30 September 2008

Yikes!

14:00 30 September 2008

I just had one of the more wild experiences, and something that I somewhat hope not to repeat. It began when I got to school Monday morning and was informed that the rest of the week’s classes were cancelled to allow students to assist their families in harvesting potatoes. That was a surprise but not totally unexpected because we had heard stuff like this will happen all the time. However, there were still supposed to be classes that day. I went home for lunch after teaching a few classes and was told that the male teachers at my school wanted to get acquainted with me and were having a get-together after school and that I should be there. When I returned to the school, I found out that the rest of the classes were cancelled and that the male teachers were waiting for me in the shop room.

I was a little sketched out at this point- I expected that I would be pressured to drink, but up to the point I had pretty successfully resisted it for the most part and partook only when I wanted. Honestly, I was pretty much inducted into a fraternity last night, the festivities went on for a very long time and I became inebriated past the point of comfort for me. The shop teacher even had a wooden sword that some kid had made and I was worried that it would turn into a fraternity paddle- thank goodness this never proved true. The party started with them informing me that because there were so few of them, the men that work at the school have a very special bond and that I was to become one of their very good friends. Apparently, get-togethers like the one yesterday afternoon happen once a quarter, and they call themselves “Наш Коллэктив” “Our Collective”- apparently they take turns buying drinks for one another at these events. My downhill slide started out fine when we went to the store (obviously as a new member I was first to pay- but I didn’t mind given the extremely inexpensive nature of alcohol here). I told them I didn’t want to drink vodka and so I got some beer to drink instead in addition to the two bottles of vodka we bought. Everything started fine, there was a lot of toasting to me and to manhood and eventually my beer was gone and there was only a little vodka left- I figured the party was winding down so I gave in when they asked me to drink one shot. This was my first mistake.

As soon as the little bit of vodka was gone another teacher ran out to pick up more. I then realized that this party was far from over and then I had set a precedent that would be difficult to live down. This held true as the third bottle of vodka led to the fourth and I became increasingly drunk. Nothing particular bad happened, I handled my liquor well and while I am sure my language skills suffered somewhat, my camaraderie with my fellow teachers rose and they even gave me a pen that had come with the vodka which they engraved with “To Jonathan from us men” and the date in Russian. This is something that I will certainly hold dear. As the hours wore on, I finally, after several failed attempts, I was allowed to go home and I somehow managed to make it without incident- there I immediately fell into bed and slept from six o’ clock at night until this morning. While it is great to have new friends, I hope my attempts to curb my consumption are more successful in the future, while nothing bad happened this time, it can be a dangerous state to be in and I don’t want to repeat it.

Unrelated, but entertaining to me is the various ethnicities people have thought I was. I believe I look relatively “American”- whatever that means, but recently I have gotten a number of odd guesses. English was the first which isn’t so odd- but it was funny how unconvinced he was when I said I was American, he really believed that I had been English. Second was Belgium, which surprised me because of how small the country is and, in my mind, its lack of defining appearance. Third, and most odd to me, was Turkish when someone started speaking to me in Turkish, then paused when I didn’t understand and asked in Russian, “You’re Turkish, aren’t you?”. Most recently, rather then getting “Helloed” in the street, I got “Guten Taged” so I have to assume they believed I was German, not too far off, though still amusing to me.

Trekkin' Pics







Beautiful mountains, fun times with friends, and a gorgeous long exposure of the stars!

Trekkin'!

09:00 30 September 2008

I had a wonderful weekend! I traveled into Karakol, one of the larger cities in the oblast, to see friends and then go for two-day backpacking trip. The first night there was really nice, I made macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes for dinner with three other volunteers at their flat. It was really nice to lounge around and eat (vaguely) American food- the salad was made with cabbage as lettuce is next to nonexistent here- and speak English and therefore have a more advanced conversation than I am normally able to. After dinner and shopping for food for the trip, two of the volunteers left and I stayed with the other for the night and got to bed early in preparation for our early rising.

The next morning we rose and gathered to the meeting place complete with all our gear- of course this solicited even more than the usual stares. The trip was originally to pick up trash on the trail and was therefore a free expedition with a Community Based Tourism office. However, the trip ended up being during potato harvesting time so the Kyrgyz nationals slated to go couldn’t- they ended up deciding to do the trip anyway but just as a trek. It was interesting to meet the other people on the trip, there was a Slovenian couple that had traveled from Slovenia all the way here without the use of air transit, they sailed the Mediterranean and then had been traveling over land through Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia- what a cool way to travel. There was also a bunch of volunteers of course, both Peace Corps and JICA, and a British couple that had a relationship with Aigalu, one of the guides and had been to Kyrgyzstan four times.

