WHERE IS THE LINE AROUND HERE?

Another cultural difference about shopping in a local store for food is not the competition between different local stores to get the most customers…it is the competition between the customers in the local store to get their food and pay for it first. Now we all know that if you go to your local 7-eleven for a slurpee or a bottle of soda you should wait your place in line behind anyone else who got to the cashier before you. Even though there is no designated line, people just line up and wait their turn. Here in Karaganda, it is more of a free-for-all and even if you get to the cashier first, there is no guarantee that you will be able to pay for your food first or even pick it out. First of all, in all the mini-mart type shops, all the items for sale are behind the counter with the cashier and so you must actually tell them what they want and allow them to get it for you. Of course with my less-than-fluent Russian vocabulary, I have to speak a little bit slower and sometimes I have to point or ask about certain items before actually picking them out. Well it has happened to me more than once that I am standing and talking to the cashier, trying to tell her (I have yet to see a male cashier in a local store) what I want when out of the blue comes some other person right up next to me and interrupts our conversation by asking the cashier if they have a certain item. My first reaction is usually, “Hey, I was in line first buddy.” Of course that’s only what I’m thinking in my head because there is no way I’m going to say anything out loud to the person when I can barely even describe the food that I want to buy, so I’ve gotten used to being taken advantage of in that way. This type of interruption always bothers me because it just doesn’t seem right that someone else would cut in on a purchase in progress and buy one little item just because they couldn’t wait. Believe it or not, sometimes the cashier will stop her transaction with the first customer and quickly give the new one what they want and send them on their way.

It doesn’t always happen like this, but people will try to get ahead in if they can. Rather than argue with anyone that I was first, I usually just keep silent and be patient because I know that once I start to speak, people know I’m a foreigner and I don’t usually like it when everyone else is watching me when I try to order something from the cashier. What will the American buy?! This could be interesting! I mean, how would you like it if you had a couple of people looking over your shoulder every time you were trying to decide if you wanted to buy whole milk, 2% milk, or nonfat? This isn’t usually the type of situation I would prefer every time I went to the grocery store. So as you can see, I generally like an empty shop to buy my food in as much as possible.

- posted by Joel @ 6:23 AM

 
SPRING BREAK ARRIVES

This week we are enjoying a week off from teaching. I am particularly happy about it because I have decided that I will not do anything this week. I was feeling a little guilty on Sunday night about not doing anything, but I have no plans, no scheduled travels to any new places, no parties to attend to, and I will just take my time and venture around the city taking pictures and enjoying the warmer weather. I think Karl was amused with me on Sunday night as I was just sitting at the kitchen table watching him make dinner and not thinking of or doing anything in particular. We discussed a bit about how busy we have been since we came, and I think I was trying to justify how it would be okay for me to break from my normally scheduled activities this week and just do nothing. I promptly got up from my seat and told him that I was going to go sit on my bed now. He laughed as I left the kitchen and went to my room to try and figure out the best way to do nothing without feeling guilty about it.

It has been a busy, busy nine months and I feel like this week is a little like a celebration of completing the most challenging parts of the year. The routine of teaching is still not routine except for the fact that I still teach business English to the same students every day from Monday through Thursday. I would like to say it is routine, but you never know what might happen from one day to the next. Some days I think I have a good lesson plan and I’m ready to really help them learn something new only to find they didn’t like it much or it just falls apart. Other days I’m not feeling well and I don’t know how I’ll get through lesson, but then it seems to go great and everyone enjoys it. Humbleness is a key part of teaching! I’m trying never to get caught off guard thinking I’ve got this stuff down because that is when I know I will fall.

