Material Girl... meet the Peace Corps

I love being home...

2006-12-19T12:44:00.000-08:00

My Crazy Life...

2006-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

These are my cute little students! And my new haircut

My crazy life....

2006-09-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah.. I was hailing a taxi and walked into a tree branch. Enough said. It was broad daylight too.

2006-08-21T04:03:00.000-07:00

Starting over again...

2006-08-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

Well the following photos show a little bit of my life since moving into Talas city. The pictures are of my new apartment building, and the surroundings. THe traash is the front yard, unfortunately, and the others are from summer camp.

2006-08-21T03:55:00.000-07:00

2006-08-21T03:51:00.000-07:00

New Photos

2006-08-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

Well, i have a few photos to publish, they are of my new apartment and of summer camp this past week.

More pics

2006-06-26T05:43:00.000-07:00

These are some more grad shots and one of me moving my stuff...

Some pictures from graduation...

2006-06-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

These are all of my girls, they just finished high school and are heading off to study in the city this week...

2006-06-07T02:54:00.000-07:00

February 14 – February 28, 2006 (Now that I have a USB stick and another Internet café has opened in our village, I will be able to update much, much

2006-03-01T01:19:00.000-08:00

February 14 – February 28, 2006 (Now that I have a USB stick and another Internet café has opened in our village, I will be able to update much, much more often.

But of course I must (really, must) remind all of my readers that this blog is the opinion of the author and no one else. In no way does it reflect or have anything to with the opinions or positions taken by the United States Government or the Peace Corps. Its just a small town girl with a lot to say…

Also, the following entries seem to deal with clothing in one way or another an awful lot. Sorry for this.

Valentine’s Day

I couldn’t have asked for a better Valentine’s Day. I’m sitting in my room listening to a new country music CD, eating Dots, drinking and basking in my own happiness. The Internet has made it to my village and it is only a block from my house. It is open from 8 in the morning to 7 at night. It is a fast connection and it only costs 30 som an hour. (That’s really cheap). I used it for two full hours today. It disconnected about 50 times, but still I got everything accomplished that I set out to do today. Plus I got a package from my wonderful sister, Katie, hence me eating Dots. Nichole, Erich and I all received packages today. Mine was postmarked January 25, Nichole’s November 19 and Erich’s December 7. So packages are finally starting to get here and those that are sent after Jan. 1 are flying in. I got a small package from my Mom and Dad last week in 12 days. So I no longer despise the mail workers. Well we’ll see if I get my December boxes before I make any decisions.

I’m also drinking Crystal Light, thanks to my wonderful Aunt in Moscow. This is the first time I have had juice that tastes somewhat normal. I guess I can’t really say things like that though. Just because it tastes American, doesn’t make it normal. There is a whole big world out there, and I am learning, well I guess have learned, that just because we do things a certain way in America, doesn’t mean the rest of the world does the same thing.

I’m going to give an example here of my point, and it doesn’t mean that it is ever going to be a custom that I follow. In Kyrgyzstan people don’t over indulge in clothing. My host family is a rich family by Kyrgyz standards and they each own a limited number of clothing items. Here you have your ‘nice clothes’ and then your house clothes. When you go to town or to school, you wear your nice clothes. For men these consist of faded blue jeans with no holes or tears. The jeans fit perfectly, they are worn fitted and with a pair of fancy black shoes. Every man and boy has a pair and they are always shined and the jeans are never dirty. I can’t say that in America I have met many boys who can wear a pair of jeans like the boys here do (Except for Montana boys). They finish off their outfit with a nice jacket. And a hat. No once leaves the house without a hat in the winter, ever, except for me. Even Nichole and Erich wear hats all the time. I haven’t got to that point yet. All though I do have a fancy new John Deere hat to show off, which I am so excited about.

When they get home from school or town the men immediately change into old track pants or cords and an old sweater with galoshes. Everyone, including me, has a pair of indoor and outdoor shoes. Outdoor shoes are galoshes and indoor shoes are sports sandals. I can get away with slippers inside. I’m probably the only one in the country who has five pairs. But, whenever I have a party no one has to bring their own house shoes. The girls here find it very convenient. In fact, the girls in Talas know that they don’t have to bring pajamas either, as I have enough for everyone.

So women here are very similar to the men. They put on nice jeans to go out, and everyone’s jeans are hemmed to the most perfect length. Including mine as of yesterday. Your jeans will never touch the ground, as it is shameful to get your jeans dirty, which unfortunately, I am guilty of doing. The women wear pointy-toed black boots with their jeans and a nice sweater. And of course a hat. Sometimes they wear knee-high boots with short pants as well. And they can pull it off. The girls here are gorgeous. Thin with long black hair and beautiful eyes that need no make-up.

Now, because this is a poor culture, clothes are not as abundant as in America. You don’t have 30 pairs of jeans to choose from. You don’t have 20 pairs of shoes or a drawer of just black shirts. (All of which I am also guilty of). You have one or two nice things and then old house clothes. Most older women just wear velour robes around during the day with matching pants and head scarves. I have more clothes in America that all of my students in the 11th grade combined. Maybe more.

And what do I do? Go out and buy more clothes from American Eagle online. Some habits are hard to break. All though I have to say six months without shopping is pretty damn impressive for someone with my kind of habits.

So school has been canceled due to illness for the past week. I have spent it relaxing and enjoying the break. Spending time with my puppy and my new calf.

That’s right. My new calf. Yesterday I went outside to feed the cow its daily breakfast, and I saw hooves coming out of its rear end! (It was pregnant mind you). I ran inside and told Zamir, and he ran to the neighbor’s house, coming back with three men to help pull the calf. I got my camera, but ended up helping, so I don’t have good pictures of the process. It was a big freaking cow. I felt sorry for Mrs. Cow. I bet she was regretting her past decisions. That’s for sure. She was bawling and mooing and I was trying to comfort her in English, which personally I think all of our animals are partial to, while three men pulled this monster out of her. It only took a few minutes and there it was, a baby boy. She was tired and didn’t want to clean him very much, so I did it for her and then watched the afterbirth slowly come out of the cow as well. Disgusting. The birthing sac, blood, you name it, that cow spit it out. Yucky. And then of course the damn puppy tried to eat it, so I was chasing him out of the yard. I bottle fed the cow its first meal, which was a task. I was covered from head to toe in sticky fresh cow milk and slobber. But a wonderful experience. I spent most of the day with the calf, teaching it to stand up and walk. He is now quite good. Today he is playing with his mother in the barn. I am hoping to get a picture up of him soon.

Last Friday night we had the first (of many I’m sure) Girls’ nights at my house. Most of the Talas girls came out for a potluck. There are 10 of us in the oblast, and eight came. We also have five boys, but four of them are leaving next year. Hopefully we’ll get more male volunteers in the next batch. (They come in June).

We had a great time. I, on an ego trip from my apple pie at Christmas, decided to make deviled eggs and sugar cookies. Two very challenging recipes. Thanks to whoever sent Melinda an entire case of mustard packets, I made deviled eggs with real American mustard and I even found paprika at the bazaar. Sugar cookies were easy and what made it even better was the heart-shaped cookie cutter my Mama sent me for Valentine’s Day. I made great sugar cookies with chocolate frosting and since my wonderful aunt sent peanut butter as well, I was able to make a double batch of no-bake cookies for everyone. Nicole made a good pasta salad that actually tasted American, Amy made lentil soup, Jesika made stuffing and Melinda brought potato salad, which rounded out our American dishes. It was nice to get away from potatoes and bread for an evening. We drank wine and had a great time.

Last Wednesday I was feeling cabin feverish so I went into Talas on a school day to check my email. I ended up visiting Chris and Melinda, a married couple in Talas City from Seattle, and Chris even made me a sandwich. They live in a mansion. It has three floors, two indoor bathrooms with real toilets and showers, Internet and an American refrigerator. I can’t even imagine. It was the first toilet I had seen since the Hyatt. My bathroom is a shanty 25 yards from our house with a whole in the ground that you squat over, next to a bucket where you put the notebook paper that is stacked to your left when you are finished. Pleasant. Needless to say, they won’t be finding alternate living arrangements anytime soon. Quite the set up. No other volunteer has a set up like that. I don’t know how they got so lucky, but it’s nice that it happened to good people.

So after I spent the afternoon with them I headed back in the last taxi to my village. The drive is about an hour, so I was half asleep in the front seat. I woke up to find that we had strayed from the normal road, and were headed up hill. We were dropping off a couple in the backseat at their house. Well, Kyrgyzstan is a mud field right now, and of course we got stuck in the mud. It was about 7 p.m. I got home after 9 p.m. We had to go around and find men to help push the car through a muddy stream that the taxi driver had attempted to cross. Then the battery in the car died. After a couple hours he managed to get a push start and we were on our way. Or so I thought. We got a couple miles back in the right direction and he stopped to fill up a soda bottle with water from a stream that he proceeded to pour somewhere in the engine. Then we were on our way. I finally made it home, exhausted and done with traveling to Talas for Internet. I am so thankful for this new Internet place that opened up yesterday. All three of us used it today for at least an hour. I think our business alone will keep them up and running for a while.

Tomorrow I head back to school for four lessons and two clubs.

Oh and another good thing that happened this week… we have began having weekly banyas again instead of bi-monthly! A new calf and a bath, all in one week…

February 15, 2005

So I got up this morning to go to school and had a bowl of cream of wheat, thanks to Katie and Everett, and then found out that school had been canceled yet again, for another five days! What am I going to do with myself?

I got mail from the Peace Corps today and one of the mailings was chock full of grad schools that want volunteers. So I am going to spend a lot of time on the Internet, writing emails to admissions offices all over the country. I figure this gives me an early start. A year and a half or so, which leaves me with plenty of time to work on applications and maybe to retake the GREs in the summer.

The schools I am looking at include: Sarah Lawrence, the University of Texas at Austin (LBJ School of Public Affaris), Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, John Hopkins School of Public Health, American University’s School of International Service in Washington D.C. and Costa Rica, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Lesley University, Loyola, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the School for International Training, Georgetown’s Foreign Service program, the University of Pennsylvania and Tulane.

Those are just what I have started to research. I am hoping to begin the 2007-08 session and study foreign-service or public health. I am looking for more options on the west coast though. I would rather be closer to home (says the girl who is 10,000 miles from home right now). The University of Wyoming has a communications grad program for returned volunteers. Another option. Really it all depends on fellowships and grants.

February 16, 2006

Well today has been a beautiful day. I spent about an hour outside jogging in the sun. It was perfect weather. I went down to the lake for the first time since I have been here, but the water level is really low this time of the year.

February 21, 2006

Well. Sorry about the weather back home, but here is amazing. It’s like spring just came out of no where, a month early. I have spent the past week outdoors, jogging, playing with the calf, playing soccer with my students, walking around the village, going down to the lake and basically just basking in the sunlight. The sun comes up earlier now, and I don’t walk to school in the dark anymore. Also it goes down at about 7 p.m. which has been wonderful. And of course now having Internet a block from my house hasn’t been too bad either. I have checked my email around 7 times in the past 10 days!

February 24, 2006 – Friday Afternoon

Well I am in heaven.

Two packages in one day. And amazing packages at that. One package is full of food, a new USB stick, peanut butter, cocoa, body wash, q-tips, cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla, face lotion, MAGAZINES!, my CDs and more. The other was something I ordered for myself and had sent to my parents to then in turn have sent to me… new American Eagle clothes!!!!! Cardigans, long sleeve tops, a new scarf… and they added boxes of contact lenses.

New spring clothes, from America… what could be better? I am saving them for my trip to Bishkek.

Well I was back in school this week, and the students were pretty wild. I was able to tame them down by Wednesday, but of course Thursday was a holiday – National Boys’ Day, so we didn’t have school. And then today most of the students were sick or hung over and didn’t come to class.

I spent the day kicking myself for getting too excited about the weather. Yesterday I woke up to a blizzard after a week straight of sunshine. Today is just as bad. Cold and rainy again. Frost and snow again. Wind, cold trips to the outhouse.

Well after two weeks of having my host mother’s daughter and her two kids stay with us, they finally left. I can’t say I was sad watching them go. I promise never to show up unannounced at my mother’s house with two children under three and stay for weeks at a time. By the end of the two weeks I was so insane that I would have to go for long walks in the afternoon, after going jogging, just to avoid the company for a few hours. And I love small children! I love kids. These kids are just too spoiled for my liking.

I spent last weekend playing with our three cows and the puppy. I guess I forgot to write about the newest cow. Eight women in our neighborhood, my host mother included, have a club that meets once a month. They drew months out of a hat on New Years to pick a monthly host. They then gather at that house for a huge feast. Each woman brings 1000 som and gives it to the host. This way each family can purchase something big with money that they wouldn’t ever have all at once. It was our turn in February. We had a huge spread set up on two tables with meat, cheese, apples, tangerines, salads, vodka, juice, gas water, bread, jams and then the main course of plov and a noodle salad. On a school night. I went to bed at about 11 p.m. and they were still going. So, with the 7000 som, my family bought another cow. So we have three. Not sure why. I am pretty sure that they spent all the money they had for the month.

Yesterday while I was running around the track a group of younger men were playing soccer, which I found myself craving. A ball went out of bounds and I retrieved it and kicked it back for them and got myself an invitation to play! After a while I had to leave, but I had a great time – they were nice to me and friendly and invited me to come back anytime. Of course the thing they were kicking around wasn’t much of a ball – flat, dented and heavy, but it worked. I think I might buy them a ball to play with in the future.

February 26, 2006

Whew. Well when my dad said I probably have more clothes than the Kyrgyz president’s wife I laughed. Now I am not so sure. I spent more than six hours today doing laundry. It really piled up on me this time. Erich came by in the afternoon. I was still outside working and he just sat in the sun and said “My mom better be doing my laundry at my house right now.’ Typical attitude. Boys have all the luck over here. No one helped me. By the time I finished, which included dumping massive buckets of dirty water in the street, I was exhausted and ready to have my Sunday banya, which I immensely enjoyed thanks to my new body wash.

On Saturday evening I made delicious cookies with my new brown sugar and real chocolate chips. They are already gone. Treats go fast in this house. I have to hoard them in my room if I want any. It was nice to have real cookies though.

February 27, 2006

I couldn’t ask for a better situation than I am in right now. I am sitting on my bed, watching a new DVD from yet another package that I got in the mail today and eating cheddar broccoli rice, drinking Crystal Light. Later I am going to have some Godiva chocolate.

Today I happened to stop by the post office to mail a letter and was informed that another of the missing packages had arrived. I went into the backroom with the mail woman who then realized she had lost the keys to the storage place. She searched for about 10 minutes, and of course then pulled them out of her pocket. All that anticipation drives me crazy!

Another wonderful package. Books, magazines, juice, soap, towels, a loofah, DVDs, batteries, chocolate, trail mix, sugar cookie mix and more. All things I really need!

My host mother has left for Bishkek for the week, so I am on my own. Which has been great. I made my own American food, washed the dishes and went to bed last night satisfied.

In classes today I read the students their horoscopes from Cosmopolitan’s annual guide to love, life and whatever else. They loved it. It was nice to break up the regular grammar lessons with something a bit interesting. See, magazines are not only entertaining, but educational as well mother.

The nice thing about having so much clothing is that while other volunteers are wearing the same things over and over and feeling depressed, I haven’t even broke out my spring/summer styles yet. I still have more than 20 skirts and 20 tops that haven’t seen the light of day since I have been in country. I planned this you know. Some people may have laughed at the site of me carrying 200+ pounds of luggage off a plane, but hey, look who’s laughing now? No dirty, over-worn clothes for this girl. (Besides I ruin a shirt after two or three times worn, as I am a little clumsy with food, drinks, chalk, mud, ect.).

The bad news is that yesterday, to celebrate the arrival of spring, I broke out a new dress that I bought last spring before I left. I have been saving it. Of course I have to wear a long-sleeved high-necked top over the dress part so it just looks like a mid length skirt, but I was happy. But, like I said, I am a little clumsy, and I proceeded to sit on a nail and rip the back seem out. So I had to wear a coat the rest of the day. But when I got home my host mother sewed it right up for me and told me to be more careful.

Feb. 10 Update -- Most Recent is Last!!!

2006-02-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

January 23, 2006

Well it’s been a fun couple of weeks.

The big holiday was a good time, all though it is hard to be in a big group where everyone is talking about you constantly. I can understand about every other word they say, which makes it worse, knowing what they are saying and not being able to put all your thoughts together in a different language.

It’s happened though, I think in Kyrgyz now.

We went to seven houses and instead of just having tea at each house we had full on Thanksgiving style meals. I tried to eat a little bit at each house, but the women kept dumping more and more on my plate. I made Zamir go with me to the first four or five houses, but after that he quit, but I still had to go.

It was fun though. School break turned out to only be a week, so I was back in school in no time.

The top ten things that have happened to me in the past two weeks:
(Clearly I am in better spirits)

10. GUMMY BEARS AT THE BAZAAR!!! Real gummy bears, I about had a heart attack. Between the three of us shopping we bought them all.

9. I got a package – so it was only band-aids and amoxicillin from the Peace Corps office, but it was mail.

8. I got a banya, and after only 21 days.

7. I discovered purple Fanta, which is quite good.

6. We got a new puppy, I named it Puppy.

5. We got a new kitten, I named it Kitty.

4. My students (well most of them) have mastered the Simple Present Tense.

3. I learned how to burn my own garbage, feed and water the cow and use a gas stove.

2. Jenny, a K-12 volunteer who went home for Christmas brought back Rice Crispy treats.

And by far the best thing that has happened since I have been in country:

1. A student brought over a disc that his older brother, (a soldgier in Afganastan) gave him: THE ULTIMATE REESE WITHERSPOON CULLOECTION. I mean really, could life get any better than watching Legally Blonde 1 &2 and Sweet Home Alabama over and over? I think not. Of course I had to give it back though.

Not a bad couple of weeks. Last Friday my host sister, who stayed with us for a couple of nights, arranged for her husband of three years to take me into Talas to use the Internet and to shop for gifts for my host mother’s birthday. And my host sister. It was both of their birthdays this past weekend.

Anyway, Zamir and I planned to go, and Asen (her husband) said he would pick us up at about 11. At about 1:30, we finally headed toward Talas. First we had to stop and get gas, which consists of a man with a bucket and a funnel. Then, after we picked up one of Asen’s friends, Mirhat, we were ready. Mirhat, Zamir and I in the back of the little four-door ancient thing. I can’t even decipher what kind of car it is. Asen driving and his twin brother Alman in the front. Wow. Didn’t feel like Kyrgyzstan that’s for sure. It was like being back in college. The boys are all my age, despite Asen’s being married with two kids. They had the music blasting and were singing and driving like maniacs. I think we had to be going at least 70 most of the time. We got into Talas after a fun ride and the boys dropped me off at the University to use the Internet and spent the allotted hour driving around hollering at University girls. I came outside and found them sitting by the building with the windows down and music playing loudly. After I got in they starting blowing kisses at girls and played the same Russian song over and over on the tape player. They yell ‘Chong Cuz’ which means young girl, but literally translates to ‘Big Girl.’ That took some getting used to. When talking to any young girl you say chong cuz, especially to bartenders and waitresses. It throws you off at first when you think someone is calling you a big girl, since the word for big is chong. And girl is cuz.

Anyway, Zamir and I bought a nice sweater for Zana, my host sister and serving platters for my host mother. Then we all piled in and headed back to the village.

On the way home, we stopped and Zamir stole a puppy from his uncle’s house along the way. I was appalled, but apparently it’s okay and normal to steal pets from family.

Of course we ran out of gas on the way. We had to hitch hike back to the nearest village, except it’s not hitch hiking, since you have to pay whoever gives you a ride, and got a coke bottle of gas, that’s how you but it here. We eventually made it back to the village, and Zamir and I were exhausted. We watched a weird Christmas movie that was on TV in Russian and then I crashed.

Both birthdays being on Saturday, we had a big party at Zana’s house. Her husband was scheduled to pick us up at 5 p.m. Zamir and I spent the day making ‘sandwiches’ and attempting to go to the post office, which of course was closed. Our sandwiches consist of cucumbers, shredded carrot salad, cheese, mayo and pickles on a piece of bread, with tomatoes, if we can find any.

They fired up the banya at around 4, which I thought was ridiculous, being that we had to leave at 5. I didn’t get into the banya until five til five, so I knew we were going to be late. He came back for us a 6. It was a much needed banya, after 21 days without one.

We left for the party at 6. I was immediately pushed into the formal dining room with my host mother, and Zamir went off with the boys (Don’t know if I have ever mentioned that Zana is a ‘kelen’ which means her job in life is to take care of her husband’s family. She always must cover her hair and must bow to her father-in-law when she enters and exits the room. Her husband has three brothers and Zana has a five-month old baby and a three-year-old, and must take care of the entire household. She cooks, cleans does it all). We had vodka immediately, and lots of food. Zana wasn’t ever allowed to join her own birthday party. She had to keep cooking, because we eat two meals. And look after the babies, as her husband just watches TV and talks to his friends. I was pretty angry.

We were toasting her for her birthday and she wasn’t even part of the party.

January 31, 2006

Well the last week has been pretty good.

First off I discovered that I can very easily make a pretty good pizza. I even made homemade sauce. Toppings are pretty limited right now. So cheese, corn and onions are about it. I haven’t been able to find any olives or mushrooms, all though I hate mushrooms anyway. I also found cocoa puffs at the store. Just one box, but they were cocoa puffs. I of course bought them and had good breakfast this week. Who knows if they will ever get more in.

Last Friday I got to use Internet in my own village. I walked to the licium and the Internet actually worked. I was able to email, read about All My Children, check out the news, and even order some new clothes from American Eagle, which should be arriving in Sandpoint any time now.

Still no mail here, just a small envelope with JELLY BELLYS!!!! They were so good. The first American candy I have had in a long time. I sat in front of the computer and ate Jelly Bellys for two hours. It was a great day.

Classes have been difficult lately, mostly with my older students, as they are experiencing senoritis, like any high school senior might about this time of the year. They don’t seem to want to learn any English and the boys spend most of their time chatting or running around chasing girls. Sometimes I just send them away, out of the class so that I can actually teach the students that want to be there.

Nothing exciting has happened in weeks. No mice, no mail, no snowballs in the face, nothing.

Oh last Saturday, I had a pizza party with my students though. It was pretty fun. Four girls came to my house and I taught them how to make pizza. They loved it. We made personal sized pizzas and listened to music, (thanks to my host brother I now have a huge selection of Kyrgyz and Russian music on my computer) and then they helped me do the dishes and left.

I have been tutoring a 24-year-old girl who want to be an English translator in Bishkek. She comes over every afternoon and meets with me to work on grammar and practices speaking. She learned English six years ago from the first volunteer who came to Kyzyl-Adyr (My village), Robert. He actually wrote a book about his experiences if anyone is interested, it is titled This is Not Civilization.

February 1, 2006

Well my illness has overcome me. I have had to take a few days off from school, actually by doctor’s orders. And have spent the past two days laying in bed playing Snake on my cell phone, drinking homemade apple juice and reading. I have read The Loop by Nicholas Evans. White Oleander, Catch 22 and started The Screwtape Letters since Tuesday. (It’s Wednesday evening). But it’s been nice to rest. Tomorrow, no school for me, all though I must venture out of my bedroom to go to the post office. I am not only expecting eight packages from the States, but medicine from the doctor as well. My host sister is here with her babies for a few days. Whenever the power is out at her house she comes here. I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to sit at home and wait on my husband’s family. (My future husband be warned, whoever you are). Dur (one of her son’s, he’s three), has been sick as well, so he is hanging out with me. He drank all my juice though, but I got him back. I gave him a real cough drop – he was expecting candy.

Today I gave my host brother a lecture about going out so much. He seems to be busy every night. Maybe I am just bitter, since I get rather bored in the evening. His response was ‘Don’t tell me in America you didn’t go out partying and to movies and to see your friends. You just don’t have any here. I do.’ Pretty funny. He also had me convinced that the puppy, ‘Puppy,’ died last night. (It is suffering from worms). I about had a heart attack, but it was a joke on me. I found him in the cow barn, sleeping.

So no Internet this week, me not being able to leave the house, and Nichole feeling just as miserable on the other side of town. We’re a bunch of saps out here in Kyrgyzstan. Erich is toughing out the winter… I think he’s healthy.

February 6, 2006

Well I survived. And I am back in school this week. It was actually a pretty good day. My lessons went well and I got a small package from home!

Not the missing boxes, but still, the cutest Victoria Secret ‘Pink’ pajamas ever. I will wear the shirt to school it is so cute! And hot cocoa mix and two new books. Being that I have read just about everything in sight the last week or so, they couldn’t have come at a better time, so thank you thank you thank you mommy!

So anyway, today I watched the craziest television show ever. AMERICAN MEN WHO COME TO KYRGYZSTAN LOOKING FOR YOUNG GIRLS TO TAKE HOME.

They actually come on to this show with a translator and make a plea for a wife, and then wait for girls to call in to the show. They give explanations to why they want brides, and then they have a question-answer session with the hostess.

Disgusting. I don’t even know what to say. I couldn’t believe it. The English was in the background, then the men’s voices were dubbed over. They said things like ‘Kyrgyz girls are so beautiful and they value family.’ Who are they kidding? It was sickening. And my host mom just watched and laughed along with the studio audience.

February 7, 2006

Today was a good day. After school I spent the afternoon basking in the sun with my puppy, from the top rung of our barn ladder. It was great. It was warm and bright out and I got some color in my face.

I had a good day at school as well. We played Bingo in my classes. But with the not-so-advanced students it was a simple version. For example, if you have brown hair you put your marker down,, if you have two cows at home, or if you are wearing blue. In my advanced classes we played parts of speech Bingo, a game sent to me by my Daddy. The kids loved it, and they can pick out adverbs and prepositions better than I can. I was thoroughly impressed.

I am going to make my own Bingo cards for my beginner students this weekend. And I have a few American tokens to give away as prizes. Pencils and flags and pins and such. And some nasty Kyrgyz candy.

Some Fun pictures from the past few weeks

2006-01-08T21:47:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures, hopefully from the past couple weeks. ONe is of me in my new Christmas sweater and the others are random pictures of my room, my students and my host family. Oh and some from Erich's birthday.

Finally -- An update

2006-01-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

December 21, 2005

First off, thanks to Nicole telling my host mom that in America we respect horses, I no longer will be offered any horse meat. We explained that it is shameful, and that said it all. Once you bring shame into a situation, it’s finished.

And second, today my 9th form lesson actually caused a fist fight. Dad, you will have to tell my former Spanish teacher that the fly swatter game doesn’t work in Kyrgyzstan. I got the boys to take it outside which solved the problem, but it was pretty intense for a while in the classroom. I was hiding under a desk with the other girls, when the boys started throwing chairs.

Anyway, that behind me, life isn’t all that bad.

December 27, 2005

All right a long entry… rightfully so. (I have not had Internet access for weeks now, thus why I haven’t written any emails to anyone).

TOP TEN REASONS TO HAVE RESPECT FOR THE US POSTAL SYSTEM

10. Post offices actually open at the posted hours.
9. Packages are not wrapped in a paper sack and tied with twine and glue stick.
8. If you have mail, they give it you.
7. They have stamps available, you don’t have to come back next week.
6. They do not close at noon for a two-hour lunch/vodka break.
5. They don’t decide to not come back after lunch breaks.
4. It isn’t closed for school vacations and random Saturdays too.
3. When you have a package, it fits through the window; you don’t have to go around to the back of the building to receive it.
2. It isn’t a game to hide your mail from you. In fact, it’s illegal.
1. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BRIBE THE WORKER TO GET UP AND CHECK THE BACK ROOM FOR PACKAGES.

So I have had it with the post office. Twice in a week I have left in tears. Today, because Erich had informed me of a blue envelope from America with my name on it, waiting for me. I went in to the office during my free period, hoping to get a Christmas card from home (which will be my first Christmas card by the way that isn’t from my wonderful mother). The regular woman was not there, and these horrible ladies kept laughing at me and yelling that I had no packages and no letters, even though Erich saw the card with my name on it. I tried to explain that I had a blue envelope behind the window waiting for my pick up, but the women refused to look.

Last week I was just disappointed in mail all together, as since I have been in Talas I haven’t received any mail from anyone besides Mommy dearest.

So lets drop the mail subject for a while.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I actually had a pretty great time here. First off, Erich and I had to spend Christmas Eve day at my school giving a test to English students, similar to the SAT. The students were in a classroom and took four different tasks, testing their English. Erich and I proctored, wrote and graded the test, while the rest of the volunteers in our oblast (12) headed to a nearby village for Christmas dinner. Apparently they had fried chicken and spaghetti and sang Christmas carols.

Our testing session took all day, and was quite a sight. Administrators were cheating for their students, the students actually ask each other questions and try to help each other during the test, and it is perfectly acceptable. We tried to stop the talking and have a fair test. The good part was that one of my students, Aziza, won for the 9th form. The test is graded on the spot and one winner is chosen from each form (grade).

Afterward, exhausted, Erich and I headed to my house for a Christmas celebration.

The night before Christmas Eve, I actually baked again. First we hit the bazaar, where I found amazing, delicious apples at a great price. I bought three kilos. We also were able to find some powdered vanilla, cinnamon, eggs, sugar, flour, oats, pickles (just because I love them) butter and milk. Nicole and I headed back to my house, where my plan was to tackle an apple pie.

Following the Peace Corps recipe, I tried to peel about 50 apples. Lets just say apple peeling is not one of my strong points. Maybe in two years I will be Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, but for now, I had a tough time. I sat on my little milking stool (that’s what we sit on for chairs) and tackled one apple, after about five seconds of watching this, Zamir (my host brother) grabbed a knife and showed me up. He peeled all of the apples before I finished my first one, and then took that one out of my hand and finished it for me. I was impressed. He helped me with the entire pie. We made crusts and of course I was having a heck of a time rolling the dough out into a 13-inch flat disk, so he showed me how to do that as well. We made cookies and brownies too, and the pie turned out great. Apparently I don’t qualify to be a Kyrgyz wife; pity the poor man who attempts to kidnap me; I don’t make a very good loaf of bread (which is something we make daily, even though I have stopped eating bread, which again is shameful, but hey, I am starting to hate it).

