Commence Year Two in the Crazy KZ!

Okay, so I need to start writing this. My trip to America, was to reiterate, amazing, but I don’t feel that I need to go into detail about what this was like because most of you live there and if not, you probably don’t want me to brag about my return to western opulence. I’m going to start instead (and I’m egregiously ripping off Girl Jamie’s post, but what can I say I was inspired) by documenting my return to Kazakhstan.

So the return plane to Almaty seemed a lot longer than the flight back to the states (even though I had a seven hour layover in Germany on the way to America and had less than 30 minutes total to make each of my planes coming back to Kaz). This was partially because I had seen all of the in flight movies and partially due to the fact that beer wasn’t free on the way back (American airlines have a lot to learn), but either way, 21 hours on a plane is just unavoidably grim. I met some great people on the plane ride back however, and talked to man living in Frankfurt who worked for the IRS and a Francophile Kazakhified Russian woman who was living in France and making large sums of money by playing the stock market (something to consider upon return home). I returned to Kazakhstan at 12 AM and had spent a great deal of time agonizing over my customs form since I had bought a ton of stuff in America. This form was never even checked upon exiting the plane. After I got off the plane I began filling out the customs/reason for travel/visa form after having asked a woman to borrow a pen. Halfway through the form, I realized I could bypass all these huddling SOB’s and could get right into line because I am one of I would say less than 200 Americans that have a multiple entry visa to the glorious nation of Kazakhstan. I popped into line and was out before you could say “beshbarmak” and went to reclaim my luggage.

I can’t tell you how, when travelling, what a liberating experience it was to be able to give my luggage to someone else and have them take care of it for you. After a year of dealing with the Kazakh “carry your luggage yourself and get the hell off the train quickly” mentality, I had forgotten how posh air transport actually is. That is, until I waited for an hour for my luggage that simply did not appear on the carousel. I went to the “I’m foreign and have a problem” desk and filed my luggage as missing. They were more helpful than I expected, and gave me a travel kit with toiletries and a white T-shirt. Because a T-shirt is what needs changing the most after almost a day in the air. I tried not to appear too peeved, and they said that my luggage would probably be on the plane that would come the next day (also at midnight). After giving my contact information, I went out into the throng of humanity that is the taxi drivers jockeying for a chance to extort foreigners. I don’t know how Girl Jamie got a taxi for 1500 tenge (ten dollars) because they tried to charge me 5000 tenge and I haggled it down to 3000 I think. I guess looking like Lenin just doesn’t hold the same sway over taxi drivers that being an American woman does.

After a 30 minute bus ride to the Peace Corp HQ, I was greeted by some volunteer friends and tried to explain what a trying trip it was. Little did I know I would have 3 days to spend at the PCHQ to get reacquainted with everyone. Basically, my luggage was floating in the International nether somewhere between America, Germany, and Kaz. When after the first day, I called the airlines again to locate my luggage they informed me that they actually did not know where it was, but they were (more-or-less) hoping for the best I yelled at them a bit and demanded a per diem (Almaty is expensive on a PC budget), but that concept is apparently not universal. Luckily I was staying for free at the HQ. So I sat and waited and jetlagged and checked train schedules and finally got my luggage. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the train back to Zhezkazgan until the day after I got my luggage, so I had to wait an additional night.

To give you your obligatory 2 minutes of Kazakhstani geography, let me tell you what the Almaty to Zhez train route is like. Twice a week a train leaves directly from Almaty (in the southeast of KZ) to Zhez (smackdab in the middle of KZ). Every day a train goes from Almaty to Karaganda which is north of Almaty and almost dead east of Zhez. Almaty – Karaganda = 20ish hours. Karaganda – Zhez = 14hrs. Since I was not leaving on the correct day for the direct trip (around 30hrs) I had to change trains in Karaganda. The ticket lady informed me that the train from Karaganda to Zhez was full and so I couldn’t by a ticket. I have met with this “problem” before and only once has it actually been true, so I hedged my bets and took a one-way to Karaganda. The annoying thing about this layover is that you get into Kgan at 7AM (way before anything is Kaz is open) and the train to Zhez leaves around 7:30PM.

So what did the intrepid young Boggsy do for those meantime-inbetween time hours? Well, first I sat on a bench in front of a sports complex for 2 hours. Then, I went to the mall because it was about to open and sat outside there for 30 minutes. When the mall opened I had planned to go see a movie/ sleep in the theater for as long as they would let me. I went to by a movie ticket and asked to see Inglorious Basterds (I had just seen it in American theatres, but fancied a go at the Russian version). They informed me that it wasn’t playing until noon (it was 10:30) so I told them that I would see any movie that was playing now and to just give me a ticket. They looked very confused until they told me that they would only have a screening if there were more than 4 people with tickets (I guess there’s not much of a demand for early matinees in KZ). I would have been tempted to pay for 4 tickets if I thought that even this seemingly logical compromise would have met with success, but luckily my friend Sally (a former Zhez volunteer that had gotten relocated to Kgan) answered my calls. She told me that she had to work, but I could tag along with her if I wanted to. Of course I accepted and spent the rest of the day learning exactly how unstructured OCAP work can be. Not to say Sally didn’t do much work, far from it; but the schedule was so less scripted than my average day of teaching. We had a really good time though, and I’m glad I got to know her better.

Yada yada, I got my train, woke up the next day in Zhez, walked to my host family’s house, went to school to tape a prewritten speech in Kazakh (I speak Russian remember) for some teacher’s conference, and then went back and started moving into… MY NEW APARTMENT!!!

And that’s my excuse for the lack of blog posts. After I moved in and relaxed for a couple of days, school started back up and things got real real, real fast. Last week clubs started back up and they seem a lot more organic than last year. So far Tuesdays are Film Club, Wednesdays are Teacher Club, and Thursdays are Kid’s Club. So the meat of my workday is in the middle of the week, nestled in between some nice free time... it's a "club sandwich" if you will. Hopefully in the next week or so, my Literature Club will start up and I am really excited about it.Other than that, I have class starting at 8AM every day except for Tuesdays when it starts at 8:45. So if any PC staff is reading this, rest assured I’m busy.

The liberation that has accompanied moving out on my own is unparalleled. I feel so much less harried and stressed out and feel much more rested than I did on a given day last year. Part of this is due to the fact that I can eat when I want, sleep when I want, and I’m 15 minutes closer to my school. I’m learning how to cook and after 3 sliced fingers, multiple oil burns, and a couple of overwhelming bazaar runs, I think I can safely say I’m getting the hang of it. That is, I can cook things that I would not be ashamed of someone else eating. I even made pizza sauce for my 6^th graders’ home ec class that got pretty solid reviews.

To summarize, life’s good. At least until winter drops.

Pictures of the new place will follow soon.

As always, thanks for reading.

Drew