27 months in Kyrgyzstan

Interupted Service

2010-05-31T22:10:00.000-07:00

My 27 months in Kyrgyzstan, ended after 22 months. On May 8th I left Kyrgyzstan with one way ticket in hand. A few weeks prior to that day, Peace Corps had issued me an "Interupted Service". Interupted Service means that due to circumstances out of the volunteers control, they can no longer serve in their assigned country. Let me explain the details of my Interupted Service.

On April 7th political riots broke out all over Kyrgyzstan and the president was overthrown. The following day Peace Corps flew all the volunteers from the southern part of the country to a safe location just outside of the capital. We waited there for 3 weeks not knowing if we were to go back to our sites, move to a different part of Kyrgyzstan or if we were going to be sent home. I'm still not allowed to publish my whereabouts during that time, but shoot me an email and I'll tell you all about it and all the trouble I got into there! : )

Eventually Peace Corps Headquarters decided to keep the country open but volunteers from my group who were living in Jalal Abad and Talas were to return home. A total of 10 of us were told to leave, five more took the optional Interupted Service.

Upon recieving the news, I was heartbroken. When I left I had two fully funded projects for that summer and I was mid-training in two different seminars. I was not allowed to return to collect my things or say goodbye to the friends that I had made over the course of the two years.

On May 8th, at 5 am I flew out of Bishkek. I extended my layover in Turkey once again and spend 10 days exploring Istanbul and the Aegean coast with my mother.

After an amazing time seeing ruins, laying on the beach and recouperating, I landed in Houston and will be staying with my parents while I look for a job in the financial industry.

Please feel free to contact me at MarthaGeneva@gmail.com. I would love to answer any questions about my experience in Kyrgyzstan or my plans for the future. Good luck to you all and thank you for following this blog

Women's Day

2010-03-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

Last year I spent the Women’s Day educating people on the history and significance of Women’s Day with my NGO. This year the same group changed melody and hosted a private party at a local restaurant with everyone from the organization and several individuals with whom they work with. When I received my invitation I accepted under the conditions that I could bake a cake as the evening’s desert and I could bring a friend. These may seem like strange requests but both are crucial to my survival of any Kyrgyz celebration. The reason why I insisted on baking a cake is that nobody here makes deserts but instead they buy a cake from the bazaar. These cakes make Wal-Mart’s sheet cakes taste like a gourmet desert! The second request was made because I knew that vodka and cognac would be flowing and having somebody there with you is never a bad idea.

So with Peter, a volunteer who lives about 6 hours away from Jalal Abad, I showed up with a chocolate cake and half a dozen roses for all the women who would be there. Upon sitting down I was poured a shot of vodka and encouraged to eat some of the many salads placed in front of me. The night began formally with introductions and small talk but as people became more liquored up, the night became more interesting.

The pentacle of the evening was when we started playing games. Over the course of the evening we played four games, the first one was a relay race and went something like this. Two groups of four lined up on either sides of a hall way in front of a table with two settings of a flask of vodka, a shot glass and a salad. The first person of each team ran up to the table and opened the bottle and then ran to the back of their line, the next person ran up and poured the vodka into the shot glass and they ran to the back of the line, then the third person ran up and took the shot, then the fourth person ran up and took a forkful of salad and the cycle start all over again until the bottle of vodka was gone. It really set the mood for the evening.

The second game we played was when things started to get a bit racy. This game required six volunteers; three of the men and three women. The men were told to sit down and were give a piece of A4 piece of paper that they were to hold on their laps. Next the women were told to each sit in one man’s lap and tear the paper…not using their hands…there was a lot of wiggling and squirming in laps. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

In the third game we were all instructed to write down a line from 5 different songs, then a scenario was read out and we were to answer with our lyrics. For example one of the scenarios was “How would you describe your wedding night?” my corresponding lyric was “I get by with a little help from my friends…” Unfortunately because most of the guests were quoting Kyrgyz songs I couldn’t understand most of the jokes but apparently some people had an absolutely hilarious taste in music.

The last game that my counterpart directed was with only two players. Each person was given a spoon that was attached to their waist by a piece of string and dangled down between their calves. Then a ball was placed at their feet which they had to move to the other side of the room by hitting the ball with their spoons. The main technique used was hip thrusting!

The rest of the night was filled with dancing, toasting and eating. It will probably be the wildest women’s day I have for the rest of my life!

Protesting the Protest

2010-03-05T00:06:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month my counterpart turns to me and tells me that the following Friday I must turn off my phone for an entire day in protest of rising prises for calling units. I resisted the urge to say, "you're kidding me, of all the problems that people face here, Kyrgyzstan is protesting the rise in price for talking on their cell phones?"

I wanted to ask her why they didn't protest last fall when all of southern Kyrgyzstan was without gas, which I would like to add is our main heat source for cooking, for a month because the gas company had fallen US$2m behind in their gas payments to Uzbekistan?

Or what about the fact that on January 1st this year, the coldest time of year, the electricity prices DOUBLED. And still we have regular power outages and electricity cuts from midnight to dawn every day?

Or what about the time honored tradition of bridekidnapping?

But I resisted and I guess at the end of the day its easier to protest a rise in cell phone prices than it is to fight such over whelming battles against machines that don't want to change. That Friday I tried calling my counterpart, just to see if she was really protesting...she picked up.

The Banya

2010-02-19T02:26:00.000-08:00

Having whined profusely about the winter in my last blog I would like tell you my favorite part of winter; the banya. The banya is a building where people bathe. Volunteers and I have also adapted this noun into a verb. For example; I banya-ed today. This is a much used word in my vocabulary.

If you recollect, in my last blog I mentioned that I had to bundle up just to go to the bathroom so bathing isn’t really an option in my apartment. But one still has to bathe so I go to banya once a week. There are two grades of banya; public and private.

The public banyas cost about $1 for an hour. The process is a simple one, what you do is you gather up all your supplies (i.e. shampoo, soap, razors, flip flops, ect.,) go to the banya, change and then go into a giant room where you grab a bucket, wait in line with other naked women to fill your bucket up and then you find a spot along the wall and start bucket bathing. The first time at the banya was intimidating to say the least, but I have come to love those steamy rooms! I usually go with other volunteers and we make a day of banya-ing and a girls day out. Its better than a day at a spa!

Then there are the private banyas, these can range in price any where between $2 and $20. The nicest banya I have ever been in was with my NGO. This place was amazing! The first room you enter is the place where you change, I remember meeting my NGO there for the first time and thinking “well I’ll probably never do this with my in co-workers in the states!” The changing rooms led into two rooms, one a dining room where there was fried rice, chicken and vodka waiting to be eaten, and the second room the shower room where my entire NGO was standing completely naked. On my first banya with my NGO, I remember meeting this scene with hesitation but I quickly realized that I really didn’t have any other choice but to drop my towel and join the party!

Once I walked into the bathing room, I saw there was a forth room which was like a sauna. One thing that I hadn’t mentioned was by the time I arrived at the banya my co-workers had already been there for about 4 hours. They had made a whole afternoon of it, I’ve never been able to last more than an hour in a banya! After I got over my initial shock and started to relax, I got all uncomfortable again because my director offered to scub the dead skin off my back with her loofa… there is nothing that can prepare somebody for that!

After that point, the evening became a whole lot easier and I even managed to have fun. That night I was dropped off at home with a tummy full of fried rice, very clean and a different view of my NGO.

Its cold over here!

2010-02-19T02:21:00.000-08:00

Despite the seemingly warm weather during the end of January and beginning of February, Jack Frost has returned to Kyrgyzstan and for the last two weeks we have had regular snow storms and lots of cold weather. The freshly fallen snow was beautiful but with every snowflake that fell all I was reminded of the frozen hell that was to follow.

Unlike in America, buildings here are not heated and streets are not cleared of snow and ice. This makes leaving my warm bed very, very hard. The only source of heat I have in my apartment is an electric heater which keeps my bedroom warm but leaves the rest of my apartment so cold that I have to bundle up just to go to the bathroom. I can even see my breath while I cook! The other day I woke up and went into the kitchen to make coffee and when I went to look out the window I couldn’t see anything because my window was covered in a sheet of ice…on this inside!

In spite of these discomforts, I am one of the luckier volunteers in Kyrgyzstan for two reasons; first is that I live in Jalal Abad which is the warmest place in Kyrgyzstan. We don’t see our first snow till December and spring sets in during the beginning of March. People who live in Naryn, the most mountainous and coldest part of the country, start seeing snow in October and don’t see spring till late April.

The second reason that I consider my situation significantly better than most people is that my office is heated. Many volunteers still have not returned to work since the winter break because their schools or offices are so cold that their sites have been closed till it starts warming up. I went by my site mate’s office the other day and the entire time I was there I wore my jacket and could see my breath. Props to him, if it were me I don’t know if I could find the motivation to go to work under those conditions.

Even with these luxuries I will still complain! For me, the worst part of winter is after the snow when everything turns to ice. The sidewalks become runways of death and the bazaar is a frozen hell! In addition to the fact that about the only thing you can find in the bazaar is carrots, cabbage and onion, shopping in the bazaar is awful because you still have all the pushing and hassling of the bazaar but its on ice. Knock on wood I haven’t fallen this year, but last year I fell and walked out of the bazaar with a cold, wet butt and mad as hell!

Right now, everyone is cranky because of the weather but everyday I remind myself that we are a little bit closer to my favorite season in Kyrgyzstan; spring.

P.S. As of today I have exactly six months till I C.O.S. (Close of Service) and leave Kyrgyzstan.

Transit Trip through Turkey Pics added

2010-02-08T00:12:00.000-08:00

Istanbul is a very common transit station for flights coming from the West to Central Asia, the first time I traveled to Kyrgyzstan I waited impatiently at the airport for 9 hours between flights. This last time I took advantage of my layover by extending it by 4 and half days so I could see Istanbul’s notorious sites, get my fill of seafood and temperate weather before I returned to Kyrgyzstan for my last 8 months of service.

Prior to this trip, September had brought a change of events that allowed my dad to accompany me during my stay in Istanbul. Initially I was excited to experience Istanbul with him but it wasn’t until the plane left American tarmac that I realized just how much I needed him next to me. I hadn’t been ready to leave my family or friends to return to Kyrgyzstan and having him there for the long flight back and those few days before I returned to Kyrgyzstan made the journey significantly less painful.

Upon arriving in Istanbul, the first thing we did was drop our luggage off and have lunch. While walking through Old Town looking for a place to eat I distinctly heard someone scream “Martha!” When I turned around a saw three Peace Corps Volunteers who were also on their way back to Kyrgyzstan and had taken advantage of their 9 hour layover and gone into the city for a bite to eat and a quick tour of the Blue Mosque. Upon seeing them there were a flurry of words about America, Kyrgyzstan, New Years, Christmas, and the ending of service. Eventually I excused myself and Dad and I continued our search for food. Not long after we found a small café on one of the main streets and had freshly squeezed orange and pomegranate juice, Turkish coffee and crepes.

That first day all we saw was the grand bazaar. We had not even walked through the entrance gates before we were caught completely off guard and dragged into a carpet shop where we were served hot apple tea and the shop owner shared the history of carpet making in Turkey and showed us carpet after carpet. Let me tell you, if I had the money he could have sold me ten carpets within the first 8 minutes! They were beautiful, but as I am a Peace Corps volunteer and my dad is not in the market for a carpet, he dragged me out of there before the shop owner could show us the other half of his stock.

Once we were in the bazaar we were approached by carpet salesman after carpet salesman. Each one had a different phrase to catch our attention, it varied from; “Let me help you spend your money,” to “You walk like you want to buy a carpet.” It was amazing; they all spoke excellent English, had at least one relative and one friend somewhere in America and they all had a carpet specifically for you! Between beating down salesmen and fighting our jetlag, the two of us lasted all of two hours in the bazaar before we retired back to the hotel.

The next day, much refreshed from a good night sleep, we started our day with a lovely cappuccino and headed to Hagia Sophia. The entire time I was guided by my dad who read aloud from our guide book, Istanbul by Rick Steves. I highly recommend his travel series as it is very thorough and filled with fun facts like Paris’ Notre Dame could fit inside of the Hagia Sophia and the statue of liberty could do jumping jacks within the walls of the Hagia Sophia….graphically described, Rick. We filled the rest of our day with the underground cisterns, the Blue Mosque and a dinner at a lovely little seafood restaurant which we only discovered by getting lost while in search of the Spice Market.

The next day we continued our newly developed routine of waking up a late, enjoying a leisurely cappuccino (or two) and eventually site seeing. The first item on our agenda was the Topkapi Palace. In addition to the beautiful architecture and well manicured courtyards there was a huge collection of precious jewels, emperor’s clothing and ancient artifacts including the Islamic prophet, Muhammad’s footprint, a couple of his beard hairs and the hand and forearm of St. Peter in a gold cast. While looking at these artifacts there was a imam (Islamic priest) singing excerpts from the Qur’an giving the gallery a very eerie atmosphere. As I walked amongst the collection I continuously peered around corners looking for Indiana Jones!

That day, two of my best friends in Peace Corps, Fritz and Ginger, were meeting their children in Istanbul for a family vacation. When we realized that they would be in Turkey the same time my dad and I would be we decided to spend the day together. So the following day, my dad and I trekked over to their hotel and I had an opportunity to meet their children who i had heard so much about and my dad had the opportunity to meet them. After breakfast we took a cruise along the Bosporus River all the way to the Black Sea. The cruise took all day so after we got off the boat, I had to go back to the hotel to pack for my return to Kyrgyzstan.

Saying goodbye to my dad was really hard but once I got to the airport I had calmed down and bumped into another Peace Corps volunteer going back to Kyrgyzstan on the same flight. Having that time in Istanbul with my dad made that last flight into Kyrgyzstan infinitely easier, now I'm hoping on my way back to the states, I can meet my mother there and see the rest of Turkey!

Back online!

2010-01-28T22:53:00.000-08:00

Over the last nine months I have been horribly negligent of my blog. I wish I could attribute it to some exciting change of events or even a busy schedule but in reality the only excuse I have is laziness and lack of imagination.

As I have been here for over a year and a half, life in Kyrgyzstan is no longer a new adventure, rather it has simply become life as I know it but I must remind myself that despite the fact that I find my daily activities mundane it is still a foreign world to people who read this blog. So my one of my (many) New Year’s resolutions is to maintain this blog for the next 7 months of service which remain for me.

Since I have last written I have developed a series of professional development classes for local university students where we have developed their professional skills, resumes, practiced filling out applications and addressed many other practicalities which they are not taught in school but are crucial for a successful career.

Last November I finally witnessed the Central Asian game of Ulok, an ancient game where two groups of men ride horseback and attempt to throw a decapitated goat carcass into one of two barrels. It was FACINATING!

