My Amazing Kyrgyz Family! :)

I have lived with one family for 14 months and I feel like it is time to dedicate one blog post to everything that is wonderful about them. I’m going to do it in bullet points because I feel that is the best way to list some of the great things that I love about them:
• They are always so happy to see me. No matter how long I have been gone on trips to do work or see friends they are always excited to have me walk through the gate and be home!
• I have many volunteer friends who have families that lecture them about silly things that shouldn’t matter (e.g. the way they wash their clothes, drinking cold water, how they cook American food…) but my family just uses those opportunities to learn about my culture and they way I function in life. I have taught them how to cook different American foods, American games, and just explained to them how our cultures may be different but it is interesting to learn about each of them. Neither is wrong or right, just different.
• I have started a few rituals with my nieces because I spend most of my time at home with them. When we eat dinner together we usually finish and then have a big group hug. They now know the word, “HUG.” When my friends were here one of the, Aidana, went up to my friend Laura and said, “hug” and then wrapped her arms around Laura. My friend was shocked by this because it wasn’t something that she was expecting, but she loved it! After our group hugs we might go into tickle wars where we all just start tickling each other and keep saying, “tickle tickle.” At the end of the night we will have a tooth brushing party together. This is great because many people in this country don’t know how important it is to brush their teeth which results in rotting teeth and eventually having to get them replaced. But I’m hoping that by starting early they will always want to brush their teeth regularly.
• My 15 month old nephew has started walking and talking and becoming his own person. Today while we were eating dinner he stumbled into the kitchen and was playing with a cell phone (his favorite thing in the world). I pretended to take it from him and he would run away. Then he started saying, “ticka ticka ticka.” It took me a minute to figure out what he was trying to say. He was trying to say, “Tickle Tickle,” like I say with his sisters. This went on for 10 minutes or so. “Ticka Ticka Ticka,” and his finger pointed out poking me. SO CUTE!!!
• Every time my nieces come to get me to eat food or drink tea they knock on my door and say, “Come eat food.” or “Come drink tea.” When I have friends over they get a kick out of it!
• Playing soccer with them is awesome. Usually it’s me against the two of them. I still usually win and for some reason they always want to come back for more. I’m not nice to them, I tease them, and throw the around a little, and they still like me. Not sure why, but I love them.
• For their birthday (they are two year apart with the same birthday) I gave them snickers and a hand lotion from America. The lotion was named, “PS I love you.” We talked about what I love you means for a little while and then after we drank tea together the younger of the two looked up and said, “I love you.” I almost cried as I said back to her, “I love you, too.” I meant every word of it.
• Aidana, 11, the older of the two, is very perceptive. She can tell when I have enough playing and need to go be by myself. She will just stop playing right then and then tell her sister that we are done and that they need to do something else. That makes me want to play with them more because she makes it easy to play with them!
• How much they love to help me cook anything: Pizza, cinnamon rolls, cookies… anything.
• My amazing host mom who has been through so much this year with her health but still always has a smile on her face and whenever she is home always makes me feel like I’m one of her own.
• My incredible host dad who reminds me every day that there are good men in Kyrgyzstan. Walking around town, having guys yell bad things to me that I don’t want to here can bring me down and then I come home and he is always there to show me that he is amazing. Everything I leave on a trip somewhere he shakes my hand and kisses me on my cheek. Whenever he meets my friends he does the same to them. He always takes time to get to know them and make them feel like they are always welcome.
• I hear so many not great stories about what other families do to their volunteers but taking advantage of them, asking to borrow money, charging them too much for things in their house, making them feel like they aren’t welcome in their house. I am so grateful that I have the family I do because they would never do any of that.
• I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! I am their second volunteer and they sometimes talk about when the other volunteer left and they cried. Then they usually follow it with saying when I leave they are going to cry again. I know I won’t be able to hold it in!

Back Row: My best friend from HS Laura, Aichuruk (niece, 9), Diana (exchange student who lived with Laura and Krissy 7 years ago who is from KG), Aidana (niece, 11), Azia (their mom and my host sister), My host mom
Next Row: Begiam (host sister who lives in Bishkek) and her son Erjan, Krissy (friend and Laura's sister), Me holding my nephew Nurmo
hammad (Nikolish), Aideme (niece, 5... Begiam's daughter), My host dad!

I'm still here and ALIVE!!

