Wednesday, September 22, 2010

One more thing that makes me happy!

Oh and also... having power when no one else has in my village. It has been out since Saturday and for some reason I have it at my house and my school is a 5 minute walk away and there isn't power there.

Things that make me smile:

1. My counterpart’s daughter (who is three) coming in the room that we were planning in eating a carrot that was the size of a baseball at the largest part. She had eaten the rest of it already. I was so sad that I didn’t have my camera with me that day.
2. The mountains full of snow!
3. A herd of sheep and goats (probably 50+) walking down the middle of the main road that goes from At Bashy to Naryn. I saw this three times in two days
4. Men painting the large welcome to At Bashy sign with regular sized paint brushes.
5. School being let out because of snow. No not because it is too dangerous for the school buses to drive in the snow (we don’t have those) but because the kids need to be home digging up potatoes and getting animals home from jailoo (the place where animals go for the summer). Winter came two months early this year.
6. Riding in a taxi with four grown men while listening to Pit Bull, Lady Gaga, MJ… Any pop music from America. They have no idea the song is about.
7. Being asked what a song is saying when it is really dirty. I usually lie and say that I don’t understand it when they are rapping. HA.
8. Going to a volunteer’s apartment who lives in the city and making American food! SO good! Roasted veggies, pasta, tomato sauce, and homemade garlic bread!
9. Going to the American Center in Naryn and getting 5 new books to read!
10. Reading a really good book and talking about with a friend! (East of Eden was so good!!!)
11. Being finished with washing my clothes. I hand washed my jeans for the first time in six months and now my body hurts from all of the wringing! Blah!
12. Eating peanut butter. I have always loved it, but for some reason it tastes so much better here… even if it is from America. Probably because it’s not sheep fat!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Good thoughts!!

Hey all,
Life is good right now. Tonight at sundown is the end of Ramadan and that is awesome because that means parties. I’m excited for tomorrow and nervous because it is tradition here on the day after Ramadan ends that you go to neighbors’ houses and drink tea and eat lots of meat and plov (a rice dish that has carrots and meat in it… it’s actually one of the better foods here). I’m really excited for the cultural experience and to meet more neighbors but I’m nervous for the massive amounts of Kyrgyz that will be spoken at me. I hope that I understand at least some of it! The down part about Ramadan ending is that because of the religious importance that this month long holiday has it has held back some of the potential problems that may have happened here because of the unstableness of everything. Starting on Saturday there are rumors that things might start happening again and I ask that you send helpful peaceful thoughts for Kyrgyzstan and its people! I joined the Peace Corps because I wanted to help and get an awesome experience and that won’t be possible if we leave the country because of problems. I want to be able to stay here and I believe that the Peace Corps is needed here and is doing great things. Again please send good thought starting Saturday and all the way through the elections on Oct 10th and after. Thanks!
On a lighter note, on Saturday I’m going to Naryn with some students to take them to a test. This is the first test of a long process for students to be able to study in America in the FLEX (Foreign Language Exchange) program. I am very excited to introduce students to this opportunity. Diana (who lived with the Hodel’s, my best friend’s family) was a FLEX student and I got to see firsthand how much she affected their lives and the whole program affected hers. This program is funded by the US government and gives opportunities to students from other countries to study English and experience American life.
I hope everyone is well and it looks dark out now… so let the parties begin.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Just another day in the KG

Let’s just start with today because today was just one of those days. I started off heading to the post office because the lady who works there told me that I had a package there (she told me on Saturday so you can only imagine the excitement that I have had for the past few days). I get there at 9am when people told me it opened. Please explain to me why the front door would be open if there is no one in the office to help you. They aren’t post office boxes to get your mail yourself. I have to ask her if I have anything. Ugh. There were five other people there and I had class in 30 minutes so I left. I walked all the way back to school… at least a 20 minute walk. We had our first class, and then during the second class my counterpart left for about five minutes. When she came back she asked if I could teach a class because the teacher wasn’t there. I had no idea what I was supposed to teach. She said teach about America. Well that’s kind of a broad topic. So I just went in there and talked about myself and a little about where things were in America. After that class we went into the teacher’s room and about five minutes after being there we found out that there was another class that had no teacher, so we went there and taught. Since we had covered those other classes we didn’t have to teach our classes (I’m not exactly sure why but it’s was a nice surprise). It was lunch time and then we were to come back in two and half hours for the afternoon class. I decided that I had enough time to get to the post office and get my package and eat lunch. I went home, ate lunch and then headed out again back to the center of town. When I got to the post office there was only one girl there (not the normal girl) and she couldn’t find my package. She said that the normal girl would be back in 20 minutes but I didn’t have time to wait because I would have missed class. So I went over to fax something for a friend. After waiting for 10 minutes there and getting cut in front of two times (sometimes it’s really hard not being in America and not having lines) I faxed a paper. I then walked back to school. We taught our one class. My feet were hurting and I was really hot wearing my professional clothes so I walked home first and changed and then walked back to the post office. On the way out a huge truck drove up with the most amount of bales of hay on it that I have ever seen. And there were six people crammed into the front cab of the truck. They were delivering it to our house. Glad I missed that unload!! On my way I stopped and got a huge ice cream cone because I needed something to make me feel better. I got to the post office and finally the girl was there and I got my package. I opened it and some how… I’m not sure how, but I think something got stolen out of it. The outside of the package looks untouched, but there is something that was on the customs slip that wasn’t in the package. Grrrr!!! Anyway… on my way home I stopped at another store to get some water and there were three people in there. They tried talking to me in Russian and I told them that I speak a little Kyrgyz and no Russian. I talked to them for a little bit and then the guy offered me some of their disgusting fizzy pear pop that all Kyrgyz people love. I happen to despise it! I tried to politely decline and no dice. So I drank a cup of the disgusting pop just so I could leave. It was very nice of him to offer, but I hate the stuff. OK… then I went to the tiny store around the corner from my house to by units for my cell phone so I can call America and the units wouldn’t go on. It must be something to do with the system, but I gave here 300 som to put on my phone and nothing. Grr again. She said come back in an hour and kept my money. I really hope it works out and I’m not out 300 som. I went back after an hour and her father was there. He told me that the whole system is down and he will have to do it with the computer later. He told me he would call me when it went it, but the problem is that the simcard I’m putting units on is my international simcard and I don’t have that one in unless I’m calling America. Try explaining that one. I spend at least 5 minutes trying to tell him that. I think a little bit of that came across but having the random people on the street come up and try to help made matter worse because they all just started shouting random words at me in Russian and Kyrgyz and that just got confusing. Oh well. At least I know he knows who I am and I hope that he will give me my money back if it doesn’t work.
Sorry about the run on paragraph and many sentences… today has been that crazy!!