More recently, after a year and a half in Kyrgyzstan I took my first out-of-country vacation back to Texas. Flying out of Kyrgyzstan, through Turkey and over the Atlantic Ocean, I feared reverse culture shock of reentering American society. I imagined the shock I would have when my electricity never turned off or the over-whelming amount of peanut butter and pork I would eat. I had heard horror stories of other volunteers returned feeling so out of touch with American pop culture that they could hardly follow their friends’ conversations on the recent reality shows or celebrity gossip, but within my first days back home I realized, rather anti-climactically, that everything just seemed as it should and I felt at home immediately. Although the development of Twitter, Snuggies and the overwhelming number iPhones did seem very bizarre to me…

During my month back home I spent a lot of time with my family, I even had a chance to swing up to Missouri and see my grandma, uncles, aunts, cousins and my roommate from my freshman year of college. Four of my best friends flew/drove into Houston to spend New Years with me- which I would like to note, I spent hours agonizing over for two reasons; first I was combining high school friends and college friends, and secondly we were celebrating New Years and I hadn’t been to a bar, let alone a club in a year and a half. Despite all of my anxieties the weekend went beautifully. I am truly blessed to have such amazing friends and family.

By the end of my time in the states I had gained six pounds, illegally downloaded more music and books then I know what to do with and recharged my (metaphorical) batteries for my last 7 months in country.

Horseback ride Pics added

2009-09-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

Kyrgyzstan is famous for its beautiful, untouched landscapes and up until this summer I had never taken advantage of my proximity to these huge mountains and had only enjoyed short hikes around the mountains. So when Fritz and Ginger, my two site mates, invited me to accompany them and three other volunteers on a four day horseback ride through Arslenbob I gladly accepted.

On the first Thursday of August we all drove up to a little mountain town called Arslenbob. I had been there once before the previous winter when it was covered in snow but arrived this summer to find the snow to be replaced by wild flowers. That night we all sat around over dinner with a couple bottles of wine laughing about how sore we were going to be and how delusional we were to think that we could make the trip comfortably. I know I was not the only one who went to bed that night anxious.

The next morning we were picked up at our guides house by 8 horses and 6 guides. It took about thirty minutes to arrange all the bags and supplies onto the horses before we could leave. That day we rode until 7 o’clock that night, only stopping for lunch and a few short stretching breaks. It had been a hard day. There had been terrifying cliffs, steep slopes and rocky trails so you can only imagine the distress we all felt when we realized there had been a miscommunication and the three tents we ordered for the group were not there. As we all stood there looking at each other unsure of what to do, a faint rumble in the not-so far-distance put a little more angst into our stares. After much discussion and insistence, the guides convinced us to take their tents as they had brought tarps and mats to sleep on and insisted that they were used to sleeping under the open sky.

Before dinner had even been made, it started to hail so all the Americans piled into one tent with a bottle of wine and the guides piled into the other. Thankfully for the entire group it turned out to be just a brief rain and we were able to continue on with dinner. It wasn’t 10 minutes after I ate before I crawled into my sleeping bag and fell asleep.

The next morning we woke up surrounded by skyscraping mountains behind the small valley which we had slept in. Compliments to the brief rain and hail the night before, the air was crystal clear and mountains that were 30 miles away were clear enough to look 5 miles away! Sitting over breakfast, I ate in silence just taking in the absolute beauty of the view. Immediately after breakfast we packed up our stuff and resumed our ride. By lunch we had made it to our final destination, the Holy Lake. The Holy Lake was a small alpine lake which was nestled amongst snow capped mountains. The water was pristine blue and crystal clear, looking at it all I could think of was a glass of icy blue raspberry cool-aid as that was the only memory I could liken to that color.

We set up camp and had lunch on one of the smaller lakes just a mile away from the main lake, and after we had all eaten we rode around the lake just admiring the beauty. On one side of the lake there were groups of people camping and enjoying the lake as we were. They welcomed us to their country and offered us the fattiest sections of their mutton and large bowls of kumis (fermented horse milk) demonstrating great hospitality. Only because of the tremendous kindness they showed us were we able to choke down the meat and chug the kumis.

Unfortunately the next morning Brock woke up sick because of the meal and spent the rest of the day walking behind the horses. That same morning Fritz had us all worried as he woke up so dizzy that he was unable to stand for the first half hour of the morning. As the day progressed they both started feeling better and we decided to continue with the original schedule rather than take a short cut to get the two men home. That day we were all pretty eager to get Fritz to a lower altitude in hopes that his vertigo would ease but it didn’t. It was only after we returned to Jalal Abad and one MRI test later did we find out that Fritz’s dizziness was due to misguided crystals in his ear.

The night before our last day on horseback I slept outside under the stars. It was outstanding. The next day I arrived back into town tired, dirty, sore and absolutely inspired by the trek.

The Water Master

2009-09-15T06:05:00.000-07:00

The Water Master is a jerk. He’s the guy that my NGO calls whenever there is a problem with the office pluming, so naturally he is the guy that they would call when I am having problems with the water in my apartment.

Ever since I had moved into my apartment last April I have had a dripping faucet, compliment from my cheap landlord. Despite the complaints I left with my NGO they never found it necessary to call this water master, so it dripped all through April and May. Finally the week before I left the little, old, Russian lady below me hiked up the staircase to tell me that the pipes had rusted through and that the water was leaking into her bathroom. At that point I was a day away from leaving for PST and decided that I would just turn the water off and deal with it when I got back. Well after three weeks of being in the north I return to work and had to coax my NGO into calling the water master so he would fix the faucet and pipes. Despite my NGOs daily claims that he was coming the following day, he never came. For two weeks I waited patiently, constantly reminding my NGO about the problem. During this time I was forced to go to my downstairs neighbor with buckets to fill so I could flush my toilet and clean my dishes. After those two weeks I left for a five day camp in the north only to return and find that still no progress had been made on the water problem.

At that point my water had been turned off for over a month and I could see no reason that the water master had not come. So I handled it in the most passive aggressive (and the most effective) method I knew of. I threatened to call the water master myself! The same method worked out months earlier when I told my NGO that I was going to start knocking on doors to find an apartment to live in! I guess they figured that it wasn’t that big of a deal till I threatened to take care of it myself.

The following Saturday morning, the 4th of July, a woman from my office shows up at my door with a man in tow. They spend about twenty minutes poking around my bathroom and then report to me that he will go to the bazaar, buy all the supplies he will need and return within the hour. Despite my hesitation, my coworker paid him the expenses and left, that had me worried immediately but I figured it wasn’t my money so it wasn’t my place to say how he should be paid. That same day some volunteers were throwing a 4th of July party in a neighboring village, I was still hoping that I would have time to swing by the party.

So for the next three hours I got lost in a book, when I finally pulled myself to reality and realized just how long it had been I got on the phone with my office inquiring on the water master’s where-a-bouts. They seemed just as confused at his delayed return and called him immediately, when they called me back they told me he was on his way and would be there in 15 minutes. Another hour passed. During that hour, I went from impatient to pissed to FURIOUS. Initially I was annoyed because it became clear that I would miss the party but as I dwelled on his absence it the anger outgrew the offence. It was about follow through, being honest, basic respect, and a sense of courtesy. I was turning red as I redialed my office to, once again, ask for his where-a-bouts.

While I was on the phone there was a knock on the door. I opened the door to him and his assistant and was greeted by a faint smell of vodka. I went into interrogation mode. I ask what had taken so long, where he had been, why he smelled like vodka and ended the conversation by instructing him to work fast and to stop wasting my time. Now on a regular day I go out of my way to be a nice, accommodating person but I had been pushed over the edge, I was RUDE to that jerk, water master.

Once again I settled down to read and once again I got lost in my book. After two hours had passed I started to notice the assistant packing up his bags so I got up and asked him if they had finished. Right then the water master stumbled back into my apartment, whatever doubt I had that they hadn’t been drunk before vanished.

I could feel my whole body filling with red, hot anger. I wanted to spit in his drunk face, I wanted to throw his bags out the window, I wanted to punch him- don't worry Mom, all I did was stand there and glare at him. It took me a moment to snap out of the trance and ask him if they had finished. It was hard enough to understand his slurred Russian but it became impossible to understand him as he would unconsciously slip back into Kyrgyz. Through gritted teeth, I would remind him to speak in Russian but within half a sentence he would switch back into Kyrgyz. As I watched him stumble around my bathroom I reminded him for the third time that I don’t speak Kyrgyz but this time I lost it! I was screaming in Russian, cursing in English and shoving him out the door.

As I slammed the door in his drunk face I looked around at my apartment to see piles of pluming that they neglected to bring down and rubble all over my floor, all I could do was cry at that point. I cried and cried and cried. Eventually my coworker swung back by the apartment to see what progress was made and found me red-faced and teary-eyed. As I explained to her why I was having a break down I realized that it had been a year to the day since I had last seen my mom, dad and sister. It had all been too much for one day. She promised to take care of everything the next day and that I just needed to rest.

The following morning she came back with the water master- I could tell by his face I had scared the shit out of him by my little tantrum from the day before. My coworker sat with me while we waited for him to finish, naturally it took one more visit before I had water again. Unfortunatly my toilet still runs, my water heater doesn't work and I have no shower but I have decided to live with the inconviences before I spend another day with the Water Master.

This is all the rotting pipes from soviet times that they pulled out of my wall and left in my apartment for me to clean up. Its still sitting just outside my door!

K17 Pre-Service Training (PST)

2009-09-14T04:16:00.000-07:00

PST lasted a total of eleven weeks which had been divided into three training groups, I worked the final three and a half weeks with three other volunteers from across the country. During our time there we were responsible for giving trainings, assisting their group with their practicum, general Q &A, and wrapping up training so the new group could be sworn in as volunteers.

Unlike my work in Jalal Abad, my time was very structure during those three weeks. I started at 8 am Monday through Friday and finished at 5 pm. I had deadlines to be met and paper work to be filled out on a daily basis. By no means was this a bad thing, I really enjoyed the structure in my life! Another bonus was that everyone spoke English. I was amazed at how efficiently I was able to work when I understood and could be understood!

On the weekends I had time to see friends from the Chui region who I rarely got to see during the year because of the distance between the north and the south. Its funny, when you look on the map Kyrgyzstan in no larger than the state of Virginia but because of the massive mountain ranges running through the country it takes approximately 20 hours to travel from one side of the country to the other.

These mountain ranges also hinder the sharing of the northern and southern Kyrgyz cultures so over time two very distinct lifestyles have developed. The three major differences I notice are the food, language and dress. All of these factors are very much influenced by the surrounding countries. The food, for example, in the south has a much heavier Uzbek influence which means more spices and flavorful food, plus due to the fact that we are on the edge of the Fergana valley, we have more access to the fresh fruits and vegetables that do not grow in the north. The language in the south is also heavily influenced by the Uzbeks and is spoken much slower, while the predominant language in the north is Russian. In fact many of the Kyrgyz speakers struggle in the Bishkek metropolitan because Kyrgyz is the second language to most families. Finally the dress, this was by far the most shocking difference for me. In Jalal Abad I regularly see women in burkas, head covering and minimal amount of skin being shown. The men wear more traditional clothing and particularly in the summer you see men walking around with Kalpaks, a traditional hat of Kyrgyzstan. Upon arrival in Bishkek the first thing I noticed was women wearing tank tops, shorts and more western style clothing and the absence of traditional Kyrgyz clothing. I can only imagine the shock I will have the first time I go to an American bar!

All in all the three weeks of training was good; I met a lot of cool K17s, I saw old friends, I learned more about the Peace Corps administration and the people in it, and I got lots of shopping done but I was ready to return to Jalal Abad!

Getting to PST

2009-09-09T00:58:00.000-07:00

Last March a new group of Peace Corps volunteers came to Kyrgyzstan, like my group, they spent the first three months of their service studying the language, culture and programs. For their last few weeks of PST (Pre-Service Training) I was brought up to their training site as a trainer for the SOCD group (Sustainable Organization and Community Development.) My role was to share my experiences as a volunteer in Kyrgyzstan, answer their questions and present sessions on culture and business.

Seeing as I had never left Jalal Abad for longer than a week, my director thought it fit to invite me my co-workers over for dinner the night before I left and to send me off in a proper Kyrgyz manner. The evening started out wonderfully, we sat outside on a topchan (an elevated platform with cushions and a small table where people eat) chatting about our families and work. Eventually dinner time came around and as the food was placed on the table, the glasses were filled with vodka. Throughout the meal we went around toasting to one another, to life, to family, to health, to happiness, to Kyrgyzstan, to America and to the world.

I was having a blast! That is until I went to the bathroom and my phone fell down the toilet. Now this is no western style toilet where your phone just plops into a bowl of water, no this is an outhouse where your phone falls down a deep, dark hole and sinks into years worth of shit. There was no way in hell I was getting that phone or SIM card back (although I have known more than one volunteer who has…) But this occurred late enough in the evening that I didn’t really care all that much and returned to the table unfazed to continue toasting with my co-workers.
I wake up the next morning at home with a splitting headache, a revolting taste in my mouth and the horrifying realization that I had to buy a phone, pack for three weeks of training and get to the airport all within the next three hours. That was a very painful morning.

Waiting for me at the airport was the new group of volunteers who had just spent a week visiting their new site, I did my best to hide my excruciating hang over, but several volunteers commented on the lack of color in my face. As I recounted the events of the previous evening, I reminded them all that this was the perfect example of how Kyrgyz parties got out of hand very quickly. I hadn’t even gotten on the plane and I was already showing them the ropes!
After check in, as we are waiting for the one and only flight out of Jalal Abad that week, an air traffic controller comes into the sitting area alerting all passengers that not only was the flight delayed but we were going to have to make a quick stop in Batkent (a restricted area where Americans are prohibited to go for safety reasons.) Seeing as I thought the Peace Corps security officer should know that we were going to the one prohibited place in Kyrgyzstan, I immediately started fumbling through my bags to find her phone number- which had been programmed into my phone that currently sat at the bottom of five feet of crap. I thought my head was going to explode.

Once the security officer cleared the situation we all boarded the plane for Batkent/Bishkek. At this point I am still in a very fragile state so when the turbulence began shaking the plane and the lady next to me started puking, it was really just a matter of seconds before I started puking as well. When we finally landed and got off the plane, I immediately noticed it was about 15 °F cooler in Bishkek that it had been in Jalal Abad, I was freezing in my sundress. After almost 2 hours of riding in marshrutkas from the airport to the training village, I finally arrived in the apartment where I would be staying for the next few weeks. After a bowl of spaghetti it was just a matter of minutes before I called it a night and crawled into bed.

Back in Jalal Abad

2009-09-09T00:57:00.000-07:00

After a long summer of working around Kyrgyzstan I am finally getting back into the grove of life in Jalal Abad. Coincidently, I am just in time for my one year anniversary as a Peace Corps volunteer! Naturally at this point in my service I have started to reflect on all the things I have accomplished, what I have learned and what I want to come out of the second half of my service.

In a nut shell, I have learned that things never happen on time, to always have a backup plan, to not count on electricity and to carry hand sanitizer and toilet paper in your purse at ALL times!

