Job Details, and Other Exciting Stuff

So I feel like it's about time that I explain a little bit more about what I'm doing here in Kazakhstan. 

According to the Peace Corps website:

Overview

As a Youth Development Volunteer, your role will be to work directly with at-risk youth and families, while helping communities, schools, and agencies develop programs to support them. You might work in an orphanage, school, NGO, or local youth center.

Depending on your specific assignment, you might:

• Conduct vocational training and promote activities to build self-esteem, leadership and life skills development
• Act as a health educator while providing HIV/AIDS education and awareness
• Work on community organizing and organizational development projects
• Train youth development workers

I work as a "Youth Development Facilitator" with an NGO that focuses on youth civic engagement. My organization (MISK) has a lot (too many, actually) of different focuses and currently: runs a school for young entrepreneurs; runs monthly "action" events that focus on informing youth about various topics such as HIV/AIDS transmission, leadership, volunteerism, and environmental issues; participates in round tables and conferences on civic and youth development. This year my director is looking to shift our focus toward youth employment. There is a relatively high unemployment rate among 18-29 year olds in Kazakhstan. Job placement is still very much based on personal connections and family, meaning if you don't know the right people, you can't get a job. Many organizations are trying to change with projects that aim to make local youth more employable. We're hopping on the bandwagon and designing a project to take place this summer that will be a week-long seminar on "Youth Employment." At the moment it's all very general and we don't have the details figured out, but essentially we will give trainings on resume building, interview skills, communication skills, professionalism, and job hunting. 

My role at MISK is not terribly clear yet. I've only been here for two months, and my coworkers are still getting used to having me in the office, and I'm still getting used to the way they work and the flow of the organization. I'm in the office 10am-6pm Monday through Friday, and up to now I've been responsible for running a weekly English Language Club and a volunteer group, which mostly means trying to recruit local youth to take part in outreach projects and discussion groups. It's been a challenge to keep youth engaged and interested in our small, unfocused organization, especially with my limited Russian skills. My organization really wants local volunteers, but they don't have any sort of strategy regarding what we should do with the volunteers once they start coming regularly. There's not a lot of strategic or long-term planning in Kazakhstan, and none to speak of at MISK, so it's been an uphill battle to convince my coworkers that we need to have a plan before we take on large-scale projects.

Because there's not a whole lot of work for me at the office, starting next week I'll only be at work 10am-2pm every day, and will use the afternoon hours to lead community clubs, help out at other organizations, and put some hours in with my Russian tutor. There's some serious reorganization happening at the office right now, so these free afternoons will give me a chance to expand my NGO horizons, meet some locals, and hopefully stir up some interest in our organization. I just hope that this new schedule doesn't mean I'll be doing nothing but leading community clubs for the next two years. 

Oh goodness, it's already 2011!! It's hard to believe that I've already been in Kazakhstan for nearly 4 months, and working at MISK for 2 months.

I spent the last hours of 2010 with other volunteers at one of my sitemate's apartments in one of the tallest buildings in the city center. We had a great view of the city and were in perfect position to take in all the New Years festivities. There are no official city fireworks displays, but that's alright because every family sets off their own. For the weeks leading up to the 31st you can buy fireworks of every imaginable variety on every street corner. On the stroke of midnight we were standing on the balcony of the 12th floor drinking champagne and watching hundreds of fireworks explode across the city.


(Photo courtesy of my man James)

Because New Years is such a major holiday here, most of the country come grinding to a halt for at least a week around January 1st. My organization closed down for 2 weeks of rest and relaxation to gear up for the new year. The first few days off were nice, but eventually things got a bit dull. I did some research for a grant that I'm looking into writing to fund a peer training program, read, lazed about, and was generally unproductive. The holidays were nice, but I was ready to get back to work on Monday.

I ended 2010 on a bit of a sour note, feeling generally unproductive and more than once wondering what on earth I'm doing at an underdeveloped NGO in southern Kazakhstan. I'm happy to report that the new year has brought with it a new sense of purpose and determination to get things done. Also a new sense of winter. Much of December treated us to above normal temperatures that required little more than a light jacket. Now that real winter has set in with its below freezing temperatures, my poorly heated office is a tragic scene in which my coworkers and I spend the day in giant down coats with hats and hoods pulled down so that not much more than our eyes are visible. Hopefully only 2 more months of this, before the pleasant breezes of spring arrive.