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.

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!)

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!

My host mom- I think this might be the only picture I got of her smiling. It is not normal to smile in pictures here. I'm glad I was able to capture the true loving person that she is.

Some of you may have heard but I’m sure that most of you haven’t. My host mom passed away on Sunday. We all greave different ways and I need to work through my thoughts about everything. The best way I can think of to do that is to do a tribute blog about her. She was one of the most amazing people I have ever met (I hate when people only say nice things about people after they die but I honestly can’t think of one thing that I could say about her that is bad). I like to write in bullet points so I’m going to list the things that made Alma eje (eje is used in Kyrgyz for older women and it’s a sign of respect) the wonderful human being that she was.

• Apa (mother in Kyrgyz and what I called her) always made me feel like I was a part of the family. Many volunteers feel like they are guests renting out a room, but I was loved and cared for just the same as anyone else here. I would come home from long days at school and she would be there with chai and would sit with me and talk to me about my day. I always knew that I could talk to her about anything even if I didn’t know how to say it. She would sit patiently and wait for me to finish what I was trying to stay with my childlike language ability to express myself.

• My worst day of school I came home and just wanted to be alone. My head hurt from being so frustrated. I had taught the worst class in the school and they were throwing chairs, hitting one another, yelling, and just causing a ruckus. When I got home I went straight to my room and I got a knock at my door a couple minutes later telling me to come drink tea. I got up, reluctantly because I just didn’t want to think or do anything at that moment, but I drank tea with her. When I was sitting there my eyes started to well up with tears and she asked me what was wrong. I told her the whole story through my broke Kyrgyz and tears and she just listened. When I was finished she told me that she understood (she taught for 26 years and had been through it all) and that the other volunteer that lived here before me for two years had the same problems. She also told me that after a year my language will be better and I will be able to control the classroom better. She helped calm me down and made me realize that I will be able to make it though the next two years of being in a foreign country w/o my friends and family from home.

• If we were all sitting at the dinner table and everyone was having a conversation about something she would stop and take the time to explain to me in simpler terms what they were talking about. Even if it was about something that didn’t pertain to me or wouldn’t matter to me either way she always wanted me to feel included. I remember a day when they were just talking about their sheep, how many they had, and how they were going to come home and when. There was no reason that I needed to know that, but she was thoughtful enough to understand that it’s nice to know what people are talking about. I had the most interesting conversations with her at the dinner table around 9pm (because that is usually when we eat dinner here). We could sit there for 1.5-2 hours talking about anything; a tv show, elections and comparing the difference between the US and KG, military, holidays, childhood stories… she would think of a topic of the night and see where it went from there.

• I never heard her yell at anyone. I lived with three children (her grandchildren) on a regular basis and several more that came and went throughout these past 16 months and she always found other ways to guide them and teach them.

• We would listen to the children play and laugh in the other room and would talk about how a child’s laugh is one of the best sounds in the world.

• This summer we were making plans of constructing a shurdok (Kyrgyz rug) together. We picked out the colors and everything. I was really looking forward to not only sitting down and making it with her, but also spending that time with her and practicing my language. She is one of the most patient and even tempered people I have ever met.

• Ever since last summer I have witnessed her with her friends and neighbors. It has been very interesting because I will listen in on their conversations when we were all drinking tea or they were making felted wool for rugs and the friends would gossip about each other. She would just sit there, never say anything about anyone but just be a sounding board. Other times she would joke about the neighbors being drunk and not be good workers because they came late or because they worked slowly, but it was always in good humor. I would tell her stories about what they would say to me or do to me (the drunk female neighbors) and we would laugh and laugh. She had the best laugh.

• My friends who have met her all join me in saying how wonderful she is. I had a long conversation with another volunteer about how we had the best two host moms in country. We couldn’t decide between the two who was better because they were so different, but I still say that Alma eje is #1 in my book.

• I know that she impacted a lot of lives here as well as mine. Over this past year of her leaving to go to Bishkek for treatments and other things I couldn’t go a week without several people asking me if she had come home yet or when she will be coming home. She taught for 26 years at the school I now work at. She was an active member in her community and she loved everyone.

• She had been in and out of the hospital and treatment for a year and this summer she came home because she knew that my friends were coming from the US to visit. She rode in a taxi for over 6 hours to meet them. When I came through the gate it had been a couple months since I had seen her last and she hugged me so hard. She wouldn’t let go. It was at that moment I knew how much I meant to her as well.

I will forever remember my host mom for the amazing woman that she was. She made my life in Kyrgyzstan better and I will use the things she taught me for the rest of my life. The best thing I can do for her is to have her live on in me.

Alma eje (Apa), I love you and I will miss you! You will forever be in my heart. Thank you for all the love you have given me. I could not ask for a better Kyrgyz mother.

Summer is starting to wind down and the beginning of a new school year is on the horizon. I look forward to teaching my second year in a foreign country. These past few weeks I have been preparing for lessons and how my counterpart and I want to run our classroom. I am really looking forward to working with her this year because last year at this time I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I thought that I was going to work with one woman and a few days before school started I was told that I was working with another one. It turned out to be a great change of plans and over the past year we have really bonded and learned a lot from each other. Each time that we get together to write lesson plans and curriculum we work for a few hours and then she takes the time to teach me how to make Kyrgyz food. It has been a great experience for me. At the end of break I plan on teaching her how to make some American food so she can make it for her family!

Over the past week things have been very different at my house. My host sister and her three children went to Bishkek for vacation, school shopping and looking for a house to buy. I guess all the houses they looked at were too expensive or too old and not worth the money. I’m sad that they couldn’t find a house, but at the same time I’m really excited because that means that they will still live here with me. This house would be way to quiet without those girls!

My host mom left to go stay at the lake for 10-20 days (that’s exactly what they keep telling me). Whenever I ask about the place she is staying at they just say it’s a house with one other woman and a doctor. She has been very sick and I think this is part of her getting better. I am excited for her to come home because my Kyrgyz life is better when she is here!

My host dad took my host mom to the lake and came back. They were very worried for me because the left me here one day alone. They had my host sister call to make sure that I was ok and I wasn’t scared. It was really sweet. I kept telling them that I lived alone for a year but they still think that I will get scared. I didn’t even stay alone. I had two friends who live nearby come over and we made pizza, banana raspberry bread, cinnamon rolls, and granola. It was a tasty evening. My host dad was supposed to stay for two days and he came back early and I think it was because they were nervous for me. While they were gone I had to take care of the animals. Feed the chickens and the horse and collect the eggs from the chicken. It took me back to when I was kid and would take care of my best friend’s family’s horses and dog. Well for the past few days it has just been my host dad and me here. I don’t know how to make Kyrgyz food and I know if I cook food that I like he won’t like it because he doesn’t like any flavor in anything. But the cute thing is that he baked the bread (it’s unheard of for men to even boil noodles so the fact that he made the bread is amazing, and it’s not too bad). We have hard boiled eggs for dinner every night and during the day we pick raspberries and black currents. My host sister and her kids should be coming home soon (or so he says), and I hope it’s sooner rather than later because I can tell he is really bored without anyone here. It’s been great for me because I get some time to myself and I have forgotten how much I like that.

While my host mom was here the neighbor women came over to prepare the wool for Kyrgyz rugs. I wanted to help them, but they were always drunk. That didn’t really sound like fun to sit with them as they were drunk and try to talk to me. I can’t ever understand them anyway. One day my host mom told me that they were bad workers because they always showed up late and when they were there they worked slowly and they always showed up drunk. Well, the day before I taught my niece comparatives and so she asked me what the English word for drunk was and then proceeded to use it in the grammatical form that I taught her. She said, “Gulanda is drunker.” I told her that she needed two things to compare to so she said, “Gulanda is drunker than Mairam.” HAHAHA. I think she understands it! I laughed so hard!!

After they finished the wool my host mom asked me what color I wanted my Kyrgyz rug to be and she told me the colors she had. We decided on sky blue and white with brown piping. When she comes back we will make the rug together. It will be a great project for me and a great thing to bring back to America with an awesome memory!

Sorry that this blog entry is a little scattered, but so has been my summer!

I have lived with one family for 14 months and I feel like it is time to dedicate one blog post to everything that is wonderful about them. I’m going to do it in bullet points because I feel that is the best way to list some of the great things that I love about them:

• They are always so happy to see me. No matter how long I have been gone on trips to do work or see friends they are always excited to have me walk through the gate and be home!

• I have many volunteer friends who have families that lecture them about silly things that shouldn’t matter (e.g. the way they wash their clothes, drinking cold water, how they cook American food…) but my family just uses those opportunities to learn about my culture and they way I function in life. I have taught them how to cook different American foods, American games, and just explained to them how our cultures may be different but it is interesting to learn about each of them. Neither is wrong or right, just different.

• I have started a few rituals with my nieces because I spend most of my time at home with them. When we eat dinner together we usually finish and then have a big group hug. They now know the word, “HUG.” When my friends were here one of the, Aidana, went up to my friend Laura and said, “hug” and then wrapped her arms around Laura. My friend was shocked by this because it wasn’t something that she was expecting, but she loved it! After our group hugs we might go into tickle wars where we all just start tickling each other and keep saying, “tickle tickle.” At the end of the night we will have a tooth brushing party together. This is great because many people in this country don’t know how important it is to brush their teeth which results in rotting teeth and eventually having to get them replaced. But I’m hoping that by starting early they will always want to brush their teeth regularly.

• My 15 month old nephew has started walking and talking and becoming his own person. Today while we were eating dinner he stumbled into the kitchen and was playing with a cell phone (his favorite thing in the world). I pretended to take it from him and he would run away. Then he started saying, “ticka ticka ticka.” It took me a minute to figure out what he was trying to say. He was trying to say, “Tickle Tickle,” like I say with his sisters. This went on for 10 minutes or so. “Ticka Ticka Ticka,” and his finger pointed out poking me. SO CUTE!!!

• Every time my nieces come to get me to eat food or drink tea they knock on my door and say, “Come eat food.” or “Come drink tea.” When I have friends over they get a kick out of it!

• Playing soccer with them is awesome. Usually it’s me against the two of them. I still usually win and for some reason they always want to come back for more. I’m not nice to them, I tease them, and throw the around a little, and they still like me. Not sure why, but I love them.

• For their birthday (they are two year apart with the same birthday) I gave them snickers and a hand lotion from America. The lotion was named, “PS I love you.” We talked about what I love you means for a little while and then after we drank tea together the younger of the two looked up and said, “I love you.” I almost cried as I said back to her, “I love you, too.” I meant every word of it.

• Aidana, 11, the older of the two, is very perceptive. She can tell when I have enough playing and need to go be by myself. She will just stop playing right then and then tell her sister that we are done and that they need to do something else. That makes me want to play with them more because she makes it easy to play with them!

• How much they love to help me cook anything: Pizza, cinnamon rolls, cookies… anything.

• My amazing host mom who has been through so much this year with her health but still always has a smile on her face and whenever she is home always makes me feel like I’m one of her own.

• My incredible host dad who reminds me every day that there are good men in Kyrgyzstan. Walking around town, having guys yell bad things to me that I don’t want to here can bring me down and then I come home and he is always there to show me that he is amazing. Everything I leave on a trip somewhere he shakes my hand and kisses me on my cheek. Whenever he meets my friends he does the same to them. He always takes time to get to know them and make them feel like they are always welcome.

• I hear so many not great stories about what other families do to their volunteers but taking advantage of them, asking to borrow money, charging them too much for things in their house, making them feel like they aren’t welcome in their house. I am so grateful that I have the family I do because they would never do any of that.

• I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! I am their second volunteer and they sometimes talk about when the other volunteer left and they cried. Then they usually follow it with saying when I leave they are going to cry again. I know I won’t be able to hold it in!

Back Row: My best friend from HS Laura, Aichuruk (niece, 9), Diana (exchange student who lived with Laura and Krissy 7 years ago who is from KG), Aidana (niece, 11), Azia (their mom and my host sister), My host mom

Next Row: Begiam (host sister who lives in Bishkek) and her son Erjan, Krissy (friend and Laura's sister), Me holding my nephew Nurmo

hammad (Nikolish), Aideme (niece, 5... Begiam's daughter), My host dad!

I have been told by a few different people that I need to write a new blog entry because the last one was not a happy one. Well, the great news is that the reason I haven’t been writing blogs is because I have been so busy with doing great things this summer. I just finished a great week on lake doing a leadership camp for boys and girls in Kyrgyzstan. This was an AMAZING camp where we had the best students we had in our schools come together and learn about many different topics and then create a plan for a project to share the information with their community. My students decided to do a series of seminars on nutrition. It made me so proud that the information that I have been giving them for the past year has been sticking and they want to share it with their friends and community members!!

At this camp we covered many topics including self-esteem, nutrition, critical thinking, self defense, yoga, our bodies and how they function, LGBT, project planning and many other things. Every volunteer took a few sessions to teach in pairs or by themselves and some of the best lessons and activities I have ever seen were presented at this camp. We had students interested and participating better than I have ever seen before at a camp.

We really realized how much we made a difference and how much they appreciated the camp when after we came back from visiting a waterfall in a nearby village all of the kids went into a room and wouldn’t let us in there. They were planning something. We had a campfire that night (w/s’mores which by the way were one of the first food items in country that had actually made me homesick) and they all sang Kyrgyz songs for us. We sang American songs for them and had a great time. After the campfire they told us that we needed to come back to the conference hall and they had prepared something for us. After we all sat down and were ready, they all came out in a line and introduced themselves. They were each one of the volunteers or translators and said a little bit about themselves. The girl who was me was dancing around and making funny noises. It was amazing how well they nailed each of our personalities. It was hilarious. They did a few skits while in character and then gave short little speeches again. After each speech they said if I misrepresented you I’m sorry. I think they were afraid we would be offended, but it was great. They were able to use American humor so well! Then after they were finished they asked us if they would have a dance party and there was no way we could say no at that point.

The next morning after they presented their projects and we gave them their certificates they said they had something else for us. They all got in front of us again and gave us each metals of achievement. Mine, of course, was the “Most Joking Around.” I am so glad that we did this camp and brought the kids we did. They were great!

Now to jump backward in the summer. I have done so much and now half of the summer is over. I have stayed in a yurt five nights, I have gone to many different bodies of water, I have hiked several miles over a pass and back down the other side, I have gotten several blisters on my feet in the strangest places (between the toes).

Here is a schedule to date of my summer:

May 23 Went to Bishkek to help with training the newbies and to prepare for a camp (the one I just finished)

June 1 Friends came from America (AMAZING)

June 3 To my village- we went to jailoo (where the animals go for the summer to hang out, eat great food and get exercise), then to tash rabat (more about that later), and hung out with my family where my friends gave presents and bought a Kyrgyz rug from my host mom (she got an offer from the President of Kyrgyzstan but she saved it for Krissy because she said she would).

This is at the top of the pass on the way to Naryn.

June 6 To Song Kol (a beautiful lake where we relaxed and stayed in a yurt) This part of the trip was great because we got to do so many new cultural things: Milk a cow, make cream from that milk, set up a yurt, sleep in a yurt, make new friends while only speaking Kyrgyz…

Diana and the woman who let us help her family set up their yurt!!

June 8 To Issyk Kol (the largest alpine lake in the world) This was the part of the trip where we stayed in a hotel, went dancing, and got to see more of touristy part of the country.

June 10 Said goodbye to the girls and went back to Naryn to welcome the new volunteers (I cried when I said goodbye… it was such a great trip and I loved having them here!!)

June 12 To Ugut (Heather’s village) for a lifeskills camp. At this camp we had a blast, introduced kids to new healthy ways of eating great food, played many sports, taught girls and boys about their bodies and how to respect them, and cooked great food with other volunteers. My counterpart came to this camp to be a translator and it was so awesome. I feel like we connected so much more. We cooked together and she got to see me with my American friends and see that I’m not completely strange. All in all it was a good camp.