In regards to my accomplishments at my NGO, I have found a nitch in the youth development area where I am working with local high school and university students. Although not the path I had anticipated, it has turned out beautifully as I have come to find the younger generation is comprised of the most optimistic, curious and inspiring people in the country. With my place at the NGO developed, this next year I will strive for larger trainings, bigger camps, at least one seminar and multiple learning activities for students of all ages.

For the next couple of blog entries I will be catching up on all the activities of the summer. Thank you for your patients as I have been absent for such a long period of time.

The Sacrifice

2009-04-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Currently I host three English clubs a week; Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Last Monday the English club subject was the different holidays celebrated in Kyrgyzstan, this includes Christian holidays, Muslim holidays and non-religious holidays. Over the last nine months I have come to discover that the Kyrgyz love to celebrate and they will beg, borrow and steal holidays from other cultures just to have a good time! They even celebrated April fool’s day this month!!! Included in this hodgepodge of Kyrgyz holidays are some shamanistic celebrations.

Since I have been in Jalal Abad, I have witnessed many forms of a shamanistic lifestyle including fortune telling, superstitions and even sacrifices! I’ve only seen a sacrifice once, and it just happened to be right outside my kitchen window! The day I witnessed the sacrifice was a quiet Sunday afternoon, I was cleaning up the kitchen after several volunteers had left and I happened to glance out the window. Right at that moment two men, who were standing right outside my window, slit the throat of a tied-up goat! Believe me that was the very last thing I was expecting to see! I had never seen an animal killed before, given that whenever my former host family was killing an animal I made a point of being on the opposite side of the city!

The killing of the animal and the cleaning its carcass was actually very fast! There were four people working on the one animal; two women and two men. As soon as all the blood was drained into a large basin, the carcass was hung from its ankles and skinned. The intestines and stomach were the first things removed. They were handed over to the two women who immediately started rinsing out all the undigested and half digested food. Typical, the women were left cleaning up the shit! ; )

Anyway, as the women were running water and cleaning out the guts, the two men were standing over the carcass, which is still hanging from a nearby tree, and cutting the flesh off of the animal. As they cut off a piece of meat they would throw it into a kazan, a huge pot, where they would cook the meat and make besh barmak- directly translated besh barmak means Five Fingers. This is a traditional Kyrgyz dish which consists of noodles and meat which you eat with your hands, thus its name.

That afternoon I stood at my kitchen window for over 20 minutes and just watched this family strip this animal until it was nothing but bare bones. It was so methodical, I just couldn’t pull my eyes away. They must have thought I was a complete nut!!! As soon as the process was done, I went along my way- not quite as merrily as I had been prior to the killing but none the less I went about my day. For the rest of the evening I assumed that my neighbors had just wanted some fresh meat and so killed their own sheep but was corrected the next day by another neighbor who informed me that it was actually a sacrifice to god. That was fun to get across as sacrifice and ritual are not a part of my daily language.

So with the chosen topic as Kyrgyz holidays this week, I tried to ask the students if there were any shamanistic holidays which they celebrated, all I got was blank looks. I guess shamanism is slightly above their English ability, I know that it is several leagues beyond my Russian level!!!

I've been evicted

2009-04-06T04:11:00.000-07:00

I used to assume only junkies, frat boys and the broke were evicted from their homes. But this week that stereotype was shattered when I became an evictee.

Last Sunday evening I was walking up to my apartment building when my landlady called me over with concern in her voice. After inquiring how my family was, she began to tell me that the owners of my apartment were returning to Kyrgyzstan. She explained to me that after almost three months in Russia they had been unable to find work because of this global crisis and were financially forced to come back to Jalal Abad. They would be arriving the next day and wanted their apartment back. At this last statement my jaw dropped. Finding a furnished apartment in Jalal Abad within the price range that Peace Corps had allocated was difficult and with the time crunch I didn’t know what I was going to do. Images of sleeping on my suit cases in other volunteer’s homes or me curled up on my office floor started running through my mind. My landlady must have seen the alarm in my face because she immediately started telling me that she has started asking her friends if they knew of any apartments and that all would be fine!

Since there is no Craig’s List to go look up apartments online in Jalal Abad the only thing I could do was call the other city volunteers and my NGO to let them know that starting the next day I would need their help to find a new apartment. From Monday through Wednesday, I got in touch with everyone I knew, went to real estate agents- who were located in stalls in the bazaar- and prayed for just one more day before the family began banging on my door and kicked me out.

On Thursday morning my landlady told me the family didn’t want to stay with the father’s family any longer and wanted to move in that day. At that moment, all the sympathy I had for the unemployed family disappeared. I told my landlady to tell them moving out wasn’t possible, I hadn’t started packing and I had nowhere to go; I needed one more day.

As I walked out of my apartment, I felt the week’s exhaustion hit me right in the face. I had finally found two apartments to look at and now I would be forced to take one of them. The first apartment I saw was over my price range by 1000 som (that’s a lot of money for a volunteer) and the second apartment was in my range but the only furniture in it was an old sofa that reeked of mildew!

That evening, as I was walking home to call my site mates and ask if I could sleep on their couch, I ran into my landlady once again. She looked about as tired as I did, seeing as we had both been looking for apartments for three straight days. She told me she knew of one last apartment and we could look at it in 20 minutes. Two hours later, she called me and told me we could finally see it. Conveniently, the apartment was just across the street, so the two of us walked over in our slippers to find a fully furnished apartment within my price range!

We walked back to the apartment relieve to have finally found an apartment and then said goodnight. But right as I had sat down and taken my shoes off, my landlady started knocking on the door again. Now she didn’t look so relieved, rather she looked quite mad! She told me she would help me start packing because the family was coming that night. With both of us mad as hell, we took a shot of rum and started throwing things into suitcases. She called a neighbor’s son to help me carry things across the street as she continued to pack up all my things. Over the course of the move I taught my two helpers a commonly used English phrase; “This is bullshit!” Believe me, I gave them plenty of examples to incorporate it into conversation!

Until ten o’clock at night this poor boy and I lugged bags from one apartment to the other, dumped out the suitcases and went back to the apartment for another load. The entire time I was moving, I kept going over in my head all the things I would say to this owner if I saw her. I wanted to ask her why she didn’t call me two weeks ago, I wanted to tell her how inconsiderate she was, and as I prepared the last suitcase I saw her pull up in her SUV! At that point I was so tired, all I could manage to say was that it had been a terrible week. With that said, I said goodnight and went home.

Ode to Volunteers

2009-03-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

My Peace Corps service thus far has been an excellent one; I am working at an amazing NGO, I live in a city that fits me to a tee and I have a cute little apartment to go home to every night. But for me, the element that has comforted me in the most difficult of times, has inspired me to work harder at my job and has taught me about life as a volunteer is the Peace Corps Volunteer community.

Unfortunately, this Friday four of my fellow volunteers were asked to leave the country. Not only have these four people helped shape my experience in Kyrgyzstan but they were also excellent volunteers who contributed greatly to their sites and their community.

Each of them brought something special to this country but the only one that I was able to visit at site was Joe. Although I know Kelly, James and Alex are being missed by their communities, I got to see, first-hand, how large of a presence Joe had at his site. Just two weeks ago, when I finally made the journey up to Toktogul to see him, it was made obvious immediatly that he was adored in that town. While hosting a tour of his site for Ian and I, he was greeted by almost everyone we passed. When we arrived at his house and walked into his room, we were welcomed by a giant American flag, posters of JFK, Frank Sinatra, Obama and pictures of his family posted all over his wall. I remember think that a walk through Joe’s room was probably the best reflection of America one could find in Kyrgyzstan!

Unfortunaly, despite all the work that Joe and the other three volunteers did in their nine months of service, they were still asked to leave. So with their absence constantly in the back of my mind, I have had to keep reminding myself that as one door closes, another one opens. Hopefully for the four volunteers, once back at home, they will find their stride and land on their feet. And as for me and Kyrgyzstan, this week our K17 group is arriving. Who knows what they bring with them, but for now, all I know is that our volunteer community will be expanding greatly!

Nooruz

2009-03-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, the spring equinox, all of Central Asia celebrated Nooruz. English club students had talked about this holiday all year, families had been preparing for this day all month and while all this was taking place, I had been trying to figure out what the hell this day is about. Every time I inquired, I received a different answer; some would say it is a Muslim holiday, others would tell me it is a Central Asian holiday and many didn’t even know what the holiday was about!
Eventually I gave up on asking people and researched the holiday myself. From what I have read, Nooruz is an ancient holiday that dates back to Zoroastrian traditions and is celebrated all over Central Asia. Over time it has been adopted into shamanistic practices and the Islamic religion to celebrate the coming of spring. During the Soviet period not only was the holiday discouraged but at one point it was officially banned. But now the Kyrgyz celebrate the holiday proudly with family and friends over pots of samolok at home or at games of Ulak tartysh.

For the evening of Nooruz I was in Osh with Ian. Tired from a day of walking around the city, we were hesitant when his former host family called us to join them for a Nooruz celebration at the last minute. But curiosity and love for his family dragged us off the couch and to his family’s house. As we walked through the gates we were greeted by a host of children and his family who led us to a huge pot of boiling goo called Samolok. It is made up of five ingredients; wheat, flour, water, oil and rocks!

Yeah, that’s right rocks! According to the legend, once upon time in the land of Kyrgyzstan a poor mother was desperate to feed her children a special dish for the holiday but all she had was water and stones. So that night she boiled the stones in water and the next morning she woke to a pot of sweet soup, Samolok.

Since then a few ingredients have been added to the recipe but the tradition has held and every year the rock soup is made. This year, Ian and I were invited to stir the samolok. I really appreciated being included, plus as you stir you get to make a wish! Because the samolok is suppose to cook all night long and we were not able to spend the night we were given a spoonful that evening. It had a sweet but subtle taste to it, not something I could eat a whole bowl of but it was an enjoyable spoonful!

Next year I’m hoping that I’ll have the opportunity to watch a game of Ulak tartysh, a competition played throughout Central Asia. The game originated long ago when shepherds would be watching their herd on horseback and would defend their livestock from wolves. Now instead of knocking out a wolf, a group of men will get together and attempt to throw a headless goat carcass into a goal. I can only hope that during my time in Kyrgyzstan I will have an opportunity to watch this game.

The Never Ending Journey *Pics added

2009-03-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

So last Sunday and Monday, rather than celebrating Women’s Day, I was attempting to make it to Bishkek for the K16s ‘Project Design and Management’ Training. All of the Jalal Abad volunteers and I decided that we would drive up to Bishkek since everyone has said the drive through the Tien Shan Mountains is so beautiful. Plus, we wanted to save a little extra money!

The conference started on Tuesday, but Ian and I wanted to begin our trip a few days early so we could stop about half way to see Joe, our friend and fellow volunteer who lives in Toktogul. So early that morning we went to the bus station to catch a cab to Toktogul. This turned out to be a little bit more complicated than expected seeing as Toktogul is a small town about four hours away, not exactly the most traveled to spot. Eventually we worked out a deal with a driver who said he would drive us halfway to Toktogul and then arrange for another taxi to take us the rest of the way. As promised, our driver lined up the taxi that would take us to Toktogul. Unfortunately it was an empty taxi and because we did not want to buy out the other two seats in the taxi, we had to wait for it to fill up with passengers who were also on their way to Toktogul. After waiting for over an hour without any luck of finding additional passengers, a huge tour bus stopped at the bus station and we were able to work out a deal with them. It turned out that this was a lucky turn of events seeing as the bus was pretty empty so we got to stretch out and -the best part of all- we got to watch some Thai fighting movie dubbed in Russian on a small TV at the front of the bus!!! I really had no interest in the movie so I stared out the window the entire time snapping pictures of the amazing scenery. The drive was really beautiful, for a large portion of the trip we were driving along the Naryn River which is a brilliant blue and amongst some of the most intimidating mountains I have ever seen.

Even though we ended up getting stuck at the half way point for about two hours, we managed to get to Toktogul by mid-afternoon. Once in Toktogul, Joe gave us a tour of the town’s bazaar, park, the school he works at and the stadium. It’s a beautiful town that is completely surrounded by mountains and is on the edge of the country’s largest reservoir which feeds a hydroelectric plant that produces a large amounts of energy for Central Asia. That evening we had dinner with Joe’s host family where we learned from his host father that earlier in the day there had been a huge avalanche that was blocking the road to Bishkek. At that point there wasn’t anything we could do but hope it magically cleared up by morning. It didn’t.

The next morning Peace Corps instructed us to turn around and go back down to Osh where we could buy a plane ticket to Bishkek. Unfortunately we were not the only ones who were trying to get to Bishkek so by the time we were back in Jalal Abad all the tickets had been sold out until Thursday. We were all trapped in the south! But because we are all health wardens and had additional trainings on Friday, we were instructed to buy a plane ticket out of Osh and just get up there as soon as possible. Later we found out that Joe’s counterpart, who was also attending the training, out witted us all by taking a taxi to the avalanche, climbing over and catching a cab from the other side!!!

With nothing to do up wait for our flight we took advantage of our time and wandered around Osh city for the day. The weather was absolutely amazing, flowers were starting to bloom and the city was as beautiful as ever. On Thursday we finally made it to Bishkek and were able to attend one of the four days of training. By Sunday the avalanche had been cleared and I took a taxi back down to Jalal Abad. Unfortunately I slept most the way down and missed the remains of the avalanche; I was told it was pretty spectacular!

Women's Day

2009-03-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

Two weeks following Men’s Day is Women’s Day. This holiday, much like Men’s day, has turned into a ‘hallmark holiday’ for Russia and its former Soviet Union. Originally founded to recognize the development of women’s rights and to encourage further achievement, Women’s day has turned into a national holiday where sons, husbands, brothers and boyfriends thank the women in their lives for all their hard work. Over decades of this flattery and gift giving, the holiday’s true meaning has been lost in the flurry of flowers and chocolate.

Between the two organizations that I have been working with, I have witnessed two very different viewpoints of this holiday; one being the progressive, feminist approach from my NGO in Jalal Abad and the other being the sweet, appreciative sentiments of our beauty and sweetness from the bank in Osh.

This topsy-turvy week began when my NGO hosted their Women’s Day event. This event was actually a dinner that took place about a week before the holiday in a restaurant in the center of the city which they had rented out. To create atmosphere; on one wall we created a photo gallery of active women in the community, on an adjacent wall we hung a giant poster stating “Женщины могут Всë,” (which directly translates to “Women can do all!”) and in the center we built a mini-theater where we were to present our event. To add to the excitement, my director invited several local government officials, community leaders and even the governor’s wife to watch this event. We began the dinner by introducing why Women’s day was founded and why we shouldn’t forget the historical significance of this day amongst the gift giving and celebration. From there starters were served and a video that portrayed the global progression of women’s rights and development of women’s right in Kyrgyzstan was shown. After the movie, some students came up and gave presentations on the history and relevance of women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan and as the evening began to wind down some guests started standing up and giving speeches, including two diplomats, a representative of the President’s party and the governor’s wife. The dinner went really well and after all the guests left and we had removed our decorations, we took the remaining party to the back of the restaurant where we shared a bottle of vodka and toasted to the success of the evening.

