I am the kind of person who loves to lounge outside for hours and hours, days and days in warm weather, a backpack full of paints, a journal, a book, some snacks, and a bicycle laying on its side in the grass, barefoot under a tree, drifting from park to park or patio to patio, cell phone turned off in my pocket. Read until I am bored, and then lazily ride, and sleep under a tree, then go paint by the river, then have a banana, make a rum and coke and have a drink and sleep by the port, go sit in the air conditioned library for an hour, get inspired, go out and ride my bike and write.

But .. it's winter.

Of course, at the onset of winter, I like to hole myself up in my apartment with a list of projects and goals, and meticulously and systematically work on them. This has been a pretty productive winter - I learned a lot of kanji (Chinese symbols used in Japanese writing), read some great books (Tropic of Cancer twice, and 90% through Voyage au bout de la nuit, Journey to the end of the night) and seriously hammered out some paintings. A lot of nights it was a folder full of images to paint from, or an actual list in my notebook of things around the house I wanted to paint or draw. Come home, make some soup, listen to NPR and paint for 2-3 hours. I think I really improved my use of color, drawing, composition, and portrait abilities, consolidated more my vision and ideas. That being said, I am over isolation in the apartment!

I live on the third floor of an old building near the port, relatively empty, in a small town in rural Japan. On nice days, the city is pretty active with people riding bikes, shopping, playing in the parks, etc, but winter is a bit .. dreary.

This weekend was a bit of a bastard! I woke up Sunday morning and it was bright and sunny out, apartment was somewhat warm, and I decided to go out and paint! So I stepped on the balcony .. and it was maybe a bit chilly. So I went inside again to read, but kept looking longingly out the window. That little taste of Spring was making me so restless to go out! Finally, after a few hours of deliberating and half-assedly knocking out some housework, I went out to paint. IT WAS FREEZING! So I sort of mocked myself for being so fickle about weather that was too cold anyways, and I picked up some goodies for dinner and went home to resume painting inside.

All that restlessness left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. After work on Monday it was pretty nice out, so I rode my bike around town for a bit. I picked up two goodies to increase temporary happiness:

struggling through winter, gin and pots

I was bummin' a little riding home from work, but I had this bottle of gin in my backpack, and a houseplant in one arm, riding my bike one handed down a busy busy street. The cars were all stopped and backed up, trapped and mechanically on their way somewhere (?), and it really perked me to feeling free and light, riding home with alcohol and a plant, two elements of very simple enjoyment and happiness. Then my friend was pulling out of the parking lot of a building near mine, and she waved, and I waved, but when I took my other hand off the handlebars I almost wrecked the bike. That is classic, right?

Hey Team,  As the temperatures slowly start to increase here in Toguz Bulak, I can’t help but look forward to the spring and summer.  I’ve been promised by Nurgazy Baike that we still have at least a month of snow and cold temps, but I’m getting stoked anyway. Winter in Kyrgyzstan is quite different from winter in the States.  Homes are heated with old-school furnaces called “petchkas.”  Dried cow manure is the kindling of choice, and coal is burned to sustain the heat.  All of the fuel is purchased in bulk at the beginning of the winter season, so careful rationing is a must.  The petchka heats water pipes that run through each room of the house.  Ideally, the pipes will become hot enough to heat the room to a comfortable temperature.  If you’ve learned anything from this blog, it should be that the ideal is rarely the reality in the K.  My room is farthest from the petchka, so the pipes in my room are lukewarm at best.  My room is also the biggest in the house, making it that much more difficult to heat.   Right now, indoors, I’m wearing 3 shirts, a sweatshirt, 2 pairs of long undies, sweatpants, and 2 pairs of wool socks.  I’m still cold.  Kyrgyzstan wins again. This winter has taught me a few things, though.  I’ve learned that given the choice, I will never live in a cold-weather city.  Snowboarding is AWESOME, but I can get my yearly dosage on a vacation… I don’t want to truck through 5 months of sub-zero temps.  I’ve learned that I’m capable of surviving just about any winter, provided that I survive the rest of this one and next years’.  I just can’t imagine ever being this cold again.  I’ve learned that the frozen outhouse is the worst place to be.  Wait until the last possible minute before venturing out.  I’ve learned that vacation is the best medicine… India in December/January was CLUTCH.   Even though winter has physically sucked, mentally I’m doing really well!  Packages, letters & emails from friends & family always put a huge smile on my face.  Keeping busy with work has definitely helped, and when I’m not working I have The West Wing, The Fast & The Furious film series, and Twitter to keep me occupied.  Seriously, if you don’t like The Fast & The Furious, you are not an American.  Turn in your passport & move to Canada.  This doesn’t apply for Tokyo Drift, however.  Nobody liked Tokyo Drift.   All kidding aside, spring is coming and I can’t wait.  I’ve applied for a couple training positions with Peace Corps and FLEX for jobs that start up in March.  I will be hearing back from them soon, so I’m eagerly awaiting a phone call or e-mail (hopefully with some good news)!!  The Peace Corps position is Trainer for the new K20 volunteers who are arriving in May.  The FLEX job is Trainer for Kyrgyz students who are about to leave for America with an exchange program.  With Peace Corps, I will be teaching Americans about Kyrgyz Life; with FLEX I’ll be teaching Kyrgyz youth about American life.  Both would be amazing experiences, so cross your fingers for me! Other than that I’m just up to my normal shenanigans in the village.  Daily English classes with Bermet Eje, weekly English Club with my advanced students, and weekly Nutrition Seminar for the pregnant women in the village.  Life is good! bones, canes, kai, etc.

The sun is coming up early and setting after five. I definitely feel like spring will come sometime in the future and that's exciting. As you can probably tell-- the cold has been a bit difficult. Definitely not built for cold, long winters, but it feels really nice to have survived it! I now know I can heat a house through a whole winter with coal, that at low enough temperatures glass jars of food will explode, that sleds are the best way to transport water in the winter, and that hats are super awesome.

So as for things that have happened... after vacation we have about two weeks off of school for flu quarantine. That was a super productive time period that I used to work through the details of a lot of projects I want to do. After that we had some school and regular stuff. This weekend we decided to do some research in Naryn City and visit some friends. Turns out, Naryn City is wonderful. Everyone is really excited to hear you speak Kyrgyz, nobody seems all that surprised that there's an Indian in Kyrgyzstan, and the streets are clean-ish and well lit. The road to Naryn was long. We decided to go from Talas to Naryn in one day (two six hour drives) which was kind of crazy but fun. Naryn looks a lot like Talas but the mountains are closer and people seem to take more pride in their houses appearance (matching fences and stuff). Through their mountain pass there are random statues of painted women and silver colored statues of various mountain animals perched atop the mountains. One of the most amazing moments was actually driving into Naryn City, you basically drive towards this huge orange clay cliff and as you get close you see a path winding into it. You drive with cliff towering on either side, curve to the right and see the little city appear in front of you. This city itself is between two mountain ranges with a river running near it.

So things are going we right now. We are more than 10 months in to service and that feels good. New volunteers will be coming in the Spring and I have applied to be a trainer for them, so that might be a cool thing in the future. As usual, I miss you all and look forward to seeing you again.

Athena

Here's a picture of my 5th form...

Part V through Acronyms

Talas Camp, Peace Corps, Kyrgyzstan, youth From: wilburyen Views: 3 0 ratings Time: 01:35 More in People & Blogs

I picked up a small blue notebook for 300 yen at the art store here. The paper is great, absolutely low quality, totally slick and bleached white. The cover is really thin blue cardboard, almost negligible. Within a week or two the cover had ripped off and every page I had written on had come unglued and was falling out of the notebook. I taped the binding, put a bulldog clip on one end, and it now goes with me everywhere I go. It has become really special to me.

moleskine schmoleskine

I like to keep journals to represent periods of my life. I never "complete" a journal by filling it completely. I feel like there comes a point in each period in my life that signifies a major change in outlook and attitude, and that is when I tie a string around the journal and put it in storage. In that way, the journals end when a certain mindset ends, not limited by the physical absence of paper! I have several of these journals, starting from 2006 when I first went to France.