So everyone came over at about 5 pm on Saturday evening. We set up in my formal party room, which I know has had some good use, as I saw pictures of a former volunteer playing beer pong in it. Kathryn brought a cake, so we had plenty of food, and I made a hot sangria punch, (thinking of Alison the entire time and our nights at Sangria in Moscow). We had beer, vodka, sangria and about 20 bottles of champagne and wine. We played cards and scrabble and gave Christmas toast all night. It was a great Christmas with wonderful company.

Unfortunately, I started to get sick on Saturday, and by Sunday morning was without a voice and without energy (Contrary to what you might be thinking, it wasn’t from drinking, as I don’t drink more than a glass of wine or two here ever since the incident with the Tylenol pm in the training village). I have a splitter in my room that allows about six things to be plugged in at once, so everyone plugged cell phones in and one by one the Christmas calls started pouring in, with me answering all of them and delivering phones to the owners. I also got to open all my presents that I Elizabeth Dalessio actually saved for Christmas. What makes me happy? Anyone want to guess?? Yep, more clothes. Warm ones at that. Fleece jammies, two fleeces, a wool sweater, more long johns (pink!), perfume, a new toothbrush, a thermometer (almost 50 degrees today by the way Daddy), new slippers, conditioner, Godiva, my favorite huckleberry lotion, make up (which I was completely out of and desperately needed – well maybe not desperately, I am in Kyrgyzstan) and turtlenecks. January and February won’t be getting to me (the two coldest months of the year here). So thanks mom and dad, it made Christmas great (and I’ll send pictures of the lovely wool sweater soon).

My village is actually home to the only Frisbee golf course in Kyrgyzstan, (of course developed by volunteers) and Erich and Ian and Amy, Jesika and Kathryn headed up the hill to play nine holes on Christmas, as the weather has been great here. The rest of stayed behind in my room and watched Christmas movies. We watched Christmas with the Kranks for the Peace Corps reference, and wanted to point out that the girl in the movie was not a real volunteer, as you aren’t allowed to take vacations after only a month out of country. We were all shocked by her sudden trip back to the states. We also watched Miracle on 34th Street, my favorite Christmas movie of all time and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Everyone left in the afternoon and my darling brother heated up the banya for us, making Christmas even better. We both got banyas and I got to use my new lotions and wear my new pajamas. I talked to mom and dad and made it though my first Christmas ever away from home (ever).

I went to bed early on Sunday night and stayed home from school on Monday. I am now the warden while Nicole is in India on a three-week vacation, so I have two cell phones and am in charge in case of riots or emergencies…

Today I went back to school all though it is hard to teach because the students are busy preparing for the New Years holiday, in which the school gets decorated and a giant celebration takes place. In Kyrgyzstan people incorporate Christmas with New Years. So students dress up as Santa and decorate like you would for Christmas, including a New Years tree.

On Friday I head into Bishkek for New Years to meet Rebecca. I can’t wait. A night at the Hyatt and dancing and a little bit of shopping… and then an American buffet, that guess what… has a salad bar. It is going to be an amazing weekend. I hope it doesn’t snow through the pass and that we actually can get through the border!

OH WOW! Two very important things that I completely forgot to mention.

I had my first thought of fleeing this country. Last week I was teaching a lesson to the 9th form about clothing and body parts, when I giant freaking mouse ran across the floor right in front of me and went into a hole in the wall. Once again I ask you to happy and thankful that your office buildings are heated, have coffee pots, hot water, bathrooms, electricity and NO HOLES IN THE WALLS WHERE MICE COLONIES RUN RAMPID. I am deathly afraid of mice. Terrified. Horrified. Appalled. Sickened. Aghast. Shocked. Get the idea? I hate mice. Big small, whatever, I despise them and their disgusting tails. Anyway, I screamed, yelled ‘Oh My God’ and ran to the back of the classroom onto a desk occupied by two male students. I think I about cried. The students were shocked. I don’t think they have ever seen that kind of reaction to a mouse sighting before. When I told the other teachers, they laughed and said they are all over the school. Reassuring huh? I have class in that room tomorrow, but will be moving the students to my own classroom. (I go from classroom to classroom, as it assures that the students will actually come to class, if they have to walk to a different room for class, they won’t come).

And second I, the hair genius of the world, have found a way to use my electronic devices in Kyrgyzstan. My leatherman has been the best thing ever here. It has a file on it, so I filed down the plug in part of my curling iron and straightner cords and they now fit into a little converter that cost a quarter and plug into the wall perfectly. No adapter needed. I have beautiful hair again. I blow-dried my hair today and flipped it out and feel wonderful. Oh the things that make me happy, I know. But hey, that’s four months with no curling iron or straightner. Pretty impressive. (This is me we are talking about).

And also, I never thought my favorite meal would be macaroni noodles with ketchup? Who knew? I have to thank Nicole for the closest thing to a sandwich that I have had in months… bread with carrot salad, a little fake mayo, pickles and cheese. It works and if you try hard enough, its like having a veggie sandwich from Subway.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all.

Jordan, what can I say, we all miss you and hope you get better. You lasted a lot longer than I would have in your situation and all of us are thinking about you.

Mom and Dad, thanks for making my first Christmas away wonderful. I miss you both tons and tons.

KINSIE LIPP!!!! Happy Anniversary!!!!! The first year is the toughest… now you can survive anything. Congratulations, I hope I can find someone like Mikey to make me as happy as you are. I love you.

December 29- January 3

Five Things to be Thankful for when traveling this holiday season:

5. That in order to get to the nearest big city, you don’t have to leave the country and then come back in.

4. Cars with heat, hell, cars with seatbelts…

3. That you don’t have a stamp on your forehead that says ‘Rich American’ like I do.

2. In order to cross the border, you don’t have to give the guard your phone number

1. When you stop at a rest area you don’t have to pay to use a whole in the ground and then extra for toilet paper, hoping that the marchrutka doesn’t leave without you.
Well, I made it to Bishkek. I made it to the Hyatt. I survived.

Barely.

On Friday morning Zamir and I walked to the bus station (about a 30-minute walk) from my house after a big fight over me having a third cup of tea. (There is an unspoken rule about always having at least three cups of tea at a meal). He carried my bag, which to my own surprise was pretty small for what I usually travel with. Amy was waiting for me at the bus station, all ready in a taxi. She assured me that the driver was taking us through Kazakhstan, not through the mountain pass, (which I am deathly afraid of), so I hopped in. After an hour the driver was finally ready to go, and I noticed right off the bat that we were not headed toward Bishkek. Instead he took us up some mountain and messed around with a horse and a bunch of people in a small village for another hour. At this point Amy decided to just forgo the trip entirely, but I couldn’t.

We got back to my village, where we had started from and I jumped in a marchrutka headed for Bishkek, through Kazakhstan, exactly what I needed. It was cheap too. I talked to the driver before getting in the van, and he assured me that we were headed to Taraz, a city in Kazakhstan, and the only border in which Americans are allowed to cross. I settled in nicely and listened to my Ipod until I noticed we were slowing down at an unfamiliar place. It looked like a border crossing, but not one that I had ever been to. Immediately in a panic, I got my passport out and waited for the guard to come on board. The first crossing is the Kyrgyz customs crossing, which I had no problem getting through. Next we moved on to the Kazakhstan crossing. A man came on the marchrutka and began checking passports. When he got to me, he looked at my passport, looked at me and shook his head. He finished checking all the other passports then picked up my bag and plucked me from the marchrutka, sending it on its way, without me. (Keep in mind that I did not get my money back for the prepaid trip to Bishkek).

I knew I was in for a long day.

He took me inside the station and because I was a little teary-eyed, he lightened up a bit, introduced me to other officers, and brought me tea. There were four in all and they kept me pretty entertained while I waited for a bus to arrive and take me to the correct border crossing. They tried to teach me the Kazak language and referred to one another as King Kong. After about four hours a bus showed up. They escorted me onto the bus which seriously had at least 100 people crammed on it. I had to sit on the steps, where the automatic door opens. Because we had become such good friends, the border patrol warned each and every person on that bus to stay away from me, respect me and not to even think about stealing from me. The driver had instructions on where to take me, and he did so, but it was the absolute worst bus ride I have ever been on. Ever. It stopped every 25 feet and let people off and each person seriously had about 100 pounds of oil, bread and fireworks for New Years. When I finally reached the border, I was able to cross fairly easily, after an interview with the main guard on the Kazak side. He was friendly though, and helped me into a taxi, which was supposed to take me to the bus station in Taraz. Instead, he took me to the bazaar. From there I had to find another taxi to the bus station. This man was not friendly, and the doors only opened from the outside. I tried to pay him in som, but because I was no longer in Kyrgyzstan, he only wanted Tinge. (Kazak money). Which I don’t have. I begged him to let me out of the car, but he refused, wanting more som than I was giving him. It was only a five-minute ride, so it shouldn’t have cost much at all. I got out my cell phone and tried to call for help, but Kyrgyz cell phones don’t work over there. Finally, after banging on the window, a man opened my door from outside. I ran from the crazy taxi man and tried to find a marchrutka headed to Bishkek, but because it was all ready 4:00 p.m., (Mind you I left at 9 am and was technically only an hour from my village) no marchrutkas were going to Bishkek. I found the taxi section, but the man started taunting me after I turned down their offers to drive me for 3 thousand som. I walked in circles trying to find a way, but ended up back at the taxis. One man asked me if I was going to walk to Bishkek. It was a wonderful experience. By this time I was in tears, cold and tired and had no choice but to pay the man and go. Of course though, he wanted Tinge. So I had to first go to the ATM and withdraw American money and then exchange it at a bank.

Four and a half hours later the taxi arrived at a huge neon sign that said Customs. It looked like the entrance to Disneyland. I knew once again that I was at an unfamiliar border crossing. Of course my lying piece of crap taxi driver dropped me off and left, with pretty much every cent I had. Another girl had ridden in the taxi with me, and she and I went across the border together. Of course she turned out to be conniving as well, as when the desk took a long time to process my passport, she told me to pay them! Like hell I was going to pay the Customs guy to let me across the border! I told her to get lost, but she kept following me. From the border I grabbed a taxi, got a hold of Xouhoa and Rebecca, who had been in Bishkek waiting for me since noon, and took the last leg to Bishkek. The taxi dropped the girl and I off downtown, which was decorated with Christmas decorations, and was crowded and in good spirits. It reminded me off home, seeing so many people all getting ready to celebrate a holiday. Anyway, the girl booked it from the taxi, and I was raging by this point. I threw money to the driver, got out of the car, spotted her, and then heard familiar voices. It was Scott and Leslie, a married couple, both lawyers from Colorado, also volunteers who live in Bishkek. I ran to them, in tears, and Leslie chased the girl down with me and demanded money. I got it. And then to top it all off, a big fat rat ran across the sidewalk. It was 11:00 p.m.

And that was my trip to Bishkek.

Rebecca, Xouhoa, Charlie, Anne, Phil and Katie were all inside the café waiting. It was a wonderful reunion. We all headed out on the town, hitting a local hookah bar first. Rebecca and I wanted to go the hotel and get some sleep, as it was after 1 am, so we took a taxi to the Kyrgyz Alton, a small adequate hotel. But, of course we were taken to the wrong place. The sign said Kyrgyz Alton, but it was an apartment building, not a hotel, which we found out after accosting the bellman for a half hour. We took another taxi to the correct hotel and checked into a single room. We found a rollaway bed in the hallway and crashed, (Communal bathrooms by the way). In the morning we headed out on the town.

We had pancakes at a café and then trekked to the Hyatt, hoping for early check in. We stopped along the way at an ATM, at a department store to pick up speakers for my computer, and then ran into an older military couple on the street. They told us the base was having a big concert for New Years, part of the USO Tour. A country concert… Well, everyone knows me and country music…but the man couldn’t remember the name. I did some investigating, it turned out to be Carrie Underwood, from American Idol. I was jealous.

Anyway, we got to the Hyatt at 11 and were able to check in. We were sent straight up to the top floor as we were staying in the Regency Level. We were immediately given a fruit basket and taken by a bellboy to our suite. He gave us a tour of our room, explaining how everything worked, (Internet connection, heated towel rack, etc.) There was a tray of Christmas cookies and lots of oranges for us, along with robes and slippers. We booked massages right away, and relaxed in the room before heading down to the gym. The massage was incredible. Hot stones, for more than an hour. Amazing and so worth it. Afterward we headed to high tea for all the ice tea and American food we wanted. It was also amazing. I have never been so happy to see ravioli with real spaghetti sauce and I think Xouhoa felt the same way with cappuccinos. We headed back to the room, relaxed longer and then headed to cocktail hour at our private lounge. Because we were the only guests staying on that floor, we were treated amazingly. We drank so much Kahluha, it was wonderful. I was the bartender, which was fun, and we had more hoer'doerves, watching fireworks from around the city, (fireworks here are abundant, it was like the fourth of July). Afterward we took turns taking baths in our amazing Jacuzzi tub and then rang in the New Year at our balcony with pizza and French fries, delivered from the hotel kitchen.

We caught word that all phone calls with Bitel cell phones would be free for one week, so we tried calling everyone we could. But so did everyone else in Kyrgyzstan, so now the system is entirely shut down.

In the morning we headed down to the sauna and whirlpool and say for a couple of hours, trying to figure out a way to put off checking out and heading back to our villages. We all showered (probably for the fourth time in two days (or more like the fourth time in months)) and then we drug our feet down to the checkout, where we were given more oranges. Oh yeah, first we go to watch the ball drop in New York though, which was fun.

We hit the New Years’ Brunch, which we all agreed was the best part of the trip. It has cereal, an omelet bar, a salad bar, an ice cream bar, a spaghetti station, chicken, duck, lamb chops, fruit, basically everything possible. We were mesmerized. We had mimosas and fish and absolutely no potatoes. We also met a couple of Americans who promised to bring us goodies from home, as they were going on vacation and then coming back to Kyrgyzstan. (Ask me for more info).

We got a late start on traveling, but I was able to find a marchrutka back to Talas. It wasn’t heated and it wasn’t fast, and the blizzard didn’t help. But I made it through the border, knew better when the man didn’t turn to take me to the correct border, had him stop, got a taxi back to the only border I could cross, and made it home safely at midnight, only to be locked out of the house. It took snowballs at the window to get Zamir to let me in. Thank god I have a good arm, because I had to through them up to the second story, over the massive compound-like fence that we have, and in the cold blizzard.

Quite a trip.

Oh yeah, and on that one bus in Kazakhstan, my pink American hat with matching gloves was stolen, along with a mini flashlight/lighter combo from my pocket. Very, very sad.

But I’m back, and taught classes today, and vacation starts on Friday, for one week. Hopefully cell phones will start working soon, but who knows.

Oh yeah, also, in Bishkek I was able to buy DVDS. I got Narnia, Harry Potter 4, the Dukes of Hazzard, Just Like Heaven and Fever Pitch. For less then $3. Pretty sweet deal.
Too bad I watched them all already. I loved Just Like Heaven, but really is there any Reese Witherspoon movie that I don’t like?

Oh this is great, one of my students gave me this card for New Years:

Happy New year Elizabet!
Dear Elizabet
I wish you Good Luck for Cristmas happy new year!
You are so good, so pretty, so kinds, so nice, so best, cool friends.
I want to wish you many good friends for you, But I’ll wish you very main friends.
My present/gift and Santa Claus!!!
I kiss, to hug you
I love you Elizabet
Iaza

It was written on the back of a framed picture of a waterfall. My students are really great.

January 3-7, 2006

Well it was an easy week at school, that’s for sure. Hardly any students showed up and on Thursday I spent the entire day just filling out journals for each of my eleven classes. Journals are similar to grade books, except students receive grades 1-5. A five is the best and a four is above average and a three is average. I am not allowed to give anything below a three. I have a hard time tackling the journals because I cannot read Kyrgyz cursive writing, and even if I could it only says the students last name. I know the students by first names. (This is because the average last name here is something like Kurmanakunov). So, when asked to fill the journals out, I couldn’t figure out which student was which. This is where having a ‘counterpart’ comes in, as they are supposed to translate and help you as needed. No sign of one at Lenin School. Turns out I didn’t need to know my students’ last names anyway, because the teachers insisted that they change all my grades. I was not allowed to issue a single grade based on my own observations and assignments. Not even going to get started on corruption.

So the phones are still off in the country, so I haven’t been able to communicate with anyone for more than a week now. I guess I am in the Peace Corps though, so maybe I shouldn’t rely on a cell phone so much…

I was feeling down one afternoon this week after another uneventful trip to the Post Office. Still no packages. I don’t have any paper. I write letters daily and I have no paper. I know there is some in one of the packages headed here, and I am trying to patiently wait, but writing on graph paper is not fun… (wait til’ people start getting my graph paper letters). Anyway, Zamir (host brother) went out to buy some more ketchup and noodles for me and came back with an American DVD. I don’t know where he got it, but it had five movies on it, and they were all in English. Since I had watched the four movies I bought in Bishkek all ready, (okay the Reese Witherspoon one like 100 times) it was great. I got Shark Tale, Ladder 49, Forgotten, Mr. 3000 and Sky Captain oh yeah and Spiderman 2. I can’t bring myself to watch Ladder 49 though. Too sad.

Also no Internet in weeks. You can probably tell by the length of this blog entry. Oh, I just found out the 10th is another one of those big holidays where you have to go to at least seven different houses for a meal and tea or you are shamed. Not looking forward to it. It takes me about two days to recover from these things. So much tea in the system I have to fast and drink about 2 gallons of water to get back to normal. Not that I mind giving up potatoes and ketchup for a day or two…

Could someone please send me some magazines? Girls I know you all buy the new Cosmos and Glamours every month… send me your old copies please… I’m begging you… I need my fix… Its bad enough I have to miss TWO years of All My Children. I need to know the Glamour Do’s and Don’ts! (Even though everything’s a do over here, believe me).

So I’m on vacation for 2 weeks, in a village with no Internet and no Nichole (she’s in India for three weeks). What am I going to do? It’s too cold to be outside and I’ve read so much that I am starting to feel guilty about it. I mean today I read Great Expectations in one sitting… What have I become?

Damn no power again… Thanks for reading.

Finally an update!!!! Most recent last

2005-12-20T01:41:00.000-08:00

December 11, 2005

Well its Sunday afternoon, and I am bored.

Thursday and Friday were pretty fun teaching days, though it’s a long week of classes. I have 22 hours to teach and four of my classes are really advanced, which is great. I have my first day of club tomorrow at 2, as well. I think I am going to bring whatever I can find, and we will decorate my classroom. Clubs are kind of like extra English lessons after school, where we can discuss anything students who show up want. I haven’t decided what kind of club to have, if I will center it around a certain topic or not, I mean.

So I spent Thursday in my room intently working on a Christmas puzzle that my parents sent me. The thing about me is that once I start something I don’t stop until I finish it. I guess that is good and bad, but I seriously spent 7 hours working on this damn puzzle until it was complete. And then to top it off I was missing one of the 500 pieces. I gave up after searching my room for another hour, and then went to bed. I woke up in the morning and saw the puzzle piece, blending in with my rug, right in front of me, of course. So thanks mom and dad for sending me the puzzle, it was entertaining…

I had my first Kyrgyz lesson here as well. My host mother is a Kyrgyz teacher, so I don’t have to get a tutor. We are starting at the beginning, again. This way I’ll maybe remember some of the stuff I learned in September.

My favorite student, Myrambek, (the one that white-washed me) is becoming a pain in the ass. He likes to kiss my hand and put his arm around me, and then leaves the classroom to ‘go to the toilet’ and never comes back, Maybe its better that way.

On Saturday I was silly. I woke up at 8 to head into Talas City to meet Macheala and use the Internet. I didn’t bother to check the weather, as it is dark here until about 9 am, since we are the only country in the world that doesn’t change the clocks, ever. So I put on jeans, wool socks, a sweater and my shell of my coat. And then a hat and gloves. I walked to the bus station which is about a two-mile walk, and I thought I might die. It was so cold. My fault for dressing poorly, but I figured I would be in a warm marchrutka, sweating from having a hundred people crammed in with me, like previous times. Apparently the times have changed. The marchrutka I took had no heat, and I was next to the back window, which never thawed. The driver didn’t even bother to thaw out any of his windows. He just scratched a little part off so he could see and then me and 17, seriously, 17 other people headed into Talas. Its and hour ride. Without stops. But, in a marchrutka you stop and pick people up along the way, and let people off. It was horrible. I had a 17-year-old girl on my lap and I still froze. I was so cold that I was shaking and she kept looking at me to see what was wrong. Never again will I go out without my thermal long underwear, and at least two sweaters and my down coat. When I finally got to the multi-media center I just sat on a heater until I could feel my body again. It was a horrible experience but self-inflicted, I know Dad.

Well we emailed for a while and then had lunch at a cafÈ with the best pizza I have had in Kyrgyzstan. We found out new treat for trips to the city. Chris and Melinda, a married couple in the city got there internet hooked up, so they have dial-up in their house, and I am jealous. They say it works wonderfully and is actually cheaper at night, which is when I will be using it. I can’t wait.

Macheala and I hit the bazaar to try and find the ingredients we needed to make no bake cookies and hot chocolate. After quite a struggle, we managed to find vanilla and baking cocoa, the two tough ingredients. Vanilla is powdered and comes in tiny packets like yeast comes in. You can only buy half a teaspoon at a time. So if someone wanted to send vanilla to me, I would be grateful, powdered or bottled. (Preferably powdered). We bought oats, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, butter and powdered milk and went on our way. I also bought a dress coat, finally to wear to school over my nice clothes. Appearance is extremely important in Kyrgyzstan. Everyone dresses nicely in public, especially the men. I whacked one of my students with my chalkboard eraser rag and I thought he would rip my head off, he was so mad. So my big red coat has gotten me some weird looks at school. Now I have a black button up quilted pea-coat style dress coat to wear to school, with removable fur trim, as that is the style here.

We took a marchrutka with heat back to the village, which is now a two-hour trip as we don’t have snow plows here. Nicole came over and we listened to music and I actually made hot chocolate mix. I am pretty proud of myself. My family brought a small table into my room so we could eat supper in private which was really sweet, even though unneccesrry, and then my brother served us. Such a sweet family. Macheala and I got a surprise banya, so we were happy, and then we made no-bake cookies. We have a gas stove, so it was pretty easy. We brought my computer downstairs and listen to Christmas music and cooked. The family loved it. (My host sister was visiting with her two babies and her cute husband). Afterward, to let the cookies cool, we just stuck them outside and they were cold within minutes. They were a huge hit, the family ate them all. They even asked for the recipe in Kyrgyz, but you can’t get peanut butter here, the main ingredient. A pretty successful cooking venture. Next is Kahluha and pumpkin pie for Christmas.

So all in all, a good weekend, with a hard lesson learned. DO NOT LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT LONG JOHNS. EVER.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I’ve brought Christmas to Kyrgyzstan!

As I walked home from my daily trek to the post office this afternoon, I saw a lonesome Christmas tree in front of a small, local shop. Next to it was a table filled with all sorts of ornaments and stars for the top. I couldn’t resist… Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I bought the tree, (its about four feet tall), and a star topper, along with a box of silver and blue bulbs and a box of red and blue bigger bulbs. Oh yeah and a red garland too. I rushed home, in such a hurry to decorate it, that of course I broke the stand when I slipped on the ice (NOT WEARING MY YAK-TRACKS, SILLY ME), but it still stands up and looks great in my bedroom. I hung my stocking above it and put my Christmas presents underneath. I am proud to say that they are all still unopened and re-wrapped (Thanks to Laurie, when the postal workers took the liberty to open my package). Christmas shouldn’t be that bad!

Two days into school this week and all ready I want to throw students out the window, (and by the way my own window, as I finally got my classroom up and running and in use). What the hell do you do when two 10th grade boys are fighting in the classroom, seriously fist fighting, and they don’t really understand the words stop, go the director’s office or sit down? I tried to beat them with a stick, really Dad, but they just ignored me.

Lucky for me the other students like me a lot and feel like those rowdy boys are shaming me, so the good students got them to settle down and wait for class to end to finish the fight.

Now I don’t remember ever being as active and obnoxious in the 8th grade as my 8th grade students are. I know that 8th grade was the year where I threw a tantrum when one teacher gave me an A-. I was an angel. I went to class, I played a million sports and I did my homework. I didn’t throw things at the boys or knock over people’s chairs during class. I didn’t try to get the teacher to write obscenities on the blackboard. And I definitely did not get up and leave class and go home for the day, whenever I felt like it (Those days came in high school). My 8th graders might just drive me insane by the end of the year. On top of that half of them don’t speak and Kyrgyz, so I can hardly communicate with them. Twice a week, only twice a week.

At home, my host mother is a kick in the pants. She loves to use my Kyrgyz dictionary to look up every new word she teaches me, to make sure that I understand it. Even if I tell her, yes I understand. She’s hilarious. Today she looked up a word to describe my 8th grade class, and the English translation was ‘greenhorn or raw youth.’ Then she told me something about her son, and pointed to ‘manpower.’ I sometimes get the jest of what she is saying. But how funny is it that I had to look up the English translation in the dictionary to find out that ‘greenhorn’ means somebody who is naÔve and unsophisticated. I love our Kyrgyz lessons.

More exciting news, that may make some of you laugh. But thanks to the last female volunteer before me, I am the proud owner of a Kyrgyz curling iron, which I have been looking for all over. (Mine have to be converted for heating reasons and I don’t like using all my propane for my portable). Pretty exciting!

Another sad note. My puppy here, Chase, was kidnapped from our house last night! He was so fluffy and cute, and I hadn’t even got around to taking his picture yet. That’s the last straw with me and dogs in this country. I’m happy with the stuffed one sitting on my desk. That poor puppy didn’t even have ears, and someone still took him? I don’t understand. I had trained him too, to be nice, to cuddle and to come when I whistled. Such a letdown. And don’t ask why he didn’t have ears. (They cut them off. I don’t know why and they just laugh at me when I ask).

December 17, 2005

If I decide to stay in Kyrgyzstan and become a ‘kellen’ I have had more than enough offers this week, (A kellen by the way, is a woman who marries the youngest son in a family. She then proceeds to move in with her husband’s family and will spend the rest of her life basically as a slave, working to keep the in-laws happy and have babies all the while).

In class this week, I got my first love note. It was from a student named Nurmat. Instead of taking the test over body parts like the rest of the class, he drew me a fancy heart with an arrow through it and my name and his inside and gave it to me.

It was a good week though, all in all.

I did have a bad experience with a nasty Russian woman though. I went down town to the little cafÈ where Erich and Nicole have a community English conversation group on Wednesday nights. I was very bundled up after learning my lesson last weekend, so I had entered the cafÈ without looking around, slowly peeling off layers. After a minute of thawing out, this nasty woman came flying at me like Cruela Deville, grabbing my arm and my coat off the coat rack, pulling my toward the door. I had no idea what was going on, and tried to object, only to get an earful of Russian screaming, and then was pushed out the door, it shutting in my face. I stood outside, on the verge of tears for a minute and then a waitress came running outside to explain to me that the cafÈ had been rented out for a private party. Feeling a bit defeated, I trudged back home in my yak-traks, and went to bed early.

I have been having bad luck with the Internet this week, every time I have gone to use it, it has stopped working or the dial up shuts off. So no Internet for more than a week. Hopefully this one is better.

Five days of walking to the Post office too, and nothing. Mail is not going to get the best of me though, that’s for sure. I’ll keep walking down and checking every single day, no matter how hard those postal women laugh at me.
Nicole and I did some more baking though, we successfully made Erich a birthday cake and I made oatmeal cookies for the family, despite not having vanilla, brown sugar or cinnamon. They still tasted good. We cut up a chocolate bar for the chocolate chips, and everything worked out. Next week for our Christmas party we are having apple pie, made by me and a date/walnut cake made by Nicole. I also made Kahluha last week and am going to try a hot sangria punch this week. Should be a pretty good time.

Today is Erich’s birthday and all the volunteers are coming to our village to have a get together at the cafÈ, and then are planning to come here afterward. I love having a big house. In case I haven’t described it, it was two floors, which is extremely uncommon here, and four rooms upstairs. Four bedrooms and one giant formal dining room. Downstairs there is a kitchen, a smaller dining area, a foyer and a side room for laundry and storage. We have a big yard and our outhouse overlooks the town, which is extra special, because as the students walk home from school, they can see you going out to the outhouse, and like to yell hello and such. We also have a barn full of hay and one cow that we keep as a pet.

I experienced my first awkward student-teacher-principal encounter as well this week. I am not sure what was going on, or just what I walked in on, but the assistant principal was holding a big stick in her hand and three third form boys were in tears, yelling in strained Kyrgyz, which of course I couldn’t even begin to understand. Older students kept being called into the teacher’s room to be scolded. I saw one teacher chasing an 11th former down the hallway. It was madness and I am afraid to use more detail than that.

December 18, 2005

Well the cake was a success! It was actually really good and our group ate the entire thing. Six of us got together on Saturday afternoon for Erich’s birthday. We met at a cafÈ and then opened gifts from each village. Surprisingly, Nicole and I had gotten Erich the exact same thing as the other village. A Jesus clock. These are very popular here, so we thought Erich should have one. IT is a regular clock but the middle is Jesus on a cross with his arms coming out to point to the time. Pretty funny. Everyone in Kyrgyzstan has one, so now Erich has two, one of which is set to daylight savings time, which is an hour earlier, as the time is supposed to be here, but isn’t. We had a pretty good time, and even danced a bit at the disco until some of the Kyrgyz men got a little too friendly with Nicole, Machalla and I. We left and went to my house where we ate bread and this cheese spread stuff that we found at a store. Erich had a pretty good birthday and I just want to say thank you to his family for sending him bottles of Jim Beam. I enjoyed my whiskey and coke immensely.

Sunday I have devoted entirely to laundry. I haven’t done any laundry in a month, so it was a long and hard process, even with a machine. The machine only allows a bout a quarter of an American washing machine load, so it takes a lot of time. I even was picky in what I washed, but a month is a long time. I have every pair of underwear I have on the line outside. It is actually a pretty sunny day, so the clothes are drying pretty quickly. I am drying some heavy socks on my heater, it helps speed the process along.

With this post I am hoping to put up pictures… who knows if it will work or not. Thanks to Machalla for loaning my her USB stick for a while. I have great friends, here and at home. (I miss you guys so much)!

