Jakshy bolgondo uwakyt uchat...?

I have been away too long, I know. My apologies, loyal readers. Many things were keeping me busy recently. The main thing being my grant, which I handed in about a week and a half ago. I heard back today from the grant committee and my grant has been approved! Yay! However, it will only be partially funded. Not ideal, but still awesome. The grant was for a number of teaching supplies and new textbooks so next year's classes will (hopefully) be considerably more successful than this year's. Part of me remains skeptical, but my hopes are high.

Here's a picture (with brief summary) overview of what I've been doing over the last month or so...



At the beginning of May I went down to Naryn to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style. This very well could be the best meal I've eaten in country. We made (and by "we made" I mean two or three people cooked and I sat around doing nothing) enchiladas, nachos, salsa, bean dip, and key lime pie, all from scratch! Tortillas from scratch, chips from scratch, enchilada sauce from scratch (cheese not from scratch).. It was soooo delicious. Mmmm, it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.. Decorations, key lime mix, and mole c/o Jessica's mom. Thanks!







*****
May 9th is Victory Day in Kyrgyzstan so most of the village gathered around our World War II monument (every village has one) and had a celebration in honor of those that fought. This picture was taken before the celebration started so it's not very telling of what happened that day.. Many people came, students sang and danced, the monument was covered with flowers by the end. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries so this is all I got..




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On May 12th I participated in a WIDGAD event (Women in Development, Gender and Development) that we've come to know as Take Your Daughters to Work Day. This involved me and other volunteers taking some of our female students into Bishkek to learn about what life is like for professional career women. We started with a brief discussion/question session at the Peace Corps office (which included topics such as bride-kidnapping, the pressure to start a family, finding a husband who supports his wife working, gender inequality in general, etc) and then the girls went to speak to women who hold the profession of their choice. Those who want to be doctors spoke to doctors, those who want to be translators spoke to translators, etc. It was a very successful day and I was proud to take part in it


Erkina (PC local staff member who helped plan event), Claudia (PC Kyrgyzstan director), Meerim (my best student!), Bridgette (other volunteer), and me in front of the Peace Corps office.




Shawn (other volunteer), Meerim, me, Ainura (another one of my students), Eliza (another very good student of mine), and Bridgette in front of PC office.


*****
May 16th was culture day for the incoming group of volunteers. Many of us that live nearby decided to crash and get in an extra dose of culture for the day..


My training family got a new volunteer this year, two new volunteers actually (that's a long story), so my host mom was there. This is her with her American children, as she says :) Holo, host mom, Alex, and me, in traditional garb




Host mom then insisted that she take a picture of me holding a little felt yurt in front of some hanging shurdocks (kinda like carpets..)



Some other volunteers in Kyrgyz gear



And, of course, we set up a yurt!



Little boy dancing inside of the yurt



Haha, this picture is the first in my "Do you know what that says?" English shirt collection. It's a little blurry so just incase you can't read it, the shirt, the one being worn by the 13 year old girl, says:

B eing
I n
T otal
C ontrol of
H im

Some of my other favorites, that I could not capture on camera, are as follows:
- A 60 year old woman with a shirt reading "I MAKE GOOD BABY"
- A 40 year old woman with a shirt reading "I make boys cry"
- A mother and daughter pair, the mother's shirt reading "WHORE" and the daughter's reading "BITCH"
- A bumpersticker saying, in rather large letters, "Water makes me horny"
- A teenage boy with a shirt that said "..to get a drink around here" on the back, and nothing on the front. My friend and I decided it was supposed to say "Who do I have to screw.." on the front but that didn't make it to print for some reason..


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May 25th we had our last bell ceremony at school, despite the fact that there's a month of school left..


All the students and teachers gathered in the school courtyard. I've mentioned the little girls uniforms before, or the "french maid" uniforms, which you can see on the left.



These are the graduating 11th formers doing the traditional two walks around the courtyard. The 11th form girls wear bigger versions of the "french maid" uniform at last bell ceremonies as a sort of kick back to when they began school. It's what they wore on their first day, so it's what they wear on the last day.. In reality, this uniform is only required through the 5th form.

In the middle of the ceremony a large cage full of pigeons was brought out into the courtyard. The students then swarmed the cage, everyone fighting over who gets a pigeon. All those who succeeded got to release the pigeon into the air at the end of the ceremony. It's a nice thought, but rather sad in practice. Most of the students weren't very gentle with their pigeons and many tied balloons or ribbons to their legs, causing them to awkwardly fly away when the time came to release them

Not to mention the two dead pigeons that were left in the cage..

Anyway, that's about it for now! I've got a busy summer ahead of me: implementing my grant, 3 summer camps, and China! But I'll try to find time to update!

