss Kazakhstan and Annie Oakley.
By the time kokpar rolled around, most of the Americans were already petering out of the stadium; it was hot and there was a basketball game scheduled between rival factions of volunteers. I made Jose (my guide for the rest of my southern tour) stay till the end of the first game with me. I if I had known there was going to be a second game I never would have left.
The best moments of the game were the beginnings of each new point. The carcass (soaked overnight and so less likely to fall apart) was placed on one side of the field and at the signal of the referee, all eight riders galloped at it from the other side, each trying to be the first to reach and snatch the goat. Much of the rest of the game was taken up in scrums as knots of riders fought for a chance to break away towards the goals. To score, a rider must toss the goat (cleanly, no points if there’s a leg hanging out) into the center of a large ring, which lies flat on the ground and is surrounded by a moat of old tires. If a rider takes the goat out of bounds, the carcass is brought to the middle of the field perpendicular to where it went out and both teams send one rider for a face-off.
Those are basically the only rules.
Substitutions are on a tag-out basis, unless someone falls from their horse, at which time their team can immediately send in another rider. This happened once and watching the team try to capture the rider-less horse was almost as exciting as the game. The last I saw of it, the horse had slipped through a loose net of riders and escaped into the parking lot.
Pictures of the game are not sufficient, of course, but I’ll try to get some up soon. And maybe of some of the other sights, like the mausoleum, Jose flying a kite on the steppe (a very Peace Corps moment), camels, and me sipping on fermented mare’s milk (kumis, not to be confused with shubat, the camel version).
Happy Spring!
-- Nora
Monday, March 17, 2008
Saturday, March 08, 2008
My Day So Far
If you accept that a day starts at midnight, mine began at a cafe out with two girlfriends celebrating International Women's day. We danced, they filled me in on all the gossip surrounding our fellow cafe-goers, and I got in a debate about Barak Obama's presidential hopes with a complete stranger. In other words, the usual.
We left before everyone else in the place -- it's a pretty serious holiday, especially when it falls on a Saturday. I walked home through slushy snow, got together my things for a trip to the city, and fell asleep. But wouldn't you just know it, something at the cafe got my guts hard, and I woke up at 2 am to regurgitate, as it were. Not the first and certainly not the last of my food poisonings in Kazakhstan; it's a reality, however unpleasant.
I was up again at 6:30 to wait for a taxi to town. But, just my luck, I fell victim to a miscommunication. The taxi driver I'd called hadn't gotten any more passengers, and so cancelled his trip. To let me know, he had either left a message that didn't reach me or called while we were out. Needless to say, he was not happy when I called him at 7:30 to figure out what was going on... Once that was cleared up, I took a walk in the grey morning to our tiny bus station. No problems there, tickets available and bus on time and everything!
The purpose of this trip is to get train tickets for me and Jeff and to coordinate a vacation down south with the other Pavlodar volunteers. We tried once already two weeks ago to get tickets, only to be told that the schedule was changing. Today I went straight to the train station from the bus depot, but luck is just not with me, and the ticket lady said due to a change, there were no kupe tickets (which you can reserve far in advance) and platzcart (or cheaper, fuller train cars) will only go on sale 5 days in advance. Foiled again! Frustrating to have to take a 3 hour bus ride in to find that out. On the bright side, I can leave money and documents with volunteers here and hope they are more sucessful at negotiating for tickets.
Now with 7 hours to kill till the return bus, I got on a tram to get to the Internet center. Not two minutes into the ride, the trolley stopped and our conductor said that traffic was stopped for trams on the next street, we were all going to have to get off. Half of the passengers stepped meekly off, the other half was up in arms, insisting on a return of their 30 tenge fare (roughly 25 cents). I cut my losses and braved the messy melting streets to walk here.
Whew. And now heading back onto the streets to track down another visiting volunteer.
The moral of the story is: travel is difficult in Kazakhstan.
Love,
Nora
We left before everyone else in the place -- it's a pretty serious holiday, especially when it falls on a Saturday. I walked home through slushy snow, got together my things for a trip to the city, and fell asleep. But wouldn't you just know it, something at the cafe got my guts hard, and I woke up at 2 am to regurgitate, as it were. Not the first and certainly not the last of my food poisonings in Kazakhstan; it's a reality, however unpleasant.