The trip started off interestingly enough in an old Soviet military truck. We spent over an hour in it crawling our way into the mountains, it was a pretty spectacular ride, and the truck did some things that I was impressed by, the road was extremely uneven, steep, and filled with rocks, and we passengers got tossed around a bunch. The highlight was probably either when we crossed the river on a bridge about as wide as the truck and extremely rickety, or when viewing the road ahead, the driver decided to take a different path which had us at an about 30 degree horizontal incline- I never thought I would have to “get on the high-side” of a truck. Regardless, we all survived and made it to a beautiful spot in the valley where we commenced our trek.

The going was not terribly difficult at first, we continued on the road that the truck had gone on, and while it was impressive in a vehicle, on foot it was quite easy. We then stopped for lunch and encountered a solo British trekker that had just been to the opposite side of the valley from where we were going, we invited him to come along with us, and as he had no specific plans on what to do next, he obliged. Later we crossed the stream again to make our ascent along a valley lined by impressive ridges on both sides. This part was significantly harder, it was very steep for a very long time, I would estimate we gained around 3,000 feet or so. Though each foot we gained, the view became more and more spectacular- the hope the photos can convey even a miniscule portion of the glory. It was just really nice to finally get to see the natural beauty of Kyrgyzstan that I had kept hearing about but had only experienced at a distance.

Once we got to camp-it was a pretty short hike, we set down and began to collect firewood for the evening, it had already gotten pretty chilly there. Once it was started and we had eaten dinner, we commenced to sit around the fire for approximately five hours; it was great to get to know each other. Luka, the male half of the Slovenian couple, said something that I had never really considered before but is absolutely true- while the majestic beauty of nature is certainly a wonderful reason to go backpacking, often times it is the interesting people and connections you make that are the best parts. This was certainly true in this case- the people that I would have never met were really interesting and I hope to keep in touch with them.

The next morning most of the PCVs had to return for work the next day but the rest of the expedition was continuing on for two more nights and to an apparently gorgeous lake. We said our goodbyes to our new friends and made the long trip down towards the valley (we had to cover the ground we had done the day before plus what the truck had taken us on) and we were very tired by the end of the trek. Lastly, I needed to use internet and went to a café before heading back home to my village. What a successful weekend!

28 September 2008

Pictures Galore!





A painting of a KG's flag on a hill, pictures of beautiful Lake Issyk-Kul, a picture of my new host mom, and pictures of my new host nieces.

Kyrgyz Kanines





A sampling of the fine (and not so fine) canines in Kyrgyzstan. Most dogs here are awful... but there are exceptions. Two of these dogs hated me and wanted to eat my face, but the other two dogs were really friendly and I pet them- can you guess which are which?

Sad things/happy things

08:15 26 September 2008

My host sister’s husband and her eldest child (the five year old who adores me) came back yesterday and it has been nice having them around. Alkeera, the daughter, is fun to play with and the dad is really nice. Unfortunately, they had to come for rather depressing reasons, my host mother’s brother in law died unexpectedly two days ago and there has been a lot to do with those proceedings. My host mother has also been in lower spirits than her usual self for obvious reasons (In Kyrgyz culture, responding to a “how are you?” is usually an automatic “good/great/excellent” so I knew that my mother was truly upset when she replied with “good, well actually, not very good”. While I wasn’t invited to the funeral, I expressed my condolences the best I could and have been trying to be sensitive to their grief.

On a more upbeat note, yesterday I had my first solo teaching experience and I think that it went rather well. I taught two sections of the 5th form and much as students in America are, they were somewhat excited to have an alternate teacher. My teaching methods differ significantly from my counterpart, so when we teach together it is a compromise, but in her absence I was able to play language games and do other such “fun” ways of learning English that I hope will motivate the kids more than memorizing and translating text.

The reason for my counterpart’s absence that afternoon, ironically enough, was because she was at home preparing for me to come guesting that evening. After school I spent some time with Saori and Cueyller, a JICA volunteer and a fellow PCV that had come into my village for a bit and then trundled over to my counterpart’s house. The food was great, jams, cold salats, and a main course of a Kyrgyz tortellini soup, and the company was interesting, despite the fact that they spoke almost exclusively Kyrgyz the whole time. It was also interesting to see the social dynamics at play- while I was an honored guest, my position was easily trumped by an “oksalkal” (literally translates to “white beard” but signifies any Kyrgyz elder) and his wife. As soon as they entered, the entire table rose to greet them, and everyone shifted their seats to allow them the head of the table. It was interesting to see the shuffle of dishes and silverware as everyone adjusted to their presence. It’s been nice since the last weeks have been Orzo (Kyrgyz Ramadan) so the usual pressure to drink has been non-existent. After a few hours of eating and conversing, I was given a ride home. It was actually one of the best guesting experiences I have had so far.

