8th September

8^th September

Success on the Kindergarten plan! Once it was made clear that what I was proposing was free, the Headmistress was very excited about having me come to teach, and indeed, wanted me to come more than once a month. So once I have a bloody time-table I can start doing this. And this will count as a ‘community project’ as well as teaching, which is also great. The three main reasons for my being here are to: Help local teachers improve, help the community in general, and share ideas about USA here and Kazakhstan back in the USA (oops). While this is teaching, it will more about engaging with the community and in a different environment from the main school, where I am mostly based.

As I was walking home today, I passed a man who I have seen around the village before. He walks very slowly, VERY slowly, and when you get nearer the reason for this becomes apparent. He either has a whole prosthetic leg, or a leg brace, but every time his left knee bends, there is a rusty creaking, just like a gate being opened. His age is hard to place, as his face is very weather beaten (and probably plenty of vodka), but it is most likely that he is a terribly aged 40/50 year old, and his injured it during the Afghanistan war, rather than WW2 (or The Great Patriotic War as its known in ex-Soviet countries).

Most of what I have written recently has been about my frustrations in the Kazakh school system, so I thought I would try to write about other things here. And what is more interesting than eating!?

Kazakhstan is the 2^nd country I have lived in now, that doesn’t conform to the European/USA idea of what cutlery is required at the dinner table. Japan of course used chopsticks for every meal – I remember the first times I ate salad and spaghetti with them, and thought it was something crazy and novel. After three years, I think my chopstick skills are pretty good, if somewhat unconventional (apparently I hold them wrong, and then being left handed as well).

Kazakhstan on the other had, is closer to what most of you are used to, apart from the fact that Kazakhs don’t use knives. A standard place setting here is a teaspoon, table spoon and fork. Much like in Japan, if something is going to be cooked that would require cutting (like a steak, or vegetables), they are cut in the preparation stage, and so what reaches the plate is easily eaten without cutting.

This means that the spreading of butter or jam for example, is done with a spoon. Or, as is done by many people, no spreading at all- simply take a mouthful of bread, then a mouthful of jam or butter. Indeed, there is a lot of communal eating, that involves licked spoons/forks being put back into the food that others are eating from, as the traditional way of serving dinner is to place a big platter (or platters, depending on the number of people) in the middle of the table, and people just help themselves. Jams etc are placed in dishes in the middle, and the licked spoons are just dipped back in again. It was shocking at first, and I am still not 100% comfortable with it, but, well, it’s the Kazakh way. And our main concern back home with this style of eating, namely, the spreading of germs, doesn’t seem to be an issue, as none of my family has really been sick, and nothing has spread.

I am heading back to Almaty for 2 days, for my first host-sisters wedding. It’s a bit of a trip (£30 in bus tickets for a start), but it will be my first wedding here, and I am excited, although typically, one of the secretaries from school is getting married on the same day! What is that old adage about two busses coming at once?