Sheep Meat Anyone?

One tradition they have here in Kazakhstan is the killing of sheep whenever there is a wedding, funeral, 40 day celebration for a newborn child, birthday, or holiday. One day about a month ago during recess time Nick came and told me that 3 sheep were being killed right outside our school gate. I did not witness the killings, but I watched in fascination as they hung the sheep upside down from a tree, skinned them, gutted them and drained all the blood out. They then put all the insides on the skins, rolled them up, and threw them in the back of a truck. The method that they kill the sheep is a learned art and called the halol method. (The younger generation have already lost this art.) They drug all the left overs to the garbage, leaving a dark stain across the packed dirt. When I walk to school I still see the stained ground and the sheep droppings. Are you having meat for supper?


I'm amazed that I got on my blog. It is generally closed down, so now that I am here I am out of words. I have been wanting to tell you that the thing I missed most about Christmas was the Christmas lights, but when I got back to Aktau they had Christmas lights up everywhere and just took them down a week or so ago. So I got my year's supply of Christmas light glory.


I'm still doing great and excited about coming home to the states for the summer. My school pays my way. I am coming back next year to put in my second year. After that I might try to transfer to another school to explore another part of the world.


Have a great spring.


Love, Rachel

International Woman's Day

Today is International Woman's Day and I had a day off of school. They make a big deal about it here and I found out too late that it is also Mother's Day thrown in. I had a great project for Mother's Day, but put it away for May when I am used to having Mother's Day. By the time I figured it out it was too late to do the project for the moms. Oh, well, there is always next year. Thinking of Mother's Day brings back a sweet memory. It was in January and I went on my first cross country skiing lesson. I got home and was getting out of the car when Natosha and Jamara ran out to meet me. I was so excited that I had come back alive and told them that it was the best day of my life. Jamara was 6 years old and she started crying and said, "I thought the day we brought breakfast to you in bed was the best day of your life." (Mother's Day) I had to do some quick talking to get out of that one. I am so fortunate to have so many sweet memories that float around in my head.

This is the playground right outside my window. All the snow is gone now and many kids play here after school. When my window is open I can hear them laughing and shouting. It is a very comforting sound - knowing that I am not responsible for them.


Here is my dining area in the same room as the kitchen. The hanging plant was given to me by one of my students who moved back to Hungary. It is really striving!

This is my kitchen with a gas stove and washing machine. It is pretty small, but I have enough counter shelf to roll out pie dough. Who needs any more room than that?

This is my lovely bathroom. The technical water (water to the toilets) froze this winter in the above ground pipes, so I had to use a bucket to flush the toilet for a few weeks. Everyone was in the same boat, so no complaints. Twice I have gotten black water while I was taking a shower, but I try to think that it is good for me. It wasn't good to the nice white towel I was using. Otherwise, everything is lovely. I have a water heater, so won't run out of hot water and have alternate water if the town shuts off the water.

Sorry this picture is so dark. I use my second bedroom for my exercise room and love my plants that were given to me by another student who used to live in this apartment.

Did I tell you that I have a cleaning lady once a week that is part of the rent? (The rent is paid by the school.) I just have to pay $100 monthly for utilities whether I use that much or not.

Pictures of my new place

Since I haven't been able to get on my blog for so long, some of you probably don't know that I moved from my big fancy apartment to a smaller, cozier apartment in an old Soviet building. This is my bedroom with a door leading to a small laundry room where I hang up my wet clothes (no drier). The washing machine is actually in the kitchen.

I am sorry this picture of my living room turned out so dark. There are double doors that open to a small computer/office area.

This is the entrance to my building.

