On Saturday, we took our first class trip to Almaty – the former capital of the nation. I had been there the previous weekend with my host family, but seeing different places this time still made it exciting. In many ways, I would describe the entire city akin to Taipei, or perhaps some parts of Los Angeles. Relatively modernized and beautiful, but the city has a gritty urban edge to it that’s difficult to describe – perhaps it was just the hustle and bustle of the city that made it seem foreign to me, since I’ve been inhabiting a village in the past few weeks that seemed to be in another entire time period in history.
The contrasts were obvious – supermarkets with nearly everything you can think of, touristy-things, plenty of casinos, dance clubs, and restaurants everywhere. It was definitely a city-type of town – my first trip to Almaty with my family resulted in my meeting an incredibly beautiful Kazakhstani-American who had grown up in New Jersey – after talking to her for about 30 minutes, she immediately invited me out to a dance club, something I turned down because I had to go home with my family that evening. The odd thing here is that I would never have expected to meet English speakers here during my stay – nor would I have expected to meet women that were so forward as to invite me out. One of the contrasts of a city vs. village.
I liked the trip, as we got to see much of the city and make some purchases difficult to find in our villages – the supermarkets were not unlike supermarkets back in the states, although they were a little bit more cramped and crowded. Things there were expensive, however, so I’m not sure how often I’ll be visiting it. The trip to Almaty was meant to see the Peace Corps Office, a Mosque, a Russian Orthodox Church, Panfilova Park, and a Bazaar – all of which we had done, but the trip was definitely getting on some group members nerves (including mine) because there were simply too many opinions going around – one absolutely had to buy something, another didn’t want to, another has to make a phone call, refusing to listen to whether it’d work or not, etc. etc. – after 4 weeks, one realizes that oftentimes it’s just easier to make people make mistakes on their own rather than warn them. I’ve learned to simply shut my mouth, since taking charge, though more efficient, can usually make you a target for anger - simply see it as a game as to how much you can suffer, and everything becomes that much easier.
The mosque was beautiful, as was the Russian orthodox church – I learned quite a bit about both religions, although more so the mosque since we had a Imam come and speak with us about Islam in Kazakhstan.
On Sunday, we had the day off as usual, and I spent the day relaxing at home, reading and washing my clothes.
Monday was the Fourth of July, so we were rewarded with a trip to see Petroglyphs. Essentially, they’re 8th century carvings in the rock face of Buddha, right around the time China’s influence on Central Asia ended. It was amazing, to be able to get some so close to the carvings and just thinking about the amount of time it took to carve that was amazing.
The real treat, however, was being able to swim in the River Ili. I love swimming to start with, but the fact that we had traveled 3 hours to get to the place, over unpaved, dusty bumpy roads with scenery seemingly filled with nothingness, then coming out and seeing this beautiful river right smack in the middle of nowhere, was wonderful. The weather was extremely hot as well, so jumping into the river and swimming there, with its strong current, was definitely an experience.
That evening, we came back and hung out at a local restaurant for a few more hours, as I drank my coca-cola, chatting and shooting jokes with my increasingly inebriated fellow volunteers – all in all, a great weekend.
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