This blue journal is drawings of people and things in trains, coffee shops, and bars. The content is mostly my personal thoughts, retelling events that happened, recording dreams, and also ideas for poetry and songs. If people read from this journal, it will be extremely selective.

I currently have a similar project with the same principle behind my system for journaling. I am working on an album here in Japan, and it is definitive of a period and a mindset. I don't have a set number of songs I want to write -- I am going to continue existing and being as I am, and the songs will continue, and when that period is over, I will tie a string around the album and record what I have created. I am going to play shows with these songs in Columbus, and I may ask a few other musicians to start a band for it. Songs are on piano, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar.

This is a page from my journal that will probably be cryptic to those who read it, but I understand it, and it is extremely indicative of my life at this point. It is so special to me that I took it from my journal and I have it hanging on a wall in my living room.

Everyone who claims to hate Valentine’s Day is either lying or doesn’t get the point. We’ve all got some love in our hearts, and Valentine’s Day is the day to spread it - single, taken, married, heartbroken - whatever. Find your love today and share it with others. Send flowers to someone you know wouldn’t get them otherwise, buy your mother some chocolate, tell your brother or sister you love them, smile at a stranger. It won’t go unnoticed, and you’ll feel a lot better about yourself too. Happy Valentine’s Day, people!!! bones, canes, kai, etc.

PCVs on Kyrgyz National Television ОТРК

Kyrgyz national television ОТРК-1 recently came to my house to interview some Peace Corps Volunteers about how we celebrate the New Year in American and how we will celebrate the holiday in the Kyrgyz Republic. In this video: Aika Kanaeva: Peace Corps Counterpart Judson L Moore : K-19 Lindsay Hull: K-18 Andrew Hull: K-18 From: jaymooreusa Views: 2 0 ratings Time: 02:46 More in News & Politics

I'd like to write a bit more about some personal experiences in Japan and not so much my thoughts on my twice a week train ride to Sakanoichi.

Winter has been pretty cold here. Ohio is a hell of a lot colder, but Ohio also has heating systems and insulation in all homes and buildings. I have only been in one building in Japan that had heat or insulation, and that was a nursing home. Let's see, I have worn a winter coat in the classroom for the last month! I immediately thought of some Thoreau inspired civil disobedience, intentionally getting pneumonia and dying in a school, but it's not really my battle .. .. right?

So, with that background, it is much to my delight that it has gradually gotten warmer in February. Saturday it was in the high 40s and completely sunny. I live right on the coast of Kyushu, so I decided to take my single speed beach cruiser (i.e. bicycle) out to uncharted territories. I rode down the coast past the familiar limits of my city. Before I set out, I picked up some chocolate covered peanuts and a quart of milk. Ahh ..

Very nice ride, riding along the coast is very flat. Every mile or so there are small fishing villages and ports. I crested a hill and there was a little path going off into the woods. Intrigued, I parked the bike and followed.

I like to think there was some kind of warning sign on this path, because it was unbelievably unsafe. There was a sidewalk width strip of concrete that went out for about 15-20 feet without any guardrails. On either side was a nearly vertical drop of 40 feet to rocks and the ocean. Creepy! At the end of it the walkway were crumbling stairs, also with on guardrail, that led to a big drop to rocky ocean death. At one point, there were no stairs, but some kind soul tied a rope to a tree so you could sort of climb down. ありがとう to that person! This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but the end of that path is about a 40 foot vertical fall into magical danger.



Just beyond this and to the left were two Buddhist statues, hidden behind a red curtain, red scarves tied around their neck, and candles and incense to burn. I couldn't find a lighter to use. Too bad .. Continued down until I reached what I was after -- a beautiful promontory, 20 feet out into the ocean, surrounded by the ocean with the coast of Kyushu looping around.

Yep. I parked it out there and ate some yummies. Periodically the waves hit the rocks so hard that water bounced up onto me. Really peaceful, warm, ah. After a half hour, I got up to return to my bike. A bit surprised and excited for my return journey:

Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan - Village Home (Winter Edition)

Early February snowfall in Toguz-Bulak! From: jstevenroot Views: 1 0 ratings Time: 01:52 More in Travel & Events

Tour of My School in Toguz Bulak!: Click above to check out a quick tour of my tiny village school!  bones, canes, kai, etc.

Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan - School Tour

A quick view of my english classroom and the rest of the Toguz-Bulak school! From: jstevenroot Views: 14 1 ratings Time: 03:37 More in Travel & Events

"Knowledge is a trick in the age of the internet. At any moment, you can become instantly and temporarily knowledgeable on any topic through 3G networks and wikipedia mobile. However, some people have information stored in themselves that they can summon at any time, information they use spontaneously from their being. This is devotion, information that is learned, invited, and accepted into who you are at your core as a person. Information that is felt, perceived, and stored is love. Goods produced and services performed via this love are one's craft in life. Every human being on earth needs a craft."

I wrote this on the train to work one morning. Why the death of Rubik's cube? A student here gave me a sticker with a Rubik's cube on it, one square incorrect. I thought about how it was no longer an engaging puzzle. Why? At one point, there was an intellectual endeavor to understand and deduce how to solve the puzzle. Today, the magic is gone -- solving a Rubik's cube is just a trick you can find on YouTube or other sites. I put the sticker on my watercolor palette -- it is a reminder that painting is my craft, that I have taken into my being information on the properties of painting and picture making, and that the internet does not have "tricks" to understand its workings.

January 16, 2012 -- Snowfall at dusk obscures the shores of a silver lake outside a little town called De Smet, South Dakota. Nearby, a sign points 275 miles east to Laura and Mary Ingalls' birthplace in the big woods of Wisconsin; 12 miles southwest to Laura's golden years at the Brewster School; and 2.5 miles north to her first four years on Almanzo Wilder's claim.

This blog will be dedicated to giving advise to those of you who will find themselves trying to figure out what to eat when you are in a place where you have limited food and things to cook with. I have spent the past year perfecting a short cookbook that I have written for just that. It is called Recipes for the Rice Cooker: cooking with few resources. With help from other volunteers I have been able write 14 different recipes with many of them having variations (just to spice things up a little). Who said I didn’t learn anything in Peace Corps? A couple of my favorite recipes have included Pea Soup, Chili, Grilled Cheese (got the idea for this one from another volunteer), Mac and Cheese, and various ways to make rice. Here are some previews:

When cooking with a rice cooker you need to make sure the bowl is pushed down. Some that’s all you need, and some will pop up just because it is too hot. I just take the bowl out and let it cool and then try to push the lever down again. Usually with more liquid it stays down better. I have the most problems with making grilled sandwiches and fried potatoes.

Bolded words are things I have not been able to find in my village. I bought them in Bishkek or got them sent from the states. They are spices and beans that are good to stock up on and if you cook for yourself a lot it would be smart to keep a stash of these.

Pea soup

Serves: 5

½ kg Dried Peas, cleaned and rinsed (pick through to make sure there aren’t any rocks)

1 T Oil or butter

2 Onions, diced

3-4 Cloves of garlic, minced

3-4 Carrots, peeled and diced

3-4 Potatoes, diced

1 T Oregano

2 Bay leaves

1 ½ t Salt

1 t Pepper

1 Bouillon cube (any kind works)

Heat up rice cooker and add oil. Add onions and garlic. Cook until soft. Add the rest of the vegetables and seasonings. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Add peas and enough water to cover everything. Simmer until peas are soft.

Serve alone or over rice. A small amount of soy sauce added at the end is a nice touch! (Thanks Dad!!)

Lentils could be added instead of or with peas.

Rice

Serves: 1

1 cup Rice

2 cups Water

Add rice and water to rice cooker, shut the lid, press the lever and let it go.

Variations:

Plov (soviet rice dish with carrots):

Sauté 1 onion, diced; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 1 carrot, sliced into circles in 1 tablespoon of oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until carrots are soft. Add rice and water and cook normally.

