here they are

I am going to attempt to add pics now...

This is my host sister, Aiturgan. Host sister and cousin Cehzim.
She is five.


It looks like the other pics are taking a long time to load... I am going to try Facebook.... if that doesn't work, I will try another day!

Are you sure you're ready?

May 27, 2009

We now have exactly 2 weeks before we are officially Peace Corps volunteers. Right now we are considered "Peace Corps Trainees". In 2 weeks there will be a swearing in ceremony and we will take an oath and then "tadaa" there we are... shiny, new volunteers. I'm excited to get to my site and to get a bit of freedom. It's very frustrating to not be able to make any decisions for myself. Other people decide where I am allowed to go, what I am allowed to do, even what I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The structure of training has been really great right up until now... now I am ready to go... atleast I think I am.

Get ready for pics

May 26, 2009

Back in my training village. Nothing much has changed. My little sister is off visiting relatives so it has been very quiet around the house lately. Yesterday Thomas, me and a few other volunteers decided to go into the city to use the internet. We are supposed to call our Kyrgyz teachers before we leave our village just to inform them we are going... but after a week of being in Talas and not having to call, we forgot. We and called right when we got into the city. Our teacher reminded us to be sure to call when we got back in our village (always the rule). But again we got back home and forgot. Our curfew is 9pm. And sure enough our teacher calls frantically at 8:45 wondering where we are and if we made it back. I felt awful... especially since we had been home since 6:30! Then today we accidentally left both teachers in the village when they were supposed to accompany us to our training session. We all felt horrible... again! So we invited them to go out with us on Friday. We are going to hit up this local Georgian resturaunt... they have great food, a bar, music and dancing. When we invited them one of our teachers responded, "Yes I will go get down and boogie!" I love that she knows phrases like that. Our two teachers are the most awesome women ever! I really admire them.

Today we got together at a local school and led an English Club. English Clubs are really popular here. It's basically a time for students who want extra help learning English get together with a teacher and play games to improve their language. So we led a club about animals.... animal vocabulary, animal sounds, then we tried to play pictionary with drawing animals. It didn't turn out so well. Half the time the student would read the word out loud and a third of the time they drew the wrong animal. One girl drew a monkey that looked a lot like a penguin. Then I accidentally told the club that a zebra didn't make a sound, because I couldn't remember that a zebra sounded like a horse.... duh! It was fun even with all of the oddities.

Our family has been very busy lately. Both parents come home from work around 7pm. And now it's planting time so they spend about 2 hours in the garden planting onions, tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. So we eat dinner pretty late every night. Tonight we ate at 10pm. Hmm.... I want to kick my brother in the butt and get him to get out there and help. He doesn't work or go to school... or help his parents... but that complaint is for another venue.

I expected to get the package my mom sent today... but I didn't. It was a bummer. Mail is a big deal for all of the volunteers because we all have so little contact with anything familiar. Even a package with a volunteers favorite magazine is a huge deal. We're starved for the familiarities we left in America. Especially the familiar voices...

I got a nice comment from Catherine the other day. I spent the rest of the day reminising about the amazing times I had in Gretna with her family. That led to thinking about Love At Work and the past 2 summers. Sometimes I feel like I'm coming out of fog. Like I've just been in a routine where I don't think to much about the time that is going by... then it's like I wake up and all of a sudden I realize how much I miss people I knew.... It's a wierd cycle that keeps going around and around.

I am so exicted to finally get to post pictures! I have been wanting to share this place with everyone.... it's such a beautiful country!

Talas Update 3

May 23, 2009

Today is our last day visiting Talas. I was supposed to visit my school again this morning but I had a killer stomach ache and some accompaning diarhea... so I stayed home. There is nothing worse than having diarhea at school, in an outhouse built for 2, squatting beside one of your students... No thanks.

Thomas and I get to banya today! Banya'ing is an adventure I wish I could bring back to the states. Our family does not have a banya but the neighbor does and we get to use it for 1 hour for a whopping 40 som. That's a pretty fantastic price.

