IST

As any organization or business, Peace Corps has us do periodic trainings. Right after Nauryz, we had what was called In-Service Training, or IST for short (we're all about the acronyms here). First I had to get to Almaty from Shymkent. With most of the trains booked, I decided to take a sleeper bus. It was about the size of a coach bus, maybe slightly larger, with 3 rows of beds which are overlapping, so that your pillow is on a bump under which is the next passenger's feet. The beds were also barely wider than a person's body. We were sardines for about 12 hours, but it wasn't too bad. The only thing was that the bus was made in China so it was made to the proportions of Chinese people. There aren't many 6 foot Chinese people like me, so it wasn't the most comfortable trip, but it was oddly relaxing.
Once I got to Almaty, I went and stayed with Kyle, another volunteer that I get along with. We did the normal things, eat chili and swap movies and pretty much just talk. After the stay we had to go to Kok Tobe, the sanitorium where we do all our central trainings. We were greeted by meetings galore. Some of them were helpful, like the grant meetings and the summer camp meeting, some were not. The culture sessions were lots of bitching sessions about our particular sites, but that may be just because we have to get things off our chests temporarily. Just sometimes our ethnocentrism pokes its ugly head through. At the end they gave us new books and new English supplies. Unfortunately, most of them involve the need of a copier, which most of our schools lack. It's the thought that counts. I'd go on for a little longer, but there's nothing interesting about meetings, so I think I'll end it here.