Spanish rice:

Sauté 1 onion, diced; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 2 tomatoes, diced in 1 tablespoon of oil. Add red pepper flakes, cumin, oregano, and basil. Add bouillon cube to water and add with rice and cook normally.

Grilled Cheese

Sliced bread

Sliced cheese

Butter

Place cheese in between two slices of bread. Put butter in bowl and let it melt. Place sandwich over the butter and shut lid to help melt the cheese. Cook for 4-5 minutes and flip.

Things like soups and stews I make very large batches and keep then for a whole week. I will usually make rice or noodles each day and then put the soup or stew over them. I don’t think I’m getting enough protein or food, but this is what I do to get by and make it. The sad thing is that I know I eat more than my whole family does in one day. It was difficult at first to cook for myself because I keep my leftovers in the fridge that is in the kitchen and I have to go in there every time I want to cook. Many times I can avoid them, but on a daily basis at least once I run into someone who is watching me take food back into my room. It’s in those moments that I feel horrible that I’m not able to share my food with them. I really would like to cook for them and if I didn’t have to buy everything to do that and they would actually eat my food I would cook for them. But I’ve learned that I have to do what I have to do to survive.

Sometimes I do end up sharing food with my nieces so they can try new things. Usually it’s for lunch when we aren’t eating as much I’ll bring out a pouch of tuna or a jar of peanut butter and we’ll share that. Most things that I’ve had my nieces try they have liked, which is not common with Kyrgyz families.

I never realized how much I ate for pleasure in America and how much that has changed since I have been a volunteer and have been forced to eat food I would have never thought I would eat. When I was traveling home for the holidays I had several meals on the airplane. As you all know, airplane food is not known for being good but I found myself scarfing it down like it was my first meal in days. I didn’t even realizing I was doing it until I had already finished and thought about what I had just eaten. It was even worse than the food that I used to eat on a daily basis before I started cooking for myself.

Just another way I have changed and grown.

Beeline is doing this promotion right now and everything is free. It is partly because they screwed up and no one could use the phone or internet for a couple of days. So here I am updating my blog from my beeline modem. Schools out till Feb 6th, due to a bunch of students and [...]

Cold…

The part I was most nervous about going back to Kyrgyzstan after being in Washington for 3 weeks was the cold. Well it hit me hard in the first week. The temps got down to -35*C (-31*F) last Friday and now I really understand what cold means. I found out that there are stages of cold.

1. Add scarf, hat, warm boots, long underwear, wool socks, extra layers, gloves…

2. My nose hairs freeze every time breathe in.

3. My scarf begins to freeze to my face because of the moisture coming out when I breathe.

4. My eyelashes freeze for the same reason.

5. My eyelids freeze shut in the split second I shut them to blink.

These are the things that you learn from experience. This is not something I have ever thought of. I am doing everything I can to not go outside. The problem is that is where the toilet, water, work, bank, and post office are and anything else I need on a daily basis. I hope I never take having a toilet in my house for granted ever again.

I left my room for a period of time w/o the heat on and the temperature got down to 46*F. The strangest part was that it didn’t even feel that cold because I came from outside. I have to get dressed to use the toilet. So that makes me always think hard about every drink I drink and food I eat. The struggle of keeping hydrated is not from lack of water, but the lack of wanting to be exposed to the frigid temperatures when I need to expel the water from my body.

Next reason cold is bad… tonight I was woken up by my host sister because one of the baby horses was too weak to stand up on its own. We had to go outside and try to push the horse up at 10:30 at night. This is one time where eating less food in Kyrgyzstan has caused me problems. I was not able to help her get the horse up. She went over to the neighbors to have him help us. The wife said yes he will come, but he never did. We tried one more time, but we were just too weak to help this horse stand. We put a blanket over the horse and hopefully it will make it through the night.

It has been so cold here that my entire oblast (state) doesn’t have school this whole week. It’s kind of strange that they are doing it this way because last week was much colder, but they are choosing this week to close because last week was cold. I heard rumors that kids were getting frost bite on the way to school which I don’t doubt because my face was getting really cold and even 20 minutes after I got inside from the cold I still couldn’t feel one of my baby toes.

I have learned so much over the past several months as a Peace Corps Volunteer. One thing I know I will never forget is that I don’t ever want to live in a cold place again. In college it would get down to 10*F and that was pushing it. I’ll stick with my moderate summers and winters with a lot of rain and leave the snow in the mountains for me to visit!

(Just checked on the horse, the neighbor came over and helped it up. It is alive and well!)

January 18, 2012 -- A farewell message from a suburb outside Pierre, South Dakota, which is still recovering from its worst Missouri River flooding since 1952. Down the block, Lewis and Clark first came upon the Sioux Nation in 1804. Temperatures in the state capital are dipping below 0°F tonight.

PCVs on Kyrgyz National Television ОТРК

Kyrgyz national television ОТРК-1 recently came to my house to interview some Peace Corps Volunteers about how we celebrate the New Year in American and how we will celebrate the holiday in the Kyrgyz Republic. In this video: Aika Kanaeva: Peace Corps Counterpart Judson L Moore : K-19 Lindsay Hull: K-18 Andrew Hull: K-18 From: jaymooreusa Views: 0 0 ratings Time: 02:40 More in News & Politics

January 16, 2012 -- The view from U.S. Route 81 and the road to the Ingalls Homestead, a particularly storied quarter-section, like the one pictured above, outside De Smet, South Dakota.

Whoa Whoa Whoa… 2 posts in 1 week?! Oh yes indeed, we’re back in action baby! Today was absolutely epic… First of all, I slept in for the first time since my return to the Village.  How late, you ask? All the way until 8:30am!!  I had to wake up at 6:30 for first period class every day last week, and a nasty habit of watching far too many episodes of ‘The West Wing’ has kept me up later than I’d like, so it was amazing to finally get a few extra hours of sleep.  That started the day off on the right foot.   After a little breakfast and a little curriculum editing/lesson planning, I got a call from my counterpart.  She said the 10th and 11th form students were heading to the Ski Resort, and asked me if I wanted to go. “Базар Жок!!”, I quickly exclaimed.  There is a very small ski area about 3 kilometers south of my village.  There’s only 1 lift, and a few tiny lodges for visitors if they want to stay the night.  I have been super stoked about it since the moment I learned of its existence, and I had visited a few times in the summer to check it out.  This would be my first time seeing the lift in operation, so I couldn’t wait to get up there.  The only problem was that I had none of my snowboarding gear.  It would be super expensive to ship from the States, and I haven’t done much in the way of finding cheap gear in Bishkek.  I figured it would be fun to sled and hang out with the students, so we mobilized up to the area (area).   Upon our arrival I was greeted by a few students who had already been there for a few hours.  Everyone asked me why I didn’t have my snowboard, and when I explained it to them they all offered to give me their own gear.  Their generosity was much appreciated, but I declined and insisted that they enjoy the day and keep shredding the gnar.  They also insisted, and before I knew it I was on my way up the lift strapped into a beat-to-shit snowboard that was about 30 cm too small for me.  The best part? I didn’t even have snowboard boots… I was snowboarding in hiking boots.   Several things are wrong with this picture: 1) Hiking boots have VERY little ankle support.  Sure, they have good ankle support for hiking, but snowboarding is a different story.  Snowboard boots generally wear halfway up to the knee… and these hiking boots barely overcame my ankle bone.  If a caught an edge and wiped out the wrong way, I could basically kiss my ankles goodbye.   2) Hiking boots are nowhere NEAR as bulky as snowboard boots.  Snowboard bindings are designed to fit the bulk of snowboard boots (duh), and by hiking boots were basically the equivalent of athletic socks in comparison.  The bindings were a bit loose to say the least.  3) It hasn’t snowed in my village in about 3.5 weeks.  This is very strange for this time of year… toward the beginning of winter it snowed every single day.. and then it just stopped.  This made the conditions on the slopes less-than-favorable.  Rocks were jutting out of the snow all over the place, and where there weren’t rocks there was ice.   Let’s do some math: Beat-to-shit Snowboard + Hiking boots (0 ankle support + poor binding fit) + Rocks + Ice = One very expensive medical bill. As I sat on the chairlift contemplating my certain trip to the hospital, I couldn’t help but be excited.  I was going snowboarding! I hadn’t been in almost a year (you may remember my post from the XC Roadtrip before I left for Kyrgyzstan).  I love boardsports of all kinds, and being given the opportunity to snowboard in my own backyard while in the Peace Corps is pretty unbelievable.  The stoke of it all made me quickly forget the dangers of my situation.   In the end it all worked out… no injuries and tons of good times.  I wore a helmet, of course, and took it pretty easy to limit my risk of injury (No 720 McTwists on this day).  The hiking boots worked out about as well as they could, and I got about 5 runs in before my host family called saying they were heating up the banya and I needed to come home.  Could this day get any better?! I walked back to my house and was greeted by my family and a hot cup of chai.  After warming up with that, I took my time in the banya and got squeaky clean before I snuggled up for a delicious 2-hour nap.  That brings us to right now, as I type this while I wait for dinner to finish cooking.  What’s for dinner, you say?! Oromo.. my 2nd favorite Kyrgyz dish behind Dim-Dama. So yeah… today was remarkably awesome.  Slept in, got a little work done, went snowboarding, had a banya, took a nap, and a fantastic meal is right ‘round the corner.  A Go ‘Canes for sure.   Before heading back to the Ski Area (area), I’m hoping to pick up some decent gear in Bishkek if the price is right.  I’ll also bring my camera next time so you guys can see what I’m talking about!  bones, canes, kai, etc.