Guesting and other delights

21:00 24 September 2008

My first days as an English teacher have been overall a big success. While I was supposed to have an observation period of two weeks, my counterpart asked me today if I felt ready and I said that I did, the result was that today I team-taught for the first time and that tomorrow I will be teaching two classes by myself. I am teaching nineteen classes a week with various forms (grades). My youngest students are fifth formers (about 10 or 11 years old) and my oldest are tenth formers (about 15 or 16 years old). Each class started with several minutes where they could play “Ask the American” where I got a wide variety of questions, of course the typical ones about my family and marital status, but also such interesting ones as the languages I knew, whether America was “clean” and what kind of problems we have in American (I answered with childhood obesity and hurricanes). It’s really adorable as the kids address me with their specially accented version of “Mister Jonathan”.

Today I went guesting at a student’s house. She is a tenth former and has been friends with a lot of the volunteers in the region. She really wanted to host a volunteer and apparently there was going to be another volunteer in my village at her house, but P.C. changed their minds at the last minute. It’s funny, because she kept subtly implying that I should leave my host family and move in with them. While I love my host family now, I have to admit- having a legit laundry machine would be really nice. I don’t have any plans of moving though.

When I leave Egypt I will bring... some things to do.

08:00 22 September 2008

Well, the last two days have been very interesting for me in terms of what my service is going to be like. My classes got cancelled on Saturday so I didn’t have anything officially to do that day- this was a warning sign to me that I need to have other projects to do to keep myself occupied. I still have a lot of unpacking to do, and I want to start studying Russian solitary, but having just come out of PST I found my motivation low. Also, it was one of the worst days in terms of power, we only had electricity for a total of three hours during the day. That ruled out movies, computer games, or writing emails to pass the time. I ended up just sitting around far more than I would have liked to do, the highlight of my day was an hour and a half walk to the bazaar and the park to get some fresh air. All things told though, I was really bored and I realize how difficult the winter, depending on whether or not we will have classes, will be. As I said before, in order to ward off the inevitable boredom that will come with not-working and unpleasant outdoor conditions, I will need to have a variety of things that don’t depend on electricity to do. Of course, continuing my work on Russian and picking up Kyrgyz will be a goal of mine, but I think I need to have other more creative projects I can work on that won’t tax my patience. If anybody has any experience in this department, I’d love to hear what kind of ideas you have that would help me- guesting is okay but until I become fluent in the languages (which is a ways off) I can’t properly entertain myself with mere conversation. 

Yesterday, on the other hand, was an example of how relaxing and entertaining village life could be. It also showed how the language and cultural barrier makes a huge difference in your interactions. I organized a lunch at a café in my village so one volunteer who is more remote than I am could meet other volunteers from our area. Everyone was on Kyrgyz time (half an hour to an hour late) but it was an enjoyable event and it was nice to be able to converse fluently in English. We stayed a long time at the café chatting and then after most of the volunteers had left, I hung out with the two JICA volunteers that live in my village until another volunteer who was returning from Bishkek stopped by. While obviously my goals here aren’t about having a good time with other volunteers, and my budget wouldn’t support that on a daily basis, I will certainly need to see other expatriates at least a few times a month in order to keep my mental health intact. It’s wonderful to interact with my host family, and I had a long two hour conversation with them when I got home, but there’s something about the shared experience of being a long way from home that creates an uncommon bond across volunteers, regardless of their nationality. Even with the Japanese volunteer that speaks less English, we all are in a very different culture from home learning to adapt to a new culture, missing home, a different climate, and new food (or perhaps the more difficult adaptation is to the lack of variety) and we can understand each other in a way that host country nationals can not. 

Anyhow, this wasn’t supposed to be a downer entry, I’m actually in a really good mood after yesterday and I’m really looking forward to getting my classes today. No doubt the village life with its often isolating moments- internet here is going to be much more difficult to procure- will be difficult at times, but I also anticipate it having a fair number of rewards as well. And with that, I need to get ready.

To site!

