11 January 2009

Changes VI (Months)

23:30 10 January 2009

I left for Bishkek today for the IST conference that will start tomorrow. I came a day early because I wanted to visit my old host family who live not far from Bishkek. It is really weird and neat to be back in my old room, the space that I called home for nearly three months. It’s significantly cooler than when I last was here but good heating and a relatively mild winter so far has made it very comfortable now. As I said, it is odd being in a home that was only a home for a short while but from which I have such strong feelings and memories. It was only three and a half months ago that I lived here, but I feel that the me that left this room left was a lot different than the me that returned today. The me that returned was noticeably different to my host family too- they worried over the fact that I have lost so much weight and were concerned that my new host family was not feeding me- something that is certainly not true. They were also pleasantly surprised with the progress of my Russian- that was really nice for me to hear since I didn’t think I had really improved that much since the end of PST, but I suppose constantly using it means that it improves even when I don’t realize it.

But the me that is different is different in a lot more ways than just mass and language ability. When I last left this room, I was still a trainee. I know that sounds kind of silly, and I don’t think as a trainee I was any less valuable than I am now, but there is a lot one learns and grows from experience. PST was a good time to get to acclimate to some aspects of culture, learn the language and the technical aspects of our service, but it’s not really PC Kyrgyzstan yet. PST is designed to be a stepping stone, like a glorified college orientation, that bridges the gap from the lives we knew to the lives we will live for two years, and it works very well in the capacity. But it is amazing how much I feel that I have grown as volunteer, a teacher, and perhaps more than anything, a person since I last left this village. These are differences which can only come from experiencing things first hand and throwing yourself into the middle of things wholeheartedly. These are differences that come from being nearly brought to tears in the middle of class because of frustration and getting so upset you yell at a child in a way at which you are later ashamed, differences that come from eating that mystery meat, doing so with your hands, finding out later it was sheep eyeball, cow intestine, or just horse, and doing it again next time you are offered, differences that come from seeing club members of yours moved to tears by service of their own in an orphanage, differences that come from being harassed every single day of your life because of where you are from, and differences that come from watching students that actually want to learn English, fail, and fail, and fail, and fail, until they finally succeed at understanding simple past tense or correct preposition usage. I think am a much different man than I was six or even three months ago, and it is something I didn’t even realize until I returned to something familiar, but oddly distant. A whole host of emotions, senses, and feelings rushed back to me when I returned here, but I realized for the first time that they are, in large, the experiences of a different person, or at least the experiences of a much different me.

Winter Camping?

23:40 07 January 2009

I just had an extremely productive meeting in regards to the winter camp that I will help run with a fellow volunteer named Lorenzo. PEPFAR, a special Presidential fund designed to help fight HIV/AIDS internationally, provided Peace Corps with a decent chunk of change with the idea that volunteers are in uniquely good positions to education HCNs about HIV/AIDS. This was decided to be done through a series of winter life-skills camps throughout the country. Volunteers were given to the opportunity to attend a session to learn about the logistical aspects of holding a camp and Lorenzo attended. The camp will be in my village and we decided together to hold an Arts camp which obviously encompassed HIV/AIDS education and life skills such as team-building and team-work activities. Part of the project plan and the grant that Lorenzo wrote involves a community contribution of at least 10% of the cost of the camp. This contribution can come in a variety of form and is not usually a monetary donation- the use of a space without rent charged can be monetarily quantified as a community contribution and families hosting out of village children can also be counted as community contribution as well.

We approached the Director of the Dotz, the Children’s Education Center, in my village with the hope that she would provide her space free of charge and we could pay for the utilities, electricity or coal, that we used as well as any supplies we needed when we were there. Amazingly, the Director not only agreed to the usage of the space but insisted that any costs incurred with the space would be provided without charge. This is an amazing contribution on her part personally and really gave me a lot of faith on the possibility of change in this country. There are really people here that want to better there country and occasionally for volunteers it is hard to see with the near continuous setbacks we face, but the victories are really incredible. In addition to finding a space for camp during these meetings, we also secured a cafĂ© that, for the equivalent of $250 will provide lunch, bread, and tea to each of our children for five days! That comes out to a staggeringly good $1.25 per meal, which is pretty good even by Kyrgyz standards!

Needless to say, this has been a productive day. I feel comfortable that it is okay for me to rest now for a bit. Oh, and today is my six month anniversary in country! Wow, it is amazing, so far the time has passed really quickly, it’s hard to believe that I have been here already half of a year (another year and three quarters to go)

Dietsky Dom don keldon

05 January 2009

We finally had our program at the orphanage for the New Year. While it was significantly less well planned and executed that I had hoped it would be, I still think we made a good program which entertained the children there. Our fundraising totaled to slightly over the equivalent of ten dollars, mostly from friends of mine that I had solicited, but it was enough to buy candy, cookies, juice, and a cake for the kids in lieu of individual presents. The program was really cute and included some really funny skits and games by the students of our leadership club, me playing and singing on guitar (and teaching them some songs), and a mini-dance party. Even if it wasn’t the best executed or planned event in the world, I still think it was beneficial and hopefully we can analyze the results of it and see where we can do better next time.