June 18 To my village to regroup

June 22 To Bishkek to get money because my ATM PIN stopped working. So frustrating, but I was able to order the English books for my school. The banks are electronically connected here. They are slowly moving toward that by having ATM’s and giving people cards, but the branches don’t communicate with each other. Before I got my card I could only take money out at the branch in my village. Now, I can take money out anywhere in the country as long as the ATM accepts my bank’s card. But the problem is that if it doesn’t work then I’m not able to take money out of my bank (even in my village) until I get it fixed in Bishkek and that is a 6 hour ride in a taxi and 500 som (one way).

June 24 To Song Kol for a hike from the lake to Heather’s village. We ended up getting a free ride out there. The bad part is that nothing in life is free. We had to sit in the back of a very small old soviet car with four of us back there. One girl was on Heather’s lap for over ten hours. I had a sleeping pad below my feet and had my knees at my chest and another girl was having problems with her back. We got to the place were staying at 11 pm and we showed up to a feast with the whole sheep and everything. We were so tired, but we knew that this was going to happen so it was nice to mentally prepare ourselves. We left in the morning and were driving back closer to the lake so we could hike the whole thing. The people we were with wanted us to stay with their friends because they were worried about us, but we promised to stay near a family who set up their yurts on our hike. We met some great people and had a lot of fun.

We all realized and agreed on this trip that it was so great to be able to do something like this, meet locals and completely interact with them in their local language. I was a really great moment and a good feeling about what we are doing in this country.

June 26 To my village to work again

July 2 To Naryn City to celebrate the 4th with some friends. Sometimes it’s the little things that help keep us going and not get too homesick.

July 3 Back home

This crazy storm prevented us from hiking.

July 8 To Tash Rabat (a old structure left behind from the silk road. It was thought be used a caravan. Stayed a yurt another 2 nights.

July 10 Back home

July 18 Left for camp with 2 of my students and several more from various villages in Naryn Oblast and we met up with various students and volunteers from Issykul Oblast.

July 23 Karakol to spend a night with my friends before I head back the Bishkek to pick up my books that I bought with the money that so many of you donated. Thank you so much.

I hope by July 26th I will be heading home and will be able to work with my counterpart and get some work done on our curriculum.

My summer isn’t over and there is so much more to come, but so far I have done so much and seen so much of this amazing country. Every day that I’m here I’m so happy that I was placed in a country that is so beautiful and that I get to work with such great people.

I hope this makes up for my lack of blog writing. 

What I didn’t know would happen only 12 hours ago:

I woke up this morning at around 7am. The day seemed as if it would be a normal day. I went to school and taught my club and halfway through my counterpart called me and asked me to bring my camera. That’s a normal thing because I’m the only person at my school who has a camera. I already had it with me at school so everything was great. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it was not for school, I had my services offered up by my director to go to a neighboring village and take pictures for this man who designs banners. Not at all what I was expecting. Also, I was told 2-3 hours tops and that is also not what happened. Now I have lived in this country for almost 13 months and I now know that things don’t go as planned (ever). So I thought maybe it will be like 4-5 hour but not much more. I ended up coming home 9.5 hours later. Let’s start from the beginning.

I went out to meet the men and we waited for about 15 minutes for the taxi to come. While wait the designer got a call saying that the driver couldn’t find his license plates. Last time I checked those usually should stay on the car. We got a ride to the center and waited for him there. After about 1.5 hours we were off to Ak Moiun. At this point I’m still not sure why I’m there or even what is going on. But after living here for as long as I have I’m so used to that that it didn’t really bother me. Well it turns out this man has been travelling all over the country designing banners for people and schools. They were carting around a full desktop computer, but please tell me how they are doing that but somehow don’t have a camera of their own to take pictures. Well, this school wanted pictures of all their teachers and so they needed a camera so they could do that.

While on our 15 minute trip to this village the designer man decides that he has taken a liking to me and wants to bride kidnap me. He leans over at one point and whispers into my ear that we should get married and I could stay in Kyrgyzstan and be his wife. Sadly, that is not even close to the first time that has happened to me. The thing that was new was that he said he was going bride kidnap me and I would be his. He kept linking arms with me and making the man in the front seat take pictures of us. While all of this is happening the other people in the car are just laughing and telling me that I need to stay. I keep telling him that it’s not possible and that I’m going to go back to America and that I miss my family too much. Pretty much just telling him everything that I can think of to get him to stop.

At the school they set up the computer and start to design posters and other things. I try to avoid being any part of it. I let the younger guy take my camera because he seemed pretty computer savvy and I didn’t want to be near the other guy. I did pretty well staying away until we went to eat lunch. He made me sit next to him. He tried to force me to eat more and more while asking me if he was skinny or fat, strong, beautiful. I played along for most of that because it got him to stop faster.

After lunch I went into the corner of the room and just sat and read my book. I am so glad I brought a book because that is was saved me. 9.5 hours of sitting and doing nothing would have driven me insane. The crazy part is that I didn’t even get mad at all until the ride home. It took the guy so long to come to the car so we could leave. While in the car he goes back to bride kidnapping me. He asked me what I would do if he would take me and I said I would leave. He told me I couldn’t but jokes on him their cultural things don’t work on me. I won’t be shamed if I leave. HAHA, jerk. He kept linking arms with me and I don’t know if this was intentional or not but he kept touching my chest too. I was livid at this point. He also took my phone and called his phone with it so he could have my number. I will be changing my number if he calls me.

There is a point in the road where it splits and you can go down the hill to by village or the other way to Naryn City. Well the driver turned away from my village. That is when I started yelling. I said I need to go home and take me back. They told me they were getting gas and I kept saying take me back. They did just get gas. I was almost to the kicking and screaming stage (and for those of you who know me… that’s not a pleasant stage for anyone involved). They did ended up taking me back to my village after that but I refused to talk to anyone the whole rest of the way home. When we got to At-Bashy I told them to stop way before my house and I would walk the rest of the way home. I didn’t want this guy knowing where I lived. They let me out and thanked me and I just walked away.

My family was so worried about me and when I walked through the gate they were all standing there wondering where I had been. They guy told my host sister (because she is an assistant principal at my school) that it would only be 3-4 hours and I finally came home 9.5 hours later!

Today is now named worst day in country!

Disclaimer: I just want to say that not all people/men in this country are as horrible as this man. Actually on a daily basis I interact with many men who are wonderful and helpful. This is just one isolated incident and he is a jerk just like there are jerks in America. I am actually just as mad at the other people in the car who were just laughing and making jokes out of it. When I got home I told me host sister and she was not happy. She said it was shameful and wrong.

It’s been a while. I have been really busy with traveling around the country, doing work, and preparing for summer. The new trainees came to country 4 weeks ago and they are going through training right now. I went to Bishkek to talk about what I do and what life is like for me. The first thing I talked about was being a teacher and try to give them an idea of what it will be like when they start their service. Then I helped the medical staff give a session on mental health. Yeah, I know… am I really the person to be giving advice about mental health? But it was fun. I opened with a dance party to help loosen them up and show them one way to distress when things get a little overwhelming. It was great and they started a congo line and danced around the building. It was really awesome to see that they still had energy even after everything they are going through.

Also, when I was in Bishkek I watched a few soccer games with some friends. It was so great to watch sports again. The Barcelona vs. Real Madrid game was at 2am our time so when it finally finished and I got to bed it was 5am. But I still woke up at 8am and went to sports day with the new training. I was so tired and found myself spacing out much of the sports playing. But we played ultimate Frisbee, soccer, and American football. Felt so good to play sports and be active. All in all it was awesome to be able to spend time with the newbies. They are a great group and I think they will do great things here. I am excited for them to come to site and see which ones will be near me. Only two weeks away.

Yesterday I took the long trip home. I have done this trip in anywhere from 4-12 hours. The sad part about those times is that one of the fastest times was in the winter with snow on the roads and the slowest was in the summer and the car broke down and we had to wait for another one to come. Well this trip took 7 hours. So it was in the middle, but it felt like forever. I try not to talk on the long rides because it is inevitable that some guy will want to talk to me and ask me the same questions over and over again. The guy in front of me was the guy this time. I’m not sure if he was drunk or just annoying. He started by talking to me in Russian and I just shook my head like I didn’t understand. Then I made the mistake of saying “рахмат” (thank you). I spent a good length of time of that trip trying to stop talking to him. It would not be as bad to talk to people, but I can tell exactly how the conversation will go: I get asked what my name is, where I am from and what I do (none of that is bad). Then we get into me being asked if I will go somewhere with them. Be it the lake, America, anywhere. Then I get asked if I am married or have a boyfriend and no matter what my answer I get told that I need marry their son to be their daughter-in-law. I will then get offered some horrible food or drink that most other people in the car have eaten off of. No matter how much I refuse they keep insisting. All of this happened and more.

Also, one more thing that has become a trend with at least 80% of my rides to or from Bishkek… someone pukes. Mostly small children and it smells horrible. This time it was a very small child and it missed my by inches. The worst part is that it went all over the floor and no one cleaned it up. So I sat next to a pile of vomit for at least an hour and half. It has to be the windy bumpy roads that causes. But they never learn. The kid will puke and then the parent will give them some more food to eat and the whole cycle starts over again. Not my favorite Kyrgyz experience!

So there you go. A little update of my past few weeks.

Brooke

One year in and I have so much to look forward to. I have begun to map out my last 14 months and see what I need to do when to accomplish everything I want to. Much of it will be done over the summer, and that’s good because that gives me things to do this summer. I am really excited to see what the next year brings me because this past year has brought me so much. Last night the new trainees arrived to country and we are all so excited for them to be here. It brings back so many memories that seem so long ago, but they were only a year ago. Makes me grateful that I don’t have to go through training again! Training was a really hard time for me, but now I am able to function in this foreign land, communicate with the locals, have friends who don’t speak English, and eat food that I will be happy to leave when PC is over.

My friend Heather, a volunteer who lives nearby had a friend come from America. They came to my village and I showed them around. We also went to Tash Rabat (stone structure). This is a stone structure that they can date back to the 10th century. They think that it was some sort of hotel for the travelers along the Silk Road. There are several rooms and dark tunnels in it. I went there last summer with some other volunteers, but it was cool to go in the winter/spring with snow still on the ground. One of the coolest parts of this place is since Kyrgyzstan and especially the At Bashy region (where I live) is one of the least researched places in the world there aren’t restrictions from go inside or on top of the structure so you can see it up close and personal. It’s really interesting to look at the construction and wonder and imagine how they built it. There are parts inside where there is still plaster on the walls and you can tell that designs were carved into them. So much history. Going there makes me really realize how young America is and how much happened all over the world before America even started to develop into the country that it is today.

Tash Rabat is at least an hour past the last village before China. There are still houses and families who live near the structure year round, but their houses are all alone. There is one house that has been build right near the structure and they are in charge of it. During the summer they set up yurts for tourist to stay in and they also have horse treks that people can go on. Since we went in the winter nothing was up, but they did have a camel and a wolf to take pictures with. We think they found the wolf as a puppy and just put a chain around its neck to keep it there. It is really sad. The camel wasn’t very happy either and kept trying to eat our hair. We were charged to take pictures with the animals as well as to go inside Tash Rabat. Well, Heather and I weren’t charged to go in because we are volunteers in this country but Diane had to pay 50som (a little more than a dollar) to go inside. It’s really nothing when you think about it, but 50som has become a lot of money to me. Especially when I can call America for 25 mins for that amount of money.

On our way home, our taxi driver suddenly stopped the car and started pointing out into a field. I felt like I was home with my dad pointing out a random bird or something. Well there were several prairie dogs out in the field running around. They were everywhere. I had never seen them here before. It was really cool.

The road that we have to take to get to Tash Rabat is really bad because right now it is being redone. It is the only road that goes from China to Bishkek (the capital) and they Chinese have made a deal with Kyrgyzstan where they will pave a new road and they can drive their trucks through it. It is a 3 year project and last summer was the first summer of it. Last summer they chewed up the whole road and then they are going to start paving. Well, when we were driving we passed a huge semi truck and it kicked up a large rock (larger than my fist) and it started bouncing toward our car. It hit the windshield and it cracked and spider-webbed out. Small shards of glass landed on Heather, who was in the front seat, and the driver. It was really scary. Luckily it didn’t go through the window because it would have hit him. This morning I saw him when I was walking around town and he told me that he will go to Bishkek tomorrow to get a replacement. He said it will cost 3500som ($75) to fix it. Sounds like nothing to us, but it is so much money to him. But as a said before at least no one got hurt! I wish I would have taken a picture.

I think there was some sort of underground system with this structure. I had heard at one point that they kept prisoners in these holes.

Tash Rabat

Diane (Heather's friend) and I are warming our hands over the imaginary fire under the dome inside the building.

This is our taxi driver with the camel after he tried to eat his hair. This is the taxi driver who always says hi to me. He is really great. His name is Zoo baike (you call any man older than you baike).

This is the wolf they found as a puppy. As you can tell we kept our distance.

Sometimes it is just easier to give a rundown of my previous day or week because I feel it gives the best representation of my life here. This will be for the past week (the week before spring break where I should be giving exams so I can turn in grades).

Monday: It was a pretty normal day. My counterpart and I made a Jeopardy game (some things don’t change) for a study day before the tests. We gave it to both of my 11th grade classes and the 8th grade class. It was so great for the 11th grade classes because they were really into trying to answer correctly and they were really showing how much they learned. It was awesome. Then 8th grade came. I think this class is the bane of my existence. I want to help them and teach them, but they just want to mock us and do anything but sit quietly. Most classes will have one or two boys that are disruptive and many times they don’t show up to class. Well, every boy in this class is tentek (naughty) and that is about 10 boys that are disruptive and obnoxious and make teaching that class not fun. If the boys were not in the class it would be a lot of fun and they would learn so much more. But as it is now most of class is focused on trying to get the boys to stop hitting and throwing things.

Tuesday: We gave the test to the 8th grade class and they cheated on the whole thing. Cheating in the country is not something they look down upon nor do they think that it’s cheating. I went outside the classroom to give the oral part of the test and my counterpart stayed in the classroom to watch the students and make sure they didn’t cheat. Well every time I walked in the room to get another student the students were climbing over the desks and looking at each other’s papers. Well, there goes trying to prevent that. She told me which ones were cheating and we are going to make them take it over, but I wanted her to stop it when it started. At least I know that I’m needed here and there are things that I can work on. Then… I was supposed to have two different 9th grade classes after we gave that test. My counterpart then told me that the students were setting up for a first aid seminar for the next day and we couldn’t teach them.

Wednesday: First Aid seminar. No classes today so that means no test given to 11th grade and no study session to either of the 10 grade classes. I was given the job of taking pictures of the day as the students acted out various situations where first aid is needed and then recited text about first aid. They wanted to take my camera and take pictures with it and then give it back to me but I kindly offered to take them (because I already have horrible luck with cameras and I want to be the one to break it if it breaks).

Thursday: Second day of First Aid seminar. No classes again. My counterpart told me that we were going to have a party for Nooruz (a holiday on the 21st of March) and that I needed to make some food. Well, took that as it would be at 3pm that day. So I went home and made cookies and then showed up to school with them. No… the party is on Saturday. So, what did I do? Ate the cookies and I’m going to make something else for Saturday. This night that is what I had for dinner.

Friday: One student is in one of my 10th grade classes. One out of 16 students is there. That means no test review day. As for the other 10th grade class all of the students are there. We played Jeopardy and they did awesome. This is my favorite classes because all of the students are interested and fun to teach. I am able to teach most of the class in all English and they understand most of it. We have started doing a video club and they love watching all my American girlie movies that have subtitles. Next year I get to choose which classes I will teach and they are one of the few classes that I will keep. They make me happy! After this class we went to the teacher’s room to wait for the next class to start. Well, the teachers started talking about the teacher’s party that will be on Saturday and kept talking 15 minutes into the next class. This class (11th grade) we were going to give them their test but we couldn’t because there wasn’t enough time. I went to the class and there were only 6 of the 14 students so it would have been pointless anyway. I watched them play a card game and I never understood what they were doing.

