Kazakh Kids and I

Holding down the Kazakh region with my new friend.

The village of Vinnoye, the blue houses are a
horse farm.

new address

My new address in Ust Kamenogorsk is:

Mr Samuel Robinson
A-A 2490
Ust Kamenogorsk
070019
Kazakhstan

Send me mail.

Vinnoye: Population 1,876....make that 77.

Privyet,

Training is coming to a close and in a couple of weeks I will be residing in my permenant village, named Vinnoye in Northeast KZ (over 1,000km away). Vinnoye is very close to Ust Kamenogorsk, the capital of the oblast (region) and a large city. This region of Kazakhstan has much more of a Russian influence (90% of the village is Russian), with some Germans,
Chechyens and Kazakhs. So basically in training I was in a different country, a place with much more of a muslim and "silkroad" influence. East (Vastok) Kazakhstan gets down to -45 and vodka is much more of a staple here. This region of Kazakhstan was originally supposed to be part of Russia but when Stalin chalked out the lines for central asia, he included it with kazakhstan for some reason. The Russians here are really mad at him for this for some reason.
My village is so small that when I first visited it in early october for a week I almost had a breakdown, coming from NY. It used to be a thriving collective farm under the Soviet Union, but since the fall many people have been moving to Russian and without finacial assistance from the USSR it has slowly become smaller. The village is about 1,800 people and the school
has 200 students, so I only have classes monday and wendesday. There are some nice mountains by me, including the Altais (some of the largest in the
world) and some great hiking and skiing spots. The steppe farther to the west is insane, its just thousands and thousands of KM of flat land or plains, with nothing in sight.
Russian remains insanely difficult.
"Swearing In" is on the 10th of november, and the next day I head 1,000
km north to Vinnoye, population 1,876...make that 77.
-Sam

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/35925.html

I've found my alter-ego

End of September

Hey,
So not much has changed in the last week or so,
I have started teaching classes and it has been going well, trying to get the hang of standing in front of 15 Kazakh kids trying to explain grammatical english forms that i didnt even know existed. I find out in about 6 days where im going to be spending the next two years so that is a bid nerveracking but for the most part i dont have the time to even think about that with russian language still consuming half of my week.
I uploaded some pictures to try to portray Kazakhstan in the best light as possible, although without the mountains, it would be quite bleak at times. However, the culture is quite the opposite and Im learning something new everyday. For example, the number 7 is so highly regarded as bringing good luck, that when I bought a phone card with a new number, each extra 7 in the phone number was an extra 1000 Tenge or so (about 10 dollars). So the guy whose walking around with 777-7777 is basically the man.
-Sam



Some of our students, with volunteers In Jee (far left), Ehren (second from left) and Erin (far right).

Mountains, School Children, Bazaars: Kazakhstan Part 2

Breathtaking views of mountains on top of Medeo, we had to walk up 864 steps, on about a 60 degree angle to get to the top

My site mate Matthews' family donkey

Babooshkas can handle more vodka than the average American

View of my village from the tallest building (4 stories)

Another mountain view from Medeo; Hopefully I will get a chance to hike these before I leave for my permenane site.