Greetings, from glorious Kazakhstan!!

Greetings, dear reader, from beautiful Kazakhstan!! I wrote a terribly entertaining blog post on my laptop at my host family's house which I put on my flash drive, but the computer at this classy internet club doesn't have a usb port, so I'm writing on the flyyyyy!

Things so far are going amazingly well. We left DC last Wednesday, arrived in K-stan Friday morning at 1am, and began training the same morning at 8. For the first two days the entire group stayed at a " sanitorium" (something like a hotel with an emphasis in relaxation??) in Almaty, spending both days in sessions on PC policy in K-Stan, cultural information, safety and security, and a welcome address of sorts from the Country Director. After two days of sleeping on awkwardly sized mattresses, we were split into five groups of trainees, and sent to our training villages. These five villages are each within an hour of Almaty, and is where we will spend the first 3 months of our service doing Pre-Service Training (PST).

I live in the town/city of Talgar with 8 other Youth Development trainees and a handful of Education trainees. My host family consists of my host mother Karlagosh, her daughter Donna (20 years old), her other daughter Dianna (14 years old), and Donna's 6 month old son Amir. The house is also full of other relatives, neighborhood children, etc. that wander in and out throughout the day. We have running water in the house, which is a huge plus, though it's only cold water. To bathe, we go to the banya, which is a sauna of sorts in a shed in the backyard. It's pretty sweet, I'm a big fan. For bathroom needs, there's a squat toilet in a tiny shed in the far reaches of the backyard. The door doesn't close all the way, but it works. They also purchased toilet paper especially for me, so don't think I'm roughing it too hard.

Monday through Saturday I attend classes 8am-6pm. In the morning I "learn" Russian (or relearn, or relax) with 4 other trainees. Our instructor is named Zhenya. She is 22-years-old, Russian, and completely adorable. In the afternoon, the other 5 Youth Development volunteers come to our school for technical training sessions. At these sessions we learn how to be Youth Development Volunteers. So far we've covered Youth Development policy in K-stan, how to conduct English clubs, and some of the challenges that Volunteers face. I'm not gonna lie, I'm terrified to have to do any sort of teaching. At least I have 2 weeks to figure it out before we take classes on our own. Until then, it'll just be a lot more instruction, group bonding, and general camaraderie, which sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

That's all for now folks, I'll try to post again soon. Right now I gotta book it home before my host mom worry's herself into a tizzy over my absence and calls the police/army/Country Director, etc.