Permanent Site Visit

Yesterday all of the K-16s spread out around the country to see the villages/towns that we will be living in for the next two years. It is only a 5 day visit, and then we travel back to our training villages for a few more weeks of training. We will be in our permanent sites for the first day of school, however, which means all the TEFL people will get a chance to check out the classes we will be teaching, meet the staff, and all that other good stuff. It also means we will be making very awkward speeches introducing ourselves in broken Kyrgyz. School starts tomorrow, September 1st. We swear in as real PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) on September 18th, and that is when our actual service (and teaching) will begin.

I have not had a lot of time to explore my village at this point but I did check out the school and it’s very nice. There was a recent project organized to set up a room for computers. This means that sturdy bars were put on the door and windows, to prevent the obvious, so as soon as I’m ready to start some secondary projects I have a wonderful place to set up a computer lab! Other than that, it’s a pretty standard village.. Various farm animals roaming the streets, a few run down buildings, large fields of corn and sunflowers, and lots of kids with no supervision.

I had an awkward moment when guesting with my new host family yesterday. We were all seated around a large table of food and the hostess started to serve tea. As she started, her husband began singing/chanting very softly at the end of the table. His very young son was next to him, clinging to his arm, so I did not think much of the singing, assuming he was trying to calm his son, who had been crying a bit earlier. As soon as I got my tea I put sugar in it and started mixing, the spoon making soft clinking noises as I stirred. A few people looked over at me strangely, but I did not think much of this either, as most people here in Kyrgyzstan look at me strangely. I then notice that no one else is touching their tea... A very strange thing when sitting at a Kyrgyz dinner table. Then the host becomes quiet, and everyone raises their hands in front of them, palms turned up, like an open book (the traditional sign of prayer in Muslim families). It is at this point, of course, that I realize my daftness... Everything clicks and I kick myself for not recognizing that the host was praying and not singing to his son. How rude it must’ve looked for me to immediately start stirring my tea, looking around with a big ignorant smile on my face.. This form of “grace” was new to me, not practiced by anyone I've met in my current village, but now I will recognize it if it happens again. I also think it might have had something to do with Ramadan, which starts really soon . In any case, I don't think I insulted them too much because they gave me a joluk (head scarf) as I was leaving! That was a nice surprise, and a very traditional (and pretty) gift.

A brief description of my new family: Very big family! I believe there are 10 people living at the house, including me. This includes 5 kids, which is exciting because I requested a family with children. One of them is only 5 months old and he is so adorable! But I may have some noisy, crying filled nights in the near future.. All of the kids are really cute and the family is very nice. My only worry is that the only furniture I have in my room is a bed, a table, a chair, and a coat rack. I'm not really sure where I'm supposed to put my clothes.. I'll figure something out, though. Maybe just live out of my suitcase for the next three months? The set up of this house is a bit different than my training house so it may take a while to get used to but I'm excited to finally start cooking for myself!

We are required to live with host families for the first three months of service and then, if apartments are available in your area, there is the option of moving into an apartment. Peace Corps has informed me that I already have an apartment ready and waiting for me, which is super incredibly awesome! It has a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and.. wait for it... a toilet! No hot water but that's okay, just running water feels like a luxury. The only issue is that the apartment doesn't have central coal heating. Peace Corps gives us electric heaters for the winter but there's supposed to be a lot of black outs this winter so no coal heating system would be very bad. This just means I may have to stay with my family through the winter and then move out closer to spring.

A special shout out to any relatives of K-16s that may be reading (ie. Leslie’s mom.. hi! your daughter is awesome!). I’m glad you are all reading and enjoying! I also recently added some links to blogs of other volunteers that I'm training with (on the left side of the page). I encourage my own relatives to check those out for more/different(/maybe a lot of the same) info and to get different perspectives about the training process, the village we live in, and perhaps Kyrgyzstan in general.

Happy Kyrgyz Independence Day!

It's all about the little things..

