24th July

24^th July

Sorry for the length of this post. I had rather a lot of time on my hands at camp!

Here, being the camp is a very relaxing place, not that my life needed anymore relaxing, what with having no real lessons for the past 2 weeks. But still, swimming a few times a day in the lake - which is mildly salty - and plenty of reading and naps is great.

A day in my life at camp:

5.30am – Get up and go for a 20minute run along the beach, followed by a swim

6.00am- go back to bed for an hour

7.00am- Supervise the morning exercises for the kids

7.30am- Breakfast

8.00am-1pm Free time, as the kids were in class

1.30pm – Lunch, followed by a swim

3.00pm-7pm – Playing sports, reading, talking, general supervision

7.00pm- Dinner

7.30pm- Evening activity followed by a disco

10.00pm – lights out

Activities I have helped to run so far – Talent show, Fashion show, Sports day, and camp games. Tonight will be a treasure hunt. They have all been popular, and fun to do, although being dressed up in drag by the girls for the fashion show was slightly awkward. I also don’t have any talents that can be demonstrated in shows like this- and my counting to 10 in 6 languages was overshadowed by some great singing, dancing and poetry recital.

There are 30 students here, who are supposed to make up the best Biology students in the area. It is very girl heavy – only 4 boys! – and only 3 Russians in the group. It is interesting to see the ethnic makeup, as it seems the better students come from the Russian classes at school (each year is split into 50% Kazakh language, 50% Russian language classes, but many of the students in Russian class are Kazakhs), yet very few Russians were present at the camp, or in my summer English classes. I don’t understand it!

Two ethnic Kazakh kids here do not speak a word of Kazakh, MY Kazakh is better than theirs, which is rather worrying. I can understand their Russian being better than their Kazakh if they are in Russian class, but to completely incapable of speaking, in one’s own language, in one’s own country, shocked me. While the focus on Russian was important in the Soviet period, there are been a reversal since independence that is placing more and more weight on the Kazakh language. In order to run for President, fluency in Kazakh is required, and before long I am sure the same will be true for many political/ civil service jobs, as well as businesses. Therefore the focus on purely Russian language, especially amongst a few Kazakh families seems rather narrow sighted and ultimately destructive.

There is slightly more wildlife here than in Beskol, namely birds. Plenty of birdsong throughout the day is always lovely, and something I certainly missed in Japan. I also saw a hummingbird yesterday, which I always enjoy. And camels! No pretty songs from them, but got up close to 3 who are near the camp. I assume they are being kept for their milk, as sour camel milk is believed to be very healthy. Which it may well be, but it tastes so bad, I haven’t been able to swallow more than a mouthful. And will never do it again!

The visitors to the lake are decidedly middleclass for Kazakhstan, plenty of 4x4s, and the ability to take 2 or 3 days off work, as many of them camp by the lakeside. There is also a far great number of Russians than in normal Kazakh life (outside of the North), its possibly as high as 65% Russian here, compared to the national average of 45%. The only difference this brings to my life here though is that there is less litter on the beach, and that is great! Whether this is something to do with the class or ethnic dynamic, I don’t know, but the litter situation is in marked contract to the other, smaller lake I have visited with my family, where it is 90% Kazakh day trippers and litter is piled up everywhere.

In all the free time I have, I have been working on a list of corrections in the text books that are used for teaching English here. They heavily feature Britain, which is great, but it would appear the authors have never actually visited the country, or only once or twice as tourists, as the information is strange and full of generalisations. Dog fighting is on the increase apparently, and this is from a paragraph explaining English eating habits,

“British people eat a lot of meat. Mineral water is not very common. The most popular drink with meals is tea…in the evening they have a simple supper an omelette, or sausage, sometime bacon and eggs.”

Books I have read since I got to camp: Fantastic Mr Fox by Roul Dahl, Diary by Chuck Phalanuk, I am legend by Richard Matheson, 50% of Travels from London to Calcutta by Arnold Landor (it was really boring), and 25% of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (it’s a HUGE book). I am not really interested in Atlas Shrugged and not just due to its size, but mainly due to its content. It is a seen as a biblical text to those industrialists and conservatives who dislike government and social responsibilities, and regularly held up as a ‘must read’ book. From what I can tell so far, its rather a lot of anti-government regulation drivel that is far too wordy to be interesting. The characters are predictable and difficult to relate to, and the whole message of the book is directly opposite of real life. In the book, it is socially progressive idiots who influence government to take destructive action against Big Business, rather than how it really seems to me – Big Business lobbying government to make sure their interests take precedence over social issues. Oh well, ill let you know how it finishes in another week or so, as its taking forever to get through!

