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.

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.

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.

These are my beautiful At Bashy mountains that I get to see everyday. I am so lucky to enjoy such natural beauty! This is the At Bashy River... I come here to relax and think!


The sunsets here are amazing!


I was on my way to take pictures by the river and these girls wanted me to take their picture. They were so cute! I had to post it!

Pictures...

Preparing the food for canning. Working on knife skills!


Tav and Heather sterilizing the jars.


My host mom makes these rugs and is going to teach me how to make them! :)

ugh... drunk men!

I am exhausted. I have been going nonstop for two weeks now. I started with a TEFL (my teaching English program) workshop where we started to plan a one year curriculum for the 8th grade. Then at the same hotel on the beach we had language and cultural training for a week. It was beautiful on the lake and the hotel was an amazing. There were many parts of it that were nicer that most hotels that I would stay at in America. While there I tried to get an updated antivirus on my computer and it deleted its ability to get on the internet. Luckily it happened when I was with someone who knew a lot about computers and was able to reinstall my operating system. Now my computer works better than ever and the battery life is so much longer.
After we finished all our training and planning and whatnot I needed to go to Bishkek to pick up money for a grant. It was passed down to me by a volunteer who has now left. While in Bishkek I took advantage of everything that is there. We went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. The food was amazing. We had sweet and sour chicken, a spicy tofu dish, something with beef in it… but I’m pretty sure it was intestines and a crispy chicken. It was so nice to not eat sheep and sheep fat. The best part was we ordered family style and split the bill and it only cost me a little over $3. I was also able to find a camera in Bishkek, which is so exciting because I have been living without one for over a month and that has been painful! I was also able to buy beans, dried peas, Pringles, and canned peppers. I am a happy girl.
The morning before I went home I went to the Peace Corps office. That was my first time there and I was amazed by how nice it is there. Free internet, fresh clean water to fill up my water bottle and not have to pay for, a shower if I need it… awesome! I got to the taxi station and got a taxi to go home and my taxi driver told me that he had a full car and that we were leaving right then. NO… I was the only passenger that he had and I had to wait for an hour for more people to come (an hour really isn’t that long, but I was meeting a friend and I just wanted to get home!). The worst part about being the first person to get into a taxi isn’t the waiting part is the not knowing who else is going to ride with you. This time it ended up being pretty bad because there was a guy sitting behind me who got into the car drunk and then proceeded to drink more on the five hour trip home. From what I saw in the car he drank at least 4.5 liters of beer. He proposed to me, offered me to drink with him, kept hitting my arm the whole way to get me to talk to him, he rambled off in Russian every time even though I kept telling him that I didn’t understand him. I really wish that other people in the car would have helped me out. They mostly just laughed at him. Very frustrating.
I finally got home and away from the crazy drunk man. I really missed my family because I hadn’t seen them in over a week and a half. The best part was though… I showed up with 18 large canning jars (about 2 liters each) and massive amounts of vegetables to can the next day oh and a friend. They had no idea… I just said, “maybe tomorrow we can can?” (in Kyrgyz) and that was that. Ha. That is one of the bet parts of Kyrgyzstan… you can just show up with people who need a place to stay and maybe even a project that will take all day and it doesn’t even phase them. It’s normal.
The next day we canned eight jars of tomato sauce, four jars of pickles, four jars of a pickled vegetable mix that we made up (carrots, cabbage, onion, garlic, green and red peppers, eggplant, and really hot tiny red peppers), and one jar of pickled beets and eggs (one lid got messed up and we didn’t put anything in that jar). It took 14 hours to can everything and we didn’t get to bed until 1am, but it was worth it. Now I’ll have some food for the winter. There is so much garlic in everything. I just hope that we were able to get the lids on correctly and that they sealed the way they should. Their lids here are very different. I guess we’ll see. I am so tired now and I’m going to sleep all day!

My students are published authors!