I thought it might be fun to let you in on a bunch of little stuff about Kyrgyzstan. These are all things that I found interesting/funny/noteworthy:

- Some Kyrgyz families believe that both drinking cold water and sitting on cement will cause women to become sterile.
- 81 in the Kyrgyz language is pronounced (literally) “sex n’ beer”. We can’t help but giggle whenever it is used. Juvenile, yes, but we’ve gotta get our kicks somehow! On a similar note, the word for diamond (as in diamonds, clubs, hearts, spades... I don’t know if the stone is the same) is “booby”... (giggle)
- Cigarettes range from 40-70 cents a pack and you can get a decent size bottle of vodka for under $2.
- There are no traffic laws here (well, I think there are, but they are not enforced) so the roads are CRAZY. Lanes mean nothing, and stop lights often mean nothing as well. Not to mention that it’s fairly common for herds of cattle, sheep, and goats to be blocking the road. I have been in a taxi when this has happened a few times and they tend to just honk their way through, slowly bumping animals out of the way as they go. No wonder Peace Corps won’t let us drive.. I think I’d be too scared to, anyway. As it is, I’m scared just crossing the street.
- If there is a red sunset and/or there are a lot of stars in the sky it means that the next day will be hot.
- Tea is so popular here that it is given to babies in their bottles.
- Salt is a bad omen. One of the volunteers in our group learned this the hard way.. Every year the group of incoming volunteers has a “culture day” on which varying skits about Kyrgyz life are performed. Our group did a Kyrgyz marriage/wedding. The aforementioned volunteer thought it would be clever to throw salt all over the place, pretending that it was rice, a common tradition in American culture. Unfortunately for him, this did not go over well with the locals. All the host families saw the salt and some came to the conclusion that he was performing black magic, and now think that he is dangerous. Hopefully this will blow over quickly. Conversely, sugar is a good omen. If only he had thrown sugar instead of salt..
- It is good luck if a bird flies into your home. This means your family will come into some money in the near future.
- It is the responsibility of the school kids, as part of class, to clean the school/classroom once a week. Also, I hear it is normal for teachers to hit their students, and not uncommon for students to pay for their grades.
- There is no daylight savings here. Our clocks will remain the same all year long.

These are just a few of the things I have experienced/heard about since being here.. I’m sure the list will grow as time goes on.

On a more exciting note, we found out our permanent site placements today! I will be in the exact same area but in a different village, one hour outside of Bishkek (the country's capital). The village is actually currently being used as a training village (so they will be semi-familiar with Americans), however I will be the first volunteer staying there for my two-year service.

More later! I'm in a rush (as always)

Thanks to all who offer encouraging words!

Contact Info

Hello all! Thought I would make a quick post containing my contact info. I sent an e-mail out a while ago containing my address but it will only be my address for one more month and, seeing as how it can take up to a month for stuff to get here, I figure I'll wait until I have my permanent address to post it up here.

I did get a cell phone, however, and phone calls are always appreciated! For those of you in California/other west coast states I am 13 hours ahead, so keep that in mind. Though I'm sure I won't mind getting woken up by a familiar voice. It is free for me to recieve calls and it would be cheapest for you if you get a phone card or if you use Skype. Skype is a computer telephone program, very easy to download and use, and I hear it costs only 15 cents a minute to call Kyrgyzstan. My phone number is: (011) 996 550 432330. The 011 is to get out of the states (or so I've heard, you might want to play around with it), 996 is the country code, and the rest is my cell phone number.

I find out my permanent site in 3 days! I'm so excited!! I'll try to let everyone know what area I'm going to be in as soon as I find out! Bye

One month in Kyrgyzstan

It's wedding week in my host family (2 different marriages) and so it's been pretty busy. Not a lot to say at the moment but here's some more pictures!


English Club! Playing memory with the boys

And Leslie with the girls. Everyone here can squat like this for hours, it's incredible

I helped make some preparations for one of the wedding parties. Sitting next to me is my apa (host mom) and everyone else is extended family

Me and grandma showing off some samsi, which i helped make, very delicious.

Cute kids. They love having their picture taken


The volunteers in my village decided we would try to make an American breakfast..

Which meant french toast made in a toaster oven..

Because the pan was occupied with omelettes

It turned out very delicious

And then we did dishes the hard way

Thanks to everyone who leaves comments! I read and enjoy them all! I think i have raked up quite an internet bill now so I must be leaving..

Life in Training..

