(IN)FAMOUS PRODUCTS TO BUY IN KARAGANDA

I thought I’d put together a little collage of products that I have found amusing and sometimes hilarious to come across when shopping around in Karaganda. Most products here are sold in Russian, but some use English letters (rather than Cyrillic) that don’t make a whole lot of sense to the native English speaker. Shopping for food can be quite a humorous experience at times. Take a look and you’ll see what I mean.


- posted by Joel @ 6:46 PM

 
JUST A POOR COLLEGE STUDENT

Here’s a riddle: What do college students living in Karaganda do when they don’t have a refrigerator or a cooler in their dormitory room to keep food fresh?

Answer: It’s easy, the just build a refrigerator and hang it outside the window.

Maybe I should explain that a little more…yesterday I got a small a glimpse of dormitory life here in Kazakhstan for students who are studiously attending university courses here in Karaganda. I don’t really know much about their classes or their studies or how hard they have to work, but today I found a little bit about what it might be like to live in a dormitory type room in the city here.

As I was passing through a friend’s apartment complex today, a certain “plastic bag phenomenon” was pointed out to me. I had never noticed before, but as I passed by a college dormitory, I saw that many of the windows of the apartments had plastic bags hanging out the outside of the windows. I wasn’t sure what these plastic grocery bags were used for until my friend told me that those bags were used as a sort of mock refrigerator for whoever happened to be living in that apartment. That’s right, those plastic bags contained perishable food items that either needed to be cooled or frozen, so they were kept on the outside of the window, hanging in the cold and protected from premature thaws. I thought to myself, “What a different cultural norm than what I am used to experiencing in the college life.” I thought that it was hard not to have central heating or maybe air conditioning, but here these students don’t even have a refrigerator. Sometimes you just have to improvise anyway you can to make things work, and living here has certainly improved creativity in the improvisation area of my life.

My only other question was, “what do they do when the summer arrives?”

- posted by Joel @ 12:59 AM

 
A UNIQUE HOLIDAY

If there’s one thing that the people know how to do really well here, it is celebrating holidays. And they have a lot of them to celebrate it seems. Today I experienced a new one that I’ve never had the pleasure of celebrating in the States. Today was Men’s Day!! That’s right all you men out there…contrary to what some American women say about us needing to have a holiday (they say every day is men’s day), they really do have a Men’s Day here in Kazakhstan where we get congratulated for being a man.

Well okay it’s not exactly like that, but it’s close. Actually today is the former Soviet Military Day which is a celebration of all the men (there are no women in the military here) who served in the ranks. So it is very similar to our Veterans Day back home, but somehow or another the people here like to also call it Men’s Day and so even if you haven’t served in the military you get congratulated just for being a man. I rather enjoyed it even if I had to smile about it a little bit each time someone congratulated me for being a man. That’s exactly what they say here too. The Kazakh English speakers here will congratulate you by saying, “I congratulate you on your holiday.” And then they congratulate you for the specific holiday that it happens to be. So today I was congratulated for being a man.

SPORTS AND ACTIVITIES WITH STUDENTS

Well I continue to kick around the soccer ball on Friday nights in the gym with the “Russian Guys” whom I have met through the contact of one of my students. I have a good time with them and even though most of us can’t communicate that well with each other, we still enjoy playing the game of soccer together. I still don’t know most of their names, but they all know mine and I hear conversations every once in a while in Russian that have something to do with “the Americanitz”.

This last Friday I played with them again and had a good time. I played goal keeper for a little while and had a fun experience with making a good save during one of the games. The sportsmanship during our games is really good. Every time someone scores a goal, all the spectators and players will usually clap in appreciation…especially if it was a good goal. Sometimes people will clap for a good hustle play or a nice save by the goal keeper. I happened to be playing keeper this time when a player from the other team had a breakaway shot and I came out to try and stop it. I laid out on the ground to try and cover as much of the goal as I could and somehow stopped his shot by trapping the ball between my two legs and stopping it with my arm before it could get past me. The players who were watching from the sidelines appreciated it and all started saying my name in unison like a cheer. It was quite amusing for me to hear all these Russian speakers cheering for me when I couldn’t even remember their names or carry on a conversation with them. Later during the game I made another save…only this time I didn’t have much say in the matter. I was playing goal keeper again and another man got a breakaway and took a hard shot that gave me no time to react. The ball bounced off my forehead and straight up into the air! I was a little bit wobbly for a while, but at least he didn’t score. I was pretty happy to get lucky on two saves in the same night.



