It has been quite a long week! Finishing our community project, packing, swearing in, counterpart training, and moving left me too busy to use the internet. But now I've had a day to rest and, of course, internet cafe was the first thing on my mind (very American of me, I know).

So, I am no longer in training! Our swearing in ceremony was on Thursday which means that we're all official volunteers now! This also means that we had to leave our training communities and move to our permanent sites to finally start settling in for our two years of service. I am very sad to leave my training family but I know that I will still see them often because I am pretty close to them. I am more sad to say goodbye to other volunteers. It's not as though I will never see them, but we are so far from each other now. I think I got a little too used to having a mini-American community at my finger tips and I know it is going to be hard for me to adjust to being alone. There are still a few volunteers within an hour of me but that's far different than being in the same village. It is also hard to be in new surroundings. After growing comfortable in my training village I now feel like a stranger again. I know it will get easier as time goes on, once I find a routine. I start teaching on Monday, which is very exciting! I can't wait to start working and feeling productive.

On a separate note, I am still working on getting a mailbox set up. I should have it all figured out soon and I will let everyone know as soon as that happens. I will also try to get some pictures of my new house and village up soon. For now here are some community project pictures that I promised in my last post (many of them are stolen from Leslie’s camera):

As I said before, our project was to fix up one of these little play shelters in the local kindergarten. Here are a couple pictures of what it looked like when we started.

Chris and Mike working on repairing the floor boards. While we only had enough money to paint one of the shelters, we made sure that the floor boards were fixed on all of them (four total) since this was a pretty serious safety hazard.

Some neighborhood kids who offered to help us scrape paint and such.

I think one of them stole some money out of my purse, but aren’t they just adorable?

Everybody hard at work.

We started in high spirits...

But scraping paint can be very tiring, and after a few days we were sick of it, as you can see here

But once we started painting we were happy again!

So happy, in fact, that we had a mini photoshoot..

All for one, and one for all

And once we finished I think it looked pretty darn good! We decorated the walls with traditional Kyrgyz designs (you will see these types of designs on carpets/rugs, clothes, and other local items/souvenirs)

One more thing, to all my friends and family:

I know I have been using this blog as a replacement for sending e-mails but you guys can still e-mail me! I want to know what everyone is up to and I love hearing from home, even if it's nothing important. Just a quick hello and a recount of your day would be appreciated. I miss you guys!

Ah.. The smell of burning trash in the morning..

Training is approaching an end and I am full of mixed feelings; happiness, sadness, fear, excitement, anxiety, relief... you name it and I’ve probably got a little bit buried somewhere deep inside. I am going to miss being so close to everyone and seeing other volunteers regularly but I am also ready for the next phase of Peace Corps. I am ready to become a real volunteer instead of a “trainee”. I want to start teaching and integrating into my new community but I am also incredibly nervous. Normal, I suppose..

I have so much I wanted to do before moving to my permanent site (shopping for supplies and much needed items) but most of my free time, and that of the others in my village, has been spent finishing up our community project. Aside from English Club, Peace Corps also requires that we do some sort of secondary project in our training villages. While many groups do something simple like pick up trash, our group was a bit more ambitious and elected to repair and paint some of the play structures (shack type things) at the local kindergarten. The budget was only recently approved and provided so we had no choice but to start later than we’d hoped, and now we find the deadline creeping up on us much too quickly. I complain about lack of time to shop but I’m also very lucky because my site is so close to Bishkek. Bishkek is where volunteers stock up because, it being the capital and all, Bishkek is where the most selection of “stuff” is available. I guess I don’t really need to be in a hurry, but it would’ve been nice to not have to worry about supplies once I’m at my site.

Let's see... what else is new.. Oh! At the end of training we are required to take a test to see how our language skills are coming along. Our group took it yesterday and I did pretty well. I got intermediate high, which, to put it into perspective, is a 6 out of 10. Considering that 10 means completely fluent I think a 6 is pretty darn good after only 2 and a half months. It is also the minimum grade that Peace Corps requires before agreeing to pay for a second language tutor. This means that I now have the option to start learning Russian, on top of Kyrgyz. I am very interested in doing this but I think I'm going to wait until I feel more comfortable with Kyrgyz before I start confusing myself with a second language.

