A stranger in a village...

Blog 31
November 7
Day 1 with my new host family :) My counter part seemed to want me out of her house pronto... I noticed quite a few signs indicating she anticipated my departure lol, or maybe that was me anticipating it ha. She had me up and out the door before 9 this morning. I'm not sure why I'm not feeling as welcomed and fussed over as PC makes us think we will be. This town seems either scared of me or completely dumbfounded by me. They just stare. They are plain people. Simple folk wondering why there is a white person in their village lol - I thought PC would at least warn them about a strange American foreigner being the volunteer :)
I moved in this morning to my new place. I'm not sure how I fit all of my stuff in the room I was given, and didn't realize that it was assumed I share a room with my 14 yr old host sister and the family computer. Neither of which are desirable to me. After awkward tension and misunderstandings - I successfully managed my own room and my laptop replacing the desktop comp. Though the walls are completely bare... I finally have a room with (something like) a chandelier! And my favorite part of the room is the cinnamon yankee candle scent.. (Thanks Jane!) I look forward to making my room more homey - maybe encourage some decoration here in Mambet.
I spent most of the earlier half of the day moving in. In the early afternoon my counterpart wanted me to go to a meeting. I wasn't sure what the meeting was going to be and am still not sure exactly what I took part in. The meeting was held in the Culture House. The akim (mayor) and some other big city officials - reminder this is barely a village - sat at a table on a stage and each one took a turn speaking about some very serious matter (a grim 45 minutes per person). The meeting lasted about two hours... but seemed much longer due to the less than perfect microphone system squeaking and blaring at random. I think the meeting was comparable to some kind of county meeting, if there is such a thing. After the meeting was a concert, again not your typical concert. It was sort of like a play/concert/performance. Different people from the village would sing or dance or play an instrument... all in traditional Kazakh dress, of course. I wish I had taken my camera - I wasn't expecting a show to follow the town meeting. I think I would have enjoyed the show much more if my ears weren't blown out by every performer lol. No, we do not need 5 microphones on each mouth... and if there are 5 microphones surrounding you, it is not necessary that you yell into them. I'm glad that I went though. This village, as small as it is, still puts together a performance, which is impressive. I'm not sure how often they do this, though.
Nothing else too special happened today. I had a banya - different style of banya. I'm looking forward to starting classes next week. I need to be busy, my mind wanders and sometimes I discourage my own self by useless thoughts that somehow turn into... well... something discouraging. I've had a whole extra week of idleness, plus tomorrow is demalus (the weekend). One day at a time. My next move is to buy a bicycle somewhere.