Until then..

New digs

Don't have much to say but it's been a while since I posted pictures so I figured I would give a little photo update. Here goes..



This is a picture of me and my old host sister, Kanimjan. Taken before I moved out... obviously..


Her wearing my sunglasses and looking badass

Last week was graduation for the students in first grade. I was invited to the ceremony..


Here are the girls in their traditional Kyrgyz dress. This is not what their school uniforms look like.. I think I've said this in the past but the uniforms resemble french maid outfits. Because this was a special occasion they are wearing traditional ceremonial clothes.. And hats with Kyrgyz letters on them..


These are the boys in their cute little suits


Girls doing a traditional Kyrgyz dance


Boys wearing Kalpaks (traditional Kyrgyz hats for men) and doing some sort of skit involving horse riding...


Everyone holding their diplomas.. Yes, apparently finishing first grade warrants a diploma..

Now for some pictures of my new apartment..

Half of the main room/my bedroom (There's only one room.. and a kitchen)

Other half of the main room/my bedroom

Toilet.. I know it doesn't look like much, but you have no idea the joy it brings me to be able to go to the bathroom indoors.. The flusher doesn't work, though, so I have to fill that yellow bucket up with water and then poor it into the bowl when I want to clear everything out.

Half of bathroom

Other half of bathroom. In Kyrgyzstan it's very rare for the toilet and the tub to be in the same room... Usually they're seperated.

Half of kitchen.. You'll notice that there are no pipes hooked up to the drain in the sink. The water from the faucet works, though, so that's why there's a bucket under the sink.. I just use the sink to wash dishes and then empty the bucket when it's full

Other half of kitchen

Tada! Paradise, isn't it? I love it, in any case. It's about $45 a month and it's a lot more space than I had at my host family's house!

Freedom!

It's been about one week since I moved and things are going well in my new apartment. My first night there I was "kidnapped" by my landlord and her family who insisted that I eat and drink tea with them because we are neighbors now, and, in their words, we are family. It was a nice little welcoming and, though I was anxious to start cooking my own meals, I was grateful for their attitude and look forward to having many meals with them in the future. Everyone has been very helpful in ensuring I get settled in and I have had many people tell me that if I need anything, or any help, that I should call them immediately.

I even had my first guesting experience this week! Well, not exactly.. Guesting is a huge part of Kyrgyz culture and I have done it many times, but I've never been the host before, so it was definitely a new experience. My host mom from training was in my village one night because someone that she knew in the village had died, so she went to their house to do the traditional reading of the Koran. After the ceremony she called and told me that she, and three of her friends, were coming over to see my new place. I raced around trying to tidy everything up before they got there and nervously anticipated their reactions to the fact that I only have two chairs, and tea, but no sugar. When they arrived I tried to give a disclaimer by explaining that I just moved in, not everything is ready, I don't have a lot of furniture, and they should not be offended. They were far from it, and happy to make the best of what I had.

After setting up some blankets and a milk crate to make sure that everyone was comfortably seated around the table, they (of course!) whipped out a bottle of vodka. It was a school night and I was tired, but who am I to refuse vodka from my guests? We ended up getting a bit tipsy and, as a result, my Kyrgyz seemed to get ten times better! (or at least I thought it did..) Imagine that! I was cracking jokes and telling stories, and, the best part, they were understanding! During training we were told that our language progress will show itself in slow and random leaps, where one day you will just be like, "Wow, I'm really improving!" This was definitely one of those times. It was a very successful first experience of being guested and I was very proud. Unfortunately there have been guesting situations in the past where I have felt incredibly awkward and out of place and just wanted to go home and hide. At times of extreme frustration I've even come to look at guesting as a chore.. but there are always redeeming experiences that make me rethink that conclusion and this was definitely one of them. I had a very good time and look forward to hosting/guesting more people in the future!

I wish I could say things at school were proceeding equally successfully, but I seem to be in quite a team-teaching rut. I haven't taught a real lesson in over a month, and my presence in the classroom seems to be utilized only when my counterpart needs help with pronunciation or at times when she is not in the classroom so I end up leading an activity by myself. Part of me is slowly giving up on classroom teaching.. which is a very depressing realization, as it is supposed to be the reason I am here. I find myself focusing more on secondary projects, like the grant we are in the process of writing to get new teaching materials for the school. I have mentioned previously that most of our classes don't even have textbooks, which can make teaching very difficult. Recently, at times when teaching seems utterly hopeless, I find myself thinking, "Well, just wait the rest of this year out.. There's only a month or two left and then you can start fresh next year, with new materials and renewed energy!" Part of me thinks this is a great idea, but the other part of me feels like a failure for not being able to make it work with the materials that are available to me. But are materials really the issue? The overlying problem seems to be attitude and motivation.. But I've convinced myself that having better/more teaching supplies will encourage students to study more and increase motivation. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, everyday at school is a struggle..

