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.