So, What Is It That You Actually Do?

Instead of babbling inanely about Kazakh culture, for once I'll write about what, exactly, I am doing in Zhezkazgan.

Peace Corps in Kazakhstan currently maintains two programs: Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Organization and Community Assistance Program (OCAP). TEFL claims about twice as many volunteers as the OCAP program. In some ways it is a very simple program – they teach English! That does not mean it is not a big challenge and in truth it is not nearly that simple. The problems with the education system in Kazakhstan are, to be charitable, byzantine. In a school, a TEFL volunteer's task is not only to teach classes, but to train teachers. The ethical problems in schools are simply shocking, but the system is deeply engrained; each element of the system is so interconnected that it is extremely difficult to isolate and improve one area without disrupting the entire machine. It is also very difficult to be a maverick and try to implement something new when your ability to work effectively depends on personal relationships. I think I would have found life as a TEFL volunteer very frustrating and I probably would have firebombed a few too many bridges along the way. TEFL work is a long, slow process and admire those who can really get through to a group of teachers.

The OCAP program is very different. TEFL volunteers have a relatively steady flow of work. On this side of the fence, it can be feast-or-famine because each OCAP volunteer is in a very different situation. Some organizations are great and some organizations are not. Some are big and some are small. Some are busy and some are essentially vacant. That's the great thing and the terrifying thing about OCAP. There is a huge range of outcomes from our work -- so much is possible, yet it is also possible to accomplish nothing. We are community volunteers so although we are assigned to an organization, we are not chained to them and we can leave if there is no work. At least, I could because I live in a city and there are many NGOs. Village volunteers have fewer options.

In Zhezkazgan, I have been assigned to two NGOs: a health organization and another organization that is nominally ecological, but currently suffers from an identity crisis. Both are quite small and both are very different. The health NGO has an established track record and full-time employees. At the moment, we are trying to find funding for an oncology seminar for about 30 local family physicians – in Kazakhstan, doctors are not prestigious and the standard of practice is not the best. In Damu-Ulytau, the organization is the project; they are ambitious and passionate but inexperienced and unrealistic. I am planning to facilitate a project-planning and NGO management seminar to improve our organizational capacity. If the long process of building an NGO is a marathon then, essentially, my director is a pure sprinter.

Sometimes work is easy and sometimes it is a big challenge. There's nothing better than a good Russian-language strategic/philosophic argument on organizational strategy. Needless to say, it is easy for things to get lost in translation – or at least lost in the wild jungle of Russian case endings and verb aspect. In the grand scheme of things in PC-Kazakhstan, I have a good situation. I am working with two organizations who are active and who care. An apathetic organization is the kiss of death, but if there is motivation, progress can be made, no matter how grim the situation may appear. It is a process and that is why we are here for two years.