(BLOG 5) The many days of the week
This week has been all over the map. I've been spending a lot of time learning Russian – anywhere from 4 to 6 hours per day in the classroom, plus home study. Everyday is long because if I'm not studying Russian, I'm getting shot up full of preventative viruses (today I received my 7th and 8th shot of the week) or I'm learning about the Kazakhstani educational system (a real treat, as I'm sure you can imagine). My host family continues to be fabulously awesome. My ability to actually post these blog entries has been frustratingly futile. One day they will get their chance to shine in cyber-space, but I can't say when that day will be…
Today I got to see Matt for the first time in a week, which was wonderful. We're both handling the separation well now, but just being near each other is a bit of bliss. We had a HUB day today, which is a day when all the trainees meet back together for a joint training session. To clarify, there re 5 towns where trainees are placed – Almaty (where I am) and four villages surrounding Almaty. We don't see anyone except the people in our training group all week long (there are only 5 people in mine), which means HUB days are hugely anticipated by everyone as a chance to mingle with some different folk for a while. I just wanted to mingle with Matt, but I did get a few other conversations in.
Today when I came home from training, my host mom and sister were just pulling up with a car full of groceries – including a live sheep. Tomorrow is my host-mom's birthday and she is preparing a big party that will be held Monday night. In Kazakh culture, it is the honoree of the birthday party who actually holds it. They make all the preparations and they feed all their guests. My host mom will be turning 50, which is a special age just like in the U.S., so this party will be especially elaborate, hence the sheep, which is expensive.
I'd never seen an animal butchered before, so even though I was a little wary of how I would handle it, I wanted to watch and take some pictures for posterity. Surprisingly, I wasn't bothered by the actual killing so much at all. Before my host-uncle slit the sheep's throat, he, host-mom and host-sister all said some verses from the Koran (it looked like they were praying, but Nuriya told me they were reciting the Koran). This gave me a sense of peace about the animal because I felt like the family was respecting the life they were taking. Uncle held the animal's head over a bowl and slit it's throat very quick, then let it bleed. Not even the blood coming out freaked me out – it all just looked natural and simple and the animal didn't seem to suffer.
To make a long story short, I had sheep liver and potatoes for dinner tonight and it was very tasty.
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