December 20, 2005

Still no Internet. Hopefully this afternoon. And also no mail.

What a day. I guess I am just starting to get used to the quarks of teaching in a crazy country, because just as I thought I was settling in and getting comfortable with my schedule, my students pointed out that I was in the wrong place today, every lesson. I went down and tried to decipher the ‘class schedule.’ Which is completely in Russian. I figured out the Russian word for English, and noticed that all of my class times had been moved and switched around. An entirely new schedule that no one thought to inform me of. Wonderful. So most of my lesson plans that I had prepared this week had to be changed, because I would no longer be seeing some certain classes on certain days and such. Because of this certain classes were missed on Monday, which puts some classes behind, etc. A real pain. Oh well. It also gave me two more lessons, which brings me up to 22 lessons a week.

And besides the scheduling crisis, my 8th grade still has not calmed down. It was worse today. I don’t know if they got anything out of my entire lesson. They were wild. First off I don’t have enough chairs for all of them and absolutely cannot get more. Second, one of them, after being punished, decided to pull his coat up over his head like the headless horseman and walk into the walls. Seriously, do they not discipline these kids or teach them how to act in the classroom? I am not going to resort to chasing them around with a giant stick like I’ve seen done, but I am about to that point with the younger ones. The rest are very well behaved. As long as the subject isn’t too dull, then the students are very attentive, even the boys who can’t write their own names in English. But, not the 8th grade. It’s tough.

I am trying to post a picture of my favorite boys at school. They made me a Happy New year’s sign on their own, and brought it to me today. They are 11th formers and all though they don’t speak any English and really don’t want to, they still behave well and are very sweet.

Christmas is not celebrated here, but New Year’s is a big party. I have been trying to explain Christmas and music, and one student actually burst out singing
Yesterday’ by the Beatles. Apparently Mr. Green, the volunteer before me liked the Beatles.

December 5-7

2005-12-09T21:32:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my old host family at the swearing in ceremony.

Top 5 Things that have happened to me this week so far (It is only Wednesday)

5. One of my 18-year-old students white washed me on my way home from school.
4. The kids at the Internet Café stole my USB stick.
3. My new ‘Apa’ (Mother) poured hot water into my cereal
2. I sat through my first ‘teacher’s’ meeting
1. More than half of my 200 students speak Russian. (I don’t).

Well, the good news is my school has heat. As does my house.

The bad news is, half of my students are Russian and I speak a total of six words in Russian. I can’t even pronounce their names. It’s a little bit difficult teaching English to Russian speakers when my small amount of language is Kyrgyz. The Russian students do not speak Kyrgyz. The Kyrgyz students speak Russian though, but that doesn’t really help. It does when the classes are mixed, so then I say something like “What is your name” or ‘sisdene atum askim’ in Kyrgyz, and then they translate it into Russian for me, and then the students answer. It’s a tough system, but it will have to work. I am spending my nights now trying to learn some basic Russian with a couple of manuals and books that I have. I would like to eventually be able to teach in all English, but I have to be realistic. Yelling out ‘Quiet’ in English doesn’t have much affect on any of my students. (There are more than 1000 students at my school).

But besides all that, it has been a great week so far. I began on Monday, walking into the teachers’ room to be greeted by my Director. (Director=Principal). She is a big, touch looking woman who wears a warm furry hat, and when I say fur, I mean like real fur, covering her whole head. She likes me though. A lot. She likes to touch my hair. Don’t ask me why, but she always smooths down the right side of my hair, even though it isn’t out of place or anything.

Anyway, on Monday I went straight into my lessons, beginning first with a 10 A. This is tenth grade, class A, which is 16-year-olds. And some 17-year-olds too. In Kyrgyzstan you have 11 grades, not 12, so my 11th grade students are 18 and some 19. My first lesson only had six students. The way school works here is, if you come you come, and if you don’t you don’t. Reasons for missing class include, working at home, being sick, not polishing your shoes (Shoes here must be polished all the time), not wanting to come, being ‘on duty’ which means you are standing in front of a door, being bored, etc. Students are not required to come to class. It is hard to get them to come all the time.
Anyway with all of my first week classes I have decided just to review and try to find out what English they all ready know. It seems to be working, I began with days of the week, numbers, introductions, basic getting to know one another questions, animals and family.

I see each class twice a week. I have 10 classes, so 20 lessons per week. Five everyday. Which is okay, as there are six periods in a day and I have one free period. School starts at 8:00 and ends at 1:00. On Mondays and Wednesdays I will have English Club after school, be request of my students, at 2:00. Here I will bring my computer, Cds and such, and we will speak English, listen to music and try to have discussions.

I teach one section of Russian 8th grade, both sections A,B, four sessions of 9th grade, sections A,B,V,G. (No idea why they are those letters), three sessions of 10th grade, sections A, B, V and two sections of 11th grade, sections A and B. Totaling more than 200 kids. I am trying to get a fifth grade as well. (Fifth grade is as young as they can strat English).

Can you believe that I am responsible for teaching more than 200 kids English? It’s an awesome, amazing opportunity.

The hard part is that the 11th graders are barely three years younger than me, and are fully grown boys, some with mustaches. The girls are at the point where they either get married or go to college, depending on money. Its going to be hard to teach them, both because it is so important for some of them to learn English, and also because a lot of the boys know they aren’t going to college and will be working in the fields for the rest of their lives. Really a split class, but today I just sat on my desk and talked to them. One of the boys in the class is very tall and big, he looks like a college student. Throws me a little off guard, but its okay. During introductions the class convinced me that he was 20 and has a wife and two kids at home. I believed them, this is Kyrgyzstan afterall, land of the ‘get married when you are 15!!!’ It turned out to be a joke and one girl actually asked me if we could learn things like the future tense and the simple present. I looked at her like she was crazy, I didn’t expect students to be that advanced. But, only she is. So she will work with me one-on-one after school.

In between classes today, I noticed a gap in the schedule for 10 minutes. Confused, I went and sat down in the teachers’ room wondering why from 10:25-10:35 we had a break in the schedule. Little did I know that was actually the time when the director conducts a teachers’ meeting, in the teacher’s room. It was insane. Everyone was quiet, and the director went on and on harshly in Kyrgyz, banging her fist on the desk as she went. I was a bit confused. But my name was being thrown into her fanatic speech! No idea why. And also I wondered about the Russian teachers, do they understand Kyrgyz?

Oh yeah, so this morning I got up, looking forward to my daily treat, cereal that I found at the bazaar. Cornflakes, mind you. Every morning I get up, run outside to the outhouse, come back into my warm bedroom, get dressed, fix my hair, make my bed, fill up my water bottle and head downstairs for tea. My apa is all ready up, as she gets us extra early and milks the cows. Here we don’t sell our milk though, we just drink it. Usually I have breakfast alone and then we walk to school together. (She is a Kyrgyz teacher at the same school). But, this morning she fixed my cereal for me, against my will. When I reached for the jar of milk, she grabbed the tea kettle and poured hot water on my precious cornflakes, then added milk. It was a sad morning. But, me being the go-with-the-flow sweet girl that I am, just put a little sugar on em’ and sucked it up, pretending it was oatmeal. Anyone who knows me knows I am a texture eater, so anything with a weird texture, I don’t eat, (Like squishy grapes, any kind of bruised fruit, ANYTHING SOGGY, leftovers, cottage cheese, etc). I managed though. I’m a new girl I tell you. I don’t think there is anything I can’t handle anymore. Well, maybe a mouse in the classroom, that might put me on a direct flight back to Idaho. (I forgot to mention that the students in Erich’s school (another volunteer in my village) brought a live mouse into his classroom last week).

It snowed this morning and hasn’t stopped. I woke up with just a little bit of snow, and when I left school there was nearly a foot. I guess the first snow always makes the students anxious, because as I mentioned above, the male student who was said to married tackled me and white washed me right in front of my school. Of course I wasn’t about to take that from some boy, so I had to fight back. I guess he wasn’t used to girls with good arms, because I pelted him in the back of the head as I walked away. Caught him off-guard. Thanks dad for always pelting me with snowballs when I walked up our driveway at home, it kept me on my toes. Sorry mom that you still have to deal with that, I’m sure every day.

My counterpart, well acting counterpart, until the real one comes back from ‘being sick’ (three and a half months), abuses the command tense. She yells at me, ‘Sit down.’ ‘TAKE OUT YOUR SCHEDULE.’ ‘WHERE ARE YOU GOING?’ ‘GO HOME NOW.’ It’s a bit frightening at times. Like when she says ‘Go home now.’ I feel like I am getting kicked out of school or something.

I do have a brother that lives with us here. His name is Zamir, and he is wonderful. He corrects my broken Kyrgyz and offers up random English words all the time. But he always comes running to open the gate for me, after I got caught jumping over it, instead of ringing the doorbell. He is 18 and is studying to be a lawyer. Here you just go straight to law school, no college. He does all the work around the house, including making me lunch, which I feel guilty about. But he forces me to drink at least two cups of tea all the time, which I can’t stand. Oh well. I love this family and am 100 times happier here than where I was before. We have honey here too, so I can put it in my tea if I want. We also have milk and juice. Homemade tomato juice, which is another one of those texture things I was talking about, but I manage to drink it anyway. We also have homemade bread and I am not forced to eat anything I don’t like. My apa understands that I don’t like giant steaks of fat, so she always prepares something else for me. Its great. Privacy too. I love it.

This weekend Machaela and I are having a slumber party at my house after we go into Talas to use the Internet. We are going to try to make hot chocolate mix, which I have a recipe for, and no-bake cookies too if we can find oatmeal.

Hopefully the Internet Café owner will find my USB stick, he said he would interrogate every boy that comes in to play video games. Here they don’t mess around, when an older person confronts a child, it isn’t usually pretty. I think he’ll find it.

THE GOOD NEWS IS NEXT WEEK I AM GETTING INTERNET AT MY HOUSE!!!

2005-12-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

Wow! Umm... December 3, 2005

December all ready, that’s exciting. Well we did it. All 59 (We started with 66) of us are now official Peace Corps volunteers. Thursday morning we got up early to say our good byes to our host families. A taxi came to pick me up at 9:00 am, but because this entire country runs on ‘Kyrgyz time’ it showed up closer to 10. Thus creating a small situation, as we were supposed to be at the Culture House in Tokmok for the ceremony by 10:30. And on top of that, the car broke down on the road. We ended up flagging down another beater car to take us the rest of the way to the ceremony but about a block away, he got a flat tire. We eventually made, walking.

Our host families were invited to the ceremony. Mine showed up about an hour into it, with the little spoiled kid who screams constantly. Rebecca’s were about an hour and a half late.

The ceremony was great. We sang the National Anthem, and really felt patriotic throughout the whole thing. I think most of us were a little teary eyed, but we held up. Jeff gave an amazing emotional speech to us, that helped keep us all motivated. Each speech given was translated into Kyrgyz and Russian, or English for us. The Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Kyrgyz Republic, Alikbek Djekshenkulov, spoke to us, telling us that “the outhouses may be cold, but our hearts are warm.” Also, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary her Excellency Marie Yovanovitch spoke and rendered our official oath to become volunteers. Three of my fellow volunteers gave speeches as well. Dane in English, Phil in Russian and Jesika in Kyrgyz. Afterward we took pictures, which I will try to post, and had refreshments. It was quite a site, watching all of our host mothers filling their pockets with all the appetizers.

We took a bus to the Issucle Hotel after the ceremony to check in , drop of luggage and relax before heading to the Ambassador’s house for a reception. Rebecca and I sat and watched our once channel of Russian talk shows and ate Chips Ahoy cookies that her mom sent. Neither of us were looking forward to the separation the next day.

At around six we headed to the reception. The house was fabulous. Makes me want to go into Diplomatic work. Waitresses served us mini pizzas, mini hamburgers and soda. She had bowls of Doritos and pretzels around the house for us. We were in heaven. People swarmed the waitresses as soon as they walked into the room. And a real bathroom…

I had a chance to meet and talk with the Ambassador, as well as a few other employees from the Embassy, which was really great.

Afterward, we headed into the city and hit the Fire and Ice club. The entire downstairs was a bowling alley, much nicer than the bowling alley in Sandpoint, and the upstairs was a big dance club. We actually had a blast, bowling and then dancing. I even got to drink a rum and coke. And I didn’t have to pay for it. It was total culture shock. I forgot I was in Kyrgyzstan for a few hours. We headed back to the hotel at about 1, where we realized it was Rebecca’s birthday. The two of us shared one shot of Bailey’s, all we could afford, and some oreos, again from Rebecca’s mom, and she called home on her cell phone, for about 22 seconds, as cell phones run on units here, so you have to buy units to talk or text message. And one unit does not equal a minute. For example, for me to call America with units, it takes about 40 to connect and then for each minute, about another 40. So for a one-minute call it is 80 units. And I buy 200 unit cards. So one call would use half of my card. To send a text message to another volunteer it is about 2.5 units. So we never call each other, we only send texts. It doesn’t take away any units to receive calls or messages.

Then came the morning. It was tough. After all we have been through together, we all went our separate ways. At 8 am, we said good-bye in the hotel lobby, as people piled bags and bags of luggage into taxis, busses, marchutkas and me, the Peace Corps private bus, that took us into Talas. We have about four Peace Corps couples now, so watching all the good byes was pretty miserable. All the couples were places hours and hours from one another. Rebecca and I are about seven hours apart. Laurie and I are about 20. Xouhoa, Christabelle and I are about 7 hours apart and one hour apart from each other. Its going to be tough up here in Talas. I keep hearing that they send the hardcore people to Talas, but hardcore is probably not a word I would ever use to describe myself in less we were talking about shopping.

The Peace Corps bus is a big white diplomatic vehicle with a private driver. He took us first to a nice store in Bishkek, where I actually found a can of Diet Pepsi, that I am saving for Christmas. We drove through Kazakstan this trip, as the mountain road is closed. It was a long drive.

The eight of us, down one as Katie was moved into Bishkek, mostly slept until we reached the first border crossing. We had to get out of the bus and wait for about 40 minutes to get out of the country and then walk across the border and do the same thing again to get into Kazakstan. After that we were on our way. We drove for a couple of hours through a flat part of Kazakstan and then were back at the border, once again having to get out of the bus and try to get approved to leave Kazakstan and then again, walk across the border and enter through Kyrgyzstan. It was a hassle, but still much better than driving through that mountain pass.

By the way, Amy, a volunteer in Talas with me from Chicago, called me a priss and said she was impressed that someone as material as me joined the Peace Corps. I just can’t escape my material background. It think it was mostly because as I attempted to deal with the border crossing’s disgusting outhouse, she was laughing. I told her she was just more ‘third world’ than I was. She took that as a complement. Its funny, I think we are complete opposites. But, she’s great. She is an SCOD, or a business volunteer, and her NGO is at an internet media center. Lucky break.

My village is about 35 kilometers from the border, and we got to drive right past the dam, with a giant Lenin head potroding from the concrete. The lake level was down as we drove by, but otherwise was beautiful. The scenery in Talas is amazing. You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful place to live. It may be isolated, but I have permission to travel into Kazakstan twice a month to shop and use the internet in Taras City. Apparently there are lots of ATM’s and crosswalks. Nicole, the other volunteer in my village (K12), said I might feel culture shock going there as it is so clean and nice.

After quite a struggle to locate my four massive bags from the bus, my new host mother’s nephew carried them all upstairs to my room. We immediately had soup and tea and then instead of attempting to unpack I went and met Erich and Nicole at a local cafÈ. We sat and talked for a few hours and then they walked me home. I didn’t wake up until 9 this morning. (Saturday).

I unpacked. Everything. All my clothes are neatly organized once again. My closet is bursting, as it isn’t as big as my previous armoire. I covered the walls with pictures of friends and family, and of course of Kodi, (My puppy). I created my own bookcase, hung up posters of Chris Shivers (rodeo), the Dixie Chicks, a map of Kyrgyzstan and used the shelves that I have for my water distiller and my Angel of Courage, my mini-Kodi (Justin), my horseshoe and a picture of Katie and I with Santa. I also hung up all the decorations that my mom sent for Christmas, and my stocking as well. I made a table out of my heater box and a piece of fabric and am proudly displaying my ‘Grinch Stole Christmas’ book, my musical Santa merry-go-round and my clock. I think it (my room) turned out pretty nice. And its warm. I have heat in the house as well as my own heater, and every time I turn my purifier on, it creates heat as well. So no more nights of sleeping in five layers and my hat and gloves, waking up to my Nalgene frozen. I think I will be much happier here. All ready I am content with the freedom that I have.

After I unpacked, I took my list of things I needed to buy and walked to the post office, which wasn’t open, and then to the bazaar. I ended up buying pomegranates, as they are my new favorite, can’t live without, fruit, an electric-cordless hot pot, to heat water with, a sweater and some expandable folders. The weather was gorgeous, and the walk is nice. The bazaar is small, I couldn’t find any hangers, but I was very happy with what it has. I can even get bottled water in the village, without bubbles. (The only kind of water people drink here is gas water).

Tomorrow I will head into Talas City for a welcoming party from the K-12’s.

So I saved my exciting news for last. Through the local post office I can get dial-up Internet for my computer. Neither Nicole nor Erich have computers, so they want to chip in and share it with me. So I will soon be on Messenger again. I can’t wait. Such exciting news!

Anyway, I start teaching on Monday morning, even though I have no counterpart, and have no idea what is going on, but I’m going to try anyway. I guess if I just show up at the school, they will point me to my classroom and I’ll get by!

By the way this is my address, I’m sorry I change it all the time. It is still the same as the last time I sent it; just one line is being taken out. I don’t need to include my street, as any American mail is kept separate at the post office, and I have to go pick it up.

Elizabeth Dalessio
Kyzyl Adyr Village
Kara Buura Rayon
Talas Oblast 722700
Kyrgyzstan

Hope everyone is doing well. I miss everyone so much!

Forgot to spell check, sorry

2005-11-30T01:39:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving through November 29

Oh another week gone by.
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, thanks to good friends, good spirits and the other 5 girls in my village. We spent the day calling home and emailing home, as well as shopping at the bazaar.

For once in my life, I didn’t go shopping. I used the time at the Internet phone to call Kinsie, Lindsy, Edie and the boys and Justin. I tried to call more numbers, but I couldn’t get through to anyone else, and I didn’t have all that much time. So I am sorry to those whom I couldn’t reach, its really hit and miss from here. Of course I talked to my mother, father and sister too, but they called me, first thing in the morning. After phone calls we all went to our favorite café, Café Banu, for good food and good company. Another group of volunteers were there as well, and we ended up singing Christmas Carols all afternoon and dancing until we had to get back to our host families. It was a lot of fun, and it made Thanksgiving a lot happier, despite all the phone calls and homesickness.

On Friday we had our language tests, (LPI’s) which are required in order to become an official volunteer. We were each put in a room with a tester for about 30 minutes, and he asked questions, put us in situations and basically just conversed with us until he felt like he could estimate our language level. I hated every minute of it, but passed, am becoming an official volunteer tomorrow, and am satisfied. I have to give props to Laurie and Chrystal though, as they both passed with flying colors.

We spent Friday afternoon watching the Forty Year Old Virgin on Xouhoa’s computer and relaxing. Friday night though my host mother and I killed a chicken to have our own version of Thanksgiving. She gave me all the white meat, which was wonderful. My host cousin, Aleena, has been staying with us for two weeks, which makes me wonder about where the heck her mother might be? She doesn’t seem to mind; she’s three, and she actually is calling my Apa, which means mom. I am even letting her sleep in my room at night, as she keeps my bed warm. It is so damn cold here that I can almost freeze my nalgene bottle in my room at night.

On Saturday we had Russian language lessons to give us a few basic phrases and somewhat of an understanding of the Russian language in case we need it later on during our service. We were pretty burned out so we pretty much boycotted the lesson. Afterward we had lunch and found out that due to a paperwork medical glich back in DC, Chrystal was being sent home. We spent the afternoon saying horrible good byes and then watching her drive away with a driver to the Manas Airport. (Chrystal I know you are back home reading this now, and I miss you so much already. I am so proud of the way you handled yourself with your head up throughout all this crap, and I hope you give em’ hell from the States. I love you and miss you). Rebecca and I were feeling pretty down after seeing her leave so we headed to my house to watch Sex and the City, season 6.

Guess who was there, my yellow hat disco date! He was working with my host brother on some old pickup in the yard. After a while I had to have supper with him, and then once again he invited me to the discotecha. He was in work clothes though so he had to go home and change and then was to come back for me at 8. Unfortunately the disco got cancelled, so no date for me. I went home to watch more DVDS and had the absolute coldest night since I have been here. There is no heat at my house and my heater is up in Talas, waiting for me. As I write this now, the power is out. I could not get warm no matter what I did. A horrible night.

On Sunday though we got up early and headed into Bishkek. Laurie, Rebecca and I decided to go the giant bazaar, which is seriously bigger than any mall I have ever been to, except its more like tin stalls set up in thin rows, full of random items. If you don’t move fast enough, you get squished into the crazy Russian woman behind you, pulling your hair. I hate the bazaar, but it is really the only place to buy things. We were on a mission for a winter coat for Laurie and a dress coat for me. No luck. We went to ever section of that massive bazaar and neither of us could find a coat that would fit us right. Kyrgyz women are no bigger than 100 pounds and barely five feet two inches tall. All the sleeves were short, and the coats that fit us were the ugliest things you have ever seen, I did buy a sweater with a matching scarf, a teaching skirt and about five pomagranites, which are my absolute favorite fruit in the entire world. (Despite the fact that I had never even had one until I got here).

After our horrible bazaar experience, we decided to go to the American Café, Café Metro. We didn’t really know where it was, but we took a taxi to the cross streets we knew were nearby. We got out of the cab and stood on a street corner, each of us staring off in different directions, trying to remember which way the café was. We asked a woman selling cigarettes and bananas on the street, but she wouldn’t help us. After about five minutes of deliberating, we heard a voice from above us say ‘Where are you trying to go?’ We all looked up, shocked to hear an American, and saw a man smoking a ciggerette on a balcony about five stories up. He was laughing and said he couldn’t watch us any longer. He pointed us in the right direction. Crazy…

At the café we ordered Pepsi Light. It is so wonderful to have Pepsi Light as it is on ice, and this is the only place in the country you can actually get ice. We ordered pizza, a club sandwich and a cheeseburger between the three of us, and we ate every bite. It was wonderful. After three months straight of rice, carrots, potatoes and sheep meat, it was a welcome meal. We even had dessert. Brownies. After that we were content and headed back to the village. But, it was one of the best days we have had in a while.

And then to top it off, I got a banya when I got home. Stuffed with American food, and clean. You can’t beat that.

Monday we had warden training. I am an assistant warden right now, and next year I will take over as warden. The warden is a volunteer who is in charge of a cluster of volunteers in all emergency situations. The warden has a special med kit in addition to our own med kits, as well as an emergency cell phone and a ton of responsibilities. If anyone is hurt the warden accompanies them at all times, if there is a situation that calls for consolidation, the warden is in charge of gathering all the volunteers and using their home for a consolidation point. And this is pretty serious, as last year there was a revolution in Kyrgyzstan, and all the volunteers were consolidated for a few days. Consolidation is the step before evacuating. Last year 13 countries were evacuated.

On Tuesday we spent the day wrapping up medical and safety sessions, before Thursday’s swearing in ceremony. Tomorrow we will officially be volunteers, and then Friday morning we head of to our separate sites, leaving one another behind.

This is where it all begins…

2005-11-24T02:52:00.000-08:00

These are some photos, first of my new host mother and her grandson, also the three children that have been staying at my house in the village and a picture of us having a good time at Charlie's birthday.

Party Pics

2005-11-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

November 21, 2005

2005-11-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

I spent the day in bed today after a mishap with Tylenol p.m.

I woke up early this morning with quite an intense headache, and as the power was out, stumbled from my warm bed, through my freezing bedroom to my cabinet and took four Tylenol pms instead of IB Profen. At 6:30 in the morning. Needless to say I didn’t actually wake up until about 4:30 this afternoon, when my host mom came barging in, insisting that I get up for tea.

We had a pretty fun weekend in the village. First of all I was introduced to Sex and the City, which I cannot believe I have been missing out on all these years. Xouhoa’a friends sent her a box filled with DVD’s, hot chocolate, cheetos and candy. We watched the entire third season, and I am now a fan. I can’t wait to see the rest.

On Saturday after a morning of language lessons, I was invited to the Disco by the yellow hat guy. His name is Moshot. Don’t ask me, I just went with it. Anyway, he came over and invited me by asking my host mother if he could take me. She said I would go, as long as my brother went too. So I went to get dressed, as after all this was my first Kyrgyz arranged date.

We left for the dance at about 7 p.m. Of course we walked, as no one really has a car in the village. It was cold. And the boys kind of ignored me and walked in front of me. Language barriers make for a rough date. I tried to put those issues aside, as well as the whole bride-kidnapping issue jumping out in my mind. The disco tech was held in a basement room at the school. I walked in and of course didn’t have to pay, being an America. When we hung our coats up and walked in, I was quick to notice that I was the only female in the place. All older Kyrgyz boys and a few young ones that I had taught in the mix. Thank god for cell phones. I started texting all the girls and after a half hour they all showed up to rescue me. After that we had a lot of fun. Laurie and I danced with random guys to random old American pop songs. We all chimed in to Tony Braxton’s Unbreak my Heart. It was a blast. I didn’t actually ever get to dance with the yellow hat guy, whom by the way has finally moved on from the yellow hat, only to be replaced with a more winterish one, but he didn’t seem to mind. He stayed nearby and visited with friends home for the weekend from the University. The highlight of the evening seriously had to be when some 17-year-old tried to grope me in the stairwell and my host-brother and my date took him outside. Don’t know what went on, but the kid never came back, and the boys didn’t leave my side again for the rest of night. It was nice to have them looking out for me. They both walked me home, and that was that. A pleasant evening.

On Sunday I got up early to do laundry, but no one else was awake, so I had to resort to watching more Sex and the City episodes on my computer and then got a phone call from home. After about 10, my family got up and I was able to do laundry. Once again I had a lot, and took up the whole line. After laundry I washed my hair and got ready for Charlie’s birthday party in Ivanafka, a Russian village with more volunteers. Laurie and Rebecca showed up and we all took turns using my propane curling iron to get dolled up. We took a cab into the other village and had a blast. About 35 other volunteers came to the bar and we had a Russian cake and lots of beer. It was a lot of fun.

And that leaves me where I am today, just waking up from a deep sleep, ready to start my day, except its dark all ready and 6:30 p.m. Damn that Tylenol pm.

November 22, 2005

I got my first of two Christmas packages today, and to my dismay it was broken into. I tried to mentally prepare myself for this a head of time, but nothing really helps when you open a package and find pieces of wrapping paper and ribbons not attached to anything floating around in a box. The good news is, I figured out what belonged with each piece of wrapping paper, and I taped all of the gifts back up and sealed them for Christmas. The stocking appeared to be in tact as though, as it was full, so I don’t think anything was missing. It just makes Christmas not so fun, when you have a slight preview of what you are getting! Oh well, two of the gifts were still in tact, so no giveaways there, as well as the stuff in the stocking. So thanks mom. And the country Christmas CDS are just what I needed… but just so you know, inside of one of them is really George Strait’s Christmas CD, so when you open that case at home, maybe you’ll find Country Christmas? I probably mixed them up last year… sorry. Hopefully the second box comes as well, as I know that my photo album is in it, and I would hate to lose that. But I think it made it, and that stocking is absolutely wonderful, thanks mom and dad, I am excited for Christmas all ready!!!

Anyway all mail from now on must be sent to this address:

Elizabeth Dalessio
47 Jzerskinskya Street
Kyzyl Aydr Village
Kaara Buura Rayon
Talas Oblast 722700
Kyrgyzstan

Apparently the mail in Talas is wonderful, packages always get there, quickly and in tact too. Don’t mention Peace Corps on the packages anywhere. Printed labels are more reliable as well. Xouhoa had a package sent to here with the label written in font that looked like it was dripping in blood. That didn’t get touched. Keep on duck taping them up… They got into my mother’s last one, apparently not enough tape. They have never seen duck tape here either, so let’s try that now…. Maybe it will be more affective. Could someone send me a new AP style book? That’s Associated Press, for journalists, mind you, I feel like my journalistic style is slipping… (Like should I have used affective or effective in that last sentence)? Yikes!

Today was our final day of technical training. Tomorrow we have medical and safety sessions and then on Friday we have our Language Proficiency Test. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and we decided to go into Tokmok to call home and then have a nice afternoon meal at the fancy restaurant there. They have a version of pizza. It has like a weird sour cream/ cream cheese layer and then a sort of cheese and ketchup on top of that. What can you do? It’s the closest thing to pizza I have seen in months. And the crust is actually pretty good. They also have Coke products. No diet though. You can only get diet coke in Bishkek. And actually in Bishkek its only Pepsi light that you can get. Strange. Too bad we don’t have access to the military’s PX stores…

Anyway tonight I am sitting here listening to Jingle Bells on my Christmas snow globe type thing that my family sent from home… Happy Thanksgiving!

In Memory...

2005-11-18T01:41:00.000-08:00

WELCOME TO KYRGYZSTAN

2005-11-18T01:36:00.000-08:00

This picture symbolizes Kyrgyzstan totally. Two toddlers baby-sitting an 8 month old child outside in front of their home. THe second picture is of some mountains in Talas, taken from the car window.

Some new pics

2005-11-18T01:32:00.000-08:00

This is a party at my house, Rebecca and I are in the back, where the honored guests sit.