Bombay at Night Camel Ride Through Pushkar The Crew @ The Taj Mahal Inside the Red Fort in Delhi The Taj Mahal A few shots of India!

Join RBM and friends for a reading on February 29 at the Festival of Language, an off-site event of the 2012 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Chicago. Also on the roster: Janée J. Baugher, Jamison Christopher Lee, Ewa Chrusciel, Jordan Cox, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Ryan Clark, Pankaj Challa, Michelle Weber Cusack, David Stevenson, Marilyn Carr, Leslie Raine Carman, Jane L Carman, Kirstin Hotelling Zona, Evan Nave, Meg Tuite, Janice Lee, Debra Di Blasi, Dan Libman, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Kirk Nesset, Cortez Cruz, John Domini, Alan Lin, Lance Olsen, Dina Elenbogen, David Hamilton, Holms Troelstrup, Kass Fleisher, Daniel Nester, Anna March, Lasantha Rodrigo, Kate Dusenbery, Robert Vaughan, Cris Mazza, Andy Farnsworth, David Hamilton, Jeff Grieneisen, Steve Halle, Elizabeth Hatmaker, Davis Schneiderman, Quintus Havis, Gabriel Gudding, Deborah Henry, Erika Wurth, Anna Joy Springer, Michael Mejia, Steve Tomasula, Tom C. Hunley and Lidia Yuknavitch. There's more information at AWPWriter.org.

Hey Team! I returned from India about a week ago, and I can’t even begin to describe what an epic trip it was.  We spent 18 days traveling all over the northwestern part of the country and we got a real taste of the Indian lifestyle.  The depth of their culture is absolutely beautiful and I can’t wait to go back and explore the rest of that great nation.  We rode elephants, rode camels, relaxed on the beach, learned a lot about Hinduism, raged at Sunburn Music Festival, lived with an Indian family for 5 days (big shout to my boy Dev), and met tons of incredible people.  I’ll post some photos the next time I have high-speed internet, but in the mean time… book your own trip to India, for it is a definite “must experience this for yourself” kind of place.   It has been pretty difficult to transition from 80 degrees in India to 10 degrees in Toguz Bulak, but I’m getting there.  It barely snowed at all while I was away, so the ski lift isn’t operational just yet… I’m really hoping for a few feet of snow this weekend so I can hit the slopes!! So yeah… now I’m back in the village and getting down to business.  Bermet and I are hard at work on our 3rd quarter calendar plans, and we are about to start a nutrition club for pregnant women & young mothers.  Grant-writing for summer camps will be underway soon, and I’m hoping to start a few academic clubs in the next few weeks.   In other news, the new K20 volunteers are starting to receive their invitations & get in touch with us with questions about packing, what to expect, etc.  We’re all super stoked for their arrival… they are scheduled to get here on May 13th.  Still a few months away, but very exciting nonetheless!! I hope everyone had an amazing New Year celebration and a great Holiday Season in general… I know I did!! bones, canes, kai, etc.  

Things are good. I can’t really update my blog anymore in this country because I think there is a block on wordpress. I can only do with with my beeline which is impossible to use at my site. Went snowboarding, got demolished. Spent christmas with volunteers in Karakol… had a blast. Spent New Years in [...]

This holiday season was the first I have spent in the States in three years. For the past three years I have spent holidays abroad, in Kyrgyzstan, Russia or Kazakhstan. So this year was a big new step for me; it was a step I knew would have to occur sometime and I think it went well overall. However I have realized that my holidays abroad and my holidays here are very different.

The weather, cutstomes, attitudes, foods, people are all different. That's not to say one is better than the other just that I'm different in both. The holiday fanaticsim here is crazy and hard to handle now and the simplicity of the holidays abroad is appealing but each place is unique and separate. As I was coming back recently from the movies recently I saw landscapes that reminded me of Kyrgyzstan while others was vastly different. This made me realize that nothing can ever be fully integrated. I am one way there and another here. They are separate worlds. Worlds where I know how to act and survive and worlds that are missed and unique in their own ways.

As the holiday season is now over and I look ahead to my next chapter I wonder now where that road leads and how much more of a separate place it will appear.

December 28, 2011 -- The view from Washington's Ape Cave, a 2.4-mile basalt tube created from molten lava that also helped to form nearby Mount St. Helens.

December 26, 2011 -- The view from Portland Japanese Garden's karesansui (literally, "dry landscape").

It’s September, and I may sound crazy, but the hibernation instinct has already taken hold. This month I’ve jarred 6 liters of apricot jam, 8 liters of a hearty tomato/veggie sauce, 6 liters of eggplant winter salad, 6 liters of applesauce and 9 liters of dill pickles (see my “winter food pyramid” pictured at right). These preserves—or conserves, rather—will last me all winter, I hope. (The word “preservative” in Kyrgyz/Russian, pronounced “preservatif”, is a false cognate. Preservatives are instead called “conservatives”; a preservatif is a condom. This is one translation you don’t want to screw up.)

When my grandmother back in the states heard of my canning plans, she sent me 50 bucks to help. I’m happy to say, $50 in Kyrgyzstan goes along way: it more than covered the cost of all the ingredients, jars, and lids. Thanks Grandma!

The results, I hope, will be well worth the effort. But if not, the experience itself made the endeavor worthwhile. While making the jam (the easiest, by far), the power went out while I was boiling the syrup, so I had to wait a day—while the apricots fermented—to finish the job. And making pickles was literally electrifying, as you’ll read below.

But canning logman (tomato/veggie) sauce and winter salad was some of the most fun I’ve had in country to date. For two days in August, I visited another volunteer’s former host mom, who is one of my favorite women in country and happens to be an incredible cook and avid canner. She led my friend Brooke and I through all the steps of prepping, stewing, and properly sterilizing vegetables. We started cutting veggies for the sauce at 1:30 on a Friday afternoon. By 2:30, we had the onions frying away in a kazan (cast iron pot) of oil. Thereafter we added peppers, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, eggplant, and finally dill and garlic.

All the while, Ryan’s host mom kept us in fits of laughter with stories of her initial fear of Americans (originally she didn’t want a volunteer; she thought they were all really tall and fat and had no idea what she’d feed him or her), the antics of former volunteers (she’s currently hosting her third), and her mother’s mistrust of most vegetables (she’s from Naryn, the same remote non-veggie eating part of Kyrgyzstan as we are). Her Kyrgyz is so clear we didn’t miss a word.

