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