19th July

19^th July

“Yes, it is possible, it takes 4 hours, and no, it isn’t worth it”

I was able to come up with this conclusion after my activities of the day, which wasn’t about making butter (although I am sure the exact same answer applies), but for walking to the mountains from Beskol.

Since I arrived here, I have been wondering if it was possible to walk all the way (I still have a deep dislike of taxis after my bike crash in Japan), how long it would take, and if it would leave any energy to actually climb the notorious Mount Афон (Afon). It is actually not notorious at all, but simply the closest peak, but at 1233m, it is still a fair climb – Beskol is 400m above sea level, so I cheated a bit. And I did have enough energy to climb up, somehow, despite my terrible ration planning for the trip- namely two cucumbers, two granola bars, and a packet of seaweed. It was all that I had at hand, in a country that doesn’t really DO sandwiches or rice balls, my previous two fallbacks in terms of ‘hiking food’. I will have to work on something better here though, as I think it was only the wild apples I found that kept me alive.

I most certainly didn’t have enough energy for the walk home though, and was just considering throwing myself in the river and being swept down to Ushiral – camera be dammed – when a lovely Russian family stopped to offer me a ride. Once again, my complete lack of Russian ability was brought home – I can make simple conversation with Kazakhs at least – so I will endeavour to start learning it slowly on the side I think. It will clearly come in handy. Anyway, the Russian family were part of one of the modern evangelical wings of the Christian church, and as a reward for my flicking through a Russian bible, and some brochures (all in Russian), I was driven all the way to my house, a 25minute drive- for free! Alleluia!

It really was most fortunate, as I had neglected to bring any money with me, so was facing walking all the way home again, which would have meant a round trip of close to 40km. Which for those who remember my 50km, 16hour epic hike in Japan last summer, is not something that I can’t do. However, the (small) bragging rights that that allowed helped motivate me for the trip, and I also had someone to talk to, and more food to eat.

I will be away at the local educational authority summer camp for the next 10 days. The kids will all be 8^th class Biology students, and they will have biology class all morning, and then optional sports and English in the afternoons. It seems like a lot of work, but will see how it goes.

So no updates for 10 days dear readers, how will you cope?!

17th July

17^th July

An interesting evening stealing water is currently in the final stages i.e Using the water. If you remember from a few weeks ago, and my attempt to flood the garden, the water supply (and usage) here is rather different from England, or Japan, or even in Jason’s village 20minute walk away.

Simply, the streams that run off the mountains flow through the village and are channelled along the roads. As the village is set out in the grid pattern, the houses are also always facing a road, and therefore water. Everyone then has a pipe leading from the channel, into their garden. This is unblocked when water is required, and re-blocked when the garden is flooded! This is in theory anyway, as what must have been a simple Communist idea of sharing water, is not without its problems. Namely, that some people use a lot more water than others, which therefore effects the water levels. This then requires certain channels to be blocked, to provide adequate water levels in others.

This is what has lead to my (and mother along this time) midnight water stealing trip. There was insufficient water in our channel, so we went off on a hunt to close all the open pipes and channels in an attempt to improve this. And we did, although due to the lack of rain here (it has only rained once in the past month), the water level is simply low. I couldn’t help feeling like we were doing something naughty (which we weren’t, as we were just taking water that we are entitled to), although doing it at midnight, with torches, certainly made it feel like it.

The other problem with the system, as I have already shown, is that sometimes the pipes and channels are really difficult to block!

Here is a rough drawing to hopefully explain what I am talking about. The green squares are houses, the blue is water, the black is roads, and the red are blocks that are put into the channel, to ensure the best water pressure for yourself.

