So there have been a lot of questions about mailing me things and how that whole process works.  I’m not going to lie…I’m a little confused about the whole thing as well but I will pass onto you whatever information I know and I’m sure that over the next two years we can figure out this conundrum together.

So to send things to my village (which will soon be how I ask all of my boxes to be sent) you must send it to this address.  And yes, you must write both the English and the Kazakh for the address (otherwise it can’t get out of the states and it can’t be understood here).  Also, please write my phone number on the letter/package so that when it comes into town they can call me telling me that I have something waiting for me.

Emily Jones                                                   Эмили Джоунс

Kobda 6                                                         Кобда 6

Aktobe Oblast, Kobda Village, Kobda         Актөбе Обласы, Кобда ауданы, Кобда ауылы

Kazakhstan 031000                                       Қазақстан 031000

The best thing is to simply copy and paste this address and then print out a version you can glue to an envelope.  The Kazakh script can be difficult to decifer and there are a lot of hidden hooks and things if you are not careful.  This way everything will get where it needs to go.

If you have big packages or packages containing expensive things that you want to make sure absolutely get to me you should sent them to the address of a volunteer in the city.  The problem with this is I don’t go to the city often and I don’t want to inconvience them with all of my packages.  But here is the address for that:

Emily Jones                Эимли Джоунс

Glavpochtamt             Главпочтамт

PO Box 15                 а/я 15

Aktobe, Kazakhstan   Актөбе, Қазақстан

030000                       030000

A lot of times customs will open boxes at random (esp ones coming from the states) and often times volunteers will find that there are things missing from these boxes.  Meaning if you are sending anything expensive (but small, for example, flash disks) volunteers recommend wrapping them in something and hiding it as much as possible.  Also, including a list of what you are sending helps as well.

I appreciate everyone who has asked about this and I really hope that this helps.  I can’t wait to hear from you all!