So, I bet you're all wondering what I'm actually doing here. Well, I shall tell you.

The big group of K-16s (depicted in my last post) has long since been split up into smaller training groups. Different groups live and train in different villages, all of them within easy travel distance of Kant, a larger city in the area. There are 9 people in my group, and we are all getting along surprisingly well. Or perhaps not that surprisingly.. A shared experience such as this can be quite a bonding device, after all. But that's a discussion for another time.

We train six days a week, with Sunday as our day off. Our days begin at 8-8:30am and end anywhere from 3 to 5pm, typically. On Wednesdays all the groups from different villages meet up in Kant, we call it "Hub Day", and have training sessions together. Saturdays are half days, usually ending after lunch, at 1pm. The mornings are reserved for language training, while the afternoons tend to rotate between cultural and technical training. Additionally, all the groups are supposed to have started their community projects this week. For my group, this means English Club, which we hold two days a week, for an hour each day. We had our first English Club on Monday and it went really well! Slightly awkward and slow at times, but I had a good time. It's mostly young kids, which is fun, and it's definitely good training for when we are actually teaching a class.

So that's my schedule, pretty much. Here's some more pictures (because I know that's everyone's favorite part, anyway..):

I'll start by introducing my village a bit more.

This is the new town mosque. Men only. Supposedly there is an older one for women but I have yet to find it.

This is the high school. And yes, that IS a cow grazing out front. Sometimes there are also donkeys. And chickens. Not to mention the village's abundance of stray dogs and cats.

This is the school playground. Also a popular grazing area for the village's farm animals. In the afternoons it is usually filled with children playing various games, soccer being a big one. I must admit that I worry when I see lots of kids here. As you can see, the equipment is not the most sturdy and most of the structures are covered with sharp, rusty pieces of metal. Not to mention that this becomes a popular drinking area for men after dark. Translation; there is glass EVERYWHERE.

The post office/barber shop. Bet that's a combo you never expected to see!

This is what I see across from where I live. The first thing you will probably notice is the old, rundown, Soviet cafe. In the foreground you can also see a well/water faucet. This is where most of the town gets their water. I am lucky to live so close to it.

Now some landscape pictures..

This is a picture taken from the beginning of the main road that runs through the village. You can see the Tien Shen mountains in the background.

Mountains to the left of the village (we are in a valley)

More of the Tien Shen mountains, taken from behind the village (by another volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous. In any case, I cannot take credit. Nice pictures, you!) As you may notice, sunflowers and corn are the crops of choice in this area.

Miscellaneous pictures:

A popular brand of detergent in these parts (tehe)

A few of us decided to try and make french fries. Unfortunately, the electricity went out right as we finished chopping the potatoes, so we couldn't use our stove. It all worked out, however, because we got a chance to use our wood-burning, stone stove! L to R: Joni, Leslie, Frank, Deanna (all volunteers in my group) and then you can see my host sister, Aliya, helping us by preparing the fire down below.

Mmmm, the fries turned out sooo good

Who said you don't eat well in the Peace Corps? Haha, Kyrgyzstan is obviously an exception to that rule. (I should also mention here that feasts like this aren't necessarily typical, though not completely uncommon either. Everyday for lunch our groups eats at a different volunteerХs host family's house and I think they pull out all the stops for us. We have been getting prime treatment, and oh man has it been delicious. It will be different at our permanent sites, though. Bummer..)

And here is my host brother preparing to partake in the slaughtering of a goat. That's right folks, I witnessed my first animal slaughtering last weekend. It was a birthday and it is typical at such celebrations for the main course to be slaughtered immediately before the meal. Joni was with me, thankfully, so I wasn't the only uncomfortable, squeamish American in attendance. After it was over, however, we both agreed that it wasn't as traumatizing as we thought it would be. The family prayed first, thanking god for the animal and, I believe, thanking the animal for giving up it's life so they could eat, before finally slitting it's throat (I have a much more graphic picture of the actual process but I thought it more polite not to post that one). Anyway, it was a very personal procedure. Much more respectable, I feel, than buying packaged meat that came from a slaughter house..

Wow, this actually turned into quite a long post. Hope you enjoyed!

To my friends and family: I love and miss you all!