26- 30th June

26- 30th June

Ok...so i didnt drown all the vegetables, but i was up until 1.30am trying to stop the flow of water.

I was out watering the cucumbers, as i do every night, when one of Dad's friends came over. He was less than sober, and suggested that i wasnt able to give them enough water, and we should divert the stream into the garden. This is not as crazy as it sounds, as it is how most people here water the crops, although maybe not at 11.30pm. Its also something i havnt done yet, having been at work whem Mum or Dad have done it.

Water turned on, field fills up. Perfect, all the vegetables are getting plenty of water! The problem comes when i need to STOP the water entering the field. This took up of an hour, and the fear that i would never be able to do it.

Anyway, crisis averted, no damage done (i think) and lesson learnt. Dont follow directions from drunk people, and dont do gardening at night.

On a positive note, is was a clear night last night, and spending all this time outside, under the stars was amazing. Yes, people in Japan, there are stars in the sky, LOTS OF THEM!

25- 29th June

25- 29^th June

I have created a monster! After introducing Ultimate Frisbee two weeks ago to the children of Beskol, we are already having our second match against the next village, where Jason lives.We won 9-1 last time, but we fear they have been training!

So far I have played Frisbee at least once a day for the past week, I played on 3 separate occasions today, and I don’t even like Frisbee! I even organised some basic drills for the older (and competitive) group, so lets see if that pays off.

Don’t get me wrong, I am glad the kids are having fun, and that I have found a sport I am able to teach that doesn’t get in the way of the 3 existing sports teachers at school. And this one is relatively easy to organise, and cheap as well. Although you cant buy Frisbees in Kazakhstan, so I don’t know about the longevity of this.

Speaking of competitive, the daily sports I have been including in my English Club got slightly out of hand today, and I don’t think ill be repeating it next week. I have about 30 children in the 8-11 year old class, which today meant 2 Frisbee groups, and a football match. I wasn’t able to watch all of them, all at once, and I would turn round to see kids throwing stones at each other, with the intent to hurt, after being tackled, or after trying to take the Frisbee. So much effort to police them! But for some children here, there is an intense desire to win, and as long as this can be focused on academics (and learning English), I should have a few good students. Alas, this desire does not spread to most of the kids.

**update**

I may have just destroyed the entire vegetable garden. Not entirely by my own fault, in fact I put most of the blame on someone elses shoulders.

24- 26th June

24- 26^th June

A first today! A day without red meat in any of my meals! Fried eggs for breakfast, fried fish for lunch and chicken noodle soup for dinner. Hardly gourmet, but still, it’s the little things in life eh. And cucumbers and red currents from the garden as well. Helped to make up for the fact that I spent all day preparing for lessons and making the classroom somewhat presentable.

The theme for my summer club last week was music, and on Friday I had them draw posters, about the music style of their choice. Most of them did Rock, which was odd, as in the ‘I love listening to _____’ dialogs, they all said they liked Dance music. Anyway, the posters well all terrible, so I spent the day cutting out the best bits and making a collage of sorts.

Its food and sports theme next week, with the idea being 30 minutes of vocabulary teaching followed by 30 minutes of fun sports. Tomorrow will be Fruit and Frisbee, with extra words for the older groups. Another busy week in store, if tomorrow is any gauge, with Kazakh lesson at 10am, class for 6-9 year olds at 12am, 10-13s at 1pm and 14-18s at 2pm, followed by a high level English class at 3.30pm.

Each day requiring flash-cards to be made as well….and this is summer!

23- 26th June

Yesterday was an interesting day, for a rather wide range of reasons.

I spoke 5 different languages for a start. English, Kazakh, Russian, German, French and Japanese. Infact, every language that i know!

Most of the old people in the village speak a smattering of German (just like me really) so i had two brief conversations as i walked back from school. Then, for some reason, I was shouted at in French, not in anger, but rather surprising anyway. After getting over that, we then exchanged greatings etc (Which is all i know in French!). Finally, someone who lives near me has a videocamera that is only in Japanese (as far as i can tell), and needed the date and timezone changed, which i was able to do, after a bit of trial and error. A rather linguistic day!

Jason and I also managed to get a mini game of Ultimate Frisbee going in Beskol, which is nice as it will hopefully prove popular, and it is one of the easiest sports to both teach and coach. We were even talking about having a tournament next summer.

