Менің қымбатты қазақстандықтарым! Қымбатты достар! Қазақ­стан Республикасы Тәуелсіз­ді­гінің 20 жылдығымен құттық­таймын! Тәуелсіздік күні құтты болсын!

My dearest Kazakh friends! Happy 20 years of Independence! Happy Independence Day! I wish from the bottom of my heart I could be with you today to celebrate Kazakhstan’s two decades of independence together. But even though I couldn’t be in Kazakhstan today, I made sure to share the celebrations!

I visited my two nephews’ – Roman and Aidan – classes at Peabody Elementary School today in Centennial, Colorado. Both classes were full of excitement and curiosity, and even though it was the last day of class before winter holiday break, gave more than just their full attention and interest: they got out of their chairs and биледік! These wonderful students learned how to say “Happy Independence Day” in Kazakh (as seen in the video of above) in a matter of minutes! The Kara Jorga was danced, Kazakhstani chocolate was eaten, dombra was played and listened to, stories of beshbarmak and sheep’s head were told, the common bonds and similarities between our two countries were found, and most importantly the significance of Kazakhstan’s 20 years of independence was shared. Үлкен рахмет (big thanks) to Mr. Alvidrez, Ms. Lehr, and Peabody Elementary School for allowing me to visit: it’s the best Kazakhstani Independence Day I’ve ever had in the USA!

Note: I plan to update my blog with the past month’s happenings, but I wanted to get this up in time for today’s big event. Stay tuned for a big update.

Today is not only Thanksgiving, but marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and lies at the heart of the “UNiTE to End Violence against Women” campaign that the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched in 2008. Click here to read the full article.

Vlastimil Samek, the United Nations’ Department of Public Information Representative of Kazakhstan, commissioned me to produce a video to produce a video for the campaign. I was given one week to produce, film, and upload the video in order for UN Headquarters to receive it.

I also edited together a version specifically for UN Women: Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The video below features youth all around Aktobe. These students were given anywhere between 10 minutes to one day to prepare their statements and completing the sentence “Young people can end violence against women and girls by…”. All of these statements were entirely the youth’s own ideas, not spoon-fed or provided for them. Below is my version for UN Women: EECA.

Today the UN released it’s own 90 second video that includes six headshots of the youth from Aktobe, Kazakhstan!

Congratulations! I’m proud of you! Now that Peace Corps volunteers are gone, you must continue this important work yourselves. You must work together to end violence against women and girls. By standing up and speaking out, you’ve already take the first step. I am so proud of all of you, each and every one.

My dearest friends.
Today we are leaving Aktobe. The grace, care, hospitality, and love you have shown this past week has filled my heart with love.

You say you will never forget me, you will never forget us, you will never forget Peace Corps volunteers: but I challenge you to prove it.

To treat someone angrily, poorly, or impatiently because they are Russian, Kazakh, Uzbek or a different nationality than you is to forget us.
To treat each other like a brother or sister, like we are all one big family is to remember us.

To resent the government and other authorities for their decisions and only complain about it is to forget us.
To find solutions to make your community better yourself, to make the changes in the government you want to see is to remember us.

To only think of yourself and be too busy to help someone else is to forget us.
To take the time to help those in need, those less fortunate than you is to remember us.

To give up on a project or dream because it is too difficult and you are discouraged is to forget us.
To never give up, never stop working to make yourself, your village, your community, and your country better is to remember us.

To be pessimistic, negative, cynical and see the worst in people is to forget us.
To be optimistic, positive, hopeful and see only the best in people is to remember us.

To hate and discriminate against one another is to immediately forget us.
To love and respect one another – regardless of nationality, citizenship, religion, gender or ability – is to remember us always.

Мен сіздерді өте қатты жақсы көрем. I love you very much.
Alex

Peace Corps Kazakhstan Headquarters asked volunteers to: “Please refrain from sharing information about the Volunteer departure with the media or posting information on Facebook or other social media sites until all volunteers have safely arrived at the conference location.”

