29 December 2009
I think I should get to say that again. FORTY Kilograms of flour! Do you know how much bread that makes? Don’t worry. I’m gonna tell you. Forty kilos of flour makes a freakin’ ton of bread. My host uncle got married. The way that it works here is that the groom’s parents, or in this case, siblings, go to the bride’s family and give earrings and ask for her to marry him and all that jazz. At the girl’s parent’s house, they have a big party. Then, they take the girl to the boy’s house where all of his family has big party. Yesterday all of this happened. I got to help with the preparations for the family bringing the new bride home. We went to my host aunt’s house at about fiveish and there were a bunch of women making borsok (the little fried bread things). I helped my host sisters fill cups with varenya (like jam/jelly), sugar, sugar cubes, sary mai (this oil/butter stuff that we all agreed that we hate haha), and then we put it out on the tables with the mounds of borsok, and meat jello, and salads. It was really great helping my host sisters. We’ve gotten a lot closer lately and we sorta bonded (especially with the sary mai stuff. All of my host sisters hate it, so I don’t feel bad saying that I hate it, too haha) I found out that my oldest two host sisters want to quit school after 9th form and go to the early university thing, but if the oldest goes, the second oldest can’t. I think it is totally unfair, but that’s the way it goes, I guess. I also talked a lot with Aidana, my second oldest sister. Her best friend just left to live with her Grandmother in Russia, so she’s kinda depressed. She’s in the eighth form and almost all of the other girls in her class (all 5 of them) are planning on quitting school after ninth form and if Nurzada (the oldest sister) quits then she won’t be able too. She’s got a lot on her mind right now. And she actually talked to me about it, which was cool. She got kinda frustrated because she is in the Russian class and her best friend is Russian, so she hardly ever speaks Kyrgyz and it is really hard for us to talk. But we made it work. Anyways, I guess that is enough of the family news. Back to the wedding stuff- We found out at 5:30ish that they wouldn’t arrive with the kalyn (that’s the Kyrgyz word for new wife/sister-in-law/daughter-in-law) until midnight! But, we had a lot of stuff to do, so it worked out okay. At first the edjes (older women- it is pronounced A-J) wanted me to sit and not really help with anything, but I couldn’t just sit and watch them all work and not help. At least not if it is cooking stuff, which I do not get to do often enough here. We made enough borsok to cover the floor of a medium sized room. And I am not exaggerating. We literally laid out a table cloth on the floor and covered it with borsok. Then we made rolls, which involves taking lumps of dough, rolling it out and then twisting it into pretty shapes. I’ve helped my Apa make this bread before so I knew how to do it which I think surprised the edjes. The whole concept of the edjes being there was fascinating to me. Imagine sending your child to your neighbor’s house and saying that your son or nephew or whoever is getting married and you need help to prepare for it. And having her come over, and bring her oven to help! And then imagine doing that to three or four neighbors and having them all come. Even in very small towns in America I feel that might be stretching the bounds of the typical neighbor relationship. Here it wasn’t even a big deal. I mean the forty kilos of flour worth of bread was a big deal haha, but you wouldn’t even think twice about asking for help like that. It is one of the things that I really like about Kyrgyzstan, and then sometimes it is a bit frustrating because there is absolutely no such thing as privacy. Last night I felt like I belong here. I got to make bread and talk to edjes, and it turns out I teach ALL of their children. And while my Kyrgyz is not that great, we were actually able to have a conversation. We talked about how marriages are different in America because it is all about the bride and groom, whereas in Kyrgyzstan, it is all about the family. As we were talking, I realized how much my entire village came together about me being here. One lady, who isn’t from our village asked me how much money I make, which is a typical get-to-know-you question here, and before I could explain, another lady jumped in and told her not to ask me questions like that because in America we don’t talk about salary. That incident taught me several things in the space of about thirty seconds- one- my Kyrgyz was good enough to understand what both women said, which was AWESOME – two- I’ve gotten used to being asked questions like that and it didn’t bother me in the least –three- my entire village must have discussed volunteer stuff before I got here, how else would a woman who I had just met know to say that it might make me uncomfortable to talk about salary? There is definitely something to be said about being wanted. Haha Being the only one of something in my village is hard to describe. One of the edjes and I talked and it turns out that her son tells her pretty much everything that I do at school. It is like being on exhibit at a zoo. Everything I do is remarkable, even when it is the same exact thing that everyone else is doing. It can wear on your nerves, believe me. I have long since realized that I will never be fully integrated. I could live here for 20 years and no matter what I do, I will never be Kyrgyz. I am totally okay with that, because I won’t be here for twenty years. It does, however, get frustrating when I do try to integrate a little bit further. For example, I get flustered by always being made to sit near the head of the table, which is the honorable spot. For one, all the really old ladies sit there, and I have less in common with them and find them harder to understand, also, I just don’t think I deserve it. I understood it better when I was new here, and I guess that is the key point. I don’t think I’m new anymore, and everyone else does. I just don’t think I should sit higher up at the table than my host mom or my counterpart. I am the youngest member on our teaching staff but sit above older teachers at the teachers’ parties, and at family parties I have to sit up higher too. Yesterday as we were preparing for the party I realized what an anomaly I am here, and not because I’m an American, either. There were a ton of women and girls there yesterday. I am twenty one, the next oldest was twenty six or seven, and the next youngest was 16. I’m right in the middle. Most women my age here are either married or studying at university or working in a bigger city. There are not a lot of single women my age in our village, and it makes it a bit harder to fit in. After most of the prep work was done, I alternated between the kids and adults. The women got to talking really fast and it was hard to understand so I went and played with the kids. Arsen, who is something like my host second cousin, is almost two and really attached to his granny who was at the new bride’s house, so I ended up holding him for a long while and rocking him to sleep. It was very therapeutic for me. I really really miss Camden, and holding babies here makes it a bit easier. I have two host cousins, Arsen, who is almost two, and Ademae, who is almost one. So I get to play with babies often enough. Yesterday there were also three three-year olds, which was quite interesting. Take three toddlers, all of whom are rarely disciplined because they don’t really start telling them “no” until they are like four or five, add obscene amounts of candy and sugar, and lock them in a room for a few hours. Needless to say, there was a fair amount of waterworks, but for the most part they were really cute. I have a host cousin, Zarina who is a bit younger that Azeez, my host brother, and the child hasn’t a shy bone in her entire body. She’s really cute and outgoing. She will play with me, and I think it has helped Azeez warm up to me, too. Kyrgyzstan has scared the bejeezus out of me because I realized yesterday that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have a big family. I KNOW! ME!?! The sworn-never-having-children-girl!!! It was so cool to watch the interaction of the kids last night. There were – 1 9th, 8th, and 6th grade girls- one 7th grade boy, two 3rd grade girls, one 2nd grade girl, three three year olds, and an almost-two year old. It was quite noisy, but they all had a ton of fun. The 7th grade boy was a total sweetheart. How many 7th grade boys do you know that would actually play with three year olds for hours, and share the babysitter role with the older girls as the took turns helping the adults? It was cool.
I just realized I’m on the third page and haven’t mentioned all the traditions of the wedding, or the fact that I finally came home with Nurzada at one am last night because my contacts were unbearably dry, and the rest of the family didn’t get home til 2:30 or the fact that the party continues today for the entire village, or all the new years parties for the students at school. I’m rambling today. For your sake, I think I will call it quits here and write another blog later.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
"you're like spongebob because you make crabbie patties"
20 December 2009
The Hamburger Adventure:
I am exhausted. So much for Sunday being my day of rest. Haha I spent the last six hours making hamburgers for my family, a meal that I won’t even eat. Background info: My family, along with my two host aunts’ families bought a cow…. And then killed it. As I was sitting around with my family as they prepared the meat to freeze/whatever they do with it, they thought it was really cool when I explained that in America, my family does the same thing, the buying a cow and splitting up all the meat thing… not the salting it and put it in huge buckets around the house thing. We got to talking about American food and about “gamburgers” which are the Kyrgyz equivalent of hamburgers that you can buy in the cities. I explained that the burgers in Karakol aren’t really the same as American burgers, because they don’t use ground beef and make a pattie. So, somehow I ended up volunteering to make hamburgers for my family. So that is the background info. I started off this afternoon by making Watergate salad from the stuff that momma sent in the package. I feel like I nearly broke my wrist whipping up the dream whip, which is much harder to do by hand btw, but it was a HUGE hit. My whole family loved it. So for the burgers, first we made bread for the rolls. Then, we started making burgers. Our electric meat grinder is broken, so we used my aunt’s hand crank meat grinder to make ground beef. Well, we TRIED to use it, but the blade was messed up and we were able to ground about two patties worth before we called it quits. I spent the next two hours or so with my sisters cutting up a hunk of meat into small enough pieces to resemble ground meat. And you all know how much I love touching meat. (I’m not sure if the sarcasm translates here haha) We made the patties, then started cutting up potatoes for French fries, because who can have a good ol’ fashioned burger without fries? Right? I should mention here that we only have one burner. So, for the sake of time, we decided to cook the burgers in the oven, and the fries on the burner. Oh, and I made cole slaw because I figured I needed to eat something, too. haha There were like 10 people eating, with my family, and the contractors who are living with us. My littlest sister told me as we sat down to eat that we started cooking at one, and ate at seven. What a day. And all that for hamburgers that I don’t eat. Haha. It is funny because as I was making Watergate salad this morning, Apa commented on how fast American food can be made. I told her it was faster because we bought everything and just prepared it as opposed to making it from scratch. After making bread, grinding meat, cutting potatoes, and making cole slaw all from hand… I want to retract that statement. Haha
Almost every time I make food in this country it turns into an adventure. I’m never really sure if they like it, but I have received a request from my host uncle to make another carrot cake for new years, so I guess that they like it.
