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.

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.

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

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.

Мүмкін біз кеткеннен кейін неше түрлі өсектер болар. Бірақ маған кім не айтқаны маңызды емес,тек айтарым,менің Қызылжарды,Ақтөбені,Қазақстанды шын жүректен жақсы көретінімді ешқашан да ұмытпаңыздар. Менің,әрине, кеткім келмейді, бірақ амалым қанша. Менің кетуім керек, сондықтан солай жасағалы тұрмын.

Бұл сіздердің қателіктеріңізден деп ешқашан да ойламаңыздар. Сіздер маған жанұя бола білдіңіздер. Мен жақсы дос,аға және ұлыңыз бола алдым деп ойлаймын. Мен Қазақстанға ағылшын тілін үйретуге келген едім, бірақ сіздердің маған үйреткендеріңіз бұдан әлдеқайда көп.

Мен сіздерді өте қатты жақсы көрем. Сіздермен өткізген әр уақытымды есте сақтаймын. Мен сіздер үшін әрдайым алаңдаймын. Мен әрқайсысыңызға үлкен сенім артамын. Сіздерді қалай сағынатынымды сөзбен жеткізе алмайтыным да рас. Жағдай кейде тым қиын. Сіздердің өте дарынды,өте ақылды екеніңізді ұмытпағайсыздар! Керітарпта адамдардың әсерінен сіздердің армандарыңызды орындалмайтынына жол бермеңіздер! Мен сіздерге сенемін. Егер бар жігерлеріңізді салып,еңбек етсеңіздер сөзсіз, армандарыңыз орындалады.
YМаған хат жазып тұрыңыздар. Америкаға жеткенде өзімнің ұялы телефоныма агент қондыратыныма уәде беремін.

Менің сіздер үшін қаншалықты алаңдап,уайымдайтынымды және жақсы көретінімді ҰМЫТПАҢЫЗДАР!!!

To summarize briefly, the article implies that the “U. S. intelligence agency” is behind “the network of terrorist organizations around the world, the Orange Revolution, Rose Revolution, the Arab Spring.” It calumniates the character of previous volunteers and the work they’ve done. It asks provocative questions without answering them and implies that we volunteers are spies, as well as questioning our professional suitability to teach English to children in the Aktobe oblast. The article goes as far to print our names and the organizations and schools we work at.

The following was written about me: “Moreover, many misdirected volunteers do not have philological education…. They were brought up on the ideas of American hegemony which suppresses everyone and everything. Alexander White from Kyzylzhar school is a film director. Is he, by any case, directing Velvet Revolution?”

I debated at length whether or not to respond to this article on my blog. I made the personal decision to write a statement without consulting with Peace Corps, other volunteers, or my local community partners. The contents of this statement are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps or any volunteers serving in Kazakhstan. With that said, I would like to first answer a few questions raised in the article. Click the questions to read my answers, otherwise you can continue to my personal statement below.

My name is Alexander M. White, I am a Peace Corps volunteer living in Kyzylzhar, Aktobe. My primary job assignment is Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Kyzylzhar Secondary School. My passions are sharing stories and teaching. My favorite way to tell stories is through film and video. I went to university to study the craft of filmmaking and worked in Hollywood and New York to develop my technical proficiencies. I will be honest, growing up I never considered becoming an English teacher. However after university I wanted to help people and live abroad, to learn the untold stories of another culture, to gain a better understanding of people. After a year-long application process, I was invited to join Peace Corps and serve in Kazakhstan. In August 2010, I arrived in Almaty where I received training in the Kazakh language, cultural sensitivity, and teaching English as a foreign language methodology for 11 weeks. At the I arrived in Aktobe and began working at Kyzylzhar Secondary school.

I love my students, I love the teachers I work with, I love the school I teach at, I love the host family I live with, and I love my village. Kazakhstan has become my second home and for long as I live it will remain a part of who I am. I am learning dombra, I continue to study & speak Kazakh, I live with a Kazakh family, I eat Kazakh food at every meal, I dance traditional Kazakh dances; this summer I had a traditional Kazakh wedding. I love Kazakhstan. I tout all of the good I find here on a regular basis and taking the growing pains of an young republic in-stride. I want to see the children of my village, the people of this country, thrive and prosper.

Although I could explore this topic at length, I’ll instead briefly entertain the allegations of espionage. Dear suspicious parties, if I was a spy, I would be the worst spy ever. I came to Kazakhstan unable to read, write, or pronounce the alphabet. A year later, people still don’t understand me when I ask where the bathroom is. With these pitiful language skills, exactly what information could I collect? Why would I carry around a camera the size of my head and conspicuously photograph posed pictures at school events? What intelligence can be gathered in Kyzylzhar, my village of 2,000 people void of any industries other than four convenience stores and a school – where my neighbor takes his sheep to graze?