13:15 20 September 2008

As I said in the last entry, I was supposed to have my first classes tomorrow. Unfortunately, my counterpart was sick this morning and so she cancelled her classes today. Normally, I would be expected to fill in and teach by myself, but the first two weeks of my classes are supposed to be primarily observation-based and allow myself to ease into the classroom environment. With my classes cancelled, I had a free day with nothing in particular to do. I also realized how big a problem boredom will be during my service. I have been here less than a day and while I have plenty to do (my room is a mess and I haven’t finished unpacking yet) I find myself wanting for a direct purpose. I think I don’t do well being idle, and having mandatory classes to teach and attend really gives me direction. This will be a problem in the winter time as we will likely not have classes for up to two or three months and I will have to find projects to occupy my time. The lack of electricity is not going to make that any easier.

Following up on yesterday’s news, after the swearing in ceremony we had a reception at the Ambassador’s house. The house was beautiful, it was huge and I glimpsed the indoor pool and sauna while trying to find the restroom (flush toilets!). However, the highlight was not the architecture but the food. For the first time in country, I ate true, 100% real American food. Never mind that it was Doritos, microwave pizza, sandwiches with Kraft singles, salsa and tortilla chips- it tasted like heaven. The newly sworn in volunteers descended upon the food like locusts, it must have been a disgusting sight for the Embassy staff- we got asked when the last time we had eaten was and replied with “about an hour and a half ago” much to their bewilderment. Regardless, it was an intense food frenzy and the pizzas in particular didn’t last more than 10 seconds when they hit the table, sometimes they were gone before they could even reach their destination. Wow, we really must have been a sight and I wonder if the embassy employees could understand our situations fully. 

After the reception, we headed back to the Issyk-Kul hotel for the evening, of course being that it was the last night we would see each other for months, we celebrated and everyone including our oldest volunteers joined in the festivities. It was good times, but as they always do, they ended and we had to depart the next morning. Again, I rode with a Pat, a volunteer that is about 25 minutes away by taxi and the ride seemed faster this time. I am about 6 hours from Bishkek, but the drive is so pretty that it tends to fly by. I got to site in the early afternoon and was greeted by my eldest sister and her two youngest daughters, the eldest is back in Bishkek with my host brother-in-law. My host family seems more observant of Islam than most Kyrgyz- my host sister is fasting for Ramadan. I thought this would be slightly awkward if I ate, but she assured me wholeheartedly that it was okay if I ate. I was also happy because being home alone with just Cholpon and her daughters meant that I got to use my Russian a lot more. With the whole family there, Kyrgyz was spoken almost exclusively, but with my current situation it seems that I will be able to practice my Russian a lot. Cholpon said that she preferred Russian to Kyrgyz because it was a richer language. This is probably true because of the relative simplicity of Kyrgyz. There are a lot more words in Russian than Kyrgyz (to the point that there is no such thing as a Kyrgyz dictionary) and while complex, Russian constructions can be really beautiful (and famously vulgar- I was told by a PST staff member that Russian has over 15,000 words used exclusively for swearing). 

That evening my host mother returned late after a party at the school and was delighted to see me. We spent the evening conversing and relaxing and also watching the news. My language skills are developed enough at this point were I can watch the Russian news and get something out of it. It is definitely more difficult because of the pace of speech, but they generally speak clearly so I can usually at least get the general idea of the story. It is also interesting to see a different international perspective on the news. The viewpoint in the news I read in Newsweek and occasionally on CNN or BBC online comes from a very different vantage than that on the Russian news, especially when it comes to reporting on the war in Georgia. 

Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the developing of my relationship with my host niece, a two year old that is absolutely adorable. When I first got there, unlike her sister (who adored me but is now back in Bishkek) she was shy but curious. She would look at me but rarely respond to the silly faces I made at her. This habit changed adorably as she likes to hang out in the door frame of my room and just stand and watch me- about an hour after I had made faces at her, she mimicked them back at me absolutely deadpan, it was really hilarious.

Some Pictures...




Pictures of my birthday/Ginger's birthday and our joint-celebration and of me and my PST host family

Final Days

22:00 15 September 2008

The final days of PST continue to wind down and I am enjoying the last days of regularly seeing some of my close friends here. As I have often said in the past few entries, it is a bittersweet time full of nervousness for the responsibility, excitement for new adventures, relief at the end of PST, apprehension about our abilities to get around, and sadness at leaving new but close friends.

