He starts this letter by saying he was without electricity for 18 days, but he spent a week of that time away visiting a friend. He says he is going to move to a warmer apartment and make a serious effort to get a phone. He’s thinking about how to get email; he will either buy it himself or try to get his school to buy it. He says the school probably should not get email because they do not have the money; they need chalk-boards more than email, and he would most likely be the only person using it. He also has the goal to get a piano once he moves into a new apartment.
He’s training people at his school on how to use the computer. He says it’s easy to give computer lessons, but difficult to give computer lessons in Russian. He’s being tutored in Russian twice a week. He talks about his town’s English Olympiad, which is a leftover academic competition from the Soviet era. He is teaching the English Teachers’ Association how to write to international organizations for books. Then, he plans on teaching how to write a grant for an English-Russian typewriter and copier machine that can be used to write worksheets and tests rather than writing them by hand.
He includes pictures of the day he was signed in as a volunteer from the summer in Kapchagay. One is with his host family, and the other is with his friends and their host mothers.
He starts this letter by saying he called them on the phone yesterday. They decided the day and time they would call each other every week. He writes about the cost of the phone call which leads him to talk about the prices of other products in Kazakhstan. He writes about the town he’s in, Kapchagay, the Soviet buildings, and the effect of the Soviets leaving the town seven years prior. He writes about the food he’s eaten, living with his host family, and learning Russian and Kazakh.
In this letter, he writes about the school he is teaching at. He describes the activities he has his students do, their diversity, his director, and the possibility of getting email set up for the school. He talks about how the water and electricity situation is going and describes how he does his laundry using a Soviet washing machine. He ends the letter by writing about problems his sitemate is having and the Peace Corps’ lack of involvement after stationing volunteers. The other side of this letter is a Peace Corps factsheet from May 1997 that he reused to print the letter on.
This is a printed email sent from the email address theoverlord@bc.almaty.kz. He says the address is probably temporary and he has to travel to a town 45 minutes away to use it. He discusses the prices of email and other ways he might be able to access it. His phone isn’t working because someone took his building’s telephone line. He tells them he received their package and asks for money. He writes about teaching, his schedule, students, and his director.
He sent this postcard to let his family know his friend will be in Minnesota and she might call his family and they should invite her over for dinner to hear about how he is doing. He ends the message with “I hope you enjoy this Soviet post card.”
This source is a 1969 letter from Carleton College President John William Nason to Carleton Student Association President, Stephen K. Melges. In the letter Nason responds to Melges regarding arguments pro the switch to co-ed housing on campus, and generally disapproves of the idea. The letter was sent to all members of the Committee on Social Policy.
Self-portrait by Frida Kahlo depicting the artist's spine as a broken column. The rest of her body is constrained by an orthopedic corset and covered in nails, and there are tears painted on the artist's face.
Chopin, another celebrated female writer from the late 19th century, writes in an unpublished poem about the "ecstacy of madness." She takes something used to oppress women, in this case: madness, and celebrates the freedom of it. Although this is not a well-known work, Chopin frequently used her status as a writer to speak about the oppression of women. This particular poem calls attention to the ways in which Chopin was celebrated for her acts of resistence to the dominant culture.
