Site Visit

October 21-26, 2007

Well, despite my worries and my less than auspicious arrival, things went extremely well in Kyzylorda, and I believe that I can safely say that I like it even move than I like Almaty. Far from being the shit-hole surrounded by desert that everyone told me to expect, everything I saw was better than I could have even imagined. The people I have met have been super nice, my classes have gone well, and the town is just the right size; I felt right at home.
For being such a small town, everything seemed to move really fast. As mentioned earlier, I did not have the most spectacular arrival. I came down with a sinus infection during counterpart conference, I think this one was caught from a friend though, and between that and a 23 hour train ride I looked like hell when we finally got there. Furthermore, I was extremely disoriented and so it took me a solid day and a half to get my bearings. Being picked up and rapidly whisked different places to meet different people as soon as I go there did not help things either. Still, the teachers did a great job of making me feel settled and at home. I was introduced to everyone else in my department, all of whom were very nice, and I also met the director and vice-director of the school. I also met a few other faculty members, including my future Kazak teacher, a very young and severe looking woman, who does not speak a word of English. Language classes will certainly be interesting over the next couple of years.
The college that I will work with in Kyzylorda is very nice. It is not the nicest looking school, but it has nice stone floors that remind me of a castle or cave, and I’m sure it helps keep the school cool in the hot summer. The school also has a lot of technology and actually uses it. One of the lessons I observed was in the computer lab where the students were using a testing program. My counterpart even has a computer in her room, although she does not know how to use excel and powerpoint yet. Furthermore, the students at the college are amazing. The fourth years, the students that I will be working with the most, speak excellent English, so I will only really have to focus on refining their pronunciation and make them more comfortable speaking without preparation.
As a part of the practicum, I taught two classes at the school, dialogues about going out to lunch. Both of the lessons went really well, the students all nailed the P1 and P2 activities, and I received several good dialogues as a part of P3. I also observed three lessons from other teachers, and was impressed by what I saw. Most English teachers in Kazakhstan teach the lesson in primarily Russian or Kazak, rather than English, but the teachers I worked with generally only lapsed into Russian or Kazak to explain the meaning of a word if the students were having trouble understanding the concept.
My week in Kyzylorda was not all school and introductions though. Wednesday was Republic Day, the day that Kazakhstan ratified its constitution and officially became a full country. It was a very fun day, and I had the opportunity to take part in several iKazakhstan celebratory traditions. On Wednesday, my counterpart and I went to a concert celebrating the history and culture of Kazakhstan, and then on Thursday morning, Chris and I went to watch horse racing and wrestling with our counterparts. I was a little disappointed that it was not Kokpar, the national sport that is a combination of rugby and polo, and is played with the torso of a dead goat, but we still had a good time.
I think part of the reason I liked Kyzylorda so much was that I went with such low expectations, but even still, I think that I will have a great next two years. For better or worse, Kyzylorda reminds me a lot of Greensboro and Waco, albeit much flatter and sandier. True there aren’t a whole lot of museums or historical sites, and the architecture is not striking, but Kyzylorda has everything you need, and it is not ugly by any means. I might change my tune about my ne home come the summer time, but for the time being, I no longer feel so much that I have been exiled to the gulag.