Just yesterday I was feeling particularly happy with myself because we were going to watch a movie for the last class before the break and my lesson plan was all set. I had no prepping to do the entire day it felt great. I was thinking this will be an easy day with no problems, but I remembered in my prayer time not to take it for granted and that I should still follow His leading because something unexpected could still happen. Sure enough, I got to class ready to show the video, and I found out that the power was out for the entire day! There goes my lesson plan. We played games for the entire class because I had no other material prepared. It was okay, but if I hadn’t remembered to humble myself before that, I might have reacted really badly and given a bad testimony. Instead, I laughed as soon as I heard because I realized it is important to roll with the punches and be flexible just like the rest of the people are Karaganda are so used to doing already. Losing electricity, water, or heat is all a part of the routine and they have learned very well to adjust to.

The students will be back in class next week again as we prepare to meet our last five weeks of teaching by wrapping up a challenging and exciting semester of English. I am very excited about the end drawing near, but I’m not dieing to leave just yet. I will enjoy the last month here with everyone and try to put out all the energy I have to be with them and spend time with them. We will have three weeks in May in which we will have a chance to play baseball and Frisbee outside again. There will also be a few more English Club sessions and weekly discussions with those who are interested in attending.

There are only five weeks left of teaching before the closing ceremonies on June 4th. I am really looking forward to that day and being able to congratulate the students who survived an entire year of listening to me! There have been a lot of challenging moments, but also a lot of fun and educational moments for all of us as I have had the chance to tell them about American business culture and they have had a chance to tell me about all sorts of different things in their own culture.

- posted by Joel @ 3:29 PM

 
SPRING IS HERE…OH WAIT, NEVERMIND

Last week was beautiful. The weather was warming up quite nicely, I was pulling out my spring wardrobe, and the snow was gone. As you can see from my bedroom window view, this picture below shows that the sun is shining outside, there is no snow on the ground, and the dirt does not show any signs of being muddy. That was last week (April 12). It looked like spring was here to stay right?




Now imagine it is a new week. You wake up on Monday morning ready for even warmer temperatures more beautiful weather. After sliding out of bed and sauntering over to the window to say hello to spring, you are greeted with this pleasant picture! (April 19th)

Click on link
April 19th.JPG
- posted by Joel @ 6:49 AM

 
DANCE WITH JOY

This morning I woke up in a bad mood. My dreams the night before were not pleasant, but all I could remember was that I tossed and turned a lot during the night and I woke up several times. My stomach was upset from a bad choice of food I had eaten the day earlier and I was still very tired when I finally willed myself from my bed and prepared to go to church. My heart wasn’t in it to go to church today, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Even if I couldn’t understand everything, it was still good to be with others who could encourage me, and I also had plans to meet one-on-one with some others after the service for lunch.

I made it to church just after the service began and took my usual spot on the right hand side near the back of the pews. Congregated in the next few rows in front of me was the usual assortment of older Kazakh and Russian individuals who were mostly of the retirement age. Now I think most of us have a stereotypical idea of what the atmosphere of a service might be like when filled with people in this age group: stern faces, slow reactions, and sleepy songs. Am I correct? Well there is an amazing thing that happens with a gathering of people at this place simply called Joy Church: they get excited.

It’s hard to imagine, but for all my bodily pain and weariness, it was the attitude and actions of these older brethren who cheered me up and reminded me of one reason for why I go to church: I go to celebrate the joy and hope within me. This church plays a combination of fast-paced worship songs, older style guitar-led songs, and finally some traditional hymns. Unbelievably, it is during the faster and more praise oriented songs that the rows of people in front of me get the most excited! Have you ever seen two senior citizens give each other a high-five while they were singing a church song?! Well I had not thought much about it before today but I really noticed their joy and enthusiasm for the hope that is within them as I watched these seniors clapping, raising their hands, linking arms, and high-fiving each other right and left! Imagine what the senior church-goers in American would think if they witnessed this? I’m not sure, but I do know that the joy these people have is something that is too often missing from our churches in America.

I began to think about it more and I realized that these people have mostly lived a hard life, they have not been well-off, and their bodies have endured a very harsh climate in addition to suffering many long years of toil and hardship.