My mom called yesterday, which was awesome. I got to tell her all about our permanent site, our family, getting sick etc. Yesterday we met up with some of the volunteers for lunch. They planned a picnic in this really beautiful park nearby. We made shiskababs and grilled them over a fire. There was salad, cherries, hummus, bread and best of all blueberry muffins. Someone's mom mailed them a care package with a bunch of Jiffy Muffin Mix in it. They were amazing. We spent about 5 hours at the beautiful park trying to get a fire going and getting to know everyone. It was a nice day.

The day before yesterday, two of the volunteers took us on a tour of the city. We discovered that there are a huge variety of beans to choose from, chick peas and chicken hot dogs. Wahhooo!!! I think that I will enjoy cooking for myself occasionally.

Talas Update 2

May 20, 2009
Today was my first official day visiting Talas. It was one of the most overwhelming days I have had since coming here. First off, the accent in Talas is different and hard for me to understand. Before coming here I thought my language was progressing so well and I was really proud of my communication skills. But now I am not so sure that I am as good as I thought. I visited the school I will be working at. It is a secondary school (1st-11th grade) with about 300 students and 20 teachers. My host mom walked Thomas and I both to the school and then introduced us to EVERY teacher. I met my co-teacher who is incredibly nice and speaks some English. There are 2 English teachers at the school so I will probably end up teaching with both of them. The other English teacher was absent today because her daughter was sick. After we met all of the teachers, my co-teacher had 3 of her best English students show us around the school. They also showed us the small museum in the school that is dedicated to the man the school is named after. There was one boy in the group of students who had fantastic English and told us he wanted to study to be a doctor. He asked us if we knew Kyrgyz and we told him we were learning. He responded "we will learn together". It was nice. I think I see the makings of an English club with those 3 students. After visiting my school, we all (me, thomas, host mom, and co-teacher) walked down to the boarding school that Thomas will work at. My co-teacher was nice enough to come along and help translate what we didn't understand. The Director of the boarding school was out sick and no one else seemed to know what Thomas' exact job would be. They kept asking us what he would be doing. He was like "I guess that is up to the Director but I am supposed to be teaching about health." It was a little wierd that they didn't know. There was a volunteer that worked at the boarding school before Thomas and they told us that he only taught the kids one day a week and spent the rest of the time with the teachers. Also a little wierd. It was a nice school though. It is a state run facility for children with developmental disabilities. Their parents send them to study and live at the school and they go home on holidays. While they are there they learn skills like farming and handi- craft making. Tomorrow we will go back on our own. I will observe a few classes taught by my English teacher and draw a map of the school. Thomas will hopefully meet his Director and find out what he is expected to do. Then we have to go into the city to open a bank account. One of the current volunteers here is going to help us.
We went to the bazaar (open market) with our family today. It was rather large and had everything I could possibly think to buy.... food, clothes, pots, pans etc. When we come back to live permanently I will probably buy a few skirts for the summer so I can blend in and not be too hot. Our family has been very accomodating so far. They always ask us what we want to eat before they cook a meal, even though we keep telling them we will eat anything. Today they bought us some apples, apricots, an ice cream and a blanket for our bed. They also refused to let us pay our portion of the taxi, even though we are supposed to. We are not allowed to help cook dinner or clean up either... they told us that right now we are visiting and we are guests but when we come back to live permanently we wil be family and then we can help. Talk about serious hospitality! The only thing I can see being more difficult here than our training site is that there is no water in or around the house. There is a pump about 5 minutes down the road that we will have to walk to to get water. And with the host son moving to Bishkek soon, I am sure we will be fetching a lot of our own water. I think we got a little spoiled in our training village.
Today was overwhelming but I think it can only get better now!
I miss familiarity!

Talas Update 1

May 19, 2009


Thomas and I just got to our permanent site for our 5 day visit. We had a 6 hour drive through the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen. The mountain pass twists and turns up into the very top of the mountain peaks. We were basically driving in the clouds! It was amazing. There was snow everywhere! Towards the end of the pass we stopped at "rest stop"... LOL! A Kyrgyz rest stop... there was a decent outhouse and a resturaunt. It was wierd because it was in the middle of nowhere. We also passed a few yurts, which are traditional Kyrgyz houses. Back in the day when the Kyrgyz people traveled with their animals into the mountains, they constructed yurts to stay in. It was a really amazing drive.

