SaigonNezumi.com

Here are recent pictures of my Kazakh host family.  I think they are aging very well…

Orazimbetovs in 1999

Orazimbetovs in 2010 (Aizhan, my host sister, in center)

I was going through my image folders from a backup I made nearly 4 years ago when I found some pictures I thought were lost.  They sure brought back some memories.

Back in the Summer of 2001, I was interviewed by a television crew from STV, one of the leading television companies in Turkey.  The television crew interviewed roughly 30 Americans for broadcasting with Yeni Hayatlar (New Lives) during the 2001 Ramadan month in Turkey and the Turkish speaking world.  My story was quite interesting for them for my experiences with Islam and the Muslim communities in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic (See my website Salaam Central Asia to learn about my experiences in Turkey and Central Asia).

The interview went very well but I was not able to see a finished clip until December, 2001.  I forgot about it until I met with Fetullah Gulen and his community in Pennsylvania on my way to Istanbul.  I remembered that he told me that I looked different in person (he had already seen my program on STV via satellite).  I had no idea what he meant until I arrived into Istanbul a couple days later.

During an advertisement for Yeni Hayatlar, I saw a ‘fat’ looking, umm, me on TV.  Oh my God, nobody realized that interviewing me outside in very humid conditions, sweating profusing to boot, would, umm, make me look fat.  The footage inside my apartment, I looked normal, but outside, oh my God!!!

Anyway, the series was a success and books are still being sold in Turkey.  I still get occassional emails from Kazakhstan from Central Asians who saw me on STV.  Finding me at SaigonNezumi.com kind of boggles them, I am not like the guy STV portrayed me as being very religious and spiritual.  For me that is funny since I do not consider myself religious at all, though I am very spiritual

So have at it, here are my ‘fat’ pictures:

Below is a picture of my former student, Daniyar, from Kazakhstan where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1997-1999.  Looking at the picture of the mountain in the background makes me miss Kazakhstan.  Kazakhstan is a very beautiful country.  I plan to make a business trip there in the next year, if possible, to meet my other student, Alpamys.

At the end of the month, a former Peace Corps Volunteer from Karatau, Kazakhstan, my Peace Corps site, will visit Vietnam.

I fell in love with Uzbek music when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan.  My Peace Corps site, Karatau, was only a couple hours from the border with Uzbekistan.  There was a strong Uzbek influence in southern Kazakhstan.

Thanks to YouTube, I have been able to watch Uzbek music videos again.  I really missed them.  Below is a nice Uzbek song sung by Shahzoda, a famous Uzbek pop singer.  Oddly enough, I find myself listening to more Uzbek and Kazakh songs here in Vietnam than Vietnamese songs.  Explains why I cannot learn Vietnamese

I mentioned about this book, Where There Is No Doctor, in my blog post yesterday. This is probably one of the most useful books I ever used in my life so far. I had to give my copy back to the Peace Corps after I COS (Close of Service) back n July, 1999. During my two year service in Kazakhstan, I think I read this book in it’s entirely every month that I volunteered there.

The book came in handy during my last months in Karatau, Kazakhstan, my Peace Corps site. I was outside my room trying to fix a broken window. All of a sudden, part of the broken glass pane fell on my left hand. It was bleeding quite heavily. I remember my host sister, Gulzhan, freaking out which is something Kazakhs never do. Luckily for me, since I read the book over and over again, I remained calm, opened the book on serious cuts, and proceeded to care for my injury. Actually, I should have read more carefully, at the part where it mentioned about disinfecting and cleaning the wound, I then stopped and disinfected my cut with rubbing alcohol. I went back to the book and the next line mentioned NOT to use rubbing alcohol since it will create a scar. If you all look at my left hand today, You will see a one inch white scar. Whoops

Overall, even in Vietnam, I think this is an excellent book to have. You can purchase it at the Hesperian Foundation website or download it for free from their website as well: http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download_wtnd.php. If you can afford it, I recommend buying a copy to support the efforts of this nonprofit organization.

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in translating this book into Vietnamese?

Edited: Sorry, I guess the book has already been translated into Vietnamese:

http://www.hesperian.org/publications_translation_detail.php?$selectedLanguage=Vietnamese

It does not seem available in Vietnam yet.