I went into Bishkek this past weekend and spent time with some of my closest PST-friends that will be in another oblast for service (though luckily only about six hours away so I should be able to see them occasionally). We got gamburgers (gosh they are good) and walked for hours around the city, sitting around, and running to apparently every ex-pat in the country. It’s very odd to be an ex-pat here, and to see the other non-Kyrgyz nationals in the capitol. Kyrgyzstan has a very very small Western ex-pat community and it is extraordinarily concentrated around the capitol city. Given that the vast majority of the time I have spent in-country has been in a village with zero ex-pats other than Peace Corps people, it is odd to see other people that just don’t “fit in”. While I would have a hard time passing for Kyrgyz or any semblance of native, I find myself staring nearly as much as a native Kyrgyz does at other Americans. (or in the case of Bishkek natives- more- they are used to seeing Westerners). Similarly, overhearing and understanding conversations in English is a bizarre feeling when you are used to being surrounded alternatively with a language you barely understand- Russian- and one you have absolutely no knowledge of- Kyrgyz. Regardless, its interesting to meet some of the other ex-pats in the country and hear why they are there- they stick out much as I do, like sore thumbs and often hang out at the same establishments that PCVs tend to. 

Overall, it was a nice relaxing last trip into the city for a while. Today I had warden training- I was arbitrarily selected to be an alternate warden. Wardens are responsible for implementing the Emergency Action Plan in the event that we are being put on alert or evacuated from the country. We also are also wardens of an advanced medical kit and responsible for managing that in the event of an urgent care situation (hospitals and clinics here are not to a Western-standard in terms of equipment and their use so we have all sorts of supplies for local doctors’ usage in emergencies). It was interesting, and I got to meet several of the current volunteers. The main draw from the position is the biannual trainings I get to attend in Bishkek and seeing people I otherwise wouldn’t. Anyhow, tomorrow is our last hub day for PST and we swear in on the 18th and I am tired now, I don’t know how those are related, but I am an old man here and get cranky if I am up past 10:30.  

Peace Corp's newest

22:00 19 September 2008 

Wow, I have so much write about, I am going to have to break it up into several entries. First of all, I am a volunteer! Yay! I swore in yesterday at a nice ceremony, the ambassador spoke as well as our country director and three trainees (now volunteers) gave speeches in Kyrgyz, English, and Russian. The highlight for me was the actual swearing in. As representatives of the U.S. government, we take the same oath of office that the military, senators, and even the president take. Coming from a family with two parents that retired after careers in the Navy, it was a really meaningful for me to be able to take the same oath. While I will be “defending the Constitution” in significantly different ways than the others that say the same words, I do like to think of my service not just as a service to Kyrgyzstan, but equally to America as well. Okay, enough patriotic waxing, onto the stuff you may find more interesting.

I am angry at the Postal system. Packages being opened and stuff stolen from them is a big problem among volunteers, and now twice I have failed to receive Gatorade from my parents. As you know, gastrointestinal problems are a normal part of life here, and part of their treatment involves re-hydrating yourself. Peace Corps gives us Oral Rehydration Salts, basically a glucose and electrolytes mixture to add to water. Unfortunately, it tastes awful but they won’t provide us with Gatorade because it is expensive. I thought I was being clever by asking my parents to send stuff, but as I said, it has been now twice stolen from my packages. The worst story of theft- or at least the most bewildering- was a friend who received a package in which his mother had sent a bag of American candy. The candy had been meticulously taken out, eaten, and then the empty bag was replaced filled with the wrappers of the candy. How bizarre, and talk about adding insult to injury!

We had a goodbye feast with all the families of our training village the day before we left to go to permanent sites. The celebration was complete with plov and lots of food, but was without the typical vodka because of Ramadan. Tears were shed as we said goodbye to our LCF, she was really a wonderful person and a fantastic teacher. She has had a tough time recently, her husband died not long ago, and she said that having the volunteers to interact with and work with was a much loved distraction for her. I am going to miss all of the families too, even though the language barrier existed, they were so gracious and welcoming that I will remember them for the rest of my life. Anyhow, it’s getting late and I am tired, I have my first classes in the morning.

LPI over...

20:00 12 September 2008

Well, I have now officially finished learning Russian for the duration of Pre-Service Training. We had our final placement LPI (language proficiency interview) to determine whether or not we were ready for site or not, and I passed with flying colors with a very respectable “Intermediate-High”. I’m very happy that I have progressed to this level (I was the second highest in all of the volunteers) and everyone in my language group did remarkably well. It’s pretty amazing that less then 10 weeks in a country with a completely foreign (and may I add, incredibly difficult) language I now feel relatively comfortable getting around and can hold long somewhat complicated conversations. While they weren’t always the most fun sessions, the 3 and a half hour daily sessions really do amazing things for learning language.

Aside from language classes, PST as a whole is winding down. We had our last technical session yesterday where we reported on an educational field trip into Bishkek where we were asked to find educational resource centers to which they had given us the addresses. The volunteers, as a whole, spent more time finding which areas had the best “gamburgers” (there are no hamburgers here- but a gamburger with lettuce and ketchup- two rare commodities here- really hits the spot when you miss America). We did manage to find some, and with some photoshoping on my part, we came up with a humorous presentation on the education resources we found.