In the evening, I had one of the funniest, and strangest experiences so far. My host father had had the day off, and had spent it with his friends, drinking beer. He was very merry when he got home. After a small German conversation, "Ich liebe....liebe...Angliski" (I love English.. but using the Russian.. he doesnt know any English).... and then in Russian, he called me his son... and then he arm wrestled me, both arms, and won rather convincingly.

I cant say this is a normal day here, but it isnt as random as it might seem.

22- 19th June

22- June 19^th

A week away, and it flew by. I am not saying Beskol is boring, but the slow pace of life was certainly brought home to me while I was at camp. Shops, people, more people, even more shops, and plenty of friends to share it with. Rather different from sleepy little Beskol.

The bus ride down took four and a half hours, mainly spent looking at mountains out of the left windows, and steppe and farmland on the right hand side. I think we must have passed through 6 or 7 villages, and 2 towns in that entire time. Field of purple and yellow wildflowers not only created a spectacular painting like scenery, but their perfume like scents were strong enough to smell in the bus.

There were two notable – and very different – sights that I deemed noteworthy. One was such a shock, it seemed like we had been transplanted in Orange County or some other area with massive amounts of modern suburban developments. The village of Kuzularash (Red tree) seemed brand new, from the shiny (and pot-hole free) roads, to the tiny trees in gardens. Indeed, it might not even have been finished yet, with the 1500 or so houses appearing like they were only unwrapped that morning. This was an entire new village, in the middle of no where, with no apparent industry, and this is why it struck me as being so special. The population of Beskol has fallen in the past twenty years, as the Germans and Ukrainians left, and the youth have moved to the cities. And I believe this is a trend throughout Kazakhstan. So what justifies this massive new village to be created, 2 hours north of the city, and seemingly jobless is a mystery to me.

The second sight of interest was the Air Force base in Taldy Kalgan. Driving into town from the north, I was greeted by the sight of around 30 soil covered aircraft hangers, each capable of holding a single fighter yet. They were just the same as World War II hangers I have seen in England, and elsewhere in Europe. But while these were all museum pieces now, at least 10 of these Kazakh ones were still in use, with MIG fighter planes visible. I am not exactly sure what these planes were there to defend, as there must be an Air Force base closer to Almaty that would be of greater use, but they certainly provided more entertainment for the trip.

I was asked earlier about conversations I have here, so here is one. Al Capone was the only topic of conversation available to the driver, and seemingly his only English words.

Driver : American?

Me: Umm, yes

Driver: Chicago, Al Capone

Me: Yeh! Al Capone

Driver: Gangster (makes shooting noises) HAHA

That was the conversation… it was deep!

21- 11th June

21- 11^th June

A lighter note today, I promise.

Summer is certainly here, its hot.. 33.5degrees currently in my room, and this has been wonderful news for the fruit and vegetables in the garden. I have been helping out daily, and really enjoying it, even if my back hasn’t. ‘Back-breaking work’ means almost that. Watering, weeding and picking Colorado potato beetles off, yes, the potato plants, takes up at least an hour of my mornings. It is fun to help out, knowing that I will get to eat everything grown.

Well, almost everything, as my host niece is hell bent on eating all the strawberries before I can! She has been coming over every day, armed with a small bucket, and picking all the red (and partially red) ones she can. Thankfully, her family are away for the weekend, so I will eat all the strawberries I can find. She may often win the battles, but I will win the war! Next up will be the cherries, which are reddening right now. The blackberries, blackcurrants and raspberries all seem to be taking longer, as are the vegetables.

I will be away from Beskol for a week, leaving on Sunday, going to Taldy Korgan, the local ‘city’, 4 hours away, for a week of Frisbee Camp, run by a few Youth Development volunteers. In total there should be 8 Peace Corps volunteers, so it should be good fun, although, with my rather limited Frisbee ability, and no idea at all how to play ‘Ultimate Frisbee’, I might be learning as much as the kids!

18 - 4th June

18- 4^th June

Was able to get into town yesterday morning, to Steven’s house (another volunteer in the nearest town, 20mins away by car), who has internet. Not much to report from that, but the taxi ride home was interesting.