Anyway, I think that's about it. I know it's been a while since I've posted pictures so I will try to get some up very soon. For now, here’s a few more tidbits:

In Kyrgyzstan..
- Married people wear their wedding rings on the right hand, instead of the left.
- Women are very open about breast feeding their babies, which I was not expecting in a Muslim country. Also, if two women in a family have a baby at similar times, so that both are breast feeding, there seems to be no issues with one woman breast feeding both of the babies while the other is busy. Or maybe that’s just in my family... not sure.
- Drunk driving is not an issue, it’s quite normal here. In fact, if you refer to it as a bad thing people will think you are strange. Probably one of the reasons car accidents are so common..
- Santa Claus lives in Kyrgyzstan. No, seriously. There was some study done in Switzerland that came to the conclusion that if Santa Claus was real (and he is, of course), this is where he would live. Because of Kyrgyzstan's convenient central location, living here is the only way Santa could make his yearly, worldwide present delivery trip in one night. Really. Google it.
- On the note of holidays, New Year’s here is kind of like a combination between Christmas, 4th of July, and Halloween. Trees are decorated, Santa comes out (or Ayaz Ata in Kyrgyz), and, as if that's not enough fun already, people dress up in various costumes. Then there's tons of firework action at night. I can't wait!

End notes..
Darren - of course I enjoyed that phone call, you made my day! And I checked out your myspace, I love the new mattress art. Dory really is a genius
Guia - I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cara - Wow, hi! What have you been up to?
Candis - Yes they are very much into western movies and music here. American movies are on TV all the time, but they're dubbed in Russian so that doesn't do me much good.. They also really like american rap and pop music. 50 cent and Puff Daddy are really big here. I have heard from other volunteers who have been here a long time that often times the kids in class will ask you to translate rap lyrics, most of which are incredibly inappropriate. I don't have a lot of downtime during training but when I do it's spent reading or watching stuff on my computer. The volunteers in my village also have little get togethers sometimes. It will be very different once I get to permanent site, though. I'll let you know!

I miss you all!!!!!!!!

Two days at school

The first day of school was quite an event. It's actually considered a holiday by many local communities. The whole school gathers outside in celebration of the coming year and there are ceremonies to welcome the first grade students, as first grade is when children start attending school. All the 11th grade students (due to graduate at the end of the year) give the first graders flowers, pens, and notebooks, and one lucky child is selected to carry the “key to the school” around the crowd in triumph. I gave a very brief speech, it went well. Everyone said my Kyrgyz is very good but they were probably just so happy to hear a foreigner speaking their language that they would’ve said that to anyone :P

All the children were fancied up in typical school dress. Up to the 5th or 6th grade the uniforms much resemble a French maid Halloween costume; black dress with lace trim and lacy white apron. I really wanted to take pictures but my camera is out of batteries and I forgot to pack the charger for the site visit (stupid). For the older students the only requirement is black bottom and white top. The style is up to the students and I was surprised, upon arriving in this country, to find that the youth is incredibly fashion oriented. About 80% of the clothes and accessories found at bazars are fake Dolce & Gabana, or Versace, or Prada, etc etc. In fact, just a few weeks ago I purchased a very nice “Miu Miu” purse at the bazar for only $10! The purse I brought with me has very thin material (easily cut) and it does not zip (easy to infiltrate), both things that could become problematic with all the pick pocketing and theiving that Peace Corps constantly warns us about.

Anyway, back to school. The first day was pretty much just a celebration and a party. A big lunch was prepared for the staff (I don’t think that will happen everyday, but it was delicious) and many toasts were made, which meant that many bottles of vodka came and went. The second day was a little more school-like but we were told that it really takes a few weeks for Kyrgyz schools to get into gear.

My counterpart (or co-teacher) is very nice and her English is pretty decent. All the TEFL Volunteers will be participating in co-teaching programs this year, though many volunteers in the past have not had that option. I can’t imagine that.. I’m terrified as it is, if I didn’t have an experienced Kyrgyz teacher at my side I think I would hide under my desk as soon as the students arrived. I’m sure it will get easier as time goes on, though.. And as my language improves.. I actually didn’t even do any teaching yet, I just observed, but I know this year is going to be a struggle. There is only one textbook for the entire class. I will be teaching 8th, 9th, and 10th grades, from what I can see at this point. This means students will have had a few years of English lessons but I can tell that the level of English is going to be very low, and non existant for some. Because of all the corruption in the school systems here many students advance to higher levels without doing any of the required work.

My co-teacher also teaches German and it turns out that for some of our classes we will be teaching German and English at the same time, because there is not enough time/space to split the classes.

It was very hot the second day and two students were working on jimmying open one of the class windows when it shattered on top of them. No one was hurt, luckily (and miraculously), but it is a testament to how things here are a bit less reliable than I may be used to. While no window may be nice during the sunnier months, I’m hoping it will be fixed before winter comes along. Unfortunately, repairs are not a guarantee.

I know I just mentioned a lot of seemingly negative things but I’m actually quite excited to get started. And from some of the stories I’ve heard the students at this school are actually pretty well behaved. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in a few weeks!

Love to all!