Back To School

The internet’s a little slow, so no pictures today. Whenever it picks up again, I’ll give you a photographic walkthrough of my house. My everyday life isn’t quite as beautiful or interesting as those yurt pictures though.

Tomorrow is the first day of school, both here and in almost every former Soviet country. The First of September means all the kids get dressed up in their school uniforms and new backpacks. The elementary schools have concerts and all the girls show up with huge lace bows in their hair (reminiscent of Princess Leia) and the boys come with their cheap shiny suits that look like they’re made of vinyl. Since I’m at a college, blessedly I get to miss out on the concert event, for now at least. But there will be lots of new students. Our college has the following departments: Economics, Kazakh Language and Culture, Computer Programming, English Language, Design (clothes making), and Physical Education. It’s not where the best students go, but it’s a good college for a town this size and the best students may go to university in the city afterwards. Because we’re a college, though, we have to recruit students. This often results in fifty elementary school students plowing into my class in the middle of a lesson while on a tour of the factory building that is our college. Tour Guide: “Look this is an American. This shows how great our college is. Look, he even talks. You may touch him if you’re brave, he bites sometimes.” In addition, with my counterpart English teacher I visited ten or so schools last year. We gave an open English lesson to their older students and told them to consider coming to the college. These tactics obviously work (and the Director gave money to teachers who recruited the most new students) because last year’s first year English class had only five students. This year’s has over twenty. We’ll see if they actually want to learn anything. But regardless of this, I’m hoping to have a movie club in addition to the standard after class English club I already do. My better students should be able to understand enough of an English movie with the English subtitles on, if I prepare them with a handout and new vocabulary. At least I hope they’ll get it, we’ll see.

In other news, Ramadan starts tonight. This is the Muslim holy month, when (healthy) observant Muslims should not eat or drink anything during daylight hours. Islam has Five Pillars to follow: 1) Profess that “There is no god but God and Muhammad is His Prophet” 2) Pray five times each day in the direction of Mecca 3) The Hajj: Visit Mecca once in your lifetime (my host dad made the trip, by bus, a few years ago) 4) Zakat: Give money to the poor. Many people give money to beggars here, even ones who look relatively fraudulent. No one yells “get a job!” or anything. 5) Fast during the month of Ramadan each year. So that’s what this month is all about, fasting. I’m not set on being totally observant; if I weighed twenty pounds more I might consider doing it, though. But food will be harder to come by during the day, both at home and around town. I’m pretty sure the college cafeteria will still operate (there are a few Russians here) so hopefully I’ll get a mid day meal. I think fasting is a good way to focus your mental energies on what’s important in life, and it would be easier to do it here than back in the States because everyone else is doing it. But me and my 145 (completely healthy, according to my mid service physical) pounds think that maybe this is not the time to get all religious and maybe I could work on the other Pillars of Islam before I do the fast.

On the topic of religion, as in, “what’s it like living in a Muslim country?”, it’s not really that different than a Christian country. It’s more traditional than religious. And Kazakhstan is as Muslim as America is Christian. It’s an integral part of the culture and contributes to a lot of traditions, but religion doesn’t dominate everything. Gender roles are definitely still present, but this is more of a traditional thing than a religious thing. In fact, the militant Wahabbi strain of Islam that dominates the news broadcasts is not traditional at all outside of the Arabian Peninsula; it’s a very recent phenomenon. For example, the tribal areas on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border which have made so much news lately. Those regions have always been fiercely traditional, insular, and hostile to invaders. But tribal law has always been enforced, not Islamic law. The Taliban style militancy present there now is only a product of the Saudi money that has flowed into Wahabbi Madrassas there since the Soviet invasion in 1979. That sort of militancy hasn’t at all taken root in Kazakhstan or anywhere in the region, though there has been a little in the Andijon valley in Uzbekistan. People around here are pretty much peaceful, normal people. There are good people and bad people. And most of them just happen to be Muslim.

Also, I still want to go to Georgia. I know the Russians invaded and all, but they’ll go home eventually. And hey, if you went there right now, there’d probably be plenty of cheap hotel space and good deals for tourists. (Once all the journalists clear out, funny how during the conflict hotel prices triple when the CNN and BBC crews show up.)

At this time next year, I should be wrapping everything up here and getting ready to come home. Peace Corps service is officially 27 months, three months of training plus two years at site. However, there is a ton of paperwork and bureaucracy to go through prior to cutting a volunteer loose at the close of service. There’s medical stuff, administrative stuff, logistical stuff, etc. So, Peace Corps can only out process a few volunteers at a time. This means they start COSing (close of servicing) volunteers at the beginning of October and continue until the official COS date of November 10. I’m not sure when I’ll COS, but late October is a good bet. Then maybe a month of travel and home in time for Thanksgiving, or at least holiday shopping (or not). But that’s a ways away, I’m still having a decent time here and I’m not counting down the days until I leave, yet. But I’m pretty sure during the winter I’ll say to myself at least once a day, “365 days from now where will I be?” or something to that effect.

I hope everyone who has kids gets them back to school without a problem. And everyone else, enjoy the last part of summer. I see Cal football pulled out a week 1 win over Michigan State. I know a volunteer from MSU here, I think he should buy me a beer. Take care.