On Saturdays I continue to lead sports day in the school gym for my students. We have been enjoying games of basketball, soccer, volleyball, and ping pong. I decided to take some pictures and post them here so you could see what the gym in the school looks like and what the gym at the university looks like where I play soccer on Fridays. I enjoy the time with my students on Saturday and have recently focused on teaching them the rules of basketball. When we first started playing, I realized that they didn’t have much of a concept of what it meant to foul anyone during the game of basketball. The entire match seemed to consist of bodies and arms flying all over the place in an effort to wrestle the ball from any innocent victim trying to bring it down the court. I think I have finally taught them the concept of “guarding” a player without mortally wounding him at the same time. The people I play with are a lot of fun though and we enjoy our time together. I am usually thoroughly worn out by the end of the afternoon, but I have found that I really enjoy leading the sports day and it’s a good way to establish friendships among the students.


- posted by Joel @ 6:33 AM

 
SLURPEES ON SALE AGAIN

You won’t believe it but today we had temperatures that almost reached forty degrees! It was great not to fill a chill on the bones, but on the downside it wrecked havoc on the streets and walkways all over the city. Everything is melting! It’s like walking through a giant Coca-Cola Slurpee! The mud is mixing with the slush and ice and making a mess everywhere. Many people’s moods are dampened because of this weather, and I have noticed that most people prefer the freezing cold conditions to this “in between” weather that we seem to be having. It can’t decide if it wants to be winter or spring right now.

For me I am happy even if the conditions are bad because I know that spring is coming closer even if they say that it usually doesn’t arrive until April. It looks like this year we may have warmer weather a little bit earlier. The temperatures in February so far have been uncharacteristically mild. I am really looking forward to short sleeves and no jackets again! And soon when the snow melts we’ll be able to head back out to the soccer field for some baseball action. I also plan to teach the students how to play Ultimate Frisbee this spring. I am really looking forward to it.


MORE STUDENT QUOTES

I thought this would also be a good time to add in a second installment of student quotes that I have pulled out from their journal entries. Enjoy!

On my typical day…

“This time I begin my English course. I like it, the time spent so fast that I don’t blink twice how the lesson is over.”

“World is a reality where people live…I live on earth planet, in Eurasia, in Karaganda.”

On the limited liability of a corporation…

“If you need to terminate the business, you’ll need not to give the creditors your house, you car, or your wife.”

On fringe benefits…

“And what type of french benefits would you want with your job?”

“As a lawyer, I will have about 24 paid holydays.”

“I want to get one billion dollars a year and it would be a salary with fridge benefits.”


ARE YOU AFRAID?

A recent experience with a friend….

A young man, searching for answers, is afraid to look in the one place where he knows he might find the truth. Why doesn’t he look there? He is afraid that it might tell him about his life. He’s afraid of what might show up about the way he has lived his life. He is afraid to open up and read the words of the Creator. Is this the way he should he should live in his life…in fear?

It is true that there are some difficult things to read about in God’s word. There is information about your imperfections, about your sin, and about the proud way you try to control your own life. It says that you can’t get to God through your own good works because you can never be good enough to please God on your own. This is cause to make many people afraid to peek at the truth, but we should be more worried about not knowing the truth than ignoring the truth out of fear of it.

The good news for this young man is that he need not fear starting a search for truth through God’s word and he need not fear about saying or thinking something wrong about God because the forgiveness of the creator far outweighs his wrath and judgment…but only if we ask for it and accept it. So know this young man, you are loved. Regardless of what your relatives tell you about following all the rules, obeying all the laws, and completing all the rituals, the master only desires that you come to know him and to accept Him as the one who can save you and as the one who loves you more than anyone else ever can. Don’t be afraid, just come to Him and you will know joy and peace like never before.

Will you come? He is knocking and waiting for you to answer.


MORE IRONIES OF LIVING IN KAZAKHSTAN

Why is it I can’t seem to get away from all the things in the United States that I really dislike? You know my distaste for cell phones, and yet here they are in the possession of most of my own students. They go off in class, my students ask to be excused during class, and I regularly take them away during class.