Many of these people came to Karaganda because they were sent here by the regime of Stalin during WWII. Karaganda actually grew as a city during WWII because it was a place where people were sent that were seen as a threat to the communistic way of life. That is one reason why there is such a diverse mix of individuals. I’ve never thought before now what it might look like to see a Korean or German person speaking Russian as their first language, but now I’ve witnessed it for myself.

Now these older people are nearing the end of their life and they are praising and singing like they have something great and awesome to look forward to. Does that make sense? Their time on earth is coming to an end, but they seem to be so happy. Do you have that feeling in your life that you have something better to look forward to? Don’t miss it. There is Someone who is calling for you to receive this joyful gift. I had a bad stomach and body ache this morning, but their joy reminded me that I too have this gift and that I should be dancing with all my might as well.

This morning when I attended a Russian speaking church, I could not understand the words coming from the mouths of these older, humbler, and wiser people that sang for joy in front of me, but I could see that the light coming from their eyes was an eternal light and it is not about to be extinguished.

- posted by Joel @ 7:19 PM

 
WHY DO YOU SEARCH FOR THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?

This has been a lingering question that I have had all week. The thought entered my mind in class on Monday as a student was sharing that his (mine as well) favorite holiday is Easter. He was telling about some of the Easter traditions that are common here in Kazakhstan and one that he mentioned was the tradition of going to the cemetery after church to visit relatives who have passed away. I was immediately surprised and puzzled as to why people would go to a place where the graves are full when we are celebrating a day when most important tomb ever closed up is now opened and empty.

I pursued my interest in this question by asking him about the origin of this tradition. He did not know. The class could not tell me either. I asked many more people this week and continued to get the same old answer, “It is tradition.” I was beginning to think I was trapped in a Fiddler on the Roof nightmare! “It’s Tradition!” the father said often during the movie. Sure most traditions have good reasons for starting, but when nobody can remember the reason for the tradition anymore then I start to question if this tradition is really that important and I want to find out why it is still recognized and followed.

Well as is normal with most traditions that have origins too old to remember, I started to piece together different pieces of answers that people would give me as I asked my question throughout the week. The key clue came at one point when someone mentioned to me that this coming Tuesday happens to be Parent’s Day. However, I did not complete the mystery until a couple of days later when I was talking to my friend’s grandmother who I figured might be old enough to remember why people go visit dead relatives on resurrection day.

The riddle was finally solved at the end of our conversation. She told me that people actually go to visit the cemetery to remember Parent’s Day which isn't until Tuesday. Somehow this tradition got mixed in with Easter because most people must work on Tuesday and so they began to go to the cemetery on Sunday after church when they had the day off. Mystery solved! I have been satisfied and I decided the tradition made a little bit of sense. Now I'll finally be able to sleep at night.

Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen!
- Luke 24:5-6
- posted by Joel @ 6:26 AM

 
A SHORT, DEPRESSING ENTRY

Today, Tuesday the 6th of April….it snowed again.

{sigh}


ANOTHER ROUND OF STUDENT QUOTES

I thought it was about time to present you with another series of delightful, funny, and insightful quotes written by my students in their journals and exams. As you can see from some of these entries, either I didn’t do a good job of explaining some of these concepts, or they didn’t do a good job of listening to me as I explained them. Enjoy!

On Conquering the World…

“If you want to conqueror the whole world, you must be immortal and have a good plan.”


On Managers…

“He (the manager) needs to be able to say “no” in a kind way so that it sounds like “yes” or so that the worker will say “no” by himself.”

“A manager must talk very well. He must talk so well that all people listen to him with ‘open mouth’.”


On Computers…

“I think that not all Pocket PC’s are sophisticated because not all of them could be placed in a pocket.”


On Letter Inquiries…

“I am writing in connection with your advertisement in the newspaper concerning a computer programmer vacation.”
(should say ‘vacancy’)


On Closing a Letter…

“If you have any further questions, please don’t bother to ask.”