I was up again at 6:30 to wait for a taxi to town. But, just my luck, I fell victim to a miscommunication. The taxi driver I'd called hadn't gotten any more passengers, and so cancelled his trip. To let me know, he had either left a message that didn't reach me or called while we were out. Needless to say, he was not happy when I called him at 7:30 to figure out what was going on... Once that was cleared up, I took a walk in the grey morning to our tiny bus station. No problems there, tickets available and bus on time and everything!
The purpose of this trip is to get train tickets for me and Jeff and to coordinate a vacation down south with the other Pavlodar volunteers. We tried once already two weeks ago to get tickets, only to be told that the schedule was changing. Today I went straight to the train station from the bus depot, but luck is just not with me, and the ticket lady said due to a change, there were no kupe tickets (which you can reserve far in advance) and platzcart (or cheaper, fuller train cars) will only go on sale 5 days in advance. Foiled again! Frustrating to have to take a 3 hour bus ride in to find that out. On the bright side, I can leave money and documents with volunteers here and hope they are more sucessful at negotiating for tickets.
Now with 7 hours to kill till the return bus, I got on a tram to get to the Internet center. Not two minutes into the ride, the trolley stopped and our conductor said that traffic was stopped for trams on the next street, we were all going to have to get off. Half of the passengers stepped meekly off, the other half was up in arms, insisting on a return of their 30 tenge fare (roughly 25 cents). I cut my losses and braved the messy melting streets to walk here.
Whew. And now heading back onto the streets to track down another visiting volunteer.
The moral of the story is: travel is difficult in Kazakhstan.
Love,
Nora
Monday, February 25, 2008
I appoligize for any spelling/grammar errors in advance, this is a rushed entry.
This past weekend I had the great pleasure of travelling to Pavlodar for yet another sports competition: the winter mnogoborye, aka the winter equivalent of the multi-event competition I reported on last summer. Only three events this time around, but equally curious: skiing (3km), shooting (10 shots on a bullseye from around 10 meters), and push-ups (not wussy push-ups with arms going sideways, but serious, elbows-back, nose-the-floor, on-your-toes monstors).
Our team, as to be expected, took first among the rural teams. Yea! I personally earned the team 135 points (each event is worth 100), which is pretty damn good for a beginner. If I'd earned 200, I could have become a Candidate for Master of Sport. At 230, you earn the title Master of Sport, I think. Every sport, from basketball to chess, has its own benchmarks for Master of Sport. From there you can earn Master of Sport titles on the national and international levels. Perhaps these titles were good for bonuses during Soviet times; now they simply indicate to your competitors that you are not to be messed with.
Unfortunately, I wasn't quite good enough to be an individual medalist. This is mostly due to the fact that all three women from our region fell into the same age bracket, and the other two are both Masters of Sport, so they and another woman kicked my butt and I took fourth. Curiously enough, shooting was again my best event, though I was disappointed -- I've shot close to 70 at practice and only managed 55 in competition. Skiing was decent, I earned 44 points on an icy track with a strong wind (points are given based on finish time). But push-ups...
To be honest, I'm pretty pleased: three weeks ago I couldn't even do a singe one of these arm busters, and on Saturday I managed 11 in a row. The set-up was pretty grim -- we were doing push-ups straight after shooting on a cemet floor covered by a thin oriental carpet, seperated from the metal pings of the range by only a thin curtain. Our judge (also my coach...) placed a wooden box about 2 inches tall on the floor. "This box has one loose board," he informed us, " so I'll be able to hear if you really get low enough." And he could, also disqualifying any attempts at push-ups with poor form.
After I did mine, the judge watching the guys doing pull-ups asked me why I wasn't breathing right. "How are you supposed to?" I asked, "and why are you telling me this now?" "I thought you'd know physiology," he replied. "No, I teach English," I said. "Yeah, she's our American. Speaks Kazakh fluently, too," put in our coach (I'm fluent in Kazakh to those who don't speak it). "Yeah," chimed in one of my competitors from another region, "I saw her picture in the paper in full Kazakh costume!"
