Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Kyrgyz know how to PARTY!!

I am lying in bed right now with headphones in because in the room right next to me they are singing (and very off key at that!). AND the speaker is against my wall. It is 1am and my family told me that I could go to bed. I kept saying no, but then decided that I saw enough of the party an didn’t need to stay awake until 4am when the party will be finished. There still are two more meals to be eaten. Let’s start from the beginning.
My host brother and his wife had a baby last August and my family is having a baby blessing party here was I write this. I woke up this morning and everyone kept telling me that I could help later. So I just went into my room and hid out. I helped out with making some salads and got to put my knife skills to use. Guests all showed up in a couple cars at the same time. My niece came pounding on my door telling me to come because the one big job that I was given for the whole night was to take pictures. That was a good thing because it gave me something to do and not have to sit awkwardly as people asked me questions that I don’t understand. After we ate it was present time. There were two sherdaks (traditional Kyrgyz rugs) and a lot of tushuks (padded mats that go on the floor to sit on). They were also a rocker, a hot water dispenser, long warm jackets for my host mom and sisters and probably a lot more. Then the bag of borsok (fried bread) and the box of a sheep were opened and all of the sudden we were eating again and giving more toasts.
After drinking tea, making toasts, and eating food the guests all went to a café in town. My host mom told me that I was going to go with them too. Two of my host sisters were already there. I watched as the second car crammed with over 10 people in drive away. So, I just put on my boots and started walking. As I was walking my host dad drove by and stopped so I could ride with him. At the café the only people there who were in my family were my two sisters. Everyone else stayed back at the house. We spent over 3 hours there singing, giving toasts, dancing, eating, and drinking a lot of vodka. My host dad’s brother kept trying to make me drink but I really didn’t want to. I made my first toast in Kyrgyz and let’s say they were less than impressed. It was so bad that my host sister who speaks English said that I could do it in English and she would translate. They tried to make me sing to, but they could only push me so far. Most people were giving a toast and then finishing it off with a song. For those of you who know me well know that I love to sing, but I never sing in front of a group of people with a microphone.
Then, after a couple of courses of food at the café we left and headed back to the house. When I got there no one came in the house with me. I was so confused, but later found out that the guests went to a neighbor’s house to eat more food there. Luckily I wasn’t forced to go there. My nieces wanted me to play a game with them so I played a game of candyland with my little nieces. It was actually pretty fun. Also while the guest were at the neighbor’s we began to make more food. All the guest then came back around 11pm and drank tea again. I went and hid in the kitchen with my sisters and helped make more food. Just like in America, I hid in the kitchen during a party because that is where I am most comfortable. That’s where it ended for me. They guests had started sing and dancing in the other room, but I managed to avoid that. I think right now they have finally started eating another round of food. I told my family that this is nothing like parties in America and that ours usually last 3-4 hours not 12. They said that in the south their parties last 3 days. That is so much work!
I think out of everything that has happened today the strangest part for me was that they people that the party was for never really interacted with the guests. My sister in law was cooking or cleaning the whole time, my host brother was in and out making sure everything was going alright. When we were at the café it was just my sisters there, when they went to the neighbor’s I think my host dad was the only one who went with the guests. I was expecting a blessing ceremony, but there wasn’t (that I saw). I’m not going to lie… they do know how to throw a party but it so much work. I am exhausted and I didn’t even do as much work as everyone else. Anyway… That’s my first big party experience.

Pictures to come!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy early Thanksgiving!

Well I learned a word today that now looking back I never thought I would learn… earthquake. There was a short one while I was teaching today. I was teaching club with two 5th grade students and I just looked at them and they looked at me and we were very confused. It was very short… maybe 2-3 seconds but I heard it was a 5.0. The epicenter was a few hours from me in the same oblast. Anyway, another thing to put on the list of things I never thought I would experience here. I mean… I have experience them in America, but never in a developing country. Good thing it was not very big.
Life has been interesting lately. For the past month or so I have been bouncing around in several different directions and I am living a life that I never expected to live as a Peace Corps volunteer. I have way more luxuries than I ever thought would be possible. I see my American friends at least once a week, have a cell phone, my house is very warm even though it is very cold outside. This past week I had a site visit from a Peace Corps staff and it was really good to get feedback on what was going well and what areas I could work on to make my service more successful.
Last weekend I went to a friend’s village and it is always great to go out there because even though where I live is much less industrial and technologically advanced as most other places in this country it is even less out there. I waited for an hour for a taxi and when one finally showed up there was a crowd of several people waiting to go out there. I luckily pushed my way in (I was the second person waiting for the taxi so I didn’t cut and it would matter here anyway because there is no such thing as lines or cutting). I ended up with about 2 square inches of seat to rest a portion on a thigh on. I had one baby laying on my chest as she slept and the other almost laying on the floor. I was using the driver’s head rest as a pillow so I could try to forget the pain my legs were in trying to hold myself up during the 45 minute ride. With 10 people in a taxi it gets a little cramped. One guy tried to tell me that he wanted my seat but I wouldn’t get out, so he ended up sitting next to another man in the front seat. Two grown men shared the passenger seat of a car. That’s another thing I never thought I would see.
When I got out to his village I was greeted by my friend’s host mom and later his brother came in, shook my hand and kissed me on the cheek. I really love that if you make an effort to show that you care most of the time you will get that in return. Luckily his host parents were going back into town the next day and let us ride in their car with them. I didn’t have to pay for a taxi or have to cram into the corner. Oh the little things in life that make you happy!
This Saturday there is a group of volunteers who are going to get together and have Thanksgiving. I was planning on going because if I couldn’t be at home with my family I could at least have it with my Peace Corps family. Well, when I came home from visiting my friend my family told me that they were going to have a baby blessing party for my new nephew that was born in August on the same day. How could I turn that down? They looked so sad when I told them that I had plans to leave so I decided to have my first uncelebrated Thanksgiving at 27. I have been making up for it by teaching my students about Thanksgiving and having them make turkey hands and talk about what they are thankful for. That’ll do for now!
The party will be a trip. We will have 30 people at my little house for one night. I will help make food and watch them slaughter the sheep. We are going to make bozo tomorrow which is a fermented wheat drink. I don’t plan on drinking it but it will be interesting to watch how they make it.
Anyway, I’ll post pictures of the festivities later. I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving. I am thankful for such a great opportunity to experience a culture first hand and for the people who love me so much that they send me letters and packages!! :)
Have a good one!
Brooke