Miss you,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
The Hamburger Adventure:
I am exhausted. So much for Sunday being my day of rest. Haha I spent the last six hours making hamburgers for my family, a meal that I won’t even eat. Background info: My family, along with my two host aunts’ families bought a cow…. And then killed it. As I was sitting around with my family as they prepared the meat to freeze/whatever they do with it, they thought it was really cool when I explained that in America, my family does the same thing, the buying a cow and splitting up all the meat thing… not the salting it and put it in huge buckets around the house thing. We got to talking about American food and about “gamburgers” which are the Kyrgyz equivalent of hamburgers that you can buy in the cities. I explained that the burgers in Karakol aren’t really the same as American burgers, because they don’t use ground beef and make a pattie. So, somehow I ended up volunteering to make hamburgers for my family. So that is the background info. I started off this afternoon by making Watergate salad from the stuff that momma sent in the package. I feel like I nearly broke my wrist whipping up the dream whip, which is much harder to do by hand btw, but it was a HUGE hit. My whole family loved it. So for the burgers, first we made bread for the rolls. Then, we started making burgers. Our electric meat grinder is broken, so we used my aunt’s hand crank meat grinder to make ground beef. Well, we TRIED to use it, but the blade was messed up and we were able to ground about two patties worth before we called it quits. I spent the next two hours or so with my sisters cutting up a hunk of meat into small enough pieces to resemble ground meat. And you all know how much I love touching meat. (I’m not sure if the sarcasm translates here haha) We made the patties, then started cutting up potatoes for French fries, because who can have a good ol’ fashioned burger without fries? Right? I should mention here that we only have one burner. So, for the sake of time, we decided to cook the burgers in the oven, and the fries on the burner. Oh, and I made cole slaw because I figured I needed to eat something, too. haha There were like 10 people eating, with my family, and the contractors who are living with us. My littlest sister told me as we sat down to eat that we started cooking at one, and ate at seven. What a day. And all that for hamburgers that I don’t eat. Haha. It is funny because as I was making Watergate salad this morning, Apa commented on how fast American food can be made. I told her it was faster because we bought everything and just prepared it as opposed to making it from scratch. After making bread, grinding meat, cutting potatoes, and making cole slaw all from hand… I want to retract that statement. Haha
Almost every time I make food in this country it turns into an adventure. I’m never really sure if they like it, but I have received a request from my host uncle to make another carrot cake for new years, so I guess that they like it.
Miss you,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Friday, December 25, 2009
Happy Christmas!
I hope you are all having a wonderful, fun and food and family filled holiday.
Miss you all tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Miss you all tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Friday, December 18, 2009
Today is full of unexpected surprises:
I didn't have time to post the last blog on wednesday, like i had hoped, so I posted it today. I got TWO amazing packages from home, and can't even put into words the awesomeness of them. I'm heading to a friend's village to celebrate Haunakkah(I'm sorry if I spelled that wrong, I can never seem to get it right.) Today has been weird. First, I rode in a car with dice hanging from the mirror on the way here. Second,when I got in, Ace of Base was playing on the radio. Third, I got out at the bazaar and a taxi driver flagged me down because I left my wallet in his car LAST WEEKEND. I only had about 20 som in it and truthfully, I hadn't even realized that I had lost it, but the man kept if for me for a week! Life is just full of strange and wonderful surprises, and I love it.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
whew.
15 December 2009
What a week and it has been. And it is only Tuesday. Sigh. Actually I will post this tomorrow, when I go to the city, which I guess makes it Wednesday. I am doing a mid-week city trip for a few different reasons. One, Katie told me that I have a package! I’m super excited. I don’t know which package it’ll be because I am expecting several, but this will be one of those rare occasions when I won’t mind a surprise. Two, I have to buy more yarn. I’m crocheting a blanket. I finally just finished making 35 10X10 inch squares. My host sisters and host mom helped me to arrange them tonight into a design. We spread them all out on the living room floor. I need more yarn to put all the pieces together. It’ll be my first big project, and I’ll get to cross “crochet or knit a blanket” off of THE LIST. Three, I’ll get to post this blog, and hopefully read some emails.
I guess I should explain the “what a week” comment. Let’s see. Sunday, I washed laundry. You remember how I said a while ago that I would never let laundry go more than three weeks? I lied. Again. Big time. I washed clothes before I went to Bishkek for training. As a recap- that was the second week of November. And I haven’t washed clothes since then. Sigh. I tried, believe me, I did! But between the snow and my house being under construction it just hasn’t worked out. And, in addition to having six weeks of accumulated laundry, the washing machine didn’t work. So I had to wash and rinse all of it by hand. It took FOREVER. And for those of you who have never done laundry outside in freezing temperatures- it is about as much fun as it sounds. And, I don’t think my clothes hanging on the line will ever dry. My shirts literally have icicles hanging off them. I brought in a pair of jeans to hang inside and could hold them by the belt loops and have them stand out completely parallel to the ground. I took pictures because it cracked me up.
Yesterday I woke up and then got sick. I don’t know what was up. I luckily made it outside. Luckily, because cleaning sick up off the carpet is a pain in the butt here. I didn’t go to my only class, and slept for a really long time. I guess it was something I ate. Maybe the homemade cheese? I dunno, but it came and went in about four hours, they were just a miserable couple of hours.
Today was a rough day at school. I started at 8 and finished at 5:45. Even my counterpart said that today was a hard day. My good classes were being bad too. We did have a breakthrough though, with the homework issue. We had about an 85% homework completion rate before we missed about a month of school. But they are slipping back into their old habits. We combined the not-doing-homework-thing with the we-don’t-have-a-class-in-our-room-to-be-responsible-for-cleaning-it-thing into a new rule. We have a rotating schedule, and whoever doesn’t do their homework in the day’s scheduled class has to clean the room. It works out well.
In other new from the past week:
I ran out of peanut butter (sad face)
I did not get a banya (sadder face)
I finally figured out the perfect ratio of cocoa powder, powdered milk, and sugar to make a good hot chocolate mix. (happy face)
I watched The Boondock Saints every. single. day,. at least it is a good movie. (background- I usually end my day by watching a movie in bed until I fall asleep or the power goes out. I copy one movie at a time from my external to my desktop so I don’t have to keep my external plugged in, and I haven’t felt like walking all the way across my room to get my external to plug in to get a new movie this week.) I think I can just about quote the entire movie now. haha (“we’re kinda like seven eleven. We may not always be doing business, but we’re always open.”)
Well, I’m probably gonna go attempt to heat up some water so I can wash up before the electricity goes out.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
What a week and it has been. And it is only Tuesday. Sigh. Actually I will post this tomorrow, when I go to the city, which I guess makes it Wednesday. I am doing a mid-week city trip for a few different reasons. One, Katie told me that I have a package! I’m super excited. I don’t know which package it’ll be because I am expecting several, but this will be one of those rare occasions when I won’t mind a surprise. Two, I have to buy more yarn. I’m crocheting a blanket. I finally just finished making 35 10X10 inch squares. My host sisters and host mom helped me to arrange them tonight into a design. We spread them all out on the living room floor. I need more yarn to put all the pieces together. It’ll be my first big project, and I’ll get to cross “crochet or knit a blanket” off of THE LIST. Three, I’ll get to post this blog, and hopefully read some emails.
I guess I should explain the “what a week” comment. Let’s see. Sunday, I washed laundry. You remember how I said a while ago that I would never let laundry go more than three weeks? I lied. Again. Big time. I washed clothes before I went to Bishkek for training. As a recap- that was the second week of November. And I haven’t washed clothes since then. Sigh. I tried, believe me, I did! But between the snow and my house being under construction it just hasn’t worked out. And, in addition to having six weeks of accumulated laundry, the washing machine didn’t work. So I had to wash and rinse all of it by hand. It took FOREVER. And for those of you who have never done laundry outside in freezing temperatures- it is about as much fun as it sounds. And, I don’t think my clothes hanging on the line will ever dry. My shirts literally have icicles hanging off them. I brought in a pair of jeans to hang inside and could hold them by the belt loops and have them stand out completely parallel to the ground. I took pictures because it cracked me up.
Yesterday I woke up and then got sick. I don’t know what was up. I luckily made it outside. Luckily, because cleaning sick up off the carpet is a pain in the butt here. I didn’t go to my only class, and slept for a really long time. I guess it was something I ate. Maybe the homemade cheese? I dunno, but it came and went in about four hours, they were just a miserable couple of hours.
Today was a rough day at school. I started at 8 and finished at 5:45. Even my counterpart said that today was a hard day. My good classes were being bad too. We did have a breakthrough though, with the homework issue. We had about an 85% homework completion rate before we missed about a month of school. But they are slipping back into their old habits. We combined the not-doing-homework-thing with the we-don’t-have-a-class-in-our-room-to-be-responsible-for-cleaning-it-thing into a new rule. We have a rotating schedule, and whoever doesn’t do their homework in the day’s scheduled class has to clean the room. It works out well.
In other new from the past week:
I ran out of peanut butter (sad face)
I did not get a banya (sadder face)
I finally figured out the perfect ratio of cocoa powder, powdered milk, and sugar to make a good hot chocolate mix. (happy face)
I watched The Boondock Saints every. single. day,. at least it is a good movie. (background- I usually end my day by watching a movie in bed until I fall asleep or the power goes out. I copy one movie at a time from my external to my desktop so I don’t have to keep my external plugged in, and I haven’t felt like walking all the way across my room to get my external to plug in to get a new movie this week.) I think I can just about quote the entire movie now. haha (“we’re kinda like seven eleven. We may not always be doing business, but we’re always open.”)
Well, I’m probably gonna go attempt to heat up some water so I can wash up before the electricity goes out.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Friday, December 11, 2009
Winter
10 December 2009
So, when this southern girl, who has had snow above her ankles maybe three times in her life, and who is perfectly okay with that fact, starts getting happy when it snows because days that snow are warmer; you know she is in the middle of a Kyrgyz winter. Okay, enough with the third person. Basically, what I am trying to say is that it is cold. Technically, I can use the adjective freezing now, without exaggerating. And it is true, the days that snow are warmer, sometimes it is too cold to snow according to Ata, a fact which completely blows my mind. So, yes, winter has arrived with full force here in lovely issyk kul oblast. Since there has been snow on the ground since the first or second week of November and since I’ve already slipped on ice you may feel that I am a bit late with this announcement. It really feels like winter though now. I’ve busted out my tall furry boots, and have managed to not fall in my village yet. I am not going to bother doing the whole “knock-on-wood” thing because I know falling is inevitable, especially with the roads here. Today the roads consist of snow, or packed snow/ice. My winter footwear is serving me pretty well, although I must admit that I do have a bit of a dilemma. My winter boots have pretty good grips on them, which makes walking in snow a bit easier, but the problem with the grips is that the snow gets packed in them and then as soon as a step into school, the packed snow on the bottom turns them into ice skates, and we all know how well I handle myself on ice. The Peace Corps gave all the volunteers Yak Trax, which are these little grippers we put on our shoes to walk better. I don’t really need them for snow, but on packed snow and ice they are life savers. The same problem arises though. On tile floors, they are quite slippery. So, the question becomes- am I going to bite it hard outside my school or inside my school? I’ll let you know when it happens. I am getting a bit tired of wearing the same pair of shoes, but I’ve given up variety for functionality. At least they are functional and cute! Haha Who’d have thought I could talk this long about shoes. Actually, anyone who knows me would know that I could talk for this long about shoes haha. I’ve covered the weather and shoe aspects of winter; let’s move on to the holidays. I’m holding a Christmas Eve Concert and am super excited about it. I spent this week teaching my students Christmas Carols. Yes, I know. Me? The girl who can’t carry a tune in a bucket- teaching someone else a song? Go figure. But, it has perked my spirits up. Having kids walking through the halls singing or humming “let it snow” and “fa la la la la la la la la” makes me really happy. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit. I’m preparing myself for the first Christmas away from home to be really hard, but the more I do to make it seem like Christmas, the closer I feel to home. I think the volunteers close to me might come out for the concert, and then, if I can finagle it, I’m going to spend Christmas Eve night in the city, so I can be with other Americans on Christmas. It is technically a work day, but it is a holiday for me, and it will be exam week anyway, so I’m not going to miss much. I have promised my community that I will be here for the New Years’ Holiday (which is why I am not coming home) and I think we are all pretty excited for me to take part in all the traditions, but for once I can do both- Christmas with Americans and New Years with my host family. I am also going to try to go with one of my Russian teachers to the Orthodox Church for their Christmas services. I’m not sure yet how to work that out, but I have faith that I can make it happen.