I have been told by a few different people that I need to write a new blog entry because the last one was not a happy one. Well, the great news is that the reason I haven’t been writing blogs is because I have been so busy with doing great things this summer. I just finished a great week on lake doing a leadership camp for boys and girls in Kyrgyzstan. This was an AMAZING camp where we had the best students we had in our schools come together and learn about many different topics and then create a plan for a project to share the information with their community. My students decided to do a series of seminars on nutrition. It made me so proud that the information that I have been giving them for the past year has been sticking and they want to share it with their friends and community members!!
At this camp we covered many topics including self-esteem, nutrition, critical thinking, self defense, yoga, our bodies and how they function, LGBT, project planning and many other things. Every volunteer took a few sessions to teach in pairs or by themselves and some of the best lessons and activities I have ever seen were presented at this camp. We had students interested and participating better than I have ever seen before at a camp.
We really realized how much we made a difference and how much they appreciated the camp when after we came back from visiting a waterfall in a nearby village all of the kids went into a room and wouldn’t let us in there. They were planning something. We had a campfire that night (w/s’mores which by the way were one of the first food items in country that had actually made me homesick) and they all sang Kyrgyz songs for us. We sang American songs for them and had a great time. After the campfire they told us that we needed to come back to the conference hall and they had prepared something for us. After we all sat down and were ready, they all came out in a line and introduced themselves. They were each one of the volunteers or translators and said a little bit about themselves. The girl who was me was dancing around and making funny noises. It was amazing how well they nailed each of our personalities. It was hilarious. They did a few skits while in character and then gave short little speeches again. After each speech they said if I misrepresented you I’m sorry. I think they were afraid we would be offended, but it was great. They were able to use American humor so well! Then after they were finished they asked us if they would have a dance party and there was no way we could say no at that point.
The next morning after they presented their projects and we gave them their certificates they said they had something else for us. They all got in front of us again and gave us each metals of achievement. Mine, of course, was the “Most Joking Around.” I am so glad that we did this camp and brought the kids we did. They were great!
Now to jump backward in the summer. I have done so much and now half of the summer is over. I have stayed in a yurt five nights, I have gone to many different bodies of water, I have hiked several miles over a pass and back down the other side, I have gotten several blisters on my feet in the strangest places (between the toes).
Here is a schedule to date of my summer:
May 23 Went to Bishkek to help with training the newbies and to prepare for a camp (the one I just finished)
June 1 Friends came from America (AMAZING)
June 3 To my village- we went to jailoo (where the animals go for the summer to hang out, eat great food and get exercise), then to tash rabat (more about that later), and hung out with my family where my friends gave presents and bought a Kyrgyz rug from my host mom (she got an offer from the President of Kyrgyzstan but she saved it for Krissy because she said she would).

This is at the top of the pass on the way to Naryn.

June 6 To Song Kol (a beautiful lake where we relaxed and stayed in a yurt) This part of the trip was great because we got to do so many new cultural things: Milk a cow, make cream from that milk, set up a yurt, sleep in a yurt, make new friends while only speaking Kyrgyz…

Diana and the woman who let us help her family set up their yurt!!

June 8 To Issyk Kol (the largest alpine lake in the world) This was the part of the trip where we stayed in a hotel, went dancing, and got to see more of touristy part of the country.
June 10 Said goodbye to the girls and went back to Naryn to welcome the new volunteers (I cried when I said goodbye… it was such a great trip and I loved having them here!!)
June 12 To Ugut (Heather’s village) for a lifeskills camp. At this camp we had a blast, introduced kids to new healthy ways of eating great food, played many sports, taught girls and boys about their bodies and how to respect them, and cooked great food with other volunteers. My counterpart came to this camp to be a translator and it was so awesome. I feel like we connected so much more. We cooked together and she got to see me with my American friends and see that I’m not completely strange. All in all it was a good camp.
June 18 To my village to regroup
June 22 To Bishkek to get money because my ATM PIN stopped working. So frustrating, but I was able to order the English books for my school. The banks are electronically connected here. They are slowly moving toward that by having ATM’s and giving people cards, but the branches don’t communicate with each other. Before I got my card I could only take money out at the branch in my village. Now, I can take money out anywhere in the country as long as the ATM accepts my bank’s card. But the problem is that if it doesn’t work then I’m not able to take money out of my bank (even in my village) until I get it fixed in Bishkek and that is a 6 hour ride in a taxi and 500 som (one way).
June 24 To Song Kol for a hike from the lake to Heather’s village. We ended up getting a free ride out there. The bad part is that nothing in life is free. We had to sit in the back of a very small old soviet car with four of us back there. One girl was on Heather’s lap for over ten hours. I had a sleeping pad below my feet and had my knees at my chest and another girl was having problems with her back. We got to the place were staying at 11 pm and we showed up to a feast with the whole sheep and everything. We were so tired, but we knew that this was going to happen so it was nice to mentally prepare ourselves. We left in the morning and were driving back closer to the lake so we could hike the whole thing. The people we were with wanted us to stay with their friends because they were worried about us, but we promised to stay near a family who set up their yurts on our hike. We met some great people and had a lot of fun.
We all realized and agreed on this trip that it was so great to be able to do something like this, meet locals and completely interact with them in their local language. I was a really great moment and a good feeling about what we are doing in this country.
June 26 To my village to work again
July 2 To Naryn City to celebrate the 4th with some friends. Sometimes it’s the little things that help keep us going and not get too homesick.
July 3 Back home

This crazy storm prevented us from hiking.


July 8 To Tash Rabat (a old structure left behind from the silk road. It was thought be used a caravan. Stayed a yurt another 2 nights.
July 10 Back home
July 18 Left for camp with 2 of my students and several more from various villages in Naryn Oblast and we met up with various students and volunteers from Issykul Oblast.
July 23 Karakol to spend a night with my friends before I head back the Bishkek to pick up my books that I bought with the money that so many of you donated. Thank you so much.
I hope by July 26th I will be heading home and will be able to work with my counterpart and get some work done on our curriculum.
My summer isn’t over and there is so much more to come, but so far I have done so much and seen so much of this amazing country. Every day that I’m here I’m so happy that I was placed in a country that is so beautiful and that I get to work with such great people.
I hope this makes up for my lack of blog writing. 