this was striking because i really do think of Shymkent as my home. for now. i think that i'm lucky that i can make just about any place my home. i can settle at the drop of a hat. helps me out to say the least. this house, this city, even this country. it's where i am and where i'm home. being invited up north makes me nervous. i'm a southerner through and through, here in Kstan and there in America, and i know its very different up there. this is where i am now. this is what i know.
the camp: 8 days of... too much. too much fun. too many people. too many photos. too much good food. too much kazakh language. too much responsibility. too many people in a tiny ass apartment.
now, i would not really trade this last week for a week in shymkent, but man. it takes it out of you. i was roped (ie i volunteered, happily) to not teach students and instead run admin for the camp. i'm glad i did. i hope it helped. though i'm sure i didn't make a lot of friends. i knew how important a flawless (as flawless as possible) camp was for both the volunteers and their community. as such i took it seriously, though i take things i am in charge of seriously. it's a flaw and something people wouldn't suspect of me. as such i came down kind of hard, pretty much the whole time. a lot of the volunteers were very... relaxed... which is fine until it keeps things from running as they should. c'est la vie. in the end, the kids LOVED it (i think), the directors and school board officials were pleased, and we only had the community call and complain once. so raging success!
i was in the town of Zhanatas which is extremely strange. it used to have 75000 people in it and now it has abound 7000. which is small village sized. the buildings have been ransacked and 'bombed out.' it's a site to see. i enjoyed me time there. it was full of surprises, like the COMPLETELY fluent locals sitting around in a tiny private home cafe, and i got to see people i haven't seen in ages. the ride there wasn't bad, but driving between literal mountains of debris from the old mines was interesting. Laura, the volunteer whom i love too much and person who invited me to the camp, told me horror stories. a three hour ride consisting of solely pit holes and offroading, a town of horror, explosions, and roving death. these were both a bit exaggerated. but they made for some interesting speculation.
anyway. i'm back in town. my counterpart is working for PC as a language trainer and as such will be in Almaty for the next three? months. i will taking over her classes for her. geography of kazakhstan. i know, it's basically my most special speci-al-ity. i'm excited to have real hardcore classes though. should be a nice change of pace. i'm sad to be without her and her support but it will give me an interesting opportunity to teach in a way i haven't got to up til now.
my personal life is still as ...provocative. i am trying to focus and make decisions, or at least put coherent thoughts together. no success so far, but i'm working on it. i've found several new bands that are making life more than worth living and i have a new ipod, even if i don't have it mine own hot lil hands. just nice to know that i own it and it's rather close to my person.
picture update soon. i promise. sorry <3
0 comments:
Post a Comment