Then, I went home because a man from Peace Corps HQ came to KG last week and is interviewing volunteers and staff about everything. They picked 19 volunteers at random and are interviewing them about their service, staff support, training… ect. The best part about that was he brought me Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and mini Kitkat bars. Awesome. Then I went to the post office and got a surprise package. There was cheez-it’s in it. And gum, and cookies, and soap, and bobbypins, and letters. It is a great package! Thanks Lauren. I’m still waiting for one more to come from my sister and I’m excited for that one too because it has some great food in it. And patches for my pants because all of my jeans have busted out on the inner thigh. See there is a reason why I have so many pants in America. It’s so my pants don’t bust out! (To all my students who read this and remember the time I ripped my jeans in class playing volleyball, that was an isolated incident).

I then met with an English teacher in my village. She teaches at a different school and is trying to get a volunteer for next year. We went to the café and ate lunch/dinner. And we had a lot of fun. I’m starting to get some local friends and meet with them more regularly. I’m helping her with her English and she is helping me with my Kyrgyz. It was a really great way to end my hectic and frustrating week.

My conclusion to this week is that if I get frustrated with it all I’m going to be frustrated all the time. After the first day of not teaching I told my counterpart that we were just going to give the tests after break and hopefully they will remember at least some of the information. My patients and tolerance has gotten a lot better over the past year. In 11 days I will have lived in Kyrgyzstan for one full year. Amazing. I’m so amazed with how much has become normal. Just under a year ago so many things were a struggle and now are just how I function every day. When I go home people are going to think I’m strange.

I’ve included some pictures of the first aid day.

An example of some students showing what to do in a first aid emergency.

This is my zowvich (assistant principal) with some students showing off a gas mask.

This is some students showing what to do in case of radiation exposure because there are a lot of radiation sites in Kyrgyzstan.

I have had the week I have needed for quite some time now! The sun has been shining, which is all I really needed, the snow is melting away (it makes it difficult to walk anywhere because all of the mud, but I’ll take it), my counterpart taught alone today (including wrote her own lessons) and I am seeing progress in how she is teaching, my host mom came home from Bishkek (I always miss her when she is gone), my improved diet is helping my digestive tract, and spring break is only a week away. I am finishing up writing a grant which is going to be great. I have so many other projects going on and they are all things that I enjoy so that is great. I’m just waiting for better food to start showing up at the bazaars. Oh, what I would do for a tomato and cucumber salad right now. But granola has been a godsend. And also food that my friends and family have sent me over the winter. I can’t imagine how bad it would have been without that. I was struggling as it was.

Today I spent a good hour or so (no one showed up to my English club that they begged me for) reading about Thailand and dreaming about what I’ll be doing next Dec/Jan. I just got a huge tax return too and so I’m thinking maybe another trip will be in order! Or I could save the money and have it for when I finish PC so I have something to start off with. Nah… probably not.

On my way home from school today a man stopped me and asked if we had met before. I never know because I meet so many people and I usually meet them all at the same time so I never remember everyone. He was very excited about it though. After talking to him for a while he told me that I knew a lot of Kyrgyz. It’s not really true, but it totally made my day to have someone say that to me. I can understand much more than I can speak, and to people who are willing to give me the time I can communicate a lot by speaking broken language and using gestures.

Oh, also today one of my counterparts that is more difficult to work with told me that maybe we shouldn’t try to force to work together this year because we are both too busy and we will start next year working together. I am so glad she finally came to that conclusion on her own because she will accept that more.

Life is feeling pretty good right now and I am only two months away from summer vacation and my friends coming to visit! This summer is already full of great things that we are going to do here and hopefully by then all of my grants will be funded and I can focus more on teacher trainings at my school. I never thought I would have such a plan here, but as time goes on I am seeing everything fall into place. I want spend my second year working directly with the teachers at my school and less on writing projects. That will help the sustainability of what I have been trying to do here.

Today I am thankful for SUNSHINE!! May your life be full of sunshine and happiness!

Everyone has been saying that this year we have gotten so little snow. Well, it's all coming now. In the past week or so it has snowed 4 or so days. We played in it and had a difficult time making a Кар киши (snowman) but we made it work!

We built a snowman and named him Fred. These are my nieces with him.

Me and Aidana and Fred.

Me and my niece Aichuruk with Fred.

The neighbor kids always want me to play so I came out to play in the snow and they were building igloos!!

My day almost meeting the president of Kyrgyzstan.

I haven’t been feeling well so I have been lying in bed not doing anything for the past few days. I woke up today with a splitting headache but I had heard wind that the president might come to my village. That was enough for me to pull myself out of bed, wash my greasy hair that hasn’t seen water in over a week and put on mascara. I got dressed and was trying to figure out what I was going to do because I got ready an hour before my first class of the day when I got a phone call from my host sister, who is the assistant principal at the school. She told me that the president was coming and I needed to get to school. I book it into school thinking she would be there in the next hour or so. No such luck. I wait around in the teachers’ lounge for a good 20 minutes talking to the teachers and just observing. The school was in chaos at this point. All of the students were running around scrubbing the school down from top to bottom to prepare. One teacher shows up, I had passed her on the road as I was running to school, and we exchange pleasantries. She looks at me and notices that I have mascara on. Of course I have mascara on, I know that there will be pictures of me taken today and I want it to look like I have eyes. Well, as every teacher walks into the teachers’ room she points out that I’m wearing mascara. Good observation, thank you! She seems to not notice the fact that the entire school is running around, scrubbing floors, painting walls, and changing posters, but she notices that I have added black to my eyelashes.

Around this time the director comes in and craziness follows her. I don’t think I ever heard her voice at a normal level the entire day. Not quite sure why she needed to yell everything at everybody. With that my counterpart and I scurried off to our classroom (which really is no longer my classroom because it was taken away from me… another story). We stand and watch the students scrub that classroom down. They remove the cotton insulation from the windows (aren’t we going to need that because it is still winter) and mop the floor for the um-teenth time. Another teacher comes in the classroom and looks at the desks and tells the students to clean off the writing on them that some previous students decided was necessary to share with the world. At this point my counterpart has left to do something else and the teacher comes up to me and tells me that these students didn’t write this and it must have been my club students. Not sure where she came to this conclusion because all the writing was in Kyrgyz (not English) and there have been many different classes in this classroom that haven’t been my classes. Not to mention that some of these desks had come from somewhere else in the school with the writing already on them before they arrived here. I tried to explain that to her but with the combination of my splitting headache and horrible Kyrgyz I’m sure it did not come out exactly as I intended it to. Oh well. I went and taught two classes after this and then had to leave because my head hurt too much. The President was supposed to come by 4pm at this point.

While at home my host niece told me that she wanted to go back to the school with me when I was going to go back. We head out at about 3:30 and the whole way there she is practicing her English. This girl is 10 and she is amazing. She is coming up with sentences that I have not taught her with very few mistakes. We have been working on the difference between me too and me either. In Kyrgyz they are the same so we were thinking of examples and practicing. We get to school and wait, and wait, and wait. Meanwhile the principal comes back in the teachers’ room and starts yelling about something again. I have no idea what she upset about so I am very uncomfortable. Turns out some teacher has left for the day with still having some classes left to teach. So my counterpart and I are left with the duty of entertaining them. I say entertaining them because this is a class that we don’t teach and I have never met before. My counterpart starts playing a game with them just to keep them busy. This class ends and we are still waiting for the president to come. We decide to go to the “English classroom” to wait some more.

While waiting my other counterpart comes in and says we are going to teach 6th grade together. Wait a minute, I don’t teach this class. Why am I being told that I will be teaching this class? I ask her several times why I am going to teach with her and she just keeps saying that we will teach together. Finally I get her to tell me that it is because they want it to look like I’m working when the president comes. I’m pissed at this point. I go in the classroom with my second counterpart and stand on the side. I have no idea what she is teaching. She keeps handing me the book and telling me to teach something. She decides that she wants to teach present simple so she writes on the board:

I paint I don’t paint

You paint You don’t paint

He/She paints He/She doesn’t paint

We paint We don’t paint

They paint They don’t paint

Then again hands me the book and says write sentences on the board. I’m really irritated at this point but I end up pulling a really great activity out of nowhere. I get all the students participating and talking. I tell her that it’s her turn and she doesn’t know what to do. Didn’t she write a lesson plan? Ugh! While all of this is going on the president finally shows up to my school. There is a Center for Children’s Learning next to my school and they went there first. We can see the guards and the cars and police everywhere. Then we can see her come out of the center and they stand there for a few minutes, then they’re gone. WAIT A MINUTE… they’re gone? Yeah, they drove off to where ever they were going next. All of that for nothing. The cleaning, teaching classes that aren’t ours, the yelling, the chaos… and she just drives off. Strangely enough it didn’t upset me too much that she didn’t come, I have gotten used to this not happening when they are supposed to. Welcome to Kyrgyzstan!

It has been a long time since I’ve written a blog. I’ve been staying busy with work, going to Bishkek, and hanging out with my family. Not a whole lot has happened here. I went to Bishkek last week to finish a grant and to start pricing books for a new grant. Turns out the books are much more expensive than I expected, but I think they are going to be a great learning tool and my counterpart is really great at English and it will help her with ideas. It was a very stressful and busy few days in Bishkek, but I managed to squeeze some time in for my friends who got just got back from Thailand. They got married. Their pictures and stories were amazing. It’s always great to see such great people get together.

While in Bishkek I lost my wallet with EVERYTHING in it. As my sister wrote on my blog… some things never change. The great thing that I have learned over the years about when I lose things is not to freak out. It has served me well to stay calm and think happy thoughts. If I don’t find whatever I’ve lost then I’m still left with not freaking out. My friend Heather and I were heading out to our old training village to visit her host sister because she is going to Moscow to work. We took a mini bus to one city and then a taxi to our village. We sat, talked, laughed, and ate. It was a great time and we were so happy to see her sister and dad. When it was time to leave I noticed I didn’t have my wallet. Crap. We searched the house and then searched the village for the taxi that took us there. Somehow we found it and it was not in there. Her host dad starting yelling at the guy for not having it. It’s not like it was his fault. So we got back into the city and figured it was a lost cause because there are so many marshrutkas (minibuses) that go between the two cities we traveled between. There was no way we would be able to track it down. Then next day I went into the PC office and talked to the people there about it. We decided to wait a couple days to see if it would turn up and if not we would start the process of getting new documents. I went about my day and got things done. Around 3 in the afternoon I got a call from this guy asking me in Russian if my name was Emilia (Emily is my middle name). He was reading my documents and was trying to get a hold of me to give them back. In my broken Kyrgyz I told him that I needed to get someone to talk to him. I ran inside the office and got a host country national to talk to the guy. After a few hand offs and negotiating one of the staff members got off the phone and said that he was demanding 1000 som for the return of my wallet. They were going to wait an hour or so and call him back and try to get it back. I just went back to working and finishing things I needed to do in Bishkek. At the end of the day Heather and I went inside so she could learn some songs on the Komuz (the local national stringed instrument). While sitting and listening to people play music the PC staff member walked in with my ID, WITH EVERYTHING STILL IN IT. It was amazing. We didn’t even have to pay a dime (well I guess a som here). I sat there wondering how could he have known my number? Then I realized I had cards in my wallet with my numbers on it so when I add units to my phone I don’t have to tell them the number, I just give them my card. Smartest thing I’ve ever done. He just started calling my numbers and finally got the one that was attached to the simcard in my phone. I still am amazed how it all worked out. But I guess that shows to tell you that happy thoughts can help a lot more than freaking out!

Thank you PC for helping me find my wallet and I promise to keep it with me (Ok… I’ll try to keep it with me) and not leave it places I can’t get it back.

This is a picture of a camel in the middle of the city. I was walking back to the hotel from the PC office and looked up and this is what I saw. It was too good of a picture to not take. Enjoy!! :)

Brooke

This is from a week ago:

I’m in Bishkek right now for some work and medical things and it is amazing how different the life is here. I got to eat chicken burgers and real fries; I bought peanut butter, Pringles, and hot sauce; I got to take a real, hot shower in a room that wasn’t 40 degrees (the last time that happened was almost 3 months ago). It is nice to live up this luxury once in a while, but it makes me miss my At-Bashy home where people know me as I walk down the street and I can speak Kyrgyz to everyone. There are many times in Bishkek where I can’t communicate because the person doesn’t speak Kyrgyz. I also don’t have to tell people several times that I don’t speak Russian when I am back in my village. Luxury is nice, but I really do appreciate my simple life!

These past few weeks back at school have been interesting. I have been having some difficulties with one of my counterparts, but I think we have found a compromise. My other counterpart and are really starting to work well together and I am seeing huge improvements. We often talk about how grateful we are that we are able to work together. I got to meet her husband the other day and he seemed wonderful too. He was so excited to meet me and he also drove me into town so I didn’t have to walk. It’s always so great to really begin to feel a friendship developing, especially when you are alone in a place and have very few friends. I have my volunteer friends, but it is great to start to build bonds with local people as well.

I had a meeting with one of my counterparts and my director (the principal of the school). We talked about future projects that I would like to do and things that they would like done at the school. It seems like we are seeing eye to eye and I am really excited. One goal I have is to build a green house at our school and educate the community about fruits and vegetables. I can really see this helping the community out a lot and helping them get the nutrients their bodies need (especially during the winter months).

I have been having a lot of fun with my family. My family sent presents for them and also flash cards to help teach English. My nieces were so cute with their presents. They got Hello Kitty notepads and they wrote everyone’s phone number in them. They were so excited when they got to my number. They had to show me several times. About 3 nights a week we practice English together. We spell words and count and play games that they volunteer who lived with them before me gave them (candyland and chutes and ladders). I have started to try to tell more stories about my life. They never come out perfectly, but they are really good at understanding and making me feel good for trying. Most of the time when my oldest niece is in the room listening after I finish she will look confused and say, “I don’t understand.” It always makes me laugh!

My schedule is starting to really fill up. That’s good because that helps me focus on what I’m doing here and I don’t get homesick. When there is nothing to do and it is really cold outside it’s really hard to remember why I came here. I’m happy to see progress and see that there is a purpose. Even if it is small, at least I have been a part of a few people’s lives and exposed them to something they would have never seen before.

Life is good. Thank you to everyone who sent me packages and Christmas cards. It really helped to get a little bit of home during this time of year. As the temp drops to -25C (it sounds colder in C) during the night think of me and think warm thoughts. 

New Years 14 hours before my friends and family was interesting. It was really cute to watch my nieces because they were as excited for New Years as kids in America are for Christmas. There were so many things that were similar and so many things that were different. We had two large meals (one more than normal). The first one was at 7:30 pm and the second one was at 11pm. I made pizza and cookies that I thought were delicious. There was still most of the cookies left and some of the pizza today, so I’m guessing they didn’t like it too much. That’s ok with me because that means there was more for me to eat. We watched the concert that was on TV for most of the night (I snuck away for an hour or so to call home). All four of my nieces and nephew (and I) are all sick so two of my nieces fell asleep before midnight. My host mom and host sister decided that they needed to wake up for the New Year celebration. That turned into a lot of crying and pouting. My nephew is 9 months old and is teething so he was crying too. Then we lit sparklers (the kind that are illegal in America because they are metal and burn people) and my littlest niece burned her finger on it and she started crying. So at one point we had four crying children in the house. I managed to hold it together so no crying from me, but it was pretty entertaining to be on this side of it because I know I put my parents through the same things when I was their age.

Shortly after midnight I went to bed because I hit my limit. I’m pretty sure that they went to bed shortly afterward as well. Yesterday though, I was doing something with my camera and deleted all the pictures on it. Since my computer is acting up I wasn’t able to put the pictures on my computer and there are quite a few that hadn’t been transferred yet. Grr. .. But the good news is that after I cleared off my camera I am able to put the pictures on my computer. So I guess there is always a silver lining. The bad news all the pictures I took at the New Year’s party with all the Kyrgyz people are now gone and my camera is the only one we had there. That’s the hard part about technology.

