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My student in Kazakhstan
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From August 2006 to October 2008, I lived and worked in Kazakhstan as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Over those two years, I met quite a few incredible locals. This is the story of one such character.
Meruert was in the 10th grade when I first arrived in Kazakhstan. I remember vividly the first day I stepped into her class. It was in a different building, set aside from the main school, where everything seemed much drabber and likely to immediately fall apart. As we approached the classroom, my colleague and mentor Lida, with whom I would teach the class, warned me that this class was quite talkative.
Indeed, Meruert’s class was full of loud inquisitive girls. The class consisted of 18 girls and one lone guy. I immediately felt bad for this luckless lad who good-naturedly bore brunt of the girls’ relentless teasing. Still, the class quickly became my favorite for their unabashed 
interest in English and their decidedly enthusiastic manners. Of all the students in the class, Meruert stood out as one of the brightest talents.
At first, I was slow to notice Meruert due to the other girls who suddenly increased their participation level once I became their teacher. However, once I had graded a few tests and heard a few oral responses, I realized that I was lucky enough to have a truly excellent student.
In preparation for a citywide language competition, I began tutoring Meruert after classes. When she won the competition, I had my first experience of pride in a pupil. My work had helped somebody and I felt rewarded by her success. A year later I prepared her again for a second competition. While she failed to win the first place, she came in second and I still couldn’t have been more proud.
During my second year in Kazakhstan, which coincided with her final year of high school, I held conversational classes with Meruert. By the end of the year, she could talk easily with the other Peace Corps Volunteers and European travelers who sometimes slept on my couch. Before my eyes, she had turned from a shy reticent girl into a young woman with unparalleled confidence.
As her graduation approached, I asked her when she really started to learn English. At the time, I had been her teacher for a little over a year and a half. She thought about the question for a few seconds before responding, “right about when you came here.” As a teacher, I could have died happy in that moment.
After she graduated, she moved to Almaty to study English and other foreign languages at a university. I saw her briefly before I flew home for the final time in October of 2008. This 
time she was no longer my student and I was no longer her teacher. I insisted that she drop the “mister” before my name. In a way, it was strange seeing her in a different place and time, when our time in Turkestan was finished and I’d soon be gone forever.
As I started to write this post about Meruert, I scanned my photo library for pictures of her. Not only are pictures great in blogs, but also they help me remember events, feelings, and people. To my great sorrow, I realized that I had but four pictures of Meruert, none being of high quality. In her own modesty, she systematically refused to be photographed, an aspect which I greatly object to. As my memory fades, only those four pictures bear witness to my truly exceptional student.
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