2005-11-18T01:26:00.000-08:00

Another week, another adventure

2005-11-18T01:23:00.000-08:00

Site Visit November 8-13

We got to Bishkek at 10 in the morning and the Issucle Hotel had never looked so good. We met in Tokmok, at our hubsite where a giant tour bus was waiting to take us to meet our counterparts and directors. At the hotel we were assigned rooms and were given 10 minutes before sessions started, so the showering had to wait. Rebecca and I were assigned to the fourth floor of the hotel (there is a picture below) and we got the ultimate suite. Instead of a soviet style room with a squat toilet and two tiny beds with one wool blanket each, we got a master suite. Our room was four times as big as the last time we stayed at the hotel. We had a balcony overlooking the parking lot, a loveseat, one queen sized bed, a TELEVISION with get this CNN and some channel that broadcasted MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!!! Live even, except it is Tuesday Morning Football here, but hey I watched the Patriots play the Colts and it was great. Our room had a bathroom with a real toilet and a tub with a hand held shower, so we had absolutely no complaints, and were happy to share a bed, as it meant a much more magnificent room! We had our first session of the day with Marat, our safety and security coordinator. It turned out to be a lesson in self-defense, which was kind of interesting. After that we were matched up with our counterparts. Our counterparts consist of people who live in our villages that speak some English and will help us with anything we might encounter over the next year. They are there to help us and translate, etc. My counterpart though was not there, as she is ill and has been in the hospital for the past two months. She is the English teacher at the school that I work at, so the students have not had English this year. In her place, I had a woman named Chunara who teaches German and speaks a little English. She is acting as my counterpart until the real one is better.

We spent the afternoon working with counterparts, doing introductions and setting goals for our sites. After that we were free to enjoy ourselves. Unfortunately, I got my first bad migraine while we were there, and spent the night in bed at the hotel.

IN the morning Chunara showed up at my hotel room door at 7:30, all though we had agreed to meet in the lobby at 8:15. I was still recovering from my amazing ‘hot’ shower and wasn’t quite ready. After I hurried to put socks and shoes on and throw my hair in a braid, we attempted to bring my luggage to the lobby. At this hotel the elevators only hold two people, so it is quite a struggle. With my heater and five thousand bags in tow, we got in a taxi and headed to Talas. Just me and a German teacher who speaks little English.

We left the hotel at 9 AM and got to the bus station to catch a marchrutka. The easiest way to get to Talas is through Kazakstan, but right now they aren’t allowing Americans, so we headed through the mountains. After waiting for three hours to get a full marchrutka load, we finally left the station. In a minivan turned marchrutka. I had to hold my giant backpack at my feet, so was forced to sit sideways the entire trip. Thank god for my ipod. After three hours of swerving, pot holes, dirt roads, cows, sheep, donkey carts, horses, snow, rocks, avalanches, switchbacks, river crossings, bouncing up and down, hitting my head on the window and the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen, we got to the top of the first mountain range. From there we went through the mountains, And I mean through. We literally took a tunnel through the mountains. What an experience. Not necessarily an exciting one at that either. You cannot see ahead of you very far in the tunnel and cars just pass at random from both directions. No one follows any sort of traffic laws. In fact there are no such thing. At the other side of the tunnel we headed down the mountain, another petrifying experience. No one slows down for the switchbacks, they just fly around them and honk the horn a lot. When we got off the mountains, I found myself in a valley surrounded by mountains. We stopped at a one-room café for lunch and then were on the road again. In the marchrutka a man sat behind me who loved to sing to Kyrgyz/Russian music. He kept pulling my headphones from my ears and telling me that I should listen to the Kyrgyz music. After another six hours or so we got to the bus station in Talas City. Normally the ride should take about five hours. I have no idea what made ours so slow. From Talas City we have to either catch a bus or taxi another hour, into Kyzyl-Azyl, my village. We stood outside until after 8 pm in the freezing cold bus station trying to flag down a taxi. After a couple hours we were able to take a small bus into the village, about an hour ride. From there I took a taxi to my new address, which I have posted above this entry. Mail in Talas is much better and I shouldn’t have to worry about it at all.

My new house is on a hill on the main street in town. We arrived very late and after about 10 minutes of banging on the gate and ringing the buzzer, my host mother appeared. She is a 60 year old Kyrgyz woman, and I have posted a picture of her as well. She has two sons and a daughter. Her oldest son works in Bishkek as the English translator for the President of the country. Pretty important job.

My room is upstairs, yes there is an upstairs to my house… It is much smaller than the room I have now, but it is cozy and easier to heat. I also have a CD player in my room, which was a huge surprise. There is a TV room upstairs as well, but I haven’t ventured to see what Russian channels we pick up yet.

It was so late that I was pretty tired and was ready to crash, but Eric, another volunteer in the village showed up to greet me, so that was great. He is a K-12, meaning he has been here for a year, and he works at the Manas School. There are three public schools in the village and one private licium where Nicole, another K-12 volunteer works. Her school has indoor plumbing and internet. Pretty nice. Anyway we had tea and then Eric promised to show me around more on Friday and help me set up a bank account.

My new house has running water, another bonus, but it does get pretty cold so I wonder if it will freeze up in the winter? Who knows.

On Thursday I got to sleep in. I have to use my sleeping bag and then blankets on top of that in order to stay warm, but I think that was just because I didn’t have my heater on all day, and the room was cold. My new Apa (mom) and I walked about 50 yards in the morning to the new school, where I met the Director. (The director here is the principal). She is a really nice Kyrgyz woman who speaks a lot of Russian. I was able to introduce myself and tell her I liked my room and the family. I mentioned that I didn’t have a lock on my door and she said she would send someone over as soon as possible. I got a short tour of the Lenin School, and it is massive, very Russian-style, meaning its an old soviet building with brick walls and no heat, water or indoor plumbing. My classroom is small, but has potential. It is very bare and the chalkboard looks like it is from 1943, but I can work with it.

After that I was given a tour of the town, shown the bank, post office, etc. Then I was on my own.

I went back to my new house, which is easy enough to find, as it is on the only hill in town, and on the main street. The power was out though, so not much to do but read. Eric and Nicole both came over for dinner, which was great. Both speak Kyrgyz fluently, and were a big help in getting to know my new apa.

On Friday, Eric and I spent hours walking around the village. We had a pretty unlucky day. First we went by all four schools so I could be familiar with them. It was raining pretty steadily the whole time, and my jeans were pretty soaked by a half hour into our tour. After that we went to the bank to open an account. Unfortunately it was a pentioner day. This means that everyone and their dogs, cats, horses and sheep are in line to get their checks from the government. The bank woman told us to come back in the afternoon, thus canceling our afternoon plans to go into the city to use the Internet. So we tried the village Internet, but it wasn’t working. After that we went to the café for a beer, and I met a few men who speak English really well. There is a company in the village that is sponsored by a Swiss corporation that loans money to farmers trying to settle property rights. All the workers speak English. The men actually picked up our tab too.

After about an hour at the café we noticed that the women from the bank had come in for a late lunch, meaning no one was working at the bank. They proceed to start drinking, so we knew we wouldn’t be hitting the bank anytime soon. We had lunch and then walked around in the rain a little more and then followed the women back to the bank to open an account. It was funny, they couldn’t break a 500 som bill for me at the bank. Welcome to Kyrgyzstan… I tell myself over and over. Especially as when I got home, yep, you guessed no electricity again.

I spent the night wrapped in my sleeping bag with a book and a flashlight.

In the morning Eric and I walked through the live animal bazaar in the village and then caught a taxi to Talas City.

A perfect example of what I can accomplish here: We stood waiting to catch a taxi, as all marchrutkas were on strike because of the price of beans, and the driver spoke very clear English. He told us that A Peace Corps volunteer at the University in Bishkek taught him to speak English in 1997. We really can make a difference here, and we are all tied together one way or another.

In Talas the Internet didn’t work, so it was an unsuccessful trip, but I did get to meet up with Chyrstal and Lisa. We all had lunch and then I headed back to the village (about an hour ride) to say good-bye and get ready for the return trip.

In the morning after a gloomy phone call from the states, (My Daddy), I headed into Talas alone, feeling pretty upset from the news he had shared. I didn’t bother to barter a cab fare, didn’t care, just wanted to get there to be surrounded by friends. In Talas I met up with eight other volunteers and we all loaded into a van to get back to Tokmok. By the way, there was a lot of snow on the ground. About an hour into the trip back we hit massive snow, a one-lane road and lots of accidents. The driver didn’t seem phased though, and he headed up that mountain range like a bat out of hell. We got to the top clutching each other and our possessions, and breathed a huge sigh of relief when we made it through the tunnel, and down the other side of the range. We got into Bishkek and then into Tokmok in about six hours.

My puppy was sure excited to see me. Rebecca came straight over when she heard I was back, and we reminisced out trips and then passed out, exhausted. Language lessons started back up at 8 AM on Monday morning. We went into Tokmok in the afternoon to do some emailing and to get our hair washed, and of course when I got home I had a banya waiting. And six new puppies, as our other dog has apparently been pregnant the whole time I have been here.

And here comes a wave of bad news….

First, my beautiful puppy, Tex, gone. No one saw him, no one found him on the road or anything, nothing. Just gone. I searched this village up and down, asked neighbors, looked in manholes, everything. Gone.

Second, on Thursday morning here, Wednesday evening in the U.S. my grandma passed away at the age of 82. I hope everyone at home is hanging in there, it is hard to be so far away when everyone is grieving, but I hope you all know that I am right there with you.

November 1-7 Happy October Socialists’ Revolution Day

2005-11-14T00:30:00.000-08:00

This week was such a busy week that I actually combined it all into one journal entry and today is another holiday. Wednesday was the big day for everyone. Site announcements. The one thing that pretty much everyone has been looking forward to since we got here. We had our regularly scheduled hub day, in which we suffered more shots, and anticipation of announcements later on in the day. At 3:30 we all gathered around outside of the building for first a group photo, and then to receive an envelope. Once all the envelopes were passed out we all opened them at once to read about our permanent sites. After that, we found our village on a giant, human sized map, and stood on the spot to see where everyone else was in relation to your own spot.

I’m off to Talas. Don’t really know much to say about it. I hear it is nice there. Katie is joining me and so is Chrystal, Michaela, Alex, Lisa, Amy, Jessica, Chris and Melinda. We are leaving tomorrow, the 8th, from Bishkek to go and meet our directors and counterparts, and visit our schools. My school is called the Lenin Secondary School. My new village is Kyzyl-Adry and is in the Kara-Buura rayon in the Talas Oblast. The information that I have gotten so far is that there are 1001 students, 2 English teachers, 51 other teachers and the city has a public banya, a post office, a hospital, a market and a bank. Did I just describe my village as a city? Ha, what was I thinking? The village is said to have around 5,000 people in it and surrounding. The population is very mixed: Kyrgyz and Russian. It is an agricultural area, (maybe like the rolling hills of the Palouse…) and people grow sugar beets, corn and wheat. It is 360 kilometers from the capital city and one hour from Talas City. The director’s name is Uulbolsun.

I have heard that the area is absolutely gorgeous, in a valley between two incredible mountain ranges. There is said to be some skiing up there somewhere, but I don’t know if I trust the ‘ski lifts.’ It reminds me of Fear Factor: Kyrgyzstan. I heard that there is a Frisbee golf course in my village, thanks to another volunteer. Never played, but around here beggars can’t be choosers, so I’ll learn.

Rebecca is headed to Naren, so of course I am disappointed. We will be at least 6 hours from one another, but plan to meet at least once a month in Bishkek. Xouhoa and Christabelle are headed to the lake, while Laurie is going way down south to Jalalabaad and Glenn and Linda to Osh. That rounds out the village. So everyone is pretty excited.

After we had the shock of site announcements, we got a pleasant surprise: mail. One of the drivers brought all of the mail and it was like Christmas in November. Insane, is how I would describe it. His car was filled to the top with packages, and the front seat was filled with post cards and letters. There must have been 50 packages and 200 letters. Of course I got two, as I have a wonderful family. First I got a smaller manila with scarves and cute Halloween stuff and then my winter box with a winter coat, fleece, hat, gloves, scarf, socks, underwear, trail mix, contact solution, Kleenex, and more. It was wonderful. Everyone is so impressed mom with your ability to send a package so well organized. Bad news though. Poor Rebecca. Her older brother put together a package for her and she received it, clearly broken into. All that was inside was a bag of twizzlers, some newspapers and a Russian bible. I don’t think her brother sent her the Russian bible. Everything was stolen from the package except for the candy. So here I stress again, packages have to be taped to the extreme and than wrapped and taped again and the label should be typed. Otherwise this is what happens. Out of our nearly 60 packages, four were destroyed.

The day after the announcements is a Kyrgyz holiday. Actually it is a Muslim holiday: Ramadan. To celebrate one must be a guest a seven different people’s houses or they will have bad luck the following year. After language lessons we all separated to spend the holiday with our host families. The moment I walked through the door my host mother told me to put on a skirt and a hat, and then we were off. Just the two of us, as the men and women don’t celebrate together. We went to a neighbor’s house and sat down for tea and bread and all sorts of Kyrgyz goods that I don’t really like and then we omened and headed to the next house, this time the women from the previous house joining us. That was the routine. At each house we hit we added more women. And house-by-house the cups of tea got smaller as I was literally forcing it down my throat. You have to at least have a cup of tea and a piece of bread at each place. By the 10th house I was pretty much exhausted. But thankfully, the tenth house was my own, and we had pears. No one else had any fruit. So that was nice. By this time we had about 30 women with us, and I posted or will post a picture of the group. Rebecca joined us too. This was her first stop, and she was determined to get to seven houses as well. So you guessed it. My host mom insisted that I not let her travel around the village alone on a holiday, so off we went. Me tired and not hungry, and Rebecca laughing at me. We went to Christabelle’s first, and even though she wasn’t there, we still sat and had tea and snacks and then were on our way again. (Every house has a full table with an amazing spread set out all day, as you never know when or who or how many people might show up at any time). In our village there is a giant house that we always stare at as we go by. It has a satellite dish and an indoor garage and gated patio and everything. We always try to spy but never see anyone. As we walked by on our way to Laurie’s I was admiring the November roses in the garden in front and told Rebecca it would be great if we happened to get an invitation as we walked by. We slowed our pace down and looked pretty, and sure enough a big bossy woman cam running out onto the road and forced us inside. We were introducing ourselves to her and couldn’t quite understand her name. She started saying ‘Besh som’ which means 5 som. We had no idea what was going on, so we thought she wanted us to give her 5 som. We were appalled that the biggest and richest house was asking us for money on a holiday, but were anxious to see the inside of the house. I didn’t have my purse, and Rebecca and I dug through our pockets for money in a panic. That’s when we realized she was trying to tell us that her name is the same name of the woman on the 5 som bill. We were pretty embarrassed. Communication barriers… they get you every time.

The house was amazing for Kyrgyzstan. It had wood paneling and floors and giant pieces of artwork. It was even warm inside. The table was set with all sorts of fruit and Rebecca and I stayed for an hour, looking at family photo albums and chatting with our hostess. She was from the city and came to stay with her son for the holiday. The house had tons of rooms and we weren’t allowed to see one side of the house, for unknown reason, during our tour. Afterward she fixed us up with goody bags of fruit and sent us on our way. I tried to get Rebecca to ask to use the toilet, just to find out if they had real plumbing but we were too chicken. (We later found out that no one in our village has indoor plumbing so it didn’t matter).

By the way, Ramadan means no drinking, so that’s another plus to the holiday. I couldn’t imagine going house to house if we had to drink more than tea.

We hit Laurie’s house and then Chrystal’s and Rebecca got her seven houses in just before dark. I had 14. I was so tired and full of tea that I ran, seriously ran, all the way home from Laurie’s on the other side of town, and passed out. It was like Thanksgiving, but with lots of tea and no football or turkey. Or pumpkin pie, or mashed potatoes. See where I’m going with this? I miss a lot of things here.

This weekend we spent the time trying to relax and recover from all the tea. The kids are still out on fall break, so two boys have been staying at my house, and we amuse each other. They feed the puppy when I am gone, and I teach them English when I have time. They brought me a gift, an Elvis CD. I have no idea where they got it. ON Friday we all went into Tokmok (all the girls) to try and do some interneting, but it seemed like everyone had made it a long weekend, and nothing was open. Saturday Rebecca and I went back into Tokmok and had a lot of fun. We met a Canadian man by chance, as we were walking down the street and heard early 90’s American music that we found ourselves singing along with. When the car stopped a man got out and laughed at us, and Rebecca yelled hey we’re Americans… he laughed some more, and we ended up chatting with him for a while. He lives here with his Kyrgyz wife. She was the most beautiful Kyrgyz woman I have seen so far.

We went to a local tavern to wait for internet time, as from 3-4 everything shuts down for a break. Wouldn’t you know it, we found eight other volunteers doing the same thing. After that we finally got to the Internet, and we brought out beer with us. Something hard to get used to. Beer is like water, you take it wherever you want and drink it whenever you want. I used my Internet time wisely. Caught up with All My Children, Desperate Housewives and my local newspaper.

On Sunday I did laundry and gave Tex his first bath. He has taken to sleeping in the ashes after we have a fire and was a mess. I scrubbed him in a bucket and then blow-dried him all fluffy. He was so scared that I let him sleep in my room all day to recover. I will post more pictures.

I taught the boys how to play baseball in the afternoon. I didn’t realize that besides on TV they had never even seen a baseball glove. I brought two right handers, but I guess if you have never played before it doesn’t matter is you are left or right handed. They caught on pretty well, but after the younger one took a throw off of his knee, we stopped playing. I have pictures too. On Sunday night I went to another party at Rebecca’s house. This time they were celebrating her host sister’s birth, even though it was in August. Rebecca called me at 10 in the morning and said she got up and found more than 40 bottles of vodka on the kitchen floor, all for the party. I’ll just say it was a good time, and I slept well last night.

So I am all packed as we take half of our stuff down to our site now, so we won’t have to carry it all at once. I decided to take any article of clothing that I haven’t touched so far here. I have a lot. I am taking a giant suitcase full, my sleeping bag, my heater, 40 books and my huge backpack too. This way next time should be an easier trip, as will have to make it alone and this time I have help. Don’t really know how I would get by if I had to do all this at once.

So off we go in the morning. All I am looking forward to is tomorrow’s hotel where there is a shower with my name on it. I’m going to take two. Or maybe three.

Azamat...

2005-11-05T03:04:00.000-08:00

This is Azamat, my little host-nephew... We have a love/hate relationship (like most men in my life), but he likes my sunglasses. The little girl who looks like a boy is his sister, Inesges or something like it. She is the most spoiled little brat ever.

2005-11-05T03:01:00.000-08:00

And she tries to steal my dinosaur

2005-11-05T02:59:00.000-08:00

This is the hotel we are staying at periodically...

Messages

2005-11-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

I keep getting messages from people, but no one leaves their name!!!! I don't know who they are from, so at least leave your intials!!!!

ENOUGH ‘WOMEN’S WORK’ FOR A LIFETIME

2005-10-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

INSTRUCTIONS BELOW FOR SENDING ME A FREE TEXT MESSAGE FROM YOUR COMPUTER -- DO IT!!! Thanks Chirs H. i got yours!

So I got up this morning at about 9, after letting myself lounge around a bit in the warm sunshine coming in from my window, in hopes of beating the cold that everyone seems to be coming down with. I cleaned up my room and then finished the Da Vinci Code, which I started yesterday. I really enjoyed it, should have read it a long time ago.

At 10:30 I started my laundry process. First I have to start a fire in the outside open wok-like thing. I used sunflowers as a burning tool. After the water heats to a boil, I pour it into our machine and start adding small loads, starting with whites. I haven’t done laundry in a few weeks, so it was quite a process. While the next load is mixing, and after I hand wash everything for a while, I rinse with cold and hang on the line. Well this week I filled the entire line and then some. No idea how I ended up with so many dirty clothes, especially after I actually found myself wearing the same thing over and over. The sun was so bright and it was so warm that I actually had a pretty good time doing it. But, it took almost two hours just to wash.

After I finished that, we took all the rugs off my floor and my sheets too and washed them and hung them on the front gate. I thought maybe that I was through with my chores, and headed back to my room to change out of my pajamas. I was so wrong. Not even five minutes later my host father knocked on my door and said I needed to come outside. I went with him, and took the puppy too, but little did I know, today was a holiday, and we were having a huge party… which means, yep you guessed it, a sheep slaughter. We all said a Muslim prayer over the sheep, and then slit. Yeah, exactly like that, just a quick slit of the throat and that’s that. Not exactly my idea of entertainment, all though a crowd gathered to watch.

I went back inside, where I was informed that I would be in charge of making borsok. Borsok is a type of fry bread that is always present here. No matter what, there is borsock on the table. Every meal. It is an easy process to make it, but it is time consuming and kind of hot and sweaty. (By the way, no banya either). So luckily the dough was pre-made for me, so I had to roll it into sections and slice it first. Not a difficult task, but when Kyrgyz people make borsok, they make it for 100’s of people at once. So a sheet was laid out on the floor and I rolled out about a million squares to cut up. After that I sliced the dough into small pieces, as borsok is like little pieces of elephant ear, except no sugar, cinnamon or butter and no county fair to buy it at. After that I take a tray at a time out to the fire, and dump it into the boiling oil and then remove it with a strainer seconds later. Then run back inside and get more, and so on. In all we had enough borsok to cover an entire 20 person table, which is precisely what we did with it.

After the borsok we made a different type of bread and then I thought I was free. I really needed to wash my hair and change clothes, since we were having this big party. But no, the family started rolling in and the women immediately had to start preparing the intestines and ‘parts’ of the sheep for the meal. I was in charge of all and I mean ALL of the children.

Four boys and two girls. The two girls are ages 2 and 4 months. The boys are 3, 8, 10 and 5. Azamat is the three-year-old, and is the most rotten of them all. One minute he is sitting in my lap, resting and sharing a pear with me, and the next I find him tossing my puppy into a sac of corn. He is a monster. A monster. I could hardly keep tabs on him all day, and then the 4-month old and Azamat’s little sister who cries whenever she doesn’t get her way? Hectic. And they were all in my room playing with Dino and my camera and my sunglasses… I was worn out fast. But I got a couple of cute pictures to post.

I did finally get a chance to dump some water on my head, wash my face and change for the party. The guests arrived at around 6 pm. All family. More than 40 people in our dining room. I got to sit near the end of the table where the oldest family members sit. Chong Apa (Grandma) is 90 and sat next to me. She doesn’t say much, but leads a prayer for everyone. A man came in to sing and pray before we ate, and then the feast began. Not really my kind of feast I must say… I usually try to hide and just eat the pears. First a man comes around with a basin of water and everyone washes their hands. (Men and women in separate rooms, kids in another) The sheep is brought in. All parts are served including the head, eyes, nose, legs, intestines, etc. on top of noodles. Kyrgyz people eat every part of the sheep, including the fat. So huge chunks of fat are everywhere. And when I say huge, I mean huge like the size of peaches. I request no fat, but usually still end up with intestines. This time I got a giant bone and part of the intestines. Oh yeah and the liver. Which I graciously returned to the platter. After the meal the man comes around with the water basin again, another prayer is said, and then the meal is over. I was pretty exhausted by that time. I had to take the puppy into my room to sleep because of Azamat, and I was out cold.

My future husband better know how to cook.

October 31, 2005

I woke up this morning in pitch blackness, hoping the sun might come out sometime before I had to leave for language class. It didn’t. I decided to listen to my Ipod the entire walk to school, as usually I don’t because so many people try and talk to me, even at 7:30 in the morning. This morning I wasn’t feeling too social, so I did. Big mistake. Remember I said I have to walk through herd of cattle? Well, I didn’t hear this one and it snuck up on me, and scared me to death. I actually turned around when I felt a cow nudge my backpack and ran the rest of the way to Bak’s house. Pretty scary.
Before that though, I did notice that a man pulling a trailer with what looks like a gas tank on the back. Apparently every morning he comes around and honks ferociously until a woman from every house comes running with a bucket of milk. They pour it in and he goes to the next house. And then he takes it into the city to sell.

Today was the midterm language test, and it went really well. I don’t know my actual score yet, but did pass and am staying here. So that’s good news. Tomorrow is a tech day, where we learn English teaching stuff and then Wednesday is the big day. Site announcements!!! Finally everything will have a purpose, we will know where we are going to be for the rest of our time here and what schools we will be teaching at. Everyone is really anxious to find out. I am hoping to be near skiing…

We had a little ‘American’ Halloween party at Xouhoa’s house on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t have time to get dressed up, as we spent the day in Tokmok, having language class, and teaching our last practicum lessons at the school.

We did though have quite a feast. We pooled money and bought apples, pears, oranges, bananas and a lemon at the bazaar, and somehow even found a jar of Nutella too. We sent Christabelle’s little brother out to get beer in the village, and sure enough, he came home with5 big bottles, despite being 12. We played Kings and listened to music and ate lots of good fruit. Rebecca and I were even escorted home by Xouhoa’s two younger brothers, ‘Chinges and Dustaan.’ Both are about 16. Let me tell you how fun it is to walk home in the dark with a couple of 16-year-old boys that you cannot communicate with. First they just shined the flashlight on the stars the whole way and then every time I got near a pile of poop they would scream and laugh. When we got anywhere near a tree, they would turn off the light so I would run into the branches.

Xouhoa dressed in all black and put an 8 on her shirt and was a magic 8-ball. She had a pouch of answers to the questions you asked. The other Betsy dressed as me, and said she was the other Betsy. She curled her hair like I do. Laurie was a manhole. Greg was sheep fat, which everyone tries to make us eat. I was sick, so I stayed home to rest, but as you read above, my host family didn’t really let me sleep or rest.

On Friday night Rebecca and I went to the local store (a one-room brick shanty with a couple of shelves and a table) and bought three Baltic 3’s (brand of beer, they have 1-9) and celebrated a Friday afternoon. We went to her house for dinner afterward, as my host father has been sick, with what I don’t know, but anyway, she warned me that her older sister got married the week before so the family was still celebrating. Celebrating means vodka. Rebecca and I were given shots at dinner, over and over. And over and over. Dinner lasted for hours. We had a great time. I swear, a little vodka really gives you the courage to speak Kyrgyz! We chatted with her brother and his wife for hours, and then her younger brother walked me, (a very happy me at that) home.

I fell asleep with a big smile. I woke up feeling really good, surprisingly. My parents called, so thanks for that, I love getting phone calls. (It is a big deal when you only get one a week). I then went to the school to teach my final class in the village, as we are only here for another couple weeks before we move to permanent sites. I played pictionary and we talked about things they wanted to discuss, like my American boyfriends and movie stars. It was a great practicum, I loved the kids. They are on fall break now, so I walked alone to class this morning. They have two weeks off after every nine weeks. So right after Christmas they will have another break.

I got a package again today. Postmarked Oct. 8, so it took about 23 days. All books. At least 20 paperbacks. I already started one, The Cowboy, as I can’t resist a book with a title like that! The girls are all borrowing too, so thanks mom. I have quite a library going here, but I was out of books to read myself after I finished one yesterday. I think in the amount of time that I have been here I have finished at more than 20 books. There is an American bookstore in Bishkek, so I will be able to buy books once I get to go to Bishkek on a regular basis. If that’s an option, I could be down south, where it is a long drive.

Katie’s mom if you are reading this, next week we are going to arrange a time where you can call her on my phone (Happy Birthday). We are staying at the hotel in the city before we head to our sites for a visit next week. She is doing better, and all though she was in the hospital last week, she is fine, better and is eating solids again! She loves your packages!

Ev- thanks for the message!! Keep that sister of mine in line.

October 25, 2005

What does it take to make me happy? Walking home through the cornfield after an afternoon of learning the language and seeing smoke coming from the banya room!!! I got a banya today and that made the whole week a little better. We have frost and frozen water now, so the temperature is slowly dropping. Its not that bad, its just that it never warms up anywhere. I mean you can’t go inside and get warm, there is no heat. Anywhere.

October 27. 2005

I got a package from Katie today… thanks. You are great, but tell Everett that all though it’s a clever nickname, I don’t really care to be called ‘Pesty.’

The power is out in the village for the evening, so I am sitting by candlelight, typing on my computer and playing solitaire. We are trying to all come up with Halloween costumes as we are having a local party in our village on Saturday and then a big get together with the entire group of 60 on Sunday afternoon in Tokmok. We have only come up with things like French girls, Madonna, traditional Kyrgyz people, a cowgirl, a hippie, a white-trash redneck girl, a potato, and things like that. I have the clothes to be a hippie but everyone wants me to dress like Madonna from her ‘Material Girl’ phase… clever huh? We’ll take pictures, Rebecca is going to dress like our host moms, in Kyrgyz clothes, gold teeth and all, and then when people ask what she is she can say ‘your mom’ ha ha ha… we are pretty limited here for Halloween. I can’t even track down a cowboy hat.

So that’s basically all that has gone on this week. I should have some pretty good stories to tell after our Halloween parties this weekend…

Listen Up!!!

2005-10-31T01:52:00.000-08:00

I just found out that I can get messages on my phone for free from all of you really easily.
Follow these instructions:

1. Go to http://smsgate.bitel.kg/
2. scroll down as the site is in Russian
3. At the bottom of the screen there is a menu bar, look for SMS
4. Click on it
5. Put my number 129375 in the Number box and type in a message
6. Press the button on left which is Russian for send

More blog entry coming tomorrow when I get more internet time... but today was the language test and I passed!!!

MY NEW PUPPY -- TEX

2005-10-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

2005-10-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

October 23, 2005

We got up early this morning after quite a day yesterday, to go to the bazaar in Tokmok.

Yesterday we all had morning classes that we taught in our villages schools, and then headed into Bishkek for the ‘football’ game. I guess I was expecting something totally different, but anyway, we took a marchuka from the Tokmok bus stop into Bishkek with some volunteers from another village. We had a pretty good time, but it was a hot, hot day. (I’m not sure if I ever explained the way driving here works in detail. Drivers just go whenver, wherever they want. They don’t follow any street signs, they DO NOT stop for pedestrians, they don’t yield or use turn signals, they don’t pass with caution or anything like that. If you want to pass, you pass. It doesn’t matter which side of the road you do soon or if you use a blinker, (if you even have one). The drivers honk their horns constantly, at cows in the road, sheep, people, Americans, etc. They just fly. And the cares are comparable to the ones we use in our demolition derbies back home. There are nicer cars, they are just few and far between. When the drivers are going distances it is worse. If I end up in the South, I am going to have to wear my headphones all the time when traveling, with a mask over my face or I might prematurely develop a heart condition. Did I mention seatbelts? Haven’t seen one since I got off the AIRPLANE. Oh yeah, and livestock (I MEAN LIVE – STOCK) goes in the trunk).

Anyway, we went out to lunch in Bishkek at a traditional restaurant then walked to the stadium for a game. The football game turned out to be a scrimmage between the American University in Bishkek and male Peace Corps volunteers. Enough said.