The second day we canned winter salad, a vibrantly colored layering of pickled vegetables. First we diced the various ingredients; I got eggplant slicing and carrot shredding duty, Brooke took the onions, which left tears streaming down her cheeks (the onions in Kyrgyzstan are insanely strong!). After we soaked the eggplant in a salt solution, we deep-fried it. Then the fun part began. Starting with a layer of eggplant on the bottom, we added a layer of red pepper, then carrot, then onion, then tomatoes, then dill and garlic, and then began again with eggplant. Throughout the process, we smashed the layers down so we had enough room for five complete repeats of the layers. On top we added a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of sugar, and a teaspoon of vinegar. Then we boiled each jar for 45 minutes. As we could only do 4 jars at a time and we had 13 total, this took us the rest of the evening.

Exhausted as we were when we finished, we were hungry and in need of a quick and easy dinner. Apa (we all call Ryan’s host mom, “mother”) suggested greniki, which none of us had ever heard of. Turns out, greniki is French toast, but not just any French toast. We fried freshly-picked apples for a topping and out of the recesses of a cabinet she pulled a bottle of maple syrup left from her first volunteer. I couldn’t have dreamt up a sweeter end to a perfect day.

Pickles

You may recall that my regular intake of vegetables last winter consisted almost entirely of a pickle every other day for two three months. Anticipating the oncoming vegetable famine, today I set about making my winter ration of crisp, dill-icious pickles.

I began last night by washing and soaking 8 kilos of pickles. This morning at 9 a.m., I carted the rest of the ingredients and equipment out to the kitchen, minus one very import element—the lid-sealing tool. I contemplated purchasing one at the bazaar when I bought the cucumbers, but couldn’t find one and decided someone in the village must have one I could borrow. So at 9:30, my search for the simple device commenced. My host mother has never made preserves, so it was no surprise when my sister told me the family has no such implement. I headed into the street to ask neighbors.

Shortly thereafter my aunt, and fellow teacher at the school, walked by on her way to school. Did she have the tool? Of course not, but all the teachers were congregating at the school for the annual start-of-school planning meeting, and why don’t I come along? No one had informed me previously that my attendance was required, but off I went to the meeting. I should have known what I was in for, but when I sat down I didn’t realize I’d just given up my morning.

Three hours later at the close of the meeting, I got to ask my question: did anyone have a canning tool? Of 24 teachers, not a single one owned a functioning device. I was beginning to see why the village starved during winter. After a brief conversation with my director about the fact that the neither of the school’s two English teachers would be working this year (one is expecting a baby and moved to Naryn city; the other’s husband has ordered her to stay at home and take care of his ailing father), I asked her who I should seek out for a canning tool. (For the record, I’m told I will have a fellow teacher to teach with this year, but as of yet no one has seen her or knows her name…and school starts the day after tomorrow.)

My director thought one of our family’s friends might have one, so after first going home to grab some pictures I printed from our joint families’ trip to Lake Song Kol, I headed to Jumagul Ege’s house. Today also happened to be Orozo Ait, the last day of Ramadan, so everyone in the village was preparing some variation of meal to share with friends and neighbors—but every variation included borsok, the fried bread bites that look like doughnuts but are definitely not, alas. Anyway, I found the family making borsok and was subsequently invited in for tea. I took out the pictures and quickly recapped my travels with my brother (who had joined us for the Song Kol trip). Then I asked my question.

“I used to have two tools,” she said, “But I lent them out and they never returned.” She suggested checking with another woman, and off I went. The woman was one of my best student’s mothers, and I was happy to find Kasiet at home, frying borsok, of course. I managed to repeatedly forget the Russian name of the implement I was asking for throughout the course of the day (instead, I mistakenly kept asking for whiteout), and this time was no exception. I explained what it was used for instead, and finally resorted to English, “Does your mother have one?” God bless her, she did.

So 5 hours later than I intended, I headed home, canning tool in hand. But the fun had just begun. I started by washing my three 3-litre jars and prepping the remaining ingredients—hot peppers, dill, and garlic cloves. Next, I boiled water for the syrup I’d poor over the cucumbers once I’d packed them into the jars. I consulted multiple recipes in the past week, some online a few days ago and also from our Peace Corps cookbook. They varied tremendously, so I made up my own ratios—for better or for worse—as I went along. Once boiling, I added one cup of salt to 4 quarts of water. I tasted it and thought it rather too salty, but I went with it. Next, while the pot was still boiling away on the hotplate, I attempted to pour in a half cup of very concentrated (80% vinegar). Turns out, one should not pour vinegar directly into boiling water. The result: an eruption on the scale of the volcano demonstrations kids do for the 6th grade Science Fair with the added shock of minor electrocution and momentary right arm paralysis. Yes, I’m fine, just stupid.

It’s a good thing the attempt failed however, because a half-cup of undiluted vinegar would have been way too much (even though that’s what the conversion chart on the bottle said). I added the vinegar by the spoonful once the liquid cooled. And fortunately my host mom reminded me at the last minute that I needed sugar. That made it taste a lot better.

I sterilized the jars next, boiling them in a water bath. I had to do them one at a time, but while one was boiling, I would pack the previous one with the cucumbers and other ingredients. Then I’d boil the whole jar again, with lid “on” but not sealed, for 15 minutes, then press the cap on by hand cranking the canning tool until the lip of the lid is tightly pressed to the jar’s neck. Apparently, I pressed too hard on the first one because I cut all the way through the lip of the lid—but I didn’t see this until later.

After processing 3 jars, I realized I had significantly more pickles than I needed. I washed my host mom’s last remaining 3-litre jar (I think it held paint formerly, but I got most of it off), sterilized it, packed it, and set it into the water bath to boil. Fifteen minutes later, I drew it out only to find that the bottom had blown out. Naturally. I weighed my options—salvage a small jar’s worth and spend another hour preparing it, or just use the one remaining lid to recap the jar that had somehow partially blown it’s seal, but wasn’t leaking in the slightest (they were all turned upside down). I opted for the later.

So at 6:30 I had myself three, not four, jars of pickles. They may turn out to be the spiciest, tartest pickles I’ve ever eaten, but so be it. I intend to eat every last one.

Applesauce

In perhaps the cheapest canning effort of all time, Brooke and I jarred 13 liters of applesauce last weekend for a sum total of $2—the cost of lids, a few jars, and sugar. Oh, and did I mention, it’s delicious!

Mind you, there was some significant labor involved. It started with a quest for the apples themselves Saturday morning. As it turned out, the village mayor had three fully loaded trees and was happy to let us pick to our heart’s content. Thus around 10 a.m. we found ourselves stuck high up in apple trees, giggling uncontrollably as we attempted to shake down the fruit (often impaling ourselves—and the fruit—on the branches as we went). We intended to can 10 kilos, but by 11 a.m., we found ourselves with no less than 35 kilos of apples in our bag (or so we estimate from the weight of a bag that was too heavy for either of us to pick up alone). A team effort—and a lift from a random neighbor—got us home, where the real work began.

For the next 6 hours, I peeled and Brooke diced, and peeled, and diced, and…you get the point. A kind aunt stopped by for an hour and also lent a hand. (This is also the aunt who is giving me Russian lessons in exchange for English lessons.) By the end of the afternoon we had enough apple pieces to fill the huge cast iron kazan. We let the apples boil away for an hour and a half, adding just a bit of sugar and plenty of cinnamon. (Brooke, at left, is stirring the kazan. It was very hot, though perhaps the welding mask was unnecessary.) We had only the hotplate to work with and a pot big enough only for four jars at a time, so the process was slow going. We’d sterilize the jars, fill them, set the lids on top, boil them for a half hour, and take them out and seal the lids with our new canning tool. At this rate, we were set to finish at the stroke of midnight. But as luck would have it, the last batch didn’t go quite as planned; we were reusing jars from my host mom’s collection and after we’d prepped and processed them, we discovered that 3 of the 4 jars’ necks were millimeters to thin for our lids to seal properly. After ruining two lids, we decided to consolidate our losses in one 3-liter jar and use the last remaining lid. Fortunately, this worked—but it added almost an extra hour to the proceedings.