I live on the second floor of this old Soviet building. It actually looks pretty decent in this photo. It doesn't look so good in real life. At my housewarming party the husband of my friend walked in the door and said, "Why on earth did you move from your beautiful apartment to this place?" However, when he got inside he could see why I fell in love with it. I moved because I was getting money stolen and I stopped feeling safe in my own home. My landlord came and went whenever he wanted. I finally took the key away from the cleaning lady and she only came when I was there, but I felt like she took things right in front of me - silly things like toilet paper and napkins. When I returned from Christmas vacation I could tell that someone had been staying there - different food in the refrigerator, several things missing, and some of my furniture was moved. It was a creepy feeling. One thing that was missing was so silly. I had 4-5 pairs of black hose in my drawer, so when I went back to the States I only got brown ones because I knew I had plenty of black ones. When I got back there was not one single pair of black hose to be found. Now who would want my black hose? Also, I was very distressed because my water floater and pump were not out on the deck where I left them in a big black plastic bag. I looked everywhere for them and finally found them a few days before I moved out. Someone had taken the plastic bag and filled it with all their clothes and thrown it over in the pile of stuff the landlord had left there. I found the floater way down on the bottom. Weird! Plus there was a man's suit hanging in my closet and I haven't started a trend of wearing men's suits. So I moved out and I am so happy with my new place. I don't have to look around every day when I get home from work to see if anyone has been in my apartment. It feels like my home and even if it is smaller and not so fancy, it is perfect for me. And I love living out in the community with schools, soccer fields, and families instead of living with all the rich expats. Things are good! This blog only allows me 5 pictures per time and I lost one on this blog post, so I will post more pictures on the next blog.

Miracle

Dear Friends,
All of January and February my blog would not open. I was so sad not to be able to communicate with all of you. Other people could get to my blog, but every time I tried it told me the link was broken. Today it opened and I am so excited.
Our cold winter with all the snow is coming to an end hopefully. Today was a beautiful spring day and I even had to take my coat off walking home. All the snow has disappeared and the mud puddles have all dried up.
This week is Dr. Seuss week and tomorrow I am dressing in my Cat-In-The-Hat costume and going to spend the whole day doing activities from some of Dr. Seuss's books. Then we are going to make green eggs and ham. We all have hats and tails to wear, so it should be pretty wild.
Our school population and staff have started to dwindle. We started with almost 40 students and now we are down to 23. Marc lost his students and moved to another QSI school, Mike moved back to USA, and now Nilofer is leaving for India. So Nick and I will be the only teachers left beside the director and his wife. It is so sad to be losing my students. I have six now, but was so happy with my original 11 students. There are some great things about only having six students, so I will not complain. I still am loving my job. A friend asked me why I loved my job so much and the answer is that the preschool program has a curriculum that I follow, but I add all the things that I think are developmentally appropriate for 3 and 4 year olds and have a blast! I also am so loved here by the administration. My director tells me every day when he walks into my room that nobody could pay him enough to teach my class. He just has alot of respect for me and it is such a difference than the feelings I've had in my past. The parents are great and supportive which makes all the difference in the world. And I find that I just love teaching the little ones.
I'm going to sign off now before this whole thing gets lost. I sure hope that I will be able to get back on this blog soon. I'll send some pictures. Love, Rachel