So with that in mind, a few of us hit the tavern across the street and had our own fun. I did see Phil recover an onside kick though, so there is my shout out to him. We had our own tailgating outside the field. Apparently the score was 28-14 them. Too bad. Maybe they should have let some of girls play – we are probably mostly the same size as the men here. Poor Laurie at 5’9” feels like an amazon. (Very beautiful though, with a wonderful smile).

After the game we headed to the Metro, the American bar and restaurant in Bishkek. We joined about 25 volunteers (including lots of official volunteers, not just trainees) and ordered pizza, burritos, burgers and beer. And for the first time since we have been here; Pepsi light. You really can’t find it very often I guess. I had a burger and a Malibu and orange juice. Andrew had good beer, that I liked a lot. Phil had a snifter of cognac too, which tasted pretty good. The food wasn’t bad either. Too bad we ended up spending like 5000 som, which was way out of budget, even for 15 of us on that ticket. (For example lunch earlier in the day only cost us 50 som each.)

Rich, once again helped us get into a taxi to the bus station and then we met up with our LCF to go back to the village at about 8 Saturday night. (****I think Rich was mesmerized by new female trainees****).

Today we went back to the bazaar in Tokmok (15 minute taxi ride) and exchanged money and interneted. At the bazaar I bought shoe shine, as my host mom has informed me that my shoes are way to dirty and need to be shined everyday, a spliter so I can plug in TWO things at once from my one sketchy, spark shooting outlet and kiwis. We had pizza for lunch, and when I say pizza I mean, bread with a sour cream like substance on it, then cheese, then tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken and ketchup. We’ll take what we can get.

I took pictures of the puppy, Tex, so they should be posted when I post this. I try not to get too attached to this dog, as it could die any second around here, and I feel like it wouldn’t be fair to my baby Kodi back home…

NO BANYA TODAY… for some reason they didn’t fire up the banya this afternoon, so I didn’t get my weekly bath. Ummm…. That’s bad. I did wash my hair on Friday though, ((its Sunday). So I should be good until tomorrow. I’ve got a sweet updo going on…

Dinner tonight was seriously mushed walnuts. I hate nuts. And birds. A couple of days ago some kids were walking me to school and a warm of birds was forming above my head, I ran away and the boys laughed at me and called me crazy. But really, ever since the pigeon came in Eleanor’s when I was working I am deathly afraid of birds. But back to the dinner. Who serves walnuts for dinner? I now they are like the state fruit here and everything, (That’s just a term, I understand that they aren’t fruits and this isn’t a state and everything but I think you get the jest of it) but really steamed walnuts? Where am I? And how did I end up here? Someone asked me last night where I was exactly a year ago? Umm. In the ‘Scow drinking whiskey with Gerad and Hank and Holli, playing Texas Hodl Em’ and listening to classic country and hitting the Troy Tavern at 10 for karaoke. Big change. I can honestly say that there is now no place I would rather be. I love my life. (That’s for you, Linds).

The picture I posted is of me after I found out I didn’t get my weekly banya.

2005-10-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

These are shots of kids in the village and in Tokmok.

THIS IS ME AFTER FINDING OUT NO BANYA!!!

2005-10-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

Outhouse...

2005-10-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

More pics below

2005-10-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

October 21, 2005

Okay. First off, lets clear a few things up.

NO. 1 I DO NOT HAVE A MISSING TOOTH, DESPITE THE WAY THESE PICTURES MIGHT LOOK. I HAVE PERFECT TEETH THANKS TO MY PARENTS, AND PLAN TO KEEP THEM THAT WAY. THE PICTURE QUALITY IS DISTORTED.

NO. 2

I am going to describe my house in my village. I walk in the front door, which locks with a latch, and am in the garage. On one side I have a room with a wood stove and a sink with a bucket above it that puts water into the spout. It drips into a bucket that you empty periodically throughout the day. It has a television and a stack of mats that my host parents make into a bed at night. They both sleep in the living room/kitchen/bedroom. On the other side of the house is a formal dining area and my bedroom. In between is an outdoorish kitchen with a stove, another drip sink and the banya, and it connects to the chicken coop. That’s it. No kitchen or anything like that.

Okay, so today I taught in front of the staff, and I was pretty nervous. It ended up going really well. I was pretty happy with the class. We went over families and I used a diagram of my own family tree to explain it. After that we learned adjectives and I got a good review from the TEFL coordinator. So I’m happy. We had more language lessons this afternoon and then I headed home… or so I thought.

I walked into the house and wanted to take a little nap, before Chrystal and Laurie came by to watch movies. But my host mom said something to me that resembled neighbors and leaving the house, so I changed out of my school clothes and went with her. We met up with 15 other women from the neighborhood and headed to one house. At the house we all sat down for tea, and then the vodka came out. I don’t think I have ever seen so many women taking shots before. They just kept coming. It really loosened me up and I found myself speaking Kyrgyz and having the best time since I have got here. They made me feel so welcome, and I was giving English toasts with their Kyrgyz toasts all night. Mine might have been somewhat inappropriate, but no one knew what I was saying! We stayed for a few hours and then went home, where Chrystal and Laurie were waiting. We ended up just sitting around talking to my host family; it really is much easier with more friends around to help me communicate. I found out that my host father did in fact bride kidnap my host mother when she was 17. She said she cried, We watched a show similar to Wheel of Fortune and fed my puppy too.

I even got to wash my hair yet again and am preparing for a football game in Bishkek tomorrow that we are all going to watch, I am really excited. I have to teach at 8:50 and then we are off, with American flags in tow. Then banya day, I love the weekends.

I had a definite epiphany today while walking down the street. It came to me when a young girl said ‘hello, how are you, my name is… etc.” She was from one of our classes, and we taught her that. It really feels good. I love it here. I love being able to communicate in this language that I never would have even heard of otherwise. I love walking down the street with the cow herd looking for other volunteers. I love trying to talk to random sweet people who invite me in to their lives at the drop of a hat. These people are incredibly kind and generous. I love what we are doing here.

And then Mom and Katie called today to make it all even greater!!! I can’t wait until they come to visit.

2005-10-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

This is Laurie, Chrystal and I before the game.

2005-10-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to a football game in Bishkek. This is Laurie and I before the game.

2005-10-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

More random shots... one of Rebecca in front of the school in our village. Another of the 'vehicle' we took to go on our hike. One of my closet and my bedroom.

BEFORE AND AFTER!!!!

2005-10-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid I no longer get to primp and curl or anything.... I just bundle up!

2005-10-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

2005-10-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

These are some random pictures. One is of Laurie and I at the Barana. One is of a random manhole that we seem to find every where. No one has fallen in yet. The other is of Xouhoa and I at the barana with some Kyrgz girls. Then there is a picture of the Turkey Airport. We were quite a group.

I hate my stomach...

2005-10-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

October 18, 2005

I finally got to talk to my dad as well as my mom, so today was a good day. Got a new battery for the phone and everything is good. I turned on my old phone today for the first time since before I left. It was funny to see who the last people I talked to before I left were. You know who you are.

So tomorrow is another teaching day. I decided that first we are going to pick out English names together for the whole class. I am going to pass around a list of names for them to choose from. I decided to use old boyfriends and all my girlfriends’ names from home, to give myself a laugh.

I hung up a picture of my favorite bull rider today in my bedroom, and all the neighborhood girls came to look. It’s Chris Shivers riding a bull with a bottle of Jack Daniels., and I hung it with tape from my med kit. I totally have learned to improvise.

We got a puppy at our house. It just showed up this morning, and someone gave it a mat to lay on. Of course I had to take matters in to my own hands. The puppy, I am estimating, is about 5 days old. At the most. It fits in my hand, and barely opens its eyes. The bad thing is animals are not pets here, so it is hard for me to take care of a puppy, when society doesn’t really do that. I did manage to get through to the family that it is young, without a mother and needs to be warm all the time.

I was sitting on the floor feeding the puppy, which I haven’t named yet, (all though I was given the honor of choosing a name) when I had my first experience with the ‘women can’t sit on the ground without a mat tradition.’ Here it is a common belief that if women sit on the ground or concrete without a cushion, their ovaries will freeze and they won’t be able to have children. I was told to stand up immediately and not to ever sit down on the ground again. Anyway, I fed the puppy some milk, straight from our cow, and it sucked it off my fingers. I also gave it some bread soaked in milk, which it gobbled up. I don’t think it had been fed since it was taken away from its mother. No idea where it came from. But, its something for me to do, I love puppies. I just can’t keep this one.

Usually every evening we have dinner together and I always sit on the couch, while the rest of the family sits on the floor. Not by choice, they just won’t let me sit on the floor. So I was in my usual spot on the couch, and normally no one dares to sit next to me, but a younger man, probably in his late 20’s was sitting in my spot. I was told to sit next to him, because he didn’t have a wife. Usually my host mother dishes my plate too, as here they put one platter in the middle of the table with a bunch of spoons and everyone digs in. But I always get my own plate, one of the things they were told to do for us. My host mother always dishes me a heaping plate that I never finish, and pours my tea as well. But not last night. She let this strange man pour my tea, dish my food and sit directly next to me on the couch. It was very strange, but they kept saying suulou (which means beautiful) and jiggeytene (which means boyfriend). I just laughed and said jok (no) and went along with it – but really, I think my family wants to marry me off, and I think they just offer me up to anyone who comes to buy gas. I’m teasing, but it is pretty funny that every time a single man shows up, I’m the joke of the room.

Oh well, its actually pretty funny to try and respond to these men, with my broken Kyrgyz and there three words of English. I think my host mom is starting to realize I’m probably not going to marry into the family or anything like that.

So I got the puppy to sleep, but I want to sneak it into my room, and let it sleep next to my heater. I think the garage area is too cold for it. I’ll probably get disowned if I do that though. I wa thinking about naming the dog after a state… not sure which one though, No one really believes me that Idaho is a state here. They only like New York, California, Arizona and Virginia. (Only Virginia because last year’s volunteer was from Virginia).
Don’t ask me why they like Arizona either.

October 19, 2005

Happy Birthday Holli.

So, today I taught at 8 this morning, and after yet another night of throwing up in a bag in my bedroom, I almost didn’t make it to school. But I did, and it went well. We worked on things like more or less, months again, etc. I don’t teach again until Friday and I will be evaluated by the TEFL coordinator.

Tomorrow we head into Tokmok to email, which is really nice. It helps break up the week some.

We decided to name the puppy Tex, after Texas, don’t ask me why. I just wanted to name it after a state. So the puppy is doing well and is actually playing outside this afternoon, because we have pretty nice weather. I was able to go out without a coat today. I did get to skip the group lunch to rest, which was nice as well. I hope my stomach starts getting used to this country soon.

Dinner was pretty funny tonight. My favorite cousins, (I think they are cousins) came over for plov, and the youngest boy cam and got me for dinner. We first took pictures, but I don’t want to post it, as I am so washed out and pale from being dehydrated, that the pictures are pretty bad, and then they got out the beer and vodka. I said no to the vodka, of course, but I had a couple of glasses of beer, as this was the first time since I have been here that I have been allowed to drink anything besides tea. Not bad beer either. Of course we did toasts in Kyrgyz that I didn’t understand, but otherwise it was a good meal. I did manage to explain that I had a stomachache and only wanted a small amount of rice too. So communicating is getting better.

Another thing that I keep noticing here is that people are so much nicer to one another. When the girls at school arrive they kiss one another and the boys all shake hands. When relatives come to our house, they all kiss and hug, everyday, even if they stopped by the day before. This includes the young ones. Its pretty sweet, I guess, if you like being touched,

Not a bad night, I even got to wash my own hair with my new conditioner that my mother sent.

Oct. 20

I bought some nice boots today, with wool on the inside, so I don't think I will have trouble finding snow boots here.

We also bought kiwis that are the size of grapefruits and dried fruit at the bazaar. So I can stay away from the weird noodle and sheep fat dishes.

I hope the pictures work!!!

2005-10-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

Cell phone got a new battery and works. I get email access on Wednesday night sop please write me before then, and scroll down to see some pics and read about this week.

the Hike...

2005-10-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

These are all pictures from our 'nature walk' on my visit to the lake.

2005-10-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

This is where I live. The garage is in the middle of the house, and the outhouse is around the back. With the animals.

This is my host family. And some extended family. None of them live with us all the time, just sometimes. They just visit, a lot.

2005-10-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Kid on a donkey

2005-10-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

2005-10-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2005

Finally a cell phone. And to think really I was only disconnected from the world for more than a month. But that’s a long time when you have had a cell phone glued to your ear since age 15. So my number is posted below, and I actually have service in my bedroom and all over my village. Haven’t had a phone call on it yet, but soon I know it will be ringing my ear off, right?

Today is laundry and banya day. Pretty exciting for most of us. Once again I had a rough night. I thought dinner last night would be okay, we had a hamburger helper type dish, only with sheep meat, noodles and potatoes. Not many potatoes though. But still, I found myself throwing up all night. I even prepared myself this time, I have a special bag next to my bed all the time. It is a long, cold run to the outhouse, and actually it makes the nausea worse. So anyway, I don’t think I can live here without eating potatoes, they are a staple food here. I don’t know what to do about it. Oh well. My med kit sits next to my bed too, its funny, its my best friend right now.

It could have been a combination of things though that made me sick yesterday. We went into the city and had a great time. First we went to the Peace Corps Headquarters, which is amazingly nice and has real bathrooms. We had a tour of the building and I had my site placement interview as well. Basically I was asked questions about my greatest strengths and what I thought my weaknesses were. Also if I would be confident in a rural area, and whether I had any preference in where I lived. I said that my only preference was that I must be somewhere that I had constant access to phones and email as this is my first trip away from home. I asked not to be isolated.

So we also picked up some tourist information at the office on Kyrgyzstan, including a guide to hotels. There is a five-star hotel in Bishkek, with prices ranging from $100 a night to $900 for a presidential suite. It is a Hyatt hotel. After the Peace Corps office we piled in our marchukas and went into the city to visit a museum. I’ve never been one for organized tours through museums, but because of language barriers, it was helpful. We walked downtown from the museum and to our complete astonishment we easily found an American Café, called Fatboy’s. Laurie, Rebecca and I went in and found a lot of other volunteers, as well as other Americans. Most were military men stationed here.

Everything was in English and was very welcoming. We ordered Amstel to drink, and chicken burritos with salsa and sour cream for lunch. It was such a treat. The staff spoke English and we were able to relax and enjoy a beer without anything to worry about. Then to top it all off, we only spent like $10 for everything.

After Fatboy’s we hit Zume; Its pronounced Zoom, but its written in cyrilliac, so I can’t spell it right. Five floors of madness. Electronics, shoes, cell phones, and pretty much anything you need. Very expensive though. Christal bought a computer bag, and Rebecca, Laurie, Christabelle and I got cell phones. We all spent less than $50 and got phones, chargers, sim cards and mobile cards. In order to use a phone over here you have to buy a sim card for the country and then units. You have to buy at least 200 units a month to keep your phone activated. Units are not equivilant to minutes. It takes a couple of units to talk for a minute. And to call America it takes like 70 units a minute, so that’s not really an option. It doesn’t take any units to receive calls from anywhere. So we all can be connected to home now, and each other as well. We use text messages mostly, as they only take 1/2 a unit.

After we got our phones we headed back to the villages, stopping briefly in Tokmok to email our phone numbers home and for me to post a picture on the blog. Now that I have it figured out, I will post a lot more pics.

Speaking of pictures, my host family and I did some posing last night with the extended family and my camera, so pictures of the family are coming soon.

October 17, 2005

So today was my first day of actually teaching. It was great. We are all doing a two-week practicum in our villages at the local schools in order to get some practice in before December comes. So we each have 4 classes per week. I am teaching 9A, which are around 14-15-16 year old kids. They were really good. I thought I would start out with basics and try to see what, if any English they knew. They all could count, write their names in English, because yes, they are way different in Kyrgyz, and tell me about the alphabet, animals, colors and fruits. So I have a basis. I got them to tell me their favorite animals and colors and we are all going to pick English names on Wednesday. Overall, the class went really well, as my Kyrgyz is quite limited, so I have to really stretch what I have. It was a lot of fun though, and they were actually somewhat well-behaved too. So a good day. We had classes in the morning and then language lessons in the afternoon today, so its quite a long day. Tomorrow I don’t teach, so I talked Bak into letting me go to Tokmok to the Internet. Rebecca and I are headed in around nine, and then back for language lessons in the afternoon. This weekend we are going to the bazaar again. I don’t really need to buy anything though, except maybe my own hot pot thing to heat water for my room.

I am going to try and post pictures with this blog entry as well. Hopefully they turn out. I have a bunch to post. By the way, my cell phone number is 011-996-502-129-375 in case someone forgot, or didn’t read below or something!!! The 011 is the international code, sometimes with calling cards it is already included, I guess just pay attention to the operator lady when you dial from a calling card.

Last night the power went out for the first time since I have been here. It was a little awkward. I was in the living room/kitchen waiting for a phone call from my parents, when it just shut off. For no apparent reason. I was with… the yellow hat guy, my host brother, a young cousin and my host mom. I was reading and they were watching the weird China Dolls show. Kind of a strange situation, to be completely in the dark and not really able to communicate. We lit a small candle and waited. It came back on but went back out after a while. It was probably out for about an hour or so. But, I waited patiently next to the phone for a couple of hours, hoping for a call – sometimes I don’t realize things, like here, the phone doesn’t work when the power is out. So basically, I was waiting for nothing. So if you did try to call mom and dad, it wouldn’t have worked. But I still waited. And then defeated, I went to sleep.

Kinsie – I didn’t forget your birthday!!! Can’t really call or anything, but you can call me, I hope it was an awesome day and that Michael got you some flowers, sometimes men don’t catch on to our hints… even if you drive by the store and point to the sign…

Anyway, Happy 23rd Birthday, I love you and miss you.

Rebecca was in the outhouse when the power went out, and the outside lights went off. She was yelling at her host brothers, saying ha ha, but then they came out and brought her a candle.

It was awesome to talk to my mother last night, Katie didn't answer when I tried to call this morning, but oh well. Now my phone will work better, I got a new battery at the bazaar and it it perfect. So start calling!!!

Photos just aren't working, but I am trying hard.

THis is supposed to be a photo, can someone tell me if it is or not? THen I will post more.

2005-10-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

I GOT A CELL PHONE SO PLEASE CALL!!!

2005-10-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

My number is 011-996-502-129-375
This is my cell number so call anytime!!! Phone cards at uniontelecard.com

October 12, 2005

Well I caused a little commotion with a few of my blog entries, basically incriminating myself for stupid things. So rightly so Father, I’ll take you calling me a twit, but just this once. I had better start thinking about my actions a little more.

Anyway, everyone knows I am a firm believer in good journalism, and stating the facts, so that won’t keep me from that.

And just a note: All though my dad never signs birthday cards himself, he is the greatest dad I could ask for. Raising three girls, especially three girls like us, (spoiled (Me), somewhat selfish (Katie) and a little wild and hyper (Holli) was pretty admirable, as I think we turned out alright. He is thoughtful, caring and will never cease in trying to make his little girls happy. I love you so much father.

So today was another hub day. We have reached the one-month mark and our program managers have began conducting site interviews. We will find out where we are headed on Nov. 2. I hope to have a site with fairly reliable Internet access and cellular phone reception, all though after my recent escapade, they might not want me near the Internet!

Tomorrow is a language day and a chance to go to the local post office as well. We did get to run to the bank today after we got four more shots. I now have had more than a dozen shots and have four more coming. Today was a flu shot, tetanus, mumps and another rabies series. Pretty painful. We also had a safety and security session which I have come to realize is pretty important, as there are definitely a lot of safety issues here. Sometimes I really don’t think, hence the name of my blog. Maybe I should call it Legally blonde meets the peace corps or something like that.

So the yellow hat guy hasn’t been by to visit me at all lately. Probably a good thing. Especially since he has horses at his house.

Today began as a pretty shitty day, but ended up wonderful. First I got a package. I feel bad, as some people are still waiting for one, and I am on my second with more on the way. I just explained that I am really spoiled, but I am a great sharer. We all ate orange tick tacs on the ride home from the site. My package was completely intact. It had DVD’s, dental floss, conditioner, slippers, wet wipes, vitamins, candy, gum, makeup, A USB STICK!!!! And more in it. A great package with peanut butter too, I forgot. We were eating it with our fingers in the marchuka this afternoon. So good.

And then to top off the day – I got a phone call from my glorious mother!!! At my host family’s house! So to the parent’s out there, you can call your kids, get them to pass on the numbers. It may take a couple of tries, but it works. My parents got international calling cards from uniontelecard.com for a good price. I am getting my cell phone this Saturday, so soon I will be sending out my new phone number so people can start calling whenever they want. Totally stoked for that.

The entire group of us – all 62 or so, are headed into Bishkek this weekend to check out the Peace Corps headquarters and a local museum as well. Then we have 2 hours of free time in the city. Our village will be taking the free time to set up cell phones, but because I had verizon before, my phone is locked and I can’t really unlock it from year and add a sim card, so I will have to buy one here. Oh well though. Still not too expensive. Some places you can use credit/debit cards, maybe. We also found out that there is an American buffet at the Hyatt in Bishkek for like $4.

I am headed to bed, going to watch Double Jeopardy tonight, and if Christal’s dad is reading this, she is not feeling too well, and has a pretty icky cold, but we are taking good care of her.

I can read comments now, and I unlocked them, I think, so anyone should be able to leave them without signing in as a user. Thanks for the loyal readership once again, sorry about the entry before this, if anyone has questions about the original material, you can email me at filomena9@hotmail.com for the inside scoop.

October 13, 2005

ITS REALLY COLD HERE.
Umm so its only October and I am all ready pretty cold. I broke out the long underwear this morning for my walk to school. Long johns, black dress pants, socks and Uggs, and then long johns, a thermal over those, a cashmere sweater over that, and then my down coat to top it all off. I was warm as can be, except for my ears. I think I’ll add a hat to the outfit tomorrow morning. Its pretty cold at 7 am here. It definitely warmed up a bit as the day progressed, but I never actually took any, and I mean any, layers off. Down coat and all. The classrooms don’t have heat, none of the buildings really do.

This morning I was kind of a wus too. I couldn’t face the cowherd that I usually walk through, so I chickened out and ran to the side and waited scared for all of them to pass. Something about wearing a bright red coat made me feel nervous. Normally, they don’t phase me.

We learned more tenses today in language lessons, like the simple present, pronoun endings, the imperative, negative pronouns and more. It getting tough. Not that learning the language has ever been easy.

Rebecca and I treated ourselves to the first Pepsi we have seen since we have been here, and went to my house to watch a DVD on my computer after class. Despite the extreme carbonation, it wasn’t half bad. We fell asleep for a while, but I remembered to turn on the heater in my room, so it wasn’t too bad. I have taken to brushing my teeth at night in my room with a water bottle that I sawed the top off. That way I don’t have to go outside to use the sink contraption at night. It’s really cold out there at night.

My room isn’t freezing, but I do sleep in my long underwear, and then my sweats and a thermal and my socks with my new slippers over them to stay warm. Oh yeah, then I have a fleece blanket and a big tooshook thing (that’s what we call the blankets here), its kind of like a big mat. And I have my Dale Earnhart Jr. fleece that I wrap around my head. Soon I will sleep in my sleeping bag as well. I am trying to hold off on the sleeping bag until November.

Not much to do here in the afternoons, so today I cleaned my room again, and organized everything. I even made a collage on the wall from magazines and all my favorite quotes and pictures. Also, I made a mobile that is hanging from the ceiling in my room, of my favorite Cowboy poem. Now my room is a lot more comfortable and homey. I’m reading the books mom sent, and very excited about having a cell phone by Saturday.

Oh yeah, we went to the local school today to try and prepare for next week’s practicum. We all will be teaching four classes a week for the next two weeks in our villages. I am teaching 9th form, A. They 9th grade is split into A and B, as are most grades. I met my students. There will be around 35 in my class. It is not going to be easy. The current English teacher will sit in with me, but unfortunately, she doesn’t speak English. So, I don’t think that will be much of a help. But hey, oh well, I’ve always thought the best way to learn something is to be thrown right into it. I tried to do a quick assessment of the students’ English levels today, but it seems like all they know conversation wise is hello, how are you, what is your name. That’s it. So I’m starting at the beginning. With the alphabet, numbers and basic greetings. Then I’ll plan the rest of the two weeks from there. Since Halloween is on the way, we all plan to incorporate the holiday in as well. Should be a tough, tiring couple of weeks. You wouldn’t believe how exhausted your brain is after trying to understand a million women speaking a mile a minute in a foreign language all day. I’m passed out by nine almost every night.

October 14, 2005

So I figured out that the potatoes are making me sick. And wouldn’t you just know that they are actually my favorite thing to eat here.

Today I think I had quite the afternoon. I fell asleep early last night and woke up pretty early this morning. It was cold. I wore both my long underwear top and bottom this morning for the walk to school. And a scarf on my head. We had language lessons from 8-12 today. I actually felt like I was learning quite a bit, and on the way to school I saw my first dead animal. In a giant man hole. Pretty gross. I try to avoid manholes, but sometimes you can’t help but look in them.

We finished lessons and caught cabs into the city today. Bak wanted us to have a little fun on a Friday afternoon. So we drove in, following a man with a small motor scooter pulling a little trailer with a dead and half butchered cow in it. The head was hanging off the back. Very pleasant start to our afternoon. We went to the Tokmok bazaar. I think I explained bazaars previously, but for those who don’t know, it is a giant open market, selling all sorts of good. The items range from clothes to rugs to shoes to food to animals to electronics. You supposidely can bargain, but rally come on… who would want to bargain with ‘rich Americans?’

The girls and I headed into the bazaar with freshly exchanged money, ready to do some shopping. And I’m not gonna lie… I bought a hair dryer. And I am pretty damn excited about it. Straight hair here I come. Rebecca got a glue stick, body spray, nail clippers and some other random items. Xouhoa got a radio so we can listen to the BBC now in our village. We looked at a lot of random items, and Rebecca and I got new J-Lo sunglasses, which are really popular over here. Bak bought a new button up shirt, and we looked at cell phones. They are cheaper to buy in Bishkek, where we are headed tomorrow. It was funny, most of the booths at the bazaar are Russian, and everyone laughs at us when we try to bargain in Kyrgyz. I have to ask the Russian women to stop speaking Russian and switch to Kyrgyz. But they like volunteers, so usually they are pretty nice.

After the bazaar, Bak took us to the Internet, which happens to be in the same building as a hair salon. So Christabelle got her hair cut, and Rebecca and I got ours washed and ‘styled.’ Let me just say that I was so horrified by the way my hair looked after the process, that I actually put my scarf back on. First she washed it with soap in a sink that I had to bend over. I had to wait for 20 minutes for her to heat a bucket of water to rinse it out. Then she used a round bristle brush with pokeys all over it to straighten my tangled mess of hair that she created. And when drying it, she only tried the bottom, leaving the top half of my hair flattened to my head and cold. I looked worse than I did when I walked in. Luckily though, I bought that blow dryer to day and took care of it when I got home. At least now I can feel confident about my hair again. We took a taxi back to the village where Rebecca and enjoyed spoonfuls of peanut butter and then parted ways. We are not allowed to sleep over at anyone’s houses anymore. So now I am alone at my house until tomorrow.

I got fed plain ramen noodles for dinner tonight. But, remembering the Peace Corps’ motto of being flexible and such, I improvised, found some sauce that resembles ketchup (slightly) and made my own version of spaghetti. Not half bad. Clean hair and fake spaghetti can do wonders for your spirits.

I even spent part of the evening sizing and downloading photos to post, so hopefully in Bishkek I will be able to post them. I am also trying to prepare lesson plans, as I start teaching on Monday morning at 8 am. I learned all the commands I will need to use in Kyrgyz in class today, so Sunday will be a day of studying. Oh yeah, for those who keep asking for my address, here it is again: (It will change on Dec. 4)

97 Lenina Street, RUPS
Mailbox # 23
722140, Kant City
Kyrgyz Republic
Elizabeth Dalessio

My phone number is 011-996-313-877-333. This is the number to my host family’s home. Anyone can call, but just realize that it is 13 hours later here, (So right now it is 7:30 on Friday night and in Idaho it is 6:30 Friday morning) and that I am the only one who speaks English. When someone answers, they usually say Hallo. You just have to say Elizabeta over and over slowly, and they will get me. If I am not home you will here the word Joke, which means no. I will have a cell phone though ASAP so calls to that can be at any time.

Packages generally have been taking about 10 days to one month to arrive and must include a list of contents inside. They have to be taped up ferociously. Meaning, wrapped up and then taped with packing tape all around the whole box, and then wrapped in brown paper and taped again with typed address labels. Letters only take about 2 weeks to get here.

It is a sight at the hub site to see us all run to the driver who delivers our mail. He usually has around 10 boxes and a stack of letters, and is mobbed by all 62 of us. Mail is one of the things we all look forward to.

I got to read up on All My Children the other day, so I know what is going on, and thanks Lindsy for sending me recaps. Sometimes here, I watch the Nanny, but only a Russian version with look-a-likes. Mostly I just read.

Well, that’s about all I guess for this week. Hopefully when this is posted it will have a link to my pictures as well.

Thanks for all the continuous love and support from everyone… it’s awesome to have such a great following and the heartwarming comments.

Adriane and Katie say hi to their parents as well. They love you very much.

Kinsie and Linds thanks for the great emails this week, hope your new house is great Kins, I’m sure it is, you always persevere and congratulations on the new promotion, I’m so proud of you. Lindsy wait for me to have a wedding…

Alison give that man of yours a hug for me, I hope you two are marvelous as always.

Holli, sorry to have to miss your birthday but be safe, have fun, stay way from lame frat boys (You know who the good ones are) and drink one for me. I love you.

Katie – you tell Ev that I want a picture of my favorite cowboy in his best man outfit ASAP!!! This country is definitely lacking in cowboys.

Mom and Dad – thank you for the great packages. Its funny that I am still spoiled rotten even from 100 million miles away. I say it a lot but I have great parents. Life may take me all over this crazy world, but one thing is for certain – you start and end with your family.

2005-10-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

IM sorry for the confusion

2005-10-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

A lot of my original last blog entry was erased so it doesn't make much sense. I'm sorry I will clarify later.