I am really happy that I spend my New Year’s with my family because it was great to celebrate their largest holiday with them. Now I have a week of vacation to relax and do some planning for other projects. I probably should do some cleaning too.

Today at breakfast my host mom told me that January and February are the coldest months here, but not to worry because come March the temperature starts to go up. Ah I guess that’s good news. I remember when we first came to Kyrgyzstan on March 29, 2010 a day or two before that was their last snow of the year. Oh man, it’s going to be cold! I will be thinking warm thoughts and layering like crazy. I think my max so far with layers is seven at one time. I feel like the little brother on “A Christmas Story” when I go outside sometimes.

Жаны Жылныздар Менен (Happy New Year!)

Brooke

This picture is of my front door. The frost extends about 5 FEET to the right all along the wall, but the wall is white so you can’t see it. It is COLD here!

The joys of guesting… Today my host mom knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted to go to the mountains with them and there was something with a tree. Oh course I said yes, but not really knowing what was in store for me. Well, it was another guesting adventure. My host dad works at the place where they send out the TV signal. He showed me around the building and told me how it worked. From what I got from his explanation I guess the signal comes from Naryn City and then they send it out to the rayon (county) that I live in. I’m pretty sure he only works there during the winter because up until a month or so ago he didn’t work at all and he will be finished working there halfway through January. There are beds there and the men that work there just sleep there and come home once in a while. It is really close to where we live and going there was just another reminder of how different America is from Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan most people work in their own village and can walk to work. If you work in other village or city most of the time you either have two houses or you travel by taxi back and forth (and that is very uncommon). Here are some of the highlights of the night…

• Being forced to give a toast (this time they were impressed.

• Watching them pass around a bowl with broth in it and two apple slices and whenever it got passed to you, you had to sing. I was given it and I sang “Jingle Bells.”

• Being sung to by a drunk man and I didn’t have a clue what he was saying.

• Eating Beshbarmak (Kyrgyzstan’s national dish) with my besh barmak (five fingers).

• Accidently saying algalay when giving my toast which means drink it all… I was trying to avoid drinking as little of the super sweet wine they gave me and that didn’t help.

• Watching the VERY drunk man try to stay awake, sing, talk, eat… everything was pretty entertaining.

• Having the men at the party ask if they could guest in America and then come to find out they were saying only the men would come and they would leave the women here. Hmm…

• Taking picture after picture of every family there in front of the New Years tree.

• Watching a fuzzy TV after my host dad just told me we were in the place that sends the signal out for that… wouldn’t you think that the channels would come in better. HA.

• Experiencing a Kyrgyz New Years in all its glory!!

This has been a great Christmas. If I couldn’t be home with my family the people I spent it with were the next best choice. We had a southern meal including: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, mac and cheese, and meat balls. I made eggnog and we have been drinking that all weekend. I think the greatest part of this whole weekend though, was that I got to go skiing. It cost me about $40 for the ride up there and back, rentals, the lift ticket (there were 3 decent lifts), and food… a steak. What a deal!! We had a blast skiing and enjoying the views.

Yesterday after came home from skiing I made chicken potpie pockets. They were so good. My friend Heather made the pie crust and we put eggs and milk in the dough and it was the flakiest crust I have ever eaten. If I were to have made these in the America they would have been delicious, so making them here after being forced to drink the boiled sheep liquid was even more incredible. There is rumor that tonight we are going to make lasagna. I am in heaven. That makes it more like a normal Christmas for me too because my dad usually makes a Christmas lasagna.

Getting to Karakol (the city we are visiting now) was quite the experience though. My mom has told me that I should start writing my travel experiences down and write a book when I come home, and I’m starting to agree with her. I was going to go to travel with my friend Heather and we had to meet up in Naryn City and leave from there. I got into town pretty quickly but Heather has to stand on the side of the road for a car to drive by. She was lucky to catch the first taxi to go by after standing there 45 minutes. I just asked her how long the wait was and she said it was ONLY 45 minutes… at times it is up to 2 hours in temperature that are in the teens or lower. Anyway, she got into town and we waited in the taxi for about an hour for two more people to show up and ride with us. Once we got into the next town we had to find another taxi or mini bus to take us to our final destination. Well as soon as we walked up there was a mini bus leaving within 15 minutes and we were very excited. We set down our bags and went to find food. We were standing in a small store near by and were talking to a woman about how she thought it was amazing that we knew Kyrgyz because even Kyrgyz people don’t know the language very well. We looked out the window and we could no longer see our mini bus or our bags. I ran out and found out that there was a different mini bus that we were going to take and our bags were in that one… phew. We got in… got seats (not everyone did) and took off. Oh crap… we were going the wrong direction. Well we ended up taking the south shore mini bus that took a little longer. The good part is that that way is more scenic, but the bad part is it was so cold that the windows were frosted over and it was dark within an hour into our ride. We got into town about 10.5 hours after we started our trip but we got greeted by other volunteers who had made cookies and sushi. It was a good trip!

New Years will be with my host family and I’m sure pictures with come with that too. Stay warm and be jolly!

Brooke

Since sending presents from Kyrgyzstan is a little difficult, I thought that I would post a really great blog for everyone to enjoy. Merry Christmas. This week I spent the week teaching my students about Christmas and how we celebrate it in America. I taught songs and videotaped a few (too bad my internet isn’t good enough to post those), we decorated a Christmas Tree (the kept calling it a yolka which is what they call their New Years Tree), we hung stockings over the fireplace, we ate cookies, and we made and gave cards to one another. All in all even though this is the farthest from a normal Christmas I have ever had, it has turned out to be a really great one. The students have been really interested in American holidays and I really enjoy teaching them about we are similar and different. I will be sending the actually holiday with some other volunteers. We are going to have a big feast and have a lot of fun. I am really excited to go skiing also!

This past week I my health has not been doing very well. It’s just a cold, but it’s a pretty bad one. My host family thinks that I got it because I don’t wear slippers, or because I don’t wear warm enough clothes, but in reality I’m sure it’s because my nieces have been really sick and cough all over all the food at every meal. Today I didn’t even go to school because when I got there I couldn’t even think. I think one of the hardest things to do when you are sick is to think in any way shape or form and it’s pretty hard to avoid when I have to think so hard just to speak in another language. I’ve been hiding in my room. OK enough of a pity party.

The other day when I came home my niece and host dad we standing in the driveway and she started telling me about a small lamb. I had no idea what else she was saying so I just nodded and went inside. Then there was this box with a coat over it sitting our porch for a few days. Then the box moved inside next to my bedroom door. It stayed there for a day or two. Still not knowing what it was I came home one day and the same niece opened the box and started petting a tiny lamb. It couldn’t have been more than a couple days old. I guess it was born and it was sick so they were keeping it inside to nurse it. The box isn’t there anymore (I think that it is outside in the barn). But it was so cute. Not the first thing I thought would be in a box outside my bedroom door, but at this point nothing surprises me anymore. Whenever something surprising happens I just think to myself, “Of course that’s happening now… why wouldn’t.”

My nieces with the lamb.

Tonight at dinner my host dad suggested for us to play the silent game (I guess that game is universal). I think that this is the first time in my life I have ever won that game. This is one of the few times that not knowing the language very well has come in handy. Every time someone talked they would start a new round and we ended up playing 9 rounds. At the end they voted who talked the least and I came in first. Congrats to me! The whole time I was thinking… wow you have no idea how difficult this game is for me when everyone is speaking English, but in Kyrgyz I have that game in the bag!

Anyway, I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season full of joy and family. I am doing everything I can to make sure that mine is a good one. I even had a tree (as my family knows I will not let Christmas happen without it).

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Brooke

PS we just got a dumping of snow and this is a picture of the view from my classroom window.

While trying to help get through this time of year without being around my friends and family I am trying to educate the people around me about our holidays and what we do to celebrate. Tomorrow in my classes we will be having Christmas parties and I made cookies for them to eat. The problem about being in this country and trying to cook food that you we were so good at cooking when you were back in the states is the ingredients are different here. For example, the sugar they use here is beet sugar and not cane sugar. It reacts differently when you cook with it. I made sugar cookies (I wanted to make ones that we roll out and cut out shapes but I don’t have cookie cutters here and it’s not the same without frosting) and they taste good but they just didn’t turn out right. The best part about it though is that everyone who I’m feeding the cookies to have never had a sugar cookie in America. So to them they are amazing. My nieces really wanted to help me so I let them roll the dough into balls, roll them in sugar, and press a fork into them. They did really well. I also made chocolate chip cookie bars which actually turned out really well. I don’t have vanilla here because it is really hard to find and you can usually only find it in Bishkek and on the lake (they have everything). I think making cookies with my nieces is one of my favorite memories in country to date. I think I might try to cook with them more often. I know for New Years we will make more cookies and make pizza so that will be a lot of fun. They are so much fun. I hope you enjoy the pictures of my family. I enjoy living with them. I think that the best part is EVERY time I come home they come out of the main room and yell, “Brooke Ejay” (Ejay is what you call an older female). It’s so much fun to be loved so much for not doing anything.

This weekend I also made pizza. I think it is the best pizza I have ever made before. One had a butter garlic sauce with pepperoni (yes real pepperoni that another volunteer’s mom sent him from America), peppers, and cheese. That one was AMAZING. And the other pizza had a white garlic sauce with caramelized onions, chicken, and cheese. It was even better the next morning for breakfast. I do what I can to get by with the food. I love cooking and it is a huge destresser. It is also a really great way for me to learn new vocabulary!

Next weekend I will be in Karakol (a large city on the lake) skiing and cooking with friends. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and is spending it with loved ones!

Brooke

This is Aichuruk pressing the cookies down with a fork

Aidana rolling the cookies in sugar

Me and my little monkeys

I never thought that I would think getting to bathe once a week by myself would be a luxury. It’s amazing how different your life can be from one year to the next. Last year I was living at home close to my family and friends. I could shower anytime I wanted to. I could eat just about any type of food I would ever want, whenever I would want it. I could drive my car and leave when I wanted to not when transportation permitted. I put all that together and realize that even though I don’t get those “luxuries” I am probably the happiest that I have ever been in my life. So many days I walk down the road and just smile because there is so much to be amazed by! I have met some of the greatest people I have ever met, I am constantly surrounded by nature’s beauty and I’m getting a real life view of how other parts of the world function without all the extras America has. It is so true that happiness comes in simplicity. I have found that there are times I have to remind myself to go take a banya now rather than just making it to the next banya. I don’t always smell good, but neither does anyone else. But it would be nice to be able to bathe and be the only person in there.

The most awkward moment to date during my service in the Peace Corps happened last week when I was in the banya. Usually I go in there and put on my tunnel vision because I just want to get in and out of there ASAP. Well last Friday I was in the changing room and halfway undressed when a woman started talking to me in English. She apparently teaches English at one of the schools in my village and she wants me to help her. We spoke in half English and half Kyrgyz about me helping her and then I gave her number so she could call me and we could set up a meeting. I would prefer to go back to being invisible. Every time something like that happens I just have to remind myself that it is getting me one step closer to being fearless and doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it. How amazing would life be if we were controlled by our fears?

I think that one of the best parts about being here is that it is giving my ideas of what I want to do for the rest of my life. Well knowing me I doubt I will ever commit to rest of my life, but at least what I want to work towards when I finish my service. The amount of free time here to contemplate life and my purpose in it is sometimes good, but other times not so great.

Right now I’m looking at going into the medical field with some type of nursing. Mostly I would like to either do midwifery or nutrition. I have been researching online for different programs but mostly I have found programs that I need a lot of prerequisites that I have not fulfilled. If anyone knows of any programs that are geared toward non-science bachelor degree people that would help me out a lot.

I am lying in bed right now with headphones in because in the room right next to me they are singing (and very off key at that!). AND the speaker is against my wall. It is 1am and my family told me that I could go to bed. I kept saying no, but then decided that I saw enough of the party an didn’t need to stay awake until 4am when the party will be finished. There still are two more meals to be eaten. Let’s start from the beginning.

My host brother and his wife had a baby last August and my family is having a baby blessing party here was I write this. I woke up this morning and everyone kept telling me that I could help later. So I just went into my room and hid out. I helped out with making some salads and got to put my knife skills to use. Guests all showed up in a couple cars at the same time. My niece came pounding on my door telling me to come because the one big job that I was given for the whole night was to take pictures. That was a good thing because it gave me something to do and not have to sit awkwardly as people asked me questions that I don’t understand. After we ate it was present time. There were two sherdaks (traditional Kyrgyz rugs) and a lot of tushuks (padded mats that go on the floor to sit on). They were also a rocker, a hot water dispenser, long warm jackets for my host mom and sisters and probably a lot more. Then the bag of borsok (fried bread) and the box of a sheep were opened and all of the sudden we were eating again and giving more toasts.

After drinking tea, making toasts, and eating food the guests all went to a café in town. My host mom told me that I was going to go with them too. Two of my host sisters were already there. I watched as the second car crammed with over 10 people in drive away. So, I just put on my boots and started walking. As I was walking my host dad drove by and stopped so I could ride with him. At the café the only people there who were in my family were my two sisters. Everyone else stayed back at the house. We spent over 3 hours there singing, giving toasts, dancing, eating, and drinking a lot of vodka. My host dad’s brother kept trying to make me drink but I really didn’t want to. I made my first toast in Kyrgyz and let’s say they were less than impressed. It was so bad that my host sister who speaks English said that I could do it in English and she would translate. They tried to make me sing to, but they could only push me so far. Most people were giving a toast and then finishing it off with a song. For those of you who know me well know that I love to sing, but I never sing in front of a group of people with a microphone.

Then, after a couple of courses of food at the café we left and headed back to the house. When I got there no one came in the house with me. I was so confused, but later found out that the guests went to a neighbor’s house to eat more food there. Luckily I wasn’t forced to go there. My nieces wanted me to play a game with them so I played a game of candyland with my little nieces. It was actually pretty fun. Also while the guest were at the neighbor’s we began to make more food. All the guest then came back around 11pm and drank tea again. I went and hid in the kitchen with my sisters and helped make more food. Just like in America, I hid in the kitchen during a party because that is where I am most comfortable. That’s where it ended for me. They guests had started sing and dancing in the other room, but I managed to avoid that. I think right now they have finally started eating another round of food. I told my family that this is nothing like parties in America and that ours usually last 3-4 hours not 12. They said that in the south their parties last 3 days. That is so much work!

I think out of everything that has happened today the strangest part for me was that they people that the party was for never really interacted with the guests. My sister in law was cooking or cleaning the whole time, my host brother was in and out making sure everything was going alright. When we were at the café it was just my sisters there, when they went to the neighbor’s I think my host dad was the only one who went with the guests. I was expecting a blessing ceremony, but there wasn’t (that I saw). I’m not going to lie… they do know how to throw a party but it so much work. I am exhausted and I didn’t even do as much work as everyone else. Anyway… That’s my first big party experience.

Pictures to come!

Well I learned a word today that now looking back I never thought I would learn… earthquake. There was a short one while I was teaching today. I was teaching club with two 5th grade students and I just looked at them and they looked at me and we were very confused. It was very short… maybe 2-3 seconds but I heard it was a 5.0. The epicenter was a few hours from me in the same oblast. Anyway, another thing to put on the list of things I never thought I would experience here. I mean… I have experience them in America, but never in a developing country. Good thing it was not very big.

Life has been interesting lately. For the past month or so I have been bouncing around in several different directions and I am living a life that I never expected to live as a Peace Corps volunteer. I have way more luxuries than I ever thought would be possible. I see my American friends at least once a week, have a cell phone, my house is very warm even though it is very cold outside. This past week I had a site visit from a Peace Corps staff and it was really good to get feedback on what was going well and what areas I could work on to make my service more successful.