On the note of secondary projects, I've been talking with another volunteer in my area about teaming up and planning a fine arts summer camp for the students in our region. Schools here put little to no emphasis on arts so we thought it would be a good idea to organize a project that encourages creativity and individuality. The camp would focus on music, performing arts, painting/drawing, and, of course, cultural exchange. I'm also part of an organization called WIDGAD (Women In Development, Gender And Development), which is doing a 'take your daughters to work day' type of project at the end of this month. I invited three female students from my school to come into Bishkek with us for a day to shadow some successful professional women working in the city. They will get a chance to see what it's like to be a career woman in Kyrgyzstan, talk with them, and ask them questions. I think it will go well. Many girls in this country are forced to choose between being a wife and being a professional, but many of the working women they will meet have thriving marriages/families, as well as successful jobs, and I think it will be good for them to see that they don't have to choose between the two.

Anyway, it is little projects like these that really keep me going here. Even if I am completely useless as an English teacher, at least I can say that I did some stuff on the side..

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

After two weeks of mixed sunny and cloudy weather, spring has decided to be a bitch and start bringing the rain. April is supposed to be almost entirely rainy in the Chui region of Kyrgyzstan. I was never one to hate rain in the states, I even quite enjoyed it sometimes, but it's an entirely different story on this side of the world. Rain's okay if there are paved roads to walk on, you have a nice warm, cozy house to come home to, and a dryer to throw your wet clothes in. It's not okay when the rain turns the dirt roads into mud traps, you come home to a cold, musky house, and you have to employ every item of furniture in your room in order to hang all your clothes to dry.. Sigh

The rain has not dampered my spirit as much as it could've, however, because I have some good news cheering me up. I will be moving out of my host family's house and into my own apartment this weekend! Yaaay! That is, if everything goes as planned.. Which you never can tell in these parts.. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. After a winter full of eating bread for breakfast, bread for lunch, and soup and bread for dinner, I am definitely ready to start cooking for myself. No offense to my host family, of course. The food is not bad, it's just incredibly repetitive. And lacking in proper nutrition. I'm also just excited to have my own space! I really like my host mom and the kids, and I'm going to miss them (though I plan on visiting a lot and maintaining a good relationship with them), but no matter how good of a relationship one has with a host family here, there's still inevitable cultural issues that arise which create awkward moments and prevent people from feeling 100% comfortable in their living space. It's going to be a lot easier to deal with the stress of everyday life here knowing that I can come home to a place that is truly my own to unwind from the day.

On another interesting note, the K-17s have arrived in Kyrgyzstan! I'm excited to have a new group of Americans in country. I love all the current volunteers but we're such a small community so it's fun to have new people to get to know. There's a bunch of volunteers living in my old training community, and someone is staying with my training family, so I'm going to go visit them soon and hopefully get to know some of the newbies. Should be good times. I went to their host family matching ceremony in Kant last week so I got to see them all but the whole event was so rushed that I didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone. It was interesting watching them, though. They looked so hopeful and excited, and I remember feeling the same way when I was in their position. It's weird comparing that to the way I've been feeling recently. So many altered expectations..

Anyway, that's all for now, folks!

The shit hits the fan

Sorry for lack of recent updates, but the majority of what's been happening in my life recently is stuff that I'm forbidden by Peace Corps to publicly talk about. I will try to give a short version: Many volunteers, including me, were recently involved in a situation with the Kyrgyz police. None of us are happy with the way this situation was "resolved", and 5 people, people that I have come to call friends, ended up being sent home because of it. I was spared, but because of this somewhat traumatizing experience, I've been having a very difficult time. I am uncomfortable with many aspects of my life right now but I am trying to find a balance, and searching for the strength to stay and complete my service. At the moment I feel it is still worth it for me to be here, but only time will tell for sure.

On top of the afforementioned stress factors, recent events have brought me to the conclusion that I cannot stay with my host family for the duration of my service. All my attempts to move into an apartment thus far have been unsuccessful. I have one more chance for an apartment, which will be either accepted or rejected this Thursday, and how that works out will have a big effect on how I feel about staying.

Blah.

Tilly and Peter: Just got your package, thanks a ton! I've already put the brown sugar to use! I stayed with a friend last night and we made chocolate chip cookies. Well... we attempted to make chocolate chip cookies.. My friend doesn't have an oven so we tried to make them in a pan.. it didn't quite work. It turned into some scrambled egg looking version of various sized cookie chunks. Haha. Still delicious..

