Give us your money (Act 1)

Good news! Good news!

I have completed my first project! So I am going to write this blog about it. Here is the outline of the following blog: 1) I will tell you about it; all the juicy details and such. 2) I will give you a link where you can find this project online. 3) I will unabashedly ask you to open your wallet and contribute.

Part 1
My work is somewhat complicated. I work for an NGO that works with Day Care Centers (DCCs) for disabled children. Here is their story: These state-wide DCCs were created by the parents of disabled children. As of now, the current paradigm is to seclude these children from daily village life. The objective of our NGO, in concert with these DCCs, is to create a society where these children can receive quality rehabilitative care and still participate in normal village life. We want them to find the help they need and allow them to become an active member in their community. One of the problems these DCCs encounter, however, is a lack of funding. They are completely volunteer driven and are solely reliant on outside funding sources. This is where my project comes in.
The project my counterpart, the leader of this particular DCC and I created is to build a subsidiary farm attached to the DCC. The local government confirmed one half hectare to be given to the DCC for crops. Behind the DCC is a small plot of land used currently for storage. By spring (when the snows stop), that place will be cleared and the field will be prepared. Our plan is to provide the seeds, seedlings, building materials and animals to begin a small farm. Community volunteers have offered to help the DCC plant the crops and maintain them throughout the year as well as build the animal shelters out back for chickens and rabbits.
Beyond this, the DCC will be creating a Farm Finance Committee to watch over the finances of the farm. My counterpart and I will be conducting a seminar to teach about the financing and preparing a ledger outlining the costs of the farm. Throughout the year, this committee will oversee the money earned from the animals as well as any money earned from the fields. The plan is to earn enough money to pay for next years costs to continue the farm. With good returns, the farm might even begin to grow or help the DCC build. On top of this, the farm can provide food to the children as well as provide an opportunity for them to learn vocational skills relevant to village life.

Part 2
http://www.peacecorps.gov/contribute
*The link function is not working. It is giving me an error message in Russian (of which I cannot read) so you will be forced to copy and paste. Do not give up! Please don't let this set you back!
If you go to this website, there are several ways to find my project. You can type in Kyrgyz and all the projects currently active from this country will come up. (If you do this, you can read the other projects and give to my compatriots efforts also!) You can also type in my last name, Greene. If you need a third option, you can search by the state I am from, FL. If you are unable to find it, that means the small amount of money needed to turn these people inside out with happiness has already been collected. Hooray!

Part 3
I apologize. I threw a statement in the last part that could be interpreted as an “unabashed” attempt to convince you to give some money. Truly though, give something. One dollar, five dollars, five hundred dollars, however much you can spare. Tell your rich friends! Tell your rich enemies whom you want to see lose money! And don't worry, if you miss the opportunity to contribute this time, Rachel and I will be coming to you again with a complete lack of shame begging for your money. I know your TV might still be talking about an economic crisis but that was never a good reason to stop giving money away.
Truthfully, there are many funding sources open to Peace Corps Volunteers and I chose this one for a reason. Through this avenue, I am able to connect these people with you people. I will post pictures and tell about how the project goes. This is a chance not only to just write a check to some good cause. This is a chance to have someone you know (or maybe only vaguely know) oversee it and watch it blossom. Just because you aren't here doesn't mean you don't have the ability to make a difference here. This is a request from strong, hard-working, determined people to help them build a farm so they can create a better life for disabled children. How many more heart strings can be tugged at in one sentence?

Ok. I am finished with that.

Life here is good. We saw the thermometer hit -20*C for about two weeks then a beautiful warm front cleared all that out in two days. It is now a muggy 2-6*C and all the snow has melted on our dirt roads to create a nice humid bog. Also, all the livestock traffic only helps make the mud more squishy.
And with that...

Seacrest out.

Updates

Long time no type. Emergencies and such... blah blah... sad... will I leave? … and here.

So, with all that out of the way, I will bullet point the past few (non-dramatic) areas of our life. Prepare yourself for happiness.

• I acquired a thermometer. I watched it drop to -15 degrees Celsius outside one night. This is only about 5 degrees Fahrenheit but in a country with no insulation and no central heating in homes, that is quite an intense number. We wrapped ourselves like burritos in blankets.

• It snowed a lot one day! It started midday and by the next morning, we had over a foot on the ground. Again, not a ton by American standards but for me, that was a lot of snow. It is also quite formidable considering there is no salt for the ground and no snow plows for the streets. Even the snow shovels are hand made from wood. It was fun. *See picture
• We had this sitting in our kitchen for a few days. It just sat there, staring at us hoping the rest of its body would return so it could trot away. Tasty. *See picture
• Our sheep had babies! We have six of the cutest little sheep ever. One day, those cute little things will grow up to be the stinky nasty annoying creatures that I will find inside my dumplings next winter. Hooray! *See picture
• We had a cow come back from the fields a week ago. This know gives us a total of 3 cows, 20 or 21 sheep, and 20ish chickens (original recipe). To top that off, she is prego and will have her calf in February. Middle America, ripping the fields, a-oo a-oo! (5 pts if you can name the origin of that quote.)
• Rach is back to school and starting her clubs back up. She is also helping a lot with the summer camp coming up. I am writing my first two grants (you will soon be able to find those on the Peace Corps website). I am also working hard to help the local women's shelter re-open. Good fun.
• New volunteers will be arriving soon. Rach and I are very excited. We are hoping to be Trainers for them but if we aren't, we can't wait to help them adjust to their new life here.
• We are having lots of trouble getting to our blog website many times. This means that the updates will be even more sporadic than normal. Sorry.

This now concludes your Monday edition of this blog. I hope you enjoyed.

Turkish desert makes everything ok

I'm sitting in a hotel in Istanbul trying to find some way to pass the time until this side of the world wakes up. It's 1:45 am here and since we expected to be in Bishkek by now where we would have things to do, we slept for 8 hours on the last flight. Apparently our plane took off late in Chicago due to icy conditions, which caused us to land here 1 1/2 hours late and ten minutes before the departure time for our last flight. When we got off the plane we ran, and I mean RAN, through the Turkish airport only to find that our gate was closed. The plane was at the gate and the gate was still connected but they wouldn't let us on. So..... here we are at the hotel.

This entire trip has been really difficult and draining for both of us. We had so many people who helped make it easier but still.... It was really surprising for me to realize on Thursday how difficult it was to go back. I was all prepared for going back and thought I was fine. But on Thursday I realized my stomach was in knots and I was on the verge of tears for hours. It wasn't that I didn't want to go back. I really love my host family and my students.... but I had forgotten how wonderful it was to just be with friends and family and how easy and less stressful it was to be in the states.

Tomorrow we should arrive in Bishkek at 3 am local time and then will hang out at the Peace Corps office until we hop on a bus to PDM. We will try to update when we get back.