In a different city, at the end of the week, I celebrated Women’s Day over cakes, juice, and wine with the Microcredit Company. That afternoon, with the day’s work done, all the men gathered in the main office, gave toasts to “the most beautiful women in Osh” and handed out gifts. I received a pretty “yurt hat,” it’s called a yurt hat because it is a traditional piece of Kyrgyz headwear whose shape closely resembles that of a yurt. The full-time female employees of the office received a big gift basket with a set of towels, set of glasses and a juice pitcher.

This day definatly reminded me that I am a woman who was raised in an American culture. I have certain perspectives and ideas and many of them do not correspond with life in Kyrgyzstan, but as a volunteer I am learning where the fine line of sharing my opinions and accepting life as it is in Kyrgyzstan. Happy Women's Day to all, let us be thankful for all the progress towards human equality that we have made, and be aware of all the issues we still have to confront.

More pics!

2009-02-27T01:11:00.000-08:00

I have finally had a chance to put up some more pictures. These are from Christmas 2008 to the winter camp in the beginning of February. And believe me it was a cold as it looked in these pictures, but thankfully things have really started to warm up! Enjoy!

Guesting

2009-02-25T02:59:00.000-08:00

To Guest n. 1, To visit friends and family; a common Kyrgyz tradition that typically consists of hours of eating, drinking and gossiping.

Upon arriving in this country I was very quickly introduced to the practice of guesting. During PST, trainers warned us of this lengthy custom and by living with host families I became very familiar with the guesting experience! Not that it is a bad tradition, but for volunteers guesting is particularly difficult seeing as the primary activity is speaking in Russian or Kyrgyz, we are often forced to muddle our way through toasts and there is always the never relenting host who will continue to fill your plate with more food, pour more vodka, and pressure you to eat more after hours of consuming food and drink!

Initially I would tense up at even the thought of guesting but now I really appreciate the custom. In my past life, I was always so busy with school, work, going to the gym, and hanging out at restaurants and coffee houses that I would never invite people over to my house for a meal. Only with my closest friends would I go to their house for dinner and it very rarely would that last longer than two hours! But over the months of being in Kyrgyzstan, guesting seems to be one of the Kyrgyz traditions that I have truly embraced.

In the last two weeks I have hosted volunteers from all over the country, all the staff from my NGO and have been doing quite a bit of guesting myself! Most recently I had my NGO over, since I moved into my apartment I have been meaning to invite my office over for dinner for multiple reasons. In addition to offering a gesture of friendship and transparency, I wanted to thank them for finding my apartment and having been so supportive of me, for a little cultural exchange (American cuisine in a Kyrgyz setting) and finally to put their hearts to rest by proving to them that I am surviving quite well on my own. There is an assumption that, as an American, I am so depended on technology that I will surely starve without my microwave dinners, I will live in filth without Swifters and vacuum machines and my clothes will never be cleaned as I am unable to function without a washing machine. To be honest, initially their fears were not unjustified; but I have learned a lot since I have been here!

Last Monday after work, four of my co-workers and my director’s daughter came to my apartment. I had decided on spaghetti for dinner, it’s quick, easy and was a hit with my host families when I would cook for them. In my opinion dessert is a crucial part of every meal so the night before I baked a large chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Right as I finished dinner my co-workers arrived with juice, a bottle of vodka and diet coke- they have seen me chugging diet coke more than once- what can I say, it’s a rare and joyous occasion when I find diet coke and can justify spending money on that sweet, sweet beverage!

The dinner went well, we all made toasts. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and took my leftovers home to share with their families. My director surprised me with a pair of earrings which the whole group had pitched in for! They had bought them for me last Christmas and had finally found an opportunity to give them to me. I was so flattered!

Nights like that one are one of the reasons that I truly love being a Peace Corps volunteer. Even though that evening was no school built or large community project, I was still filling my role as a volunteer by making friends and sharing cultures.

Microfinance

2009-02-23T03:23:00.000-08:00

Less than a year ago I graduated from the University of Missouri with my Bachelors of Science in Business with an emphasis in finance. When I was nominated as a volunteer I was selected as a business advisor, but when I arrived at permanent site I was placed with a women’s NGO where I had little access to their business plans or financing. Although I love working at this NGO, I have been on the lookout for a side project where I can continue my finance education and share the knowledge and experience which I have.

A couple of months ago this opportunity fell right into my lap at a café while I was waiting for a friend to finish an English club. I was enjoying a cup of freshly brewed coffee (there is only one restaurant with this luxury in the whole south of Kyrgyzstan,) as I began to converse with a German man, Chris, who was also enjoying a late morning breakfast. As we introduced ourselves it was discovered out that I had a (short) finance background and he was the country director of an international program which funds microcredit financing to the rural populations throughout 13 countries in Africa and Central Asia. Upon this discovery he started telling me that he was looking for somebody to come in and give business trainings on subjects like time management, organization, using the internet and other topics which his employees had never been trained in but that he did not have time to teach them. That morning we agreed that I would start doing basic business trainings for his employees and that I would come to the Osh office once a week so I could get to know his staff and do some assessment on which areas needed attention.

Last Friday was my first day. The office was amazing, it was warm, everyone had a computer, and there was constant electricity and wireless internet!!! Up until last Friday I didn’t think that wireless internet existed in this country! Within a half hour of being in the office, I was in a meeting with the office manager, Anara, (who speaks beautiful English) and Chris. We decided that the first training would be on report writing since Chris had expressed a frustration with the lack of consistency in the reports throughout the 8 branches in Kyrgyzstan. So that day I started designing a presentation on how to write reports which will be presented to all eight branches in southern Kyrgyzstan.

At one point during the day I downloaded a couple documents about this microcredit organization to learn more about their mission and goals. My research turned out to be quite interesting. This organization is a branch of the Aga Khan Development Network which is a not-for-profit, non-denominational, international development agency based in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded and is directed by the Aga Khan, who is the spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims and a descendant of the Muslim Prophet, Muhammad. It’s a pretty cool development network that also has projects in economic development, social development and culture preservation.

By lunch time I had been assigned a second project in helping build a commercial leasing contract, a feat way over my head! But despite my insistence on lack of experience and education on writing contracts, Chris persisted that I help one of his employees design a rental lease for an office which they will be moving into shortly. To be honest I am really appreciating a new type of challenge in my work. Although I have been working very hard at my primary site, my energy has been directed to finding and initiating projects, while in this office I am given a finite task and I am to work until I have finished, a method much more common in my prior work experience. I think I will really enjoy the balance of the two work manners.

After a full day of work I was invited out with the office to celebrate Men’s Day! Men’s day is actually today and the whole country has taken the off day to recognize its men…so we celebrated Men’s Day on Friday. Back in the day, this holiday was more like a Labor Day type of holiday where soldiers were to be recognized, but over time it has become a day to celebrate men. This has been another situation where initially I was fairly stunned because in my opinion every day is men’s day, but like so many other things I’ve had to let it go as this is not my issue to confront. So I celebrated Men’s day with the microcredit office! We went out to a nice restaurant where there was lots of eating, dancing, celebrating and of course, all the women gave toasts of appreciation to the men of the office! So a shout out to all my male friends and acquaintances; Happy Men’s Day!

Spring!

2009-02-18T01:07:00.000-08:00

Spring is finally here! After a few days of spring showers, the weather is hovering around 65° F. As I walk to work everyday, I find myself looking for longer routes so I can enjoy the weather a little bit longer. Another benefit of spring’s arrival is volunteers from the north are coming to visit and enjoy the warm weather. Yesterday I had two groups of volunteers come through Jalal Abad, one just passing through and the second group is to stay for a couple of days and see a little bit more of Jalal Abad. Last night we celebrated Fat Tuesday in my apartment and today as I went to work I sent them off to see the city of Uzgyn where their are some ancint relics from the Silk Road era. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty jealous that they are out enjoying this amazing weather while I am at work!

Spring has also initiated the start of school. All of my English club students had over a month of winter vacation because the school buildings had such poor heating systems. Many schools had planned on school starting on the first of March but since this has been a particularly warm winter many schools have started early. With school open again, I have resumed my English clubs. I have decided to only have two English clubs this semester because I would like to have more time to work at my NGO and on secondary projects.

The first couple of lessons that I have had with my clubs was reading and writing letters. While school was not in session I received a package of 140 letters from 6th grade students in Houston, Texas through the World Wise School Program. This program allows a Peace Corps volunteer and a teacher in America to be matched up and to teach their students about the others culture through letters. My WWS counterpart is a social studies teacher and integrated Kyrgyzstan and Peace Corps into her curriculum so that her students could write to my students or me. About half of the letters had were written to me and half had were written to the students.

The letters from America contained more American culture than I could ever even list. The students wrote about their families, their hobbies, one boy even made a point of describing ding-dong ditching! Some of the letters were sprinkled with the southern “ya’ll,” which was an excellent opportunity to describe the different dialects in America. I even read one of the letters out to the students with a southern accent! Although they thought my monologue with a southern drawl was hilarious, my students connected with it because of the huge cultural and lingual differences between the north and south of Kyrgyzstan.

My students expressed a great interest in reading the letters and responding but I felt that one of the young women began to feel a bit defensive when some of the students asked if we had telvisions in Kyrgyzstan or video games. I tried to explain to her that the class had been learning about Kyrgyz traditions and had seen pictures of Kyrgyzstan's natural beauty rather than the major cities so it would be easy for the stuents to assume that there was a lack of technology. That prompted me to try and remember what misconceptions I had of Kyrgyzstan before I moved here. I had no idea what I was going into because most of the websites about Kyrgyzstan talked about a traditional culture and nomatic lifestlye. With this in mind, I encouraged her to explain her daily life in a way that the students would have a more realistic understanding of life here.

So far this has been one of my favorite activities that I have done with my Engish club for a number of reasons. First of all it is a chance for them to practice their Engish with someone other than myself. It gives them an opporunity to share who they are wih the world and just as importantly it allowed them to get a glimps of how they are precieved in the world. This is an activity that I would definatly do again!

Winter Camp!

2009-02-12T03:13:00.000-08:00

Last week was the first time in ten years that I attended a camp! This time around was quite different than my last camp experience! Not only was there no bon fire and marshmellos but it was also in the dead of winter! Initially the idea of a winter camp was absolutly absurd to me but with the current situation for students it made perfect sense as to why camps right now is the perfect idea! Let me explain, due to the lack of electricity and the harsh winters, almost all of the schools in Kyrgyzstan closed for the months of January and February. As a result many of the volunteer teachers, who were not looking forward to being cold and bored during the break, designed winter camps to keep students out of trouble and their minds active. Throughout Kyrgyzstan there are camps taking place about a whole variety of things but I decided to help out two of my friends that designed a camp on life skills.

With their students selected, a mini army of volunteers to control the mass of children and a small budget to work with, my two fellow volunteers pulled together an awesome camp! It was a six day, five night camp in a sanatorium in Bazaar Korgon which is a small town just outside of Jalal Abad City. Each day the kids attended three sessions on life skills. We cover subjects including; life goals, communication, relationships, HIV/AIDS, team building, problem solving, self esteem and presentation giving. I was in charge of life goals and communication, for both sessions I had a Kyrgyz volunteer help me translate a brief statement about goals or communication and then we would play a game that would reinforce what they had just learned. For example in the communication session we played telephone to practice speaking clearly, a game where students had to listen and repeat what they had heard (it was a lot more fun than it sounds, I let them throw a ball of yarn around) and for body language I had them get into teams and play charades.

After their three sessions for the day the students had two hours of activities including sports, art, English club, debate, dance or a movie. I was in charge of art. One day we decorated envelopes with magazine pictures and told them that these envelopes served as excellent wallets, another day we made friendship bracelets and for each day we had a new craft for the students to partake in. I was really afraid that the students wouldn’t take to any of the activities but it was amazing! Every activity, session and game that we played was a total hit with the kids! I really believe it’s because they had never done anything like this before and so there was no bar to compare it to!

In the evenings we would have games including Mafia, a scavenger hunt, a movie night and other fun games that would exhaust the children and put them to sleep. By the end of the week my daily mantra had become "Exaust the children so they will sleep so I can sleep!" The first couple nights were pretty rought. On the first night they were all so excited to be there that they were up late into the night giggling, and the second night they decided to reinact some American movie and put toothpaste on each other while they were sleeping! Sounds cute now but it definatly wasn't at the time!!!

All the meals were served there- as you can imagine I was terrified since I am not the biggest fan of Kyrgyz food or camp food! So to avoid starvation I had made four batches of granola and two batches of pumpkin bread! Luckily for me the food was fine and they even gave us fruit a couple of times!!! By the end of camp I was exhausted but I had so much fun! The kids had been great, I had a enjoyed setting up sessions and art classes and I got to work with some really great volunteers. Plus I learned how camps work in Kyrgyzstan so hopefully this summer I will be able to put together my own camp for some Jalal Abad City students!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-26T22:49:00.001-08:00

First of all my apologies for, once again, falling behind on my blogging. The holidays through January has proven to be a very hectic time! Apparently the holiday spirit can follow you anywhere around the world and then some seeing as it has been a month since my last entry.

Since my last update Christmas has come and gone. Once again all the Jalal Abad crew got together and created an amazing holiday feast. By far the highlight of the meal was Fritz’s homemade eggnog; it had real eggs, real whipping cream and a lot of bourbon! He said that beating the eggs and whipping the cream by hand was quite the experience! After a non-traditional Christmas dinner- chili and cornbread- we had a gift exchange. I received a pair of mittens that one of the volunteers knitted, they were absolutely beautiful! I thought only machines could stitch things that pretty!

By the end of our Christmas weekend, New Years was just around the corner and so before I knew it I was preparing for people to come in once again for another holiday celebration. This time the group wasn’t quite as large, but yet again, we cooked up quite the feast and brought in the New Year with Moldavian Champaign and Chinese fireworks- both gave me reason to fear I might not live to see much of the year 2009!

The following week flew by as I prepared for my first trip back up to Bishkek since I had been at permanent site. I, with the rest of my volunteer group, were to go to the capital for a week long training. The first two days were spent with our counterparts, I brought my director. Having my director to myself was a real gift seeing as she is always so preoccupied with work. I really took advantage of the time and got to know her and learn more about her long term visions for the NGO. The rest of the week was dedicated to debriefings on security, health care, program details, and language lessons. The days were long and the sessions became fairly tedious but every evening all the volunteers would get together, have a couple of drinks and just hang out. It was so fun to hear about what people outside of the south were doing.

By the end of the week I had become quite sick and just wanted to go home, but I had planned on staying an extra day and doing some shopping while I was in Bishkek. So I spent my last day in the north running around the city and ended up with six pounds of brown sugar, a bottle of tequila, a bottle of rum and two new DVDs!!! I’m not going to lie, I went a little over board with the brown sugar!