Let’s see. What other news? Oh yeah! I went skiing. And by skiing, I mean attempting to ski and basically spending an entire day falling down a mountain. My muscles were sore for days and I keep finding bruises. It was fun. More graceful people probably would’ve had their pride hurt from falling down so much. Haha it didn’t affect me, though, seeing as how I am used to it. I made it down the easiest slope two and half times. The third time, I managed to hit myself in the head with my own ski pole, and decided that was a sign that I should call it a day. I think I walked down quicker than I would’ve skied down anyway. haha I am not very good at skiing, but I will probably go back. For one thing, the view is absolutely gorgeous! (I might try to post pictures) I won’t be able to go often because it is expensive. (by my standards) We added it up, and for transportation, rentals, the ski lift fee, and lunch, we spent about 30 dollars, which is crazy cheap for your average tourist. It was a great day. I was actually planning on not even going into the city, but met up with my site mate, Mike, and he basically guilted me into going. Between going out dancing on Friday night, skiing on Sunday, and walking the 5km to my village (in the snow) on Monday morning, my legs had their best workout in country. Haha It was a great weekend.
I just came back from my pre-bed outhouse trip, and feel that I must describe the experience. Outhouses can be dangerous in the best of times. Add a layer of packed snow on top of the foot grips, and it is very scary. I try very hard not to lose my balance. I think I’d rather fall in front of all my students every day all winter than fall in the outhouse once.
I’m gonna wrap it up for now.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
So, when this southern girl, who has had snow above her ankles maybe three times in her life, and who is perfectly okay with that fact, starts getting happy when it snows because days that snow are warmer; you know she is in the middle of a Kyrgyz winter. Okay, enough with the third person. Basically, what I am trying to say is that it is cold. Technically, I can use the adjective freezing now, without exaggerating. And it is true, the days that snow are warmer, sometimes it is too cold to snow according to Ata, a fact which completely blows my mind. So, yes, winter has arrived with full force here in lovely issyk kul oblast. Since there has been snow on the ground since the first or second week of November and since I’ve already slipped on ice you may feel that I am a bit late with this announcement. It really feels like winter though now. I’ve busted out my tall furry boots, and have managed to not fall in my village yet. I am not going to bother doing the whole “knock-on-wood” thing because I know falling is inevitable, especially with the roads here. Today the roads consist of snow, or packed snow/ice. My winter footwear is serving me pretty well, although I must admit that I do have a bit of a dilemma. My winter boots have pretty good grips on them, which makes walking in snow a bit easier, but the problem with the grips is that the snow gets packed in them and then as soon as a step into school, the packed snow on the bottom turns them into ice skates, and we all know how well I handle myself on ice. The Peace Corps gave all the volunteers Yak Trax, which are these little grippers we put on our shoes to walk better. I don’t really need them for snow, but on packed snow and ice they are life savers. The same problem arises though. On tile floors, they are quite slippery. So, the question becomes- am I going to bite it hard outside my school or inside my school? I’ll let you know when it happens. I am getting a bit tired of wearing the same pair of shoes, but I’ve given up variety for functionality. At least they are functional and cute! Haha Who’d have thought I could talk this long about shoes. Actually, anyone who knows me would know that I could talk for this long about shoes haha. I’ve covered the weather and shoe aspects of winter; let’s move on to the holidays. I’m holding a Christmas Eve Concert and am super excited about it. I spent this week teaching my students Christmas Carols. Yes, I know. Me? The girl who can’t carry a tune in a bucket- teaching someone else a song? Go figure. But, it has perked my spirits up. Having kids walking through the halls singing or humming “let it snow” and “fa la la la la la la la la” makes me really happy. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit. I’m preparing myself for the first Christmas away from home to be really hard, but the more I do to make it seem like Christmas, the closer I feel to home. I think the volunteers close to me might come out for the concert, and then, if I can finagle it, I’m going to spend Christmas Eve night in the city, so I can be with other Americans on Christmas. It is technically a work day, but it is a holiday for me, and it will be exam week anyway, so I’m not going to miss much. I have promised my community that I will be here for the New Years’ Holiday (which is why I am not coming home) and I think we are all pretty excited for me to take part in all the traditions, but for once I can do both- Christmas with Americans and New Years with my host family. I am also going to try to go with one of my Russian teachers to the Orthodox Church for their Christmas services. I’m not sure yet how to work that out, but I have faith that I can make it happen.
Let’s see. What other news? Oh yeah! I went skiing. And by skiing, I mean attempting to ski and basically spending an entire day falling down a mountain. My muscles were sore for days and I keep finding bruises. It was fun. More graceful people probably would’ve had their pride hurt from falling down so much. Haha it didn’t affect me, though, seeing as how I am used to it. I made it down the easiest slope two and half times. The third time, I managed to hit myself in the head with my own ski pole, and decided that was a sign that I should call it a day. I think I walked down quicker than I would’ve skied down anyway. haha I am not very good at skiing, but I will probably go back. For one thing, the view is absolutely gorgeous! (I might try to post pictures) I won’t be able to go often because it is expensive. (by my standards) We added it up, and for transportation, rentals, the ski lift fee, and lunch, we spent about 30 dollars, which is crazy cheap for your average tourist. It was a great day. I was actually planning on not even going into the city, but met up with my site mate, Mike, and he basically guilted me into going. Between going out dancing on Friday night, skiing on Sunday, and walking the 5km to my village (in the snow) on Monday morning, my legs had their best workout in country. Haha It was a great weekend.
I just came back from my pre-bed outhouse trip, and feel that I must describe the experience. Outhouses can be dangerous in the best of times. Add a layer of packed snow on top of the foot grips, and it is very scary. I try very hard not to lose my balance. I think I’d rather fall in front of all my students every day all winter than fall in the outhouse once.
I’m gonna wrap it up for now.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Sunday, November 29, 2009
school's out
Okay, school isn't really out, but all the schools in my rayon are under quarantine until December 7th!! So, I have a week of no classes. Which means, that for the entire month of Noveber, I will teach a combined total of six classes. And, when I normally teach 18 hours a week, that's quite a drop. The first week was vacation, second week was IST, last week, we only went Monday through Wednesday, and attendance was so low that half the classes were cancelled, and Tuesday starts December. Can I just take a minute to repeat that- Tuesday is December First! December will be my ninth month in country. Nine months is one-third of the way through my Peace Corps Service! If it weren't for the cold and snow, i'd find it hard to believe that it is already December. The second quarter ends the 30th, and the week before that is exam week, which means that I have three weeks, or six classes until tests. For some of my students, these will be the only six English Classes they will have had the entire second quarter. Writing tests is going to be even trickier this quarter. sigh.
oh well. enough school news. how about holiday news? A group of volunteers got together last night to celebrate thanksgiving. We had a great time. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, carrots, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, and i'm sure i'm forgetting a ton of other stuff. we all ate ourselves silly, and it made me feel not quite so far from home. good times.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Miss you tons
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
oh well. enough school news. how about holiday news? A group of volunteers got together last night to celebrate thanksgiving. We had a great time. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, carrots, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, and i'm sure i'm forgetting a ton of other stuff. we all ate ourselves silly, and it made me feel not quite so far from home. good times.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Miss you tons
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Monday, November 23, 2009
For the K-18s
So about this time, a bunch of people in America will be getting invitations from the Peace Corps to serve the Kyrgyz Republic for two years. I did not get my invitation until January, but a good portion of my group got theirs in November. This group of people will be the K-18s, or the 18th group of people to come to Kyrgyzstan with the Peace Corps.
I don’t know if the K-18s will be like the K-17s, but if they are, most of them will be pouring over all the information that they can get about Kyrgyzstan, google searching, wikipedia-ing, reading blogs of current and past volunteers, and in general, just maintaining a low grade freak out about getting ready for the trip. At least, that’s what I did.
I found a bunch of really useful information in previous volunteers’ blogs, so I figured I’d pay it forward and give my two cents for the next group, if they want it. If not, oh well, it’ll be fun to write it anyway. Especially since I’m less than a year in right now, and who know how my thoughts will change over the next two years.
I. Packing
The first thing- you will over pack. I almost guarantee it. Heading out to the unknown makes us want to be prepared for every possible thing. It is understandable. So, I’m gonna make a little list of things that I wish I would have done differently.
Things I Didn’t Think I’d Need, But Brought Anyway and Am REALLY Glad I Did:
-headlamp- nighttime trips to the outhouse make it indispensable. You can get a cheap one for less that twenty bucks, and they take up very little space.
-leatherman/pocket knife- so incredibly useful! I never used one in the states, but here, I’ve used it for everything from opening cans to boxes to fixing furniture
-computer and external hard-drive full of movies- I have NO idea what I’d do in my spare time if I didn’t have them. I have more spare time in Kyrgyzstan that I ever had in the states and there is only so much knitting, reading, walking, and talking one can do, plus it is a great way to bond with other volunteers, doing movie swaps. Plus the volunteers that are here will love you for bringing new stuff.
-A lot of shoes haha I’m a shoe fan in the states, so I went a little overboard anyway, but almost everyone in my training village walked through at least one pair of shoes during the first two months, the roads here are just harder on shoes.
Things I Didn’t Bring and Wish I Did:
-Books- I only brought one and that lasted about two and a half days.
-More than one electric converter plug adapter (also, three prong to two prong converter) I also spend about fifty bucks getting the super-duper wattage/voltage converter thingamajiggy, and I have only used it once. I just use the plug adapters, and I haven’t fried anything yet. *knock on wood* You can buy the converters here, but I would recommend getting better quality ones in the US.