As you can imagine, this causes problems, if people feel it is their turn to get water, and there doesn’t seem to be a time-share approach in use (there may of in Soviet times, I don’t know). Indeed, in my first week, I saw one of the Russian Biology teachers hit someone with a spade, in a dispute over the water.

This has turned into a rather long essay, but I hope it hasn’t been too boring to read. Just trying to show one of the many ways that my village experience here is different to, well, your lives!

Ohhh, on a slight tangent, while out walking around tonight, mum helped explained some of the road names. In Soviet times, most streets, and even towns, were named after famous people (Leningrad for example), and this was also true in Kazakhstan. So my street is named after a famous Kazak musician. And the street at the south of Beskol is named are Yuri Gagarin! As you can see, the naming process was not always related to local (or Kazakh) people, but those who were in favour with the Soviets at the time.

16th July

16^th July

Just watched a Russian film that was recommended online, “Burnt by the sun”. Set before WW2 in Russia, it’s a rather strange film that I didn’t fully understand (it wasn’t the fault of the subtitles, which were actually rather good), but it did offer an insight into the period that I haven’t seen before, and it was nice to recognise some of the Russian words and actions I experience every day. This line from the film made me laugh,

“Why don’t you ever say anything? You are like Switzerland, well fed and apathetic”- Burnt by the Sun

14th July

14^th July

I spoke too soon on the meat front. It was a relatives 50^th birthday today, and sheep head was served. I was given one of the ears to eat, and, I did take a nibble. While it tasted better than I imagined it would, it never-the-less had the texture of leather and a taste somewhat similar as well. I didn’t make a face though, as I put it down and hit it under a bowl, and thankfully no one was watching me eat it! The ear is traditionally given to younger people at the table, as a symbol that they should listen to their elders!

I have started a project with my higher level students to create a Wikipedia page for Beskol, with as much information as we can gather. Hopefully by next week we will have something to upload, and it is something that I hope can be added to while I am here. The prospect of having their work viewable by a worldwide audience was exciting, so lets hope there remain motivated on this project!

I just finished Dracula, which I realised half way through I have read before, but I cant for the life of me remember when. It was as I remembered it though, after a great start, the book just drags on and on, with terrible dialogue. It was that fact actually, that reminded me of having already read it. Reading on the Kindle, it doesn’t give page numbers, but instead percentages, and after 14%, the book is really rather dull. It doesn’t get interesting again until 98%, at which point Dracula is killed rather quickly (and easily). Sorry if I have ruined the ending for anyone who hasn’t read it, but save your time, and watch a film version instead, or read Frankenstein, a better book!

13th July

13^th July

I finished The Great Game today, and was asked to summarise it, so here it is! It covered 200 years of Empire building by the Russians and British, featuring the Central Asian Khanates, Persia, Afghanistan and Western China.

To put it simply, the Russians extended south, to protect their borders from a perceived threat of the British pushing up from India. This involved taking permanent control (until 1991) over what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, as well as sporadic influence in Kashgar and Yarkand. And until the fall of the USSR, they remained the ruler of these former proud and important areas, which feature heavily in the history of the Silk Road, and Genghis Khan.

Meanwhile, the British were doing everything they could to defend India from the Russians, which mainly involved trying to exert a greater influence over Afghanistan. This resulted in two very costly – both in money and lives- Afghan wars, but with the desired outcome of a friendly northern buffer zone.

And that is it, the “game” part of the name of this period of Empirical history is related to the spying, dealing and double-crossing that was done by both sides to ensure success. The “game” only ended in 1907, after the Russians massive and humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese, and the realisation that Russia and England needed to join together to counter the rising threat of increased German hostility in Europe.

Now, what non-fiction book should I read next, I have about 40 to choose from on my Kindle, so its not an easy decision.

12th July

12^th July

I had a genuinely gourmet meal last night, fried marrow with garlic and dill mayonnaise sauce. It was rather a shock actually, and very tasty. There was no meat to be seen, which is a godsend. I reacted rather badly to a meal that was presented on Sunday, and this may have been one of the consequences. It was boiled intestines and other internal organs, and I may have mentioned that this is ‘the worst food’ (yeng jaman tamak), and preceded to only eat the salad and bread that was on the table.