But now I’m back in the south where it is starting to warm up. Most of the ice has melted and I am now walking to work every day which gives me about an hour of easy exercise and lots of fresh air. February is going to be another busy month. I have plans to help out with three camps in the region that other volunteers are organizing. Peace Corps helped find funding for volunteers to put on winter camps for students because majority of the schools will be closed through February due to the lack of heating in the school buildings.

At the apartment I am feeling more and more at home as each day goes by. I had been hoping to get a kitten to keep me company during the week, but Ian surprised me with two parakeets so no cat. The parakeets are really cute, its so funny to watch them interact with each other!

Well that is about all that I have been up to over the last month. My apologies again for the month without a post, I’ll do my best to catch up and put up some extra good stories this month!

Here come Santa Clause

2008-12-19T02:38:00.000-08:00

With less than a week before Christmas, I can finally say that it is starting to feel a lot like Christmas! Jalal Abad had its first snow last night, it was really only a dusting but its always fun to get out of bed in the morning and see the ground covered in snow. In addition to the snow, the whole city is covered in holiday decoration, there are Christmas trees on sale at the bazaar, the grocery store has a giant Santa in the entrance and all the students are wrapping up their classes and getting ready for the exams- just like I was this time last year! Despite the Christmas feel, the Kyrgyz are actually getting ready for New Years.

It’s quite strange, their New Years looks a lot like an American Christmas.
I can’t figure out exactly where this Christmas spirit comes from, but an interesting fact, which I believe contributed to this Christmas spirit, was when some Swedish researchers located the most strategic place where Santa’s North Pole should be; they pinpointed Kyrgyzstan! As would I if I were Kyrgyz, they are quite proud of the fact that if Santa really existed, he would live in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan. But even with their enthusiasm, this is a predominantly Muslim country so they couldn’t quite fit Christmas onto their calendar and therefore decided to improvise. In Kyrgyzstan, Santa Clause delivers presents on New Year’s Day for all the good little boys and girls of Kyrgyzstan.

But in Osh and Jalal Abad, Santa will be joining us on Christmas day. This Thursday the Osh and Jalal Abad volunteers are all getting together on Christmas day and doing secret Santa. About a month ago we all drew names and decided on a cap of 200 coms (about $5) to spend on our secret santa. In addition to a gift exchange we will be putting together a Christmas dinner. And even though I was not present last weekend, when the volunteers were organizing the menu, I was nominated to make my synthetic sweet potatoes again! This time it will be a lot easier to make the dish because I have finally moved into my apartment!

The move took place this morning, the actual moving was easy but it was hard to leave the family. Because my Russian is not up to par, prior to packing I had a woman write a letter to my host family on my behalf thanking them for their hospitality and kindness. When I gave them this letter my host mother, host sister and the new wife all came to my room sat down and started asking why I was leaving. The one thing that I didn’t want them to do was to take my moving personal but to a certain extent I think it was inevitable since people don’t move away from family in this culture. For example a young woman only leaves her parents home when she gets married, the youngest son must live with his parents and take care of them as they get older. So when I said I wanted to move to an apartment by myself, they were a bit taken aback. Only after lots of reassurance that I loved their family and I would visit often would they accept the fact that I was leaving. In spite of the difficult goodbye, I am really excited to have my own place and the timing is perfect! This apartment is like my Christmas present to myself!

So as I move into my new apartment and slip and slide through the icy streets of Jalal Abad, keep me in your thoughts because this is the first Christmas I will spend away from my family!!! Happy Holidays to everyone!

Wish List

2008-12-11T03:09:00.000-08:00

As Christmas time is approaching I have received a couple of emails asking me what they could send me for Christmas.

Here is a wish list that I have compiled;

Coffee- ground for French press
Puzzles- (1000 piece- I got some cold winter months to kill!)
Flaming hot Cheetos
Teeth whitening strips
Chocolate
Herbal teas
Ranch dress seasoning packets
Seasoning packets for things like tacos, chili, soups, ect.
Travel money- I’m planning a trip to Uzbekistan- please send this one to my parents!

This is my mailing address so you can just print this out and tape it onto the package. Also if you can find the muslim symbol (its just a cresent moon and star) on the internet and stick/draw that onto the package as well that is suppose to deter tampering.

KYRGYZSTAN
715612 Jalalabat city
Toktagul Road
House 7, Apt. 11
Martha Haddock

КЫРГЫСТАН
715612 г. Жалалабат
Переулок Токтогула
Дом 7 КВ 11
Хэддок Марта

I really appreciate the warm thoughts that people have been sending me!

All my love,

Martha

My first Thanksgiving in Kyrgyzstan

2008-12-11T02:56:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I have been dreading since I have been in country is spending the holidays without my family. To avoid feeling homesick over thanksgiving weekend I made tons of plans with other volunteers to celebrate the holidays. Starting with Thanksgiving Day I had planned on going down to Osh to have dinner with the Osh volunteers but as the day unfolded I felt obligated to stay at work and get some things done. By the time I had wrapped up all my work I didn’t have time to travel all the way down to Osh and make it for dinner. But luckily for me, two village volunteers, Lesley and Ariel, had decided to come into Jalal Abat and have Thanksgiving dinner in the city. So together we went to the bazaar and bought all the ingredients for a nice dinner. My purchase was a kilo of pork. Now this may seem insignificant to some but this purchase was actually one of the pinnacle moments of my service thus far. To put it in perspective, let me remind you that this is a Muslim country and eating pork is taboo, thus pork is not the easiest thing to find at your local bazaar but compliments to the small Russian population that still resides in this country it is here, you just gotta know who to go to.

I had been introduced to the pork lady by Fritz, who had been directed to the pork stall by an anonymous lead who claimed he could only buy pork in the dark of the night, when no one would recognize him! To get to the pork stand I had to go deep into the heart of the bazaar and slip behind some fruit and vegetable stalls. As the pork lady and I made the deal I had to remind myself that there was no need to look suspiciously over my shoulder every five seconds or sneak around corners, this was not that exciting and that I was just buying dinner.

With my pork mission completed, we returned to my friend’s apartment where Fritz, Ginger, Lesley, Ariel and I prepared our first Thanksgiving dinner in Kyrgyzstan. To go with the pig we had a salad and mashed potatoes, and for dessert we had an apple pie that Ariel made. It was amazing! By 10 pm the power had gone out and so we lit candles and continued to sit at the table and chat through the night!

The following Saturday was when we had all of the volunteers in town and hosted the bigger Thanksgiving dinner. Initially we had planned on buying a turkey and roasting it, but buying a turkey in Kyrgyzstan is a bit more of an ordeal than it is at grocery stores in the states. When you buy the turkey here, you walk away with a live and feathery creature dangling from your arm. Then you gotta kill it, gut it, and defeather it. We opted to go for fried chicken as our main dish since you can buy chicken pre-killed.

Cooking the meal was interesting. As if preparing food without the luxury of canned goods and food processing machines wasn’t hard enough, for some reason, the whole city was without electricity and water, it was inconvenient to say the least! But since power and water outages are not exactly a rarity, we had stored up gallons of water and were able to pull together a beautiful thanksgiving dinner. Fritz and Ginger fried buckets and buckets of chicken, Ted’s mother had mailed him pecans and so Lesley made a pecan pie and an apple pie, there were mashed potatoes, salad, beans, and finally sweet potatoes.

I was in charge of sweet potatoes. When I volunteered for the dish, everyone looked at me as if I had gone mad, rightfully so since there are no sweet potatoes in this country. But my mom has an amazing sweet potato casserole recipe that I was determined to make, so based on my highly developed scientific skills I created synthetic sweet potatoes. Now this is a very complicated and scientific process but here is a basic outline of the procedure; first I analyzed the characteristics of sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are orange roots that are sweet and starchy. Following that logic carrots are orange roots and pumpkins are sweet and starchy, therefore by boiling and mashing these two compounds and combining them together I created synthetic sweet potatoes! I’ll have you know it work and was a total hit. Just call me Dr. Martha!

The following day my parents called to wish me happy Thanksgiving. Hearing them talk about their Thanksgiving dinner made me a bit homesick but as I told them about the adventures I had, all in the name of celebrating thanksgiving, I had to laugh how exhilarating (and exhausting) my first Thanksgiving had been in Kyrgyzstan.

New Apartment

2008-12-11T02:52:00.000-08:00

One of Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan’s requirements is that you must live with a host family during the three months of training plus an additional three months at permanent site. Living with a host family has numerous benefits including familiarizing volunteers with local culture and norms, language improvements and having family members show you the ropes around town. But living with a host family has been one of my biggest challenges during my service. Don’t get me wrong, I have been blessed with very comfortable homes, great host siblings, I have been included in weddings, I was present for the birth of a new family member and I learned infinites about Kyrgyz culture through these families. I can honestly say that I have really benefited from living with my two host families. Unfortunately America has instilled a sense of independence within me and I can only deal with so much of living in another family’s home! I am yearning for my own kitchen, for my own schedule and for the freedom of knowing that I am not inconveniencing someone while I go about my morning and evening routines. So come ten days, after I have served my time with host families, I will have my own place!

It all happened so quickly, less than two weeks ago my NGO director took me to look at a little apartment about 20 minutes away from the office and by the end of the week I had paid my first month’s rent! My future pad is a furnished apartment on the ground floor of an apartment building with one bedroom, living room, kitchen and get this; an indoor toilet! For the last six months my bathroom has consisted of an outhouse with a hole in the ground, but from here on out there will be no more going out in the cold winter nights to pee, just that sweet sound of a toilet flushing! Life will be good!!!

The kitchen is small and the oven can only be closed by propping a heavy board against the door of the oven, but it works!!! Last weekend I spend a couple of nights there and successfully made a loaf of corn bread with that oven. Had I seen this place 6 months ago I would have considered that kitchen impossible to cook in but I have learned a lot since then and last weekend I successfully make tacos, chili, corn bread and omelets!

In addition to the apartment I also have a huge veranda! Come summer it’s going to be great! I showed a couple of volunteers the apartment and the second they saw my veranda I could see each of them planning and arranging summer barbeques and at my house! Right across from my veranda are four little stalls, kinda like a mini bazaar, where I can buy any basic item including eggs, fruits, flour, sugar, soap, candles, bread and of course vodka!

As hard as it will be to say goodbye to my thirteen year old host sister, I think this apartment will have a huge impact on my peace of mind and comfort levels. Plus I’ll be able to distract myself from the cold by decorating my new home during the winter!

Research Project

2008-12-11T02:41:00.000-08:00

Over the last three months I have spent a lot of time working on my language, settling in, getting to know people and working with the English clubs. But now that I am more comfortable at work, I am looking for some more sustainable and long term projects. For the last month I have been playing with the idea of doing a research project where I would conduct a survey, analyze the data and then based on what I concluded I will create workshops addressing the chosen theme. Until recently I wasn’t sure what area I wanted to focus on but when I was approached by a young woman who asked me to help her translate a letter which she had received from a British family, I was finally inspired.

The letter that this young woman wanted help with was a response from a man in the United Kingdom. Apparently she had been applying for nanny jobs in America and Europe over the internet and this man had found her resume and responded by offering her a job. According to this letter she would be flown to London where she would be in charge of watching over his two children in his “big house with a lovely garden.” The letter painted a charming picture and stated that this was a well off British family who needed a little help around the house. The only problem was that the person who wrote that letter was not a native English speaker. Each sentence had numerous grammatical and spelling errors, the wording didn’t make sense and in my opinion the whole thing seemed really shady. Prior to joining the Peace Corps I had helped plan a conference about human trafficking and so I have been exposed to what human trafficking is and some of the basic methods that traffickers use in order to recruit men and women for a life of slavery. The perfect nanny job found over the internet with no legal documentation seems like a text book example of how a person gets sucked into human trafficking.

When I shared my concerns with the young woman, she brushed it off and said she didn’t think that was the case. She thought that this man seemed very nice and it would all be fine. I started asking her questions like ‘what would you do if he had lied to you and actually wanted you to work somewhere else? What would you do if he didn’t pay you? What would happen do if you became sick? What if your mother became sick, would he pay for a ticket back to Kyrgyzstan? Who would you call if there was a problem? Where would you go?’ For every question I asked, I received nothing but a blank stare. She didn’t know anyone in the UK, she didn’t know how the legal system worked or even how to fill out a visa form. There had been no planning or forethought when she started applying for these jobs around the world.

Even after over an hour of explaining what human trafficking is, why I thought her letter was a scam, and how dangerous it could be, this young woman was still blinded with the hope of finding a job in the UK. I walked away really discouraged and frustrated. All that evening the only thing I could think about was this young woman’s vulnerability. Her vulnerability didn’t come from her lack of physical strength, or her inability to understand English. Her vulnerability stemmed from her desperation and lack of planning.

This interaction is what lead me to my research and workshop idea. Over the next 2 years I want to conduct a survey where I will evaluate the long term planning skills of local university women. Based on the results of the survey I want to conduct monthly workshops for women about topics such as goal setting, long term planning, having a plan b, how to use available resources and subjects along those lines. It’s going to be a lot of work but I think that it would be really interesting and rewarding. Currently I am researching how to research. It would only make sense if my research project on effective long term planning was planned out well!

But honestly, I can only hope that through this project I will plant the seed of long term planning in the minds of young women. So that people, like the young lady that I spoke with, will start looking at these opportunities with open eyes.

Weekend in Arslenbob more pics

2008-11-18T03:23:00.000-08:00

Even before I moved to Jalal Abad I had heard about a mountain village called Arslenbob where there were spectacular views, great hiking and, like a cherry on top, the world’s largest walnut forest! Unfortunately I had not made it up to Arslenbob since I had been to permanent site so when Fritz and Ginger, my neighboring volunteers, invited me to join them for a weekend I gladly accepted.

That Saturday morning, before I left, I told my visiting host sister, who was on the verge of popping out a child, that if the baby came to call me and I would get back as soon as possible. Then Ian, who was visiting for the weekend, and I went to the center of town where we met Fritz and Ginger. Luckily for me, just as we started haggling with the taxi drivers my parents called from the U.S. so I got out of bargaining for taxi prices- thanks guys! Between the three of them they managed to bargain a taxi driver into giving us a three hour ride to Arslenbob for just under 500 com which converts to about $13. While we drove up into the mountains the sun was hidden behind the clouds so we weren’t able to enjoy the view that we had heard so much about. What we did see as we drove higher up was more and more snow on the ground! That was the first time I had seen snow in the country and it was a frosty reminder of how cold it will be over the next three months.