Celebrity that I am, I was blown out of the water on those push-ups. One woman from my region has a new baby and hasn't trained seriously in two years. She did 26 push-ups without thinking twice. And my other teammate who trains seriously and is studying to be a coach did 51. A few years ago, our coach's wife (also a Master of Sport) did 126 in under 4 minutes at a competition. She's in her forties. How many can you do?
Later, I was sitting in a very focused room filled with athletes waiting either to shoot or push/pull. My phone rang, loud in the anticipatory atmosphere. Why is it that other volunteers always call me at the worst possible time? I answered, because volunteers are cheap and there's no guarentee that this friend would ever risk the cell phone minutes to call again, and began speaking hushed but unmistakably English. Usually my strategy is to never speak English in public. That way strangers can choose to believe that I'm ethnically German but still Kazakhstani, even if they've heard rumors of an American in their midst. And this is why: as my teenage teammate later reported,"it was amazing! Everyone in the room turned and stared at you with these huge eyes and shocked faces!" Needless to say, it was a short conversation under that kind of pressure. But when I hung up, my teammate couldn't resist rubbing it in: he nudged one of his acquaintance competitors and said, "She speaks fluent Kazakh, too!"
This weekend I also hung out with some other volunteers in between events. I think Jeff is reporting on those discoveries, so check with him for news of pickled watermelon, the bunker bar, and the man in the hip coffe shop we knew was foreign and guessed to be German, Italian, or Danish. When we worked up the courage to ask him, he turned out to be from Michigan. The only other American in Pavlodar, and we couldn't even recognize on of our own! Though he worked for a German/Italian company, so we were partly right.
Sometimes, through all the fun and excitement of this life, real horror creeps in. Coming home to the hostel where the team was staying, the woman on door/key duty made sure that I knew that I was coming in late (it was 10:30), and that there was no way she was going to let in the young man accompaying me (it was another volunteer making sure I got there safely). "I recognize my own," she said. I explained the situation and she was quite surprised to learn that I was foreign ("don't be offended, but I thought you were German with your pretty round eyes"). Within 30 seconds of her discovery, she asked me to do something for her and invited me in to her lounge. There she took out her wallet, opened it to three pictures of a beautiful blond woman and two of a young boy. Her grandson, she explained, and her daughter. "I just thought," she said, " that maybe you'd seen her in your travels, see how she looks like Alla Pugachova's daughter?" It slowly became clear, as my host began crying, that this daughter was lost. "Look at her nice breasts," said this mother, "You can understand why they would take her?" Human trafficking, she said. Words that aren't meant to go together. In the sudden tears and my shock, I missed most of the details, but the essence remains. I promised I would keep my eyes open for this seven-years-gone woman, and also that I would pray.
The next day, she was ending her shift as we went to breakfast. She greeted me as "her beauty," answered my awkward questions about the hostel, and we said warm good-byes. And I will pray and hope. What else is there left to do?
Love,
Nora
This past weekend I had the great pleasure of travelling to Pavlodar for yet another sports competition: the winter mnogoborye, aka the winter equivalent of the multi-event competition I reported on last summer. Only three events this time around, but equally curious: skiing (3km), shooting (10 shots on a bullseye from around 10 meters), and push-ups (not wussy push-ups with arms going sideways, but serious, elbows-back, nose-the-floor, on-your-toes monstors).
Our team, as to be expected, took first among the rural teams. Yea! I personally earned the team 135 points (each event is worth 100), which is pretty damn good for a beginner. If I'd earned 200, I could have become a Candidate for Master of Sport. At 230, you earn the title Master of Sport, I think. Every sport, from basketball to chess, has its own benchmarks for Master of Sport. From there you can earn Master of Sport titles on the national and international levels. Perhaps these titles were good for bonuses during Soviet times; now they simply indicate to your competitors that you are not to be messed with.
Unfortunately, I wasn't quite good enough to be an individual medalist. This is mostly due to the fact that all three women from our region fell into the same age bracket, and the other two are both Masters of Sport, so they and another woman kicked my butt and I took fourth. Curiously enough, shooting was again my best event, though I was disappointed -- I've shot close to 70 at practice and only managed 55 in competition. Skiing was decent, I earned 44 points on an icy track with a strong wind (points are given based on finish time). But push-ups...