So I can’t get away from those technological gadgets, but what about American paraphernalia? You’d think with the unpopularity of the United States in many places in the world that people would try to keep away from anything representing the country that is busy fighting terrorism in everyone else’s home town right now. It doesn’t seem to be the case here in Karaganda. One of the most popular beanies or hats that I see worn in the winter is the one sports team I dearly love to dislike…the New York Yankees. Of all teams, why do people here have to like them? Somehow they figured out that the Yankees are a popular team in the US, but if the people who don’t like Americans are the ones wearing those Yankees hats, then that is like wearing a USSR t-shirt and saying that you’re against communism. I suppose there are teens in the States who do exactly just that and they do it all in the name of popularity.

So what else can’t I get away from here in Karaganda that I would not miss at all in the States. Madonna and Eminem probably top the list of those I’d rather not see or hear, but unfortunately their names and faces and music are regularly found spray painted as graffiti, printed on notebooks, and played on the radio. When I asked some of my students to talk about their heroes, Madonna came up more than once, and one of the main reasons they liked her so much was because she wrote a children’s book and that she started out from a poor family and became a star (as if numerous others haven’t tried doing that). Somehow they don’t seem to mind that she is purposely trying to raise a child without a father or that she flaunted her body all over the public for years in front of millions of other children until she realized that it might not be good for her own child to see this type of behavior. As for Eminem…well I don’t need to say much except that most people here can’t even understand what he’s saying, but they think he “sounds” cool so he must be a great guy. As a matter of fact, the only time I ever hear cursing in English anymore is when someone happens to be playing a song like his on the radio. I’m the only one who is cringing at it too, since none of my students understand those words anyway. When I am around my students, it’s refreshing to hear clean English spoken...for the most part.

- posted by Joel @ 6:30 AM

 
A $60 TAXI RIDE??

Now I know that taxis in big cities like New York can be quite expensive, but I don’t know of many people who have paid this much for a taxi ride. I almost did just that by accident the other day on the way back from our trip to Uzbekistan.

Karl and I had just crossed through the border of Uzbekistan and back into Kazakhstan, and we were working on getting a taxi to a city called Shymkent which was an hour a way and was the destination for our next travel vehicle, the train. On the way down from Shymkent, we had negotiated a taxi ride for about 350 tenge each person (about $3.00), and that is what we were hoping for on the way back only this time we didn’t have our students (they had left two days earlier) to negotiate for us and get a regular “national rate” that was not easy for us to do as foreigners.

Fortunately with Karl’s steadfastness and patience in bargaining, we did get the 350 tenge price and we hopped into a 1980 something Audi and the driver sped off at a record speed in order to get us to the train station before the train left without us. I had a huge desire to put on a seatbelt, but didn’t do it because I knew that it was an insult to the driver, and I also heard that it can attract unwanted attention from the police if they see someone uncharacteristically wearing their seatbelt while in a car (imagine that). I thought later about how I valued my life more than the driver’s reputation and his ability to be insulted, but still didn’t follow my conscience on that one.

Well we came into the city in one piece and before we arrived at the train station I dug through my pack to get out the appropriate amount of money to pay the driver. I made one little miscalculation that I really regretted a few minutes later. You see, in Uzbekistan, the national currency is the som (pronounced soom) and the exchange rate with the US dollar is about 1000 som for every one dollar, so as you can imagine, we had our fill of getting used to paying for things by the hundreds and thousands during our week in Uzbekistan. Well I made the mistake of thinking I was in Uzbekstan still and instead of pulling out about seven hundred tenge, I pulled out seven one thousand tenge bills thinking that we owed the driver about 7 dollars worth. The only problem was that a one thousand tenge bill is worth about ten dollars, not one!