Last weekend I went to a friend’s village and it is always great to go out there because even though where I live is much less industrial and technologically advanced as most other places in this country it is even less out there. I waited for an hour for a taxi and when one finally showed up there was a crowd of several people waiting to go out there. I luckily pushed my way in (I was the second person waiting for the taxi so I didn’t cut and it would matter here anyway because there is no such thing as lines or cutting). I ended up with about 2 square inches of seat to rest a portion on a thigh on. I had one baby laying on my chest as she slept and the other almost laying on the floor. I was using the driver’s head rest as a pillow so I could try to forget the pain my legs were in trying to hold myself up during the 45 minute ride. With 10 people in a taxi it gets a little cramped. One guy tried to tell me that he wanted my seat but I wouldn’t get out, so he ended up sitting next to another man in the front seat. Two grown men shared the passenger seat of a car. That’s another thing I never thought I would see.

When I got out to his village I was greeted by my friend’s host mom and later his brother came in, shook my hand and kissed me on the cheek. I really love that if you make an effort to show that you care most of the time you will get that in return. Luckily his host parents were going back into town the next day and let us ride in their car with them. I didn’t have to pay for a taxi or have to cram into the corner. Oh the little things in life that make you happy!

This Saturday there is a group of volunteers who are going to get together and have Thanksgiving. I was planning on going because if I couldn’t be at home with my family I could at least have it with my Peace Corps family. Well, when I came home from visiting my friend my family told me that they were going to have a baby blessing party for my new nephew that was born in August on the same day. How could I turn that down? They looked so sad when I told them that I had plans to leave so I decided to have my first uncelebrated Thanksgiving at 27. I have been making up for it by teaching my students about Thanksgiving and having them make turkey hands and talk about what they are thankful for. That’ll do for now!

The party will be a trip. We will have 30 people at my little house for one night. I will help make food and watch them slaughter the sheep. We are going to make bozo tomorrow which is a fermented wheat drink. I don’t plan on drinking it but it will be interesting to watch how they make it.

Anyway, I’ll post pictures of the festivities later. I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving. I am thankful for such a great opportunity to experience a culture first hand and for the people who love me so much that they send me letters and packages!! :)

Have a good one!

Brooke

Happy Veteran’s Day and thank you to all of you who have spend time serving our country.

It’s been a long time since my last post. I guess it has been a little difficult to get back into work mode after being in vacation mode! Since we are only allowed to travel during school breaks I really try to take advantage of it when we have them. A group of four of us went to Almaty, Kazakhstan for 4 days. It was amazing. Almaty is only a 4 hour mini bus ride away from Bishkek and it only costs $6 to get there. Talk about a deal. The hard part of going there was that it is one of the top 50 most expensive cities in the world. More expensive than LA. My bank account really felt it, but it was totally worth it. And just like most of my vacations most of my money was spent on food. We went to many different restaurants that had food that I miss from America. There was actually a restaurant that we went to that was called American Bar and Grill and it lived up to its name. I had a bleu cheese burger! AWESOME! I think that the strangest part of the trip was one thing after another kept happening making the whole thing feel surreal. We started off by meeting a guy on the bus ride over to Almaty who used to live in America and he really helped us get over the border and got us a taxi to our hotel. He wanted to meet up with us to have drinks that night and after we had incredible Indian food (that was so good that one of the other volunteers I was traveling with almost cried) we walked around town and found an Irish pub called the Dublin. He joined us there… but sadly they didn’t have any Guinness so we had to go to another bar. This time we tried the Guinness bar, hoping that they wouldn’t fail us. They didn’t.

He also brought some friends who knew English too and it was really great to talk to them. I also heard before we left that Almaty had a Baskin Robbins so we were able to ask them where we could find it. :) That night as we were leaving we went to hail a taxi and a white LIMO stopped. The driver was so funny. After a little negotiating about the price we got in and had the most interesting taxi ride of our lives. He was speaking in English/Russian/Spanish and going off on rants that we could only partly understand. I was laughing so hard it was starting to hurt. He was so into what he was talking about he never actually dropped us off on the correct street. He got within a few blocks so we just got out, but it was hilarious.

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city and saw some incredible site that the city had to share. The city had some pretty interesting architecture but still had the old soviet feel to it that Bishkek has. At one point we were walking through a park and looked over and saw a huge building with bright colors. As we got closer we realized that it was a Russian Orthodox church. This church is very interesting because it is made completely out of wood including the nails that hold it together. It was magnificent inside and out. My friend Heather and I really wanted to go to a service but we were there an hour too early and then got distracted later in the day. Maybe next time I go to Almaty. We have already made plans because there was so many things we still want to see.

The third day we went to a museum and saw a lot of old Kazakh clothing and archeology. We also went to a mega center and found Baskin Robbins, Pizza Hut, and KFC. It was so good. I have always been a person who will never eat American food when I am traveling, but after being away from American for seven months I really miss it a lot, sadly. We also found a large grocery store in that mall and bought peanut butter, tortillas, tonic water, AVACADOS, and many other goodies we can’t find in Bishkek. Did I tell you that this was an expensive trip? OOPS… oh well! I was able to eat everything that I have been craving!!

The last day as we were leaving the coffee shop that we ate breakfast at, there was a Rols Roice sitting out front with a driver waiting in it. This city has money! It was a much different world than what I have been living in for the past seven months.

All in all it was a great trip. Eating all that great food really helped my slight homesickness. Though it was a little difficult to readjust to my life here it has been good to be back and live a more simple life.

When I was in Bishkek I had a lot of fun with my friends. Before and after my trip to Almaty I spent hanging out with friends and making great memories. Halloween was great and I was a duck.

Well we had 3 nights of festivities and I started as a ninja (a throwback to teaching at Corbett), then I was ballerina, then I was a duck the third night. All were good costumes and fun was had in all. On the Friday before Halloween we had a party at an orphanage. That is one of the volunteer’s site and so he threw the party for the kids and a bunch of volunteers came and helped out. It was great. We each had to create an activity and mine was a potato sack race.

The idea came to me one morning when I was sleeping at a friend’s house and when we woke up I really had the urge to sleeping bag wrestle. I know… I will always be a child at heart. There was also bobbing for apples, face painting, pumpkin toss and other fun activities. It was great!

After my trip to Almaty I met with some (I guess you could call them) extended family who have lived here for 8 years. My cousin’s husband’s aunt and uncle live here and took me to lunch. (Thanks Gretchen for letting me know that they are here) I have the strangest connects to this country. Have you ever really felt like you are in the right place at the right time? I think that’s how my life has been since I came here seven months ago. I still can’t believe it has been that long. Anyway, it was a really great lunch and really great to meet them. They are also doing great things in their community near Bishkek.

Oh yay… My host mom just came home from being away for over a month. She had to have surgery on something. I’m not sure what, but she is home now and she is looking good. Not moving too quickly, but her spirits are good. I really missed her a lot!

Anyway, that is the update for now. I hope you are doing well and just remember care packages and letter are always welcome. If you need the address it is posted in a June blog post or email me and I’ll send you a word document of it.

I have been sitting at my computer trying to think of a good story or something interesting that has happened in the past week or so and I’m coming up with a blank. The strangest part of that would be that anyone back at home could have come up with a dozen or so anecdotes, but this is my life now and so much of what was not normal 6 months ago is very normal now. I’ll just tell my story of today and for me it’s normal, but if it happened in America I would be such a crazy story.

I had set up a meeting with a teacher yesterday. We were to meet at 3pm at the school so I could help her with her English and her lesson planning. Well when 3 o’clock rolled around I found her, but she was teaching a class until 4. Hmm… I just chalked it up to miscommunication because sometimes that easier. Then we set up a time to meet this morning. We were going to meet at 9am. That was the time she said would work best for her. Well I showed up at the school at 9am and she was nowhere to be found. I waited for 20 minutes and then sent her a text saying how long I waited and for her to let me know when would be a better time. She called me later to tell me she was at the school at 9am. Well, where were you in the school then, I asked her. “I was in the 9a class.” “How can we have a meeting if you have class at that time?” She didn’t have an answer for me. You know, surprisingly enough… it didn’t really bother me. I have gotten used to people not showing up to meetings. I then went to the new English resource center in my village to help log books. Then I went back to the school to teach the teachers at my school English. When I showed up the teachers said they were too tired to have class and asked if we could do it another day. That again, didn’t bother me. It actually invigorated me because I was able to communicate really well with the teachers and even though they went to get an English teacher to translate even though I never needed it. Everything that the teacher translated was what I understood and I only spoke in Kyrgyz. So we went home. Then, I gave my little niece, 10, an English lesson and it was so wonderful. We worked on the alphabet and sang the song together. I was able to explain the ending to her and she totally understood. I taught her words that started with each letter of the alphabet and she taught me the Russian words for them. All in all it was a really good day. I have noticed that my patients are getting better. I still have my days and problems, but there are a lot of things that I’m starting to let go. Six months in and I’m starting to feel different.

I just need to remember to hold on to these good days to help me get through the tough ones where everything seems to fall apart. Once I am able to do that I will be golden. (in 2 days I’ll have been here for 7 months… time flies!)

As promised… Accommodations in my village:

• I live on one edge of town and where I live there aren’t any paved roads. It is bad most of the time because when the roads are dry the cars drive fast and dust goes everywhere. It’s really not good especially since I bathe once a week. My face and hair get gross. But when it rains it all turns into mud. The funny thing is that mud in Kyrgyz is a not a very good word (2 words) in English. It makes me giggle every time I hear it. During the winter it won’t be too bad because it will be covered in snow and all the pot holes will be filled in.

• My school (there are three secondary schools and one technical school in my village) is about a 5-10 minute walk. It matters how fast I’m walking. They call it the new school but it was build 20 years ago. There is a kindergarten that is right next to it. Students go there until they are ready to start secondary school. Kids usually start 1st grade around 5 or 6 years old. They go to school for 11 years. Then off to university, technical school, or to work. Some students will leave secondary school around 9th or 10th grade and start at a technical then. My first host brother did that. He went to a school to become an accountant.

• At the school electricity is rarely used and so when there is no power the only way that you can really know is because the bell that lets us know that class is over is a hand held bell that someone rings while walking up and down the hallways. Oh, but if there is electricity the school bell doesn’t ring itself. A teacher has to be on “duty” everyday and they are in charge of ringing the bell and the end and start of each class. The sound of the bell sounds like a fire alarm in America and scares me every time it goes off.

• In town there is one café that I usually go to with other volunteers about once a week. The food is pretty decent Kyrgyz food and the people know us there. There are also about 4-5 small cafes which are called ashkana. We go there when we want something different but they usually only have two or three dishes there. Sometimes they don’t have any food at all.

• We have 2 small bazaars during the weeks (Monday-Saturday). And on Sunday we have a very large bazaar called the mal bazaar or domestic animal bazaar. There they sell sheep, horses, cows, chickens, and sometimes yaks and camels. There is a man in At Bashy who trains falcons and sometimes he will be there with his falcons. At this bazaar we usually get shashlik which is kabobs. There is one guy we always go to because he always has beef. The others all have sheep and there is only so much sheep I can eat. This bazaar is on the other side of town than I live on. When I go to it I take a marshruka (a mini bus) and it costs 7 som (about 14 cents).

• The stores here are everywhere. We don’t have grocery stores in Naryn, but everywhere you go there will be small stores called dookon that sell juice, some food, and vodka. There are probably hundreds of them in just my village alone. I don’t know how they all stay in business with so many around but they do.

• There is a sport center in my village. The director is my neighbor said I could come anytime I wanted to play sports. He would just give me the key. I’m thinking of doing some clubs or camps there.

• There is a small stadium/field. That is there I play soccer with my little neighbor girls. It is pretty nice for a Kyrgyz field.

• In the public banya there is rarely lights on in there too. When you first walk in there is a small room with lockers to change and store your clothes. Then there is another room that is warm and you wash in there. There is also a sauna that attached to that room and sometimes women hold the door open and the washing room gets really hot. I really hate that a lot! I don’t like to be hot.

• Everywhere you walk in any city or village in this country there are animals that are everywhere. Stray dogs that wander around. My neighbors have a really mean dog and barks and snarls at me a lot. I really hate it because I have to pass it to get home. There are lots of other animals too. Like at 6 pm all the cows come home. I never truly understood the saying, “until the cows come home” until I moved to this country. They really do come home all walking together down the street. Ha ha.

• The way they keep their horses from running away is to tie their feet together. They are still able to move around and eat but they aren’t able to run. It actually makes me sad watching it.

• There is one gas station in my village. But if you go to any small village away from mine there are lots of houses that have a sign that say benzene and they sell gas in old bottles. Somehow they fill old water or pop or beer bottles with gas and sell to people who run out where there aren’t any gas stations. Somehow that is smart and very stupid at the same time.

• Since I am in the mountains there are lots of places to hike. It absolutely beautiful.

• One thing that I really miss about Portland is that it is so easy to get around because it is basically a grid and most streets are fairly straight and predictable. Here the roads aren’t straight and most of the time there is one rhyme or reason to where they go. I have gotten lost so many times and I just have to watch the mountains to make sure I can find my way home.

That’s quite a few things. I hope this gives you a little bit of a visual of where I live and what life is like for the Kyrgyz people in At Bashy.

I’m slacking with the blog posts this month, I’m sorry. This country has been going through a lot these past few weeks and as volunteers we have too. The good news is everything is looking good for the government as of now and the people of Kyrgyzstan. It has been very difficult to witness many of the things that have happened to this country in the past six months that I have been here, but at the same time some great changes and leaps forward can come out of it. I’m a strong believer in everything happens for a reason and good can come out of anything! Right now I am sitting under several layers of blankets and still freezing. My heater in my room is on so far today I have gotten the temperature up to a blazing 61 degrees. I have a rough winter to come and the weather is just taunting me. There is another volunteer who lives near me and there are days when I am wearing shorts and she is wearing pants with long underwear. This is the start of her second year and that shows me that if she could make it through a winter year last year I can do it too. It’s kind of funny because I obviously want to do Peace Corps because I want to help people but also this challenge of the crazy winters is intriguing too. I will be able to go out the other side of it and tell stories that will be epic!

This past weekend many volunteers got to spend a lot of time together and do some fun things. One of the nights I made dinner for 22 people and it really brought back memories of cooking in the kitchen at Corbett. Granted I was cooking for 350+ but similar. We made homemade mac and cheese and a veggie salad. All the volunteers loved it and were so grateful to have American food. The cheese here is not so great, but one of the volunteers had pepper jack that was sent from the states and it really helped the flavor a lot. The host mom of the volunteer’s house we were at kept telling me that I need to come back and make food with her and spend more time over there. She said that I would make a great Kyrgyz wife. I take that as a compliment because from her it was intended to be that way. I know that I would make a horrible Kyrgyz wife.

Tonight at the dinner table it was just me and my two nieces eating dinner because everyone else was watching something on TV. They are so cute. They are 10 and 8. It is really amazing because the older one can tell when I don’t understand something and she will stop, thing, and then try to explain it in a different way for me to understand. Her mother is a teacher and I think she takes after her. Those girls make me laugh a lot and I am so happy that I got put with such a great family where everyone is so willing to talk to me.

My host mom went to Bishkek on Monday because she has been very ill for a while now. I’m not sure what she has, but my host sisters have been coming in shifts to take care of the house and the family. She finally went to Bishkek to see a good doctor. My host sister told me today that she will be having an operation sometime soon. Please send good thoughts her way. Her name is Alma (it means apple). I really hope that this helps and that she heals quickly! She is such a caring, loving, wonderful woman and it is so hard to see her in pain. Thanks!

People have been sending great care packages. It is so great to get something in the mail. It really looks like everything is going to be calm and no problems, so if you have been holding out because of a possibility of me leaving the country feel free to send the package now! :) They are much appreciated! Thanks,

Brooke

Here are some pictures of one of my attempts to teach girls to play soccer. :)

Me "playing" soccer with the neighbor girls. They were more interested in taking pictures. HA I remember that age!