We have less than a week until we swear in and become legitimate volunteers. This will be nice as I can stop saying trainees/volunteers or referring to us incorrectly as volunteers. Current volunteers, as I have iterated before, have told me that PST is the most difficult part of service. I definitely agree that the constant babying and restrictive policies by PC can get annoying, the closer we get to going to site the more I realize how much I am going to miss a lot of the friends I have made over the last 10 weeks. Stressful times lend themselves to quickly built and long lasting friendships with those sharing similar situations. I am also, paradoxically, going to miss some of the certainty of PST as school at site will likely be incredibly disorganized, the concrete schedule of PST could be annoying but it was certain. I didn’t have to worry about showing up to lessons to find no one else because it was a holiday and nobody told me. Nor did I have to worry about being expected to show up to events I haven’t been told about. A humorous, though telling anecdote, that illustrates how serious these scenarios can be comes from a fellow volunteer who showed up to his site last year after PST only to find that the NGO he was to work at no longer existed. Well, I can be certain- hopefully- that my school will still exist when I get to site, but the uncertainty of my assignment and expectations is definitely a scary thought.

11 September 2008

Mixed messages

22:45 9 September 2008

I found out today that two trainees and two volunteers decided to ET- Peace Corps lingo for Early Termination of service. While I was unsurprised at the trainees, finding about the volunteers, whom I had met during my first days in-country and respect immensely was a huge shock. This is also the first time that someone to whom I had grown close has decided to leave, these are our fourth and fifth ETs, but the other three I barely knew. These two trainees both had their good reasons, but I will definitely miss them dearly. I have heard this region has a somewhat high ET-rate- it’s not easy to live here, but I can’t help but be a little bit bummed out that the already small volunteer/ex-pat community in country is shrinking even more.

On a more positive note, I had a great experience today. The American government finances these places in cities called American Corners; basically they are places with small English-language libraries, free (incredibly slow) internet, a place to learn about America, and a meeting place for anything American related. They are commonly used by PCVs to hold English clubs and do other American themed events. I participated in a panel that tried to introduce Kyrgyz high-school and college students to what "real American" culture was. As I have mentioned earlier, many here get an extremely distorted view of MTV, films, and mass media of what America and its culture is. We were there to talk about our experiences as Americans, how they could be similar or different to Kyrgyz experiences, and answered any questions they had. Their questions were generally surprisingly thoughtful and interesting- we answered everything from how juvenile criminal justice works in America to how the educational system works. Perhaps they were most impressed by how well traveled we were, everybody on the panel had been to a decent amount of places, and while that is not universal American trait, it certainly is representative of Peace Corps Volunteers- you have to have a certain wanderlust to want to do this for two years.

Well, today was both inspiring in what impact I believe my role can have here and somewhat depressing knowing that the numbers of my fellow K-16s can really only go down. It’s a reality that I will have to deal with that PC service is not for everyone and everyone needs to make a personal decision, even after being here for some time.

Ketchup...

13:00 9 September 2008

I apologize, I have been quite lackadaisical with my blog writing since I returned from my permanent site visit. Truly much has happened since then. First and foremost, I had my 22nd birthday which was a lot of fun. A good friend of mine here, Ginger, had her birthday on the subsequent day and we celebrated in a café together. Ginger is half of a married couple, and they are the oldest and wisest volunteers in our group. I have really bonded with her and she is a wonderful woman, it was great to get to celebrate our respective birthdays together. While it was fun to grab a beer and hang out with a lot of volunteer friends (over half of the 60ish people in the K-16 group came out), I had probably the worst "pizza" of my life there. I was excited to see it on the menu, while the majority of the pizza in this country has little resemblance to what is back home, it’s usually close enough to provide some amount of comfort and justify its usually high price-tag. This was not the case this time. The "pizza" consisted of a piece of naan (flat bread that they make here- its actually really good alone) with Turkish cheese, peas, kolbasa (sliced sausage) and covered with ketchup. All I can say is yuck, and that was not pizza. Some of the trainees brought a cake, and I was given a Snickers bar as a gift, it was a really nice outing.

The day after my birthday, I had another fun day. One of the Sustainable Organizations and Community Development groups held a field day as a Youth-Development event. I didn’t participate in the center-piece event of flag football, but a three legged race with a child half my height was fun. Also, it was just nice to hang out again with the trainees and the volunteers as our time together is fast winding down. Most volunteers said that PST (Pre-Service Training) and its constant scheduling and oversight by the organization is the most difficult time of service and site gets better. While I definitely understand that having bureaucracy somewhat at bay will be nice, there are a lot of volunteers going to corners of the country I will rarely be in and I will miss seeing them regularly. I have formed a lot of close friendships here- high stress situations, especially those in which you are an ex-pat tend to facilitate their rapid formation- and I hope to be able to sustain them over the distances.

