This is where I live

As I said in the previous post, I will be living in a small village outside of Almaty for the next three months. Below is a description of the town, my home, and my host family.

My first thought after seeing my home for the next three months was, this is really nice. We were told in training that when we arrived in Almaty we would think, these people don’t need Peace Corps. I also heard that Kazakhstan is very modern. I guess I didn’t really completely take this to heart. I expected a tiny village with less than a hundred people, no electricity, no indoor toilets, and no cars. But the village I am living in has homes with two-stories, Mercedes-Benzes riding down the streets, and many of the people here have many of the modern amenities. Of course this village is very near the largest city in Kazakhstan so is expected to have more modern amenities. Small villages more isolated in Kazakhstan will not be like this. Even the other groups in some of the other villages have worse conditions. Much of this is due to the fact that Kazakhstan has very different conditions in some areas. While places like Almaty are very modern and people are very wealthy, small villages can be extremely poor and lack amenities.

The village here is more like a suburb of Almaty. They have dirt roads and sometimes sort of paved roads in the town and everyone drives around the enormous potholes. The roads remind me of the neglected streets and alleys of Detroit. Along just about every street are magazines, little corner stores that sell drinks, food, toiletries, and other products (also reminding me of Detroit). We have a post office in town, two schools, and a few cafes. There are wild dogs everywhere and also residents’ cows, sheep, and chickens roam pretty freely. The houses are all surrounded by a yard enclosed by about 6-8 footwalls, with the exception of apartments. Inside the wall there is usually some kind of garden, sometimes a separate building for a banya, and of course the house. Most of the houses have doors but just have a curtain that is open most of the day.

My home is at the end of a dusty dead end street. Our closest neighbor has an outhouse on the corner and the wind often gives me a nice smelling surprise when I turn onto our street. Coming up the street toward home I am also greeted by the announcing barks of our neighbor’s dog, warning me to stay away from the yard. I am still not sure how this and other dogs don’t kill all the chickens that wander aimlessly through the street.

To enter my house, I unlock a 7-foot gate and enter our yard. There is a small driveway big enough for two cars and yard that includes an expansive garden, small grassy area, and separate building for the banya. The family dog Gruff usually greets me when I enter the yard and rubs against my leg trying to get attention. I always take off my shoes outside the curtain to enter the home. There is a large pile of shoes by the door, and no one ever walks bare foot even when stepping out for just a second. Entering into my house there is a small foyer with a dresser covered with perfume, deodorant, and other beauty products. (Mary Kay would be happy to see the amount of the company’s beauty products that cover the shelves in homes of Kazakhstanians.) Directly across from the dresser is our indoor bathroom, apparently a luxury according to the other trainees. Our bathroom has a toilet (no flushing toilet paper), shower, water heater, washing machines, and sink. Our water gets shut off after 10 pm through 7 am and regularly just shuts off for days or hours.

After continuing through the foyer there is a large middle room that is empty and around this room are a kitchen, living room, three bedrooms (one for me, my mama/papa, and my brat and his fiancé (brother)), and a small closet. In the living room there are a few couches, a television, and a computer. My host brother set up Internet and now we I can get on wireless (this is unheard of by the way, other trainees have internet but not wireless). Our kitchen is pretty standard we also have a gas stove, fridge, counter top, and a small table. My room consists of a day bed, a cabinet for storing clothes, a shelf, a desk and chair, and finally another cabinet where my bedding goes during the day. My family also has a building most in the USA would be confused by, a Banya. This is basically a sauna. I will probably go into depth later on what exactly the procedure is for this experience.

My house seems to be very nice compared to those of most of the other trainees. Many of my fellow trainees are living in homes with only outdoor toilets, no showers, no Internet, and no washing machines. Once again this goes back to the vast differences in wealth that you see in Kazakhstan. Many of the people here are very poor. But many of the people in my village are also very wealthy. There doesn’t seem to be much of a middle class here.

One differences from my family and other trainees is my family is Russian. Everyone else in my group has Kazak families. Kazakhstan is made up of a variety of different ethnic groups including Kazaks, Russians, Germans, Koreans, Uighurs, Tartars, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and many others. But most of the population is made up of Kazaks and Russians. Russians came here during the many attempts by Russia to colonize Kazakhstan along with exiles forcibly sent here. If you want to read more about the Russian citizens dealing with independence read Martha Olcott’s Kazakhstan: A Dream Unfulfilled. It is very technical and complex but very, very informative. But basically my point is the culture of a Russian family makes many of my experiences somewhat different from other trainees.

My host family is very generous and kind. My mama is named Vera and in her mid-forties. Her husband has yet to arrive home because he is driving a truck in Moscow for his job. I also have a sister and a brother who is getting married in a month. My sister (Nastia) is twenty and goes to the University in Almaty. My brother (Artoum) is 23 and works as an IT person in Almaty. We also have a dog and kitten named Gruff and Zobreek (Zebra). My sister speaks decent English and so does her friend that is often over the house.

So far I have really enjoyed my family and feel really fortunate to have them.

If you are interested in more information on Kazakhstan check out these sites:

CIA Fact book (basic stats) http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact2004/index.html

BBC Country Profile:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1298071.stm

Kazakhstan History
http://www.wild-natures.com/kazinfo_history.html