Feet inspections

Wow! The training course has been completed! 24 participants took part in the three day training on Volunteer Systems Management with the lead trainer coming from VSO London. Behind the scenes there was stress and late nights reworking whole elements of the course but (I hope) the participants were none the wiser and a tailored course was delivered. There were lots of jokes along the way and it was a really fun week. I managed to get myself on TV a few times in a Richard and Judy style interviews about volunteering and what the course was about cementing my fame in the Kostani Oblast!

To unwind after the conference all the training team went to the aqua park in Kostani. I had not been there before but have been past the outside and it looked great. We paid for our ticket and then were told to go through and get changed but to keep some money with us for our foot inspection. We proceeded through to the changing rooms where the security guard from the front doors and the attendant watched us get changed under our towels before pointing us in the direction of the changing cubicles. Then it was time for the foot exam which was a lot less rigorous than I expected. It involved you paying your 50 tenge and receiving a bit of paper with a stamp saying you have clean feet and then heading into the swimming pool. The doctor did not so much as look at our feet (nor anyone else’s for that matter) but as I have not picked anything up that I am aware of I guess it is a good deterrent for people with skanky feet if nothing else.

The new volunteer for Kostani, Hilary, and another volunteer, Selina, from Almaty came back with me to Zhitikara to have a look around, meet the people I have been working with and see what work I have been doing. I have been looking forward to having guests down because I like showing off my town. The journey was seemingly uneventful and pleasant (even the token drunk was entertaining the bus in a jovial way for about two hours by talking to us in Kazakh and German) until a kid throw up just centimetres from out bags about 10 minutes before the end of the five hour journey. Heart was served for lunch and the temperature was down to -27 as we trudged around town so all in all the elements of a memorable visit were there especially as we made it to victory park to see all the monuments in the town covered in snow (it is the first time I have been there since the summer), the kids in the orphanage sung Selina happy birthday in English and we went out for the nicest meal I have had in Kazakhstan in the newly opened Azerbaijani restaurant (although strangely all Azeri food was off the menu yesterday which would seem to make the place more of a Kazakh restaurant than a Azeri)

Glad to be back but just realised there are only three weeks left until I leave Zhitikara and I seem to have committed myself to about 101 things to do before I go. Looks like a busy time ahead!

Valentines Day

Valentines Day is taken more seriously here than I expected with lots of cards and little gifts. I covered my back by making a whole series of cards and buying some sweets with red wrappers which I handed out to everyone at work – all the others who work in my department in the Akimat are female. I kept on my toes all day and managed to avoid all marriage proposals and declarations of love. I nearly got caught out at lunch when two English teachers from the school where the orphanage is based turned up in the canteen to eat lunch there (a complete break from routine and as the only male there of not school age I guess an action directed towards me on the day of love!!!).

In the afternoon I judged the orphans love competition. It was a bit like a swingers party whereby couples were split up and then partners assigned at random although that is where the parallel ends. A number of rounds from love poems reading, drawing through to dancing took place. One minor problem was that on the jury panel there were no Kazakh speakers and some of the pairs spoke in Kazakh so we had to guess how good their love messages to each other were. Judging was fun but deciding on the ‘sweetest pair’, the ‘most loving pair’ and ‘Mr and Mrs Valentine’ was a lot more difficult that expected. A really fun afternoon and the place was full with all the kids, friends and a few extended family members.

Off to Kostani tomorrow morning to prepare for a training course being given by a guy from VSO London. Should be a busy week but looking forward to it. A new volunteer also arrives and it will be fun to show her around.

School 3

Went to School #3 today to take part in their English lesson. I lent their teacher some large pictures that I have picked up in Almaty in the summer from the UK Embassy which had scenes of London and they had created a whole lesson about the UK and Kazakhstan. My part in the lesson was to be a tour guide around the sights of London while the kids asked me questions. The lesson went really well and they kids had obviously been putting in lots of work – now there is a generation of students of English from Kazakhstan who will be able tell you all about China Town, Admiralty Arch, Canary Wharf tube, Monument, Harrods and the Horse Guards but not much else about the main sights in London. But I think the important thing is that they will hopefully remember the time the English guy came to their lesson! Also it makes it more interesting not learning from books the whole time. Back there tomorrow to judge a talent contest of foreign languages – not quite sure what to expect.

Halfway through the lesson I was invited to join in with two of the guys who has learnt Yesterday by the Beatles off by heart and had written out it out for me. Karaoke is popular in a big way here. Steve would love it. The best thing about singing karaoke for me is that people are just impressed that I sing in English the tone, pitch and style seems to be less of an issue.

The new haircut and more...

