Sharing the knowledge thru a Teaching Seminar

This past week, I led my first English Teaching Seminar. Peace Corps encourages all its education volunteers to participate in such professional development sessions. Being the first volunteer in the county, it initially was slow to get things organized for English teaching seminars had previously always been embedded within an entire teaching seminar. An hour is given to English instruction at these teaching seminars and it ended there. So, planning this English seminar demanded time and patience. Marina (the lead English teacher in Lesnoye) and I planned the six hour seminar. English teachers within the county came to the seminar. The 5th and 6th graders learned a poem and seminar commenced with their greeting. The county teachers observed three classes in all (I taught one class with each respective Lesnaya English teacher). After observing the classes, I led a roundtable discussion centered on Student Interaction in English Lessons. The seminar ended with pleasant and constructive teacher feedback and another seminar is in the works for early next school year.

A month back, I took a train back to Lesnoye from Almaty. During the 27 hour ride, I chatted with an agriculturalist named Assan who researched vegetable growth in Northern California some years back. He gave me a brief summary of Kazakh ethnic and cultural history and the ‘tribal’ Kazakh map (see pic). Of the 16 million people who live in Kazakhstan , about 8 million are Kazakh. Assan informed me that Kazakhs trace their genealogy back to these 20 dominant Kazakh tribes before the Mongol Horde swept through Kazakhstan in the 12th century. News to me!

It's been SIX months in Lesnoye - and Spring is here!

There are two questions which the locals have kept asking me during my 6 months in Lesnoye: Do you like it here? Do you miss home back in America ? A mix of yes and no is the answer to both these questions. Despite its ‘tinyness’, there is enough in Lesnoye to keep me occupied and productive. Integrating into the community, learning Russian, and teaching are enough to keep one occupied even in a village with no cafes. There have been several times where I’ve wished to be somewhere more metropolitan and warmer. However, I am loving life over here in Siberia and can say no deluge of homesickness has visited me during my service yet.

For all those future volunteers who will serve in North Kazakhstan , Winter lasts from early November to mid-April. Now Spring has arrived and it’s the first time I’ve seen a color other than white on the hills. When I arrived in Lesnoye back in the first week of November, there was snow and only now can I shed the thermal underwear. With the fast thawing snow, it is very muddy and slippery in the village. It’s so dirty that the teachers wear their waterproof ‘slush’ boots on the streets and then replace them with their dress shoes once indoors. When will it be nice out?

A Happy Meeting in the South

Returning to the North after a couple of weeks in the South demands transitioning. I forgot how it felt like to be naturally warm after experiencing 5 months of straight bitter cold. When I left Lesnoye for the train station back in late March, a windstorm hit the village and left over a foot of snow overnight. It was questionable whether the buses would operate due to snowy conditions. Thankfully, they did and after a 3 hour bus ride to Kokshetau and 29 hour train ride to Shymkent, I arrived in the South to +20C sunshine. Just some shades and a coat and you’re good to go. After Shymkent, I headed over to Ecik (my first town) for a few days to see some local friends and then to Almaty for a 3 day long Peace Corps conference. I didn’t realize how much I missed the local friends in Ecik until I saw them. Catching up with other volunteers and listening to their stories showed me how diverse our experiences in Kazakhstan can be. Some volunteers have high-speed internets in their rooms and nice showers while other volunteers have no running water in their homes or at their schools. Others serve in sites which are completely Kazakh and others in sites almost completely Russian.

Lesnoye is over 90% Russian and everyone speaks Russian. Meeting Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijanis, Uighurs, and even a couple of Indians down South was a change. Cooling down with a beer is something you would not do in the North during early Spring. But coming back North isn’t so bad. Getting back into the groove of teaching is energizing. There is still snow in Lesnoye and for the first time in over 10 years, I went skiing in the forest. Skiing in April! Only in the North.