Excerpts of Life in Kazakhstan

I don’t have anything in particular to write about, so this entry is just going to be a bunch of random anecdotes and incidents that I think are worth sharing. I realize that much of the humor is lost in the writing, but I’ll do my best.

• I love the occasional hilarity that springs from our pastor, who is from Americus, Georgia, and Victor, his translator. But the best incident by far was the day that Scott got so caught up in his topic that he let a “fixin’ to” slip out. All the Americans were cracking up as Scott quickly rephrased. Victor’s face was priceless.
• Mary, Michelle, and I are all teaching our units on the different regions right now, and Mary had her students read their reports to the class. One boy wrote about Pennsylvania. The first half was fine, until he started talking about how Pennsylvania is famous because that’s where Dracula was from.
• It’s finally getting cold here! All last week it was hovering around 0° Fahrenheit, but this week it’s gotten even colder. Last night it was -10°, with the wind chill taking it down at least another 10°. The wind here is fit to take your skin off- it’s unbelievable. Michelle and I had a snowball fight with some students Friday night (only the third since we’ve been here) and I thought my fingers were going to fall off by the time we went inside. It was great.
• My random Russian vocabulary of the week: hedgehog- еж, crutch- гипс, and barrel-бочка.… useful, huh?

And last but certainly not least…..

Top Ten Reasons I Know I’ve Been Living in Kazakhstan Too Long:

#10 I automatically look for a light switch outside the bathroom door.
#9 I carry tissues and hand sanitizer with me everywhere ‘just in case’
#8 When I hear twenty car horns blaring my first thought isn’t ‘accident’ but ‘wedding’
#7 I’ve begun to say ‘oy’ instead of ‘oh’
#6 I get Russian rap songs stuck in my head
#5 My “soviet game face” (aka. The blank, I-could-care-less stare everyone adopts in public) has become second nature on buses and marshrutkas
#4 I have stored ice cream in the snow on my balcony.
#3 The phrase “I haven’t heard this song in forever!” comes out of my mouth at least twice a week
#2 I actually ended a phone conversation this week with “Ok, bye” click. (the abruptness with which
they end their phone conversations is ridiculous)
#1 I’m happy to hear the toilet running, because it means the water is on
Some of these may require actual experience living in a formerly soviet country to fully understand, but I would be more than happy to explain to anyone who’s curious.

So there you go. A brief glimpse into life in my world lately. I hope you enjoyed it.

Love,
Molly

Americans in Karaganda

I love the American community we have here in Karaganda. It’s a pretty decent size, but still small enough that we all know one another. And we’ve got a good mix of people, of all ages and stages of life. There are the younger teachers, my age and a bit older, who are only here for a year or two, and there are young families who are staying here indefinitely, with children ranging from 3 to 16. Then there are a few older couples who go to our church, though I don’t see them much except for church and big group functions like Christmas.

This past Sunday one of the locals whose daughter works at Friendship School (where a lot of the other Americans work) invited us all over for the last day of маслэница (mahs-leh-NEE-tsah), otherwise known as blini week. If you’ve ever had a crepe, it’s basically the same thing. Anyway, she had apparently been cooking blini for 6 days (!), so there was quite a spread, with all kinds of toppings. True to form, I dripped the blueberry filling all down my shirt, but it was totally worth it. It was delicious. It was so much fun. We were all sitting around her living room talking and laughing and just enjoying each other’s company. It is times like that that make me sad that I’m not coming back next year. I’m really going to miss these people.

Loving the Sacred Raisin Cakes

Team meetings on Friday mornings are always fun, especially because we have lunch and sit around talking for hours afterwards. But it was especially fun last Friday. Hillary was leading the study and we were talking about our relationship with God being like that of a marriage. To support this she asked someone to read Hosea 3:1 “The Lord said to me ‘Go show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.’”

Somehow the bit about loving the sacred raisin cakes was just too much for us. We were laughing hysterically for a good minute and it was at least five minutes before we could get back on topic. And even then all someone had to do was mention the sacred raisin cakes again, and we were gone. It was so much fun. And now I’m creating a group on facebook: English Teachers Against the Sacred Raisin Cakes. It probably sounds stupid to anyone who was not there, but we were rolling on the floor. I love our team!