To address your last question: “Does our sovereign Kazakhstan really need the help of highly dubious Peace Corps volunteers?” That is up to the people, schools, communities, and Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan to decide. I am not required to stay, I am volunteering to be here. If the verdict is made that we are no longer wanted, we will respect that decision and return to America. But before you do, ask the children we teach, ask the teachers we train, ask the families we live with, ask the blind and disabled citizens we work with, ask the people whose lives we directly touch if our help is needed.

And lastly, to the author of this article: if you are so concerned about the sovereignty of Kazakhstan, then why aren’t you writing your articles in the Kazakh language instead of Russian?

(Addendum: One of the most helpful and fascinating articles concerning Central Asian attitudes I’ve ever read was Global Village’s “Turkmenistan: Global Village or Village Behind the Globe?” post. To gain a better understanding of how some people living in a post-Soviet Central Asian village view Americans and other foreigners, the aforementioned article is a must-read.)

We entered into the Soros Fund-Kazakhstan’s national “Open Your Eyes” PSA competition, and out of 46 videos produced, we won second place! If the honor wasn’t enough, a cash prize of 100,000 tenge was awarded (Appx. $667) and the PSA will be distributed on both social networks as well as put on rotation on television.

I couldn’t be more proud of Gaukhar, Saule, Ramilya, Asem, Arai, and Asel – the six girls in the video. Each of them will receive an equal share of the prize money, and I can only hope that this rewarding experience continues to encourage them to be brave and stand up for gender equality, women’s rights, or whatever cause they are passionate about. If these young women represent the next generation of Kazakhstan, this country’s future is looking much, much brighter.

The Announcement in Russian: “Результаты ролики Открой глаза”
По данной ссылке можно познакомиться с итогами конкурса социальных роликов «Открой глаза»
Сами ролики можно посмотреть по ссылке

My students usually only listen to Justin Beiber, Pitbull, J.Lo, Lady Gaga, Pussycat Dolls, and the likes. However today I showed them “1-2-3-4″ by Feist, and they fell in love with her. First we listened to the song, then we watched the music video, then we watched a video with the lyrics. They love her.

Did we study any of the assigned material today? No, honestly nothing at all that was “needed” or “required”. Did we listen to and sing Feist songs? Yes, yes we did. And you know what? It’s one of the best consultations I’ve ever had.

One, two, three, four, tell me that you love me more. Sleepless, long nights, that was what my youth was for: teaching three 15-year-old girls in Қызылжар a Feist song. Goal 2, right?

Dedicated to the girl who makes my heart feel like a golden autumn sunset, my Lauren .

Music: Michicant by Bon Iver. Buy it Jagjaguwar

And the coolest part? While I was writing this blog post, I discovered NewVillager had posted the video on their website. Күшті!

No one dared for a long time until an old dombrist attempted to tell the khan. The sorrowful tune of the kyui was able to send this tragic message across to the khan. He ordered that the molten lead be poured into the dombrist’s mouth, but the dombrist hadn’t spoken a word. So the khan had the molten lead poured into the mouth of the dombra. That was how the opening in the upper sounding board of this musical instrument came about.

Glossary
kyui: Kazakh folklore told through Kazakhstani instruments, like the dombra
kulan: an onager, which is a large, more horse-like donkey
khan: the Central Asian title for a ruler
estirtu: bad news
dombrist: a person who plays the dombra

One of the traditions at our school is the older (9th-11th grader) students teach all of the teachers lessons. Cards and flowers are given (only an odd number of flowers, an even number is meant for funerals), and other little tokens of appreciation from the students. The students also put on a concert, filled with plays, dances, comedy sketches, and slideshows. (In my honest opinion, the student’s concert was better than most of the adult-produced concerts I’ve been to here…I don’t think I’m that biased.)

One of the highlights of the was a video my students made called “Мәссаған! Мен алдандым!” which roughly translates as “Oh My God! I was tricked!”. The students spent all week pulling pranks on their teachers: the hid the gym teacher’s license plates, they took all of the IT teacher’s keyboards and mice, and they took my notebook too! You can see yours truly getting pranked below:

For me, this week wasn’t about the teacher’s as much as it was about the students. Through all the hard times, the troubles both here and back stateside, the discouragements and ruts, the students remain a constant source of joy and motivation. I would by lying if I said I didn’t consider going home early once in a while, but the thing that keeps me here more than anything else are these amazing kids. Below was what my desk looked like at the end of the day.