-Maps and pictures of US scenes
Things I Brought and Wish I Hadn’t
-An umbrella- it did rain a lot here during PST, but you can buy umbrellas here
-Toiletries: seriously, don’t waste space in your luggage. Bring no more than a travel size of anything, because you can get it here. The PCMO will give the women all the feminine products you need, so don’t fill your bad full of three months’ supply of tampax. Not necessary. You also don’t need a spare tooth brush, you don’t need three months supplies of anything. Shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, mouthwash, soap… they use it here, too. The only exceptions I would list would be saline solution for contacts, baby powder ( it is here, but a little more difficult to find, and you will use it here, even if you don’t in the states), and razor blades. You can find razor blades and shaving cream here, but they’re a little pricey for Peace Corps budgets.
-Too many clothes- pack what you think you need, and then cut it in half, then cut it in half again, then cut it in half again, then you’ve got the right amount. Haha I seriously overpacked. I have clothes here that I haven’t worn yet.
-A few other things: in my personal opinion, if you are thinking about bringing any white clothing items, don’t. One, you’re probably overpacked anyways, and two it is very difficult to keep anything white here. Also, other volunteers will tell you to bring school supplies, but I think it is completely unnecessary. You will hear that the quality of the school supplies here is poor, but really, how much quality do you need when it comes to pens? You can get a decent pen here for about 5 som, which is reasonable, and I’ve been able to find decent notebooks, white board markers, pens, scissors, and a stapler here with no trouble. Personally, I wouldn’t waste the space and weight of heavy school supplies items, but that is just me.
Enough about packing
II Culture
The culture of Kyrgyzstan is really interesting. A few things seem strange, but in general, people here, are just like people in America. They might eat a little bit more meat, and drink a lot more tea, but that is not a big deal. The Peace Corps stresses the drinking aspect of the culture a little bit too much in my opinion. During PST, we had a LOT of sessions about how to deal with the pressure to drink, but most of the volunteers I have talked to haven’t had a big problem dealing with it. The aspect of the culture that gets to me the most is gender inequality. Bride kidnapping, the Kalen system, discrepancies in opportunities for boys and girls, and those sorts of things can be hard to deal with at times. These problems exist everywhere in the world, even in the states, and are much worse in other places than in Kyrgyzstan, but as volunteers we are given a great opportunity to help start small changes in the way that people think about the issues, or even get people to start thinking about them at all. We’re not supposed to be critical of local customs, and I hope I haven’t come off sounding harsh about anything, I am not judging, just letting you know that these issues are here.
III The Job.
I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but when I got my invitation to teach English, I not only thought, but knew that I was immensely under qualified. What makes me capable of teaching English? The fact that I can speak it? Whew. The Peace Corps gave us a lot of training about how to teach during PST, and there are still days when I walk into the classroom feeling like I have no idea what is going on. A lot of my teaching job is trial and error, but thus far, my counterpart and students have been really open and I think they are enjoying all the trials because the teaching style that we are taught is nothing like they have ever experienced before. You learn not to stress too much about the job. At least I have. Maybe I’m just a slacker volunteer. I teach eighteen hours a week and do clubs. Holo, another volunteer is designing an entire curriculum program for his school, and Joy does about ninety gajillion things a week at her university, it seems. You will be able to put forth as much effort as you want. Not everything you want to do will be easy to accomplish, but you can work hard all the time and go ninety miles a minute for two years, or you can take a more relaxed pace, like me. Haha
It is not only the TEFL volunteers who have doubts about their qualifications. We’ve got IR majors teaching health, and I’m sure the SOCD volunteers have moments when they have no idea what they’re doing, but we’re all lost together, haha.
IV The PC life
Granted I’ve only been here for seven months or so, but the PC life has been pretty okay. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be the Peace Corps. I’ve had my ups and downs in country, from breaking down into tears and bawling my eyes out at dinner my first night with my host family during site visit, leaving my bags packed at site visit to make it easier to leave since I thought about E.T.ing, cracking up from slipping on ice and busting my butt, going through the end of the honeymoon phase and hating everything about Kyrgyzstan and the Peace Corps for a solid week, to having a fantastic time guesting with my teaching staff and enjoying beautiful summer days swimming in Issyk kul… the ups and downs are what make the experience. If you can’t handle emotional ups and downs, or aren’t patient, or don’t care, you wouldn’t have made it this far in the application process to get an invitation to come here.
I have no idea if anything I said helps, for all I know I might have just confused you even more than you already were. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email or facebook me.
I can’t wait for you all to get here!
See you soon!
Jess
I don’t know if the K-18s will be like the K-17s, but if they are, most of them will be pouring over all the information that they can get about Kyrgyzstan, google searching, wikipedia-ing, reading blogs of current and past volunteers, and in general, just maintaining a low grade freak out about getting ready for the trip. At least, that’s what I did.
I found a bunch of really useful information in previous volunteers’ blogs, so I figured I’d pay it forward and give my two cents for the next group, if they want it. If not, oh well, it’ll be fun to write it anyway. Especially since I’m less than a year in right now, and who know how my thoughts will change over the next two years.
I. Packing
The first thing- you will over pack. I almost guarantee it. Heading out to the unknown makes us want to be prepared for every possible thing. It is understandable. So, I’m gonna make a little list of things that I wish I would have done differently.
Things I Didn’t Think I’d Need, But Brought Anyway and Am REALLY Glad I Did:
-headlamp- nighttime trips to the outhouse make it indispensable. You can get a cheap one for less that twenty bucks, and they take up very little space.
-leatherman/pocket knife- so incredibly useful! I never used one in the states, but here, I’ve used it for everything from opening cans to boxes to fixing furniture
-computer and external hard-drive full of movies- I have NO idea what I’d do in my spare time if I didn’t have them. I have more spare time in Kyrgyzstan that I ever had in the states and there is only so much knitting, reading, walking, and talking one can do, plus it is a great way to bond with other volunteers, doing movie swaps. Plus the volunteers that are here will love you for bringing new stuff.
-A lot of shoes haha I’m a shoe fan in the states, so I went a little overboard anyway, but almost everyone in my training village walked through at least one pair of shoes during the first two months, the roads here are just harder on shoes.
Things I Didn’t Bring and Wish I Did:
-Books- I only brought one and that lasted about two and a half days.
-More than one electric converter plug adapter (also, three prong to two prong converter) I also spend about fifty bucks getting the super-duper wattage/voltage converter thingamajiggy, and I have only used it once. I just use the plug adapters, and I haven’t fried anything yet. *knock on wood* You can buy the converters here, but I would recommend getting better quality ones in the US.
-Maps and pictures of US scenes
Things I Brought and Wish I Hadn’t
-An umbrella- it did rain a lot here during PST, but you can buy umbrellas here
-Toiletries: seriously, don’t waste space in your luggage. Bring no more than a travel size of anything, because you can get it here. The PCMO will give the women all the feminine products you need, so don’t fill your bad full of three months’ supply of tampax. Not necessary. You also don’t need a spare tooth brush, you don’t need three months supplies of anything. Shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, mouthwash, soap… they use it here, too. The only exceptions I would list would be saline solution for contacts, baby powder ( it is here, but a little more difficult to find, and you will use it here, even if you don’t in the states), and razor blades. You can find razor blades and shaving cream here, but they’re a little pricey for Peace Corps budgets.
-Too many clothes- pack what you think you need, and then cut it in half, then cut it in half again, then cut it in half again, then you’ve got the right amount. Haha I seriously overpacked. I have clothes here that I haven’t worn yet.
-A few other things: in my personal opinion, if you are thinking about bringing any white clothing items, don’t. One, you’re probably overpacked anyways, and two it is very difficult to keep anything white here. Also, other volunteers will tell you to bring school supplies, but I think it is completely unnecessary. You will hear that the quality of the school supplies here is poor, but really, how much quality do you need when it comes to pens? You can get a decent pen here for about 5 som, which is reasonable, and I’ve been able to find decent notebooks, white board markers, pens, scissors, and a stapler here with no trouble. Personally, I wouldn’t waste the space and weight of heavy school supplies items, but that is just me.
Enough about packing
II Culture
The culture of Kyrgyzstan is really interesting. A few things seem strange, but in general, people here, are just like people in America. They might eat a little bit more meat, and drink a lot more tea, but that is not a big deal. The Peace Corps stresses the drinking aspect of the culture a little bit too much in my opinion. During PST, we had a LOT of sessions about how to deal with the pressure to drink, but most of the volunteers I have talked to haven’t had a big problem dealing with it. The aspect of the culture that gets to me the most is gender inequality. Bride kidnapping, the Kalen system, discrepancies in opportunities for boys and girls, and those sorts of things can be hard to deal with at times. These problems exist everywhere in the world, even in the states, and are much worse in other places than in Kyrgyzstan, but as volunteers we are given a great opportunity to help start small changes in the way that people think about the issues, or even get people to start thinking about them at all. We’re not supposed to be critical of local customs, and I hope I haven’t come off sounding harsh about anything, I am not judging, just letting you know that these issues are here.
III The Job.
I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but when I got my invitation to teach English, I not only thought, but knew that I was immensely under qualified. What makes me capable of teaching English? The fact that I can speak it? Whew. The Peace Corps gave us a lot of training about how to teach during PST, and there are still days when I walk into the classroom feeling like I have no idea what is going on. A lot of my teaching job is trial and error, but thus far, my counterpart and students have been really open and I think they are enjoying all the trials because the teaching style that we are taught is nothing like they have ever experienced before. You learn not to stress too much about the job. At least I have. Maybe I’m just a slacker volunteer. I teach eighteen hours a week and do clubs. Holo, another volunteer is designing an entire curriculum program for his school, and Joy does about ninety gajillion things a week at her university, it seems. You will be able to put forth as much effort as you want. Not everything you want to do will be easy to accomplish, but you can work hard all the time and go ninety miles a minute for two years, or you can take a more relaxed pace, like me. Haha
It is not only the TEFL volunteers who have doubts about their qualifications. We’ve got IR majors teaching health, and I’m sure the SOCD volunteers have moments when they have no idea what they’re doing, but we’re all lost together, haha.
IV The PC life
Granted I’ve only been here for seven months or so, but the PC life has been pretty okay. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be the Peace Corps. I’ve had my ups and downs in country, from breaking down into tears and bawling my eyes out at dinner my first night with my host family during site visit, leaving my bags packed at site visit to make it easier to leave since I thought about E.T.ing, cracking up from slipping on ice and busting my butt, going through the end of the honeymoon phase and hating everything about Kyrgyzstan and the Peace Corps for a solid week, to having a fantastic time guesting with my teaching staff and enjoying beautiful summer days swimming in Issyk kul… the ups and downs are what make the experience. If you can’t handle emotional ups and downs, or aren’t patient, or don’t care, you wouldn’t have made it this far in the application process to get an invitation to come here.
I have no idea if anything I said helps, for all I know I might have just confused you even more than you already were. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email or facebook me.
I can’t wait for you all to get here!
