March 22nd is the Kazakh New Year, celebrated on the equinox and known locally as Nauryz. It may seem strange to us westerners, but at least it has some basis in astronomy. Before the Gregorian calendar took over, the Brits and their colonies also celebrated the New Year in March until 1752.

The best place to celebrate Nauryz is in Shymkent, and the Peace Corps is kind enough to schedule a week long training in nearby Almaty immediately after Nauryz. Hence, I was able to take 2.5 weeks of away from my site without dipping into the 48 days of vacation that all Peace Corps Volunteers are allotted.

The journey began with a 13 hour train ride from Zhezkazgan (A) to Karaganda (B) and then a short bus ride to another volunteers village. Seeing village life was really neat for us city slickers and was made more special by Katie organizing a cross country skiing outing for us.

After a night in the village (yes I used the outhouse in the middle of the night), we hopped aboard a 19 hour train to Shymkent (C). There, the Shymkent volunteers had graciously organized housing and a range of activities for the 30 or so volunteers who made the trek. We got to see the holiest site in Kazakhstan, the Mausoluem of Khoja Ahamed Yasawai in Turkestan (D) but by far the highlight of the trip were the Nauryz celebrations in Shymkent where we watched көкпар and қыз куу. Seeing the Kazakhs flaunt some of their culture, enjoying t-shirt and shorts weather, hanging out with other volunteers, and getting some free food to boot made it a great day.

From Shymkent, I took a 14 hour train to Almaty and then a bus to my training village (E). I got to see my previous host family, who once again treated me with much more hospitality than anybody deserves. Aside from giving me lots of great food, they took me ice skating, to billiards, and to the banya, paying for everything. Finally, when they took Brad and me to karaoke in Almaty, I decided enough was enough and sneaked out to pay before they could. Unfortunately nobody at the karaoke club spoke Kazakh, but I was still able to successfully communicate in my abysmal Russian that I wanted to pay so that they couldn't. Great success!

The trip ended with 3 days of In-Service training and 2 days of HIV/AIDS education training with the Peace Corps in Almaty (F). Seeing all of the Kaz-22s again was an absolute blast, and the 29 hour train ride back to Zhezkazgan gave the other volunteers and me plenty of time to brainstorm ideas for a men's development camp sometime this summer.