Saturday, September 13, 2008

Internet at Last!

Limited time, I'm afraid, but hopefully (again) I will today have an opportunity to post this backlog of text. Our community project ideas have distilled down to two--a fitness day, which has the benefits of being able to reach a very large number of people and requiring the very limited funds that we actually have, and expanding the internet access of the Russian school to more than the one computer. We shall see how matters progress.

It is possible (edit: I will be going) today that I will go to Almaty this afternoon to see the Kazakhstanian Orchestra play. I am told that the tickets are about 500T, which is about 4.5 dollars, and we are told that the orchestra is very good.

I taught my first class portion on Wednesday, and it went very well. The students all participated and seemed to enjoy my presentation. I also had two hours of prep for an English test they have called the Olympiad (possibly spelled differently, and presumably in Cyrillic). The first time I had 8 girls, who seemed to enjoy the activity, and the second time I had two girls, though it was a Friday afternoon. Now I have a copy of a practice test for the exam, so I will design some appropriate activity focusing on that specifically. I will also teach at least two hours next week, and I am hopeful that things will continue to go swimingly.

TTFN

Sunday, September 7, 2008

No Internet

The internet cafe was, in fact, out of commission before, and I ended up with a shortcut to this file on my flash drive rather than the file itself when the group went to Almaty and the Peace Corps Office. Almaty was very busy and had a lot of people. The green bazaar had lots and lots of people. It also had a huge selection, though most of the stalls were very small, and each had it's own shopkeeper. I bought a copy of Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox (I think; I haven't translated the title yet.).

I also failed to find yarn, though others in my group recall seeing it. I tried to ask directions but was unable to find the necessary stall. I retain hope that next time, or when we visit the even larger bazaar outside the city.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

First Day of School!

Unless the internet cafe is out of commission this evening, I will actually post this today. I now have a cell phone and can distribute the number to interested persons. I still like the bread. I don't have much to say at the moment. Doot. Doot. Doot.

Monday was the Day of Knowldege and the first day of school. We volunteers introduced ourselves in Kazakh and Russian. (As an aside, I just saw a cow walk in front of my window. For the last few days I've been seeing some crowds and a donkey cart.) There was a ceremony where the principle (here Director) spoke and they had the top students parade with the Kazakhstanian flag. They also had some of the older students escort the new students to their place in the crowd. it was very nice. At the end everyone went into the school for their first classes.

We also today had our first overview of community projects. We will need to figure out what the community here in our training site wants, and how we can provide it in the next 5 weeks. We will also start class observations tomorrow. Borsh yesterday and today for lunch.