By the time we got to Arslenbob there was probably about 4 inches of snow on the ground. We all piled out of the tiny car that we had squeezed ourselves into and immediately we were greeted by an employee of the CBT Organization. CBT stands for Community Based Tourism and is a group that helps the local community organizes home stays and activities for tourism. This functions to direct money coming into Arslenbob to the community rather than to big hotels and tourism companies. We decided to stay with a local family for a couple of reasons; number one because it is cheaper and secondly it allows tourists to connect with the area that they are visiting. And that it did! As soon as our host picked us up, he informed us that as once we dropped off our bags and had a cup of tea we would be off to a celebration which was being hosted by his brother. When we arrived at the house we did just that, we each had our own cozy little room where we threw down our bags and then stepped into the main house where there was tea and snacks waiting for us.

I still can’t tell you with certainty what the celebration was about but I do know that it was not a wedding and there was a Muslim tradition behind it. At the brother’s house there were probably about a hundred people there with music and food. Arslenbob is 99% Uzbek so there were the same Uzbek horns that I had seen at the Uzbek wedding and tons of osh, their national dish. We sat there for an hour or two, made some toast, were introduced to our host’s family and friends. Eventually we snuck out so we could do some quick sightseeing before dinner. Our host drove us to a small waterfall which had a beautiful view and was a sight where many couples came to pray for fertility. The cliff that the waterfall was flowing off of was covered with icicles and apparently the waterfall itself would freeze within the next month. Afterwards we went back to the house, had a quick nap and then sat down for dinner, because we had eaten so much at the celebration earlier we all just had a bowl of soup and some more tea. Once dinner was over we went back to our room where there was a log stove that was heating the room up nicely and all four of us sat over a bottle of Moldavian red wine and chatted until the power finally went out.

That next morning we woke up to blue skies, a true blessing as we had not had a blue sky since the wedding a week and a half ago. After breakfast we went for a long hike that took us to a cliff where we could see the whole village of Arslenbob. The entire walk was through snow, but with the sun shining it started to warm up and eventually we all took off our coats and enjoyed the beautiful weather. From the mountain cliff the view was absolutely stunning! Gazing down on Arslenbob from that mountain reminded me very much of the small town in Switzerland that my mother grew up in. That thought was interrupted quite quickly when some traditional Uzbek music began blasting from somewhere below us!

We took an alternative route home which led us through a section of the famous walnut forest, an apple orchard and a currant farm. Eventually we swung back around to the small waterfall that we had seen the day before and made our way home. Once we got back, we sat down again for tea and snacks, packed up our things and headed back to Jalal Abad. I guess between the hike and keeping warm I had really worn myself out because we had hardly left Arslenbob before I was asleep in the back of the car.

The entire time that we were up there I did not have phone service, so when I arrived at my house that evening I found out that my host sister had given birth the night before to a little girl. The birth took four hour, but the baby was as healthy as could be and weight a whole 3 kg (6.6 lbs). The new born and her mother were still at the hospital recuperating from the birth and after a few shots of vodka to celebrate we were off to go see the new mother and child. My host family, grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins all went to the hospital, which was actually not a hospital but rather a birthing building where women went to have their babies. We were all standing outside waving to my host sister who was standing at her window when I turned to my host brother and asked if we would be able to see her. He shrugged and said maybe, he then took me to the front entrance, called over one of the midwives, handed her a 50 com note (despite my protests) and we were hurried in. Gulmeria, my host sister, looked tired but happy. It was so good to see her well but I couldn’t help but notice how small she looked without her swollen belly! I didn’t get a chance to see the baby but apparently they will be coming home this evening and there will be more celebration!

A Fine Tuesday New pics added

2008-11-11T23:52:00.000-08:00

Well it’s still raining on a daily basis here with only a one-day break of sunlight over the last two and a half weeks. Sure enough that day of clear skies happened to be the wedding day of Ian’s host sister. I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding, which I was really excited about because I have gotten to know the bride and her family, plus this would be the first Uzbek wedding that I had seen. In addition to the wedding that fine Tuesday, America’s presidential election was taking place and a local university was hosting a watch party and a discussion session about American politics. Now I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about politics but I saw a trip down to Osh as an opportunity to help out other volunteers and have an exciting cultural experience.

The morning of the wedding I arrived at the bride’s house to find the whole compound transformed. They had remodeled the interior of the house, painted the outside and had set up hundreds of chairs and tables for the guests. The house was flooded with family and friends who were all feasting and celebrating the new marriage and in the foreground was a group of musicians playing traditional Uzbek music just about as loud as they could. I am quite sure that everyone in the center of Osh that morning knew that Nilafar was getting married. Eventually the groom and his party arrived and the toasts began. It was quite a process giving a toast, after each guest gave their congratulations to the groom they would have to dance in front of everyone while other guests and the groom would give them money which would eventually go into the hands of the wedding musicians. About half an hour into the toasting Ian and I were sitting admiring the festivities when I heard our names called out and immediately everyone turn to look at us. It doesn’t matter how many times it happens, every time I get called up to give a toast my heart freezes with fear. At that point there is only one thing to do, so we got up and gave our toast and did our best to mimic Uzbek dancing…it was not pretty! But to our surprise we survived and the next person was called up to give their toast. After about an hour of toasts the groom went down stairs with his party to retrieve the bride and much like in Kyrgyz weddings everyone piled into cars and went to a local monument to take pictures with the bride and groom. The chosen monument of Osh was a memorial site right next to the largest statue of Lenin in all of Central Asia- yeah, it’s a big deal! Followed by the photo fest the whole party moved on the a restaurant where the celebration would continue.

Once there we were greeted with music and food yet again. The band picked up immediately and the toasts continued. Ian and I were called up once again but this time we had a five minute warning and had a moment to prepare ourselves. At the last minute Ian had the brilliant idea of doing some very basic swing dance steps rather than butchering the traditional Uzbek dances. So we both gave toasts wishing happiness and love for the new couple and then twirled and swung around the dance floor for a while. When we got back to our seats we were both shaking with the adrenalin from dancing in front of hundreds of people but despite my horrible coordination will still received complements for the rest of the evening on our dancing! Around eleven o’clock the party started to wind down and we all jumped onto a rented marshuka and made our way back home. As I had been told, Uzbek weddings and Kyrgyz weddings are very similar with one major difference; at Uzbek weddings there not a drop of alcohol to be found! As a result there were no drunks trying to pull us out onto the dance floor or forcing vodka down our throats, so to be honest I didn’t mind at all!!!

The next day was the election party. The American Corner, where the election party was taking place, received CNN so we watched the polls come in live. It was around 11 am when the west coast was finally called, congratulations Obama! The whole afternoon went really well; there were three embassy employees that came down from Bishkek with pamphlets which explained the election process and who the candidates were. The volunteers gave great presentations on the Electoral College, the importance of voting and any other questions that the students had about America’s election process.

Since then it has rained and then rained some more. Yesterday I received a package from my parents which was full of books, cooking supplies and other things that I could not find here! I never thought I would get so excited about measuring spoons and a yoga magazine--but I did! Thanks you guys- you made my month!

Omar, The Kyrgyz Star!!!

2008-11-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

For the last week it has been overcast with light rains and dropping temperatures, for me it has been a nasty foreshadow of the long, cold winter to come. The winter has all of Kyrgyzstan in knots; at work we talk about how cold the office will be without electricity, many Kyrgyz schools are planning on extending winter holiday for a month because the classrooms get so cold, and at the American Corner, where I lead four of my English clubs, they talk about the promises that President Bakiv has made on public television which “guarantees” the elimination of power cuts during the winter. As a volunteer I have been praying for electricity and bundling up really well! I haven’t pulled out my thermal underwear yet, but I would say give it less than a month before those little butt-warmers become a crucial accessory to my outfit every day and every night.

Despite the approach of winter, life has gone on. I have started some outreach programs with American schools in attempts to exchange culture between students. The first one is World Wise Schools, where I have been matched up with a middle school teacher in Houston, TX and we have classroom exchanges. I have also started investigating a program called One World where I could collect 30 pieces of art that has been made by Kyrgyz school kids with national themes in it, mail it off to the states, and in return I would receive 30 different pieces of art that American students made with an American theme to it. I think that is a really fun and expressive way to exchange cultures.

Even with the establishment of routines and habits here, I still have to just sit back and laugh at some of the situations I find myself in. The most recent shenanigan I muddled into was last Thursday. After a long, cold walk home through the rain I received a phone call from one of the students from my English club. Confused, I picked up the phone and was informed by them that they had bought me a ticket to Omar’s (a Kyrgyz pop star) concert that was taking place in less than an hour. The water for my tea had just started to boil and as flattered as I was there was a significant part of me that just wanted to stay home and enjoy my tea rather than trek back through the gloomy day to go meet my students again. But I turned the gas off and left to go see Omar perform at the local theatre.
It turned out to be quite the event! Compliments to the lights swirling around and the disco balling reflecting little squares of color through out the theater I started having flash backs to my 8th grade dances as I walked in. But that stopped real fast when the performance opened with two Russian dancers jumping around on stage to 50 cent in Lakers’ jerseys. They were followed by a lip-synching Kyrgyz singer and an MC who was up on stage apparently telling joke after joke which I couldn’t understand for the life of me! Eventually Omar, the main guy, came on stage with a big pair of sunglasses on and sang three or four songs. He sang about half in Kyrgyz and then a couple in Russian and even one in English! I’m not going to lie; he even had me swooning with his English song! As he finished his last song the MC jumped back up on stage and continued with his antics, he had the whole crowd in stitches! Over the course of the next couple of hours several more Kyrgyz singers got up on stage and Omar returned to the stage for a couple more songs. While he was on stage, young women would walk up to him and hand him a bouquet of flowers or a little note on which they had confessed their undying love for him. He graciously took each bouquet of flowers and each note and gave each young woman a hug and peck on the cheek and then went right back to singing. It was quite a show and I was glad I attended. My students had been great and had walked me through the concert explaining what was going on and which song they loved the most!

I can only imagine what this week has in store for me! Tomorrow I am attending an Uzbek wedding, I’m really looking forward to the food, Uzbeks are said to be the best cooks in the country! Also this is election week so a bunch of the volunteers are going to the American Center in Osh and spending the night so we can watch the elections live! We’ll see if there is power to do that!

Party Party Party * I added pics to help illustrate*

2008-10-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

It has only been two weeks since the English clubs have begun but I already feel like so much has happened. In every club the students are so curious as to what America is like, so I’m going with the flow and using the reoccurring theme of comparing Kyrgyz traditions with American lifestyle. For example one day we compared Kyrgyz wedding traditions to American wedding traditions and I gave them new vocabulary like “bride”, “groom” and “engagement”. These clubs have also been a great resource into the community for me; for example last Monday while we were describing our weekends I found out that the airport was a great place to go running- who would have thought! Also through these English clubs I have met some really awesome students including two young women who extended invitations to birthday parties and weddings to me. I gladly accepted both, so this last Tuesday I attended the 17th birthday of one young lady and the following day I attended the wedding of different young woman’s sister!

The day of the birthday party I jumped onto the marshuka after work with the birthday girl’s sister and went to their apartment. The prior week she had mentioned that she had never tried pizza and she asked if I could make it for her someday (I get the impression that the Kyrgyz view hamburgers and pizza as America’s national dishes) so I decided a homemade pizza would be an awesome birthday present! When we arrived, the sister and I went straight to work. I began making the pizza dough and she started preparing the rest of the dinner. I always get nervous when I prepare food for people because I know -a little too well- how quickly a meal can go downhill, but when I pulled the pizza out of the oven I was happy to find the cheese had melted beautifully and the crust didn’t have a single burnt spot on it. Also in my favor, since these girls had never had pizza before there was no benchmark to meet. It went over pretty well too; the birthday girl went back for seconds and thirds. With the pizza they also served their national dish; plov (which is fried rice with vegetables), fresh salads, fruit and cake. As dinner continued a few more of her friends came by, and her older brother also joined in with his young family. It was so flattering to be invited into someone house to share a celebration with them.
The following day was the wedding, so I left work a little early and took a taxi to a little village about 40 minutes out of the city where the wedding was. When I arrived my friend was still running around the house catering to guests so I was ushered into the house by her family and told to sit at a the foot of the feast and to eat. For special occasions, like a wedding, the Kyrgyz will set up a meal on a beautifully embroidered sheet on the floor, all the guests will sit on long cushions and enjoy the meal cross-legged without chairs or tables. They are also very hospitable in the sense that they won't let their guest leave hungry so through out your stay in a Kyrgyz household they will insist that you should eat. Its pretty funny, I could have a mouth full of food or bringing a fork to my mouth and the Kyrgyz will still be telling me to eat as if I hadn’t taken a bite of food all day!

For most of the morning guests were just eating and chatting waiting for the groom’s arrival and eventually, a little past noon, the groom and his party made their grand entrance. You could hear them before they had even turned onto the street because they were honking their horns announcing their arrival. When they pulled up to the gates the first person to jump out of the car was the wedding singer with his accordion who was singing Kyrgyz songs at the top of his lungs. The rest of the party was right behind him and jumped out of the car already dancing and singing along. They were greeted with trays of bread, candy and vodka and then ushered into a yurt that had been build especially for this wedding where there was a feast awaiting them. After they had eaten, it was time to retrieve the bride from the house but in order to do this the whole groom party had to enter the home singing and dancing. The bride this whole time had been waiting patiently in the house dressed in her beautiful white gown, comparable to a western wedding dress, with her brides maid at her side the whole day. After quite the serenade, the groom finally made it into the house and was able to kiss his new wife. Afterwards the family said prayers and gave the new couple their blessings and began feasting again. While enjoying probably their third or fourth meal of the day (it was only 2 pm) the groom and his party were presented with baskets of food, drink and a freshly slaughtered sheep that he was required to buy, the two parties squabbled and bargained over prices but eventually the groom paid for the food.

But the party was still not over, before going to the café where the wedding would continue the whole party jumped into their cars and drove to a local monument where they all had their pictures taken with the newly married couple. Finally we all arrived at the restaurant where we were presented with more food, music and dancing. I swear I have never seen so much hip swinging, pelvis thrusting or arm flailing in my life; the dancing was phenomenal!!! By the time it was all said and done I had been at the wedding for almost 14 hours, I was exhausted!!!

For the rest of the week I kept a low profile and continued with the English clubs and working around Jalal Abad until Friday when I went down to Osh for a Halloween party that a local club was putting together. Almost twenty other volunteers attended as well, all in costume, and for the last time that week I danced the night away!

Wedding Season

2008-10-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Oodles of drinking, eating and dancing; that is really the best way to describe the wedding. All Thursday, Friday and Saturday there was a constant flow of people through the doors of our house where they would be greeted by the bride, sit, eat and toast to the expanding family. As far as I can tell there was no actual ceremony per say, it was more of a three day celebration…I think, even after three days of witnessing this event I am still confused because my language skills are not far along enough to decipher the elaborate traditions of a Kyrgyz wedding. But fortunately for me this is wedding season and I have been invited to another Kyrgyz wedding next week by a young woman who has beautiful English. This time around I’m attending just one day of the ceremony rather than the celebration marathon that I just finished! Hopefully after my third wedding in country I will finally start to understand what the hell is going on.

