22.2 repeating

I mentioned in February that I, along with my fellow Kaz-19 PCVs, reached the six-month milestone. Six months of a twenty-seven month service is a nice round 22.222% of my time here in Kazakhstan and it deserves (if not via pie charts and PowerPoint presentations) some reflections.

I’m finding more and more each day that the Peace Corps experience is an entirely personally unique experience, the characteristics of each experience dependent on hundreds of variables. My friend Jay, doing health awareness programming in Cameroon, is having a completely different PC experience than I am. Nate, a fellow Kaz-19 PCV working in predominantly Kazakh South KZ, is having a completely different PC experience than I am. The same goes for the PCVs in the villages surrounding Petropavlovsk, or even the other PCVs in town with me. My host family life, school, connections with home, secondary projects, and relationships with locals and PCVs alike have all crafted an extremely interesting and unique (six-months and counting) experience. I’m a list person (thanks mom), and this list can illustrate some of the key points so far. Among the things I doubt would’ve happened anywhere else, in the last six months I have:

1. Flown halfway around the world, bringing only that which I could carry
2. Achieved an intermediate-level knowledge of Russian language
3. Achieved a pre-elementary knowledge of Kazakh language
4. Drunk more tea than in the combined 22 years prior to arrival
5. Washed my clothes week after week, by hand
6. Eaten horse
7. Used an outdoor toilet daily for three consecutive months
8. Received international phone calls from North and South America
9. Been on an I.V. from food poisoning
10. Grown a beard
11. Walked to school with a herd of cows
12. Lived four days without electricity
13. Ridden in many buses crammed beyond capacity
14. Stood before the largest mountains I’d ever seen
15. Fully appreciated peanut butter and related products
16. Played a dombra (two stringed traditional Kazakh guitar)
17. Spent 93 total hours on a train
18. Celebrated Nevada Day, Kazakh Independence Day, and Woman’s Day
19. Made incredibly strong friends, incredibly quickly
20. Spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s away from home
21. Eaten cow heart
22. Lived with a Kazakh family
23. Seen movies dubbed (poorly) into Kazakh
24. Lived with a Russian family
25. Seen movies dubbed (poorly) into Russian
26. Kissed a Tatar girl
27. Worked full time teaching KZ-ni kids English (twice completely solo)
28. Learned traditional and pop Russian songs
29. Learned not to whistle indoors
30. Written three songs
31. Had countless multiple-hour conversations with my local counterpart
32. Eaten rabbit
33. Kicked a 3+ hour per day internet use habit
34. Read 28 editions of Newsweek
35. Seen a dead body (not in a casket or media)
36. Drunk too much vodka
37. Played basketball regularly
38. Visited the x-ray unit of the local hospital
39. Begun three English clubs
40. Received mail from the US, Peru, Cameroon, and Spain
41. Seen a Russian Orthodox Christening celebration
42. Eaten goose
43. Trained village English teachers
44. Experienced -32 C (-25.6 F) weather – not counting wind chill
45. Received socks (3pr), sweater (1), insulated pants (1pr), gloves (3pr), hat (1) and long underwear (4pr) in the mail
46. Said “Man, it’s warm today” in -5 C (23 F) weather
47. Experience the Russian “banya” or sauna where naked men whip each other with branches in 90 C (194 F) heat
48. Read 10+ books
49. Written a rap, and adapted a play, both of which were performed for a large audience
50. Picnicked on a frozen lake in a blizzard

As well as these listed, I have established a much-needed routine in a foreign country and culture. I know what to expect most days. I get up early (by my standards) and go to work. I teach four to six lessons. Some days I lead an English club or tutor. I come home. I eat whatever Mama Natasha has left on the stove. I take a nap. However, from the list above it’s obvious that the majority of those things did not happen in my work routine. My experience has been one of predictability sprinkled with once-in-a-lifetime occurrences.

I’m sure I have changed, although I’m not quite sure in which ways exactly. I do know I have learned to be alone. I have become more patient. I have been quicker to bond with people I meet. I’ve learned to adapt to a new climate, language, and culture. I’ve learned to sleep when I’m not really tired, and really understand why bears hibernate. I’ve become more self-reflective: I’ve started thinking more and more about I want out of life, and haven’t made much progress (although I do enjoy talking and pondering); I’ve started journaling and blogging; I’ve started assessing my productivity and the impact of my time and efforts, frequently rechecking my motives with my actions. We talk a lot about what we’re actually accomplishing here, asking if we’re really needed, really doing good. I have noticed that so much of my sense of usefulness comes from my attitude, and that my attitude is subject to my health and digestive system. I know I made a good choice in coming here, and I want to make sure that it stays that way. So I try to stay healthy, exercise, relax, agree to all social invitations, leave my door open, continue conversations initiated by random locals, and work hard to make going to work worthwhile. I know I have a lot of time left, and in a way I’m just beginning, but I can confidently say it has been a uniquely amazing, educationally stimulating, horizon broadening six months.