I've been getting a lot of emails lately regarding on what to bring to KZ and for advice for the 19s. I've included this here for the K-19s arriving soon. If I get anymore questions I'll be sure to add more.
1. How is life and work in KZ? What advice can you provide to help me adapt to KZ? What advice can you give me to successfully complete my service?
I'll give you a few pieces of advice.
1. Throw away any preconceptions of what you 'expect' out of your experience, because those oftentimes are unrealistic and can lead to disappointment. The best way to go about the whole thing is to keep your attitude aligned with two absolute truths about Peace Corps service:
a.
"Service is a rollercoaster." There will be highs and lows, and they're probably going to be some of the highest highs and lowest lows you've ever experienced, so when it gets rough, just hold out and grasp onto the belief that there will be highs.
b. "Volunteer Flexibility and Attitude is what makes or breaks the service." If you're prone to blame other people for your problems or tend to be a competitive person, it's time to drop that nonsense because your work here is for the local community, not to make yourself feel better about yourself or compete. Realize now that comparison of ‘accomplishments’ between volunteers is meaningless. You're gonna meet lots of people who are different and I guarantee you you'll find people that are difficult to work with (locals and volunteers), and at the end of the day, you can only control what you do yourself and be as positive as possible. You're gonna fail a few times, but the real question is what you do after that – you either pick up and try something else or you can sit and complain about things you can't change. Don't be the latter.
2. If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend in the states right now, it might be a good idea to break up. Lots of volunteers who have relations left behind in the states end up going back early and quitting, or end up suffering quite a bit while dealing with the stresses and strains here and going through a break up. The two of you will take extremely different paths in the following two years, and it's difficult to sugarcoat that.
3. When you get to site, try not to spend too much time with other Americans. Chances are you're going to be in a village and a ways away from other volunteers, but if you do end up in a situation where you can potentially spend all of your time with other Americans/volunteers, don't. Make lots of local friends and spend your time with them.
4. Be wary the ugly American. Unfortunately there are quite a few volunteers that took their opportunity of working here and treated it as essentially a second college experience, whether drinking heavily, womanizing, etc. I'm not saying you shouldn't drink socially or find a boyfriend/girlfriend while here, but PLEASE know that locals are going to be judging you and other Americans/PCVs through your behavior, so be careful and act like an adult. Your method of dealing with stress is also important to your service – try to be concientious of how you may come off to locals when stressed out. In addition, realize now that “The American Way” isn’t necessarily the right way.
5. . Life and work here has been great for me, I'm actually extending for a year, so I look forward to working with all of you – I'll probably even drop by your training for a bit. I've gone through a lot of rough times while here, but things have pretty much stabilized and I've got good work. A lot of volunteers would argue that I'm having a good time because I work at a University in a city, but most volunteers are close enough to the city centers that they can come in a few times a month to enjoy R&R. In addition, it’s important to realize that site doesn’t necessarily dictate how good or bad of an experience you had – there are plenty of stories of volunteers that share sites and one having a great time while the other has a terrible time.
6. A general good rule of thumb for service, life, and everything: Don't be a retard. ;-)
How was work as a TEFL teacher?
I teach at a university, so I don't have to deal with a lot of the stresses that secondary school TEFL teachers deal with (which, chances are, you will be). My students are generally well behaved, and since I teach 2-4th year English, I can teach more advanced topics like essay writing, TOEFL prep, conversation and proficiency, conduct home reading, and give lectures and tests. Safe to say, I love it, and I do lots of other community activities in addition.
While I don't have to worry about disciplinary problems that secondary school teachers face, my lessons are also on the whole a little less interesting because I can't do as many 'fun' activities since my lessons and content are fairly controlled by the administration. So doing things you can do with kids – i.e. plays, dances, many sorts of word games, etc. are out.
What things do you recommend bringing? What not to bring?
I made the mistake of bringing *too* many things because I wanted to be prepared for every situation. You can buy almost everything you need in Almaty and in oblast centers (where you're guaranteed to be no further than 3 hours away by bus when you go to site), so it's not necessary to bring everything.
Certain things might be useful that you can only find in the states:
- High quality thermal underwear, top and bottom in the thickest you can find. (UnderArmor is a popular brand that isn't available here)
- Gifts and trinkets from America. Key chains, dollar-wrapped chocolates, bottle openers, etc. Be sure to ration it out a bit over your service, as you'll be making all sorts of friends and you'll never know when you want to give a little something as a token of appreciation/memory for locals. Cheap crap like that is also popular with children as a prizes. It doesn't have to flamboyantly American-flag sort of stuff. Volunteers also usually bring presents that somehow represent the area they’re from. Nothing needs to be expensive.
- Wrinkle-free dress shirts and dress pants. Having wrinkle free clean clothing is VERY important here, so having wrinkle free shirts will make life easier so you aren't always ironing.
- Stickers and Markers are great for children.
- Waterproof hiking boots.
- Good pair of thick thick waterproof/resistant gloves. You can buy light ones here for early winter, but the thick ones will be useful during the coldest of winter.
- Good thick thermal socks.
- If you have a GSM cell phone now that's unlocked and internationally enabled, you can consider bringing it, because you'll end up buying one here anyway if you don't. If it's locked call your cell phone company and ask for the unlock code.
- Digital Camera. You'll be taking lots of pictures. All film developing places will print your digital pictures if you need prints.
- iPod or reasonable mp3 player will help with the long train rides.