But outside of weddings, life has begun to feel normal here! It’s hard to believe that I have already completed my first whole month of service. I started Russian lessons and English clubs this week so it seems overnight my schedule has began to fill up. My NGO found a Russian tutor who sits with me one-on-one and works through grammar and vocabulary for an hour and a half every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning. My instructor is this tall, bleach blonde Russian woman in her mid-fifties. The first thing I noticed about her was her attention to diction, when she speaks every syllable and letter is pronounced perfectly at quite a loud volume to make sure that I don’t miss a single sound that comes out of her mouth. In addition to her perfect pronunciation she is also very animated and will get up and start acting out a verb if I don’t know what she is say (she doesn’t speak English) or she will hold my hand as she talks to me. Its kinda funny picturing myself in a small classroom with this large Russian woman holding my hands as she shouts Russian grammar rules at me!

So I start my day with these intensive Russian lessons and end it with an English club. The first couple of club were dedicated to getting to know each other. We also made lists of topics that we could use as a theme to each meeting. By the end of the week we started choosing some of the topics the students had expressed interest in and ended up having some fairly intense clubs. The university group wanted to talk about youth and deviance so we spent about 45 minutes defining deviance and giving examples of youth deviance, we then ended the club with a 15 minute debate on types of punishment for youth who break the law. The high school students that I am working with spent time coming up with ideas to promote an anti-violence awareness campaign that my NGO is hosting events for.

In addition to my work picking up, things at home are getting easier too since I’m starting to feel like I have a handle on cooking in a Kyrgyz kitchen. The other day I bought a giant pumpkin at the bazaar and made copious amounts pumpkin bread and pumpkin soup! To my surprise it actually turned out really well! I will say this, cooking with canned pumpkin was much much much faster!

Its only Wednesday?

2008-10-08T00:57:00.000-07:00

Beginning with the earthquake that struck Sunday night, these last couples of days have been a bit chaotic! Over 70 people died in the earthquake on the southeast Kyrgyz and Chinese border. Although I am living in the southwest region, that evening even I felt the earthquake. To be honest I had been running around the house and didn’t actually feel the ground shaking, rather I saw a light hanging from my ceiling swaying violently. According to reports the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6 which is the largest earthquake in the region since 2003. For me this earthquake was a big reminder that those beautiful hills and mountains are still growing. It’s intimidating feeling the earth reshape itself under your feet.

After the initial shock and discussions of where people were and what they were doing when the quake struck, life seemed to continue on in Jalal Abad. My house has a constant buzz of excitement as the wedding approaches. During the day the whole family is busy repainting the house, repairing cracks in the walls, weeding the garden and cooking. My God, there is so much cooking going on right now! I can hardly step into the kitchen to make breakfast without feeling like I am disrupting this intricate system of preparation! At night is when friends and family start arriving to celebrate the upcoming wedding. They stream in through the gates with bags of deserts, fruit and vodka. Last night I was pulled in to celebrate with shots of vodka after I had eaten dinner. Toast after toast, the guest gave speeches to celebrate the new couple, wish them many children and to rejoice in the growing family. Interestingly enough, for all this celebration the new wife was nowhere to be seen because she busy working in the kitchen and cleaning up after all the feast preparation. There is still two days before the wedding begins, which will be a three day celebration, and I cannot even fathom what I am in for!

On the other side of town I have experienced a quicken of pace at my NGO. Yesterday eight highschool students came by and took a language evaluation that I created so I could place them in an English Club (with an underlying theme of human rights, volunteering, and community service) which I will be hosting on behalf of the NGO. The evaluation consisted of four questions; tell me about yourself, who do you admire and consider your hero, what do you want to do in the next ten years, why do you want to join this English club? There was a wide variety of answers, in the self description section they all described how much they liked music and hanging out with their friends (not so different than American teenagers) and one young woman stated her horoscope sign and proceeded to describe the characteristics of an Aries (horoscopes are followed very dutifully here!) As for what they want to do in ten years only half claimed they wanted to travel to Europe and America but they all described how they wanted to find the love of their life and live happily ever after! All the young women of the group but one young woman described their mothers or sisters as their hero. The exception in the group described her respect for the courage, strength and loyalty of Harry Potter!

In addition to the earthquake, wedding and English evaluation, this week I stopped by the American Corner at the University of Jalal Abad which is a resource center sponsored by the American Embassy where students can borrow English books, movies and practice their English. With the intentions of introducing myself and seeing if they wanted any help from me, I was suprised with their immediate assumption that I was there to serve! The moment I walked in I was welcomed and informed that they had been waiting for me despite the fact that I had made no appointments to come by! Within the hour I had agreed to help with three English clubs (a beginner, intermediate and a conversational club.) I also initiated a movie club where every Thursday we would watch a movie in English, discuss it and answer any questions about it. It was decided that I would start next week! As I was leaving the American corner the director asked me to come by the following day so he could introduce me to the Vice Director of the University. The next day after work, I returned to the University and met with the Vice Director of the school. He was a middle aged Kyrgyz man who didn’t speak English so the director of the American Corner translated for us. We discussed how I liked Kyrgyzstan, what I had been doing before the Peace Corps, what I wanted to do with my life after Kyrgyzstan, my family and basically everything else under the sun! Towards the end of the meeting he purposed that I start an English-Business Club for the business school where students could talk about western business practices, I nearly fell out of my chair when he said that! I have been itching for an opportunity to put my finance degree to use and this looks like the perfect opportunity!

A lot of community development volunteers have been hesitant to host English clubs because they feel teaching English is not their role in the Peace Corps but I’m totally pumped up about my five clubs!!! For me, these clubs have the potential to be my entry into the community, a great way to explore the Kyrgyz culture and finally there is obviously a huge demand for English practice here. I can only hope that projects that are requested by the community and are sustainable will turn out to be successful projects!

Busy busy me!

2008-09-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

So since I've been in Jalal Abad I have hardly had a chance to work!!! The previous weekend was spent in Osh at a women's leadership conference that was organized by a volunteer. The whole conference was in Russian so I didn't attend the sessions but there were 40 young Kyrgyz women that did. From what I could tell, the conference went really well. There were some really interesting topics covered including; women in government positions, business women, human trafficking, bride kidnapping and HIV. That is really just the tip of the iceberg too, it was a four day conference so these young women walked away with a lot of information.

Initially being in Osh was so shocking because almost everyone I was in contact with spoke English and in Jalal Abad I have yet to find a large population of English speakers. Most of these English speakers were young women who were attending the conference. They were all so energized, motivated and excited about learning English that I was asked multiple times if I was available to meet with them regularly so they could work on their conversational skills. I was amazed at their eagerness and readiness to learn!

Eventually Sunday came around and the conference ended. After I helped put together the last coffee break and watched the closing ceromony I packed up my rice bag and by four o'clock I was at the marshuka stand. There was already a bus waiting to fill up so I paid the fare (just under $3) and waited for the bus to pull out. That took significantly longer than I expected and I was actually sitting on the bus for over an hour before we finally embarked for Jalal Abad. While I was waiting I watched life at the bus station slowly go by; there were numerous stands selling juice and snacks to travelers, drivers sitting around gossiping as they wathced their rides fill up, people jumping on and off buses with their plastic bags filled to the brim with god knows what!

Slowly seats began to fill , and as I continued to wait I was entertained by the sellers and hagglers that would jump on the bus to get money out of the travelers. The first peddler that came a long was a woman who just poked her head into the bus trying to sell apples, then came the Imam (a muslim priest). As soon as he stepped onto the bus people started rummaging through their bags for change and after he collected money from everyone on the bus he said a prayer for safe traveling. Before he jumped off the bus he looked down and gave me a toothless smile, I felt blessed.

Then came the middle aged woman selling newspapers, she patiently stood at the front of the bus with a newspaper and read out a couple of the headlines in attempts to spark the attention of her audience, no buyers. As she got off a young man poked his head in the bus and wave some dill around, when he saw he had no buyers he continued to the next bus. Then right before we left an older lady got on the bus and walked through the middle isle of the marshuka begging for extra change, eventually she wondered off and almost immediatly we pulled out of the bus station on our way to Jalal Abad.

The drive that evening was beautiful, the sun was setting behind us and the hills and mountails were golden with the light hitting the dry grassy hills. More than once we had to slow down and maneuver through heards of cows and sheep who were followed by shepards on their hourses. It was a beautiful way to end an awesome weekend!

The following Monday I was hoping to pick up work again and really start getting things accomplished, but I had not got two days of work in before the end of Ramadan rolled around, so I was granted another day off! I never thought I would say it but I just want to get to work! Oh well!

My Service begins

2008-09-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through swearing in, at one point the group was asked to sing a Kyrgyz national song and I was quite convinced that not only would we be rejected from the Peace Corps but that we would be deported immediatly! It was pretty bad, we butchered the beautiful Kergyz Jeri song! Despite that though, after the swearing in ceremony all the new volunteers were invited to the ambassadors house to celebrate! It was pretty exciting, we were served microwave pizza, chips, salsa and diet pepsi. After only two months in this country I have an appreciation for junk food that I never knew I had.

Eventually we headed back to the hotel and had long night of goodbyes with other volunteers, it was really hard saying goodbye since I had become so close with so many volunteers over these last 11 weeks. I wish them nothing but exciting adventures and a successfull two years of service. The next morning I left the hotel very early to get to the airport. Checking baggage was a mess, I just had so much stuff! The Peace Corps had giving everyone a water distiller, a giant electric heater and a medical kit that I needed to carry to Jalal abad along with literally over 100 lbs of my own crap!!! I'm still not at the point where I can look back and laugh at the situation, maybe in two years I'll see the humour in it. By the time it was all said and done I was 43 kg over the weight limit. Thank God the Peace Corps takes care of overweight baggage!

But here I am at my permantent site! The weather has started to cool down quite a bit already, I comforted by the fact that the Kyrgyz seem to be even more terrified of the cold than I am, I figure if they can survive the winter,so can I!!! One of the first things that I did when I arrived was go to the bazaar, I was hoping to buy a jacket for the winter but I didn't get around to it. The bazaars can just be so over whelming! Every time I go into one I have to tune out 95% of my senses. A typical walk throught the market consists of sellers shouting prices, people asking what you want to buy, shoppers bumping past you, carts flying between and through stands where there are piles and piles of fruits, vegetables, soap, electronics, clothes, doo dads and trinkets! Really if you want something, you can find it at the bazaar- it'll take a long time but you can find it! At one point during the three hours I was there, I was looking for lemons so I could make baba ganaush. For the life of me I couldn't find it but I kept asking merchants and each one continued to maze me through the intricit bazaar untill I found them in the very heart it!!! I was exhausted by the end of it all and just went back to my host family's house and fell asleep! When I woke up my host family was in the midsts of repainting their whole house. Their only son is getting married in less than a month so the whole house must be looking its best for the wedding, I'm really excited to see a Kyrgyz wedding. The wedding is constantly a topic of conversation, more than once my host mother has run her finger across her throat as she explains that a sheep, cow and horse will be sacrificed at the wedding. Its going to be a big party!

As for work, yesterday was my first day at the office. I first went to my host mother's office, she is a director for an NGO that works with local orphans and has a small office not far from my NGO. While I was there she introduced me to a dozen people, many who seemed to be government officials which I am glad to know for future references during my two years here. I was so flattered, as she introduced me and explained what I was doing in Kyrgyzstan she would call me her new daughter!

After we had lunch I went to my NGO's office and talked about what I will be doing for the next couple of weeks. My first project is to creat an English club where young adults can practice their english by exploring issues that the organization is involved in such as human and women rights, anti human trafficking along with less heavy topics like movies, life in America and so on. I'm actually really excited, I think it will be a great way for me to get to know the community!

As for today, it has already been an eventfull one! Apparently it is some type of national holiday- which one, I don't know- but right outside of the park was a stage set up where people were performing traditional kyrgyz dances, childeren were singing and many people were wearing traditional Kyrgyz hats and dresses. After my host mother and I had been watching for a few minutes she took me around and started introducing me to people. Its amazing, the woman knows everyone! Anyway the last person that she introduced me to was a news man who was filming the event...so yes I was asked to speak into the camera and say "Hello Kyrgyzstan, I love you Kyrgyzstan!" in Kyrgyz...I speak Russian...well at least all of Jalalabad will have a good laugh tonight! Damn!

I can only hope that tomorrow will be just as exciting! I will be going down to Osh City where there is a Women's Leadership Conference being put on by one of the volunteers who has already been serving for one year. It will be all in Russian but I think that it is an excellent opportunity to see what other volunteers are doing during their service here and hopefully I will be inspired and find some opportunities for my own secondary projects. I wish me luck as I muddle through another day!!!

NGO

2008-09-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

In eight days Pre-Service Training will be over and I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I will pack my suitcases, say goodbye to my training host family and the next day I will be on a plane heading towards my permanent site and only then will my two years of service will begin. Training has been hard and very trying, but I have learned a lot and am better prepared to work with my NGO and within the community thanks to it. Although I will miss having all the volunteers within a twenty minute marshuka ride and I will hate saying goodbye to my first host family, I have a beautiful city that I will be moving to and a NGO which I am really excited to be working with.

Just last week I had the opportunity to spend a day working with them, it was an interesting, inspiring and motivating day all at once. It began when my director picked me up that morning, she pulled up in her sedan with her youngest son in the back who needed to be dropped off at school, the radio was blaring Russian pop music and as soon as I sat down we sped off to the office. The office is actually an apartment where the NGO is based, there are three computers, a television and internet (when there is electricity.) From what I have heard, this is a pretty badass set up for a local NGO! The first thing that I did when I arrived was flip through a photo album that was filled with pictures of previous events and seminars, as I flipped through the book I had another woman sitting next to me explaining all the pictures to me in Russian, she spoke really quickly and every now and then I would catch what she was trying to get across to me, regardless I smiled and nodded as we looked through the pictures. After lunch a translator was brought in, it was a young woman in her twenties who spoke beautiful English. Her husband was at the dentist and she had not been able to find a babysitter in time so she brought her new baby with her. As she translated what the organization was about and what my role would be, she juggled her baby who was bored and starting to get testy. At one point she pulled her shirt up and started nursing the baby but did not miss a beat and continued translating! As the initial shock wore off I had to smile, this scenario would never happen in America!

Regardless of the unintential flashing, thanks to her I learned that the organization had three main categories of work; shaping and guiding women leaders, domestic violence and human trafficking. They have initiated many seminars and events in the community and throughout Kyrgyzstan. One of the projects they would like me to start with is working with a group of school girls in a after school English club, she talked about how her long term goal with this project is to inspire these young women to volunteer and work with the community so one day they will be able to fill their roles.