See you soon!
Jess
and another...
20 November 2009 Part Two
I know what you’re thinking. “Part Two? But Jess, you wrote four pages this morning! What more could you possibly have to say?”
I just got back from guesting and figured I should write about it because it was quite an event. I went with both of my host parents and most of the teaching staff was there too. I’ve gone guesting with my Apa and my teachers and with my Apa and Ata to family parties, but never my Apa, Ata, and my teachers. My teaching staff knows me pretty well. They don’t pressure me to drink, or sing, or take part in anything that I don’t want to do. My Ata knows that I don’t drink, but he made me sing! He told me it was a Kyrgyz ritual and told me that it’d be ooyat (shameful) if I didn’t sing. So, I sang the first thing that popped into my mind. Unfortunately, I spent the intervening hours between writing my first blog and going guesting watching Rent… and the first thing to pop into my head was the opening number, seasons of love. I butchered it and forgot most of the words, but it did sing. And now, my teaching staff will probably never ask me to sing for the next year and a half. Thank goodness! Now they believe me when I say that I can’t sing. haha We had the traditional besh barmak dish, as always, my Ata wanted me to try a bit of horse meat, and I respectfully declined. It is funny to me; my teaching staff knows me so well! When they pass around the kidneys, chunks of fat, and intestine, they don’t even offer it to me. One teacher will put a piece on my plate with the noodles (or rice) and the huge chunk of meat that I won’t eat, and then pass the bowl to the teacher on the other side of me. I think that they just know that I don’t want to touch it. And then, as everyone is packing up their leftovers, someone will inevitably hand mine to Apa. Again, I think they know that touching the greasy meat is not something that I want to do. Tonight we also had bozo, or rather they had bozo. I respectfully oostied, or tasted it. It tastes like someone poured vodka on bread, and then liquefied it. That is the best description I can give.
It is no wonder to me that illnesses spread so quickly here. All the communal food sharing, and glass sharing has got to be a catalyst for the spread of disease. Although if I stick to my college adage that alcohol is a disinfectant, that could explain why some of my teachers don’t get sick.
As we were eating the besh barmak, the teachers played a singing game. There are two teams. One team will sing a verse and the other team has to sing another verse of a song starting with the letter that the last team finished on. One team finished a song with the letter X which sounds like H and there are few songs that being with that letter, so my counterpart struck up a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday. It was cute.
As we all left, one of the male teachers, who I have gotten to be friendly with helped me down the stairs, as it so happens, he is the only male teacher who is not married. One of the other teachers said “I love you” and teased him. It sparked a conversation in which he said that he was going to “take” me, because the Kyrgyz translation of “get married” for men is simple “take a woman.” Well, woman and wife are the same word in Kyrgyz. And all the other teachers remarked on what a good idea this is. Sigh. Something similar has happened at every single toi (party) that I’ve been to in Kyrgyzstan, and I’m not expecting it to stop, which means I guess that I’m getting used to it.
Well I guess that just about sums it up. I’m debating whether I want to go to the city tomorrow, or wait until next Wednesday. I guess we’ll see how I feel in the morning, and when I wake up.
Miss you still
Love from Kyrgyzstan!
Jess
I know what you’re thinking. “Part Two? But Jess, you wrote four pages this morning! What more could you possibly have to say?”
I just got back from guesting and figured I should write about it because it was quite an event. I went with both of my host parents and most of the teaching staff was there too. I’ve gone guesting with my Apa and my teachers and with my Apa and Ata to family parties, but never my Apa, Ata, and my teachers. My teaching staff knows me pretty well. They don’t pressure me to drink, or sing, or take part in anything that I don’t want to do. My Ata knows that I don’t drink, but he made me sing! He told me it was a Kyrgyz ritual and told me that it’d be ooyat (shameful) if I didn’t sing. So, I sang the first thing that popped into my mind. Unfortunately, I spent the intervening hours between writing my first blog and going guesting watching Rent… and the first thing to pop into my head was the opening number, seasons of love. I butchered it and forgot most of the words, but it did sing. And now, my teaching staff will probably never ask me to sing for the next year and a half. Thank goodness! Now they believe me when I say that I can’t sing. haha We had the traditional besh barmak dish, as always, my Ata wanted me to try a bit of horse meat, and I respectfully declined. It is funny to me; my teaching staff knows me so well! When they pass around the kidneys, chunks of fat, and intestine, they don’t even offer it to me. One teacher will put a piece on my plate with the noodles (or rice) and the huge chunk of meat that I won’t eat, and then pass the bowl to the teacher on the other side of me. I think that they just know that I don’t want to touch it. And then, as everyone is packing up their leftovers, someone will inevitably hand mine to Apa. Again, I think they know that touching the greasy meat is not something that I want to do. Tonight we also had bozo, or rather they had bozo. I respectfully oostied, or tasted it. It tastes like someone poured vodka on bread, and then liquefied it. That is the best description I can give.
It is no wonder to me that illnesses spread so quickly here. All the communal food sharing, and glass sharing has got to be a catalyst for the spread of disease. Although if I stick to my college adage that alcohol is a disinfectant, that could explain why some of my teachers don’t get sick.
As we were eating the besh barmak, the teachers played a singing game. There are two teams. One team will sing a verse and the other team has to sing another verse of a song starting with the letter that the last team finished on. One team finished a song with the letter X which sounds like H and there are few songs that being with that letter, so my counterpart struck up a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday. It was cute.
As we all left, one of the male teachers, who I have gotten to be friendly with helped me down the stairs, as it so happens, he is the only male teacher who is not married. One of the other teachers said “I love you” and teased him. It sparked a conversation in which he said that he was going to “take” me, because the Kyrgyz translation of “get married” for men is simple “take a woman.” Well, woman and wife are the same word in Kyrgyz. And all the other teachers remarked on what a good idea this is. Sigh. Something similar has happened at every single toi (party) that I’ve been to in Kyrgyzstan, and I’m not expecting it to stop, which means I guess that I’m getting used to it.
Well I guess that just about sums it up. I’m debating whether I want to go to the city tomorrow, or wait until next Wednesday. I guess we’ll see how I feel in the morning, and when I wake up.
Miss you still
Love from Kyrgyzstan!
Jess
Warning, this is a long one.
20 November 2009
It is Friday morning and I am not at school. “But Jess, it is Friday morning, you have class. Why aren’t you at school?” You might ask. The answer would be that I didn’t have to go today. Normal classes are suspended and students are doing what is called control work. I don’t really understand it, but basically all the students have to take 5question tests in a multitude of different subjects. And my counterpart told me that I didn’t have to come if I didn’t want to because I wasn’t needed. So, I elected to stay home and write this blog. Haha I promised that this blog would be more upbeat and I think I will be able to accomplish that because I’m in a bit of a better mood. I made a conscious decision to be happier. Not happy, but “happier” It is almost impossible to just will myself to be happy, because so many of the things that make me unhappy are beyond my control, BUT! happIER, I can manage. It is just making myself focus more on the good than the bad and giving myself what momma told me I need for about five years: an attitude adjustment. Haha So, in an effort to keep my mind on the positive, I used my newly-acquired-and-copied-from-katie-hobby-of-cutting-out-magazine-letters-to-make-pretty-stuff (that is said with one breath. Haha) to make a sign for my room. It is entitled “the good stuff” and since I’ve created the self rule that for every negative thought I have, I have to think two positive thoughts, I am writing the good thoughts and sticking them to the sign. Pretty good, right? So, I’m gonna share a few of the good thoughts. And since I have A LOT of time today, this blog might get a little lengthy. My apologies in advance. Here we go- the good stuff:
1) I have my own English room. Most volunteers do not. The renovations should be finished by Monday and I will be able to start having classes in it. Which also means that: I get to have and use visual aids, I get to use a white board instead of chalk, and have more control over my environment.
2) My students like me and I like them. A few examples: I cracked up in front of my 11th grade class. (Background: My counterpart and I divided up classes on Wednesday because several of the teachers are out sick and if we taught the classes separately everyone would be able to go home sooner. I was teaching them formal introductions- not because it is useful in any way, but because we got new little English pamphlets from the rayon government that we have to use.) I was doing a demo conversation practice with one of my 11th grade boys. He is a good student, but also can be a smart-alek class clown, which is awesome in my opinion. Anyways, we were just doing the basics. You know- what is your name, how are you, etc. Then, he pulls out of his repertoire, “how old are you?’ and “can I have your telephone number.” I have NO idea where he learned that, because most of the other students didn’t know what he said, but needless to say, I was not expecting that, and it cracked me up, partly because of the way he said it and partly because I had a flash back to the “can I have yo number? Can I have it?”. In a couple of seconds, the entire class was laughing. It was a great class. Another example, one of my ninth grade girls, who is friends with one of my host sisters and is at my house a lot, came to me yesterday and asked me for a favor. She brought me a few balls of yarn and asked if I could make a scarf for her. I was more than willing to, but was curious because her mother crochets really well. I asked her why she wasn’t asking her mother to do it. Apparently, she has a crush on a boy and his birthday is next week and she wants to give him a scarf. She couldn’t ask her mother because her mother would want to know who it was for. It was the cutest thing, it still makes me giggle, but she was very concerned with secrecy. She made me promise not to tell her mom or my counterpart or anyone. It made me really happy. Even though it is a small thing, it tells me that there is a growing bond of trust with my students. One final example- I was teaching my ninth grade B class, which if you remember is the one that I had been having a little trouble with. Toward the end of the lesson, when the students were working in pairs creating a dialogue, I caught one of the boys passing a note. I wouldn’t have done anything because he wasn’t really disturbing anyone, but he caught me looking at him and got a “oh no she saw me” look on his face so I asked him for the note, because I was curious. He didn’t want to give it to me, and we ended up having a conversation about why he didn’t want to give it to me, during which time he succeeded in tearing the note into little pieces. It didn’t really bother me, and I’m sure it would’ve bothered a lot of the local teachers, who probably would’ve punished him. Me, on the other hand, just gave him floor cleaning duty for the day. Every day the students have to mop the floor in their classrooms and it rotates every day, but usually the girls do it. I told him that since he made a mess on the floor, he had to clean it. I think the students were surprised, but we all ended up having a good laugh at it and I think they all thought it was a good punishment. So, my students and I are getting along. I also added the sixth grade classes to my schedule and they are a new dynamic, so we’ll see how that goes. I haven’t been able to teach them yet because attendance has been around 3 students in class since everyone is sick.
Let’s see… what else is on my good stuff list…
3) I haven’t peed on my foot in the outhouse in months. Oh! This is kind of unrelated and kind of related. I am trying to figure out how growing up with one sister, we fought over the bathroom in the mornings all the way through school, but now that I have four sisters, I’ve only had to wait for the bathroom twice since June. Granted, the bathroom is the outhouse, so obviously no one is brushing their teeth or doing makeup out there, but we also have our indoor wash room with sink and mirror and I’ve never had to wait to use that either… curious, very curious.