Overall, this past weekend was one of the most fun and relaxing ones in country. I have finally come to the point in my language skills where I can get by without problem. This allows me to focus more on enjoying myself whenever I leave my village than stressing out about the various aspects of transportation and getting back. Hurrah for adaptation!

05 September 2008

First of September

11:35 4 September 2008

I have to admit, I didn’t realize how much I had missed my host family in my training village. I got back from Issyk-Kul last night to a great reception from my host family, we sat around and talked for quite awhile. I think the big thing was language yet again. While I am no where near fluent in Russian, I am now pretty conversational and understand most everything that is said to me. Compared to the difference on the lake, where I sat for seven hours understanding next to nothing in Kyrgyz, it was almost like coming back into a familiar area. I suppose that I am so accustomed in-country to not being able to understand that it didn’t bother me in Kyzyl-Suu, but it really pleased me when I was with HCNs that I could understand. I definitely want to continue learning Russian, but I realize if I am to have the same kind of acceptance at site as I do here, I will need to learn Kyrgyz as well.

Overall though, I had a very successful site visit. I didn’t mention it yet, but I attended the 1st Day of September ceremonies at my school- here it is called the Day of Knowledge and is a big celebration for the beginning of the school year. The first-graders made their procession into the courtyard, all dressed up, and then one was designated to ring the first bell to signify the start. After the proceedings, everyone filed into the school to watch a televised broadcast of the Minister of Education giving a lesson on Kyrgyzstan. Finally, I attended a faculty meeting where they discussed schedules- mine hasn’t been quite finalized yet, and I gave a short speech introducing myself and my background. It was wonderful to meet the different people in my school, and then later in my village. Along with me, there is one of the JICA volunteers working at my school. While she only speaks minimal English, the other JICA volunteer in our village speaks it fluently after spending three years in the U.K. We went out together to a café with Emil, an HCN that has been friends with every volunteer in the area since the 1990s. He speaks English nearly-fluently and was rejected for a translator job because his English was “too-American”. Anyhow, it was great to meet the fellow volunteers in our village, the other Americans in the oblast, and get to know what I am certain will be a rewarding two years.

Bish-barmak

18:45 1 September 2008

I can now truthfully say that I have eaten sheep eyeballs. Twice. Being in a Kyrgyz family means that I get to experience Kyrgyz culture on a much more consistent basis than I did with my Russian family. I don’t think that I realized how “Western” Russian culture was compared to Kyrgyz. While the two cultures cohabitate relatively fluidly in country, living with a family and in a village where Kyrgyz language is more used that Russian (there are Russians here, and most of the Kyrgyz speak Russian, but in my area of the village, it is almost exclusively Kyrgyz families). Regardless, being in Kyrgyzstan I am happy to be living with a Kyrgyz family and there are a lot of parts of the culture that I really find beautiful.

First and foremost in my mind of things that please me about Kyrgyz culture is the Omin. While I have no evidence, I would venture to guess the Omin shares roots from with the Judeo-Christian “Amen”. As is such, the Omin is a semi-religiously based utterance and gesture. It is used to signify the end of things, primarily eating, and also as a sign of appreciation, thanks, or meaning. While the word is often said, more important is the accompanying gesture. After everyone is finished eating, everyone places their hands palms up in front of them and then simultaneously brings them to cover the face and then downwards together as the Catholic prayer hand form. In addition to after every meal, the Omin is also used when coming to another’s house. As a matter of culture and custom, you will be offered chai (and most likely a full meal) but if you are in a hurry you can request just a taste and they will present you with a piece of bread which you take a tiny bit of, eat it, and Omin, Then you can culturally appropriately leave in a hurry.

The hospitality of the Kyrgyz is an ever-present, extremely important, cultural value. The practice of guesting is one of the primary forms of entertainment, and it is extremely showing of many of the practices and roles within the Kyrgyz social structure, I could go on about that, but there are a lot of interesting articles and studies done on Kyrgyz and Muslim hospitality. I feel my time would better be spent by describing my individual situation. As I mentioned earlier, I have three host sisters. Aijan, the youngest, returned yesterday to Bishkek for her studies with the oldest daughter’s husband. The oldest daughter is remaining home for some time and her three daughters are really adorable. The oldest of them (my host-niece) has really taken to me and loves to spend time with me, playing with my guitar while I play, direct my computer usage, and in general be a five year old. It’s funny because she is in the stage where she knows a lot of Russian and Kyrgyz, but she doesn’t seem to usually realize when she is using one or the other. This makes communication a bit difficult, but usually it isn’t hard t figure out what she wants or is asking.

