So the time has finally come to move out of Panfilova (my training site) and to get ready to move to our actual sites. Our schedule for the week is super busy. Monday and Tuesday were spent packing and buying last minute objects. Wednesday we move from the village to a hotel in Almaty where we will spend a few days debriefing and meeting our counterparts. Our counterpart is the local teacher we will be working with directly for the next two years. We will team teach classes together as well as they will be our go-to person when it comes to language and culture. Peace Corps adopted the team teaching method a number of years back to increase the sustainability of the education program. So Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will be spent training and getting to know our counterparts. Then Saturday morning we are sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers and then (most likely) I will have to board a train that evening for Aktobe. Then for the next two days me, my counterpart, and the other volunteers (plus their counterparts) will be on a train heading for our new homes. Just as a quick reminder the people from my training site who will be on the train with me are Jon, AK, Alex, and Alisha. We will also be joined by about 7-10 other volunteers who have been training in other villages around Almaty. Its going to be a crazy two days on the train.

I’m sad to leave Panfilova. Though I had some difficulties in the middle of my stay here (mostly exhaustion and inability to communicate) the last two or three weeks here have been amazing and I really feel like my presence will be missed here. I saw concrete results with my students, my host mom and I are talking a lot more now, and I finally am beginning to figure out how to get around using the bus system here. All of that will go back to square one in a few days as I have to navigate a new town and a new host family. Winter is also about to kick in for reals which will mean that I will have a lot less opportunities to be out and about (because it starts getting dark here around 5-6 and you do not want to be outside when it is dark).

You have no idea how comforting it is to feel like a site has become home. On countless occasions on reaching Panfilova by bus I have a sigh of relief that I am “home”. I know this village and its always good to return to a place you know. My language is also taking a upward bound and tonight I had a really awesome conversation with my host mom. It was one of those things that you can just feel proud about and I really do feel proud that I held my own. I communicated independent and slightly complex thought but the biggest thing is that I answered all of her questions when she asked them. Usually I have to ask her to repeat a question or I just shake my head like I understand even though I don’t but tonight I was answering her question and telling her about what I’ve been up to. Though sometimes I simplify a story so that I can communicate I have gotten a lot better at telling my host family what I need and why I need it. Or where I go and what I did and who I went with. Things like that. And to think, three months ago I was saying “hello” incorrectly and tonight I explained what I did yesterday and what my plans are for tomorrow.

I don’t know when I’m going to have another opportunity to post a blog or to check email. I know for the few days that I’m at the hotel, getting to the internet is going to be difficult. And then once I get to site I probably will not have enough time to go looking for the internet. Besides, it took me nearly 3 weeks to find the internet café here in Panfilova and it was directly across the street from my house so it may take longer in Kobda. So expect another 2 weeks of silence from me. I will say this though–I will try to get online and post my new mailing address as soon as possible so that you can begin sending me letters and packages again. I have been touched with the mail that I have gotten and love the surprise of getting mail.

But I’m sure that when I do return to the land of internet again I will have plenty of crazy stories and hopefully a few photos to share! Thank you for all of your thoughts, messages, and prayers! They mean a lot to me!

Emily