Petropavlovsk

Wow. I have so much to say and I have no clue how to start. First, Petro is AMAZING. I am in such a good mood that everything makes me smile and most things make me chuckle. Saule (my counterpart) and I already, after three days together, have many inside jokes that we bring up at least 10 times a day. For example. The word “блин - bleen” means pancake, a delicious food item that you are familiar with. It also means, I found out when Saule said it after not being able to reach her friend on the phone, “darn” or “aw, shoot.” I asked her, “did you just say pancake?” and she explained the dual meaning to me. Naturally, when we went later that night to visit a potential host family, there were bleenie (plural) on the table. I walked in, looked at Saule, pointed to the pancakes and just laughed. I’ve noticed how great a mood I am in here, and a lot of it has to do with Saule and how much we laugh. She also has British mannerisms that make me chuckle, like “Right you are.” I’ve had to explain to her why British things are humorous to me, even though they are perfectly correct. I just find it amusing that I had to come to Kazakhstan to hear “proper” English. I also get to speak more Russian here (and feel more comfortable doing it) than I do with my family in Uzunagash. I don’t really hear much Kazakh up here which simplifies my life. Not to mention my indoor plumbing, internet access, and frequent showering.

Speaking of host families, I have met two potential families and I think I will live at the second, where I ate the pancakes. Natalia is a 40 something year old home ec teacher at our school and has two daughters. One is 24 and is studying in NYC and the other is 18 and in a community college here in Petro. I’ll decide soon and write more later.

I have an address to send for anyone to send things from now until I come back in November, in case you wanted to get a Christmas package together. It is Saule’s house, so she will be sure to get it to me once I anything arrives. Here it is, in Cyrillic and Latin alphabet:

Zikirina Saule Sairanovna
Philip Montgomery
Mira 126/36
150000 Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan

Зикирина Сауле Сайрановна
Филип Монтгомэри
Мира 126/36
150000 Петропавловск, Казахстан

Big news: It snowed. October 23rd. How about that?

Unrelated, I met up with Forrest and Meghan, the two volunteers from Kaz-18 who are already living and working here, and we discussed their secondary projects. One of them, which I’m very excited about, is an English language library that some earlier volunteers established several years ago. In order to maintain it, they charge a small membership fee. They also teach English lessons to anyone in the town who wants to learn, charging 400 tenge (about 3 dollars) an hour and the proceeds go to the library. We are not allowed to personally receive funds for any work we do in Peace Corps, but we can charge for services to benefit our secondary projects. That’s pretty cool.

I have had several multiple-hour-long conversations with Saule about English and Russian, about the obstacles that prevent recycling from happening in this country, about the weather and food. It feels so natural to sit and talk about anything with her, as she has a natural ability (which I’m pretty sure is a culturally inherited trait) to chat. For precisely that reason, I write this at 12:30 am after having been home for 5 hours, and needing to get up early tomorrow. I have taught six lessons already and will teach four more tomorrow. I had thought, “surely tonight I’ll be able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour.” Maybe back in Uzunagash…

I can’t believe it
It already snowed today
Long winter ahead