With so much attention, debate, and chatter occurring, I felt it necessary to make a statement: firstly, I don’t want to leave, we don’t want to leave, our students don’t want us to leave, our schools and orgs don’t want us to leave, our friends and families don’t want us to leave. We are not quitting, we are being forced to leave involuntarily and against our will. Secondly, I want to address these “safety issues”. It’s a fact: Kazakhstan has the highest sexual assault/rape level among Peace countries worldwide. I don’t dispute that and this isn’t something to gloss over. However this isn’t enough to close an 18-year-old program that has served an immeasurable amount of people.

I am disputing the claims about the “ongoing safety concerns, and here’s the main reason why: during the 2010 Kyrgyzstani riots in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kazakhstan’s southern neighbor) there was genocide occurring in southern Kyrgyzstan. Genocide. interethnic violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan. And yet Peace Corps has remained in Kyrgyzstan, though this choice to remain open was a complicated one. Here are three comments from PCVs in Kyrgyzstan who served during that time:

“I was a PCV in Osh of Kyrgyzstan during the ethnic clashes and riots and it seemed that they were never even considering closing the program because safety concerns. It’s interesting to me how fast [Peace Corps' withdrawal from Kazakhstan] was resolved.” (Source)

“The genocide in southern Kyrgyzstan was Kyrgyz killing Uzbeks. It was isolated to the south though. We were getting consolidated (stage #3 of Peace Corps’ five-stage emergency system) almost every two months and I was on standfast (stage #2) most of my service due to all the political and ethnic issues in the country.”

“I was one of the dozen or so PCVs evacuated from Southern Kyrgyzstan due to the conflict that took place in summer 2010. Please do not give the impression to others that the choice for Peace Corps to remain open in Kyrgyzstan was an uncomplicated one. Of course safety issues and the idea of closing down the program was talked about (The south of Kyrgyzstan, roughly half the size of the whole program, was shut down. Geographical and other barriers between the north and south of Kyrgyzstan made this a plausible solution.). Also, you may wish to reconsider your use of the term Genocide. Most of the elements of genocide do not fit what actually happened in Kyrgyzstan; this is not such an easily defined conflict. Genocide was a term used at the beginning of the conflict before much was known about how complicated and multifaceted it was; many do not consider this term appropriate to describe the conflict now.”

Are we supposed to believe that four unrelated attacks in different parts of the country are reason to pull out every volunteer and close Peace Corps? The four attacks are as follows: in May a suicide bomber in Aktobe, in June a vehicle explosion in Astana, in October bombings in Atyrau, and most recently in November attacks in Taraz resulting in eight deaths, for a grand total of 12 people – most of which were the suicide bombers themselves. To put this in geographic perspective, that would be four unrelated attacks in Denver, Albuquerque, New Orleans, and St. Louis. Troubling and concerning, but this doesn’t compare to Kyrgyzstan, where volunteers were shot at and had their buildings burned. What does this say to me?

Influential members of the Kazakhstani government A)find Peace Corps’ programs and volunteer’s work irrelevant and unnecessary due to level of development that can be found B)don’t trust us, dislike us, and want us gone or C) both.

Take note Moms & Worryworts: we volunteers are safe, we are accounted for, our security is not under threat. We will be home soon without incident, and until then you couldn’t ask for more hospitable, kind, loving, generous, truly wonderful people to be getting your loved ones there.

Since being told of our abrupt suspension and withdrawal, I wanted to write on this blog about what’s going on from the perspective of someone living over here. However, my amazing friend Becca wrote “A Eulogy to Peace Corps Kazakhstan” and this will be this most in-depth, accurate article you will find about the current conditions in Kazakhstan and Peace Corps.

From October 6th-8th, Dariya Tsyrenzhapova – a freelance journalist from Almaty, came to Aktobe to do a story on education in village schools, specifically my school. Click the photo above to read the story she wrote.