We fell into bed a 1 a.m. too tired to care about the mouse running along the walls (he’s been eating my emergency food supplies). Hey, we’re all preparing for winter here. Eat and let eat!

Does anybody know that song? I have had it on my mind for a few days now. If you haven't guessed Alex and I are on vacation. We are spending Christmas and New Year with our family in Italy/Spain. So far it has been wonderful. It has been amazing to spend time with our families in such a beautiful, developed place. Not to knock Kyrgyzstan; but running water, refrigeration, heat that happens without work on my part, and complicated food has been a really nice break for me.

We have been busy since we have arrived. Mostly, catching up with family and traveling. We first spend a action packed day in Rome and saw most of the major sites in a very leisurely manner. It was really nice being there in December without crowds. My absolute favorite site was the Sistine Chapel, absolutely amazing. It made me cry. We've also visited Parma which is a wonderful place to eat. I mean, they invented parmigian cheese and prosciutto. Also, you can buy a great bottle of wine for 3 Euro. Today we went to Florence which is also amazing. I feel like I should generally be telling you more about these places but, I think I'm still taking it all in. I guess the things making me happy are my family, the Sistine Chapel, cheese, and red wine. Thanks Italy! Here's a little bit more detail in the form of images.

http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=7606386

Hey Team — It’s been a while since my last full update… I’ve been pretty busy this month with all kinds of trainings and project development work, and now I’m off to India for a few weeks to get some much-needed R&R.  There are 5 of us going and we’re hitting New Delhi, Agra, Mumbai & Goa… should be absolutely epic.  Huge updates when I get back, but until then… Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!! bones, canes, kai, etc.

About a month ago I picked up a pourover coffee maker here in Japan. A pourover is slightly similar to drip coffee -- you have a cup with a filter over it, pour water in, coffee goes into cup. I am a bit meticulous in life, mostly regarding things with little to no importance. So, I did a quick research on google about how to make coffee with a pour over. Quantities, tips, etc.

I have had problems with coffee pouring through too slowly, too quickly, etc. So, I have been experimenting with how to fold my filter, how much coffee to put in, etc. One tip on the web was to fold the bottom of your filter. I didn't like doing this because it makes it very flat, and the bottom of my pourover is pointed. Last night I decided not to fold the filter. So, I boil the water, add the coffee, and begin pouring. About 3 seconds in, the filter busts, and all of the coffee grounds pour into my mug. I observed the following timeline:

1 second of confused panic. Where is my coffee going!?

5 seconds of anger and frustration, a knee-jerk "god damnit!"

And since then, an elated feeling of ignorance. I think that we look increasingly to the internet for answers for everything. There are how to websites or guides for, I assume, everything. I feel fairly confident that I could've searched on google "Why do you fold your filter when you make a pour over?" and found some forum or how to with exact reasons you must fold. I think this is damaging to our human intellect. I think our minds are inherently curious, experimental. Quick answers, in any format, teach our minds to be lazy. It is like a welfare state of the mind -- google searches can tell you everything, so you need not experiment. However, 15 or 20 years ago this wasn't an option. I am happy to maintain the human element of ignorance, stupidity, and curiosity in my being. I have before felt so much frustration and sadness in my life for mistakes I had made, "shortcuts" to save money, ideas in music or painting. I now look back and am happy for those things. I think that most, if not all, advances and progress (these terms used lightly) in our lives have been preceded by countless unseen failures, frustrations. We should embrace them because that is how humans have got on for millions of years. From this point on, I will embrace failing through my own ignorance, curiosity, and creativity (!!!) rather than succeeding through the developed artifice of another. Especially through the internet.

A nice snack on the weekend! Ginkgo nuts and a negroni. Ginkgo is a very interesting -- the first line on its wikipedia page says that ginkgo is a "highly unusual non-flowering plant" and regarded as a "living fossil." It is recognizable in fossils from 270 million years ago. Whoa! Anyhow, the trees smell awful, and the nuts have the same toxin as poison ivy/sumac, so it is very irritating to the skin. More poison information! There are cases of seizures and death from overeating ginkgo nuts, even properly cooked. They say you shouldn't eat more than 10 a day, and do not eat them every day. Whoa! One very interesting fact is that when Hiroshima was bombed, four gingko trees within the city had zero damage and still live to this day, almost 70 years later. Aside from the wild history and health risks of eating ginkgo, it supposedly has health benefits when eaten in moderation. The taste is delicious -- maybe a bit between popcorn and peanuts, with a slight burnt taste. You roast the nuts in a shell until they pop, and then pull out a green, soft center to eat. Mmm ~

Poison lunch .. I was eating maybe a bit too much ginkgo, and Sunday I found I had debilitating stomach cramps. Whoa! I am attributing it to either the ginkgo or the negroni intake. Negroni is quite scrumptious -- I only heard of them here in Japan. It is a cocktail made from equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and campari. I replace the sweet vermouth with dry when I make them at home. It is a bit of an acquired taste, as vermouth and especially campari are quite bitter. The word vermouth comes from wormwood, which is an herb that was previously used to flavor it. They are both fortified wines which have herbs and spices steeped in them to add flavor. The flavors compliment the gin that they go with. Really, quite delicious. So, since my stomach death, I am doing a bit of a science experiment .. removing ginkgo from my diet, and then removing negroni from my diet, and seeing which is the culprit. Either way, I don't foresee myself relinquishing either.

This is a non-lethal tasty Japanese food called ochadzuke. It is rice soup with sesame pieces and seaweed. The really interesting and delicious aspect of it is that the soup is really just pure green tea. Whoa! I think this is the Japanese equivalent of coming home drunk from the bar let's get a piece of pizza on the way home. I think it is a common joke that it isn't food, but a drink. Anyhow, a nice snack.I am in a bit of a comfortable routine here, but without the negative connotations of the word. I am really challenging myself as an artist I feel, also taking care of myself on a personal, spiritual, and interpersonal level, though maybe a bit negligent on a caloric level, that is to say, not eating enough. Most evenings look a bit like this, a cup of coffee, negroni (or other unhealthy beverage), some magazines, and miscellaneous painting and drawing implements scattered on the floor, Tom Waits or Cat Power coming through the speakers. Pushing yourself artistically is potentially a slippery slope of hurt feelings and frustration. It is important to detach emotionally from the work and try to view it as a series of studies and practices, which you can analyze objectively to better your work. Bad drawings do not reflect on me as a person, right? No matter what, it is art, it is beautiful when people truly and lovingly devote themselves to developing something, anything, whatever it may be. Especially in affluent society, where goods and feelings are mass produced, consumed, and disregarded, personal devotion to projects takes on a new depth and meaning. For that reason I want to live my life to create and appreciate things that are lovingly created by others. This is not just drawing or painting -- it includes music, a clean house, good clothing, artisan work, alcohol, food.

Kurt Cobain talked about this a lot, a big message in his music. "Use just once and destroy." Nirvana's biggest single ironically was all about this "Smells like Teen Spirit." Teenage angst, anger, and it is marketed as a deodorant called teen spirit. Profound and pervasive emotions marketed as a deodorant! In another song, he talks about "he is the one who knows all our pretty songs and he likes to sing along and he likes to shoot his gun, but he knows not what it means." This refers to his profound message being chewed up and consumed without any understanding by people. This is the reason for his suicide (not sure if I think Courtney did it or not). In a sense, Cobain's later lyrics were about everything being co-opted by a market, creating a sort of mindlessly consuming middle class. Really interesting. The fact that he committed suicide (again, supposedly) reminds me of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. A person who is supporting the world decides to drop it all because the world is ungrateful. The person with the greatest gift takes it away because it is not appreciated. To wrap this up, Cat Power has a beautiful song called "I don't blame you," where she tells Kurt Cobain she doesn't blame him for committing suicide .. saying that it really was hopeless to try to reach that crowd.