4) My newly dyed hair (did I mention that I dyed my hair?- it is now “chocolate brown”) anyways, my newly dyed hair covers dirtiness better than when it was lighter
5) I talked to Jenn this morning for the first time since coming to country! I interrupted her night at the green leafe, but I think she’ll forgive me. I also found out that she is sending me FOOTED PAJAMAS for Christmas. I am not sure that you’re aware of the gravity of that statement, so I’ll repeat myself. SHE IS SENDING ME FOOTED PAJAMAS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! I’m am SO unbelievably excited!
6) I am integrating into my village pretty well. I’ve begun to meet students’ parents. I am still getting invited to go guesting. I am going tonight as a matter of fact, to the Kyrgyz equivalent of a house warming party.
7) I am making Hummus again today and I am eating it now. I’m eating in my room because apa is frying fish and the smell is permeating the house. Sigh The hummus is delicious, though, if I may say so. That is another thing I have learned- things that you make yourself are so much better than store bought stuff. I am eating aforementioned hummus with tomatoes and cucumbers, whose prices are starting to rise again. They are both sixty som a kilo. Which converts to about $1.50. I know- that doesn’t seem like a lot, but I don’t really think about it dollars anymore, I budget in som and don’t have a ton extra to splurge on veggies, and when you don’t eat meat and need vegetables, and when the prices are only going to steadily increase…. It is cause for a wee bit of concern. Especially considering that less than a month ago tomatoes were 6 som a kilo, which was about 14cents… But, to quote Mrs. Buckett, “nothing goes better with cabbage than cabbage.” And I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be enjoying cabbage as my primary vegetable for the next few months. Luckily, citrus fruits are coming into season and pretty soon I’ll be able to get a kilo of oranges for about 50 som ( a little over a dollar) I am just going to have to switch vitamin sources. Delicious, delicious, vitamin sources.
I might try my hand at pita bread later, too. I’m not sure yet. I also want to make pumpkin bread, but I’m having trouble finding the spices. If anyone is sending a box this way in the next few months, some little containers of nutmeg, allspice, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, cream of tarter, cumin, and brown sugar would be great.
8) OH! Big news! So, if you have been keeping up with reading this blog, you will know that I had a Halloween festival with my students and that a Christmas concert/festival is underway. I have created a monster so it seems and am now expected to have some sort of festival or party every quarter. I have no problem with this because it keeps me busy, but after having a discussion with my counterpart and some of my students about holidays and American school traditions… hold your breath… here it is…. I am going to help my students have ….. a prom. Yes, I know. A PROM? Do I know how much work that will be? Yes, I do. Do I know that the concept of the boys and girls going on a pseudo “date” might shake up my school a bit? Yes, I do. And am I still going to hold a prom? Yes, I am. I think it’ll be good for my students. Only the ninth and eleventh forms will be able to go, since we don’t have a tenth form. It’ll be for the older, and slightly more mature students, just like in America. So, here is where I need your help. Explaining the concept of prom wasn’t that difficult, but I would really appreciate if you all could send me pictures from your respective proms to show my students what prom is like. I’ve already recruited Jordan to send me pictures from my prom and hers, but I would love a bigger variety. If you could just print a few pics and stick them inside a card and mail it to me, that would be fantastic. It only costs like a buck to send a card or letter over here, and my students LOVE seeing pictures of America. When I made my scrapbook, I had no idea how much of a cultural aid it would be. The pics from last year’s Halloween in Norfolk were a big help, as were pics from jordan’s wedding and Christmas. Anways, I digress… pictures are good. Very good. Send me some please?
9) It is the third week of November and I have taught six classes the entire month. My second quarter schedule has me teaching 18 classes a week, but due to a week of vacation, a week of training, and over 50% of my students being out sick, there just haven’t been a lot of English classes. Now, why is this is a list of my good stuff? You would think that me not doing the job that I came to do would be bad, not good. I put this on the list as a representation of how much I have relaxed. We have a teaching plan, right? Which topics we will teach on which day in order to cover all the things we need to cover all year. We are currently four topics behind in about half of my classes and I am not concerned. Being behind schedule, or off schedule, would have really stressed me out a year ago. Now, I know that we’ll make it up, or just change the schedule, or just drop some topics. I’m not fussed about it. Is this personal growth and progress? We shall see.
10) This point does not really belong on here, but I like the prospect of finishing up a list with a round ten things. Nine just seems incomplete. What? Yes, I know, I am still OCD and crazy. You didn’t expect that to change, did you? Well, you might have noticed, maybe not, that my English is diminishing. (word is helping to check my atrocious spelling) Like most languages, lack of use makes it hard to remember. And seeing as how outside of class and lesson planning with my counterpart, I do not use English, it is becoming rusty from lack of use. Also, because my textbooks use British English and I’ve been reading quite a few books by British authors, my language is not only starting to get worse, but it is starting to change and I say things differently. I caught myself saying “you have a brother, have you not?” because I have read tag questions like that in the textbook all week. It is really strange. I have also almost completely quit using contractions because I use my TEFL voice whenever I do speak English. BUT on the flip side, my Kyrgyz has improved. I scored between and advanced Low and Advanced Mid on my language at our last training, which is technically fluent. YAY! I was told that I need to use more idioms, and I am sure that I will pick those up in time. Also, the upside to getting an advanced score in Kyrgyz is that I can now start learning Russian, too. I have picked up a little bit of Russian, simply from living in the most russianified oblast, and living in a half Russian village, but am having trouble with the grammar. All the verb conjugations and gender specific words are pretty rough to learn on my own, but I can now get a Russian tutor and hopefully by the end of two years, I’ll be fluent in both languages.
I know. It must be hard to believe that my language is suffering considering how loquacious I have been in this blog. I’m on the fourth page! Sheesh. If you have stuck with me and read this whole thing in one sitting, thanks. But, alas, as I am sure your eyes are starting to hurt and the words are starting to blur, I shall do you a favor and close for now.
Miss you tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
It is Friday morning and I am not at school. “But Jess, it is Friday morning, you have class. Why aren’t you at school?” You might ask. The answer would be that I didn’t have to go today. Normal classes are suspended and students are doing what is called control work. I don’t really understand it, but basically all the students have to take 5question tests in a multitude of different subjects. And my counterpart told me that I didn’t have to come if I didn’t want to because I wasn’t needed. So, I elected to stay home and write this blog. Haha I promised that this blog would be more upbeat and I think I will be able to accomplish that because I’m in a bit of a better mood. I made a conscious decision to be happier. Not happy, but “happier” It is almost impossible to just will myself to be happy, because so many of the things that make me unhappy are beyond my control, BUT! happIER, I can manage. It is just making myself focus more on the good than the bad and giving myself what momma told me I need for about five years: an attitude adjustment. Haha So, in an effort to keep my mind on the positive, I used my newly-acquired-and-copied-from-katie-hobby-of-cutting-out-magazine-letters-to-make-pretty-stuff (that is said with one breath. Haha) to make a sign for my room. It is entitled “the good stuff” and since I’ve created the self rule that for every negative thought I have, I have to think two positive thoughts, I am writing the good thoughts and sticking them to the sign. Pretty good, right? So, I’m gonna share a few of the good thoughts. And since I have A LOT of time today, this blog might get a little lengthy. My apologies in advance. Here we go- the good stuff:
1) I have my own English room. Most volunteers do not. The renovations should be finished by Monday and I will be able to start having classes in it. Which also means that: I get to have and use visual aids, I get to use a white board instead of chalk, and have more control over my environment.
2) My students like me and I like them. A few examples: I cracked up in front of my 11th grade class. (Background: My counterpart and I divided up classes on Wednesday because several of the teachers are out sick and if we taught the classes separately everyone would be able to go home sooner. I was teaching them formal introductions- not because it is useful in any way, but because we got new little English pamphlets from the rayon government that we have to use.) I was doing a demo conversation practice with one of my 11th grade boys. He is a good student, but also can be a smart-alek class clown, which is awesome in my opinion. Anyways, we were just doing the basics. You know- what is your name, how are you, etc. Then, he pulls out of his repertoire, “how old are you?’ and “can I have your telephone number.” I have NO idea where he learned that, because most of the other students didn’t know what he said, but needless to say, I was not expecting that, and it cracked me up, partly because of the way he said it and partly because I had a flash back to the “can I have yo number? Can I have it?”. In a couple of seconds, the entire class was laughing. It was a great class. Another example, one of my ninth grade girls, who is friends with one of my host sisters and is at my house a lot, came to me yesterday and asked me for a favor. She brought me a few balls of yarn and asked if I could make a scarf for her. I was more than willing to, but was curious because her mother crochets really well. I asked her why she wasn’t asking her mother to do it. Apparently, she has a crush on a boy and his birthday is next week and she wants to give him a scarf. She couldn’t ask her mother because her mother would want to know who it was for. It was the cutest thing, it still makes me giggle, but she was very concerned with secrecy. She made me promise not to tell her mom or my counterpart or anyone. It made me really happy. Even though it is a small thing, it tells me that there is a growing bond of trust with my students. One final example- I was teaching my ninth grade B class, which if you remember is the one that I had been having a little trouble with. Toward the end of the lesson, when the students were working in pairs creating a dialogue, I caught one of the boys passing a note. I wouldn’t have done anything because he wasn’t really disturbing anyone, but he caught me looking at him and got a “oh no she saw me” look on his face so I asked him for the note, because I was curious. He didn’t want to give it to me, and we ended up having a conversation about why he didn’t want to give it to me, during which time he succeeded in tearing the note into little pieces. It didn’t really bother me, and I’m sure it would’ve bothered a lot of the local teachers, who probably would’ve punished him. Me, on the other hand, just gave him floor cleaning duty for the day. Every day the students have to mop the floor in their classrooms and it rotates every day, but usually the girls do it. I told him that since he made a mess on the floor, he had to clean it. I think the students were surprised, but we all ended up having a good laugh at it and I think they all thought it was a good punishment. So, my students and I are getting along. I also added the sixth grade classes to my schedule and they are a new dynamic, so we’ll see how that goes. I haven’t been able to teach them yet because attendance has been around 3 students in class since everyone is sick.
Let’s see… what else is on my good stuff list…
3) I haven’t peed on my foot in the outhouse in months. Oh! This is kind of unrelated and kind of related. I am trying to figure out how growing up with one sister, we fought over the bathroom in the mornings all the way through school, but now that I have four sisters, I’ve only had to wait for the bathroom twice since June. Granted, the bathroom is the outhouse, so obviously no one is brushing their teeth or doing makeup out there, but we also have our indoor wash room with sink and mirror and I’ve never had to wait to use that either… curious, very curious.