We haven’t had classes for over a week now, and IST, our In-Service Training is coming up in less than a week. I am super excited to see everyone from all over the country come together for a week of fun, reunion, good food, good times, and perhaps even some training (who needs that though?). Hopefully during the conference we will learn some technical skills like grant-writing and have some additional language and cultural training that will further help us in our sites.

New Year's Day









15:45 01 January 2009

Happy New Year once again to everyone, even though I am sure this is reaching you significantly after the New Year festivities have past. Our New Year festivities were really fun. I talked somewhat about the preparations in the last entry, but we had an incredibly delicious variety of food. I ate goose for the first time and found it incredibly delicious, my host mom marinated it in a garlic sauce and it was so good. It was funny because as the sole man present, I was expected to carve the goose even though I think I was by far the most inept at it and it ended with a frustrating lesson in anatomy with my ripping the wings off by brute force. In addition to the delicious (though poorly carved) goose, we have a variety of salads, smoked cheese, cookies, good candy, and most exciting to me, lots of fresh fruit that was brought from Bishkek (my fruit right now is limited to some apples, imported Chinese oranges, and dried apricots). I also made chili but while I thought all the food was delicious, my host family seemed to try the chili, say it was tasty, and then not eat any more at all. Oh well, I think it might have been to much seasoning or spices for them. It just meant there is more for me in the subsequent post-New Year leftovers. That is one thing I really liked about New Year festivities, it is traditionally celebrated just with family. This means the stress of inviting and serving guests doesn’t exist like it did for Kourman Eid; it also means that there is a lot more left over food for us. Yum.

In addition to spending New Year’s Eve with my family, I also went to a friend’s house the next day. One of the two JICA Volunteers in my village was hosting some fellow JICA volunteers from Bishkek so the four JICA volunteers, another PCV from a different village, and me got together to cook this traditional Japanese New Year’s food, a type of tasty somewhat gummy rice cake. It was neat because the two volunteers from Bishkek were Russian speakers so the best language between me as an American and them as a Japanese was Russian which was really interesting. They were super friendly and I am hoping to meet up with them in Bishkek next time I go there.

I hope it's not a baaaaaad New Year

13:45 31 December 2008

Two out of three of my host sisters and two out of three of my host nieces have returned for the New Year’s celebrations at home. It’s nice hanging out around my youngest host sister as her English is quite good and she is just overall a funny girl that reminds me a lot of my sister back home. In the preparations for the New Year, we have slaughtered two geese and a sheep- which reminds me, our sheep have returned- more on this later. Unlike Christmas in the states, the tradition here is to put up the Yulka (Christmas tree) very shortly before for the New Year. Oddly enough, after nearly twenty-two years living in the primarily Christian countries, the first experience I had putting up a Christmas tree was in a Muslim country. It was still a fun experience with little kids running around and I broke out the chocolate chips I had sent to make chocolate chip cookies- they came out well and my family loved them despite the absence of brown sugar in this country. I’m looking forward to a fun and festive night with my family.

About my sheep. Sheep are hilarious. They are the dumbest animals I have ever had the opportunity to interact with. We have about twenty of them (since they came three new lambs have been born) and watching them and working to feed, water, and tend them has left me both amused and somewhat disgusted by them. I think earlier I considered sheep somewhat cute animals, but after being around them and their disgusting habits this is changing- though I have to admit the lambs are still really cute. The sheep are also creepy- whenever I come around they all stare at me with a combination of mortal terror and hope that I will give them food. Sheep are a bit nimble, they sometimes jump the fence of their enclosure and will be found munching illicit hay (goats are even more impressive, while we don’t have them, it’s not uncommon to see them scale things improbably- they seem slightly more intelligent too). Whenever they have escaped, I try and chase them to jump back into their pen, which has resulted in the following hilarious occurrences: they try and run through a chain link fence, when this proves fruitless, they become confused, back up, and try again; a mother ewe kicked her recently born off-spring into the air in an attempt to flee me- the lamb was dazed but unharmed and got the special service of being picked up and placed back into the pen; sheep trying to jump over the fence but jumping to early and face planting into the trough in front of their pen; sheep jumping correctly, but not quite high enough, and having their legs catch on the top of the fence so that they land on their face in the pen. All of these incidents have convinced me of the supreme idiocy of these animals but also the value of watching them for humor.

Anyhow, after rambling on about sheep, I really just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year, I really appreciate how many of you that seem to read these and as always I love getting your questions and feedback. Best of luck to all of you in 2009.