On How Your Parents Taught You Right from Wrong…

“My father has the most difficult job. He must work and then give money to me, my sister, and my mother. It is hard because we want to have good clothes, good education, and many other things.” (poor father!)

“It’s not so easy to remember about how did my parents teach me about the difference between right and wrong because it was really long ago.” (this writer is only fifteen)

“…for me, punishment helped my recognize my bad steps.”

“She (my mother) gave me a feeling that all people are equal. And that we are valuable not because of our job positions or age, but because of our innate qualities.”

“To my surprise, with every passing year my way of outlook becomes more like my mothers’ and grandmother’s one.”

“I will teach my children in the atmosphere of love, democracy, and industry…”

“All people in the world have the same opinion about being kind.”


On Being Spontaneous…

“I think that spontaneous steps can bring a lot of mistakes and troubles, but who knows, maybe thinking a lot before every step is also very bad.”

“Actually I cannot remember any step in my life that was spontaneous so now I am breaking my brains in order to write something.”


On Personal Weakness…

“My weakness is that I can’t stand up early in the morning.”


On Calling Someone Back…

“I will get back and touch you.”


On Reading…

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and others to be chewed and digested.”



- posted by Joel @ 6:27 AM

 
RIVERS RUN THROUGH IT

The last days of March have brought and end to what has felt like the most depressing month of weather that I have seen since I’ve been here. The dreariness of the cold weather was getting to be a tiresome routine that kept people inside more than was preferable. During these past cold months, people have tended to stay at home much more. There are no walks in the park at sunset, no strolls around the neighborhood after dinner because it has just been too cold and the sun goes down to early to make it enjoyable (or safe).

Well now at the end of the month (I think I can finally say) it looks like the warm weather is on its way. For two whole days this week, I have finally gone through the day without wearing a hat! The weather (and the culture here) has allowed me to walk freely around town with the wind blowing through my hair and the sun shining on my head. I haven’t gone outside without a hat for a whole day since probably early November and it really feels nice. Now I can finally start using that bottle of hair gel that was sent to me by my parents. (hat hair with hair gel is even worse than hat hair without it).

Now comes the excitement of warmer weather, and so far it has been a lot more interesting than the normal sunshine, changing wardrobes, and warm weather that we experience in the States. This past week has been another adventure in terms of traveling from place to place. Because of the increasing temperatures, all the snow that has built up during the winter has been rapidly melting, and it since the city here does not have a good drainage system to handle such large amounts of water, the people of the city have found themselves wallowing in mud puddles, water holes, and small rushing rivers. It’s hard to imagine, but it is similar to those pictures you see on TV of cars driving down the street with water up to the hubcaps of their tires after a big flood. This only happens in certain areas of the city, but the bigger mess is located on the sidewalks where all pedestrians are forced to tip-toe their way through the mud puddles and flowing water that is trapped by partially melted snow or pot holes.

People here are very, very particular about not getting their clothes dirty, and it is for a good reason too. Many people can not afford to own a large wardrobe of clothes (although that is changing), so if they get one outfit dirty, they can’t always afford to replace it. I find it amusing and sometimes irritating though because everyone seems to pay so much attention to their clothes when walking around town. Sometimes on a bus or marshrutka, an accidental brush against someone else’s shoe will quickly find you receiving a little glare as the person reaches down to wipe off that unholy dirt you just smudged on the toe of their boot. It is sometimes difficult to avoid mishaps though because as you know from my previous entries, public transportation is anything but spacious or comfortable.