Well, ‘taxi’ is a strong term, basically it is paid hitchhiking, just sticking out one’s arm by the side of the road will get an offer of a lift rather quickly (during the day at least), and the going rate is 200Tenge for the 20minute ride from Ushiral to Beskol. That’s $1.30, or about £0.80. I think its expensive, but the locals don’t seem to mind. And in the absence of a bus, it’s the only option other than walking (which, if you remember, Jason and I did last week, but that took 2 hours). There are bus stops all along the road though, so I guess that when the factory was open, and the population twice the size in the 1970’s and 1980’s, there must have been a wonderfully cheap bus.

Anyway, back to the ‘taxi’. We were picked up by a lovely old Russian couple, who didn’t speak a word of English, Kazakh or German unfortunately, which made negotiation of the price a bit hard. I at least, can count to 10 in Russian, so 2 0 0 (dvar null null) got us the desired result. Oh, I almost forgot the most important bit. The car was a battered old red Lada! It was such a Soviet experience, all it was lacking was pickles and vodka and I would have thought I was in Soviet Russia.

It rained last night for the first time in 2 weeks, which, while the vegetables would have loved it, and there is less dust now, has made the air humid, which is something that is thankfully lacking normally. I don’t miss the Japanese summer! The thermometer on my alarm clock says its currently 24degrees in my room, which given the fact I only have a little window, is certainly possible. But its probably 60/70% humidity as well today, which is rubbish!

A lazy day of lesson planning and reading, due primarily to the weather (humid and showers all day), and of course, to the fact that I need to plan lessons! I am currently teaching two classes a week, a High-Level student spoken grammar class (in that, there are dialogues involving the grammar structure), and an Introduction to English lesson for the teachers at school. Both are firsts for me, as I was spared most of the grammar teaching in Japan, likewise having to teach the beginner adults. Its proving fun though, and the lessons are being enjoyed, which is also great. There is also the added advantage of teaching the adult class, and that is to show off my teaching techniques. They are certainly different from a lot of the teaching here (and in Asia in general. Lots of rote learning), and as by giving fun, interesting lessons, hopefully it will not only garner respect among my fellow teachers, but also allow me to do some teacher-training sessions in the future.

17 - 3rd June

17- 3^rd June

Kazakhstan just beat Azerbaijan in their UEFA qualifier 2-1, so a happy moment in the house. The fact that the coach and 2/3^rds of the team are ethnic Russians, and the rest a mix of Germans and Kazaks doesn’t diminish the support the team gets from the whole country, which is a nice example of how the country copes with its ethnic divide. All national TV stations have to have at least 50% of their broadcasting in the Kazakh language, and this was achieved for the football commentary by having 1 man speaking in Russian and 1 in Kazakh. Its terrible for me, as I cant speak a word of Russian, but apart from some in the South, and returnees from China and Mongolia (more about that later), the vast majority of the country is bi-lingual. School is split into the two language groups, but both have lessons in the other language. In fact, my host sister is Kazakh, but she is in the Russian group at school (mainly because many think the Russian teachers are better (and they were certainly were during Stalin’s rule, when he exiled many Russian scientists to Kazakhstan to become school teachers).

Speaking of Stalin again, during his purges in the 1930’s, and the collectivisation of the Kazak steppe, many Kazakhs left the country and moved to Western China and Mongolia. With Kazakhstan now being the richest country in the area (thanks to all the lovely oil in the Caspian Sea), many of these people are now returning, and thanks to being outside of Russian influence, they have kept many of the Kazakh traditions alive. However, due to the lack of Russian, they (as well as myself, especially if I ever visit the North of the country) find conversing and getting work rather difficult, Russian being the language spoken in many situations. Our staff meetings at school take place mainly in Russian, despite 60% of the teachers being Kazakh.

Oh, I had a sesame flavoured ice cream today, well, it was vanilla, with lots of sesame seeds on the outside. Just thought I would add something less dull and historic to this post!

16 - 1st June

16 – 1^st June

Summer is here! Well, its been over 25degrees for the past month, but still, its official now. And with summer comes the summer camps and activities that I have spent the last two weeks planning. It also provides our first opportunities to travel independently, albeit rather limited this first summer, due to language and ‘baby-sitting’ by Peace Corps.

The local educational authority has organised a month long camp next to Alakol (the massive lake nearby), which I was told about yesterday, which, although messing up my current plans, should provide a nice experience and fun by the lake, I think 2 weeks will be fine (a whole month of camp would be exhausting, and this is my summer holiday after all!