My little niece loves to pose for pictures.

This niece doesn't live with me. I only get to see her once in a while. She is probably one of the cutest kids I have ever seen and she has the personality to match!

It has been brought to my attention that it might be a good idea to have a blog entry solely dedicated to what life is like here on a day to day basis. Let’s start off with the amenities that I have at my house.

• We have an outhouse (which is conveniently called a toilet) that is going to be so cold come February. I am a little nervous to squat in the freezing cold. I have also heard rumors that there are these things we volunteers like to call “poop mountains” which are in the toilet hole. The feces in the toilet freezes because it is so cold outside and it begins to build upon itself. In the more shallow toilets the mountains begins to peak over the edge of the hole. Luckily (or not so luckily) my toilet is very shallow and I’m sure within a month of the ground freezing I will have a beautiful “poop mountain.” Don’t worry, there will be updates on this to come… but I will practice my tact and not post pictures. Even though I will be very temped to. For those of you who know me well know that I’m not lying about that!

• My family also has a banya (where the Kyrgyz people bathe and it is similar to a sauna), but since I’ve lived here I have only see it heated up three times. I go to the public one in town once a week. It’s really helped my self confidence. Next to our banya is our outdoor, summer kitchen. That is where my family makes our their jams, winter salads (salads full of veggies so they can get veggies in the winter) and can them. They also have their kazan out there. A kazan is a huge iron pot kind of like a wok that is heated below it. In these kazans they make lots of different foods. Mostly, they boil meat and make the traditional Beshbarmak which is boiled meat broth and noodles. Sometimes potatoes too. They also butcher sheep in there and dry their hide.

• Next to that is the garage where my host dad stores his 1983 Niva Lada. If you don’t know what that is look it up because it is an awesome old soviet car and I love this thing. It is mustard yellow and it looks like it is going to pass out at any moment. The really cool thing about the garage is that is has a middle section under where the car goes where he can climb down and work on the bottom part of the car like they do at some body shops in America.

• And then lastly attached to all of those things is a chicken coup. They are directly behind my window and I hear them all the time. Once the roosters woke me up at 4am. I was not happy about that. Usually I can sleep through it, but not that day.

• In front of all those things is where we grow potatoes raspberries and black currents. There is one cherry tree there too but this year’s summer was too cold and it only produced one apple. Our clothes line goes through all of that and after I wash my clothes by hand I hang them up there to dry. I have gotten used to hanging my personal items up out in the open for everyone to see because if not, they will not dry.

• That is everything that is on the left side of my house and on the right side is the stables for the animals to stay in during the winter. My family said that we have over 50 sheep and I’m not sure how many goats, cows, and horses. I think we probably have about 10 chickens. It sounds like we would have a large farm with lots of land, but the property that I live on is about the size of my parents property in Buckley which is only two city lots. We now have a covered area where some of the hay is stored and I think that some of the animals will live. I am lucky though because our whole front driveway area and area in front of the stables is all paved with cement. That is a luxury.

• We do not have indoor plumbing and that is very common living in a village. We do have a well in our yard and that isn’t very common. Many people have to go get their water from a communal pump. I am glad that I only have to walk outside and take a bucket and drop it down into the well to get water. Some of my friends who are volunteers here have to walk 10-15 minutes just to get water. Living in the cities it is much more common to have running water, but hot water is something everyone wants. There are maybe one or two volunteers in Naryn city (out of 10) that have a functioning regular hot shower. Many have to heat their water and bucket bathe.

• Inside my house we have an entrance that has a since that needs to be filled with water to work. It has a faucet and if you pour warm water in it, then it doesn’t freeze your hands.

• Then as you enter the rest of the house there are three doors. One goes to the kitchen. In our kitchen (this isn’t normal) we have an oven/stove that is half gas half electric. This is nice for when the power goes out. We also have a refrigerator/freezer which is bigger than the one I grew up with in America. There isn’t a sink. All dishes are washed in a large bowl with boiling hot water. The dining table is in here and this is where we have all our meals together.

• Across the hall is my room. It is very tiny, but that is good for the winter when I only have to heat a tiny room. I have a bed that is small than a twin, a desk with a chair, a wardrobe, and a coat rack. Not much, but perfect!

• The third door goes in to the family area which has a TV and couch. This is where many people in my family sleep. It matters on who is at my house at that time. Our door is a revolving one and people are moving in and out all the time. Any given day we can have anywhere from 3-10 people living here. There is one other bedroom in this house and it is connected to that room.

• The last room in our house is connected to the family area. This room is set up for guesting. There is a large table in there and when we have people over for a party this is where everyone eats. This has happened twice since I have been living here. It’s fun but at the same time very awkward because they all want to talk to you for about 5 minutes then they all have a conversation with each other.

That is everything that we have at our house and everything that my family needs to function on a daily basis. I have found that there is so much that I have in America that I don’t really need. It is nice to be here and enjoy the simple life. I know one day I will go back to America and back to my old ways just out of convenience, but I will never forget the rewards I have gotten from living a more simple life! There is something be said about the joys of having a neighbor just stop by to say hi and drink a cup of tea.

Next I will tell you about the amenities in my village.

Oh and also... having power when no one else has in my village. It has been out since Saturday and for some reason I have it at my house and my school is a 5 minute walk away and there isn't power there.

1. My counterpart’s daughter (who is three) coming in the room that we were planning in eating a carrot that was the size of a baseball at the largest part. She had eaten the rest of it already. I was so sad that I didn’t have my camera with me that day.

2. The mountains full of snow!

3. A herd of sheep and goats (probably 50+) walking down the middle of the main road that goes from At Bashy to Naryn. I saw this three times in two days

4. Men painting the large welcome to At Bashy sign with regular sized paint brushes.

5. School being let out because of snow. No not because it is too dangerous for the school buses to drive in the snow (we don’t have those) but because the kids need to be home digging up potatoes and getting animals home from jailoo (the place where animals go for the summer). Winter came two months early this year.

6. Riding in a taxi with four grown men while listening to Pit Bull, Lady Gaga, MJ… Any pop music from America. They have no idea the song is about.

7. Being asked what a song is saying when it is really dirty. I usually lie and say that I don’t understand it when they are rapping. HA.

8. Going to a volunteer’s apartment who lives in the city and making American food! SO good! Roasted veggies, pasta, tomato sauce, and homemade garlic bread!

9. Going to the American Center in Naryn and getting 5 new books to read!

10. Reading a really good book and talking about with a friend! (East of Eden was so good!!!)

11. Being finished with washing my clothes. I hand washed my jeans for the first time in six months and now my body hurts from all of the wringing! Blah!

12. Eating peanut butter. I have always loved it, but for some reason it tastes so much better here… even if it is from America. Probably because it’s not sheep fat!

Hey all,

Life is good right now. Tonight at sundown is the end of Ramadan and that is awesome because that means parties. I’m excited for tomorrow and nervous because it is tradition here on the day after Ramadan ends that you go to neighbors’ houses and drink tea and eat lots of meat and plov (a rice dish that has carrots and meat in it… it’s actually one of the better foods here). I’m really excited for the cultural experience and to meet more neighbors but I’m nervous for the massive amounts of Kyrgyz that will be spoken at me. I hope that I understand at least some of it! The down part about Ramadan ending is that because of the religious importance that this month long holiday has it has held back some of the potential problems that may have happened here because of the unstableness of everything. Starting on Saturday there are rumors that things might start happening again and I ask that you send helpful peaceful thoughts for Kyrgyzstan and its people! I joined the Peace Corps because I wanted to help and get an awesome experience and that won’t be possible if we leave the country because of problems. I want to be able to stay here and I believe that the Peace Corps is needed here and is doing great things. Again please send good thought starting Saturday and all the way through the elections on Oct 10th and after. Thanks!

On a lighter note, on Saturday I’m going to Naryn with some students to take them to a test. This is the first test of a long process for students to be able to study in America in the FLEX (Foreign Language Exchange) program. I am very excited to introduce students to this opportunity. Diana (who lived with the Hodel’s, my best friend’s family) was a FLEX student and I got to see firsthand how much she affected their lives and the whole program affected hers. This program is funded by the US government and gives opportunities to students from other countries to study English and experience American life.

I hope everyone is well and it looks dark out now… so let the parties begin.

Let’s just start with today because today was just one of those days. I started off heading to the post office because the lady who works there told me that I had a package there (she told me on Saturday so you can only imagine the excitement that I have had for the past few days). I get there at 9am when people told me it opened. Please explain to me why the front door would be open if there is no one in the office to help you. They aren’t post office boxes to get your mail yourself. I have to ask her if I have anything. Ugh. There were five other people there and I had class in 30 minutes so I left. I walked all the way back to school… at least a 20 minute walk. We had our first class, and then during the second class my counterpart left for about five minutes. When she came back she asked if I could teach a class because the teacher wasn’t there. I had no idea what I was supposed to teach. She said teach about America. Well that’s kind of a broad topic. So I just went in there and talked about myself and a little about where things were in America. After that class we went into the teacher’s room and about five minutes after being there we found out that there was another class that had no teacher, so we went there and taught. Since we had covered those other classes we didn’t have to teach our classes (I’m not exactly sure why but it’s was a nice surprise). It was lunch time and then we were to come back in two and half hours for the afternoon class. I decided that I had enough time to get to the post office and get my package and eat lunch. I went home, ate lunch and then headed out again back to the center of town. When I got to the post office there was only one girl there (not the normal girl) and she couldn’t find my package. She said that the normal girl would be back in 20 minutes but I didn’t have time to wait because I would have missed class. So I went over to fax something for a friend. After waiting for 10 minutes there and getting cut in front of two times (sometimes it’s really hard not being in America and not having lines) I faxed a paper. I then walked back to school. We taught our one class. My feet were hurting and I was really hot wearing my professional clothes so I walked home first and changed and then walked back to the post office. On the way out a huge truck drove up with the most amount of bales of hay on it that I have ever seen. And there were six people crammed into the front cab of the truck. They were delivering it to our house. Glad I missed that unload!! On my way I stopped and got a huge ice cream cone because I needed something to make me feel better. I got to the post office and finally the girl was there and I got my package. I opened it and some how… I’m not sure how, but I think something got stolen out of it. The outside of the package looks untouched, but there is something that was on the customs slip that wasn’t in the package. Grrrr!!! Anyway… on my way home I stopped at another store to get some water and there were three people in there. They tried talking to me in Russian and I told them that I speak a little Kyrgyz and no Russian. I talked to them for a little bit and then the guy offered me some of their disgusting fizzy pear pop that all Kyrgyz people love. I happen to despise it! I tried to politely decline and no dice. So I drank a cup of the disgusting pop just so I could leave. It was very nice of him to offer, but I hate the stuff. OK… then I went to the tiny store around the corner from my house to by units for my cell phone so I can call America and the units wouldn’t go on. It must be something to do with the system, but I gave here 300 som to put on my phone and nothing. Grr again. She said come back in an hour and kept my money. I really hope it works out and I’m not out 300 som. I went back after an hour and her father was there. He told me that the whole system is down and he will have to do it with the computer later. He told me he would call me when it went it, but the problem is that the simcard I’m putting units on is my international simcard and I don’t have that one in unless I’m calling America. Try explaining that one. I spend at least 5 minutes trying to tell him that. I think a little bit of that came across but having the random people on the street come up and try to help made matter worse because they all just started shouting random words at me in Russian and Kyrgyz and that just got confusing. Oh well. At least I know he knows who I am and I hope that he will give me my money back if it doesn’t work.

Sorry about the run on paragraph and many sentences… today has been that crazy!!

This is the huge truck with the massive amount of hay bales. There is more coming too! :)

I was at the bazaar with some friends and my friend Annie was taking a picture of us. These men wanted their picture taken too. It was too awesome not to include. They are eating shashlik. This is one of my favorite things in country.

I just finished my second day of school… Well technically my first day because the actual first day (they call it “the first bell”) is just a big all school meeting and then the ringing of the first bell. It is really cute because the new first grade class stands in front of everyone and they are wearing their little suits or black and white dresses. Girls have huge bows in their hair which are about the size of their heads. They are adorable. Then all the teacher gather in the zowich’s office and figure out what their schedule will be (the zowich is basically a step down from the principal and they are in charge of a certain group of teachers). It feels more like a student picking their college classes then high school. The teachers only teach certain classes and they don’t work the rest of the time. I don’t start until 9:40 in the morning because the teacher I work with didn’t want to start too early, but at the same time I don’t work on Friday or Saturday because she needs the time off to be with her children.

Today I just sat in the back of the classroom and observed my counterpart teach. I am going to just observe for the first week or so and then I’ll start team-teaching. It was a little nerve wracking for me today because my school is partly taught in Kyrgyz and partly in Russian. There are students who take all their classes in Russian and some that take them only in Kyrgyz. Such my luck, all the classes I will be teaching will be in Russian. Looks like I’ll be learning Russian more than I thought. All of the students know Kyrgyz and speak it in their homes. That’s the nice part about Naryn. But since I am white and they are at school, they will probably try to speak to me in Russian. I guess that’s not such a bad thing because Russian will be more useful back in America, but it will make things a little more difficult.

Cute story: After my morning classes today I was leaving the school and my little niece came out of her classroom. She said hello to me and I asked her how she was in English. She got a little confused and started answering other random questions like, “My name is Aidana” “I am 10 years old.” Then she finally figured out what I was saying and in Kyrgyz she just would only say “I’m not saying, I’m not saying.” Ha… so cute. She and her sister always run to me at school when they see me and all their friends follow along and want to talk to me too. I’m a freaking celebrity and they love it because they live with me half of the time.

School went pretty well today. There are some things that will be difficult to adjust to. The older the classes are the less respect is given to the teacher. Grading here is very different and doesn’t really reflect what the student does in class. You never know how many students will show up any given day. In a class of 30 today only 16 were there. But there are some things here that I really like. The students dress up for school and look really nice. They stand when a teacher walks in the room. I got flowers on the first day of school too. It was awesome!

Another funny story: Today I walked into the teacher’s lounge to meet with my counterpart and a teacher asked me why I carry such a big bag. I was only carrying my messenger bag. But I just told her because I am American. They all carry the really cute large purses, but I like my messenger bag because it is durable. I really like that I can use the American card anytime they want to know why I do something. Because I am American and Americans a weird. :) It’s a good way to get off the hook of doing something that they think is strange… which is most things I do. That’s ok, I’m getting used to being the one who stands out. I don’t really blend so much here… not that I usually do in America, but at least I can a little better than I can here.

This is an 11th grader carrying a 1st grader on his shoulder as she rings the first bell of the school year. So cute!

This is my little niece who is in 2nd grade now. Her name is Aichuruk. Her sister is the one who didn't want to tell me how she was doing. :)

This is a picture of my two counter parts on either side of me and two other teachers who wanted to be in the picture.

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

The sunsets here are amazing!

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

Preparing the food for canning. Working on knife skills!

Tav and Heather sterilizing the jars.

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

I am exhausted. I have been going nonstop for two weeks now. I started with a TEFL (my teaching English program) workshop where we started to plan a one year curriculum for the 8th grade. Then at the same hotel on the beach we had language and cultural training for a week. It was beautiful on the lake and the hotel was an amazing. There were many parts of it that were nicer that most hotels that I would stay at in America. While there I tried to get an updated antivirus on my computer and it deleted its ability to get on the internet. Luckily it happened when I was with someone who knew a lot about computers and was able to reinstall my operating system. Now my computer works better than ever and the battery life is so much longer.

After we finished all our training and planning and whatnot I needed to go to Bishkek to pick up money for a grant. It was passed down to me by a volunteer who has now left. While in Bishkek I took advantage of everything that is there. We went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. The food was amazing. We had sweet and sour chicken, a spicy tofu dish, something with beef in it… but I’m pretty sure it was intestines and a crispy chicken. It was so nice to not eat sheep and sheep fat. The best part was we ordered family style and split the bill and it only cost me a little over $3. I was also able to find a camera in Bishkek, which is so exciting because I have been living without one for over a month and that has been painful! I was also able to buy beans, dried peas, Pringles, and canned peppers. I am a happy girl.

