Hello all!!!! As always I have to write in haste, but I would like to let everyone know where I am and what I am doing. I am in a city in north-eastern Kazakstan called Karaganda. It is an old coal/concentration camp town first built in 1926. It is actually pretty pleasant in the part of town where we live, but still very Soviet in appearence and orientation. Our apartment is located on the main drag in town and was built by Japanese POWs within a year or so after the end of WWII. It is a little run down, but still quite nice as most apartments built during this time period are compared to those that were built later in the Soviet Period. It is the biggest place I personally have ever had on my own. And best of all, I got the master bedroom with the queen size bed!!!! My roommate and I flipped a coin and I won(eat your heart out Joe!!!!!)!
Concerning my work here, my friend and I will be teaching English and helping a local businessman start a cafe/bistro/discotech/gym place. It may seem like a strange combination, but I think it has a lot of potential if we can get folks out to the location (it is located in a small suburb outside of Karaganda that is accessable, but not a place many people go to unless they work at the large chicken factory in town that provides the whole region with eggs).
Concerning my impressions of life here, I like it. The people here are far friendlier in general and to foreigners in particular than Moscovites. The inability to get stuff is a great hassle at times and expecially frustrating for the business. There are so many simple things that we take for granted in the States. Take ice for instance. Here they don't use a lot of ice. That is fine and dandy or course. But say you have things in your resturant that call for ice. Your first inclination would be to ship an ice machine to your establishment. That is an easy process if you have the funds (and our boss has very deep pockets for a guy in this part of the world), but then you have the water. Generally, it is not the best idea in the world to just drink water that has not been boiled over here. How do you do that to the large quantities of water you are running in your ice machine? These sorts of headaches are legion over here.
And so, we continue to strive to make with what we have. In my next blog, I will talk a bit about the spiritual situation in this area. Until then, trying not to poison my customers with bad water in the wild wild east....