So as we were grabbing our bags from the trunk, I proceeded to hand this driver seven thousand tenge (about $60 dollars) for the ride that would should only be paying $3.00 each! He saw the load of cash I had exposed and was only too happy to help me part with it! The driver even got part of his hands on it before Karl saw my mistake and grabbed both of our hands and made sure that I put back six thousand tenge and only handed the driver a one thousand tenge bill. Whew! That was close but it wasn’t over…

Since the driver knew we were tourists and that we obviously were “rich Americans” he decided that the taxi ride was actually 700 tenge per person instead of 350 like we had first agreed on. I rolled my eyes and couldn’t believe it, but now we were arguing with him and he was acting like that was the originally price that had been set. Of course since we couldn’t understand most of what he was saying, and he was doing a good job of selling his act, we really weren’t getting very far. Meanwhile, buses were piling up behind us, other taxis were honking their horns, and we were about to be late for our train which cost a lot more than the taxi ride. Without arguing much further, we ended up paying him about 100 tenge short of what he wanted and got out of there. I was pretty upset with myself, but Karl told me to forget about it, and move on because it was a mistake that anyone could have made. Now of course it’s just another one of “Joel’s cultural blunders in Kazakhstan” that I can relate to all of you to read and enjoy!


- posted by Joel @ 7:37 AM

 
SUCCESSFUL AND SAFE TRIP THROUGH UZBEKISTAN COMPLETED

I just recently arrived back in Karaganda from a week-long excursion down south to the bordering country of Uzbekistan. Karl and two of my students traveled with me as we took a two-day train journey Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Our plans were to visit some other teachers there and then do some sight-seeing in the two old historical cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. Uzbekistan was a member of the former Soviet Union, but its history has strong ties to the Middle and Far East as it is in a direct line with the famous Silk Road. In fact both Bukhara and Samarkand were two of the main stops on the Silk Road. Uzbekistan is about as close as I have ever thought I would get to the conflicts currently going on in the Middle East. It borders both Iran and Afghanistan, but does not have much a direct connection with them in any of the recent news we have been hearing regarding war and conflict.

TASHKENT

The capital is a bustling city of about three million and it is the closest to a large American city that I have experienced since coming to the CIS. One way I can tell is that this city is filled with many more cars and smaller modes of transportation and less buses and marshrutkas like the ones I am used to seeing in Karaganda. But even with seemingly smaller use of public transportation, those without cars need not worry much. I was told that almost any driver here serves as a taxi; all one must do is stand by the road and stick out their hand and they are bound to flag down someone who is willing to bargain with you about the price to get somewhere in town. There is plenty of sight-seeing and souvineer shopping to do in this town, and it also boasts a pretty modern subway which I experienced for the first time in my life.

We looked around at many of the shops and stores in the town during the two days we stayed and we were also able to visit some pretty impressive monuments. One of the pictures I have displayed for you here is of Amir Temur, a famous Uzbek leader from the 13th century who helped to restore the country after Ghengis Khan leveled it a hundred years earlier. The location of this statue used to be the sight of a large bust of Karl Marx, but the Uzbek government has been one of the countries in the CIS that has done everything is can to wipe away any trace of the USSR and bring out the historical past of the country as well as start for itself a new future.



BUKHARA

A smaller city of about 300,000 is a good 12 hour train ride from Toshkent. We took the late evening train, slept all night, and arrived early in the morning to begin our sightseeing. This city has buildings that are about a thousand years old and includes some significant sights of Islamic heritage. We saw as much as we could see in one day and we spent a good amount of time at the location pictured below. The tall tower is called the Kalon Minaret. It was constructed in 1127 and is about 190 feet tall with a 20 foot deep foundation. It has never needed any cosmetic repairs like most buildings in the area have and it is said that Ghengis Khan was so impressed by the artwork that he ordered it spared as he ransacked through the city. The leaders of the city used to throw criminals off the top of the tower until the Russians ordered that act forbidden.



SAMARQAND

One of the main stops of the Silk Road, this city is not as old as Bukhara but it has some larger buildings that were just awesome to see in person. Most people in this southern region of Uzbekistan don’t speak straight Uzbek but rather a mix of Uzbek and Tajik (Farsi) and there are many people here who originally come from Tajikistan. Just as the other cities in this country, Ghengis Khan left his mark on it in the early 13th century and then Amir Temur came in at the end of the 14th to make this city his capital and restore it to greatness.

The best place I saw in this city is the huge combination of medressas (Islamic places of study) called the Registan. The three large buildings were all completed sometime in the 17th century. The place was a beauty to behold.