- Laptop
Things you don't need:
- Heavy Jacket/Winter Coat. Whatever you can buy now (in Reno, NV in the dead of the summer, god forbid) is not going to be heavy enough during the winter. Save your money and buy one when you get to site. You'll find one that will fit fine. Bring a light waterproof jacket instead.
- Most other winter gear. People have been living in the kind of winters they get here for generations. You'll find whatever you need.
- Language Textbooks/Dictionaries – Unless you have one that you're absolutely attached to, Peace Corps will provide you with everything you need.
- Most medicinal stuff. Peace Corps med office has practically everything you need, unless you absolutely need the brand name of one particular product or another. They won't provide you with contact lens stuff, though, so bring those on your own if you plan on wearing them.
- Travel Guides. The newest lonely planet guide is coming out later this year (I actually helped write the section on Ust-Kamenogorsk), but it won't be that useful to you since you'll be learning everything firsthand and through volunteer chains anyway. Plus there's plenty of those lying around the peace corps office.
- As a rule of thumb, just remember that people have been living this way in this country for hundreds of years, so people get by fine without whatever doohickey you're on the fence about.
I plan on bringing a laptop. How are computer and internet connections? If you brought one, did you have trouble connecting to KZ outlets? Do I need to bring a surge protector?
- I'd recommend you bring a reliable laptop, because it'll be difficult to get fixed here since internet is spotty. Internet is generally available in every city and oblast center – I can get a decent dial-up connection from home, but it's about $12 for 10 hours, so it's not cheap. There's slightly more reliable connections in local internet cafes, but they can be just as slow or unreliable. It just depends on the site.
- I'm a big nerd, so I ended up having to have my friends send me a portable hard drive since I ended up collecting quite a bit of media from other volunteers. You might find it useful as well to exchange stuff with other volunteers.
- I've heard of volunteers in the villages being able to get internet connections as well, but again, it depends on the site. At the very worst, you'll have to have bus 2-3 hours into town to access the internet. At the very best, you'll have internet access at home (the occasional volunteer even has DSL).
- You can buy surge protectors here though it might be expensive, but you can bring one too if you like.
How difficult was it to stay in touch with family and friends in the US?
Email, chat are viable forms of communication. My family all skype me on my local phone or cell phone, so those are fine as well. International phone calls are all received fairly easily, so it's not a big deal to keep in contact.
What advice can you provide me for learning Russian and Kazakh?
Training will be frustrating. Do the best you can, but don't feel like you have to know or memorize all of the rules. Russian AND Kazakh might be a bit ambitious unless you have a huge talent for languages or already have a background in either. Don't take it out on your language coordinator if it's frustrating either. But everyone suffers, so don't worry about it. As a rule of thumb, Kazakh is supposedly easier, and locals will love you for learning it, BUT, Russian is much more widely spoken, so communicating is much easier. There are pluses and minuses to both. However, there's been a national movement towards Kazakh and rejection of Russian on an official level, so Kazakh might be more useful if you plan to stay here long term or come back in 3-4 generations. But I think we're getting ahead of ourselves ;)
You should also figure out what kind of learner you are and focus on studying through those methods. I'm an audio learner, so no amount of staring at rule charts really helped me as much as just getting out there and speaking and having conversations as much as possible.
How was training? What exactly do you do during training?
Training consists of technical training, where you learn methodologies of how to teach in Kazakhstan and work with children, medical training, cultural training, etc. The bulk of it is taken up by intensive language training, however.
I would argue that in reality, training is also a sort of crucible in which volunteers are melted down to see what they're really made of. In general, it generally is pretty stressful, and this is the real test, to see how you deal with that stress. Some react by leaving, others laugh it off and work through it, others resort to complaining and/or partying/drinking heavily. Like really, you're gonna find out a lot about yourself during training and service, and really important is being conscious of the person you want to come off as.
Training is a lot like high school, because there are volunteers from all backgrounds – rich spoiled kids, poor kids, nerds, potheads, jackasses, idealists, pessimists, student body types, emo kids, etc. etc. the trick is not to get caught up in the drama that will inevitably happen during training and be on your best behavior despite how other people act because you'll be judged throughout training by your trainers. But despite how much I tell you all this, you're gonna deal with the stress however best suits you, you just need to be aware of how it comes off to everyone else, volunteers, locals, trainers, etc.
Did you travel much through KZ? Through Central Asia, Russia or China? If so, how was it?
Your primary job is to stay at your site, but I have seen a lot of Kazakhstan through various work-related functions as well as vacations. The train rides are long, but a part of life.
I haven't gone through Russia or the rest of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan is a popular destination, as well as Thailand), but I've gone a few times to China and Taiwan from here since I have family there. I already speak Chinese, so it was great for me.
Portraiture Collection
Blue Bay Trip, August '07
Lost Sledding Photos, circa January, '07
res in the posted above link. Locals usually go every summer, for weeks at a time, to relax by the lake in owned dachas or rented 'domiks' [little house] and apartments and go swimming or enjoy watersports. Basically every watersport you can think of is here, including windsailing, jet-skiing, and sailing.
At 3, we went out on a little catamaran that took us out to an isolated part of the bay, where we had a picnic of shashlyk (skewered bbq meat) and vegetables with Sveta and her friends. I have to admit, I was a bit afraid I wouldn't be able to get a fire going, but we managed to do so without much problems. This was easily the best part of trip, since it was fairly well isolated had lots of scenery without man-made objects to screw up the view. Belly full of meat and vodka, we returned back to shore and proceeded to lay out at the beach for the rest of the evening, chatting with locals.
Cheers!