I also find it ironic to see how nicely everyone dresses here when walking around and then to look around and contrast the image of each individual with the dirty, littered, and grungy atmosphere of the city itself. There no anti-litter laws imposed (I don’t even know if they have any), and often there are bags of trash strewn about in the apartment complex stairways, entranceways, and sidewalks. Littering is just something people do naturally, but at the same time I always hear my friends complaining about how dirty the city is. Even with the socialistic influence of the past Soviet times, people still are looking out for Number 1 (they dress themselves nicely, but dirty the city like its not their own) and don’t seem to care much about taking care of “their” city. This statement should not be taken the wrong way though because for certain reasons the people also don’t have much choice in how the city is developed or maintained, but we’ll leave that for an entirely other journal article. Let’s just say that there isn’t much of a feeling of “I can make a difference” attitude among locals here thanks in part to a powerful minority running the show.

On the other hand, the spring weather truly does make everything dirty and muddy here, and even without the litter, it is still plain difficult to maintain a clean outfit all the way through the day if you have many errands to run in the city. Today I was walking to the grocery market and nearly landed myself splat in a large puddle of muddy water because my feet slipped on a snow-covered ice patch that I wasn’t expecting. Just another spring day in Karaganda…


THIS JOKE IS ON YOU

April Fools Day has never been a holiday that I have actively engaged in the past. I have usually found it unworthy of effort and sometimes cruel in ways that it can be carried out, but I have witnessed some good jokes in my lifetime involving wrecking the neighbor’s car and garden-eating rabbits that never existed.

This year for some reason I decided to get into the mood of the day and go all out. Our group of six teachers decided to all go in on a joke that we were sure would be entertaining for us as well as our students. We had been discussing for the past month about what we could do on April 1st, and we finally came up with an idea of switching classes on them for the entire day. Each teacher would rotate to a different classroom and give the missing teacher an alibi for why they were not teaching today. My alibi was that I was really tired of the weather and so I decided to fly back to California.

Well needless to say, it was an enjoyable day for me and I had a lot of fun teaching two different classes (we switched classes for both periods) with all new students. My friend, Andy, was assigned to teach my 4pm class which has some particularly talkative and chatty young girls in it who can be a real challenge to keep quiet and interested in business all at the same time. They like to speak in Russian and whisper to each other while I’m talking and then claim that they were able to listen and hear me at the same time! I just don’t understand how that is possible, so I usually try to nail them by asking them a question about the lecture right when I know they’ve been whispering to each other again. I told Andy to be tough with them and not take any slack from them…and he did just that.

I didn’t observe any of my 4pm class that day, but instead went to the next floor up to teach in one of the other classrooms. After my lesson was completed and the students were heading out, I heard some racket in the hallway and recognized that some of the more chatty female students in my class were coming up the stairs in search of me. I quickly closed the door shut and waited for them to pass. One of them tried to open it but couldn’t, so they continued down the hallway with mournful cries of “Mr. Kersey?! Where are you?!” I could barely keep from laughing.

I continued to clean up my things when I heard them coming back the other way and so I tried to hold the door shut again, but this time there was a group of about 6 of them all pushing on the door trying to get in. I had been ratted on by one of the students in the class I had just taught. I quickly jumped away from the door and sat down at one of the desks waiting for them to come in. They gave a final heave on the door and found that this time it came crashing open because there was no one holding it closed anymore. Immediately about six or seven girls all came rushing into the room all talking to me at once. They told me it was a terrible joke that I had played on them and that Mr. Kaster had been very mean to them. I knew that they were exaggerating a little bit because these young ladies are quite capable of silly and immature acts themselves, so I took it all with a grain of salt. I enjoyed listening to them as they told me how he didn’t smile at them, how he penalized them for speaking in Russian, and how he took one girl into the hallway twice for making a smart remark to him. Finally one girl told me that if I came back on Monday, she would never speak Russian in class again. I of course had a hard time believing that (they always say they’re speaking English when I know they’re not), so I just played along with it and enjoyed the moment. It did make me feel a little bit like a pushover when it came to penalizing, but after dealing with some of them for the whole year, but now I may have the upper hand in getting them to cooperate with me…all I have to do now is mention the name of Mr. Kaster and I think they’ll all shake with fear and speak all the English that they know. Monday’s class will be very interesting.