The morning before I went home I went to the Peace Corps office. That was my first time there and I was amazed by how nice it is there. Free internet, fresh clean water to fill up my water bottle and not have to pay for, a shower if I need it… awesome! I got to the taxi station and got a taxi to go home and my taxi driver told me that he had a full car and that we were leaving right then. NO… I was the only passenger that he had and I had to wait for an hour for more people to come (an hour really isn’t that long, but I was meeting a friend and I just wanted to get home!). The worst part about being the first person to get into a taxi isn’t the waiting part is the not knowing who else is going to ride with you. This time it ended up being pretty bad because there was a guy sitting behind me who got into the car drunk and then proceeded to drink more on the five hour trip home. From what I saw in the car he drank at least 4.5 liters of beer. He proposed to me, offered me to drink with him, kept hitting my arm the whole way to get me to talk to him, he rambled off in Russian every time even though I kept telling him that I didn’t understand him. I really wish that other people in the car would have helped me out. They mostly just laughed at him. Very frustrating.

I finally got home and away from the crazy drunk man. I really missed my family because I hadn’t seen them in over a week and a half. The best part was though… I showed up with 18 large canning jars (about 2 liters each) and massive amounts of vegetables to can the next day oh and a friend. They had no idea… I just said, “maybe tomorrow we can can?” (in Kyrgyz) and that was that. Ha. That is one of the bet parts of Kyrgyzstan… you can just show up with people who need a place to stay and maybe even a project that will take all day and it doesn’t even phase them. It’s normal.

The next day we canned eight jars of tomato sauce, four jars of pickles, four jars of a pickled vegetable mix that we made up (carrots, cabbage, onion, garlic, green and red peppers, eggplant, and really hot tiny red peppers), and one jar of pickled beets and eggs (one lid got messed up and we didn’t put anything in that jar). It took 14 hours to can everything and we didn’t get to bed until 1am, but it was worth it. Now I’ll have some food for the winter. There is so much garlic in everything. I just hope that we were able to get the lids on correctly and that they sealed the way they should. Their lids here are very different. I guess we’ll see. I am so tired now and I’m going to sleep all day!

I just finished the greatest week to date in Kyrgyzstan. Along with a group of seven other volunteers we pulled off a journalism camp where the kids learned about lifeskills and journalism, researched a topic area and produced a story that has been published. The website where the articles were posted is www.gcekyrgyzstan.ning.com. They aren’t posted yet, but will be within the next 48 hours. Please comment on them because we are trying to show the importance of the internet and how they can be connected to people all over the world. We had 19 Kyrgyz high school aged students interview and research in the areas of Diversity, Women and Gender, Health, and Environment. The camp was an overnight camp that was six days long. One of the days we headed out to the city and one of the volunteers set up interviews for each of the groups to conduct. It was absolutely incredible what these students we able to accomplish. They all helped write an article in English. The thought, effort, and creativity that went into the entire week was astounding! I am so exhausted now and want to sleep forever, but knowing that we were able to pull this off with only being volunteers for two months is really encouraging for what we will be able to do in the next two years. Only one of the volunteers who was part of this has been here for a year, the rest of us all swore in as volunteers this past June.

Enough gloating…more about food… On our way home we had our driver stop on the side of the road to buy some honey. Everyone has been telling me that Kyrgyzstan has some of the best honey in the world. Every time I have tasted it, it really wasn’t anything special. The only honey that I ever saw in country was very different than any honey in America. It was crystallized and I really didn’t like the taste. I love honey so it really made me sad. But one day I was at a friend’s house we were having tea and bread and they pulled out a honey that looked a little more familiar. It was incredible. It tasted like wild flowers and was the best honey that I have ever tasted… I was eating it by the spoonful. We couldn’t really figure out where it came from because I felt like every time I asked, I got a different answer. All I know was it is delicious. Well while on my way to this camp we passed by several stands that were selling honey. I decided to take a chance because they had the non crystallized honey. Oh man, it was one of the best purchases I have made to date. I was a lot of money for one jar… $7.33 (more that I get paid in one day) but well worth it! I can’t wait to eat it with bread and butter… or make granola, or make… So many options.

This past week our camp was on the lake, so I got to experience what life is like in touristy Kyrgyzstan. Because of the recent events that have occurred over the past four months there are many less tourist than usual, but it was interesting to see how different the volunteers’ lives are who live in a place where they have more amenities. I found myself saying several times… “What you have that? I’m so jealous” but that more I thought about it I’m really not jealous at all because that’s not why I joined the Peace Corps. I joined the Peace Corps to experience a remote life, to understand what life is like in a developing country and to help as much as I can. I can see so much potential where I am and I am grateful that there isn’t a grocery store anywhere near where I live. There isn’t even one in my entire oblast. I love going to the bazaar and buying produce and fresh bread. And walking down the street and having people say “Hi” to me not because I’m a foreigner, but because they actually know me. I’m not just a white girl where I live; I’m the white girl who teaches English.

This past week was such a great experience for me. I already listed many of the accomplishments that we did as a group and how were able to encourage and teach the student. But one of the greatest things I believe that happened over the week was my connection with the local youth. There were students going up to other volunteers telling them that they really liked me because they thought I was funny and they don’t really see adult women act the way I do. I was a little nervous coming to a more conservative country because I am loud and very different than what they expect people to be. The nice part is that most people understand that I am American and don’t expect me to conform everything (I am still respectful, but I can’t lose myself). I am so happy to show the youth here that you can be yourself and that’s ok. We had a lot of fun dancing, singing, learning, and creating over this past week and it really pumps me up for more to come. I know that there will be hard times, but I will be able to look back on this and remember why we are here and what we are able to accomplish.

I am teaching nutrition and health to Kyrgyz students

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

Couldn't avoid playing on the beach!

Today I have been in country for exactly 4 months. Time sure is flying by. I’m sure there is so much that I could talk about, but all of this has become normal to me and there are so many things are no longer new. I am going to a camp that some volunteers are putting on near the lake next week. I am excited to leave my oblast and see something new. It is a journalism camp and the students are going to write articles about a topic that they are given. I believe this is going to be a great camp. Everything I have heard about the place where we are going to stay at is pretty awesome. It is right on the lake and when we aren’t doing sessions the kids (and we) can play in the water and play sports. AND… I think there are showers, so that is nice. It is weird to think about, but I’m getting used to not bathing everyday, but the thought of a hot shower sounds so great! The best part of it is that they worked it into the budget that we don’t have to pay for our own transportation. That’s really great since it is pretty expensive to get out there. I just figured it out that I get paid a little over $6 a day and that includes paying for EVERYTHING. I pay rent, food, utilities, transportation, entertainment… anything I want to do. And I get paid over twice as much as a normal teacher here. Teachers here (just like in most places) get paid so little. Actually, most service jobs here get paid very minimally. Doctors, teachers, cops… are all some of the least paid jobs. Being a taxi driver you make probably the most. It really makes me sad. Wow this paragraph took a huge detour!!

I have been eating watermelon so much lately. Living in America you don’t really thing about things being in season very much. There are a few foods that you usually only can get seasonally, but you can get most produce year-round. Here that is not the case at all. Right now there is a lot of produce at the bazaar including melon, apricots, plums, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers… I know that in the fall the squashes will come out. But come winter all there will be in the bazaar is potatoes, carrots, and onions. We will be working on my creativity on what I will be eating. Right now I eat most of my meals with my host family, but I might go insane in the winter only eating meat and potatoes. I don’t like either enough to only eat that. Even right now I’m not really getting enough protein because they just boil all the meat together in one pot and I have such a hard time with eating animal fat and all the gristle that sheep has in it I feel like I’m chewing for days. I do eat homemade yogurt everyday and my host mom will make me fried eggs sometimes, but it’s still hard. The other day I went to the local restaurant with another volunteer and I got a full meat platter (which for me is very uncommon) just because I was craving it so much. It was delicious. It was something that actually had flavor!

Everyday is a new experience and I learn so much about their culture but also about myself. As I write these blog updates I really want to paint a true picture of my life here. I’m going to be honest, some days it is really difficult and there are a lot of things from America that I miss terribly. But then, like today… I really was having a hard day and I was tired and I got a letter from home, and then I had a really great meeting with a counterpart and my host nieces started practicing English with me and were so excited to learn and, and, and. There is always something to pull me up and realize that this is very worth being here. I do get lonely, and tired, and frustrated, but the good outweighs the bad tenfold and I realize that I am lucky to be here.

So, if you want to make my days better you are more than welcome to write me letters and better yet send me packages. I do love getting packages. There are flat rate boxes at the postoffice and you can fit as much as you can into the box and send it off for one price. Here is my address again if you are inclined to send me something.

Brooke Huddleston

722600, Naryn Oblast

At-Bashy Rayon, At-Bashy Village

Ity Sylimanov St.

Kyrgyzstan

Кыргызстан

Ин. 722600, Hарын Oбл.

Aт–башы Pайону, Aт–башы Aйылы

yп. Aйты Cулайманов

Брук Хаддлстон

A fellow volunteer’s parent just came to visit her and it made me start to think about how normal my life has become. Everything they experienced was new and different to them. Being here for almost 4 months now has already changed me. Here is a list that I have created of things that I’ve noticed that have become normal to me:

• Using an outhouse as my regular toilet and not sitting down to go to the bathroom (I really thought that one was going to bother me a lot more)

• Drinking chi 5+ times a day… I realized that I miss it when I go to volunteer’s apartments who don’t live with a host family.

• Not having a clue what is going on about 90% of the time. Conversations are really hard to follow when they are speaking at a normal pace.

• Re-wearing the same clothes over and over again because it is not easy to hand wash your clothes (I have only washed my jeans once and that’s because I got sick on them).

• Dinner at 9 pm or later. The Kyrgyz people eat dinner really late.

• Being offered 20 sheep to marry someone’s brother/son…

• Having people show up and live with my family for a month or so and then leave for a month or so.

• Hearing strange reasons why I am or someone else is sick… someone just told me they were sick because they were just in hot Bishkek and then came back to Naryn where it’s cold (it’s about 70 here). Or sitting on the ground will make me sick.

• Or the opposite where something will make me strong and healthy… like eating sheep fat… pretty much anything I don’t like is something that will make me strong and healthy (that reminds me of when I was a kid and when I didn’t like something my dad told me it was the best part… thanks Dad). I get told everyday that I’m too skinny and I need to fatten up to be healthy during the cold winters here.

• Watching my little host niece drink out of the spoon that serves the milk for tea then puts it back in the bowl.

• N ever wearing seatbelts. It scares the crap out of me, but you can’t wear one when there isn’t one to wear.

• Knowing exactly where most of your food comes from (this one is a really awesome one!!).

• The best homemade bread… everyday. One of my favorite things since being in country is eating fresh hot bread and tea. It is amazing. That will make up for all the food I don’t like here.

• Waking up to chickens crowing, the calf mooing, and the baby horse naying out my bedroom window.

• Watching an American movie that has been dubbed in Russian. Luckily they are usually poorly dubbed and I can still hear a little English and can get the gist of what’s going on. ( I watched “Harry Potter” or “Gary Potter” as they call him in Russian with my host niece tonight)

These are just a few of the great experiences I have quite often here in Kyrgyzstan. I am so lucky to be able to experience all of this. There is good and there is bad, but I am learning to love it all because that’s the only way I can learn from it all!

Today my host mom, niece, and I pitted cherries for cherry jam and I just kept thinking about all the hours we spent over the years picking and pitting the cherries from our tree for cherry pie. These cherries are very similar in size but they are the color of bing cherries. Just think of how messy that got with a 10 year old helping. It was fun. We got into a race at one point. I really like doing things like that with my family because it gives me a really great opportunity to work on my language and bond with them. My host mom is really patient and helpful with language. She really lets me try to get my words out without interrupting me which is really good for me! I taught them the words for cherry, pit and spit because I was asking them what the words were and then they did the same for English, we for cherry and pit. Then one sprayed my host mom in the face and so I taught spit. “Cherry Spit” hahaha. Oh… another funny story. My host niece was asking how to say “I’m hungry” in English then she went around the house saying it until we were finished. Then after she stopped for a while she said it again but this time she said “I’m hundred.” We got a good laugh from that one. She always say’s “Oh my god” too. It always makes me laugh because I never expect it. I didn’t teach her that one though. I have been teaching her soccer and showing her my mad skills. It is good to have someone to play with because there are times when I know I should get out of my room, but I just don't want to. Having a child knocking at your door makes it easier to get out and play games and be active!

I went on hike last weekend. The peak I hiked is called, “Ala Mushuk” which means Spotted Cat. I guess it looks like a cat from the air. Some people tried to show me the part of the cat from the ground and I didn’t see it, but oh well. All I know is that it took the five of us nine hours to do the whole hike. That included stopping for at least 20-30 minutes at the top to let a rain storm to pass and then we hiked down (slid on my butt) on wet ground. It was such a beautiful hike though and it was amazing to see Naryn City from way up high. I was with four boys. For most of the hike I was stay with them until the second half of the end when we kind of lost our original path and had to go down in the trees and it felt like the ground was at a 35-45 degree angle. When we got back I was s exhausted, but at least I can now say that I have hiked the spotted cat. The worst part was though, was that I lost my camera up there. So, I won’t be getting many pictures for a while. (I got these pictures from a friend)

This is the view of Naryn City

This is four of the five of us waiting for the rain to go away so we could hike down. It was so cold and wet! Great memories!

Language keeps on going. I am trying to laugh at everything because it is making the process so much less stressful. Yesterday I was at a friend’s house for dinner and I was talking to her host father. He told me that I understand less than my friend Kris does and then I had to translate to her what he said. Ha… it’s all on perspective on how much language you know. A week ago I talked to a local guy who works at the restaurant we go to about once a week and we talked only in Kyrgyz for almost 20 minutes and I only had to ask him to repeat a couple times. I do feel a big difference in my understanding, but my ability to respond is not so great. This winter is really going to be good for my language because it will be so cold and snowy out that I will want to spend all my time in my house with my family. Especially since it will be so difficult to travel.

I am really starting to make some great friends and we are making plans to do some traveling. This summer I will be going to the lake. Actually in about two weeks I will be going there because we are going to be doing a journalism camp. It will be good to see other parts of the country. After I go there there is only one more oblast that I haven’t gone to (that we are allowed to go to at this time… we can’t go to the south because of the instability there).

This country is full of surprises. I don’t know if it is because I just don’t understand what is going most of the time and people talk about things and I just don’t hear it or people and things really just show up and disappear without any notice. I have a feeling it’s the second one. One really good surprise happened today. Usually my family does banya (how we bathe) on Saturdays and it can be anywhere from 2-3 weeks between them. Well today is Friday and I came home from being away for a week and we were having banya. Best surprise ever since it has been about over a week since I washed my hair and it was starting to smell bad and look like it was permanently wet. Another great surprise was when I came home rather than just my host mom and dad there was my host brother and his wife and one of my host sisters and her two daughters (one of which I had never met). They have the same birthday and it is today, so that is why everyone was here. It is hard when you want to be alone and there is a house full of people, but it was ok. I played some soccer with the girls and I watched them try to play “Counter Strike.” It totally brought me back to my sophomore year in college and watching the boys on the floor above me play. It’s amazing how small the world is and how many things here are the same as in America.

Happy 4th of July all!! I am sad I don't get to barbecue and watch the fireworks with my friends and family.