The greatest man!

I head back to Kyrgyzstan in about 6 hours. They have me flying through Moscow which could be interesting. I had a great time here. The coolest thing about this trip has probably been the constant internet access which has allowed me to skype and chat with all my loved ones. The Thai volunteers I’ve [...]

It’s been a while since I posted last. It has been a little more difficult to keep up on my blog posts this year. I have thought a lot about why it has been so hard for me and I honestly believe that it’s because my life has become so normal here that I rarely think, “Hmmm… this is strange, I should tell people in the States about it.” With 20+ months in and 6 months to go I think I’ll make a blog of personal bests and favorites (or least favorites). I’ll keep some of them to myself because I’m not proud of all of them.

Coldest temperature it has been (and I went outside in it): -20C (Middle of winter and had to go outside to the toilet really late at night)

Most layers of clothing: 7 (under shirt, long underwear, long sleeved shirt, sweater, fleece, and a 2 layered jacket)

Most people in one CAR: 10 to Kyzyl Tuu, my friend’s village that is 45 minutes away.

Longest ride home from Bishkek (the capital)… usually 6-7 hours: 12 hours (I was moving to site with my host parents and our car broke down halfway there. We were stuck at a rest stop for 4 hours)

Longest stretch w/o bathing: 16 days (during the winter)

Longest stretch w/o washing my hair: 8 days (I wear a ski hat most of the time during the winter so I barely noticed)

Longest time w/o out power: 3 days (that’s really good because the rest of my village my first fall here didn’t have power for 7+ days)

Grosses thing I’ve ever eaten: Meat Jello. It is exactly what it sounds like, they boil the bones and add carrots, onions, and meat. It smells and tastes like dog poop. I hate it so much I don’t want to remember the name of it!

Strangest thing I’ve learned to like: Kymyz (fermented mere’s milk)

Strangest thing I’ve ridden in a taxi with: A goat in the trunk. Well, having farm animals in the trunk is normal, but we didn’t know it was there. We just heard it start making noises and were confused.

Strangest thing that I have had said to me in English from a local: “You have beautiful eyes…. And … hair.” (My friend Heather and I were on the train in Kazakhstan and some man came up to us, said that to me and then walked away.)

Best shirt with English writing: “Funky Fresh and in the Flesh” (worn by many teenage boys in and around Bishkek) or “Save gas… Toot in a jar” (worn by my student to club on a daily basis)

There are so many other things that I could have shocking numbers for, but I just never thought to count them because it’s my normal life here. For example, I’m sure the number of days in a row that I’ve eaten potatoes is an insane number. I just don’t think about it because there really isn’t much else to eat and I don’t want to think about it because it will make me sad.

This has been an interesting time in my life. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

So I’ve been here a little over a week now. I’ve done quite a bit of exploring and I’m having an awesome semi vacation even with all the doctor visits and such. I had my surgery, everything seems golden. I’m not in any pain, I just have to deal with this putty in my mouth [...]

My students from Toguz-Bulak, Kyrgyzstan assist in giving an HIV/AIDS training to students from nearby Karagai-Bulak village in honor of World AIDS Day.  

November 27, 2011 -- The light changes on Highway 81 outside South Branch, Nebraska.

November, 23, 2011 -- The light changes on the 1600 block of Wazee Street in Denver.

Candlelight vigil - Morocco peacecorps: In honor of World AIDS Day, we will spend the next 24 hours sharing photos, videos, and quotes from our Volunteers around the world helping to stop the spread of the disease.

Drumming From Bishkek

I recently had the opportunity to jam with a few musicians in Bishkek while serving in the Peace Corps. This may very well be the only video that exists of me playing the drums and it is after about 1 year of no practice. However, I still feel pretty good about it. From: jaymooreusa Views: 0 0 ratings Time: 03:36 More in Music

Winter attire! A great acquisition here in Japan, very warm, soft, sexy. We are having some warmer weather these days, which is nice. It is a damn shame I am at work from 8 to 4 Monday through Friday! I hope it persists through the weekend .. I want to loaf around town and candidly drink in public, or write, read, paint, lean and loaf at my ease. These days it gets dark around 5:30, so I am usually in my apartment from 4:30 to the time I go to bed. I think I need to start taking evening walks to ward off neurosis. Then again, small doses of neurosis are quite acceptable!



I picked up this bottle because it was so damn cute. I guess that is good design - compelled me to buy it based solely on the label. I actually despise sweet wine, so it was a bit tough to get it down even. I think it was worse than drinking a coke! Anyhow, it was my companion through several extended jams on keyboard. Now it is thankfully empty and a nice decoration when you walk into my apartment.

My vacation plans for this winter have been a bit all over the place. I have finally decided on two things:

One, I will be visiting my friend Sachi in Osaka, then traveling to Wakayama and potentially Kyoto. We met in France 5 years ago, which is really wild to reconnect after so long a time! Fortunately we have kept in touch since then. Her family lives in Wakayama, which is also a small village. I look forward to seeing how it differs from Usuki. Usuki is on Kyushu island, while Osaka and Wakayama (and most of Japan) is on Honshu. Kyushu is known as the more rural, forested area. Osaka is famous for its cherry blossoms, good shopping (yay!) and takoyaki. Takoyaki, how I love thee! Tako is octopus, and yaki is grilled. However, it is not just grilled octopus! It is like a hushpuppy batter with chunks of tentacle in it, along with spices, herbs, onions. Lots of variations here.

Why am I posting this 20 minutes before my lunch break?

Other plan .. the real deal .. I am in theory getting a traditional style full sleeve in a village near here. Tattoos in Japan have been associated with crime (like every other society on the planet..?), so there is a real taboo for them here. Shops are few and far between. The traditional Japanese full body suits were/are(?) reserved only for the yakuza, Japanese mafia. It is overwhelmingly ironic! Yakuza are open about their affiliations, they register their businesses within their cities and have registered addresses and offices where they work in gambling, prostitution, drug and gun trafficking, as well as money laundering. To further the irony, they no longer get tattoos, because it would associate them with a yakuza image. So, the tattoo association with crime is a bit far fetched, and ridiculous in that crime is publicly known and not identified by tattoos. I digress. Lucky, I found through a friend of a friend a local artist, works entirely from freehand. I will be getting a crane (the bird, not the heavy machinery, though both are appreciated) standing in a river, either in repose, or maybe gobbling up some frogs.

I appreciate the idea of the crane in Taoist thought. It stands on one very thin leg in perfect stillness and repose. The idea is that it is seemingly frail but is solid, delicate, firm, balanced. The Taoists thought that it stood in harmony and meditation for hours on end. I appreciate these virtues! Really beautiful. I actually see them all the time in Usuki.

Part VIII Sports

Talas Camp, Peace Corps, Kyrgyzstan, youth From: wilburyen Views: 4 0 ratings Time: 02:42 More in People & Blogs

I made these for a very nice neighbor. I’d never painted on metal before, so I got to experiment with some primer and sealing sprays. But the paint is just acrylics.

Summer, where did you go? These days it is becoming quite cold, I sleep in wool socks and a sleeping bag, wrapped in a fleece blanket. Then again, I wear a paper thin t-shirt and cotton booty shorts .. Also, as Japan does not use daylight savings (not sure how I feel about this yet, or if my opinion is even pertinent), it is dark when I get up at 6:15 a.m. Also, I do not have enough time to paint after school these days! It gets dark around 5:30 p.m. I have readjusted my psyche though, and lately I have been completely unloading my creativity in my apartment. Speaking of cold ~ houses (or most buildings, all buildings?) in Japan do not have any type of heating system or insulation. This goes for my house and the schools I teach in, so it is in effect a perpetual feeling of slight chill. Brr! Recent strategy is to shut myself off in one room of my apartment with a fleece blanket, space heater, and a coffee or martini, depending on the time of the day. I have been doing watercolor studies of people from fashion magazines (maybe I will get really good at painting Asians?). Also spending a lot of time curled up on the floor with a pen and a pad, writing lyrics and journal-ing while listening to Common and Pharaoh Monch. I have been playing piano a lot lately, and I am writing some new songs on it. It has been a while. I am rediscovering an aesthetic appropriate to who I am and what I believe in these days. Of course that is all in flux, and even if it differs from my previous musical aesthetic, it does not discredit it. I am quite eager to get an album of songs together. You can email me and I will send you tracks I have finished.



