Thoughts on the website...

I think it's important to note that my website isn't meant to document the experience of local people here in this country. Rather, it's meant to document the experiences that I, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, personally experience day-by-day.

The things I experience, whether it's traveling around to different cities in the country, seeing sheep carcasses on the train, using a vacuum cleaner from 1957, or handwashing clothes is not necessarily something that people everywhere in this country experience, so for you, dear reader, should never ever consider that all people who live in this country live this way.

The image that comes along with a Peace Corps Volunteer is often of that of a 'barefoot in the dirt floor hut" that has been perpetuated for quite a bit now. However, the reality is that being in Ust-Kamenogorsk, in Kazakhstan, one of the fastest-developing countries in Central Asia, I hardly live this way. There are people who drive mercedes benzes in town. I can get sushi if I want it. People have nicer cell phones than I do. People have nice washing machines, as well as new vacuum cleaners.

It just so happens that I don't have much money, so I tend to rent apartments and live in places that don't necessarily have those amenities. My current place of living boasts cable television (complete with CNN, though I can't watch that nonsense anymore), a washing machine, a real working electric oven, and I can actually access the internet from home (albeit via dialup). But in the past, as you can see from some of my photos, I did have an old soviet-era washing machine that required me to rinse and dry by hand - but even then, this is a step up from 80% of volunteers who live in villages and must hand wash their clothes to start.

Ironically, Americans who come as Peace Corps Volunteers often take a sick pride in the whole 'trial by hard work'. We love going back home to tell people that we handwashed our clothes or killed our own chickens for dinner. I relish in going to the meat bazaar to argue with the meat salesladies there and staring at the hanging carcasses of meat. The whole beating the rug thing was hilarious for me because i've never had to do it before.

But I've realized something - sometimes locals find that our pride in things like that to be strange, or sometimes even offensive, as if we're joking about them. But the reality couldn't be further from the truth - in a way, there's a sense of pride and admiration expressed for this way of life purely because I feel like that Americans are completely spoiled and living this way is refreshing compared to the original materialistic way of life I used to live. Having lived in this country for two years, I've found value in things purely past the materialistic aspect (i.e. a new car, cell phone, video game, etc.). The development of relationships, enjoying a peaceful, quiet environment, and simply observing and living in a beautiful new place alone were huge parts of my experience here. The simple appreciation of time alone and development of patience (away from the Franklin-Covey dominated American way of life) was worth the two years I've been here.

I don't want this website to ever give the perception that I think negatively of this country. Upon reading some of my old posts, I've realized that I enjoyed writing about the experiences that were novel to me, that is, those experiences that were different and unique to me because I've never experienced them in America. In addition, I've also used the website as a way of venting frustration during memorable events of the day - things that tend to stay on my mind and I had to write about it as a way of stress relief.

It's easy to seize onto one or two points here and there and make some conclusion that "all people in this country are like this or that," but readers should know that whatever happens to me, positive or negative, is solely a personal experience, and should never be extrapolated to locals, the country, or the Peace Corps as a whole.

I love Kazakhstan through and through. This isn't to say that there aren't faults or things I don't like, but no country is perfect, is it? Still, the experience has been so thoroughly rewarding and lovely that I've I decided to stay a third year. I've decided that with this third year I'll be sure to update the blog again with day-to-day activities and reflect not just on things that make me frustrated, but things that I love too. Stay tuned.