Our family seems really nice. It is a mother with 2 sons and 1 daughter. One of the sons lives in Bishkek and the second son will graduate from secondary school in a week and move to Bishkek also. The daughter is 13 and goes to the school I will teach at. The mom is the Russian teacher at the school... it's a family affair.... So when we come back to live here permanently it will just be the mom, daughter, me and Thomas... nice and cozy and quiet.

Their house is really nice. It's a bigger house and incredibly clean! Our room is small and cozy and the bed is super comfortable. The family has 1 cow, a few chickens and a 17 year old dog named Mars, who cannot see or hear. He looks a lot like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz. They have a pretty big garden where they grow a lot of their own vegetables.

When we got here I immediately realized how much I am going to miss my PST family. I put a lot into getting to know them and being a true part of their family. I already miss my host mom and it has only been one day. I know it's going to be really, really hard to leave them. It's just that starting over and gaining that same level of understanding with another family is going to be difficult. Our PST family always understood us, it was like we had our own special Kyrgyz dialect and even when we weren't saying things correctly they still understood. And we understood them well. But this new family has a different accent and Talas has a different speech pattern and I can't understand ANYTHING! They're really nice, it's just difficult to have finally grown comfortable in a place and then have to move.

Tomorrow I will visit the school I am going to teach at. I will meet my co-teacher, students and I get to make a lovely speech. I also have to observe 3 classes taught by my co-teacher and 2 taught by another. I think I will observe my new host mom's Russian class. The gravity of my decision to come here is starting to hit me. PST was nice because it was very structured, routine and someone else was always responsible for whatever was planned. Now I have to create the routine and be responsible for everything myself, in a place where I barely speak the language. It's a little overwhelming. But I look at the volunteers that are already here and I know if they can do it I can as well. I just want to get past the awkward first few weeks.

I love you all!

I've gotten multiple request recently for my address to send packages to.... and I just have to say I LOVE YOU ALL!! Thanks so much for thinking of me! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! In order to make sure all goods arrive safely I stole some shipping info from another volunteers blog. It's really helpful info and might help save you some money on shipping as well....

The US Postal Service is going to be your best option for shipping packages internationally. There are two options for USPS. If your package is heavy but compact, the best option is probably to send it using the flat rate box. Go to a post office and ask for an international flat-rate box. You can then put the box together and mail it with up to 20 or 25 pounds (I forget which) of stuff and the cost will be $37 for the small size, and more (but better value) for the bigger size. If your package is light, it might be cheaper to have it shipped at the variable rate, but you'll have to check with a post office clerk.

Tape things really well. Seal up all of the openings on the box, then wrap tape lengthwise all the way underneath and around the package on either side of the main opening. This makes the box much stronger. It also may keep it from being opened by someone other than myself!

This week we have are midterm Language Proficiency Interview. We have to have a 20 minute conversation in Kyrgyz with a staff member and they score our language proficiency. This time it is just a "practice".... it is just to get us familiar with the format. But in 5 weeks we will another "real" LPI and we have to be considered "intermediate low" in order to continue on unhindered as a volunteer. After the LPI this week I'll know whether or not I need to be worried about the final LPI.

Next Tuesday we take a trip to visit our permanent sites. We will spend five days in our permanent home, getting to know our family, coworkers and students. I'm hoping for a nice relaxing break from PST but I've heard a rumor that the staff has prepared all sorts of assigments to occupy our time there. I'll let you know how it goes! I'm pretty excited about it!

We know where we are going!

Thomas and I got our location for our permanant site!!! After training, in 6 weeks. we will be heading to the wonderful region of Talas! It's about a 5-6 hour ride from where we are now. We get to go through Kazakstan to get there, which means we get free Kazak visas.... which means we can go to Kazakstan for day trips on the weekend! I'm very excited about that. We got a small but of information on the family we will live with. It is a mother, a 15 year old daughter and a son who does not live at home, he goes to college in the capital. They sound very nice and are preparing two adjoining rooms for us. So we should have plenty of privacy.

We will live in a village only 5 minutes from a larger city, so we should have fairly regular internet access. I will be teaching English at a small secondary school. It only has about 320 students and 25 staff. Thomas will be teaching Health at an Orphanage for mentally and developmentally challenged kids.

There are other volunteers already there who live only minutes from where we will be living. And a few volunteers from our current group will be close as well.