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran’s Day and thank you to all of you who have spend time serving our country.
It’s been a long time since my last post. I guess it has been a little difficult to get back into work mode after being in vacation mode! Since we are only allowed to travel during school breaks I really try to take advantage of it when we have them. A group of four of us went to Almaty, Kazakhstan for 4 days. It was amazing. Almaty is only a 4 hour mini bus ride away from Bishkek and it only costs $6 to get there. Talk about a deal. The hard part of going there was that it is one of the top 50 most expensive cities in the world. More expensive than LA. My bank account really felt it, but it was totally worth it. And just like most of my vacations most of my money was spent on food. We went to many different restaurants that had food that I miss from America. There was actually a restaurant that we went to that was called American Bar and Grill and it lived up to its name. I had a bleu cheese burger! AWESOME! I think that the strangest part of the trip was one thing after another kept happening making the whole thing feel surreal. We started off by meeting a guy on the bus ride over to Almaty who used to live in America and he really helped us get over the border and got us a taxi to our hotel. He wanted to meet up with us to have drinks that night and after we had incredible Indian food (that was so good that one of the other volunteers I was traveling with almost cried) we walked around town and found an Irish pub called the Dublin. He joined us there… but sadly they didn’t have any Guinness so we had to go to another bar. This time we tried the Guinness bar, hoping that they wouldn’t fail us. They didn’t.

He also brought some friends who knew English too and it was really great to talk to them. I also heard before we left that Almaty had a Baskin Robbins so we were able to ask them where we could find it. :) That night as we were leaving we went to hail a taxi and a white LIMO stopped. The driver was so funny. After a little negotiating about the price we got in and had the most interesting taxi ride of our lives. He was speaking in English/Russian/Spanish and going off on rants that we could only partly understand. I was laughing so hard it was starting to hurt. He was so into what he was talking about he never actually dropped us off on the correct street. He got within a few blocks so we just got out, but it was hilarious.

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city and saw some incredible site that the city had to share. The city had some pretty interesting architecture but still had the old soviet feel to it that Bishkek has. At one point we were walking through a park and looked over and saw a huge building with bright colors. As we got closer we realized that it was a Russian Orthodox church. This church is very interesting because it is made completely out of wood including the nails that hold it together. It was magnificent inside and out. My friend Heather and I really wanted to go to a service but we were there an hour too early and then got distracted later in the day. Maybe next time I go to Almaty. We have already made plans because there was so many things we still want to see.

The third day we went to a museum and saw a lot of old Kazakh clothing and archeology. We also went to a mega center and found Baskin Robbins, Pizza Hut, and KFC. It was so good. I have always been a person who will never eat American food when I am traveling, but after being away from American for seven months I really miss it a lot, sadly. We also found a large grocery store in that mall and bought peanut butter, tortillas, tonic water, AVACADOS, and many other goodies we can’t find in Bishkek. Did I tell you that this was an expensive trip? OOPS… oh well! I was able to eat everything that I have been craving!!
The last day as we were leaving the coffee shop that we ate breakfast at, there was a Rols Roice sitting out front with a driver waiting in it. This city has money! It was a much different world than what I have been living in for the past seven months.
All in all it was a great trip. Eating all that great food really helped my slight homesickness. Though it was a little difficult to readjust to my life here it has been good to be back and live a more simple life.
When I was in Bishkek I had a lot of fun with my friends. Before and after my trip to Almaty I spent hanging out with friends and making great memories. Halloween was great and I was a duck.

Well we had 3 nights of festivities and I started as a ninja (a throwback to teaching at Corbett), then I was ballerina, then I was a duck the third night. All were good costumes and fun was had in all. On the Friday before Halloween we had a party at an orphanage. That is one of the volunteer’s site and so he threw the party for the kids and a bunch of volunteers came and helped out. It was great. We each had to create an activity and mine was a potato sack race.

The idea came to me one morning when I was sleeping at a friend’s house and when we woke up I really had the urge to sleeping bag wrestle. I know… I will always be a child at heart. There was also bobbing for apples, face painting, pumpkin toss and other fun activities. It was great!

After my trip to Almaty I met with some (I guess you could call them) extended family who have lived here for 8 years. My cousin’s husband’s aunt and uncle live here and took me to lunch. (Thanks Gretchen for letting me know that they are here) I have the strangest connects to this country. Have you ever really felt like you are in the right place at the right time? I think that’s how my life has been since I came here seven months ago. I still can’t believe it has been that long. Anyway, it was a really great lunch and really great to meet them. They are also doing great things in their community near Bishkek.
Oh yay… My host mom just came home from being away for over a month. She had to have surgery on something. I’m not sure what, but she is home now and she is looking good. Not moving too quickly, but her spirits are good. I really missed her a lot!
Anyway, that is the update for now. I hope you are doing well and just remember care packages and letter are always welcome. If you need the address it is posted in a June blog post or email me and I’ll send you a word document of it.