This weekend I may go visit some local temples. It has been a while. When I first got here, I was up and down the brick streets all day, visiting temples, exploring, swearing, and butchering the Japanese language. People often knit or put on these red cloths on the Buddha statues. It is quite beautiful and refreshing. In an urban space where most of the buildings, streets, and sights are gray, it is nice to see splashes of intense red. Red is a very special color in Japanese culture.

These are two of the most famous temples in Usuki. I recently painted a postcard of the latter (who will get it?). It is a three story pagoda. What is a pagoda? Apparently it comes to English from Sanskrit "bhagavad," which means blessing. Think the Bhagavad Gita! A pagoda is any type of tiered tower. They are usually Buddhist and located near a temple. The other main religion here is Shinto, which is unique to Japan. Shin means God, and To (Chinese Tao) means Way, so Shinto is the Way of the Gods. To my knowledge, there is an equal number of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Usuki. The religions are very different -- Buddhism does not touch on any Gods or supernatural phenomena in the world, but stresses the nature of existence and life and provides a means of escaping suffering through curbing desires. Shintoism is a much earlier religion that believes in spirits that occupy everything around us .. I have read that there are 40,000 Shinto deities. Shinto shrines are devoted to certain spirits, such as cats, foxes, or other animals. Old trees are often thought to have spirits within them. No pictures of Shinto shrines, but someday soon! There is a really beautiful Shinto shrine near the school that is full of cat charms. Several cats hang out around the shrine, which adds to its allure. I conveniently ignore that people probably put food out for them, and happily smile at the strange mystical charm of these cats to a sacred Shinto shrine.

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the K, and I have tons to be thankful for.  I’m thankful for my amazing friends & family, without whom I would be nothing.  I am thankful for America, and all the blessings that come along with being an American.  I am thankful for the University of Miami.  I am thankful for the University of Miami Hurricanes.  I am thankful for the original Rathskeller.  I am thankful for beer.  I am thankful for the Area.  I am thankful for my incredible experience thus far in Kyrgyzstan.  I’m thankful for the K19s, without whom I would surely not survive this adventure.  I have been blessed with good fortune my entire life, and not a single day goes by that I don’t appreciate it, but today is a day to focus on our blessings and share them with others.  I hope you all have an epic Thanksgiving and that you take nothing for granted today, or any other day for that matter.  Find the beauty in the small things, and live each day in full cognizance of your incredible blessings.   bones, canes, kai, etc.  

I just walked to the outhouse in the rain. When I opened the door to leave the outhouse it had begun to snow---quite surprising. Anyway, its winter. I wear thermals everyday and we are regularly using our coal stove to warm our house.

This is the first week in a few in which I feel that things are going really well. I have been talking to my friend Roxanna about a health secondary project which I am getting excited about; we're doing a training for Vice Principals on Thursday to get started. I'm also working on talking to the local government about starting weekly teacher trainings for English teachers next year. I am also working on getting a regional resource center in our village and a possible solar heating project. Anyway, it now seems that I'm hitting a stride. For some reason, when Peace Corps told us it would be a while before we truly adjusted and became productive I didn't really understand what they meant. Well, now I do. Anyway, things are starting to move forward---Yay for progress!

Oh---here's a tangent---I ate horse! Can you believe that? It was tasty but not better than other meats I think. It may be that it wasn't especially good as it was cold and not spiced at all (most meat is cooked in Kyrgyzstan by putting it in a giant pot of water and boiling it). A friend of mine actually at wolf which was a bit of a mind trip to think about.

In not work or strange meat related news, I went to a party for a teacher's birthday this past weekend which was really fun. It was the first gathering of Kyrgyz people that I really felt comfortable at which was nice. I think its that I know have gotten to know the staff a bit and that my Kyrgyz is good enough that I'm not entirely confused by most conversation. I've also begun to start learning Russian. Its been a good way to give my brain some exercise. And....its almost Thanksgiving! We're having a big Talas volunteer thanksgiving in Talas city which promises to be delicious and fun. I've gotten close with the Talas crew and am always exciting to spend time with them all. I can definitely see how people have lifelong friendships after doing Peace Corps together. You experience an amazing strange two years in which you and your perceptions change on a daily basis. Pretty crazy/scary/wonderful.

On the 12th of December we will be heading to Bishkek for Program Management & Design conference. Should be interesting. I'm excited that the whole thing will be in Kyrgyz—there's never enough language practice. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm familiar with the information and would be bored in English. I'll try to upload more picture while I'm in the city so keep an eye out for that. We're also getting ready for our trip to Italy/Spain with our families which is more exciting than I can describe. Wine, cheese, vegetables... I can barely imagine it

So I’m currently sitting in the Istanbul airport and I’m about to depart for Bangkok Thailand! I got to tour Istanbul today and I can finally check off the first item on my list of things I want to see in my life- The Hagia Sophia! Now its off to Thailand! Why you ask? Gums. [...]

Before and After views of the Toguz Bulak from my window.  Let it snow baby!!

Wow! I see the date of my last post was August 9th, 2011. No excuse really - I have been busy with working and painting, also being a bit of a social butterfly, but I intend on writing more consistently these days.

The weather has become really pretty pleasant here. When I arrived it was quite humid, probably in the 90s everyday, but now it is in the 60s and low 70s, crisp breeze and no humidity. It gets a bit cold at night, but I recently got out my sleeping bag and I am doing just fine! I am a bit intrigued by Japanese housing engineering .. Houses typically do not have central heat or any type of insulation. Like none. It seems like a bit of mismatched priorities to have a phone with 3G access and an apartment with no insulation. Hm! So, the strategy is to thoroughly heat one room of my house and hide away in it. Then again, I am used to Ohio winters with -15 wind chill, living broke as a joke with the thermostat set to 55. I think I will be fine!

Speaking of housing, I moved! My old apartment was expensive, big, and actually quite noisy. I will miss the view however:

My new apartment is a relatively old Japanese style apartment. All rooms (except the kitchen) are tatami mats, which are tightly bound straw. They are actually really comfortable, soft, and warm. The apartment has 3 rooms, a bathroom, kitchen, and balcony. I love having all the space to myself -- I have a music room with my synth and guitar, also notebooks. I have a painting room that opens into my bedroom, so the whole setup feels a bit like a loft. Very open. The biggest perk is that it is about $120 a month (what!?) and about 15 feet from the ocean. Every night I fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing and wake up to the same. It is really quite beautiful. Last night it was raining and I watched thousands of raindrops barraging the ocean under the light of the industrial section of the port. I was a bit worried about tsunamis or bad storms, but I decided that if one comes, I will just get a running start and front flip out my window headfirst into it. I mean, what a way to go out? We are actually really safe here, we have a large island (shikoku) that acts as a sort of barrier for any serious weather coming in. Thanks guys! This is a picture of my new bedroom, kept intentionally minimalist. The lighting is questionable because it is backlit on an overcast day. You get the idea though:

Time is going by quickly. I have been here for almost 4 months. I am learning Japanese decently, I feel like I can hold a decent conversation with people and get around town with no problems. Lately I see 2-3 people I know every time I go out, which is nice. I guess that is how it develops when you live in a small town! I am settling into my typical winter routine .. thermal underwear and big slippers, hoodies and martinis in coffee cups, painting bleak still lifes and looking out the window.

Will write more soon! I have a few themes I want to take up. If interested, I have several new paintings up at www.joshwalden.com. Lastly, ~ big thanks to people who found my blog on wetcanvas and expressed interest. You are THE inspiration to get in gear and start writing again!