I have had my hair cut again but this time went for a restyle…I think it is the first time I have changed the style of my hair since I was 13 when it went from a side parting to a quiff…nothing too drastic but ever so slightly continental/soviet… the back is being kept longer and is on the way to become a mullet, the sides are short (perhaps too short) and at the front there is a short fringe. Now describing it like that does not really do justice to the reactions that I have had which have gone from ‘cool’ and ‘handsome’ which I take as positive through to those that are more ambiguous such as ‘you look like Dima’ [Dima is a popstar] which can be interpreted as either a compliment or otherwise right through to ‘oh, I am sorry’ and ‘did you cut it yourself’…! So I think the jury is still out for a while but I quite like it which is what counts… we will have to see if I can pull it off in the streets of London and not Zhitikara thought!

Disability training went well on Sunday but meant that I lost my weekend as I was working with Alibek on Saturday and Sunday getting the translations and format correct. Still needs rework as it is perhaps too technical and lecture like in places. Will give the reworked training to social health workers next week hopefully and also to students at the technical college. I need to work on the delivery because with this not being my specialist subject I found I needed to refer to my seminar notes a little too often for my liking but this should improve the more times I hold the seminar and become familiar with the topic more.

At the moment in a protracted battle with DHL as to why the do not deliver my parcels to Zhitikara but think that dropping them at the regional office in Kostani will suffice! With such infrequent visits to Kostani I generally have a parcel waiting which they cannot wait to get rid of. But last time I went I was asked to pay 5000 tenge (just under a weeks wage) to release my parcel from customs which I, of course refused, so I am now having to get various letters from people to say that the parcel is mine and not work related (it is Sex and the City DVD season 3 so not even kinda related to work) and then it will be dropped off to the regional office for me to collect – how considerate. And as I have now finished season 2 which I got for Christmas this makes the process even more frustrating.

Last night some of the kids at the orphanage put on a dance show – a break dancing routine and then two girls did a dance show. It was great that they were using the entertainment equipment which VSO gave a grant to me to buy for the orphanage and that this was the first time the kids had organised the concert themselves without the direction of the matron. With only two rountines the concert was short but it was followed by a disco for about twenty minutes and I of course joined in. When English or US songs come on I am always asked to translate them which I do to the best of my ability but I decided translating ‘my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps’ was best left alone!

The new haircut and more...

I have had my hair cut again but this time went for a restyle…I think it is the first time I have changed the style of my hair since I was 13 when it went from a side parting to a quiff…nothing too drastic but ever so slightly continental/soviet… the back is being kept longer and is on the way to become a mullet, the sides are short (perhaps too short) and at the front there is a short fringe. Now describing it like that does not really do justice to the reactions that I have had which have gone from ‘cool’ and ‘handsome’ which I take as positive through to those that are more ambiguous such as ‘you look like Dima’ [Dima is a popstar] which can be interpreted as either a compliment or otherwise right through to ‘oh, I am sorry’ and ‘did you cut it yourself’…! So I think the jury is still out for a while but I quite like it which is what counts… we will have to see if I can pull it off in the streets of London and not Zhitikara thought!

Disability training went well on Sunday but meant that I lost my weekend as I was working with Alibek on Saturday and Sunday getting the translations and format correct. Still needs rework as it is perhaps too technical and lecture like in places. Will give the reworked training to social health workers next week hopefully and also to students at the technical college. I need to work on the delivery because with this not being my specialist subject I found I needed to refer to my seminar notes a little too often for my liking but this should improve the more times I hold the seminar and become familiar with the topic more.

At the moment in a protracted battle with DHL as to why the do not deliver my parcels to Zhitikara but think that dropping them at the regional office in Kostani will suffice! With such infrequent visits to Kostani I generally have a parcel waiting which they cannot wait to get rid of. But last time I went I was asked to pay 5000 tenge (just under a weeks wage) to release my parcel from customs which I, of course refused, so I am now having to get various letters from people to say that the parcel is mine and not work related (it is Sex and the City DVD season 3 so not even kinda related to work) and then it will be dropped off to the regional office for me to collect – how considerate. And as I have now finished season 2 which I got for Christmas this makes the process even more frustrating.

Last night some of the kids at the orphanage put on a dance show – a break dancing routine and then two girls did a dance show. It was great that they were using the entertainment equipment which VSO gave a grant to me to buy for the orphanage and that this was the first time the kids had organised the concert themselves without the direction of the matron. With only two rountines the concert was short but it was followed by a disco for about twenty minutes and I of course joined in. When English or US songs come on I am always asked to translate them which I do to the best of my ability but I decided translating ‘my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps’ was best left alone!

Disabled Centre

Went to the disabled rehabilitation centre yesterday to meet with the director. It turns out it is a flagship development and the 4th in the whole of the country (how it ended up here who knows) but it was really impressive. I was given a full guided tour (it only recently opened) and even got sat down to try some of the treatments all of which worringly involved electricity. The most worrying was being zapped with something like a magic comb which when run through my hair sent electirc shocks to my head. Not sure of purpose but told nothing dangerous... it is all medical!

The word for disabled here is invalid which gets me tounge tied the whole time and part of my training I am writine has commented on the role of langauge in disabling people.

Rain now gone and ice replaced it which in turn has been replaced by fresh snowfall today.. So nice t have snow again and be able to walk rather than skate down the street!