Darren: I have NOT gotten your package yet, but I'm looking forward to it like crazy!

To everyone else: Sorry my blog sucks so much. Thanks for reading!

Thailand (finally..)

Warning: There are a shitload of pictures in this post so, depending on your connection speed, it may give your computer a seizure.

So! Thailand! I arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon on February 9th with three other volunteers from Kyrgyzstan. We made our way from the airport to Khaosan Rd, found a cheap place to stay, and then spent a night on the town. Khaosan Rd was very touristy, which is usually not what I look for when traveling, but after 7 months in Kyrgyzstan it was just what the doctor ordered. It felt really good to be surrounded by "westernized" people who, for the most part, spoke English. Khaosan is also a great place for people watching, which we did a lot of.

I spent a day and a half with the other volunteers, in which we did some sightseeing in Bangkok:



This is a tuk tuk, a popular form of transportation for tourists in Bangkok. We thought we had gotten really lucky because some drivers offered to take us around the city for only 5 baht each. Little did we know, the only reason it was so cheap is because we would be making multiple unscheduled stops at various shops/businesses while locals tried to sell us stuff. This eventually got very annoying... but it was really cheap.

First sightseeing stop, big standing Buddha/big standing Buddha temple:








Second stop, Golden Mountain:





Other volunteers I was with (L to R: Lynnie, Katie, other Katie)






Third stop, Wat Pho:







Reclining Buddha




I like to call this, "The Butt Sniffing Monk"



On the street in front of Wat Pho there was a guy with a snake.. I stopped to look at it, which he took as an opportunity to throw the snake onto my shoulders, take pictures of me, and then try to charge me 350 baht for it. Not cool.. But I talked him down a lot


Lynnie, Katie, and Katie then went north to Chiang Mai while I stayed in Bangkok, exploring for two more days. I then traveled south to Ko Samet, and spent the rest of my time in Thailand lounging on the beach. My first night on the island, I randomly ran into two Peace Corps volunteers from China, who were also on vacation. We ended up spending a few days together, in which I learned that Peace Corps China is the place to be. I thought Kyrgyzstan was Posh Corps because we have cell phones and semi-regular electricity... But that's nothing compared to the way these guys are living. They all have their own apartments, with hot showers, TVs, internet, washing machines/dryers, heating, AND a maid that comes on a regular basis to clean their apartments.. damn..



Anyway, after they left to meet up with some people in Bangkok, I spent a day by myself before meeting up with the Kyrgyzstan volunteers again. Then I had to leave, which was very sad. It was surprisingly hard to leave Thailand, which made me happy that I didn't go back to the states this winter because it would've been ten times harder to come back from that.

Pictures:


The boat I took to the island



Some areas were quite rocky:

Other areas were not:

Smoking hookah and hanging out on the beach:

Fire shows (quite popular on this island):

That's all, folks! Thailand was awesome but I barely got to see any of it. I definitely plan to go back someday.

Here comes the sun..

Spring is here! I am happy to announce that it has been a beautiful week here in the KG Republic! I don't know if it's here to stay quite yet, but it's been nice.

I haven't been able to make it to Bishkek in a while so you'll have to wait a bit longer on the Thailand pictures. I don't know if I've explained this before but Bishkek is where the Peace Corps office is and the Peace Corps office is where volunteers have free internet access. My other internet option is in Kant, at an internet cafe that charges by the megabyte. That's where I am right now. As you can imagine, uploading a bunch of pictures uses up a lot of megabytes so I am hesitant to do my big Thailand post at this cafe. But I figured I could give a mini update.. about, like, my life and stuff..

School is back in session. It's been an interesting week. I find myself struggling to get back into the routine of things, but I'm sure that will happen eventually. The fact that I'm about to take two more weeks off isn't going to help, however. Next week we have our PDM workshop (Project Design and Management) where we will learn how to write grants and get some projects started in our communities. The following week I will be participating in "Diversity Week". Diversity week is a week (duh) of seminars, conducted at a university in Naryn, focusing on teaching about/discussing American culture and life in the US. While I feel bad about missing two weeks of school right when it's back in session, I am excited to get the opportunity to work with university students. From what I hear, their English is fairly advanced and they will actually be interested in learning.. These two things are definitely missing from the high school teaching environment.. I am also excited, of course, about beginning to write my first grant! My school is in desparate need of supplies (some of our classes only have one text book that all the students have to share), so it will be nice to actually have adequate teaching supplies in the classroom.

Let's see.. what else is new..

One of my host family's cows had a baby a few days ago. It was so cute and so gross at the same time.

March 8th is Women's Day, so happy holidays to all the females who happen to be reading this!

I guess that's all. More soon!