Another very difficult subject that the organization does some work with is bride kidnapping. This is a Kyrgyz tradition where a man who wants to get married will kidnap a young woman who he believes will make a good wife. Sometimes he will know her and sometimes he won’t. These kidnappings have been divided into two categories; consensual and non consensual. Consensual kidnapping is when the man and women discuss and agree that he will kidnap her. Couples will do this to avoid dowry expenses or if one of the families doesn’t approve of the marriage, by kidnapping her they are avoiding some barriers that they would face otherwise. But the non consensual kidnapping is exactly what it sounds like. After he kidnaps this girl he brings her back to his parents house and the family must try to convince the girl to stay by telling her what a great guy the kidnapper is and how if she were to go back to her family now it would be shameful for both her and her family because everyone would assume that she is no longer a virgin. If she stays, which she usually will because she doesn’t want to embarrass her family, then she lives there for forty days till the wedding. Of course not all marriages happen like this, but it does happen and is very present in Kyrgyz culture

Right now it is illegal and it is very negatively viewed. I am hoping that through this NGO I will learn more about it and have opportunities to work on educating men and women about alternative options to bride kidnapping. Here's hoping for a great experience in Jalal Abad!

(Soon to be) Home Sweet Home

2008-08-31T23:06:00.000-07:00

Over the last two months my communacative abilities have gone from mute/dumb to the level of a 3 year old. Its been challenging to say the least but I have muddled my way onto marshukas, the public transportation of choice, to bazaars and through meals. I even gave a toast on my host sisters birthday, no verbs were congegated, its was choppy as hell but at the end I got hugs and kisses from the family and an A for effort!

But due to this lack of communication I have been completely out of touch with national and international news. I had received clips of information here and there but no full stories on the world outside of my small town in Kyrgyzstan. Despite this lack of news I wanted to touch on two events that many friends and family have been concerned about; a plane crash in Kyrgyzstan and the war in Georgia. First of all I want everyone to know that I am safe and have not been directly affected by the war. All of Kyrgyzstan is watching this war intently with hopes of a smooth resolution. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by this war.

Second, there was a Kyrgyz plane that crashed at the main international airport in Bishkek. Unfortunatly several lives were lost, but the damage has been cleared and business is as usual at Manas Airport. This last Friday I flew out of the airport to explore my permanent site. The airport was just as I remembered it two months ago as we all scurried off the plane upon our middle-of-the-night arrival in Kyrgyzstan.

I am currently here in Jala abad where I am exploring the city, getting to know my next host family and introducing myself at my future NGO. So far I have found this town to be a beautiful little city. I am in the south of the country and so I will be warmer than majority of the volunteers through out the country, also Jala abad is located right on the edge of the Fargana Valley so the fruits and vegetables will be bountiful. Within the city itself there are two large universities and a major bazaar where I will be able to find whatever I need during my time in Kyrgyzstan. In addition to all this there are three internet cafes which is really exciting because I will have more access to the news and my email!!! As for the local population, there is a large Uzbek and Kyrgyz population, but significantly less Russians than there are in the northern part of the country. The people have been very hospitable and as I walk in and out of shops and through the bazaars I am finding people who are more than happy to help me in English.

As for my living quarters, I am living in a very nice compound where my host family grows grapes, apples, tomatos and walnuts. I have a bedroom where I have two beds, a wardrobe and a small table to work off of. The family that I am living with has been very hospitable and although the language barrier is difficult I am begining to see it as an opportunity to improve my russian and pick up some Kyrgyz.

Today is the first day of Ramadan and the first day of school, as a result the country has taken today as a bit of a holiday. This has been really nice for me as I have taken the day to stroll around the city with a couple who are begining their retirement by serving in the Peace Corps. As we walked around the city we saw all the boys and girls dressed in their best suits and dresses with flowers for their teachers. Ginger, the wife of the couple, is assigned to work at one of the local universities so when she met up with Fritz (her husband) and I she was carrying a bouquet of roses that one of her freshman students had given her!

Tomorrow I will be meeting with my NGO whose primary goal is to work with and promote Women's leadership within the Jala abad region. They have had volunteers previously and have done a lot of work with other volunteers in the region so I am pretty excited about working with this group!!!

Before I sign off I wanted to end with a quick note back to America; from what I have read and heard from my parents, there is a nasty hurricane headed right towards New Orleans. For all those people in that area, please know that you are in my thoughts. I hope you come back to dry homes, strong levees and the same sense of pride I know you all have down their in Louisianna.

Jalal Abad, here I come!

2008-08-23T02:48:00.000-07:00

As the K-16 group only has one opportunity to see each other per week there tends to be unofficial topics of discussion for each week. Last week people talked about culture day. Culture Day is an event sponsored by Peace Corps where each group of trainees reenacts an element of Kyrgyzstani culture. The community that I live in has a large Turkish population so we were asked to demonstrate a Turkish wedding.

Despite the trainee involvement and participation in the event, we actually have very little say in the organization or implementation of this event. This day is dominated by the host mothers. These women orchestrate the performance, prepare the food, find costumes, in fact I did not even dress myself that day, two host mothers did. In addition to all of that they took on the role of cast director, and after much discussion I was nominated to be the bride of our Turkish wedding. I was not consulted prior to this decision but I figured when in Kyrgyzstan….

The day turned out very well, there was music, dancing, singing, and costumes. One of my favorite parts of the day was walking around and seeing my peers dressed in national outfits. I had been decorated in a soft pink dress (with sparkles) and hidden under a veil all day long. I am proud to say that despite the fact that we witnessed a Kyrgyz wedding, a Russian wedding and a Turkish wedding; no goats, sheep, cows or horses were harmed in the making of culture day -- Very unrealistic. I have only attended one Kyrgyz wedding thus far and although I did not see the killing of any animals, I did see some huffs missing a cow to the side of the wedding tent.

With culture day out of the way, there was only one thing on people’s minds this week. Wednesday had been a highly anticipated day; trainees were loosing sleep over it, it was the root of all gossip and it was constantly on my mind. This Wednesday was the day we found out where we were going to spend the next two years of our life, what we would be doing there and who we would be placed with.

Seeing as this is so important to trainees, over the years peace corps has developed a site placement ceremony where each volunteer is called out on to a giant chalk-outlined map of Kyrgyzstan, one at a time, where they are handed a packet with their placement overview and told to stand in the region where they are to live for the next two years. As the trainers slowly called out all 59 volunteers excitement started to buzz and visions of 2009 and 2010 began to form in everyone’s minds. Another piece of the puzzle had been solved.

Just as important as where we are placed, is who we were placed with. Over the past 7 weeks, several friendships have solidified and romances have begun to blossom, so when the Tien Shan mountain range was placed between people, emotions began to rise. As for me, I was not disappointed. I will be working for an NGO in Jalal Abad called Women Leaders of Jalal Abad. On paper it looks great, but I'm hesitant to boast about my placement until I actually see where I'm living and what my NGO is like. Next week all the trainees will be going to their future site, I have a feeling that topic will dominate conversations for the remainder of our time in training.

First month in KR

2008-08-19T02:50:00.001-07:00

So I realize I have been here over a month and have only posted one blog, so first of all I would like to apologize and let everyone know that I am doing well and loving my life in Kyrgyzstan! I don’t have regular access to internet at the moment so please be patient as I post these blogs!
Just a snap shot of life here; I am staying with an lovely family about an hour outside Bishkek, who have 3 daughters (ages 5,13, 15), a brother (age 20), a kitten, a puppy and a guard dog. The daughters know a few words in English, but for the most part there is a lot of broken Russian and gestures used to get points across. I am proud to say that I have managed to get some of the town gossip despite my inability to form complex sentences! What can I say, we all have our strengths and I like to call mine inter-personal skills!
As for the living situation things are fine- I hesitate to say great because it has hit 45 degrees C (over 100 degree F) more than once and there is no AC. Plus there are regular blackouts through out Kyrgyzstan so I’m never quite sure when the lights are going to work…but to counteract all that the house I’m staying in is comfortable! I have my own room with a twin bed, desk and a wardrobe so I can have some privacy. Just outside my room is the living room where they have a couple of couches and a tv. The shows are all in Russian and I have spent several evenings watching a Russian soap opera about some blind redhead with my host sisters, its pretty intense! Anyway next to the living room is the dining area and bedroom for the kids. The parents sleep on the floor in the living room, I can’t tell if they usually sleep in there or if they have given me their room.
But that is basically it for the house, it is fairly modest, the kitchen is outside and in the back of the garden) is the outhouse—it’s a squatter. Despite the fact that I have been here for over a month I still don’t like going to the bathroom out there!
The food has been fine, I have eaten a lot of soup, rice and noodles. A tomato and cucumber salad is served with most meals along with homemade bread and jam. There has been a lot of simple carbs and oils in every meal and despite the fact that I walk about 4 miles a day I still don’t think I have lost weight which says something about how rich the food is! Right now is melon season, and the streets are just lined with watermelon stands! It’s been so nice eating watermelon everyday!
A typical week day for me begins at about 7 am when I wake up, have breakfast, get dressed and leave for about a 25 minute walk to class. I usually meet a friend about half way there and we walk the rest of the way together. From 8:30 to 12 is language lessons, which is hosted at a Turkish woman’s home, during the lesson there is a lot of interactive learning where we interview people around the house and play little language games to help us practice our vocabulary and grammar. There are 5 trainees in this language group which is big enough for a diversity of ideas but small enough to receive personal attention. My Russian feels like it is coming very slowly but my instructor has given me very positive feedback and is constantly reminding us that Russian is the 2nd hardest language to learn- right behind Chinese. I don’t know if I believe it, but it makes me feel better so I’ll take it!
After language lessons I go home for about an hour so I can eat lunch and grab some materials for the next lesson which is either technical training, cultural training, or medical/safety training. One of the technical training assignments is that we work with a non-profit organization. The NPO that my partner and I have been assigned to work with is an organization who supports the Tajik refugees in the local community. So far we have grammatically cleaned up a brochure, have started translating another pamphlet and we are planning on giving a training session on how to use Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. We only meet with them once a week but so far it has been very educational working with them.
We are usually done with lessons around 4 pm, from there I either go play with the other volunteers or go home where I decompress, have dinner, take a shower and call it a day. Usually by 10:30 pm I am exhausted and falling asleep!
So that’s life here in Kyrgyzstan! I love hearing about what’s going on in your lives so feel free to email me and let me know how you are doing!
Some highlights so far-
- I bought a cell phone so I have spoken to my parents a couple of times!
- I cooked dinner with a friend for his host mother- from scratch and without a recipe!!!
- I carried a bucket of water from the stream outside our house so I could help with chores
- I went to a hot-spring about an hour away from where I’m staying- the view was beautiful
- I almost got squashed by a herd of cows when walking home one day
- Sharing Russian beers with friends
- Exploring a bazaar in downtown Bishkek- it was 20 sq. km!
- Riding in marshukas (the public transportation) with two people for every seat on the bus!
- Watching the sun set on the Tien Shan mountains

Finally here

2008-07-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

So I am in Kyrgyzstan and I have finally found an internet cafe! To sum things up I am having the most amazing time here! The traveling was fine- the prices were horrible in the istanbul airport but I slept a lot on the plane so I have had almost no jet lag! I arrived at 3 in the morning Monday and after a quick night sleep we began training and have been sitting in training for the last two and a half days. We have been staying in this big hotel that looks like it was built in the 70s by the Russians and NOTHING has changed!!!

In training we are covering things like security, safety, food, and our assignments. I found out that I will be a business advisor which I am so pumped up about and that I am learning russian rather than Kyrgyz- only 16 out of 63 volunteers are learning russian and several people that are learning Kyrgyz are upset because they feel like Russian is a more applicable language which is totally true but the bad part is that Russian is so much harder. Medical is also a big element of training and I have had two shots already Rabies and some other one. It was so crazy, the two doctors that administrated the shots just had me roll up my sleeves, stood on either side of me and *bam*bam* I was vaccinated!

The thing that has just kept me smiling the entire time are the other peace corps trainees I have fallen in love with everyone I have met!!!

Tonight I am going to move in with my host family, only speak Russina... anyway this is where I will be staying for the next three months- it will be some intense language, cultural and technical training. I'm not to nervous- I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have a good time.

There is a good handful of volunteers that are pretty homesick right now- I feel bad for them but there is nothing I can do other than point out the good. I hope they start to fall in love with Kyrgyzstan like me!

Gettin' ready

2008-06-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

On July 3rd, one week from today, I will board a plane and leave for Philadelphia where I will begin staging for 27 months in Kyrgyzstan.

One year ago I began filling out my application for the Peace Corps, I spent hours planning out the perfect essay, searching for the right recommendations and day dreaming about a life as a volunteer. Followed by my interview and nomination came dentist and doctor appointments who would confirm that I was healthy enough to spend two years away. And then it was quiet, I didn't hear a word from the Peace Corps for over two months.

I resumed my college lifestyle and my thoughts began drifting away from the Peace Corps. Then in mid march, while I was bed ridden with a nasty flu -I thought I was going to die- I received my invitation to Kyrgyzstan. Over the next couple of months the paper work picked up again, I received a membership to Rosetta Stone so I could start learning Russian, I graduated with a bachelor of science in business administration, partied like it was my job, I started working part time in a prime brokerage office, had my highschool best girlfriends come visit, I began collecting clothes that I could bring with me and slowly I have started to pack. Yet even with only seven days left I still can't believe this is about to take place.

On one hand I feel like I haven't fully acknowledged that I am about to embark on this journey; but on the other hand I factor Kyrgyzstan in everything I do. If I buy a pair of shoes I ask myself if I can bring them to Kyrgyzstan. If I decide the four-inch-leopard-print heels won't be practical in Kyrgyzstan then I have to ask myself; in two years will I look like a crazy person who is stuck in a fashion trend from 2008? I don't think very many people appreciate the difficulty of my inner conflicts.

Of all these conflicts I have been wrestling, by far the hardest is saying goodbye to my family. I want to spend every minute with them because I know these next two years will be filled with minutes where I wish I were with them. Here's to enjoying every last minute I have with them and preparing for two years of volunteer work!

27 months in Kyrgyzstan

Interupted Service

Women's Day

Protesting the Protest

The Banya

Its cold over here!

Transit Trip through Turkey *Pics added*

Back online!

Horseback ride *Pics added*

The Water Master

K17 Pre-Service Training (PST)

Getting to PST

Back in Jalal Abad

The Sacrifice

I've been evicted

Ode to Volunteers

Nooruz

The Never Ending Journey *Pics added

Women's Day

More pics!

Guesting

Microfinance

Spring!

Winter Camp!

Happy 2009!

Here come Santa Clause

Wish List

My first Thanksgiving in Kyrgyzstan

New Apartment

Research Project

Weekend in Arslenbob *more pics*

A Fine Tuesday *New pics added*

Omar, The Kyrgyz Star!!!

Party Party Party * I added pics to help illustrate*

Wedding Season

Its only Wednesday?

Busy busy me!

My Service begins

NGO

(Soon to be) Home Sweet Home

Jalal Abad, here I come!

First month in KR

Finally here

Gettin' ready

Transit Trip through Turkey Pics added

Horseback ride Pics added

Weekend in Arslenbob more pics

A Fine Tuesday New pics added