So, my neighbor has two dogs. One is a small, male terrior (Bobby), and the other is a large, brindle female. For the better part of a week the female has been in heat and it’s driving me CRAZY. I swear to god, every single male dog in the entire village has been flocking to our backyard to get a piece of the action. Bobby, however, is a bit possessive.. which means that all day I have to listen to jealous growls and agressive barking as this tiny terrior attempts to ward off all of his girlfriend’s ‘suitors’. Occasionally, all the chest bulging works, and the village dogs leave. In these situations, Bobby trots over to his lady, full of triumphant adreneline, and, pardon the graphic detail, attempts to ‘claim’ her. You don’t need to be a scientist to imagine that, with a small dog and a big dog, anatomy is working against them and Bobby’s attempts are not only unsuccessful, but incredibly awkward.. At other times, all the chest bulging turns into an all out dog brawl and I, being the sensitive-to-animals person that I have been raised to be, run out into the yard to try and stop it. I know I shouldn’t do this, I should just let Kyrgyz dogs be as they are.. But I have grown quite attached to my neighbors dogs, especially Bobby, and it pains me to listen to him yelping when two or three larger males decide to call his bluff and go in for the attack. After scaring off the intruders I walk back into my apartment only to find that Bobby and his lady consistently try to follow me inside. I like them, but not that much (especially during muddy season), so I send them back into the yard and listen as the whole process repeats itself.
This has been my week. It’s only 100som to get an animal fixed in this country, that’s about $2.50, but I have heard that Kyrgyz people think it’s inhumane to do so. Maybe they’re right, I’m not interested in starting a debate about it.. All I know is that if there were ever a time when I was considering dropping a few hundred bucks to sterilize a village’s worth of dogs, now would be it..
Moving right along, I have some news about Jamaica. Apparently, I am unable to do a transfer extension. Peace Corps doesn’t approve them unless there’s two months or less in between the end of one term of service and the beginning of the next. Because there would be a 7 month break in between Kyrgyzstan and Jamaica there are too many liability issues and it’s just not possible. My only option would be to re-enroll once I’m back in America, which is only a tad more inconvenient than doing everything from here. I still wouldn’t have to redo the application or medical process, but I would have to do all the appropriate e-mail correspondence on my own, and there’s a slightly smaller chance that I will have control over which country I get assigned to. With re-enrolling, I can apply to a certain region and voice a preference for a certain country (which will carry some weight, they say), but I can’t apply to one specific country the way I could if I was doing a transfer extension. I’m still interested, but I can’t start that process until I’m home, so I guess there’s not much else to say on that front.
Winter is finally coming to a close! Besides one day of snow last Friday, we’ve had a mixture of sunny and rainy days recently. The weather is definitely getting warmer, which is very fortunate because having my heater plugged in all the time was definitely taking a toll on my wallet. One more season gone also means I’m one season closer to seeing all you beautiful people again! The countdown is around 5 months now and time has definitely started to move faster. I can almost taste all the delicious food I will soon have access to!
I will now leave you with some pictures..
The view from my backyard:




The dogs.. The little guy in the front is Bobby. The one in the middle is the female, and the others are.. gentlemen callers..

The back side of my apartment building. Classy.
Random pile of puppies trying to stay warm:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!