MY CRAZY WEEK AT THE LAKE

2005-10-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

October 5, 2005

A little bit of freedom and …. CEREAL!!!!!!!!

It is so nice to have some freedom. Yesterday we headed into Tokmok at around 7 am to get to the bus station to head to Lake Issycl. Christal and I were dropped off and the rest of the group headed to Bishkek to catch taxis and marchukas from there. We are all assigned to different sites with current volunteers throughout the oblasts (kind of like states) in the country. There are seven oblasts in Kyrgyzstan, and we serve in six of them. Those going to the southern oblasts had to suffer through long taxi rides over mountain passes and such. I on the other hand got pretty lucky, at least I think, in my site destination,

I took a marchuka with Rich, a K-12 volunteer (I am a k-13, just the name of the group of volunteers you came with). There were about 11 of us going to various places around the lake. The marchuka wasn’t too full, as we paid to have a private ride, and these are much nicer giant van-like things, as opposed to the Volkswagons.

I headed to the North Shore, to a village called Chong-Sai Ory. Or something like that. Others went to the south shore, which was a much longer ride. I am staying with Maya, a volunteer from Illinois. She teaches at a school with around 500 students, grades 4, 5 and 10, 11. We went to the main town surrounding the villages on the North Shore, Cholpon Ata. Roselle, another volunteer, has an apartment in the city, and it is kind of a hang out for nearby volunteers. The North Shore is a tourist part of the country, and because of that, housing options are nicer and the general state of the villages is better than other places I have seen so far. The volunteers who live here say the beaches are great in the summer, and the only downfall is being constantly mistaken for a tourist.

Of course I feel that I would probably be comfortable here, as it may be a tourist attraction, but it is still a damn far cry from any resort town I have ever been to. How many resorts have I been to where the outhouse is a pit toilet out back?

Roselle’s apartment has two bedrooms and sleeps 8 pretty comfortably, as it is an apartment that is meant for tourists. She has to leave in the summer, as it is rented out to vacationers, but right now, she is definitely living well. She has her own bathroom with a toilet and a shower, a kitchen with a stove, oven and a fridge. And then two bedrooms with a couple of beds in each, and a living area with a couch and a desk and stuff. The apartment comes furnished with pots and pans and dishes too, Hopefully I can get something like that. The rent during the year is about 1000 som per month, or $25. Her school, a Russian school, pays the rent for her.

The other volunteers come to her apartment to shower and bake, and last night they made spaghetti for us with tomatoes, eggplant, noodles, jalapenos, peppers and lots of spices. They have quite a collection of spices, as they shipped them from America. Tonight we made pizza in the village I am staying at. Maya lives with a family in a small house just minutes away from her school. Today I went with her to the school and her students asked me questions in English. They were totally a handful. As the 11th graders never shut up and giggled and flirted the entire class period. Maya said sometimes the boys don’t come to class, but it turns out to be better that way, as they are so disruptive. They know that they aren’t going to go further than high school and will just be working in the fields, so they aren’t that motivated. That’s a big problem with teaching here.

Tomorrow we are heading into town to go to the bazaar, as Maya is going to show me some items to buy to save my sanity. Like cereal and milk. And cucumbers. And a converter and plugs. Because, yes, we had cereal for breakfast this morning. Real corn flakes and pretty good milk. And I was so, so excited. I am going to stock up on it tomorrow and hide it when I get back.

The plan for the rest of the visit is to observe a few more classes and then head up into the mountains on Friday to do some hiking with Rich and the rest of my group, (the K13s visiting the North Shore). We go back to our training villages on Saturday morning. I am going to get a shower at the apartment tomorrow as well. I’m loving this site visit. Too bad, its just a visit though, it has no link to where we could end up permanently. I’m going to try to plead my case well though in my site interview next month, so I can be up here, as it is gorgeous and filled with good people. It is also close to the capital, which makes me feel a little safer, as there is talk of revolution again. Not that it will affect me, but the thought of a revolution in a country just bigger than Nebraska, is a little frightening.

I have learned so much from the volunteers here already. If I want to take the GRE’s again, I can from here. I also can apply for different types of grants in order to improve my site if it needs it, and I can get books from Darien Book Aid in Connecticut, so dad try www.dba.darien.org. I read one of the books today that Maya got for her classroom. She also had a previous volunteer in her school that left behind a good resource center in the school.

I got to try out my sleeping bag last night, it kept me very warm, as it is very cold here right now. I am happy to have, so thanks for giving it up Mother dearest, along with everything else.

It is really nice to be near volunteers and get a firsthand account of what we will be doing, come Dec 4. Makes me not so nervous to be thrown in a classroom in the middle of the semester. We hear that the next group of volunteers, the K14s, will come here in June, so that way they will be sworn in in September, right when school starts, and will leave when school ends in May. Makes a lot more sense.

Pretty worn out today, so Maya and I are watching Bridget Jones 2 and heading to bed.

THE REST OF THE WEEK… One Word. Crazy.

Maya and I packed up my stuff and headed into Cholpon Ata, the main town in the North Shore on Thursday afternoon to meet Roselle, Rich, Joyce and the rest of the trainees. We flagged down a taxi, and I had forgotten to mention before that my backpack is really really big. I swear I didn’t pack that much for the trip to the lake, but with my sleeping bag and hiking stuff, it just ended up that way. The taxi dropped us off at Internet, where we checked our emails and met the rest of the group. Maya had some errands to run, and left me with the rest of the group, to walk back to Roselle’s place. Now usually I wouldn’t have minded the walk, but with my backpack weighing close to 50 pounds, and here apartment being over a mile away, it was a pretty long walk.

From there we all decided to go and hang out at the beach for a while. We took a marchuka together down to the next village, that has a private resort called Aurora. We weren’t allowed in, but we went to the public beach next to it and Rich taught us how to play Kyrgyz card games. We also found gummy worms at the bazaar so we had those as well. (I said before, things like that don’t come around very often, so gummy worms are a nice treat). It started to get pretty cold, so we headed back to Cholpon Ata to cook dinner and watch movies, and get ready for a day of hiking. The girls have a peace corps cook book, and made rice with curry, tofu and raisins for dinner. We watched Hitch on my computer and then went to sleep, as we had to meet Rich and his trainees in his village at 9:30 in the morning.

This is where the craziness began.

We got to Rich’s village after we hit the bazaar to buy bread and cheese for lunch. Raabia, (a trainee from Atlanta) and I tried to buy cheese, and forgot that things here are in kilos, not pounds. We ended up with 2.2 pounds of cheese.

After that fiasco, we got into an empty marchuka. But not for long, as the originally 10-seater, jammed more than 18 people in for the ride. Women just pass their babies off to whoever can hold them, and more people just keep on piling in until the driver shuts the door. (Remember a marchuka is like a VW van with a little bit more room). We got to Rich’s village, almost taking out one cow. They just swerve around the cows and try to avoid hitting people. No one ever drives on the correct side of the road and no one ever follows speed limits, as they don’t have them. Also, you purchase your drivers license here. No classes or anything like that. You just buy one.

From Rich’s village, he had hired a private man to drive as into the mountains to hike. He was waiting for us in a truck that looked like a homemade army truck with a square back and a front. We all piled in, and he got out a metal tool and winded it up to start it. Seriously, the man winded up the truck, and then the engine turned over. I have never seen anything like it. We started off, and let me tell you, it wasn’t a smooth ride. Every time he went to shift into second gear in this beast, it stalled, jammed and jerked us forward. He never got past second. We putted along for a while, and then he gave up.

Rich had been sitting up front and came back and told us that the driver’s friend had given him some bad gas, so it wasn’t going to work. He and Rich walked to a gas station and came back with some oil to try. He put oil in and then winded it up again, and we were off. For about 10 minutes. Then he gave up, and found a phone, called some buddies, and they picked us up in two taxies. So we headed up the mountain in two taxis, (taxis here are not like taxis in America, I’ll post pictures soon, so you can see what these cars look like, and see the wind up truck, as I took a picture of him doing it), ours was an old beater, like most, and every time we went over a rock I could feel it though the floor on my feet. We bottomed out every two minutes on the drive up to the mountains. Rich chatted away with the driver, and I can’t wait to be able to speak better.

The taxis dropped us off at a trail/road, you can drive up the mountains if you want. We started our hike. There was 8 of us, and this was our first high altitude hike since we have been here. The road followed a beautiful river the entire way, which reminded me of home. The water here though is so much more pure, in the rivers and the lakes. They do not pollute their water at all, just their land. The lake is also saltwater, in case I haven’t mentioned that, and was so clear and sparkly, you could see reflections, and the blue in the water.
W hiked in more than 6 miles before we stopped for lunch. We ate our bread and cheese along the river, in an open valley near a random horse corral. Horses were all over up there. After lunch we started the second leg of our hike, as we met some men who guaranteed us that the mountain lake we were looking for was only a kilometer away. So we headed up the mountain, the path was all uphill the rest of the way, and a lot rougher. We had to slow our pace way down but after 3 kilometers or so, we were up pretty damn high. We never found the lake. We had hiked in more than 8 miles, and we had to turn back, or we wouldn’t have made it by dark.

We rested for a little bit, and then started to head down. And I’m not going to lie, but we were tired and worn out. It was a long uphill hike, and the altitude made my ears ring and head spin. But, I found a horseshoe, and had just been thinking about how I didn’t bring a horseshoe to hang over my door, like Katie and I did back home. So I thought I was going to have good luck and was feeling great, and then we got in this truck that licked like it should have been filled with filled with chickens, only it had about 20 Russian kids piled in the back, singing songs and screaming, ‘I love you white girl.’ They picked us up. Rich got in the back with the kids, and found out they were from a school PE class, and had been harvesting up in the mountains all day. We sat in the front, and picked up the rest of our group along the way.

I took a shower right way, to wash out all my scrapes. My first real shower since I have been here, and I didn’t get to enjoy it, as it stung! Machaela, another trainee and Raabia cleaned out all the scrapes and then we all went to a close by restaurant to eat. The restaurant was supposed to serve Turkish food, but it didn’t.

Almost all of us ordered a chicken dish with pineapple and melted cheese. Sounds pretty good? Then you get it. The chicken WAS NOT COOKED. And when I say not cooked, I mean, they didn’t even try to cook it, It was just raw. We all sent it back.

After dinner the boys picked up some beverages and the girls baked apple pies. We got to the apartment and a storm hit right away. No water or anything. I was the only one who got a shower before they lost power. Apparently, this is common. We had my computer, and Rich’s computer to listen to music with on battery. We also had my ipod with a full battery and another one. They turned out to be valuable as they doubled as flashlights too. The guys bought vodka, and lots of it. We had shots, toasted Kyrgyzstan, and ate apple pie in candle light. (Gas stove). We played drinking games and such until three in the morning

We walked to the telecom, about a mile. We had no idea what the price to call America was, but I knew if I went another day without calling home, I would go crazy, so we went ahead and called. Usually at Internet places it is about 6 som per minute. I got a hold of mom, thank goodness.

After talking to her for 25 minutes, I thought I would pay and see how much it was and then call Katie. IT WAS 26 SOM A MINUTE. That’s a lot. I paid 500 som for a 25-minute phone call. Las time I called home I paid like 100 for 40 minutes. I spent all my bazaar money at the telecom, by mistake, and so no cereal to take home. Oh well. Now I know, that telecoms are for emergencies only. I will be getting my cell phone as soon as possible to avoid things like that. Then I won’t have to pay to receive calls from home.

We went back to the apartment and helped clean up, and then decided to head back to Tokmok. It was pretty rough carrying my backpack. Even just to the taxi.

Rich put half of us in one taxi to the bus station or atovoxil and the rest in another. Our taxi driver was insane. I must have really bad luck. Raabia, Alex and I ended up in another village in the middle of nowhere. The man told us to get out, that we had only paid enough to get to this pot, in which we had no idea where we were. Raabia was screaming at him in English, Alex and I were saying atovoxil over and over, and he just laughed. We had out huge backpacks and were feeling pretty helpless, when out of no where, a volunteer stationed in that village that we had met the day before, Josh drove by on his way to a new site. (Josh is a business volunteer and his main project is getting fish in the lake). He helped us into a new taxi that took us to the station. Rich was gone, off trying to find us. We found everyone else and we got into our marchuka, exhausted, sore and ready to head back to our villages.

Raabia and I shared my Ipod, which miraculously still had battery. The power hadn’t come back on at eh apartment when we left. The man seriously was driving over 120 kilometers an hour through the windy mountain road. You had to close your eyes, or you would scare yourself to death. We got back in record time. We were all so exhausted and Raabia and I were so sore that we could barely move, let alone carry our bags. We were supposed to find taxis to our villages. Usually we pay 20 som each way. We found one that would take three of us for 100 som. So we went for it, as my village is out of the way, so we thought it was a good deal. He didn’t go to my village, and refused to take me there. So I was stuck at Raabia’s until our LCFs, remember, mine is Bak, found me a private car for 100 som. Not a great day. I got back just before dark and the driver seemed to think I liked it when he swerved at people in the road. Not a fun ride. No one was home at my house when I got there. I had to wait outside, so exhausted that I almost fell asleep in the yard. My host father came home and unlocked the door, after I sat in the yard and explained to people that no one was home to sell them gas. Not fun. I explained to him what happened, and thankfully they gave me a bowl of soup and sent me to bed at 7. I slept until 8 this morning and only woke up twice.

I wanted to do my own laundry today, as I feel bad having someone else do it for me. SO I did. It was kind of fun. We use a big machine and then hand rise and scrub, then rinse again and hang on the line. When I went outside to get water I noticed that the neighbor had something in his trunk, moving. He opened it and pulled out a big goat. We untied its feet and lead it to the backyard. I thought how nice, a new goat in the neighbor hood. I figured it was for milk or something. Then when I came out to hang my clothes, it was hanging from a tree. So, another lesson learned. Don’t get attached to any farm animals around here.

All the girls stopped by to see how my visit was and how I was feeling, so that made the day a lot better. We visited and compared villages for awhile, and then for the first time since I got here, I got my own private banya. (I asked Bak to explain that I needed privacy to wash my scrapes out). Maybe I will get to do this from now on, but probably not.

Overall it was quite a week. Rich seemed to sum it up pretty well – ‘An Adventure to write home about.’

He sure is right.

** Just a quick explanation to those other parents that are reading this. I am a homebody, meaning this is my first trip outside of the states and away from home. I was that kid who didn’t go stay at a friends house until high school. I was the child that cried and had to go home in the middle of the night and here, I am the one who uses most of my money just to call home. And won’t have it any other way. So I call home a lot, email even more and update my blog as often as possible, but I will pass on messages to your sons and daughters! **

October 10, 2005

Happy Birthday Justin.

MY FIRST PERSONAL VISITOR FROM THE DIRECTOR

Word sure does travel fast. I don’t really even know whom I told about falling off the horse but the news spread quick.

I had my second bout with the stomach illness this morning and had to stay home from lessons due to dehydration. I slept all morning and read the entire Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I was forced out of bed by my host mother for tea at around 1 in the afternoon, completely against my will. I mean really, I was in my pajamas, with my glasses on, no makeup (not that I really wear it much anymore) and looking pretty miserable. But no more sleeping for me, I had to have lunch with a bunch of local women. I was given a massive bowl of plov (veggies, rice, OIL (the cause of my illness) and meat) and had about two bites before I think she realized I was about to get sick all over the table and let me go back to bed. I guess even a call from the Peace Corps Medical Officer didn’t keep her from cooking and making me eat.

Anyway, I did get to go back to bed, but at about 4 pm I got another knock on the door. This time it was the Director of the program. I braced myself for the worst. The director doesn’t usually make house calls, especially to little villages outside of the city…

He sat down in my chair and asked me how I was doing and if the horse won. I laughed and told him the story. He comes from a ranch in White Water, Montana and told me that he understands that it’s hard to follow the rules all of the time. He was very nice about the whole thing. He told me stories of his ranch days, and we visited for a while. Basically he just wanted to make sure I was okay.

But, he is going to make an example of me to the other 61 volunteers tomorrow at hub day. I guess I am pretty used to ‘learning from my mistakes’ so I guess everyone can learn from this one!

I guess my “lucky” horseshoe turned out to be somewhat lucky after all.

Week 2 and some of Week 3

2005-10-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

September 28, 2005

I GOT MY PACKAGE TODAY!!!!! I HAVE THE BEST PARENTS EVER. Nothing was stolen or out of place!!! It took three weeks to get here and was wonderful, I hate to say it though, but I think I will probably have finished the book in it by tonight. I can’t get enough books, I swear.

Today we had safety and security sessions and medical sessions. We learned all the different reasons we might get med evacuated from here, and found out that we are covered by the United States Government Air evacuation ambulance that costs 50,000 to use. So if we are seriously injured or sick, we are well taken care of. But that’s for serious injuries. They said someone had a ruptured appendix last year and didn’t realize it, then went into a coma. So that kind of thing.

I had had it today with no internet, so I took it upon myself to find a café. Little did I know there was one three minutes from our hub site. Our hub site is an equal opportunity school and daycare center. I skipped out on the safety session on dealing with unwanted attention (I did live in Sandpoint and frequent the Long Bridge Bar after all), and ran to the internet café. I got an hour’s worth of email for 20 som, and got to read messages and try to write back to some of them. I am very sorry if I didn’t get them all, I know I didn’t, but we are going back in the morning. I am going to try and make a couple of calls in the morning too. I got to talk to mom and dad, which was the greatest thing ever. The package was wonderful, and thanks for not being upset that it was 4:30 in the morning. You go away and realize who your true friends are, how much you love your family and how much everyone loves you back!!!! I got a birthday card from Edie, Bryan and the boys today, it was amazing!!!! These are the kind of things that keep me going!

I miss Seth and Kyle and watching MTV with them everyday. I have no clue what’s on All My Children either. And to be honest, I forgot about it until now, but Linds check it out for me would ya!!!?

Today when I got home from Tokmok, I had 12 women at the house and we had a formal dinner. I felt a lot more comfortable this time and figured out a few things they said here and there. We of course had sheep and rice, but the atmosphere was the best part. I figured out that everyone was family in some way, whether aunt, uncle, great grandma etc. They age faster here. They also do not recycle, do not dispose of waste well and pollute everything. Garbage just gets thrown on the ground or burned. When kids have candy they toss the wrappers anywhere. THERE ARE NO GARBAGE CANS ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY!

The exciting news is that we are getting some freedom!!!! On Tuesday I am taking a bus North to Lake Issical (spelled wrong). I will stay with a volunteer for 5 days. She is going to let me shadow her in her daily routine and will show me around. Tomorrow I open a bank account in the city. Everyone is doing this visit next week, some have up to 14 hours of traveling to get to their practice sites. I only have 2 at the most. But the lake is supposedly beautiful. Just a lot of radioactivity in the water. I am really excited to have some independence though and to do some traveling.

At our medical session today they passed around oreos. The excitement in the group was wild. Its funny what we get excited about now. When they passed out hand sanitizer to everyone, cheers erupted. Same thing with American toilet paper, (crepe paper is what they use here). We get excited over the littlest things. It really makes you appreciate what you have. I can’t even bring myself to wear one of the pairs of jeans that I brought here. They cost me more than some people here make in 6 months. That’s tough. When I put things into perspective I realize that the amount of money my parents spent on just my braces alone is more than some people will make here in there lives. It is hard, and sad. We truly are lucky to be Americans. People here have never even seen a computer and are lucky to have telephones or even electricity in their village.

I am so spoiled.

Thanks for my loyal readers!!!! I hope this isn’t dull and boring for you guys, I try to make it entertaining to a point, but apparently the government reads this too and holds it against me if I do anything bad on my blog.

SO I will take this moment to state that THIS BLOG IN NO WAY IS AFFILIATED WITH THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OR PEACE CORPS.

Have to write that every once and a while.

So I feel like I write too much, and this last entry was too much to read, so I will quit now. Kinsie congrats on 9 months of marriage!!!!!
Thanks everyone for the kind emails and thoughts!
Lots of Love
Betsy

Sept. 29, 2005

I got to check my email again today, but just for one second. It was a quick trip, as we went into the city this morning to open local bank accounts. I walked to the bus stop this morning and had my first experience with rowdy cows in a herd. One of them actually touched me as I made my way through them, but it was just to ummm mount another one. I saved my lunch from yesterday (we get bagged lunches when we go into the city) and fed dogs on my walk. Usually for lunch Myriam packs me an apple, some bread and either an egg or a chunk of disgusting weird meat. I usually feed it to dos, but eat, the apple and the bread. A lot of times the apples have worms, so we have to check it out carefully. My leatherman is getting a lot of use. The apples come straight off the tree in the backyard, as everyone here harvests apples. The season is just about over.

We went to a nice internet café today, but since I had an hour online yesterday, I gave my time up so others could check theirs. I did read mom’s email and Camilla’s too, so thanks for those. Those kind of emails really keep me motivated here.

After emailing and new bank accounts we headed back for more language lessons. You can add now to my vocabulary, how to say NO!!! I’M NOT MARRIED AND I DON’T WANT TO BE. Also, foods, dishes, numbers, basic phrases like I’m tired, I’m sick, I’m hungry, I’m dirty etc. I can say the entire 34-letter alphabet without hesitation, which is impressive as there are 4 different variations just of the letter O alone. (O, ooh, Eww, Oooeww). The H here is really an N and the P is really and RR. Tough. Also it is okay in this culture to be really late for things, and to not do what you say you are going to. For example, the local post office says it will be open from 10-2 daily, but, we go their almost everyday and I have never got to mail anything.

I borrowed Sweet Home Alabama from Xouhoa, so I get to watch that tonight on my computer after supper. Last night I found out was another part of the funeral that I went to last weekend. It is almost laundry day already, but I don’t really have much since last week. Also we banya on Saturday too!!!!! So excited for that. Bucket bathing is not all its cracked up to be. I did however get to wash my hair on Monday night. (Its Thursday). Hopefully again tonight.

Sunday we are heading into Bishkek with Bak (Just a clarification. Bak is my LCF or language and culture facilitator. He lives in our village and is a professor from a Kyrgyz Univesity. He works for the Peace Corps and we have one LCF for every 5 volunteers. He is like our parent, friend, translator, body guard and coordinator all in one. He speaks English well enough to have written the only Kyrgyz/English dictionary available). Bishkek is the capital of K-stan and is known for its bazaar. At the bazaar you can purchase absolutely anything. I plan to buy airmail envelopes and winter boots. Maybe a hot pot as well, as we are limited in heating water in the winter. Someone bought one today for 380 som or under $10 American. We head out to our site visits on Tuesday.

Enough for today, more tomorrow as we prepare for our culture day coming up on Saturday. We are sacrificing a sheep at a monument in our village and all of the other volunteers are coming to eat and learn traditional dances. So basically, we are having a party. And there is another disco at the school on Friday night…

September 30, 2005

I met a good looking’ man here last night, which is funny because I thought it would never happen. My host brother had a friend come over, and he told my host mother that I was ‘Cuulo” or beautiful. So I got out my Kyrgyz dictionary and pointed to the word for handsome man, and I think I started a riot at the dinner table! I don’t know what anyone said from there, but I will probably be getting bride kidnapped soon, so I am preparing. I don’t know his name so we refer to him as yellow hat guy.

I sat with the family last night and went over numbers, days of the week, months and terms for things like snow, blizzard and cold. I wanted to be prepared for what’s to come during the loooong winter here. I watched Russian MTV again too, and apparently since most people don’t know English slang, they just play the unedited versions of most videos. So when I heard Eminem rapping freely during dinner I was a little bit shocked.

More language lessons today. We start at 8, so we can finish earlier in the day. Today Bak let us play word games with our vocab and personal pronoun endings. Much easier way of learning all the different tenses. We finally got to the post office, and it was actually open! The woman there explained that she is closed on Mondays, so we have to come Tuesday through Friday. She also didn’t have enough stamps for our envelopes, so not all of us got to send all of our letters. She promised to start bringing more in from the city. It takes like 7 Kyrgyz stamps to send a letter, to America, which cost 11 som, or 22 cents.

Bad news, we were informed that Christmas packages must be sent by Nov. 1 in order to make it here before Christmas, as the post slows down even more in the winter. No guarantees on arrival either. Packages get here quickly from America, they just sit in the capital post office to be sorted, as American packages don’t have a lot of priority.

I also found out that we are literally sacrificing a sheep tomorrow at the ‘Barana,’ which is a Russian monument here. Oh yeah, and if I wanted to buy a donkey, it only costs me 800 som, or about $19.50. And, a horse costs twice as much as a car does. But, because the Peace Corps specifically prohibits riding a horse or bike without a helmet, we have been unable to ride so far. We are offered quite a bit, but don’t really know when we will get helmets. If we are caught riding a bike/horse/donkey etc. without a helmet, we are sent home.

After group lunch today, Rebecca and I decided we needed a little social entertainment tonight, so we headed to the local store to pick up some refreshments. 80 som later, we got a bottle of top shelf vodka, and a bunch of different mixers. All for less than $2. We are meeting everyone at Xouhoa’s house at 7 and then we headed to the Disco Tech at 9, to dance with our students and get a little fix of American pop music. Its so crazy that anyone can buy liquor in this country.

I think some of the things I miss the most here are: ICE CUBES, (no such thing here), pillows, SHOWERS, (also no such thing here), refrigeration, (nothing is refrigerated here. And we never drink anything except tea, so I’m glad I gave up soda back in April, but just imagine never having anything cold to drink), chicken (they don’t eat it. They just have 100+ running wild in the yards and the village) and pets. I imagine the list will grow and grow, but we did find out that you can get your hair wash for 5 som in the city at a salon. Which will probably be something we do as much as possible. Haircuts are pretty sketchy. Don’t plan on one of those for about the next two years. Two years, I figure at least 12 inches of hair…

I can now count to 100 in Kyrgyz, which is kind of exciting to me. Helpful in telling my family what time I will be home and when I am leaving, etc.

Miss everyone and have a new thought for the day coming from a book mom sent me, (which of course I finished) Cindi Meyers, My Backwards Life:

I admire people who are a little bit outside the curve of conventionality. In the end, it doesn’t matter what kind of job we have, where we have traveled, whether we are married or unmarried, wealthy or of modest means. What matters is the relationships we build along the way.

October 1, 2005

Wow. October already. Crazy. To think only a month ago I was hanging out in Idaho and now I am more than halfway across the world, attempting to become part of a former soviet country. Maybe just attempting to stand out less or something. I’m sure walking home from Culture Day in my oversized J-Lo sunglasses and fancy flip-flops, I did just that.

Lat night’s vodka experience wasn’t all we thought it would be. We drank the whole bottle, but it didn’t seem to have an affect on any of us, which is probably a good thing. We did go to the disco tech, but we weren’t allowed to stay over at Xouhoa’s house. So we all had to walk each other home in the dark, with just our flashlights and no street lamps. The disco tech consisted of a tape player and one speaker. And a bunch of teenagers dancing weirdly in a dark room. We walked in to the dance and had a circle around is in no time. We did some dancing, but after my host brother and yellow hat guy showed up at the junior high dance, we started to get a little weary and left.

Culture Day was amazing. We started out by taking the good old marchukas to the Barana, which is an official Kyrgyz monument. Students take field trips to this monument, and there is a monumental cemetery (not actually the graves) as well as a museum full of artifacts from the Silk Road. We were greeted immediately by the sounds of an antagonized sheep, tied to a tree. We were then informed that this was in fact, lunch. In the Kyrgyz culture when someone dies, or gets married, or basically for any kind of party, a sheep is sacrificed. So the first event of culture day was the sacrificing of the sheep. We were not forced to watch the process, but I thought, hell, I’m not a religious person, but I can appreciate other people’s beliefs. I was wrong. The entire crowd gathered around as Bak and a priest preformed a traditional song/prayer in front of the awaiting sheep. They then hog tied the thing, until it was tied so tight it couldn’t do anything but lay on a mat and breathe heavily. When Bak took the knife out, I’m afraid I lost it, and had to run from the scene, so I can’t really describe much more of the process. I hate to see animals tied up, and even though I plan to marry a rodeo man, he better be a bull rider, because I don’t support calf tying. But, what I didn’t observe was basically the slitting of the throat and then the process of sheering, skinning etc. We moved into three groups and visited first the cemetery and then the museum. The final stop was the Barana itself, a brick monument that you climb up through the inside, in 100% darkness. We took pictures from the top and then tried to climb down, through the dark tunnel.

Besides watching the sheep die, we actually had a pretty good time. Lunch was served in giant outdoor woks, and we had plov, (carrots and rice), a salad made of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, and fruit and bread. We all brought dishes from home as well as table clothes and mats to sit on, so the picnic was quite nice. At these kind of celebrations, a bowl of fermented mare’s milk or something like it, is passed around after the meal. However gets the bowl has to perform for the group. A couple of our coordinators sang traditional songs and did dances, and then Tim from Minnesota and Phil, (I forgot where he is from… sorry Phil… but you sure are handsome!!!) got out Phil’s guitar and sang Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood.

Then the eldest person at the celebration gets to eat the best ‘parts’ of the sheep. Phil and a couple of other guys tried the eyeballs and such.

After lunch a dance/song troupe performed for the group for about an hour. They sang and danced and played instruments like the mouth harp and a bunch of others that I don’t know the names of.

Then it was time for traditional Kyrgyz sports. And if you had heard rumors about horses and goat carcasses, you heard right. Men on horseback mob each other with a headless goat and try to take it away from one another. Interesting sport huh? Seriously, it is like a dogpile, only with horses and a dead goat flying around. After the goat game, the men perform tricks on the horses and wrestle one another to the ground, from the horse’s back.

We played more games after the horse play…. Good one… The boys raced one another with the winner getting the privilege of cutting the scarf from a baby’s legs. They tie up the baby’s legs, to symbolize its first steps. Another different (I use different because I am trying to keep an open mind) game. People here play games like Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose and Dodgeball as well. We had a few little problems with dodgeball, okay well I lied, just me. I accidentally pegged Christal in the chest with the ball, and she had to sit out. Sometimes I guess I throw too hard, its all those years of softball, but I know Kinsie and Alison would be proud.

We spent the entire day at the celebration, and then headed back to the village. It was great to see all the volunteers outside of the school for once. The weather was great, and actually most of us got pretty sunburned, me included. Didn’t think to wear sunscreen, as it has been getting colder here each day.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, my handsome man from before (that I said probably would kidnap me) came to the celebration today and took part in the horse games. So now I am a little more worried, but Phil is going to help me and pretend to be my fiancé or something.