I think I’ll start out by teaching them the well-known idiom…”a taste of your own medicine” They should get the point. Meanwhile, the rest of the day went well and I had an enjoyable time…by the way do you know how April Fools was started?? Well since I am a teacher now and I shared it with my classes, I should probably share with all of you. It’s pretty funny to me actually and I’ll tell you why at the end.

It all started back in France around the year 1564. The country was using an old calendar that had April 1st placed as the first day of the new year. Well there was a new order given to switch to the Gregorian calendar which now made January 1st the first day of the year. Many people, however, still liked their traditional first day of the year and they continued to celebrate New Years on April 1st. As a result of their continued celebrations, they were called April Fools by everyone else who had switched over to the new calendar. I’m not sure where the joke part comes in, but apparently that is now part of the tradition.

I find this entire holiday amusing because Kazakhs actually celebrate three New Years during the year! They have January 1st, January 14th, and March 22nd. January 14th is ironically called Old New Year because it is the New Year of the old Russian/Soviet calendar and March 22nd is the Kazakh calendar New Year that most people also celebrate. So now I don’t know what that means or if we should start a new holiday because they have three New Year’s celebrations, but there must be someway to have a new holiday during the year that has the word fool in it just because it makes for good laughs.

TERRORISM HITS NEAR HOME

As many of you have probably heard by now, there have been terrorist attacks and suicide bombings in the neighboring country of Uzbekistan. These attacks began this week and are being called attacks by Islamic militant groups. Just today some officials came out and said that Bin-Laden’s group is somehow connected to it. The attacks have taken place in the cities of Tashkent and Bukhara. Both of these were cities that I visited during my week and a half venture down into Uzbekistan. It seems unreal now to think that there is terrorism taking place in the exact places that I walked around in just a couple of months ago. We have several other English teachers serving down in that area at this time, so your prayers for their safety would be greatly appreciated. So far we know they are safe and are staying near their homes and not going out to teach at this time. Some of the attacks have taken place only a few miles near where some of them live. In fact, the first suicide bombing happened in the Chorsu Bazaar, a large bazaar that I visited twice during my stay in Tashkent.

These bombings and attacks have many people here in Karaganda on edge. They pride themselves in being a country that has had a peaceful history in recent years and they credit most of that to their anti-war, anti-conflict stance with other nations. The government and most of the people are not in support of the United States attacks on Iraq or its other ventures into the Middle East. Many people actually blame the aggressiveness of the US as a reason for why they have been attacked and for why they have a bad reputation with many countries and groups at this time. But tonight I finally heard something that I think many countries and people are starting to realize. My friend told me that he didn’t understand why Uzbekistan had been attacked because it was a peaceful nation and had done nothing to provoke being attacked. I realized right away what the significance of his statement was. Terrorism is spreading, and there are no nations that are safe from its attacks. The ones who sit back and refuse to act or be aggressive against the results of terrorism are just as much a target as are the countries that are openly trying to fight it. Now the government of Uzbekistan is being forced into action and it will be interesting to see how they pursue this issue especially now that the attacks have been linked to Al-Qaida.

I don’t know if this will change the people’s perception of the America’s stance on terrorism, but if Islamic conflict begins to heat up here in Kazakhstan, it will be very interesting to see how the government reacts to it. Currently this country has about a 50-50 split with Muslims and Russian Orthodox, but that is changing as more people of Russian decent leave the country and the population balance continues to shift to the Kazakh side. Perhaps now there will be more countries actively joining those already in battle against terrorism and make a joint effort to stomp it out wherever it shows up.

Sorry about the rumblings on such a controversial topic, but it’s one of those “different perspectives” that I’ve had since living here and that is all part of my desire to report to you what I see and realize about living in a culture and country that has a different set of world-views than those on the other side of the world.

- posted by Joel @ 6:02 AM