I'm A True Kazakh Now

Dear Folks,
My blog has sat empty for almost 3 weeks, but I am alive and healthy. The travel to the states before Christmas was uneventful until I got to Chicago and had only 2 hours to go through customs. I thought that was plenty of time, but I was still standing in the line to recheck my baggage to Asheville when they told me I was at the wrong airlines. My ticket had been printed up wrong and said American instead of United. With only half an hour left I rushed over to United and my heart sank when I saw the long line ahead of me. I knew I was doomed, so I did something that all Kazakhs do which infuriates me - I CUT LINE!!!! I felt so horrible and tried to explain my situation to the guy I cut in front (not the whole line). While waiting in line I found out that my flight to Asheville was cancelled because of the snow. Maleika and family were snowed in and wouldn't have been able to get me at the airport anyway. I let the guy that I cut in front go ahead of me and he was so sweet and thankful that it made me feel even more guilty. I got a flight to Greensboro where Natosha lives and got in about 2:30 that morning.
All of us met at a beach house on Hatteras Island the day after Christmas and spent a week loving on family, soaking in the hot tub, walking on the beach, eating way too much delicious food, and pigging out on homemade candy. One of my favorite times is when Ruby (3 years old) and I spent a few hours making a sand castle on the beach and decorating it with seashells. Then we dug a huge moat around the castle and waited for the waves to come and fill up the moat. I don't know who was the most excited to see it get washed away. We were both screaming and laughing. Tyler will kill me for telling my best memory of him, but one night I felt a body get in bed with me in the middle of the night. I thought it was Ruby because we were all sleeping in the bunk bed room together, but I discovered that it was Tyler. The big house at night was spooking him out and he came to grandma's bed. It was so cute that I couldn't kick him out, but it was a very crowded rest of the night in the bunk bed.
I couldn't believe that I was heading back to Kazakhstan and thought for sure that I would get stuck in Chicago in their snowstorm, but our plane to Istanbul, Turkey left on time. It was an 11 hour flight and I was squashed in the middle seat with no leg room. There was a metal box on the floor in front of my seat, so by the time I put my back bag down, there was little room for anything else. It was the most miserable ride of my travel career. It was so hot in the plane that I started stripping - first my sweater and coat, then scarf, then hat and shoes, and then off came my socks. I could have kept going, but didn't want to get arrested. There was just no air on the plane and I was wiping sweat off my face. It was so hard to get to sleep. However, they really fed us good on that international flight and the two people on both sides of me were really nice, so I'll stop complaining.
We had a 24 hour lay over in Baku. I say we because my director and his wife were on the same flight. I had no idea what I would do for 24 hours in an airport. Baku's airport is very small with only two snack places - no restaurants for real food. We all took mini naps off and on during those 24 hours trying to get comfortable on the metal benches. I walked all around the airport trying to find a plug so I could at least plug my computer in and play a game. I was so excited when I finally found an outlet and got all set up with my water, blanket, and pillow and then wanted to cry when I realized that the plug didn't work. I asked someone about plugs and they told me that there were none in the airport. I just couldn't believe that, so I kept looking. I finally found a plug between the two restrooms and it worked, so I set up shop there for awhile. In Baku they had taken our passports and paper tickets when we arrived and didn't give them back until half an hour before our plane left. Crazy! Crazy! Then 8 uniformed men came in asking for Knight Rachel and to follow them. I'm sure you already know this because you could have heard my heart thump all across the ocean. They led me into the security area where they had one of my suitcases. Only two of the men could speak English and I finally understood that the x ray machine had found some metal in my suitcase. They wanted me to take out each thing one by one and explain it to them. This was my suitcase that had all my school stuff that I was bringing back. I wish I could have had a video camera of the next half hour. I wanted to laugh, but they were very serious. I opened my suitcase and it was full of calendar cards, children books, tapes, Dr. Seuss characters that Natosha had made a few years back, picture cards, games, and even a leopard tail from Ruby's collection. They wanted me to take out each thing and put it in a basket and "explain" it to them. I picked up a picture and said, "This is a picture of a bear." They always answered, "No Problem. No Problem." The funniest thing to me was that there was 3 or 4 of the guys bent over into my suitcase going through things and picking up all the cassettes and smelling them. At the end I asked them why they were smelling them and the only word I understood was "oil". They discovered a bottle of vanilla and were sniffing at that. When they discovered the leopard tail they all took a turn squeezing it from top to bottom. Finally, most of the stuff was out of the suitcase and in baskets. They ran the suitcase again and still found the metal. You couldn't believe how they patted and examined that suitcase ( the one you gave me Rebecca). In the end I think it was a card game of dominoes in a plastic bag. It was brand new and had never been opened. They made me open it and show them. I laid the cards out and showed how you matched the animals. They were finally satisfied and I dumped everything back into the suitcase. The two men who could speak English said they were sorry over and over to me.
It was such a relief to arrive in Aktau. It was biting cold outside at 3:30AM. My last leg of the journey was getting all my stuff up 14 flights and getting back inside of my apartment. I couldn't sleep for a few hours and then I slept until 3:00 PM the next day. School tomorrow, so off to bed. I'd love to hear your stories of the holiday. Love, Rachel

Merry Christmas To All and To All A Good Night

Hello Folks,
I am going to be picked up by a taxi at 9:30 tonight and heading from here to Baku, Azerbaijan. I have the honor of staying in the airport all night until 7 AM when I will be flying to Istanbul, Turkey and then off to Chicago. My final flight will be to Asheville, NC where Maleika will be picking me up. It is all so hard to believe. I've been taking lots of Vitamin C and Airborne so that I will be the super healthy traveler.
Two months ago our school was getting so big that there was grand talk about buying another building with a swimming pool and gym for next year. I was so excited!! However, Shell Oil has backed out of bringing more families here because of the lack of good hospital care. It seems like everything started to snowball after that and so many parents are being transferred. I started with a class of 11 and now I am down to 6 students. The sad thing is that one of our teachers lost both of his students to a move to China, so he is out of a job.
Today, our last day before Christmas break, we had to say goodbye to many students and to Marc. It seemed like the end of the year instead of Christmas!
The good news is that I got offered another contract to teach at QSI for next year. After I put in 2 years I will be able to transfer to any QSI school that has an opening!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope everyone has a great Christmas break and a Happy New Year!!
Love and Peace, Rachel