I just finished the greatest week to date in Kyrgyzstan. Along with a group of seven other volunteers we pulled off a journalism camp where the kids learned about lifeskills and journalism, researched a topic area and produced a story that has been published. The website where the articles were posted is www.gcekyrgyzstan.ning.com. They aren’t posted yet, but will be within the next 48 hours. Please comment on them because we are trying to show the importance of the internet and how they can be connected to people all over the world. We had 19 Kyrgyz high school aged students interview and research in the areas of Diversity, Women and Gender, Health, and Environment. The camp was an overnight camp that was six days long. One of the days we headed out to the city and one of the volunteers set up interviews for each of the groups to conduct. It was absolutely incredible what these students we able to accomplish. They all helped write an article in English. The thought, effort, and creativity that went into the entire week was astounding! I am so exhausted now and want to sleep forever, but knowing that we were able to pull this off with only being volunteers for two months is really encouraging for what we will be able to do in the next two years. Only one of the volunteers who was part of this has been here for a year, the rest of us all swore in as volunteers this past June.
Enough gloating…more about food… On our way home we had our driver stop on the side of the road to buy some honey. Everyone has been telling me that Kyrgyzstan has some of the best honey in the world. Every time I have tasted it, it really wasn’t anything special. The only honey that I ever saw in country was very different than any honey in America. It was crystallized and I really didn’t like the taste. I love honey so it really made me sad. But one day I was at a friend’s house we were having tea and bread and they pulled out a honey that looked a little more familiar. It was incredible. It tasted like wild flowers and was the best honey that I have ever tasted… I was eating it by the spoonful. We couldn’t really figure out where it came from because I felt like every time I asked, I got a different answer. All I know was it is delicious. Well while on my way to this camp we passed by several stands that were selling honey. I decided to take a chance because they had the non crystallized honey. Oh man, it was one of the best purchases I have made to date. I was a lot of money for one jar… $7.33 (more that I get paid in one day) but well worth it! I can’t wait to eat it with bread and butter… or make granola, or make… So many options.
This past week our camp was on the lake, so I got to experience what life is like in touristy Kyrgyzstan. Because of the recent events that have occurred over the past four months there are many less tourist than usual, but it was interesting to see how different the volunteers’ lives are who live in a place where they have more amenities. I found myself saying several times… “What you have that? I’m so jealous” but that more I thought about it I’m really not jealous at all because that’s not why I joined the Peace Corps. I joined the Peace Corps to experience a remote life, to understand what life is like in a developing country and to help as much as I can. I can see so much potential where I am and I am grateful that there isn’t a grocery store anywhere near where I live. There isn’t even one in my entire oblast. I love going to the bazaar and buying produce and fresh bread. And walking down the street and having people say “Hi” to me not because I’m a foreigner, but because they actually know me. I’m not just a white girl where I live; I’m the white girl who teaches English.
This past week was such a great experience for me. I already listed many of the accomplishments that we did as a group and how were able to encourage and teach the student. But one of the greatest things I believe that happened over the week was my connection with the local youth. There were students going up to other volunteers telling them that they really liked me because they thought I was funny and they don’t really see adult women act the way I do. I was a little nervous coming to a more conservative country because I am loud and very different than what they expect people to be. The nice part is that most people understand that I am American and don’t expect me to conform everything (I am still respectful, but I can’t lose myself). I am so happy to show the youth here that you can be yourself and that’s ok. We had a lot of fun dancing, singing, learning, and creating over this past week and it really pumps me up for more to come. I know that there will be hard times, but I will be able to look back on this and remember why we are here and what we are able to accomplish.



I am teaching nutrition and health to Kyrgyz students



I got to teach a group of girls how to make cinnamon rolls. They loved it. It was really different teaching them because they have been making bread most of their lives. I just had to tell them what to do and they did it. The cinnamon rolls turned out great!



Couldn't avoid playing on the beach!