I realised that I haven’t talked about food that much, sorry. Now that summer has arrived, the number of vegetables on the table is increasing, which is lovely, as in the first two months, meals were limited to bread/potatoes and meat. The biggest thing I would say is that breakfast, lunch and dinner all feature similar foods, with breakfast in fact often just being the left-overs from the previous night’s dinner.

Due to the extended Russian presence in the area, there is a lot of Russian food in the diet, so that explains my breakfast today, a kind of ravioli (meat stuffed pasta like ball), and the Borsch I had for dinner last night.

Kazak food is also very much influenced by the Uzbeks in the south, and the Uigur to the east, with Plov (rice, meat and carrots) being a popular Uzbek dish in the south, and Lagman (big noodles (like Udon) with meat and vegetables) being the most popular Uigur food. Both of these are much more popular in the south of Kazakhstan, where there are much larger communities of both ethnic groups, as well as others from the area. The north of Kazakhstan (up until the 1990s at least) featured much larger groups of peoples deported to Kazakhstan by Stalin such as Germans, Ukrainians and Russians.

Meat (sheep, beef, chicken, horse) in large quantities, potatoes, pasta, bread, plus the usual vegetables all feature here, but there is less variety in preparation styles. Most dishes involve frying, or stewing in a pot for hours. Nothing overly exciting, but nothing toooo terrible either, apart from the inclusion of lots of fat and internal organs.

I just had an interesting talk with my host father about religion, and it clarified some of things we were told during training. Almost all ethnic Kazakhs (as well as Uigurs, Uzbekhs etc) call themselves Muslims, and indeed the religion has had a presence here for a long time. It was effectively banned under Communist rule, with all Mosques being used for other things, or allowed to fall down. And this has not only led to near universal ‘Islamification’ of the country post-Communism, but also to a strong dislike of atheists.

While I am undecided about my own views on religion, it is far easier for me to say I am a ‘little bit Christian’, than an agnostic or atheist. Believing in 1 God, even if only at Christmas, is enough here. Which goes along way in explaining how many people can call themselves Muslims, while still drinking alcohol, not praying 5 times a day, trying to get to Mecca once in their lives, or for some, especially in the Russian North of the country, from eating pork. Which is similar to my experience in Japan, with people being having Buddhist or Shinto funerals, and visiting the family graves, but doing little else to justify calling themselves Buddhist or Shino. Simply calling themselves Muslims is enough to make themselves Kazakh, and not Communist, and that is enough.

16 - 28th May

16- 28^th May

I spent the day in the foothills of the mountains with a large group of the teachers today. It was the yearly staff outing, so was nice to be invited, and Steven, one of two Peace Corps in the nearest city made the trip out as well.

It was great to be up in the hills, and there will be some lovely hiking up there, if I am ever allowed on my own. The school director, and even the other teachers are so protective, it is becoming tedious and restrictive. Steven and I weren’t allowed to go hiking by ourselves, requiring a chaperone to go up the nearest peak, 20minutes away. A combination of Peace Corps telling them to look after us, and the natural treatment of guests have joined forces to be very restricting. Steven’s counterpart called him four times during the day to check if he was ok up in the hills. Soon there will be open rebellion!

Anyway, I digress. The mountains ARE very nice here, and there is still snow on the tops of a few, so I am working on getting hold of maps to see if a multi-day hike is possible, although apart from the shepherds trails in the foot-hills, I doubt there is much in the way of trails. The locals don’t seem big fans of hiking, which is a big shame.

I was also able to watch the Champions League final last night, at one of my student’s homes. It didn’t start till 12.30, so was a rather late night, but was such an exciting game that I am glad I stayed up for it. The electricity is back on with regularity now, so such things are possible.

15 - 27th May

15 – 27^th May

Jason and I decided to walk into Uchiral today, partly because we had nothing better to do in the afternoon, and also as an excuse to visit the two cemeteries that are next to the road. What is a 15minute drive took us 2 and a half hours, but it was certainly worth it. The cemeteries were very interesting, with a unique (to me) architecture. It is very different from the Ottoman inspired cemeteries in Bosnia and Turkey I have seen. Many of the graves here are more like mausoleums and are very interesting to look at. The photos will be posted on my flickr as soon as possible I promise!