Miscellaneous notes/cultural tidbits as I wrapped up PST in Kazakhstan:
They actually sell lottery tickets here. I thought it'd be a hoot if I hit a jackpot here! I wanted to buy one when we were at the post office on a field trip, but the woman behind the counter said SHE couldn't sell me one because SHE is not the lottery person. When I just asked how much they cost, she still couldn't help me because SHE is not the lottery person. It was very Soviet. Had a similar experience at the post office on another day when a woman couldn't help us because she wasn't sitting in the right CHAIR. I mean, whatever.
Another “fun" culture tidbit: since they don't really have grocery stores here, you go to bazaars and meat markets for food. There's a big bazaar/meat market in Almaty (the capital) that's just amazing. It's really clean and doesn’t smell at all, but the quick way to identify the major meat sections are by the heads of the animals, So yeah, they'll have big horse heads hanging over the relevant meat section. Sometimes the skin is still on said heads, sometimes not. It's amazing how big a horse's head looks when separated from its body! Same thing with sheep's heads. No cow heads, though. But pig heads. But it's amazing – it doesn't smell in there.
My host mom was upset to hear I’d be going so far away; she was hoping I’d get the TEFL spot here (ugh!). She’s already cried once, so I can imagine what Saturday will be like. Sigh. She’s really nice – all my friends are jealous. Unfortunately, to punish me for leaving, she fed me some poisoned meat the other day and I was REALLY sick for a couple of days. But seriously, I don’t know HOW I got sick, but it was most likely from some meat one day. Anyway, it was definitely my lowest point since I’ve been here, as I was spewing from both ends and I basically wanted to die. My host mom felt bad and was crying outside the bathroom door while I was spewing, and she kept saying, "Don't tell Peace Corps! Don't tell Peace Corps!" But of course I had to coz I missed the counterpart conference and the PCMO had to come and give me some stuff and I am finally feeling better today. Just in time for that 30+ hour train ride to Leninogorsk. Bleh.
After my sickness, I’m now terrified of the meat here, which is bad news coz I’ve discovered the secret of Russian cuisine: meat & onions and some kind of dough, then fried or baked or boiled. Oh, and potatoes and cabbage and beets. And dill. They WORSHIP dill and put it on everything – they even use it in their flower arrangements! I would kill for some Mexican food – or Chinese/Hunan, or Italian, or BBQ.
We ended up losing 3 folks during training – not too bad, as per the usual averages, we should have lost 5.2. Paul (the older guy) I told you about. Naomi & David Hall left within a couple days of each other. Naomi just wasn’t coping well at all, and I figured she’d bail. David was pressured to “resign.” He has some serious "issues" and was basically sleeping his way through Kapchagai – and with a wife back in the states! When he tired of the local girls (including his host sister!), and started hitting on fellow PCTs, that was pretty much it. The guy was a slimeball, so no big loss.
Your small world story about the prisoner was interesting coz just last week I had another one. I got a letter from my friend Jill in San Francisco and she was telling me that her sister mentioned she works with a woman who has a son in the Peace Corps and guess where he is? Kazakhstan, with the Kaz 4 group! She sent me his address and name and I had just met him the month before coz he came to Kapchagai w/some other current PCVs to give a talk on daily life here! Also, it turns out he’s in a city close to where I ended up being placed! Isn’t that wild? So yes, indeed, it is a small, small world we live in.
Disclaimer: Any thoughts, observations, opinions, etc. are of course mine and not necessarily the views of Peace Corps.
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