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!
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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.
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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..