I know my students don’t have paying jobs but work harder than I ever did while in school. Most of students don’t have time to come to extracurricular activities because as soon as they get home from school, they do their homework for six out of the 36 classes they have in a week, and then proceed to make dinner for their entire family, clean the house, fetch the water from the pipe/well, tend to the livestock, take care of their little siblings, herd the family’s horses/sheep/cows home, or the dozens of other village chores they must tend to on a daily basis. Even though the students aren’t making any money, and their parents aren’t affluent, for all that they still managed to go to the city, buy a card or a small gift, wrap it up, and give it to me on teacher’s day. These are some of the most meaningful cards, pens, cologne, watch, handkerchief, and executive ball clickers I’ve ever gotten. I am so lucky to be their teacher. I wish I could give them hugs without it being really weird/creepy.

We’ve had an especially good potato crop this year.

This isn’t Photoshop. This is one “ginormous” potato (over 1 kilogram in weight).

After helping with some of the harvest, I cut wood for the moonsha (the family’s once-a-week steam bath).

My little sister Merei

The daily “giggle shackles”

From the time they are six years old, deaf children from all over an oblast (state) are sent to the oblast center to live in a boarding school during the school year. Because of their disability, they are kept isolated and only have each other to interact with and rely upon. These children – who have between moderately severe and profound hearing impairment – communicate within their own micro-community by a colloquially-acquired dialect of Russian Sign Language (RSL). They receive infrequent RSL lessons from teachers who struggle due to the lack of resources, lack of training, and lack of basic RSL consistency; inasmuch as teachers discourage students from learning/speaking/using RSL and instead focus their energy on solely lipreading.

The main disadvantage with lipreading is that it is not a complete communication system in itself: it only allows the lip reader to understand and not to make conversation themselves. Another disadvantage is that if a speaker’s face is obstructed in any way – i.e. the speaker’s face is turned away, has a mustache, beard, is wearing a head scarf, etc., – the lip reader will not be able to make anything out. Yet another great challenge is that lip readers base their whole understanding of what has been said on lip movements and facial gestures. But when a word or letter is used which is made from inside the mouth, these cannot be told apart from others just by lip reading. Imagine having a conversation where you do not hear four out of ten words.

One of the challenges unique to Kazakhstan – and in my opinion most heart-breaking – is that the majority of the children come from Kazakh families living in Kazakh villages, whose main language is Kazakh. For a child who lip reads Russian to read Kazakh-speaking lips is the equivalent of a deaf American child trying to read the lips of someone speaking Spanish. You have children who can’t read the lips of their parents saying, “Мен сені сүйемін.” …I love you. The parents and friends of deaf children rarely know RSL, and even if they wanted to the local society for the deaf has practically no resources to help parents and friends learn RSL. (Want to help? Click here!)

Ofttimes as a Peace Corps volunteer, you struggle with the meaning of your service. “Why am I here?”, “What is my purpose?”, “Am I making any difference at all?” – these questions and insecurities run through your head more often than you’d like to admit. Working with the deaf community in Kazakhstan, however, has been one of the most meaningful things I’ve done in my life. We created a dual English/RSL club that met twice a week this summer, which for the first half we taught RSL to the parents and friends of the deaf children who studied at the local school and for the second half we taught English to the entire group – both to the deaf children AND parents/friends. At every club, the students were absolutely thrilled to have people actually trying to communicate with them, “outsiders” caring and being interested in what they had to say. And to help a mother communicate with her deaf daughter for the first time? That’s an indescribable feeling.

While my wife Lauren was were, we carried out some Art Therapy directives. During one club we did a storytelling exercise, where each participant was partnered with someone whom they couldn’t “communicate” with: Russians with Americans, hearing with non-hearing, speaking with non-speaking, etc. The exercise required for one partner to “listen” to their other partner’s story by simply watching their counterpart draw & animate a story on paper. Then they would exchange roles. The exercise was successful and proof that all you need is art and patience to communicate. At another club, the participants were divided into two groups: the hearing-impaired group created “advertisements” about all of their skills, talents, and abilities, highlighting what they can do instead of categorizing them as simply “disabled”. The hearing group created greeting cards in which they wrote out all of the encouragements they wanted to receive during their time of struggle. After everyone had completed their cards, they passed the card to the person next to them. It was the first time I saw many of the club participants smile.