So back to the initial topic, as I mentioned, guesting is a very important part of the culture here. As a new arrival, the whole neighborhood wanted to meet me and there was a large guesting at our across-the-street neighbor’s house. It lasted seven hours. This means that I was sitting on the floor (which became increasingly uncomfortable as the hours wore on) for pretty much the entire time and ate about my body weight. It also meant that, for the first time, after many other courses of food, I had for the first time Bish-marmak. Bish-marmak is the national dish of Kyrgyzstan and is, in essence, an entire sheep. This sheep is cooked and then all present (after a child comes around with hot water to wash hands) carve the sheep and eat it. Many of the choice cuts are shaved into little bits and then added in with bullion and cut noodles to the centerpiece of the dish. However, while being a vegetarian for 12 years did make dismembering a sheep and being asked to eat it difficult, it wasn’t until the “highlight” of the experience that I felt truly uncomfortable. This is where, after they have been gouged from the skull of the sheep, the eyeballs and other pieces of face-meat are placed in a bowl of bullion and passed around for consumption. No matter how much you don’t want to eat it, this would be truly culturally inappropriate to refuse. So, I placed the eyeball bit in my mouth, closed and swallowed. After they insisted I eat one more piece and I obliged, they were satiated and I was able to conclude my first (of I am sure many) Bish-barmak experiences. Well, for one thing, it surely is a unique cultural experience.

Kyrgyzfornia

07:25 31 August 2008

Yesterday I made the six hour journey to my permanent site village. Really, I am stunned, it is incredibly beautiful and I think I am really lucky to be here. More on this later. Let me begin with the permanent host-family matching ceremony:

We traveled back to the Hotel Issyk-Kul (where we first stayed in country). I went back and read what I had written about the place when I got there. I was most struck by “[it being] a stunning representation of 1970s Soviet architecture, complete with a crumbling façade and concrete block construction.” It’s amazing how much my expectations and worldview have changed over the last two months as when we got there this time I was almost equally impressed by the (sometimes) hot water, the windows that opened and closed, the clean indoor toilets, the consistent electricity, and the pretty darn good food. I didn’t understand how it had been considered a luxury institution until I had lived like ordinary people in the country.

The matching-ceremony was much less formal than the initial one, but it was still exciting. I was one of the first ones called, and coincidentally had been sitting next to my would-be host mother which elicited a surprised “oo!” from her. We immediately began speaking where I learned that she is a teacher at the school I will be working with. She was also impressed with my Russian, which I was happy about, she speaks a minimal amount of English, but she said she wants to learn more and I will be happy to oblige her. She was also fond of saying (in English) to other trainees and host parents “My son beautiful”. It was adorable. After the ceremony, we all ate dinner together and then most of the host parents and families went to relax and the trainees relished a rare night out where we could hang out together past 7 o’clock.

The next morning, we left early (and the returned five minutes after I realized I had forgotten to give my roommate the key) and got to the large taxi stand in Bishkek. From here depart taxis to every corner of the country, and it is an intense area of bargaining fares, comparing rates, and trying to get the best deal. We eventually decided on one (we joined up with a trainee who will be living quite near to me which was nice) and departed for the long journey. The trip reminded me of a combination of Colorado and California, two of my favorite states. The mountains are as tall as (and in some cases thousands of feet taller) than the Rockies, and driving through them was exciting (the roads were not as bad as I had feared they might be, though there were some areas where the theoretically four lane highway was reduced to a single line). Seeing the gorgeous lake for the first time was stunning. The road hugged the edge for the most part of it (the mountains on the south shore leave little more than a few kilometers of navigable grades) and the route really reminded me of Route 1 along Big Sur in California. The lake is so large that the only thing we could see on the other side was the snow on the mountains (it was cloudy and slightly rainy yesterday). Simply stated, it is one of the most beautiful places I have every seen in my life.

After we arrived, I got to meet my new Kyrgyz family. All in all, I have three sisters, though but none of them seems to live consistently at home, the oldest is in her young thirties and is married with three adorable children and traveled from Bishkek to meet me and visit the family-she will stay a while, the middle daughter was not there as she works for Komptor, the massive Canadian gold mining corporation and couldn’t come home yet. The youngest daughter, who also speaks English quite well, is nineteen and a design/architecture student in Bishkek.

My new home is very nice, my room is bigger here and the bed is quite comfortable. I’ll post pictures soon.