4) My newly dyed hair (did I mention that I dyed my hair?- it is now “chocolate brown”) anyways, my newly dyed hair covers dirtiness better than when it was lighter
5) I talked to Jenn this morning for the first time since coming to country! I interrupted her night at the green leafe, but I think she’ll forgive me. I also found out that she is sending me FOOTED PAJAMAS for Christmas. I am not sure that you’re aware of the gravity of that statement, so I’ll repeat myself. SHE IS SENDING ME FOOTED PAJAMAS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! I’m am SO unbelievably excited!
6) I am integrating into my village pretty well. I’ve begun to meet students’ parents. I am still getting invited to go guesting. I am going tonight as a matter of fact, to the Kyrgyz equivalent of a house warming party.
7) I am making Hummus again today and I am eating it now. I’m eating in my room because apa is frying fish and the smell is permeating the house. Sigh The hummus is delicious, though, if I may say so. That is another thing I have learned- things that you make yourself are so much better than store bought stuff. I am eating aforementioned hummus with tomatoes and cucumbers, whose prices are starting to rise again. They are both sixty som a kilo. Which converts to about $1.50. I know- that doesn’t seem like a lot, but I don’t really think about it dollars anymore, I budget in som and don’t have a ton extra to splurge on veggies, and when you don’t eat meat and need vegetables, and when the prices are only going to steadily increase…. It is cause for a wee bit of concern. Especially considering that less than a month ago tomatoes were 6 som a kilo, which was about 14cents… But, to quote Mrs. Buckett, “nothing goes better with cabbage than cabbage.” And I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be enjoying cabbage as my primary vegetable for the next few months. Luckily, citrus fruits are coming into season and pretty soon I’ll be able to get a kilo of oranges for about 50 som ( a little over a dollar) I am just going to have to switch vitamin sources. Delicious, delicious, vitamin sources.
I might try my hand at pita bread later, too. I’m not sure yet. I also want to make pumpkin bread, but I’m having trouble finding the spices. If anyone is sending a box this way in the next few months, some little containers of nutmeg, allspice, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, cream of tarter, cumin, and brown sugar would be great.
8) OH! Big news! So, if you have been keeping up with reading this blog, you will know that I had a Halloween festival with my students and that a Christmas concert/festival is underway. I have created a monster so it seems and am now expected to have some sort of festival or party every quarter. I have no problem with this because it keeps me busy, but after having a discussion with my counterpart and some of my students about holidays and American school traditions… hold your breath… here it is…. I am going to help my students have ….. a prom. Yes, I know. A PROM? Do I know how much work that will be? Yes, I do. Do I know that the concept of the boys and girls going on a pseudo “date” might shake up my school a bit? Yes, I do. And am I still going to hold a prom? Yes, I am. I think it’ll be good for my students. Only the ninth and eleventh forms will be able to go, since we don’t have a tenth form. It’ll be for the older, and slightly more mature students, just like in America. So, here is where I need your help. Explaining the concept of prom wasn’t that difficult, but I would really appreciate if you all could send me pictures from your respective proms to show my students what prom is like. I’ve already recruited Jordan to send me pictures from my prom and hers, but I would love a bigger variety. If you could just print a few pics and stick them inside a card and mail it to me, that would be fantastic. It only costs like a buck to send a card or letter over here, and my students LOVE seeing pictures of America. When I made my scrapbook, I had no idea how much of a cultural aid it would be. The pics from last year’s Halloween in Norfolk were a big help, as were pics from jordan’s wedding and Christmas. Anways, I digress… pictures are good. Very good. Send me some please?
9) It is the third week of November and I have taught six classes the entire month. My second quarter schedule has me teaching 18 classes a week, but due to a week of vacation, a week of training, and over 50% of my students being out sick, there just haven’t been a lot of English classes. Now, why is this is a list of my good stuff? You would think that me not doing the job that I came to do would be bad, not good. I put this on the list as a representation of how much I have relaxed. We have a teaching plan, right? Which topics we will teach on which day in order to cover all the things we need to cover all year. We are currently four topics behind in about half of my classes and I am not concerned. Being behind schedule, or off schedule, would have really stressed me out a year ago. Now, I know that we’ll make it up, or just change the schedule, or just drop some topics. I’m not fussed about it. Is this personal growth and progress? We shall see.
10) This point does not really belong on here, but I like the prospect of finishing up a list with a round ten things. Nine just seems incomplete. What? Yes, I know, I am still OCD and crazy. You didn’t expect that to change, did you? Well, you might have noticed, maybe not, that my English is diminishing. (word is helping to check my atrocious spelling) Like most languages, lack of use makes it hard to remember. And seeing as how outside of class and lesson planning with my counterpart, I do not use English, it is becoming rusty from lack of use. Also, because my textbooks use British English and I’ve been reading quite a few books by British authors, my language is not only starting to get worse, but it is starting to change and I say things differently. I caught myself saying “you have a brother, have you not?” because I have read tag questions like that in the textbook all week. It is really strange. I have also almost completely quit using contractions because I use my TEFL voice whenever I do speak English. BUT on the flip side, my Kyrgyz has improved. I scored between and advanced Low and Advanced Mid on my language at our last training, which is technically fluent. YAY! I was told that I need to use more idioms, and I am sure that I will pick those up in time. Also, the upside to getting an advanced score in Kyrgyz is that I can now start learning Russian, too. I have picked up a little bit of Russian, simply from living in the most russianified oblast, and living in a half Russian village, but am having trouble with the grammar. All the verb conjugations and gender specific words are pretty rough to learn on my own, but I can now get a Russian tutor and hopefully by the end of two years, I’ll be fluent in both languages.
I know. It must be hard to believe that my language is suffering considering how loquacious I have been in this blog. I’m on the fourth page! Sheesh. If you have stuck with me and read this whole thing in one sitting, thanks. But, alas, as I am sure your eyes are starting to hurt and the words are starting to blur, I shall do you a favor and close for now.
Miss you tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
OW
Usually I write blogs at home and then upload them when I come to the city, because it saves me time and money, but I let my director borrow my flash drive yesterday for a day or two so i'm actually writing this in the internet cafe. I don't really have a lot of news, which is why I've been writing a little less frequently, so I'm going to just write a few random thoughts and be on my way because i don't have a lot of time today.
1. clumsiness + ice = a very bad combination. I bit it hard on the way to the internet cafe. It definitely wasn't the first time, and certainly won't be the last, but it hurt all the same. Those of you Norfolkers who remember my last experience on ice should know that i managed to fall with a little bit more decorum, although this fall was kinda like that one, although thankfully without the windmill arms. The teeth jarring head crack was achingly similar though. sigh. my head still hurts
2. I have rediscovered my respect for artists. After spendng three consecutive afternoons locked in a room with windows that don't open writing grammar tables with paint (and quite possibly getting lead posioning haha) I've remembered how difficult artsy stuff is. and i ruined my manicure with paint thinner... sigh
3. i've realized that surviving this winter is going to be one of the most difficult things i've done. emotionally. one. it is cold. and we all know how much i love the cold (i hate that the dripping sarcasm of that statement doesn't come through in type) plus it is dark when i wake up and dark when i come home at least three days of the week. it is a damper on my mood... sigh
In case you haven't picked up on it (all the sighs), i've been kind of in a down mood for a couple of days. One of those stomach-dropping turns on the emotional roller coaster.I have no doubt that it'll go back up, but the downs are just really hard sometimes.
well, in an effort to not infect the rest of the world with my depressing mood, i'm gonna end for now. my next post will be more upbeat, i promise.
miss you
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
1. clumsiness + ice = a very bad combination. I bit it hard on the way to the internet cafe. It definitely wasn't the first time, and certainly won't be the last, but it hurt all the same. Those of you Norfolkers who remember my last experience on ice should know that i managed to fall with a little bit more decorum, although this fall was kinda like that one, although thankfully without the windmill arms. The teeth jarring head crack was achingly similar though. sigh. my head still hurts
2. I have rediscovered my respect for artists. After spendng three consecutive afternoons locked in a room with windows that don't open writing grammar tables with paint (and quite possibly getting lead posioning haha) I've remembered how difficult artsy stuff is. and i ruined my manicure with paint thinner... sigh
3. i've realized that surviving this winter is going to be one of the most difficult things i've done. emotionally. one. it is cold. and we all know how much i love the cold (i hate that the dripping sarcasm of that statement doesn't come through in type) plus it is dark when i wake up and dark when i come home at least three days of the week. it is a damper on my mood... sigh
In case you haven't picked up on it (all the sighs), i've been kind of in a down mood for a couple of days. One of those stomach-dropping turns on the emotional roller coaster.I have no doubt that it'll go back up, but the downs are just really hard sometimes.
well, in an effort to not infect the rest of the world with my depressing mood, i'm gonna end for now. my next post will be more upbeat, i promise.
miss you
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
Friday, October 30, 2009
Happy Birthday Jordan!
28 October 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN!!! I know I won’t post this until after your birthday, and I’m probably gonna call you today anyway, but I had to say it. I wish I were home with you to celebrate! Miss you tons!
Once again, missing birthdays and holidays at home is hard, I seriously doubt that will ever change, but as I get more integrated into my community, I get to take part in local birthdays and holidays, and it helps.
The thing about it being Jordan’s birthday is that it is pretty much Halloween, which means that October is over. Wow. And with October being over, that means Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas and New Years are practically here already, which means Valentine’s Day is coming up fast, and when Valentine’s Day arrives St. Patrick’s Day is virtually here, which is just a couple short weeks away from my one year anniversary. You can laugh, but I have a feeling that time is going to go by about that fast. When I think about it, because the first week of the second quarter is fall break, and we have our six month in country training sometime in the second quarter, too, that leaves only six teaching weeks for the second quarter. Then, we have a two to three week new year’s break, and another training during the third quarter, so I think there are only about six teaching weeks during it, too. It’ll be spring before I know it. Hopefully anyway, because winter is gonna be rough. My entire village seems to know that I’m not a huge fan of the cold. It is kinda like a running joke how I’m gonna freeze to death. I’ve been wearing wool socks since September, added thermals to my daily wardrobe last week…. I know, I swore I was gonna wait, but the heat doesn’t get turned on in my school til November, and it is cold! I’m definitely learning how to layer.
Well, it has been a pretty busy week since I last posted a blog:
I threw an AWESOME Halloween party with my counterpart and students. The students did presentations on different American fall traditions, we had a pumpkin carving contest, a costume contest, and we bobbed for apples, had a bonfire, and ended the night with a spectacular dance party. I think my students all had a great time, or at least they told me that they did. Mike, Katie, Katie, and Taylor, some of the volunteers close to my village, came and they were a huge hit, just by showing up, plus they wore costumes, too! I’m gonna try to post pictures when I post this, we’ll see how it goes.
