Thursday, February 4, 2010

Site Visit

Just like any business or bureaucracy, there is a decent amount of quality control by everybody above us. There are reports to file, constant training, and, as was the case this past week, visits by our managers. Each oblast (the equivalent of an American state) has a regional manager. My manager is a woman named Natalya Kotova, a very intense blonde-haired woman from Kokshetau who now works in Almaty at the Peace Corps headquarters. The reason for this intensity is that she basically runs the education part of Peace Corps, which makes any mistakes by me in classes glaringly obvious. Even more so, she’s quick to point them out. On the positive side, she is also very good at enlightening you on what you do well. Still, it is a bit unnerving.

Worse, or better, still, the director of Peace Corps decided to make the trip up. So about 10:00 am, I was having meetings between Natalya, John Sasser (the Peace Corps director), Sara Ustazhanova (my counterpart), Anar Yesliambekevna (my school director) and people of the Rayon department. The Sara and Anar were very friendly and extolling my virtues, while the women from the rayon education department were expecting me to suddenly transform days into 30 hours so that I could train all the teachers within 2 hours to be master educators. Apparently, I’m the second coming of Jesus, Buddha and Krishna, all in one. No pressure.

Luckily, that was only the rayon people. That didn’t stop all the teachers and directors and zavuches (vice-principals) from heaping as much praise on me. Now part of that is kind of cultural thing. Here, if you screw up or act in a way that they consider disrespectful, they will tell you. Mincing words is not a Russian or a Kazakh trait. To illustrate, without thinking, I entered a door before Natalya. She immediately grabbed me by the arm, pulled me back through the doorway, and explained to me my lack of manners. Message received. The reverse of this is that if they perceive a kernel of wonder that you have achieved, they will tell every living thing that crosses their path what an amazing individual you are, that you have solved every problem imaginable, that babies laugh only when you pass and that no amount of compensation could replace the mysterious deeds that you have accomplished.

So, I was sitting through so many situations where people were saying that I was the uber-human, compassionate, intelligent and insightful. Unfortunately, they forgot modest and humble, so that with every compliment, I just wanted to sink even further into my chair or the wallpaper that was behind me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the praise; I just don’t like to have it piled onto me in public. Shake my hand or give me a pat on the back, just don’t make it seem like I can solve world hunger. Still, it is nice to be appreciated.

Anyway, Natalya and John visited all the teachers, the director, the rayon, my host family, and one of my classes. We had lunch at the school and conversed about myself, but also my goals and a bit of economics, though I think I didn’t explain myself well enough so that it went over there heads. Either my English is escaping me or I need to stop drinking so much caffeine. So, I guess I’ve made a good impression so far. Too bad that’s only 2 months down and 22 more to go here in Makinsk. Just need to find a way to pace myself.

New Year’s

In the dead of winter, with temperatures regularly dipping below double digits, you’d think the smart thing to do with a vacation is head South with those intelligent, ornithological beings. Nope, instead I felt inspired enough to head North to Siberia. Well, a bunch of friends live up there, so that’s good enough to hop onto the train and enjoy myself in the confines of Petropavlovsk.

I would love to say that it was a deeply interesting time, but it wasn’t necessarily Spring Break in Cabo. All of us volunteers (roughly 10-12) gathered in a few apartments around the city. The weather was so bitterly cold (-20 F) that we didn’t really venture outside. Frankly, the only times we left were to get food and vodka. We basically Maslow’s basic hierarchy of needs, though we added vodka and beer to the shelter and food that every living being needs, or at least Peace Corps volunteers in the dead of winter. This is all in jest, of course.

Boiled down, we basically sat indoors, ate, shot the shit and played board games. I had never heard of this company called Rio Grande Games, but they put out a lot of good quality games. Most of them are strategy-based games. They are definitely not Candyland, but they’re good entertainment. My personal favorites were Carcassonne and Colonizers (this is my translation, I’m not sure what the actual name of it is in English). It was somewhat marred by the fact that one of the older volunteers and went home after a vacation in London, which left us to pack up his things. It is kind of sad to pack up the belongings of one of our peers. It also racked my mind because my first thoughts weren’t necessarily fellow-feeling for him as much as they were “I wonder if there’s anything I can take home.” Unfortunately, that’s the extent of life out here; we work and then we leave, usually leaving a lot of our possessions her for whichever scavenger wants them, whether they be Kazakhstani or American.

Don’t let this imply that I didn’t have fun. Just the simple face of going and hanging with a bunch of volunteers, including my best friend here, Sidd, raises our spirits. Spending an extended weekend with fellow Americans is the spiritual equivalent of relaxing on a beach in Bali. It was also fun because the last day we got to play a bunch of games with some orphans at the school that Becky, another volunteer in Petro, works at. They were definitely vibrant and alive, just happy to play very simple games with you and laugh. Something about kids being kids and not little shits or brats makes you feel like a kid. It’s the youthful exuberance that I hope to keep going the whole time I’m here. But I must say, I think the next vacation I’ll go somewhere a little warmer