This is the huge truck with the massive amount of hay bales. There is more coming too! :)


I was at the bazaar with some friends and my friend Annie was taking a picture of us. These men wanted their picture taken too. It was too awesome not to include. They are eating shashlik. This is one of my favorite things in country.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

First bell like no other!

I just finished my second day of school… Well technically my first day because the actual first day (they call it “the first bell”) is just a big all school meeting and then the ringing of the first bell. It is really cute because the new first grade class stands in front of everyone and they are wearing their little suits or black and white dresses. Girls have huge bows in their hair which are about the size of their heads. They are adorable. Then all the teacher gather in the zowich’s office and figure out what their schedule will be (the zowich is basically a step down from the principal and they are in charge of a certain group of teachers). It feels more like a student picking their college classes then high school. The teachers only teach certain classes and they don’t work the rest of the time. I don’t start until 9:40 in the morning because the teacher I work with didn’t want to start too early, but at the same time I don’t work on Friday or Saturday because she needs the time off to be with her children.
Today I just sat in the back of the classroom and observed my counterpart teach. I am going to just observe for the first week or so and then I’ll start team-teaching. It was a little nerve wracking for me today because my school is partly taught in Kyrgyz and partly in Russian. There are students who take all their classes in Russian and some that take them only in Kyrgyz. Such my luck, all the classes I will be teaching will be in Russian. Looks like I’ll be learning Russian more than I thought. All of the students know Kyrgyz and speak it in their homes. That’s the nice part about Naryn. But since I am white and they are at school, they will probably try to speak to me in Russian. I guess that’s not such a bad thing because Russian will be more useful back in America, but it will make things a little more difficult.
Cute story: After my morning classes today I was leaving the school and my little niece came out of her classroom. She said hello to me and I asked her how she was in English. She got a little confused and started answering other random questions like, “My name is Aidana” “I am 10 years old.” Then she finally figured out what I was saying and in Kyrgyz she just would only say “I’m not saying, I’m not saying.” Ha… so cute. She and her sister always run to me at school when they see me and all their friends follow along and want to talk to me too. I’m a freaking celebrity and they love it because they live with me half of the time.
School went pretty well today. There are some things that will be difficult to adjust to. The older the classes are the less respect is given to the teacher. Grading here is very different and doesn’t really reflect what the student does in class. You never know how many students will show up any given day. In a class of 30 today only 16 were there. But there are some things here that I really like. The students dress up for school and look really nice. They stand when a teacher walks in the room. I got flowers on the first day of school too. It was awesome!
Another funny story: Today I walked into the teacher’s lounge to meet with my counterpart and a teacher asked me why I carry such a big bag. I was only carrying my messenger bag. But I just told her because I am American. They all carry the really cute large purses, but I like my messenger bag because it is durable. I really like that I can use the American card anytime they want to know why I do something. Because I am American and Americans a weird. :) It’s a good way to get off the hook of doing something that they think is strange… which is most things I do. That’s ok, I’m getting used to being the one who stands out. I don’t really blend so much here… not that I usually do in America, but at least I can a little better than I can here.




This is an 11th grader carrying a 1st grader on his shoulder as she rings the first bell of the school year. So cute!


This is my little niece who is in 2nd grade now. Her name is Aichuruk. Her sister is the one who didn't want to tell me how she was doing. :)


This is a picture of my two counter parts on either side of me and two other teachers who wanted to be in the picture.