Sunshine!!

I have had the week I have needed for quite some time now! The sun has been shining, which is all I really needed, the snow is melting away (it makes it difficult to walk anywhere because all of the mud, but I’ll take it), my counterpart taught alone today (including wrote her own lessons) and I am seeing progress in how she is teaching, my host mom came home from Bishkek (I always miss her when she is gone), my improved diet is helping my digestive tract, and spring break is only a week away. I am finishing up writing a grant which is going to be great. I have so many other projects going on and they are all things that I enjoy so that is great. I’m just waiting for better food to start showing up at the bazaars. Oh, what I would do for a tomato and cucumber salad right now. But granola has been a godsend. And also food that my friends and family have sent me over the winter. I can’t imagine how bad it would have been without that. I was struggling as it was.
Today I spent a good hour or so (no one showed up to my English club that they begged me for) reading about Thailand and dreaming about what I’ll be doing next Dec/Jan. I just got a huge tax return too and so I’m thinking maybe another trip will be in order! Or I could save the money and have it for when I finish PC so I have something to start off with. Nah… probably not.
On my way home from school today a man stopped me and asked if we had met before. I never know because I meet so many people and I usually meet them all at the same time so I never remember everyone. He was very excited about it though. After talking to him for a while he told me that I knew a lot of Kyrgyz. It’s not really true, but it totally made my day to have someone say that to me. I can understand much more than I can speak, and to people who are willing to give me the time I can communicate a lot by speaking broken language and using gestures.
Oh, also today one of my counterparts that is more difficult to work with told me that maybe we shouldn’t try to force to work together this year because we are both too busy and we will start next year working together. I am so glad she finally came to that conclusion on her own because she will accept that more.
Life is feeling pretty good right now and I am only two months away from summer vacation and my friends coming to visit! This summer is already full of great things that we are going to do here and hopefully by then all of my grants will be funded and I can focus more on teacher trainings at my school. I never thought I would have such a plan here, but as time goes on I am seeing everything fall into place. I want spend my second year working directly with the teachers at my school and less on writing projects. That will help the sustainability of what I have been trying to do here.
Today I am thankful for SUNSHINE!! May your life be full of sunshine and happiness!