One would think with all the many aforementioned challenges and ostracism that many of these deaf people would be introverted and withdrawn. That is hardly the case: there is a beautiful community of artists that is a hidden secret here in Kazakhstan. It consists of these same deaf, hearing impaired, and mute individuals who are in fact amazing performance artists. Dance festivals, interpretive singing performances, and an overall artistic exchange is a large part of the social and cultural component of the Kazakhstani deaf society. The goal of our latest project is to bring the Western Oblasts of Kazakhstan together to celebrate in a three day arts festival showcasing all deaf performers. We are currently looking for sponsors to help house and feed the performers coming in from Western Kazakhstan, which will include deaf participants from Atyrau, Aktobe, Aktau, Uralsk, and Russia. $3,500 is needed to house and feed the 40 performers for their three day stay in Aktobe, and we need your help! You can donate as little as $10 by visiting the Kickstarter page here:http://kck.st/oezIVC and pressing the bright green “Back This Project” button!

You can see an example of an interpretive singing performance by watching this music video we made, which was done completely in Russian Sign Language:

For Lauren, who gave my family watermelon seeds during her visit. We have been so excited to send this picture to you. My family misses you. I miss you. We want you to come again.

A leap for faith: before every namaz, Muslims preform Дәрет (dahret), a ritual ablution in order to purify themselves for prayers, reading the Koran, and other sacred acts. Dahret is usually done very calmly and thoughtfully with kettles and a wash basin, but when the weather was warmer Beibarus took advantage of our outdoor water tank to preform an all-at-once cleansing.

My friend Michael is visiting me en route to the USA. Here he is playing the dombra with my little sister Merei.

The schedule is a little bit different this year: due to the doubling in attendance in the first and second grades, we ran out of classrooms. The administration had no choice but to add on a second shift of classes.

As the new bell schedule depicts above, the first shift is 8:30am – 1:50pm and the second shift is 2:20pm – 7:30pm. What does this mean for the teachers? It means the same group of teachers double their hours at school, lose all of their afternoon planning time, and yet their teaching hours and pay stays the same. While it’s no joy for those teachers who live in the village, the few that commute in from Aktobe don’t have the choice to go home and come back between classes. They must stay here from 8:00am to 7:30pm, Monday through Saturday.

What was ironic for me was this new schedule was announced on Monday, September 5th, which was Labor Day in the USA, but certainly not here in Kazakhstan. I thought about our Labor Day long and hard. I thought about the American concept of the weekend, which has its roots in labor union attempts to accommodate Jewish workers who took Saturday instead of Sunday as their Sabbath. I thought about the Fair Labor Standards Act that regulates minimum wages and overtime pay for certain employees who work more than 40 hours in a work week. I thought about the United States Adamson Act, which in 1916 established an eight-hour day, with additional pay for overtime, for railroad workers.

I thought about the American workers’ right to organize, the right to have an eight-hour day, 40 hour work week, with Saturdays & Sundays off. I thought about all the work labor unions have done to give us this way of life in the USA, and that labor unions made my day.

The morning after Labor Day, I woke up around six to use the outhouse. My host dad caught me on the way back to the house and solicited me for some early morning harvesting of carrots and green beans. While I really wanted to go to bed, I’m glad I didn’t because I realized how the aroma of fresh carrot greens is one of my favorite smells in the world. I spend an hour squatting in our garden, talking with my host dad and eating baby carrots with dirt on them. When we were done, he loaded them in the van to take to the bazaar to be sold. It was a great way to start my 12-hour work day.

They talked about what “respect” and “disrespect” means, and how they see these two things manifest themselves in their lives.

I noticed while this discussion was happening how absurd it was when the young women would say things typically said by a pursuant male, such as “Hey beautiful, give me your number” and other normal, average jeers. In this moment, inspiration came: what would it sound like if young women were to say these things? In the final hour, I recorded all six young women giving their impromptu monologues. It was nothing short of mesmerizing to see not trained actors, not drama students, but these young women deliver such emotional, powerful performances without any preparation. The finally message of the PSA was Поставь себя на наше место – Put Yourself in Our Place. You can watch the final video below:

What made this day so extraordinary for me was that it happened organically, by that I mean the motivation and ideas came from the young women. They weren’t told what to do, they were asked what they thought. They led the direction of the sessions and I felt more like a facilitator than a teacher. It also taught me a great deal about myself; that I want to work with youth to produce media that makes people think, that promotes positive, progressive social change, while concurrently empowering the youth producing the media itself. I hope this is just the beginning of a future of media-oriented service work.