This was quite a trip and I’m glad I was able to travel with two of my students. We had a good time on the train talking, sharing, and practicing our English. They helped us out a lot in traveling and crossing the border into Uzbekistan as well as helping to negotiate rates for taxis and other charges where Americans are liable to get ripped off if they don’t know the going rate for citizens of the area. It was pretty interesting to see how much bargaining came into play here. The people who sell at the bazaar and other places expect you to bargain when you are looking at their items. If you don’t its almost like an insult. I got some good practicing in bargaining for things, but also found that we got taken on some other scams that people were all too eager to pull on us as soon as they realized we were tourists. At this time of year, there are not many travelers passing through so all eyes seemed to be on us everywhere we went. It didn’t help that I was carrying around my Jansport backpack either.

Next Monday we begin our second semester of teaching. I am excited about getting back into class again and interacting with my students during the coming months. The temperature has been pretty mild lately and I am really looking forward to the coming months where the ice will melt off the sidewalks and the weather will begin to warm up.

- posted by Joel @ 12:21 AM

 
ANNOYING TECHNOLOGY MEETS OLD SANITATION

A year spent in the CIS would not be complete without at least one “toilet story”, so I feel this would be a time to share it with you after a recent experience I had last week in Southern Kazakhstan. If you are not particularly fond of reading about the sanitation of other countries, I suggest you move on to my next journal entry, but for me this is a classic case of my worse fears meeting a great irony all at one time. It all began while I was waiting at the train station in Shymkent, a city near the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

But before I move any further, I must introduce the little bit of irony that fits into this story. As many of you know, I have a strong distaste for cell phones and it seems to have ripened with age. I do not, nor have I ever owned one, but I assume that one of these days I’ll break down and get one because you know they are just impossible to live without. So why do I dislike them so much? Well I think that my undergraduate and current teaching experience has trained me to dislike them and if it ever came to a vote, I would be the first to support a mandatory cell phone etiquette class (CP 101) for all incoming freshmen entering into the university. The final straw came two semesters until the end of my undergrad career when I walked into a campus bathroom between classes to find two guys waiting in line for a urinal that was currently being occupied (but not used very efficiently) by another guy who was busy…talking on his cell phone to his friend. After that experience I decided I had seen enough to make me a lifetime cell phone hater.

So anyway back to the toilet story in Shymkent last week. We were on our third morning of a week-long trip to Uzbekistan and I had not been able to relieve myself for at least that many days. I was getting desperate and my stomach was beginning to show signs of cramping which I knew couldn’t be good. After downing two tablets of the “pink stuff” I decided to make an attempt at using a 20 tenge bathroom outside of the main train station building. Karl went with me and we paid our 15 cent charge and entered the reality of a Central Asian public restroom. No lights, a room painted a dreary blue to match the rain pouring down outside, two stalls with no locks, three sinks, and one big problem…there were no toilets. Uh oh. I soon realized there was no getting out of this; I was about to have my first “squatting experience”. Other men may have backed out of this one but I was desperate. I had just paid 15 cents and I was not about to waste it…that and my stomach was ready to suffocate me. I let go of my previous fears, handed Karl my backpack, and headed toward the black hole in the stall that had been waiting to meet me since before I was born…it was fate with a dirty smirk on its face. It was an experience and I won’t go into details, but lets say that I found my leg muscles were not trained to handle that sort of workout nor was my stomach a willing volunteer in helping me complete my mission.

Not to “push” this story out any longer, but I want to relate to you the point of irony in this entire incident. As I struggled to remain conscious, another man came into the room and entered the stall next to me. So picture this (if you dare), here are two men on two separate squatters who both paid 20 tenge to use one of the least modern restrooms in the world, and then the unthinkable happens… a cell phone starts to play its annoying little music in one of the squatters. The squatting man answers the cell phone and begins to have a conversation with his friend as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. The amateur squatter from California in the next stall who has just lost all his focus can do nothing but shake his head, roll his eyes, and sigh. Cell phones have conquered the entire known world, and I think I can go home now. There is nothing different here. Except maybe a mandatory cell-phone etiquette class that someone has yet to take.

Despite the straining experience, I left that place with a bit of a smile on my face knowing a situation like that could only have happened to me and also walking a little weaker thanks to the intensive upper-thigh workout I had just received. I will be a better man for it in the future.

- posted by Joel @ 9:24 AM