So hopefully this spells a new period of reduced meatiness and I was very appreciative (dap damda = tastiest) of the food. On one hand I was trying to redeem my earlier rudeness, but also reinforce what exactly it is that I do like! Peace Corps pays 4,500tenge a week for my food (about £20), which is double what I was paying for myself in England at University, and I currently don’t think my family spends nearly that much my weekly food. So if I can at least demonstrate what I like, the money might be better spent. Today I ate all 4 major carbohydrates – rice, pasta, potatoes and bread, but no meat!

Another quote from The Great Game, about the defence of Kandahar in Afghanistan by the British in 1880,

“Although weakened by illness, [General] Roberts had commanded the entire operation from the saddle, taking occasional sips of champagne to keep up his strength.”

Ahh, the good old days of soldiering!

At the same time, this is a quote, after the Russian defeat of the Turkoman fortress of Geok-Tepe,

“I hold it as a principle that the duration of peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict upon the enemy. The harder you hit them, the longer they remain quiet” General Skobelev

There is no underlying message I am trying to get across with these two quotes, I just thought they were interesting insights into the thoughts and actions of the time.

11th July

11th July

I discovered today that Present Simple Tense, and Future Simple Tense, are the same thing in Kazakh. I don’t know if I should be pleased that this simplifies things, or worried that is has taken me so long to realise (or at least remember) this!

Verb + a/ye/e (depending on if the last letter of the verb is a vowel, voiced sound, or voiceless sound)+ personal ending (first/second/third person has different endings)

So, “I take”, and “I will take”, are the same,

“Myen al-a-mun”

I am still to make my mind up about this language. So much of it is just annoying, having inherited the Turkic rule of Symharmony (how a word sounds is important, for example, only hard sounding vowels, or soft sounding vowels, will feature in a word, not a mix of the two). But every now and then, something nice comes along, like this. So who knows what my position on it will be after two years.

I read this quote this morning, and I thought I would share it with you. It was from a document given to political leaders in Europe, in order to justify Russian expansion into Central Asia.

“The position of Russia in Central Asia is that of all civilised states which are brought into contact with half-savage nomad populations possessing no fixed social organisation. In such cases it always happens that the more civilised state is forced, in the interests of security of its frontiers and its commercial relations, to exercise a certain ascendancy over those whose turbulent and unsettled character make them undesirable neighbours”, Russian Foreign Minister, Prince Gorchakov, 1864

I found it interesting, that such a view, aired so many years before the Soviet period of political and population expansion into the same area. While in 1864 it was done to protect Russian commercial interests, and to stem British influence in the area, in the 1930s it was done to ‘civilise’ those within Russia’s borders and force the same ‘half-savage nomads’ to join the modern world. At that time, Kazakhstan was still very much a nomadic culture, and in as little as 10 years, Soviet Russia had changed that forever.

8th July

8^th July

I got a free lift back from Ushiral today, in a huge ex-army truck. The driver worked for a company that runs hunting trips in the mountains, and he said that a number of Europeans come each year to shoot the bears, wolves and other lovely creatures. While I am certainly against hunting, the information proves that the mountains are both accessible for hiking, and for foreigners! And the guy gave me a free lift, so that almost makes up for the killing.

I am often asked by kids if I have met any famous people (I was also asked it in Japan). I guess this is due to the amount of western TV, music and movies they get here. My answer, is yes! Heck, I went to school with Keira Knightly, and my hometown is full of Chelsea football players. But my trump card, here, is that I have met Gorbechovs brother! He also lives in my hometown, and is one of the few people that the here adults actually know.

6th July

6^th July

Just back from an afternoon at the lake, on a day that must have been 35degrees. Lovely way to spend the afternoon, alternating between swimming, reading and babysitting.

On the way there, I saw a sight that I have only read about. An eagle, of which there are many here, heck, in the national animal and even on the flag, was being attacked by a few smaller birds. It is a defence strategy that seemed to have worked, as the eagle flew off, and it was very interesting to see in real life. The smaller birds would dive-bomb the eagle incessantly, never actually touching him, but causing enough bother to make him leave.