Life is all about successes. I have figured that out now more than ever before. If I don’t enjoy the small things all the other big things will be way to overwhelming. This weekend I went to visit a friend so I could be around at least one American on the 4th of July. Well catching a taxi out to his village is not the easiest thing especially since they only come into town around 8-9am and leave around 11-12pm. I went to the taxi stand at 11 and started asking around to all the drivers who was going to Kyzyl-Tuu (Tav’s village). The first driver pointed in a random direction (Tav believes that they take joy in making foreigners go on a wild goose hunt for a taxi) and then I asked another driver who helped me find a car. As I sat in the taxi there were two young boys fighting for at least 15 minutes. No one was crying, so I just ignored it. Finally more people showed up (taxis here wait until the car is full to leave… that way they can get the most money possible because they charge by seat not by the whole car) and it looked as if we were going to leave. Wow there were a lot people. It ended up being 4 children and 6 adults. I had one of the children on my lap, which is common here. The greatest success was that I was able to communicat where I wanted to go, have a basic conversation with the women in the car about why I was in Kyrgyzstan and find Tav in his village only using Kyrgyz. I may not be very great at the language yet, but at least I can get what I want. That is a huge accomplishment.

Returning back home was just as big of an adventure. We headed out to where one catches taxis (hitching rides with cars going into town). There was not one to be found. We were trying to get out of the house at 7:45 to catch one by 8am and we were stopped to drink tea. Tav’s brother showed up and was going to At-Bashy as well so he helped us find a car. He stopped a guy on a horse and took the horse to a neighbor’s house to get us a ride there. We walked to his street as he started driving toward us the car died. Oh no… do I really want to get into this car? Turns out he ran out of gas. We had to wait for a little while he went somewhere to get some. As we waited 3 cars drove past with seats open that I could have gone with them. No, I’m in it for the adventure. After getting the car started again we were on our way. WAIT nope we were stopped by another person to catch a ride but he had more people back at his house that needed a ride as well. With only one seat left in the car I began to wonder if the car was going to be like it was on the way to Kyzyl-Tuu. Yes it was. Well I guess it was a little better… only 7 people this time. THEN (yes there is more) there was construction on the road. We stopped for a few minutes and the driver got out and started kicking the tires. I’m not sure what good that did, but I guess it made him feel better. We made it back to our village without any more problems until we ran out of gas on the way to my house. I just ended up paying the driver and then walking the rest of the way. The best part was that he only charged me 50 som when sometimes they can charged up to 70 som.

Life is good. For the past two days we haven’t had any power. In Tav’s village it came back on last night for a few hours (just enough time to watch Germany destroy Argentina). It is supposed to be turned back on now (says my host mom). I don’t mind that it’s out during the day but it’s hard at night because it is so dark. Just another adventure to remember back on!

Life as a Peace Corps volunteer is always a bit crazy. They tell you when you begin your journey that you need to work on the “F” word… Flexibility. I feel that has been proven to be true more than I ever thought possible. Just in the past week along I have gone from staying at a friend’s house, helping make lunch for an English camp to being consolidated with all of the other volunteers for five days for safety precautions. Nothing happened, but Kyrgyzstan had a referendum vote on Sunday and many people we nervous that there may be some problems. Luckily, everywhere is safe, people voted, and there was no violence. I feel safe am not worried about anything. Now I am finally back in my village that I just found out is the coldest site in Peace Corps WORLD. Please think good thoughts of warmth and sanity for me! One of the greatest parts of this country (as I think I have mentioned before) is the transportation. The best part of it is how cheap it is, but I guess you get what you pay for. Many times you can make it to where you are going with no problems what-so-ever, but then there are those hitches in the road (no pun intended). One good hitch that happened to me when taking a taxi into the city was our driver kept wanting to stop for random things. That doesn’t sound like that would be a good experience, but it really was. First, he wanted to stop to get some kumuz (fermented mere’s milk). I loathe the stuff, but one of the other volunteers that I was riding with wanted some so we stopped. He got a whole half liter for free because it was the taxi driver’s family who was selling it on the side of the road. Then as we were driving along our driver was playing with his phone. He then started passing it around and showing us pictures of a waterfall. Apparently it was just off the road. He really wanted to take us there and show us it. My American instincts kept telling me “NO.” I began to list all the reasons why I didn’t want to, I need to get where I was going, I didn’t want to ride in the car anymore, why would any normal person want to just take us to a waterfall? But then I began to think, I need to slow down and take life as it comes. That is one of my reasons for wanting to be in the Peace Corps. We said yes and he took us on this sketchy road that really felt like we were going to drive off the edge. As we turned the corner there it was. This waterfall was coming directly out of the rocks. As it hit the ground it trickled down over jagged rocks and turned into a small stream. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Lesson learned: take time to enjoy life and remember that you can say yes to something even though it isn’t part of the plan. Another interesting part of the transportation is there really are lanes in the road. There are kind of two lanes on the outside and one lane in the middle. They use the middle lane to pass. The only problem is that there are so many pot holes and other things in the road that sometimes they have to go to the other side of the road to miss them. So, taxi drivers here swerve all over the road passing each other and missing the dangers in the road. I have learned to just not watch where we were going because if I do my foot is constantly on the floor trying to push in the imaginary break that we all know is not there, but still use it. The other day when we were riding home from Bishkek, there were several times when the road was completely full of sheep. The driver had to lay on his horn just to get them to move out of his way. Some days I am amazed at how different my life is now and already in 3 months this has all become normal. I wouldn’t change it for anything. Some days are more difficult than others, but when it comes down to it I love this experience and I have been given an opportunity that I am forever grateful for!

As for the good things that are going on here in Naryn Oblast… I am beginning to feel very comfortable to take public transportation around my village (alone). For those of you who know me well… know that I have a large fear of mass transportation. The greatest part of the transportation here is that everyone takes it because so few people have vehicles. When I tell people here that when I lived in America we had 4 vehicles at our house they are shocked. The best part about the transportation is that it is so cheap. It costs about $2 to go from my village to Naryn city by taxi which is about an hour away. I can also travel to Bishkek (about 6 hours) for roughly $12. The difficult part of it is that you never know when you are going to get anywhere. Taxis and marshrukas (mini busses) can break down, stop anytime they want for food, the bathroom... maybe even take a vodka shot or two… you just never know what you are going to get. But I guess that’s half the fun. Ha. Tomorrow I plan on going to Naryn City. I am going to go with some friends and check out everything in the big city. Yeah right… it’s one street and can barely be considered a city. But it is the best I can get, so I’ll take it.

I taught my first English Club today. Well I was supposed to start on Tuesday but the girls who kept calling me and making sure that I was going to remember to come didn’t even show up. A college girl who loves “Twilight” did come though and was very excited to find out that I worked at the restaurant that was in the prom scene. She knows English very well and we are going to have weekly meetings so she can practice her English. Her dream is to go to America. Today though, I had 6 girls in my class and we practiced greetings. It was a lot of fun to teach them American slang greetings. They showed a great interest and were very interactive. I started with two and then every 20 minutes two more students would come in. My counterpart told me that she told them that if they didn’t come that I would have to go back to America. I guess guilt works in this country, too. That’s not true at all, but oh well. They were engaged and wanted to learn.

I have gone to the local restaurant the past few days for lunch. It is pretty good. I went with some other volunteers and it was really great to be able to talk to the waiters. I was able to introduce myself and order food all in Kyrgyz. Lunch was pretty good. The other volunteers at my site usually meet there once a week (especially in the winter when all we eat at home is potatoes, carrots, onions and meat) just to get some variety. I look forward to school starting in September so I have a set schedule.

I hope all is well at home. Don’t worry about me here.

Here are some pictures from the past 2.5 months.

We got to go hiking at this resort called Issyk-Kata. It was so beautiful.

Making cinnamon rolls is our source of sanity. This was a great day. They were delicious!I fell into this whole one night. It is at least three feet deep and surrounded by cement. Nice job Brooke. It was surrounded by something that illegal in America. We called it my "Pot-hole" HAHA.

My family killed a sheep for me the night before I moved to my new home. It was pretty awesome process to watch.

This my pre-service training group right after we swore in as volunteers. Kyrgyzstan here we come.

I hope you enjoy these pictures. I just figured out how I can shrink my pictures to fit into the blog so hopefully there will be more to come!

Brooke

Today is day 8 in my new village and things are getting easier. It is really hard not having my American friends right down the street but my language is really improving a lot. Well, to be honest, I haven’t really noticed that much of a difference, but I have faith that it is getting better. Some interesting things that I’ve noticed that are different here than in American:

• Everyone constantly tells you to drink and eat even if you just took a sip of your chi. (We tried to explain to our counterparts why it’s weird to Americans that someone would keep telling you to drink and eat… I don’t think it worked. My counterpart tries to say “please drink” in English and doesn’t get why it doesn’t work. Oh well, it’s all with good intentions)

• My host mom tells me to eat cookies at breakfast. That makes the American sugar cereals look not as bad. (Mom, that’s so different than everything you taught me about what is ok to eat in the morning)

• I have also witnessed 3 year old children only eat candy for their dinner. Children are almost force fed candy from a very young age.

• If someone comes over (even for just a second) it is rude to not offer them chi and it is rude to not accept. So, to get around that they do this thing called “ostie” which literally means to touch your mouth. They take a small piece of bread and do a closing prayer. The best part about “ostie” is that if I make something I can say that word and they have to try it.

• Life is much slower here and they take the time to talk, listen, and really get to know each other.

• Kyrgyz people are very hard to read. They don’t really smile or show their emotions. (I don’t blend in that way)

I really like it here, but some days it’s really hard to not be around people who understand you and where you come from. It’s great to educate and share cultural differences and to learn more about their culture. It is amazing how much it is centered around family and helping one another.

I am alive. There has been a lot of problems with promise of internet and then being let down. It wasn’t working last week and this week there were too many people on it and it wouldn’t work for anyone. So, here’s hoping that it works this week!

I can feel the effects of massive amounts of nan (bread), sugar in all forms and my (fat… butter, sheep’s fat, etc) forced on me at all times of the day. I do my best to refuse it, but it is always around and my family, well every family at that, want you to eat, eat, eat. As I sit here my stomach is hurting because it is not used to the food. For those of you who know me well know that this is a common occurrence, but there is something that makes it worse being in a foreign land and being worried about possibly passing gas at awkward times. What do I say if I do and it’s loud? What if it stinks? These are questions I have running through my head. I can’t convey to them why my stomach hurts and they won’t really understand why the food is doing it to me. At least I’m not having other problems that some other trainees have had… worrying about making it to the toilet in time. Here’s to hoping that my digestive track with return to normal and I will learn to eat in a manner that my body will be able to adjust to. (I bet many of you were wondering when the BM jokes and stories would start coming… nothing too crazy yet…)

For the good news. Our cat just had kittens a few days ago and they are so cute. Three little ones that are just so tiny. I want them to get big so I can play with them. Chicks are starting to hatch too. I got to hold a yellow one the other day. So exciting. Very very cute.

Tomorrow we are going to an orphanage (our HUB site where all the volunteers meet once a week) and we get to play with the kids and help build things and paint. I am very excited to play Ultimate Frisbee with the kids! It will be a nice break from language training. My head has been spinning and it doesn’t help that today some friends came over before we went for a walk and after I came back my host mom said that one of my friends speaks much better Kyrgyz than I do and that I need to speak more. I try to speak more, but everything I know we have already talked about. Oh well, I just keep saying to myself… “One day this will all make sense.”

So I am keeping a list of the worst things I have eaten in country. Tonight took the cake on the worst food. This is the second time I have had it and I’m a little afraid that this is going to be a common occurrence because they don’t usually repeat foods. The other night I looked at my plate and it looked like fried tongues. They were about the size of a small dog’s tongue. Well my host mom asked me if I knew what they were and of course I didn’t. So she told me in half Kyrgyz have English… saying “Balak babies.” Balak is fish… and babies well we all know what those are. Well it turns out that it was fried fish eggs. They taste like very fishy and salty sand that is slightly crunchy because it’s fried. It disintegrates in your mouth as you bite into it. That did not do well with my bloated belly.

That’s all for now. I’ll return soon with new interesting stories to share.

Today was an up and down day for me! I started overwhelmed and stressed. I cried in language class several times because I was so frustrated. I sit next to a guy who is learning his sixth language and he said that Kyrgyz is a difficult language to learn. Good job Brooke for starting with this one!! J HA. I have days (but mostly moments because I just started learning it a week ago) when I think that there is no way that I will ever get this, but then I have times when I know I can. My parents always taught me to finish what I started (thanks Mom and Dad) and I’ve only just begun a two + year journey. I love everything about this place. I love the community, I love the small farm in my back yard (I will get more into that soon), I love that I wake up in the morning to see the Tien Shen Mountains in my backyard. It is utterly amazing here. It smells like cow everywhere here (and if you know me well you know that I love that). I have to stop in the road to let a heard of sheep pass by. I can go and study at a friend’s house and it is rude to not stay and have chi (drink tea and eat bread). I believe that this country was made for me! I miss everyone very much, but if I had to go anywhere I’m glad I’m here. Ok, now about my family. I have a mom and a dad and 5 siblings. Sadly, only my apa (mom in Kyrgyz) lives here during the week. This is really good for me though because two of my sisters speak English very well and I don’t practice Kyrgyz when they are around. My host dad, two host sisters, and host brother come on the weekends. They live in Bishkek so during the week it is just my host mom and me. I do see our communication getting progressively better. She knows less English than I know Spanish so we it has been a challenge. My host dad works there and the kids go to school there. I really enjoy how much the community enjoys the fact that I am trying and want to learn more and they help as much as they can. Not only my host family helps me but everyone everywhere in the village. I got lost (not really lost, but passed my street) today and I was able to communicate to a local where I was trying to go and he helped me. Such a good moment! It gave me hope that I can do this. I have found that the little things are going to be what are going to help keep my spirits up. I have a daily grateful list and everyday I have to find at least one thing that I am grateful for here! It’s really not that hard, but I need to make sure that I’m looking for those things because if I don’t then I will drown in the bad things. We have many chickens and sheep, a couple goats (2 more after Saturday because new kids were born), a cow, a puppy and a kitten. I am in heaven because when I walk to the toilet in the backyard I have to walk past all of them and they all make me laugh. Also, in the mornings as I’m walking past them I look toward the mountains and it is incredible. My good thing for Saturday was that it was Banya day. Banya is similar to a sauna, but it’s how they bathe. They sure do know how to do it here. They heat up a room and there are rocks in it that you can pour water on to make steam. You have hot and cold water in there and you mix them. It has a learning curve to figure out how to wash and rinse yourself, but it is amazing. It was hilarious watching my host mom show me how to wash myself and my clothes in there. My host sisters (who both speak English) were both standing on the side laughing with me. I love banya day!!! Laughter has been my saving grace. When I have a communication block with my host mom we just laugh. It is great that she can do that. We get a little frustrated, but she is very patient with me and understands that I really am trying. I think that this is really going to help me grow and teach me patients for the future. I will take pictures of where I live and my room. I have kept it really clean. It is amazing how easy it is to keep it clean when you don’t have very much stuff (only a hundred pounds is not that much). Maybe that’s the trick for when I come back to the US… I’ll only have very few things and then it’s hard to be messy because there isn’t very much to be messy with. Hmm… novel idea! Oooo… Cultural moment. So, I found out that when you say “um…” like most Americans do when they are thinking it is a very bad word here. I need to break that habit, especially when I start to work in a school with children. Most people that I talk to here know that I am learning the language and understand that it’s a nervous habit, but I need to either say “aahh” or “mmm” but not together. My host sisters laugh at me when I say that. Anyhow… that was a long message. That is the main gist of how life is here for me! The people are amazing and hospitable beyond belief. I love chi (tea) and that’s good because I have at least 7 cups a day (not exaggerating). I love you all and miss you. Brooke

PS This was a few days ago. A lot has happened since but this one was so long I didn't want to overwhelm people. I am in a safe location for those of you worried.

I am little over a week away from leaving the country. This time it has been a little easier to pack and prepare to leave. Trying to cut back on how much I am going to pack and the number of bags that go through security with me. There are so many things that are so hard to imagine living my next two years without. We shall see how this packing thing will work out. Think good thoughts!