So all in all, an awesome day. We had a lot of fun and really tried to appreciate more of the culture here. And it gets better…. TODAY IS BANYA DAY. That’s right it’s the sixth day of the week and that mean I get a banya tonight. I’ll sleep easy tonight. Plus I get to the big city tomorrow and call and email and shop for winterish clothes!!!! What a fun weekend!!!!

Watching Sweet Home Alabama (again) and falling asleep before my banya, got to rest, as otherwise the steam will probably make me pass out. Hopefully when I post this I well call home and Katie as well.

Thanks for reading another week’s worth of thoughts… many more to come I’m sure.

October 2, 2005

Of course we didn’t get to send emails or anything like that today. But, I have to say I experienced my first Kyrgyz Bazaar.

The marchuka picked me up at 8 this morning and we headed into Bishkek for the bazaar. It is a nice drive, about an hour and a half along the river that is also the boarder between Kyrgyz and Kazakstan. The marchuka has two back seats and then a third that faces backward, so as the last one to get on the marchuka every morning, I always have to sit backward. (This is because my home is a bit out of town, and they pick me up on the way).

The bazaar is nothing like I ever seen. I don’t think it is something I will be frequenting in the future. You enter and its warehouse type building that look like box cars, but they are open and you go inside. Booth after booth filled with American knock off clothing, sunglasses, beauty products, electronics, coats, women’s clothes, men’s clothes, shoes, food, fruit, nuts, candy, alcohol, luggage, purses, etc. are lined in crazy rows with men constantly yelling ‘Johl’ or move in Russian as they came though with carts full of stuff. People bargain, but not with Americans, as they expect us to pay full price. It was a chance to test out language, and luckily as I have mastered numbers, I had a pretty easy time asking how much and what size. I am not really a thrifty kind of shopper, I probably get this from my mother, so I don’t really like to bargain or sort through stuff. But, I was looking for some warm sweaters, boots and possibly a shell to wear over my down coat. Rebecca brought no type of coat and tried to find a winterish jacket, but we were so crammed and pushed for time that we only made it to one section of the gigantic bazaar. I did pick up some nail polish, (20 som or about .50 cents) and some peanuts. We all got bags and bags of peanuts, as we are definitely lacking in protein.

Oh yeah I forgot. I bought DVD’s clearly bootlegged, as they are 10 movies per disk. I got one disk with Madagascar, Batman Begins, Star Wars, The Island, Stealth, The Skeleton Key, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four and some other movies on it for like 200 som. Pretty good deal. And it works, I tried it on my computer. I got another disc with the Father of the Bride series and American Pie series on it as well. I think that will be my favorite thing about the bazaar. Music and DVDs. Other people bought fruit, nuts, house slippers and perfume. At one booth I saw a back massager and picked it up and tried it on Rebecca’s back. The woman grabbed it from my hand, screamed at me to get away in Russian, and yelled good bye. So apparently I had my first bit of cultural sensitivity. I still don’t know what I did wrong, but oh well.

I tried to find sweaters, but all the sleeves seemed dirty and I am just to picky about my clothes.

But then I got home and decided to organize my closet into a perfect order (Katie would be so proud) and realized that I managed to bring with me, 23 skirts, 12 sweaters, 13 thermal shirts, 10 more long sleeves, 15 short sleeves, 12 tanks, 8 pairs of sweats/pajamas, 8 pairs of jeans, plus 7 pairs of pants, 5 button up dress shirts, three dress jackets, three dresses, a raincoat, a down coat, just 5 pairs of shoes and a few more random articles here and there. I think I did pretty well on the packing. I didn’t realize I had enough clothes to go for more than a month without doing laundry, So I really didn’t need much at the bazaar. What I forgot to bring or hoped to purchase here was converters/adapters for my electronics. My hair hasn’t seen a blow dryer in three weeks now, and has only been washed (GASP) 4 times, including tonight. Tonight I got the experience of banyaing with my host mom AND her two granddaughters. Just the way I bet all of you spent your Sunday evenings…

We only stayed at the bazaar for three hours and then headed back to Duhn Arayak (our village) as our driver had to be back early. We were all pretty disappointed as we had hoped to go to Zum to buy electronic stuff. (Huge department store in the cities). We did stop for lunch at an outdoor café in Kant City. This was our first restaurant experience since the first days where we had the food poisoning epidemic. This was a neat place, you ate on floating rooms over the water. But, you only have a choice of two things on the menu. So we all went with logman, or noodles and veggies. I came home and fell asleep right away, as it was a long day and a lot to deal with. I watched one of the movies and then it was time for dinner and banya. At least I finally feel clean. I was actually so drained from the weekend that the banya was quite miserable. It is so hot and sauna-like that I thought I might pass out, so I hurried through it and got out to drink a bottle of water. Which isn’t a good idea at night as everyone now understands the outhouse situation. My new problem is that the wind has picked up and the door won’t stay shut.

We leave on Tuesday morning for our site visits. I am staying with Maya. That’s all I know about here, but I believe that she lives with a host family still and lives right on the water. The lake is translated as ‘Hot Lake’ (It doesn’t freeze, despite the temperatures) and is supposed to be amazing. I am hoping that I will like the environment there and then I will request it as a permanent site, as hopefully being on the lake will remind me of home. I get to use my sleeping bag and my big backpack for the first time since I have been here, as we are traveling all week. Some people have 10-12 hour taxi rides ahead of them, as buses and marchukas do not go over the mountains. I have a relatively short ride. Christal and I will travel together on a public bus.

Tomorrow, (Monday), we head into Tokmok for a hub day. We get our second allowance, and we are hoping it goes up a little from 45 som per day, as a soda costs 30. Who knows though, we all finally exchanged money last week. Our biggest expense has been riding into Tokmok, as it cost 45 som each time we go. The trip to Bishkek cost us all 150 som today. At first I could care less, as I just thought, 150 som, ha that’s only a few dollars. But, really we can’t think in American currency any longer. We only get 45 som a day, and that’s the realization that we have to come to. Otherwise every purchase could be easily justified. (For example, I thought about buying a donkey. It cost 800 som. Which is only $20). But that’s like 20 days worth of allowance. Plus, we don’t have helmets, so we can’t ride. Which really is too bad, as I have been offered so many different rides on various animals. Remember, yellow hat guy has a champion horse that he races.

I am going to sneak away to the Internet café to send this out while in the city tomorrow. Won’t be able to make any calls, but at least I can check my email. I am so worn out, I’m going to sleep now, and hopefully I will actually sleep through the night. I forgot to mention I think, that my family sells gas out of the house. (Thank god the Peace Corps gave my a smoke detector, not that it will really be effective with all the tanks of gas). 24 hours a day cars pull up to the house and honk their horns or ring our doorbell which plays music. They buy about a liter for 25 som. We sell it in coke bottles or Fanta bottles (Fanta is so popular here, and coca-cola in pronounced ‘Sosa Sola’) Apparently my host father drives into Kazakstan and buys it on the black market and then brings it back here to sell way cheap. So it’s a pretty happening place around here. And they all like to see the American and make fun of my language skills too. Sometimes our doorbell rings all night, sometimes I don’t hear it.

But otherwise, I like it here and am very content. But if I had a voltage adapter, to straighten my hair, I would be out of this world happy! (Don’t send one, I can get it here!!!)

The First WEEK

2005-09-28T02:49:00.000-07:00

This is my journal from the past week, most recent is last….
But its all pretty damn funny

Oh my god. Lets just leave it at that. If I have ever thought that I have had it rough before, I lied. I am damn spoiled rotten. Today was probably the most difficult day of my life. Nothing even compares. Nothing. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you meet people 100% different from you that you cannot communicate with.

We left the hotel today at 8 to head into the city of Bishkek (I am not in Russia for those of you who think so. I am in Kyrgyzstan which is its own country), to buy flowers for our host families and to call home and check our email. We took a Marchuka or a big taxi. To me it looks somewhat like a VW Van. Honestly, we had more than 20 people stuffed into the van. It cost 5 som each way, or about seven cents for the ride. The Marchuka dropped our group; Xouhoa, (Sou-a), Rebecca, Jessica and I off with our language coordinator, Bakyet in town. We had good Internet but really crappy phone lines, which Dad can probably agree. All the girls immediately cried together while checking our emails. We each spent around 80 som to check email and make calls, or about $2. And that’s at 4 som per minute which is not bad. It cost me 80 som to talk to Dad, but only 5 for a ride all the way into the city. Crazy…

We bought all our flowers from a lady selling flowers on the street. She had a busy day today. We then took a Marchuka back to the hotel, where we had to re-load all of our gear to take to Tokmok, our hub site. This time, the Peace Corps rented a moving van. We arrived at Tokmok after an hour-long bus ride. Our families were waiting for us at a café. They clapped and greeted us with flowers. We all had nametags with our names and our host parents names to get matched up. Myriam found me right away. She and her husband were extremely excited and introduced me to all of the neighbors picking up other volunteers. We all sat and had a meal. Our host mothers or apas dished our plates for us. Xouhoa is a very small Chinese/Laocian girl and her Ata, (host father) insisted she eat, eat, eat. Lunch is the main meal here. Dinner is usually just something simple, but lunch is a three-course meal. We had scones stuffed with meat, rice with meat and veggies, bread, tea, watermelon, grapes, apples, salad and water. We all just kind of pick at our meals, we really try to portionize.

After lunch we headed off, and it was a damn circus. Our luggage had been unloaded for us, we just had to find it. Myriam and her husband who’s name I don’t know, have a car to take me to their home in a village about 15 minutes away. Not many people do. We all loaded my two huge bags, my massive backpack and my new electrical heater and medical kit into an old Audi. On the drive we passed donkeys pulling carts in the street (there is no right side of the road, you just pick one), horses, cows in the road, dogs, children playing in the street (So dad, next time you tell someone to go play in the street, think about it), garbage and chickens.

We arrived at a bright blue house with stars on it, I don’t know what they symbolize and I certainly can’t ask, keep in mind I don’t even have a Kyrgyz dictionary, as they are pretty hard to come by in the states. THEY DO NOT SPEAK RUSSIAN HERE!!! I think that between all 66 of us we have 2. The Peace Corps will issue them tomorrow though. Myriam has 2 sons that I know of so far, and they unloaded my bags for me. She made me unpack immediately in my room. My room is three times bigger than my room in my apartment in Moscow. I have an armoire and lots of shelves and they all are lock and key. We unpacked together as Myriam stays by my side all the time. I think she was overwhelmed by my clothing, but what can you do?

My room is covered in huge rugs. On the floor and the walls. I have a table and two chairs in the center to study at, and a full-length mirror as well. The houses here are split in half. I must take my shoes off when I enter my side of the house, which also contains the formal dining room and another bedroom. I don’t know who sleeps in it. The other side of the house is the kitchen and living room area, where they have a color TV.

After unpacking, it was immediately time for tea, of course. And Myriam set up a feast. I tried to eat a small amount of bread but if you read above I have bronchitis and its bad today. No voice, not even a little bit. So even if I could communicate, I couldn’t. Myriam understands this though and gives me lots of tea. She put out, watermelon, tomatoes, cucumber, cookies, candies, bread, raisins, dried fruit, butter, tea, jam that goes in the tea, walnuts (which I have no idea how they crack, I’m assuming with their teeth, since most of them are gold), raw meat and apples. I tried some fruit and had more tea, but all this food is just not inviting. We watched It could Happen To You in Russian on the TV, and she set up my water purifier as well. After a bit she showed me the toilet. From now on when all of you sit down on your cozy, plush toilets, don’t take it for granted. I have an outdoor stall, all wood, with a hole in the ground. You squat to use it, and of course, Myriam goes with me outside, But the best part, to get to the outhouse, you have to walk through about 5,000 chickens, three cows, a donkey and some sheep. And of course all the neighbors stare at me as well.

After that Myriam let me go and take a nap. She woke me up an hour later, holding a baby. I think it is her granddaughter and after some cognitive process of elimination, I figured out that one of her sons is married and this was his child – Emoot. Here when you get married you move in with your husband’s family. I took the baby, and we went into the kitchen/living room area for more tea (called Chai here). Unfortunately, something triggered me and I lost my nerve, Tears poured. And poured, Couldn’t hold them back at all. So, Myriam of course had no clue what to do. I went back to my room and pointed to a picture of my real apa (Mom), and of Katie and she got the idea. Thankfully at that exact moment Bakyet showed up at the house and explained what was wrong with me and suggested that I keep on walking with him to the closest volunteer’s house to visit. So I did. Had to take off my socks though, as I forget to say, Myriam insists that I wear socks at all times, which is a real pain in the ass since my house shoes are flip flops. Plus, everyone knows how much I hate socks.

So Bak and I headed down to see Rebecca. It was about a 10-minute walk through a cornfield but I felt so much better. I got to stay until 9 with her. We visited and talked about everything for a while. She has two young children in her house, both grandchildren. We were served dinner while I was there, but it isn’t a very important meal and the men didn’t join us. We ate with Amilia, who is five and laughs constantly but is adorable. We had meat and potatoes and since I was the guest, Rebecca’s apa served me. More tea and bread as well. I ate a few potatoes, but am trying to give my stomach a rest.

We visited for a while, and now I am doing much better, especially knowing Rebecca is so close to me. She and I will walk to the bus stop together in the mornings at 7. Just on Wednesdays and Thursdays and then the rest of the time we will walk all the way to town for language classes with Bak. Myriam drove and picked me up. When we got back though, she made me eat again!!! Noodles with veggies this time. She lets me just pick at it though, but makes me drink at least 3 cups of tea. I also met the baby’s mother. And came to the realization that they don’t have diapers here. So you can imagine. They just change the baby’s clothes a lot.

I finally got to go to bed, after Myriam followed me outside to the outhouse. She gave me a lock for the door, and let me be for a while. Funny to think when I wake up it will be my birthday and no one really knows.

So now here I am. In my small bed, only about enough room for someone 5’5.” My feet almost touch. But it is warm and has plenty of blankets and I have a whole bottle of Tylenol pm so I will be okay. I made it through the day. At least tomorrow I can look words up and try to communicate better.

So that’s that. Sorry if this is too much information, but it makes me feel better to write it all. I mailed letters to the states today, and bought water for about 20 cents. Still not used to things being so inexpensive.

I better hit the sack, after all, tomorrow is my birthday. No mail arrived yet, We get mail on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The only things I need so far are slippers, a USB stick, vitamins and conditioner. Might be able to get those things here. And if someone wants to get me an international Glamour subscription, they do send them here….!

Will leave you with my thought for the day… coming from Chris LeDoux…

Sit tall in the saddle,
Hold your head up high.
Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky.
And live like you ain’t afraid to die,
Don’t be scared, just enjoy your ride.

September 21, My birthday

I woke up this morning to a rooster at about 4 am. The plan was to walk to the Marchuka stop by 7:30, with Myriam. Hopefully, after today I will be allowed to walk by myself. The walk is about a mile each way, as I am the farthest one away. Myriam woke me up at about 7:10, so not much time to get ready. After today I plan to wake myself up. Anyway, she cooked fried eggs for breakfast and I ate one. Then we rushed off to the town to catch my ride. I wasn’t the last one. But, most of the group wasn’t feeling very well. After the 20 minute ride into Tokmok for training I found out that no one was feeling well. Food poisoning and stomach problems for just about everyone. Three people passed out within minutes of arriving. Three had to be put on IV’s. Dehydration and serious stomach problems have plagued just about everyone. Add to that vomiting and fevers, and it didn’t make for a great day.

And on top of it all, Jessica went back to the states. (One of my group members, from Vegas --- she has a hot rock star boyfriend in the states so I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same in her situation!!!)

We spent the day doing problem solving cause/effect exercises in teams. And by the way, I still had not washed my hair, which makes me an unhappy person. But, I opened my card from mom and dad on the ride to the training center, and that made things go a lot better – Thanks!!! I have wonderful parents… that sent me with a birthday gift, as mail here takes about a month to receive no matter how you send it. And the smaller it is, the faster I get it.

When we went outside for fresh air, as half of our group spent the morning in a makeshift infirmary, we were greeted by lots of small children who said hello and wanted to shake our hands. They were adorable, and some asked our names. They followed us around the playground all day. We had a couple of sessions outside, as it was stuffy, hot and smelly inside the building. But, latrines as they call the squat toilets are outside and with all the vomiters, it wasn’t a pretty site.

Three people dropped out of the program today, We are down from 66 to 63.

Oh yeah, I forgot, on the way to the school this morning, we had to stop and let the cattle herds pass through the street. Actually the Marchuka driver just honked and drove right through them. Probably like 200 cows in the main road. And some donkeys mixed in. people drive up and down the streets in carts pulled by donkeys and mules.

Today in cultural class we learned that here it is normal to belch at the dinner table. It is also okay to through rocks at dogs. And, men are not expected to do a single household chore. This was demonstrated today as my tea cup was empty and my host father just gives it to his wife to refill even though she is holding a baby and trying to eat.

When I got home from training I walked home by myself. Three men in an old blue car circled the village road over and over until they saw me go into a house. Little kids outside the school or Meptek waved and said hello. It is a pleasant walk home. Myriam had found out it was my birthday and had a huge feast set up in the formal dining room. She had bread and fruit and salads and tea as well as a birthday cake she had bought. She also gave me a bottle of champagne as a gift. Bak came and had supper with us, rice and veggies, and then I made him explain to Myriam that I must wash my hair after dinner.

So she washed it for me in the Banya. The banya is a system they use to bathe every 6 days. I tried to tell her that was fine, but I needed to be able to rinse in the mornings. The banya is like a sauna that is heated with wood and hot and cold water to rinse with.

As long as I can wash my hair, I’m happy. I can’t use any appliances or anything, and once my computer battery runs out, I am not sure if I will be able to charge it here, as the electricity is not stable enough to charge anything. After dinner Myriam’s husband showed me family pictures, and then took 10 minutes to look up the word tired in the dictionary and sent me to bed. I wanted to use the outhouse before bed, as I think I had 56 cups of tea with dinner, and made my first trip alone. Xouhoa told me there were rats in her outhouse, so I was extremely scared and ran there and back with my flashlight. I like to think it will only get better, but who am I kidding.

Bak, is quite the man. I noticed on my Kyrgyz dictionary that he wrote it. Oh yeah, we finally got dictionaries, but they aren’t phonetic and my understanding of the alphabet is not what one would call good. But language lessons begin again on Friday.

I looked in the mirror today. Wow. Pretty beat up. My forearms are covered in bruises and so are my thighs. I think its from all of the luggage. My bronchitis is much better, I just have to fight the stomach problems that are getting everyone.

Hope all is well in America. Sleeping to Dierks Bentley tonight on the ipod.

Thursday evening Sept. 22.

It‘s funny to think that as I write this and get ready for bed, everyone is just waking up there.

This morning at 4 am, I woke up to the roosters and layed in bed until 6:30. Because I had clean hair for the first time this week, I was able to break out the propane curling iron and do some work to my hair. Curly today. So whenever I am able to curl my hair, I know its going to be a great day…plus the power IS stable enough to charge my electronics!

This morning Myriam gave me some kind of yogurt for breakfast and sent me on my way, alone. It’s such a nice walk in the morning. No one is awake, except for the random cows in the street.

Today we had lesson plan training, as well as training on conducting clubs in local schools. We were assigned to a local village school or Mektep, to visit and observe in the next couple weeks too. We came to the realization that here, people choose whether they want to speak Kyrgyz or Russian, and pretty much just mix the two languages together as they see fit. Helpful to us poor foreigners just trying to get by.

Also I found out that the average family here has a monthly income of 1200 som, or $30 per month. A teacher is not allowed to be paid more than 1000 som per month. When you retire, the government gives you 900 som per month to live on. More than 30% of the people in the country live in conditions of EXTREME POVERTY. More than 50% of the citizens live BEYOND POVERTY. But, somehow they manage to maintain a 90% literacy rate.

Three peace corps volunteers came to visit today and filled me with lots of valuable information. Things to look forward to, basically. They all three (females) live up north near the lake. One had her nails done, and all three had cell phones. The way cell phones work is that they buy them here, or if they are prepared like me they brought their own with sim cards, and then their families buy international phone cards, usually found cheapest at Asian food stores for some reason. A good price is 10-15$ for an hour. So I hope some of you will start STOCKING UP on those, because in October I will have a cell phone, and you can call me, but I can’t call you. SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CALL WHEN I GET THE PHONE!!!!

You also will be able to go online and type a text message to me that will go to my cell. But not until next month, when I have a little more freedom.

The girls also said that they get paid almost 5000 som per month, which is a lot more than I expected. They have apartments by themselves in their villages, and one lives in a city. One did say that when she jogged kids have thrown rocks at her though.

So today at lunch we interacted with children at school. They speak some English and we speak some Kyrgyz, so we found out that they have an English teacher from Chicago. Not affiliated with any kind of program like us, she just lives in Kyrgyzstan. I took pictures of the kids, as they are absolutely adorable.

Oh yeah, someone installed a light in the outhouse, so I am not as scared in the dark anymore. And all that’s left of my bronchitis is a cough, and I don’t seem to have gotten the massive stomach problems that most people have. So things are going well. I am actually pretty damn happy. If only I had wireless internet so I could use my Itunes giftcard I got for my birthday. I’ll find it in the city sometime though.

Just to mention, the level of professional training that we are receiving is great. I think the program is very admirable and the staff here is incredible. I learned of a program called darienbookaid.com that will ship books to my classrooms for free, if someone could look that up for me, that would be wonderful. (Maybe my father….)

And mom if this makes you happy – I know longer know what a comfort zone is. When I wake up and hope for the water to drip out of the faucet and for the electricity to come on steady, any chance of finding a comfort zone is completely gone.

I did have fun today after classes. I managed to communicate somehow with Myriam that I was meeting friend in the school yard to play catch, and go jogging, as among my 175 pounds of luggage (seriously) I brought baseball mitts for two and running shoes. Sometimes my daddy has such good ideas. We jogged around the village (Don Aryuk) as a group. Unfortunately at Rebecca’s we got sucked in and had to eat, something we all try to avoid as we know we will be fed at our own houses later on.

I walk home in a separate direction from everyone else, and it was strange to have this cow walking toward me on the street. Also, three young boys on bikes followed me to the school, riding in circles around me. The only English they know is “Hi, what is your name.”

I get that a lot.

I am really doing well though. I am happy and I have made such amazing friends. The girls in the village and I get along wonderfully. We share our experiences and support each other well. Tomorrow night everyone is going to sleep over here, as I think I have the most stable electricity and we plan to watch DVDS on my computer. I knew the 15 inch screen would come in handy. (In our local village, I live near Xouhoa, Christabelle, Crystal, Laurie, Rebecca and Glenn and Linda, a married couple from Utah. We have training in the city on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then spend the rest of the time in language sessions with Bak in the village. Saturday we will go to our first open market).

The worst part of the day was dinner; we had meat. I thought I had given Myriam a hint that I don’t particularly like it, but we had hot dogs. Only they weren’t hot, and I think they really were dog.

I can say I tried it. But after I gagged she didn’t force it on me.

I am worn out tonight. I think I will be for a while.

Tonight on the ipod: Gary Allan. For reasons only one person knows.

I Love everyone. Miss you Katie and Edie. (Letters should be coming Edie, for you to pass on to Grandma).

Betsy

September 23, 2005

I guess I spoke too soon last night. This morning I was violently ill. In every way imaginable. Hit me at about 4 AM. It is absolutely horrible to be sick and have no plumbing system whatsoever. Thank your lucky stars you live where you do. Anyone ever had to puke in a squat toilet hole before? Think about it.

So, not a great start to the day. We stayed in the village today for language classes and we visited a school where we will be student teaching later on. I will someday have a chance to put pictures on my blog, I hope so that you can see these conditions that surround me. The school has no playground and is lucky to have electricity. In the winter there is no heat, and the student have a wooden outhouse outside the building.

We worked more on the alphabet and had grammar lessons at Bak’s house. After that we all had lunch at Rebecca’s and then had a field trip around town. We saw the post office, the store and ummm that’s all. There is nothing else. Also we bought Russian popsicles at the store, which are really just frozen whipped cream. After classes the girls and I all walked and walked and walked. We explored the entire community, and visited each others’s houses. We walked to the edges of town to better see the mountains and then headed back, as we were going to go to a Disco Tech at the school, but our host mothers won’t let us out after dark.

Rebecca and I went to my Uoy or home, and decided to both stay at her house. So I packed some stuff and a DVD and we headed off. At night the cows run, as well as the coy or sheep, which I was fed for dinner. We made it through the herds and fought off another dinner at her house. Lucky for me, I can pull the stomach illness card and take it easy with meals. They just force chai (tea) on you all the time, which we hate, as we don’t particularly enjoy outhouse trips.

Tomorrow Rebecca’s host brothers, who go to school in Bishkek, are going to take us into the city to call home and email. We all can’t wait. During training we don’t get access to email like we will when we are officially sworn in. Then we can travel and do as we please. But, the hardest part will be the time. We can only got to internet cafes at certain times, and here I am sick and homesick too, and worried about upsetting people back home for calling at bad times. So if I do catch anyone at a bad time, I’m sorry in advance, but really I can’t get to the city at times that work well for America.

I had another rough experience today. I saw a dog that was clearly malnourished and starving. It is chained up, so it can’t hunt for its own food, and has no water. I fed it my lunch and brought water, but here that is insulting to the Kyrgyz. Dogs are not people, they have no value except to guard the home, and they are treated like flies. People throw rocks at them and starve them as well. It got to me. I cried. But everyone knows about me and animals. I think I helped this one, and it lives near Crystal, so she promised to feed it from now on. But, really. That’s hard for me to deal with. Animal abuse is never easy,

Moving on from that, I am still doing well, fighting through this sickness that slowly gets to everyone trying to digest new bacteria. Food is left out and uncovered here, and there is absolutely NO way we can drink the water. Fridges are uncommon. So are showers. I washed my hair on Wednesday night, and it is Friday night. And I don’t get to wash it tonight. So you can imagine my attitude at this moment. But I’ll survive as some volunteers have to wait until Sunday. And I plan to have mine washed again tomorrow. After this, I have to develop a more regular schedule for shampooing. This is just not workin’ for me….

Otherwise I’m okay. Happy to get to read emails tomorrow. That brings the morale of the group way up.

Listening to Simple Plan --- Addicted to You.

September 24, 2005

What a day!!!!

For a day that started out pretty shitty, it turned out to be an awesome day filled with all sorts of new experiences….

I started out at Rebecca’s and her outhouse unfortunately is the worst of them all. I really feel for her. We went out this morning when we woke up, and the smell coming from her squatter as I like to call them, was so nasuating that I immediately yakked in the yard. What a way to start the day….

Then we went to wash her hair, as she has not had that priveledge yet this week, and we first ran out of water, and then got in trouble for using cold water, as we might catch colds. Even though its in the 90s here. So then we walked to school, definitely lacking energy. We were told that we were emailing today, like I said before, but we had that ripped out from under us as we were told that we must have special permission from the director to go outside of our village. I’m holding back expletives here, as I feel a little like a 10th grader on a school field trip. We can’t leave our village to go to an Internet café in Tokmok, a 15 minute ride from our village. Our village has some stores and a local post office but nothing else. Apparently, you know five adults, ranging in age from 22 to 30, cannot take a day trip without official escorts. Isolation. Complete isolation, is not my forte. So that was the rough patch of the day. A few girls had tears in their eyes, me included, when we found out no phone privileges until next week. Pretty devastating news to a bunch of technological dependent recent college grads. So anyway, we decided to go to our homes, rest for an hour then go for a long walk together to blow off steam. We walked for close to two hours, went as far as we could before we hit a canal that is un-crossable. We took one of Xouhoa’s little brothers with us as well. So cute, The children here are wonderful and speak more English than the adults. I love it. Between the puppies and the kids, I am in heaven. Except when I think about how long its been since I washed my hair, emailed, etc…..

After our walk we all came back to my Eoy (home) for chai. We probably get sucked into chai at least 3 times a day at some ones house whether we want to or not. It’s a game we play, see who can get away with having the least tea in a day. I only had to have it once this afternoon, but all six of us were together speaking our broken Kyrgyz to my apa (host mom).

Then I found out that Saturday is banya day. Myriam heated up the fire in the sauna for me, and we banyed together. Apparently that’s normal. She started stripping down and told me to do so as well. They have to burn a lot of wood to get the coals and stones in the sauna going, so two people usually share a banya. Next we took our loofas and soap and started scrubbing. Hot water is plentiful and the steam is great, especially when you haven’t showered all week. We spent about an hour, rinsing, scrubbing and washing our hair. I also shaved my legs, which was nice. She looked at me a little funny at first, but was okay with it after a minute. At the end you dump massive tubs of hot water over yourself and you are ready to go for a week. I still sneak in and rinse with a bucket in the mornings, but this was great, especially after such a sad day.

So for dinner we had soup made on an open wok outside over a fire, mixed with potatoes and coy (sheep). I had a small amount and then went to my room. I have put pictures of family and friends on my wall and my postcards as well. They like to come in and read the postcard that says Montana. For the first time since I have been here, I had fun. Everyone is hanging out in my room, and a niece or younger sister came home for the weekend. She is hanging out with me, listening to my ipod. She loves 50 cent and Eminem, as well as Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas. She is trying to read my Cosmopolitan magazine as well. I gave gifts tonight to the family. Alkazbet (father) really likes the Red Sox hat I got for him, as I couldn’t have him becoming a Yankees fan. We actually spent about an hour, just going through all my stuff. I had my computer out typing in my journal, so it was extremely fascinating to everyone. I gave Myriam her gifts, and the rest of the things I brought were for small children, but otherwise I was okay. We all read out of my dictionary, and they went over all my vocabulary words from language class today. It was extremely helpful. We recited the Kyrgyz alphabet and went over personal pronouns and everything. They really helped me today and I even found out that tomorrow is laundry day. I had cleaned my room spotlessly today, as I am instructing all the girls in Tae-bo tomorrow morning, and I have pretty big room. Crystal has weights in an empty room at her house though so we might do it their instead. I am putting together a tae-bo mix on my computer now, and already planned out tomorrow’s work out so I can run it just like it would be in a regular class.