There is a story I have been telling people that has universally been found funny, so I thought I would share it. It happened at the birthday lunch last Friday at school that I mentioned. There were a number of Russians present, so some of the dishes were pork based, and there was a big bowl of smoked pork fat in front of me. I, of course, didn’t touch it! However, when I declined an offer to tuck in from the Kazakh handyman next to me, he asked me if I was a Muslim. What made this funny was that I had a shot of vodka in my hand, ready for the birthday toast! It also highlights something that I have also talked about earlier, that being the Kazakh (and other ex-Soviet states) ability to basically remove ‘drinking alcohol’ from the DON’T list of Islam. Most will not eat pork and find it disdainful and ‘un-Islamic’, but alcohol simply doesn’t factor. Our director, who came to visit, is leaving Kazakhstan and moving to Jordan, and there, Peace Corps Volunteers are banned from drinking alcohol for their entire service, due to the far stricter following of Islam there. Such a contrast just struck me as interesting. And I suppose Christianity has such varied contrasts, based as much on geography and local history, as location. I know Buddhism does.

5th July

5^th July

Raspberries are ready, yummy! And I saw Camels yesterday, first time in Kazakhstan, and indeed first time outside of the zoo. Actually, I lie, I saw two camels in Japan, at the Tottori sand dunes that could be ridden for 5minutes, for the grand cost of 1,500yen, or £10! I didn’t have my camera though for this recent sighting, sorry.

My Kazakh regional manager, and my American Director (and his wife) came to visit today, doing a tour of the volunteers in the area. It was nice to see them and chat about things, but more importantly, they were able to see my village and school, and even one of my lessons. Despite the edict from the school, I still taught a High-Level class today, and talked about Peace Corps, Volunteering, and, Vampires. Actually, Vampires came first! Seemingly, Twilight is the only book that children are reading at the moment. It seems to have become the new Harry Potter, and I suppose that is a good thing, in that anything that makes kids read is good. Apart from it being about vampires, I know nothing about it, and haven’t seen the films, much like my understanding of Harry Potter, but it seems popular. I have actually visited “Dracula’s Castle” in Romania, so that gave us something to talk about.

Paul, my director, used to be a volunteer in Guatemala, and he met his wife there, so the students, especially the girls had great fun talking to her and I feel the whole thing was a success!

For those who might not believe my stories about the importance of meat in the Kazakh diet, I will soon upload a photo of my freezer. Yes, that is the head of a sheep, and its feet, about 2kgs of butter, and some Coke. Meat/Oil/Sugar being 3 of the 4 staples of Kazakh food, its only missing bread.

1st July

1^st July

I discovered at 11.30am, as I arrived at school, that due to the painting of the halls, I wasn’t allowed to teach any English classes (I have been the only person doing anything at school for the past two weeks). I had two more weeks of lessons planned, which will have to wait till August.

By not reacting TOO much to this news (I had twenty children already lined up for class), I was able to get an invitation to the painting ladies lunch. This included a birthday, and therefore Vodka. At midday. I hate vodka, I might add (and not just for mum’s benefit), however, it is centre piece to all Russian (and therefore Kazakh) celebrations, and it cannot be avoided. Despite this, a fun lunch ensued and even the obligatory dancing afterwards, and I was able practice my Kazakh, as amongst the 10 people present, barely a word of English was understood.

The rest of the day followed the regular pattern (minus lessons) simply… Frisbee, bloody Frisbee! However, just as I was preparing for a quiet evening of reading (I have a good Philip. K. Dick Novel to finish), I was informed that it was my host brother’s birthday today. Which means lots of greasy food, and alcohol of course.

For what was my first Kazakh birthday (In that I was invited personally) It was actually a lot of fun, mainly due to the number of little kids who I was able to joke around with. The adults were the typical mix of non-English, a little German speaking people. But I was able to give my toast (Turan-kunna Kutta Bulson = Birthday Celebrations), and that went down well.

The meal had the typical feeling of a Kazakh event, which means lots of food piled onto the table, most of it meat based. You don’t really have personal plates, but just eat out of the large dishes on the table. It has a very informal, medieval feast like feel to it. Then there is the alcohol, shots of vodka for toasting, and glasses of beer for normal drinking. And tea, always tea. Last night I coined the phrase “Kazakh cocktail” (Cocktail is a Russian cognate, thankfully), to describe the vodka, beer and tea mix.