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.