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch with us and keeping us updated on how things are going! I miss you all!!

bazaars and house shoes

April 20th, 2009

Today I exercised for the first time in 4 weeks! There is a soccer field at the school in our village that is almost a perfect third of a mile. So I did about a mile and 1/3 before I was dying! 4 weeks of not running and I lost everything I had built up. Not to mention Tricia was not there to keep me going.... sad. Then I played a little "keep away" the soccer ball with my host brother, Scott, Diego and a few school boys. For a while I wasn't "allowed" in the midde... as the person trying to get the ball back... even though it was obviously my turn. I told my host brother it was unfair and he was like "we're just trying to be gentlemen".... oh! That was nice. I told him I wanted to be in the middle and then I threw myself in the middle the next time.... only to get the ball kicked straight to me... *sighs*

My family called this weekend!! But for some reason my phone disconnects after 30 minutes of a call. it's happened 3 times now. I'm not sure what the deal is...Tricia and Mary An called today!!!!! It was the best morning EVER!!! It was so awesome to talk to them. I haven't really gotten homesick yet but I do miss my friends and family.

Thomas is sick today. He's got a bit of a cold and has been feeling bad since Friday... so today he skipped class to rest. It was a good day to miss. We just reviewed some vocab and got out early. Tomorrow we have Tech Day so we travel to another village for teacher training. Our language teachers announced today that they are not going with us. This will be the first time our group has traveled anywhere without them... I hope we make it back! :)

On Saturday the volunteers in our village all got together and went into the city. We checked out the Bazaar (a huge open air market) and I got some rockin house shoes. House shoes are a big thing here... you gotta get a pair or your whole family will ask you about them everyday! I also picked up some coloring books for our host sister and 2 cousins... they were a big hit!

Being here is starting to feel more and more comfortable... it gets more comfortable as the language becomes more natural. Although I still cannot understand about 85% of what is being said to me. That is the only frustrating part.. everything else I can roll with. But the language barrier is hard because there is so much I want to say. It was almost easier when I couldn't say anything because nothing was expected of me. Now I am expected to have conversations and there is so much I can't say! Grrr.....

Extended Curfews and toasting

April 15, 2009

We were invited to our first birthday dinner on Sunday! Kyrgyz birthdays are a big deal... actually anything that might be a cause for a celebration is a big deal. Holo's apa turned .... mm... I don't think she ever said how old she was turning. Holo is our neighbor and a fellow volunteer. We were invited to his host mom's birthday dinner. There were about 12 other people there. They had a long, low table set up that we sat on the floor to eat off... this is what we call Kyrgyz style. The meal began normal enough until the vodka came out.... then we all were asked to make a toast and sing a song. I did not have to make a toast.... but Thomas' toast went something like this:

"Happy Birthday to the nice neighbor lady. You make the most kickin beet salad and most rockin apricot jam I've ever had!"

Then it was time to sing. Holo decides to go first since he had a song ready to go.... and did he ever!! Out of his mouth came this beautiful Hawaiian song. It was amazing... my jaw hit the floor. And then I had to follow his "super star" performance- as all the Kyrgyz people called him!

I have to interrupt this story to make an announcement:

IT'S SNOWING!!!! A LOT!!!! And it's April! What in the world!
Back to the story....

So I had to sing after Holo... I did a little Phantom of the Opera... the only song I could remember in my panic stricken state! Then Thomas sang the most monotonous song he could think of... Yesterday by The Beatles... It was terribad (Thomas told me to say that!) Then we ate some more, drank some more (not me though I don't do vodka), talked some more, Holo was asked to sing 5 more times!!!! It was a good time! I love the hospitality of the Kyrgyz people... they make sure that no one is ever left out or with an empty glass or plate!

Tomorrow I teach for the first time. Alyson and I are teaching 2 classes... one about going to the Doctor and the other on simple tenses... hopefully we will be understood. I'll let you know how it goes!

And for all of those who have yet to call us.... We miss you a lot and we would call you but it cost us an entire days stipend to talk for one minute! So call us! PLEASE!!! :)

We have had our "curfews" extended until 9m (it used to be 6pm) and are now allowed to travel by ourselves during the day for training... hopefully this extended curfew will allow for more frequent internet usage, but I don't really know.

Good night all!