To be honest, I'm pretty pleased: three weeks ago I couldn't even do a singe one of these arm busters, and on Saturday I managed 11 in a row. The set-up was pretty grim -- we were doing push-ups straight after shooting on a cemet floor covered by a thin oriental carpet, seperated from the metal pings of the range by only a thin curtain. Our judge (also my coach...) placed a wooden box about 2 inches tall on the floor. "This box has one loose board," he informed us, " so I'll be able to hear if you really get low enough." And he could, also disqualifying any attempts at push-ups with poor form.
After I did mine, the judge watching the guys doing pull-ups asked me why I wasn't breathing right. "How are you supposed to?" I asked, "and why are you telling me this now?" "I thought you'd know physiology," he replied. "No, I teach English," I said. "Yeah, she's our American. Speaks Kazakh fluently, too," put in our coach (I'm fluent in Kazakh to those who don't speak it). "Yeah," chimed in one of my competitors from another region, "I saw her picture in the paper in full Kazakh costume!"
Celebrity that I am, I was blown out of the water on those push-ups. One woman from my region has a new baby and hasn't trained seriously in two years. She did 26 push-ups without thinking twice. And my other teammate who trains seriously and is studying to be a coach did 51. A few years ago, our coach's wife (also a Master of Sport) did 126 in under 4 minutes at a competition. She's in her forties. How many can you do?
Later, I was sitting in a very focused room filled with athletes waiting either to shoot or push/pull. My phone rang, loud in the anticipatory atmosphere. Why is it that other volunteers always call me at the worst possible time? I answered, because volunteers are cheap and there's no guarentee that this friend would ever risk the cell phone minutes to call again, and began speaking hushed but unmistakably English. Usually my strategy is to never speak English in public. That way strangers can choose to believe that I'm ethnically German but still Kazakhstani, even if they've heard rumors of an American in their midst. And this is why: as my teenage teammate later reported,"it was amazing! Everyone in the room turned and stared at you with these huge eyes and shocked faces!" Needless to say, it was a short conversation under that kind of pressure. But when I hung up, my teammate couldn't resist rubbing it in: he nudged one of his acquaintance competitors and said, "She speaks fluent Kazakh, too!"
This weekend I also hung out with some other volunteers in between events. I think Jeff is reporting on those discoveries, so check with him for news of pickled watermelon, the bunker bar, and the man in the hip coffe shop we knew was foreign and guessed to be German, Italian, or Danish. When we worked up the courage to ask him, he turned out to be from Michigan. The only other American in Pavlodar, and we couldn't even recognize on of our own! Though he worked for a German/Italian company, so we were partly right.
Sometimes, through all the fun and excitement of this life, real horror creeps in. Coming home to the hostel where the team was staying, the woman on door/key duty made sure that I knew that I was coming in late (it was 10:30), and that there was no way she was going to let in the young man accompaying me (it was another volunteer making sure I got there safely). "I recognize my own," she said. I explained the situation and she was quite surprised to learn that I was foreign ("don't be offended, but I thought you were German with your pretty round eyes"). Within 30 seconds of her discovery, she asked me to do something for her and invited me in to her lounge. There she took out her wallet, opened it to three pictures of a beautiful blond woman and two of a young boy. Her grandson, she explained, and her daughter. "I just thought," she said, " that maybe you'd seen her in your travels, see how she looks like Alla Pugachova's daughter?" It slowly became clear, as my host began crying, that this daughter was lost. "Look at her nice breasts," said this mother, "You can understand why they would take her?" Human trafficking, she said. Words that aren't meant to go together. In the sudden tears and my shock, I missed most of the details, but the essence remains. I promised I would keep my eyes open for this seven-years-gone woman, and also that I would pray.
The next day, she was ending her shift as we went to breakfast. She greeted me as "her beauty," answered my awkward questions about the hostel, and we said warm good-byes. And I will pray and hope. What else is there left to do?
Love,
Nora
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