A Day in the Life of a Volunteer.. And Then Some

The weather on Friday was absolutely beautiful. It must’ve been at least 70 degrees. Finally, I thought to myself, Spring is officially here! The entire day I was raving about how nice it was outside to anyone who would listen to me. They would respond with agreement, and then follow it up by saying that all weather reports claimed it was going to snow the next day. Impossible, I thought.. I don’t believe it!

Later that night, I realized I was definitely wrong. I was staying with Meredith, and we were sitting with her host mom, drinking tea, and chatting. All of a sudden it sounded like planes were flying overhead, which isn’t unusual as the Russian air base is nearby her village. But it wasn’t planes this time, it was just the wind announcing that a storm was on the way. We were expressing our distaste in the fickle weather when Meredith’s host mom exclaims, “Meredith! Isn’t your laundry hanging outside?!”

She gets up to go retrieve it and I follow her outside to lend a hand, as she spent all morning doing laundry and there are four full lines of clothes hanging to dry. It’s dark out so she turns on the yard light and we both groan as we see that half of her clothes are now scattered across the yard, which consists, almost entirely, of half-dried mud and cow shit. We run over and frantically start picking things up. It’s the nature of wind to have the most effect on those items which are the lightest, so, unfortunately for Meredith, this means that most of the garments now on the ground are the intimate ones that you’d least like to see covered in brown splotches...

We’re running around gathering clothes, and I can’t help but laugh at the situation, when the power goes out. Kyrgyz power lines are not very strong so when it gets really windy the electricity is shut off to avoid fires from fallen lines and whatnot. I am mid-crouch, with my hand reaching out to a pair of underwear when everything turns completely black.. and I can’t help but laugh a little harder.

We gather the rest of the clothes by the light of my cell phone, bring them inside, and then light some candles.

“That really sucks,” I say sympathetically (as I’ve been in similar situations), “What are you gonna do?”

“Fuck it,” she says in exasperation, brushing the filth off of a shirt. “I’m so not washing everything again..”

To make matters worse, in the rush of bringing the clothes in we leave our shoes outside on the stoop. It’s part of Kyrgyz culture to take your shoes off when entering the house, but in most houses there is a space inside the door reserved for footwear. With laundry on the mind, we aren’t thinking, and don’t bother bringing them in. We realized our mistake the next morning when we go outside to find our shoes soaking in the rain.

The rain quickly turns into snow and the weather reports are proven true.. It doesn’t stop snowing the whole day. As my shoes were drenched, and I was dressed for 70 degree weather, I’m inclined to say that Saturday was not a good day. But as I’m writing this, on Sunday, it is sunny once again.. Though from the sound of all the snow melting off of my roof right now you’d think we were still in a rainstorm.

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I wrote that at home yesterday on my laptop, but as I sit at the Peace Corps office now I realize that there is some news I should share with everyone..

I’ve decided not to pursue Jamaica. I still think it would be an amazing experience, and I realize that if I put it off and then decide to do it later in life (which is possible) I won’t have the sway with Peace Corps that I do now, but I’ve been getting really excited about law school recently. I know that law school will still be there even after another term of Peace Corps service, but I feel like I’m ready to start that chapter of my life. Everyday I’m less and less willing to put it off for another two years.

This realization got me thinking about what I would do with all the time in between Peace Corps and the start of the 2011 school term. It is a whole year, after all, so I don’t want to just be sitting around living with my dad in Cameron Park (even though I love you dearly!), and with the economy as it is now my chances of getting a job that pays more than minimum wage are slim to none.

Then I remembered a few other volunteers talking about doing AmeriCorps when they get home. AmeriCorps is very similar to Peace Corps, they would just be serving communities in America instead of abroad. AmeriCorps provides a modest living stipend, the opportunity to continue working with people in need, and it doesn’t require a two year commitment. To top it off, instead of offering a readjustment allowance, the way Peace Corps does, AmeriCorps gives you the option of accepting a small cash sum at the end of your service, or a larger sum that can only be used to pay for education. This sounds perfect for me!

I am still gathering information about how to apply and what my options would be, but I’m excited about this idea and I hope it turns out to be a realistic possibility for me. I’ll let you all know more once I know more myself!

That’s it!

Dogs in heat, Jamaica, and Spring

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!