Spending time with the family tonight really made things a lot less tense for me, I guess banyaing with someone will do that to you!!! I think finally having time to put up my pictures from home helped too. We took family pictures today too. But my camera batteries died, so I couldn’t load them on to my computer. I will soon. I have to get a converter for my small appliances first, as my computer converter only works on my Ipod and my computer accessories. Xouhoa has an extra. Plus I use her USB stick everyday, just to be prepared in case we ever make it to the Internet.

Even one of the brothers came into my room and was singing along with the music on my computer. What a day…. First sick, then sad, then clean (finally), then content with what I accomplished today with my family.

I miss my own though. Things I think I might need: Still vitamins, USB stick,
Maybe a couple of ideas for Christmas??? Old navy fleece zip up, perfume, (Este Lauder pleasures, exotic) A knot ring, (like a silver ring, tied in a knot and make up. NEW GRETCHEN WILSON FOR SURE!!!!!! (Can’t download from here yet, so I will have to get the CD) Whenever anyone sends anything, please send cover girl aqua smooth in buff beige. I can’t get it here at all. Mail is running at about one month for a package. Smaller packages are better. Only one person has got a box so far out of 63 people. Still haven’t got my birthday package, but oh well. It makes it that much better when I do get it. Christmas will probably be the roughest time for me.

Lindsy, Katie or Holli, could you do me a favor and try to get into touch with Matt Smith for me somehow? I would like to write to him, but don’t have any kind of address or email. (Katie, Linds, Vandalmail, UI directory) Holli maybe around Moscow somewhere?

I also got my first bug bite and dog bite, but thankfully I had a malaria shot as well as a rabies shot. Guess those come in handy for those silly girls who play with any kind of animal in the street,,,,

Better hit the sack, tomorrow is laundry day, (hand washing with a scrubby washboard thing) and you know I have a lot to wash. I’m already lending out my clothes, its funny how that always happens with me….

If Crystal’s dad is reading this, she is doing great and I’m helping her set up her own blog. She loves you.

Miss everyone a lot a lot.

Ipod tonight: I believe in love, and I believe in you (classic country) Give dad three Hefeweisen’s and he’ll sing it to ya!

September 25, 2005

What a day. I say that a lot I know, but really, Sunday is quite the day around here. First of all, I got to sleep in. For me that meant about 8 am, and then I read a book until 10. That was about all Myriam could handle, so she came looking for me and told me to bring my laundry with me. (Keep in mind NO ONE here speaks a word of English). I was totally wrong about the washboard. We have a plug in circular thing that washes clothes for us. I put in a small amount of clothing and turn it on, and it mixes the clothes around in hot water. Then I drop them in another bucket and then ring them out before hanging them on a line outside of the barn.

So all of my clothes got washed, I of course got funny looks from neighbors, as my clothes are so colorful and bright. And definitely plentiful. But I have been traveling for two weeks now, so that’s 14 pairs of underwear, socks, and so on…

After laundry she sent me to my room to change out of my sweat pants. I didn’t know we were going anywhere but in Kyrgyzstan, guesting is a huge thing! We stopped at random friends’ houses (could have been relatives, but how would I know). At every stop you must take at least a bite of bread. After that we arrived at our final destination. We had broth from whatever kind of animal cooking in the huge outdoor wok. I SPILLED THE TEA!!! I can’t believe they didn’t send me back to America, since tea is like vodka here. But they laughed and gave me a bib. There were about a dozen small children running around the house, and I was given an English textbook from a school. The next thing I knew, every kid in the family was crowded around, and I gave my first English lesson. We went over the ABC’s and numbers and they taught me to count in Kyrgyz. This lasted for at least an hour. I can’t believe how well they picked up English words, and how excited they were to learn. Eventually the women were crowded around as well, wanting to learn as much English as possible.

We were taken inside, and the women were separated from the men. (I will find out more about this at cultural lessons this week). First we went into a room with a long table filled with so much bread, that Dr. Atkins would have passed out. Every kind of pastry and bread you can imagine. It was actually a disgusting amount of bread. Then add in tea, fruit and cookies. I tried to explain in my broken Kyrgyz that – In America, no bread, bread bad – they didn’t force me to eat it. But I started to notice that something was wrong with the women, they didn’t seem to be interested in America or anything like that, and a lot were fighting tears. Little did I know that the party I thought was for me, was really somewhat of a funeral for an uncle. Leave it to me to misinterpret things.

Apparently at these kind of gatherings a sheep is sacrificed and everyone takes some of the organs home. So you can imagine my surprise when we went into yet another room, still only women, to eat sheep and noodles. I was given the biggest piece of straight fat, (a delicacy here) and noodles. (oh yeah, just to clarify, we eat on the floor as well). This is when I put everything taking place together. THE HEAD OF THE SHEEP WAS ON THE TABLE. I pretty much refused to touch another thing. And the great grandmother sat next to me, screaming EICH EICH EICH which is what they say when they want me to eat. Eat? I was trying not to yak all over the table that is the floor. (Does that make sense, I’m saying the table, but really we eat on the floor).

Then some kind of priest came in and sang and said words I don’t understand. He went to the women’s room first and then the men’s. By the way, you don’t show affection here toward anyone but children, so I have no idea who is married to whom and if they even like each other. Marriages are arranged. So mom and dad, if you want to arrange me a marriage to someone like Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Everett’s little brother (ha ha ha), I’ll probably be okay with it.

After the sheep, we wash our hands, take our ‘goody’ bag, and head home. Myriam gave me the bad of bread and sheep organs to carry in my nice, almost new purse, on the walk.

Since then I have been resting, folding my now clean clothes, and reading Maeve Binchy’s Night of Rain and Stars.

I guess since the Peace Corps has had so many problems with drinking and vodka abuse, host families are strictly prohibited from offering it to us. But, you can buy it anywhere and with no limitations. So what I’m saying is that I can buy it, and so can Rebecca’s 5-year old host sister.

Tomorrow we have language lessons in the village, and Tuesday we were promised Internet access. So hopefully that will come true…..

Tonight, Ipod – George Strait, Love Without End, Amen

Wishlist? Headwraps or scrarves, I hear the Gap makes head wraps that can be worn as belts… multitasking… another one of my many skills… kind of like milking a cow, handwashing clothes, avoiding eating coy, and running with the bulls in the street….

I’m so well accomplished thus far…..

Love Betsy or Elizabeta as they call me here.

September 26, 2005

The mountains were unbelievable this morning at 7 am. The snow level has dropped and the peaks are covered with snow and ice. This morning the fog had lifted and I had a clear view of all of them as I walked with a young neighbor girl to lessons. Absolutely gorgeous views. No light poles, power lines or things like that to obstruct the view.

A new week. And I have a problem. I only brought two books and finished them in two days. I saved them both, and suffered through the plane rides without books, but broke down and spent the past two nights reading. And now I’m finished. I read a 600 page Lisa Jackson thriller this evening and am still bored. Not much to do at night. I have one DVD, St. Elmo’s Fire, that I borrowed from Rick, a frat boy from the University of North Carolina, who lives in a nearby village. I need to return it tomorrow when we go into the city. Maybe he’ll let me trade it for a different one…

So more of the same today, language lessons until noon, and then a group lunch. Lunch will be held at my house on Thursday. We start lessons around 8 and go until one usually. On Tuesday s and Wednesdays we head into Tokmok, as we will in the morning. On those days I have to be at the Marchuka stop by 7:20.

We are learning personal pronouns, the simple tense, present and past tense right now in Kyrgyz. I don’t know that I could explain all of these in English let alone Kyrgyz. Oh well. I’m trying my hardest at learning the language but its tough. Ten more weeks of lessons before I start my big adventure. One note of excitement, I will most likely come home in September rather than December of 2007, so I won’t have to go through another harsh winter in the mountains. They so most people can’t survive the winter here, but I figure if I am going to live in Montana eventually with my cowboy husband, I better get used it now.

Tonight instead of the usual no one at the dinner table, we had company. Two little children probably ages 3 and 1, joined Myriam and I. No idea whose kids they are but they kept referring to me as ‘Eje’ which means big sister. I don’t really understand much about our family here. I just thought there was one son, and he doesn’t seem to be married, as he sleeps on the floor by himself at night. But these babies just keep showing up… with women, I just can’t find any husbands around here.

By the way mom, I’m flossing, so pass that message on to Dr. Forsberg. (When the entire population of a country has gold teeth, it has an affect on a person). I got to wash my hair today, some woman washed it for me. I am not sure why I am not allowed to do it for myself.

Going to sleep now, busy day tomorrow, and was promised email and phone calls, but am not getting my hopes up like before.

Ipod: Green Day

Sept 27, 2005

Was I really seriously thinking that I would get to check my email today? Ha. What a joke. Not an option. As Bak took off and was no where to be found today. So our marchuka just came at the regularly scheduled time and took us back to the village. What a let down. Maybe tomorrow.

We had a current volunteer come and talk to us today, Daniel. He said things will get better, and soon we will have freedom. Soon. He gave me a website www.uniontelecard.com, where families and friends should purchase calling cards to call our cell phones. They are the cheapest available. He also said that he is flying home in December for Christmas for about $900. After training and then three more months, we can start to use our vacation days I guess. His girlfriend came and stayed with him for an entire month. Peace corps had no problem with this, apparently visitors are suggested. So Linds, I’ll see you in June right?

We went to the city today and spent the morning with Carol, an American woman in Kyrgyzstan, working as a teacher trainer at one of Universities. She is on a United States treasury fellowship that has been renewed for her third year. She taught as verb tenses today (In English) as we are told to emphasize grammar in our classrooms. How can we emphasize grammar when these kids can say Hello (but more like Hallo) and What is your name? Also we have been told over and over, that the education system is corrupt here, so no matter what grades we give our students, they will be changed. No matter what.

A couple more people got packages today. So far we have found that the ones done with the following formula seem to be the ones that come un-opened and not tampered with.

If sending individual packaged things, wrap them in brown shipping paper and then cover with clear packaging tape. Then on the outside of the box, re-wrap with brown packaging paper and then wrap the entire box with layer upon layer of clear tape. And I am dead serious. Mom, I know you, you just do things your own way, but this HAS TO BE DONE THIS WAY. Otherwise your stuff gets stolen. We are already missing items. So that’s the best way to ship. And it takes a month or so on average. Letters are different. They come faster and are not tampered with. I know no one would do this, but never ever send money in anything. And mom, you have to put a list inside of what was in the package, so I can file a claim if things are stolen. YOU HAVE TO !!!!! Hoping to get my point across here, not sound snotty, but seriously things are missing from our boxes.

The other Betsy got a 15 pound box today. It was filled with peanut butter, crackers, candy and fruit snacks. All junk food. Pretty funny, but you really can’t get any of it over here. Especially peanut butter, and most of us have given up meat, so we lack protein. So I’m adding peanut butter to my wish list as well as BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!!!!! I have nothing to read. Absolutely nothing. I don’t care Mom if you don’t send me anything but books for Christmas, honestly. I am so depressed already with no reading materials. I do have Legally Blonde the book, but I can only read it so many times. I brought three books, but should have thought it out better, as they are finished.

Tomorrow is shot day… And we lost another volunteer this weekend so we are down to 62. Or something like that. But someone got a cell phone. She was on the phone with her boyfriend at lunch in America. Totally jealous and bitter. Its funny, I would say more than 50% of the people have significant others back home that they are continuing to date from here.

We start teaching in our villages this week, The kids are pretty well behaved, all though there is one that I run into walking home everyday. He thinks he is Harry Potter, and rides a broomstick all around the village at high speeds. Yesterday he ran into me and laughed. I think his name is At too or something close to that. Oh yeah, the local English teacher, doesn’t really speak much English, so that’s another challenge here. She is our counterpart and is supposed to help us…

I am very tired, it was a long day, when you have to commute in the mornings. Its about 6:30 here, but I left the house a 7 am, and was basically in school all day. Only 9 and half more weeks of this. Then I will be a full Mugalim (teacher).

I think one of the harder things here is not knowing what is going on in America. We have heard rumors of a hurricane in Florida, but we don’t know anything else. Protests in D.C.? But no official news. No American TV or radio anywhere near. Can’t read the papers, and we don’t get USA Today. That’s damn hard, when you are trained as a journalist. Eventually we get subscriptions to Newsweek, but they will still run 5 weeks behind. Eventually I will be able to use the Internet three times a week too, so I can read online. I hate being so isolated. Sorry if I repeated things in this mass blog entry. If you made it this far, hey thanks!

Miss everyone.

(Guns and Roses, November Rain)

Betsy

Ummm… $1 a day…..

2005-09-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

I was given 45 Som per day to live on for the next month. Approx. $1 American. Pretty impressive huh? I bet no one ever thought I, the shopping queen of the world could ever do it. But I guess you have to take into consideration that here, a ride into the city costs 45-50 som, about $1 roundtrip. That’s for an hour taxi ride. Also Internet time, about .50 cents for a half hour. Not exactly expensive.

I made it. I made it here and I made it through my first couple of days at that. We arrived from turkey at 1:30 AM and went directly to a massive line at the Kyrgyz Republic Customs Desk. After that we collected baggage, and out of all 66 of us, no one lost a single piece. The flight though, was horrid. If anyone ever wants to come and visit, do not fly out of Turkey. It was miserable. Anyway, we went outside the terminal and were immediately mobbed by men trying to carry our luggage. Our private security guards were keeping them away from us, but it was horrible. We got everyone loaded on three different buses and headed to the hotel, in an upper-class section of Bishkek, the capital. We arrived at about 4 AM after 40+ hours of traveling. We checked into the former Russian compound hotel and rode ancient box shaped elevators to the 6th floor of the hotel. Our room was a small bedroom with a bathroom, and thank god, not squat toilets, like the airport. We do have a bidet though, which we didn’t use. We each have a tiny twin bed with wool, flannel blanket and a small dresser. The bathroom is wonderful. A tub with no shower, and no hot water, and no pressure. IT was a fun shower, but after 40 hours of not showering it was welcoming. We crashed by 4:45, but the Peace Corps pushes a schedule, so we had to be downstairs by 9. It was a tough day. We had an intro to the program, met the staff of 25 and our language teachers and had an introduction fair to keep us moving about. We got money, which I said earlier, and copies of visas and passports. We also learned a little about culture and traditions.

Must remember always to take shoes off at the door. No tables, you eat on the floor and you don’t talk to men unless they talk to you first. And you don’t shake men’s hands. We have had our meals in a formal dining room; they range from weird salads to unidentifiable meat and raw French fries. But there is always tea, which is really good.

We spent Monday learning the basics of the Kyrgyz language. It’s hard. Really hard. I can greet someone, ask their age, where they are from, say the alphabet, introduce myself, explain my job, ask about a bathroom, and say goodbye and thank you. The Kyrgyz alphabet has 34 letters, and each is very different from the good ole’ ABC’s. And there is no song to help you remember. I asked.

I also managed to sneak on to the hotel’s Internet from an office I found on the second floor during a tea break today. But, unfortunately, I only had one email to read – from my mom. (So loyal). I have already written letters to send, not much to do at night, and we are meeting our host families today which is going to be quite a shit show. 66 of us, matching up with families from villages all over. Trying to communicate. We were issued med kits today. They are huge and contain just about everything you can think of. I have bronchitis already and had to see the Peace Corps medic today as I have no voice and can’t swallow. They have antibiotics for you right away. We also were issued mosquito nets, electric heaters, waster distillers, filters, a smoke detector and chains for your feet to walk in the snow easier. Another 40 pounds of crap to add to what I already have. Hopefully, we have electricity to plug in the heaters. Not guaranteed. Great.

Mosquito season is April – September, so we are pretty much done with Malaria for a while and it is more prominent in the South. We find out placement later on, actually in December when we are sworn in. Have to pass a language test before being sworn in though.

So here, toilet paper is like crepe paper, or like streamers. And we are 13 hours a head of Idaho. And no mail has arrived here yet, so for all of you who haven’t sent letters, I wouldn’t have received them anyway. But it would be nice. Emails are nice too, it is my biggest fear to finally get to a place to check my email, and not have any. That’s a crappy feeling.

I don’t know how often I will be getting to check yet. I live about 12 km outside of Tokmok, a city of about 50,000. Internet cafes are in the city as well as phones, but right now we are on a tight schedule and I don’t know when we have free time to use them. We are using them today, because the Peace Corps wants us to let you know that we made it here safely.

I had 4 shots today. Rabies, Hepatitis A, B and some other random needle. Very painful. Next week we have 4 more, and then 4 more the next week. More shots later on if we get stationed in the Southern parts of the country. Not something I look forward to. Apparently the dogs and cats are not so friendly here.

So I had better wrap this up. I only have so much Internet time today and I am planning on trying to call home.

So thanks for reading, keep in touch and remember I think about everyone often and am glad to have the support of everyone back home. Without it, it will be a damn rough two years.

I love and miss everyone,

Betsy

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Stealing Wireless

2005-09-17T02:45:00.000-07:00

I am writing this from the Istanbul International Airport, where inside, a hotel is located with free internet access. I snuck into the hotel, and am checking my email from the top of the lobby stairs. Other peace corps people have been kicked out alrready, but I seem to be okay.

We just arrived at the airport here in Turkey.... welll about an hour ago. We have a seven hour layover. We got in at 3 am Idaho time. Here it is like noon or something... I really have no clue. All I know is I haven't slept in a really long time, I got absolutely no sleep on the 11 hour flight, and I am pretty tired. This airport is a duty free mall, and it sells prada, gucci, fossil, Hermes, lacoste, Mavi, all types of perfumes, and much more. I bought a cute t shirt that says Istanbul on it. It cost 10 Euros. Now, we are all waiting for our next flight. To Bishkek, another 7-10 hour flight.

Yesterday we left the hotel with the most massive amount of luggage that I have ever seen, and drove to New York. I slept throught Manhattan, sorry dad. But, to some what of my surprise, I found that I could actually strap my massive, 70 pound blue duffel on to my back and carry it, while draggind my rolly ssuitcase and my backback, which sits on top of it very well. So that actually worked out, as it took a very long time to get checked in yesterday. We flew on Delta International, and the pilot gave us a special welcome on the flight. We watched three movies, I watched them all, as I could not sleep. Miss Congeniality 2, The Longest Yard and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Pretty exciting.

The only downfall of the long day at JFK? My shoulders look like someone took a bat to them. Brusies, blisters, blood blisters, etc. 70 pounds is a lot on your shoulders. But oh well, I'll get by.

I am very surprised that I have the energy to write this, as I hardly have enough energy to carry my carry ons, which we condensed very well and stuffed, and actually fit in the overhead bin this time. I sat with Dane on the plane, a lawyer from Idaho, and we played silly games and chatted. The hotel workers are starting to give me death looks, but they aren't saying anything, so I'm going to try to post a couple of pictures from the trip so far.

Thats pretty much all the excitement so far. We are a huge group so its pretty fun to be around so many wonderful people. I will hopefully be in touch soon. I'm doing fine, having fun so far and am looking forward to whats ahead.

Love
Betsy

First International Flight... Ever

2005-09-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is it. We leave the hotel at about 10 am and from there it is a 2 1/2 hour drive to JFK. All 66 of us head to the Delta counter and here is the most exciting news ever........ SUITCASE WEIGHT LIMIT ON INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT IS... 70 POUNDS PER BAG!!!!! So no more fees. So thats a releif. Today was the final day of orientation, and at the end we all had to say how we were feeling at that moment. All 66 of us. Now 12 girls are sitting in the lobby crying together.

How am I feeling? Sad and anxious. Nervous and excited. Tuesady we move in with host families. The hotel for the first few days is built in former Soviet style... whatever that means. Apparently it has a beautiful view of the mountains. From the hotel we will go to surrounding villages with our families, The city of our training is called Tokmok and has about 50,000 people. The training starts on my birthday, the 21st. I will be in language Monday through Saturday and will have Sat. evenings and Sundays to spend time with host families, to sight see and to hike. Tuesdays are entire group sessions in the city and Wednesdays are health days, where we will be learning about all the medical issues that pertain to us. The host family is given money to feed and take care of me, and they say in most cases they do so. Hopefully my four Russian phrases and their few English phrases will come in handy... yeah right.

Shots start on the 19th and we will be able to call home on Tuesday, the 20th. After that I will email and call on a regular basis, as I should be in close proximety to Tokmok where there is phone service and internet cafes.

Tonight I have to re-pack, and get myself ready for tomorrow's flying. We have a 6 and 1/2 hour layover in Istanbul and we can't leave the airport. After that we arrive in Kyrgyz on Sunday morning at 1:10 am. Tonight we are all getting books, mags and dvds to get through the flights.

The worst parts will be all the waiting and traveling in such a large group... but its worth it, it is an absolutely amazing support system. Everyone is so great, and so supportive and we are all going through the same thing, which makes it even better.

So this is it, no emails or calls for a while.... about a week. Time to go make sure my computer, ipod and camera are completely charged. So farewell.... or should I say

salam.....

Love Betsy

I'm so sleepy...

2005-09-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

Just got back from dinner and lots of drinks. Feeling pretty sleepy and am planning on hitting my featherbed real quick. Today we had registration and did icebreaker games. I love icebreaker games. Thats sarcasm. But anyway we got a lot of good info and stuff and went through a lot of procedure junk before we were sent off on our own. Tomorrow we have training sessions from 8:30 until 7 p.m. and then on Friday we take off for JFK and I won't be in contact for a few days with anyone.

There are 68 of us total, and quite a diverse group. I can't wait to go to sleep. But really, I am getting more and more excited, especially for the fact that I will be in a hotel for a few days and then off to the host family.

Miss everyone already.

5 22 5 14 20 8 15 21 7 8 9 13 7 15 14 5 21 8 1 22 5 13 25 8 5 1 18 20

2005-09-13T17:29:00.001-07:00

What a crappy start to the adventure. First of course we were running late at the airport. Then after we got to the United counter the women weighed my bags, both over by five pounds. She also said my carry on was too big and I would need to pay the extra $80 to check a third bag. She must have noticed my devastated look, because she offered to allow me to take things out of my carry on and put them into my duffel bag, and then just charged me $25 for an overload. But the weight limit went from 50 pounds to 100, so I took as much out of my carry on as possible and loaded up the duffel. It now weighs close to 65 pounds I think. So I am going to have to figure something out in Philadelphia to get through International Airports. I was told though that it goes from 50 pounds to 70 pounds internationally, so hopefully I won’t have to pay any more fees.

After I made it through check in, security was another story. Of course I had to take off my shoes, belt, sweater, turn on my computer, and have my massive carry on searched, after it got squished into the x-ray machine. I tried to explain that it was just a sleeping bag and a stuffed animal, so he could squish it. I made it through at 6:48, my flight left a 7:00. Was the last person to board the plane of course, and couldn’t fir my back pack though the aisles. I love having everyone stare and pass mean glances to the girl who overpacked, but hey, do they know I have two years ahead of me? I need a lot of stuff. I ended up putting my backpack behind first class, with the oxygen tanks. I think I might be able to stuff it under my seat, but with all the hold ups today, and being the last person to board, I didn’t really get that opportunity.

I think I am going to have a beer in the Chicago Airport. Otherwise, I might turn into my sister and start having a panic attack. I think the worst part of the whole two years will be the luggage struggle. Needless to say, its times like this that I wish I were one of the six married couples going, so I could make my husband carry my luggage.

But, my first flight was fine, except for the fact that I left my ipod up in first class with my bag, and there is no way in hell that I’m going to go and bother the people up there again on this flight…

Second leg of the flight not as bad. I stopped and had a Corona in the airport, after switching terminals for my next flight. Corona coast 6.00. Oops. Re-distributed my carry on at the gate, took off the side attachments from the massive back pack and put them inside it, and then sat on it, and made it much more compact. Still didn't quite fit in the overhead bin, but the male flight attendant took pity on me and put it in the private closet upfront. As I walked to the baggage claim, I stopped put my smaller backpack withmy purse and my computer back inside my big packpack, and hiked to find the rest of my stuff. I met an older woman as I walked, she was going to the same place. So we went together and then met up with another girl from Phoneix. Between the three of us, our amount of luggage was massive.

And of course, we get to the baggage claim and what is the first thing I see? Oh yes, my luggage, wide open, unzipped and my pink Victoria Secret bra hanging out for the world to see. Apparently when they searched my bags, they didn't zip it back up. Wonderful. The big blue duffel that i also took, seemed to be fine. We waited for about 25 minutes for a shuttle to the University Sheraton, which is located right on the University of Penn. campus. My roommate is one of the girls I met at the airport, so we checked into our rooms. Her friend from New York is also staying with us tonight. It is a very nice hotel though, I even have a featherbed, my favorite.

I received slips in my suitcases, stating that both bags were thoroughly searched. My duffel was trashed, Completely taken apart, the clothes unfolded, shampoo and conditioner spilling, and my stash of medicine, open with pills all over my stuff. Now, before we leave Philly, I have to re-pack the entire 70 pounds of stuff.

So that was the start to my adventure. Everyone else seems to have just as much stuff as me, so I feel better. The hotel has wireless internet, so that makes me happy.

And I have taken to reading the Tahoe Bonanza online edition... it's new staff reporter seems to be a bit conceited.

Flying away in the Morning...

2005-09-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

Maybe Alison is right... Will nothing around here change in two years? Will I come back and feel like I never even left?

It s funny to think about. But tomorrow at 7 am Lindsy is taking me to the airport where I with my three bags will attempt to board a plane to Philadelphia. Total weight of bags: 140 pounds. I think thats a lot. My carry on weighs 40 pounds by itself. My duffel bag, which still has room for more stuff, is maxed out at 52 pounds. Hopefully by crying at the check in, they will allot me the extra 2 pounds. Otherwise, I'll be putting on my snowpants and my winter coat to make the limit. My rolling suitcase weighs 49.5 pounds, so I should be okay there. And then my carry on, (Thanks Mr. Broglio for suggesting the back pack) weighs 40 pounds and is like 2 feet taller than I am. So, I should be quite a sight tomorrow at the airport. I'll have Lindsy take a picture so everyone can laugh.

I did manage to fit Dino, my dinosaur that I have had forever and my Dale Earnhardt Jr. fleece blanket in my carry on, along with a propane curling iron. I'm ready for this adventure.

2005-09-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Katie doesn't like her other picture so here is a new one.....

2005-09-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

~~This is me~~

2005-09-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

The little ones, and my mommy in the back!!

2005-09-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Two of my cute cousins, visiting for Labor Day, Jacob (6) and Kyle (15).

2005-09-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

My geeky sister Katie.... Age 25, Occupation: Accountant, Brown hair ummm green eyes or something....

2005-09-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is the one real love of my life... Kodi my baby Kelpi dog...

Only one more week...

2005-09-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

The weekend is over. Good byes have been said and I just spent the last few days with the most important people in my life. Now, I actually have to pack. And still get some socks. But for those who read this, here is my mailing address for the first couple of months:

Elizabeth Dalessio
97 Lenina Street, RUPS
Mailbox # 23
722140, Kant City
Kyrgyz Republic

Please note that I am Elizabeth now, not Betsy!!!

My cell phone also will be shut down soon, but I could be getting a new one over there so I will let people know.
This is a busy week, well not really, but I do have to go down to Moscow and pick up a few things that I left there and need to take with me. For example my spare contacts and my dinosaur. Anyway, i have to do chores now, thats the breaks of staying with your parents.

August...oh shit... September 1, 2005

2005-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Oh wow, forgot that it is now September. Spent the morning doing household chores for my mom and am know getting ready to hit the liquor store for this weekend's family gathering. Have spent the last few nights thinking about all the things I am going to miss and not miss at the same time. I can't wait to take a break from shitty American boys for a while, especially those who still haven't grown up, still can't support themselves and still act like morons after graduating from college. Really, I think I need to broaden my horizons, get out of Idaho and have a good time while helping others. Today I am shopping for warm socks and dress pants, thats about all I have left to buy. I also am working on canceling my cell phone without paying, its kind of a pain in the ass. Basically, tying up loose ends, watching my soap opera for the last time for a while and enjoying being lazy while I can.

August 29, 2005

2005-08-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well. Things are going great. I am now definite in what bags I am taking. All though I haven't packed or anything extreme like that, I have decided waht type of luggage to take. INternal frame pack will be my carry on. I think somehow my lap top bag will be inside that. THen a rolling suitcase and a large duffel will round out the luggage. I got my sleeping bag, down coat, silk undies and hiking boots, so now all I need is winter boots. I think I am okay with converters too. So things are going well. I am having a going away party this weekend.. going to sing some karoake and drink some coors light. Family is coming and friends too, I am super excited. Got my eyeglasses shipped today as well. Thanks mom. Overall, I am anxious and a little nervous, but am trying to enjoy my time home as much as possible, eating good food, spending time with friends and family and my baby dog.... Kodi

August 23, 2005

2005-08-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

Things seem to be going much better. I am back in Sandpoint staying with my parents for awhile... well until I leave I guess. I am going to make the trip back to UI to say some good byes and then stick it out up North. Have been making packing lists. Got to get some wool socks and some long underwear I guess, but have basically found out that I can dress however I want, so I am pretty relieved. Can't post any photos or anything yet untill I get somewhere with wireless so my computer will work. Went to the rodeo this weekend and danced with my favorite thing in the world... cowboys all night long. Thats the kind of thing I am going to miss I think. Drinking coors light and having a good time with friends. Oh yeah and MTV and All My Children. Thank god that All My CHildren has a daily website with show recaps....!

August 18, 2005

2005-08-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

It seems like I am not the only one worried more about packing than the actual trip itself. Right now I am looking at backpacks and sleeping bags and am wondering if I should even bring a back pack or just duffel bags or what? Anyway, I made me travel arrangements this morning.... Flying out at 7 am on Sept. 13 to Chicago and then Philadlphia. Arriving a day early, so maybe I can go to the house that the Real World Philadelphia was filmed at... gosh I'm lame... maybe I should check out a museum or something.... probably not though...

August 16, 2005

2005-08-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

I just discovered a Yahoo message group that allows me to communitcate with others traveling to K-stan on Sept. 14. That website has already proved to be helpful as I have found out that everyone else has received staging kits with travel info, and of course, I have not. It really has not been helpful to have all this info sent to my permanent address instead of where I am staying now.

But anyway, things have been nerve racking. It seems like more and more events keep taking place that make me want to get the hell out of Idaho -- and fast.