The Pick Pocket Guy

How do I begin this story? I know enough to watch out for my money and things when I am traveling, but this afternoon I wasn't careful enough or not careful at all. I have been warned about Americans being targeted because everyone thinks anyone from America is rich. I always carry my backpack and was warned that their method is to cut the bottom of the pack and everything falls out without you knowing, so I craftily hid my cell phone and money in another smaller zippered place where that couldn't happen. Well, all the pick pocket guy had to do was open up the smaller zipper, put his hand inside, and take out my cell phone. And that is exactly what he did without me feeling a thing.
I really couldn't even get that upset - my cell phone wasn't that important to me. I just carried it around for emergencies and to contact the school staff. It was one of the cheaper phones without a camera on it - probably worth $80. The thing that was so sad that my phone was in a beautiful Kazakh purse that I got in Almaty. I also had a brand new phone card inside.
The story doesn't end there though, so put your feet up and relax.
A friend from school was shopping with me at the outside bazaar. I was buying something and just putting my money away in my little purse when 3 guys gathered around us. They were all smoking and there wasn't any room, so I got my purse put away and backed out of there. While I was standing there waiting for my friend to finish her shopping another clerk was talking to me in Russian and pointing to the group. I looked and my friend was asking me if I had some change, so I thought she was bringing my attention to that. (I found out later in this whole episode that she was trying to warn me about those 3 men)
Later on we were at another booth looking at some things and there were those 3 guys again. We left immediately, but it was too late. The deed had been done. As we were walking along one of the clerks that we had been at earlier found us and warned us about those guys. (My friend can speak some Russian.) That is when I checked my bag and noticed that the zipper was unzipped and my phone was gone.
I was just so thankful that he hadn't taken my money that I didn't get upset about my stolen phone, but my friend was furious at those guys.
We went to the inside bazaar and hooked up with Marc and Nick from our school and we told them about the 3 guys and the stolen phone. I then walked into a tiny candy store and Nick noticed 3 guys whispering and following me into the store. I didn't even see them because it was such a crowded space. Nick yelled at me asking me if those were the 3 guys and I recognized the one who had been right at my shoulder twice before.
Nick speaks some Russian and announced to the crowd that we needed help. Two of the guys disappeared, but the one guy just went outside and stood there. We (there was 4 of us) all went up to him and my friend asked him in Russian if we could pay him to get our phone back. He then asked her how much I would pay him to give it back. The deal never got finished because Nick saw a security guy and got him to come over.
The security guy grabbed the pick pocket guy and we all followed them back to the bazaar to this little office. The guard searched him and all he had on him was a brand new toothbrush and some Q-tips. I couldn't believe it! But the worse part was what came next. There was words spoken between them in Russian and then the guard grabbed him and pushed him hard against a table - so hard that the table leg came off. Then there was a struggle and 3 or 4 more guards came in. They got him on the floor and handcuffed him. We saw the pick pocket guy earlier scratching himself all over the neck as if to blame the guards. It was just not a pretty sight and it made my stomach feel sick.
We had to wait and wait and then 4 guards had us take them to the booth where it happened. I didn't think we would ever find the place, but we did. There were 3 different women there that testified in our behalf and could describe the other two guys.
They wouldn't let us leave until we could get a translator, so we had Dinara from school come over. It ended up that the guy was taken to the police station and we had the option of going to the police station and filing a report, but he warned us that it would be alot of trouble and take hours. None of us wanted to go through that. In fact we have all been warned not to get mixed up in any police action because there is so much corruption in the police department. We were actually all relieved that we didn't have to pay the guards. There were about 10 guards involved after the whole thing was over.
They have Dinara's number and will call her if they ever find my phone.
I guess it is a very stupid thing to wear a backpack in bazaars and one guard even asked Dinara why she would leave her friends alone at the bazaar?
A BIG LESSON LEARNED TODAY AT THE BAZAAR, BUT ON THE POSITIVE SIDE I DISCOVERED THAT I HAVE WONDERFUL FRIENDS THAT STOOD BY ME THROUGH THE WHOLE ORDEAL!!!