Other big news: guess who has running water in her house!!! Me!!! That’s right! My house is a work-in-progress because we’re remodeling, but the plumbing is in. well, at least the sinks are in and work. I was told we’d have an indoor shower and toilet, too, but right now, the fact that I don’t have to do a jack and jill every day (..fetch a pail of water, for those of you who might have forgotten the rhyme) is pretty sweet. My house is the only house in the village to have running water, so it is sort of like a tourist attraction, because the neighbors want to see how it is done.
Hmm… other news…. I missed class for the first time due to illness and got soaked in hot vodka all in one day. I woke up at 4am Monday and got really, really sick. When my Apa woke up, she heated up some vodka, we poured it on my stomach and rubbed it in, then I was wrapped in four blankets and told to sleep. So I did. I only had one class, but I didn’t go. We were only reviewing, anyway. My apa told me that my counterpart and my director came to visit me but I was asleep. Somehow the entire village knows I was sick. I went to school yesterday and everyone I met along the way asked me if I was feeling better. Then we got into the discussion of why I got sick. I knew it was gonna happen. My Halloween costume was sleeveless and every teacher at the festival told me i’d get sick if I didn’t put on a coat, (which I did, eventually when it got cold) but I wasn’t thinking that type of sick. If I’d gotten a cold, I’d have agreed with them that I got sick because I didn’t wear a coat, but having a random vomitron fest four days later, doesn’t really make sense to me. So, the next possibility was I got sick because I stood outside talking on my phone when it was cold. I disagree for the same reason as before. The next reason was that I must have gotten cold after taking a banya on Sunday… Again, I disagree for the same reason. I’ve never known getting cold to make me stomach sick. My guess would have been food poisoning or something of the sort again, but I ate the same oatmeal as the rest of my family and none of them got sick. So, the mystery of why I got sick remains a mystery.
Also, since this is the last week of the first quarter, it is TEST TIME! Writing tests is one of the most challenging things for me as a teacher. I’m torn between wanting the students to be able to complete the task, without making it too easy, plus coming up with examples and questions that have words that the students know, without using verbatim exercises from class. It is particularly stressful because this is the first cumulative test that the students will take since I got here, and how well they perform reflects on me. I want to know that I was able to teach them something. We gave the first test yesterday, and we’ll check it today. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Oh! I almost forgot! My counterpart and I get our own classroom! We were given the old physics classroom that we get to decorate as an English class. I was kinda frustrated at first because the physics classroom is the 11a classroom, which means that we get to decorate it and have great visual aids that only one class will get to use. But, remember how I told you that the 10th grade class got discontinued? That leaves an open classroom, because the teachers move classes, and the students stay put. So, the 11a class is taking the 10a classroom, and we get to have the students come to our English room, so all classes will get to use the resources and visual aids! I’m waiting on books from Darien Book Aid, so we’ll have a mini library that the students will get to use, plus all the American Culture stuff, it is gonna be great once we get it set up! And since the lack of a 10a class means that next year there won’t be an 11a class, I’m hoping that we’ll get to use it next year, too!!! YAY!!
Well, I’m gonna go get ready for school (but I do not want to go to school, I want to stay home and bake cookies with yoouuuu—that was for you Jordan haha)
Miss you all
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN!!! I know I won’t post this until after your birthday, and I’m probably gonna call you today anyway, but I had to say it. I wish I were home with you to celebrate! Miss you tons!
Once again, missing birthdays and holidays at home is hard, I seriously doubt that will ever change, but as I get more integrated into my community, I get to take part in local birthdays and holidays, and it helps.
The thing about it being Jordan’s birthday is that it is pretty much Halloween, which means that October is over. Wow. And with October being over, that means Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas and New Years are practically here already, which means Valentine’s Day is coming up fast, and when Valentine’s Day arrives St. Patrick’s Day is virtually here, which is just a couple short weeks away from my one year anniversary. You can laugh, but I have a feeling that time is going to go by about that fast. When I think about it, because the first week of the second quarter is fall break, and we have our six month in country training sometime in the second quarter, too, that leaves only six teaching weeks for the second quarter. Then, we have a two to three week new year’s break, and another training during the third quarter, so I think there are only about six teaching weeks during it, too. It’ll be spring before I know it. Hopefully anyway, because winter is gonna be rough. My entire village seems to know that I’m not a huge fan of the cold. It is kinda like a running joke how I’m gonna freeze to death. I’ve been wearing wool socks since September, added thermals to my daily wardrobe last week…. I know, I swore I was gonna wait, but the heat doesn’t get turned on in my school til November, and it is cold! I’m definitely learning how to layer.
Well, it has been a pretty busy week since I last posted a blog:
I threw an AWESOME Halloween party with my counterpart and students. The students did presentations on different American fall traditions, we had a pumpkin carving contest, a costume contest, and we bobbed for apples, had a bonfire, and ended the night with a spectacular dance party. I think my students all had a great time, or at least they told me that they did. Mike, Katie, Katie, and Taylor, some of the volunteers close to my village, came and they were a huge hit, just by showing up, plus they wore costumes, too! I’m gonna try to post pictures when I post this, we’ll see how it goes.
Other big news: guess who has running water in her house!!! Me!!! That’s right! My house is a work-in-progress because we’re remodeling, but the plumbing is in. well, at least the sinks are in and work. I was told we’d have an indoor shower and toilet, too, but right now, the fact that I don’t have to do a jack and jill every day (..fetch a pail of water, for those of you who might have forgotten the rhyme) is pretty sweet. My house is the only house in the village to have running water, so it is sort of like a tourist attraction, because the neighbors want to see how it is done.
Hmm… other news…. I missed class for the first time due to illness and got soaked in hot vodka all in one day. I woke up at 4am Monday and got really, really sick. When my Apa woke up, she heated up some vodka, we poured it on my stomach and rubbed it in, then I was wrapped in four blankets and told to sleep. So I did. I only had one class, but I didn’t go. We were only reviewing, anyway. My apa told me that my counterpart and my director came to visit me but I was asleep. Somehow the entire village knows I was sick. I went to school yesterday and everyone I met along the way asked me if I was feeling better. Then we got into the discussion of why I got sick. I knew it was gonna happen. My Halloween costume was sleeveless and every teacher at the festival told me i’d get sick if I didn’t put on a coat, (which I did, eventually when it got cold) but I wasn’t thinking that type of sick. If I’d gotten a cold, I’d have agreed with them that I got sick because I didn’t wear a coat, but having a random vomitron fest four days later, doesn’t really make sense to me. So, the next possibility was I got sick because I stood outside talking on my phone when it was cold. I disagree for the same reason as before. The next reason was that I must have gotten cold after taking a banya on Sunday… Again, I disagree for the same reason. I’ve never known getting cold to make me stomach sick. My guess would have been food poisoning or something of the sort again, but I ate the same oatmeal as the rest of my family and none of them got sick. So, the mystery of why I got sick remains a mystery.
Also, since this is the last week of the first quarter, it is TEST TIME! Writing tests is one of the most challenging things for me as a teacher. I’m torn between wanting the students to be able to complete the task, without making it too easy, plus coming up with examples and questions that have words that the students know, without using verbatim exercises from class. It is particularly stressful because this is the first cumulative test that the students will take since I got here, and how well they perform reflects on me. I want to know that I was able to teach them something. We gave the first test yesterday, and we’ll check it today. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Oh! I almost forgot! My counterpart and I get our own classroom! We were given the old physics classroom that we get to decorate as an English class. I was kinda frustrated at first because the physics classroom is the 11a classroom, which means that we get to decorate it and have great visual aids that only one class will get to use. But, remember how I told you that the 10th grade class got discontinued? That leaves an open classroom, because the teachers move classes, and the students stay put. So, the 11a class is taking the 10a classroom, and we get to have the students come to our English room, so all classes will get to use the resources and visual aids! I’m waiting on books from Darien Book Aid, so we’ll have a mini library that the students will get to use, plus all the American Culture stuff, it is gonna be great once we get it set up! And since the lack of a 10a class means that next year there won’t be an 11a class, I’m hoping that we’ll get to use it next year, too!!! YAY!!
Well, I’m gonna go get ready for school (but I do not want to go to school, I want to stay home and bake cookies with yoouuuu—that was for you Jordan haha)
Miss you all
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
20 October 2009
Whew. It has been one of those weeks and it is only Tuesday. I found out that my tenth grade class no longer exists. Apparently there is a law that says that if a class isn’t a certain size, it doesn’t get taught. There are about 6 or 7 kids on the register, but average class attendance has been three, so…. No more class. The tenth graders either have to go to another village to school, or they just quit because it is only mandatory to go through 9th grader here…. I don’t know what they’ll choose to do. I’ve also been talking with teachers about how to deal with my more troublesome classes. I’ve been getting advice that I have to be patient, I have to encourage them, praise them, and tell them that they’re doing great. I know the importance of encouraging high school students, having been a high school student myself. I also probably know it better than a lot of the teachers, having been a high school student more recently than twenty years ago… but… maybe it is just me, but I have a problem with telling a class that they’re doing a great job when they’ve only written their homework twice in two months, and when they don’t study. Maybe I’m too blunt, maybe I’m too direct, or maybe I’m just mean and cruel, but I refuse to tell student “great work” when they haven’t done any work at all. And obviously this method has worked so well for the other teachers (all sarcasm intended.) since they kids don’t do their homework in any of their classes. I think they need a little bit of a firmer hand. I don’t mind giving 2s (Ds) for grades. If they get 2s, they have to do summer school to pass…. I’ll be here all summer anyway… might as well… I’m not going to give good grades if they don’t deserve it. I’m more of a rock the boat kinda girl, and the –pass-them-so-we-don’t-have-to-deal-with-them-boat needs to be rocked. We’ll see how it goes…
Well that paragraph was kinda negative, and I don’t want you to think that I’m depressed or anything. That is just one of the frustrations I’ve got right now. So to balance it out, I figure I should talk about some of the positives… I’m integrating into my teaching staff pretty well. We have the Kyrgyz version of the Avon lady on the teaching staff, and I got to be a customer. I bought some clear nail polish because I’m out. (yes, I know I brought nail polish with me, but giving myself manicures keeps me sane, so shuddup. Haha)
In other news, I finished my Halloween costume today. Actually, I started it today, too. I’m going as a greek goddess. I’ve done it before, it is easy, and not too skanky. Seeing as how I’m a teacher, the skanky costumes that I got used to in college don’t really work anymore… they were fun… I’m interested to see how my students will dress.
The volunteers that live close to me are gonna come, too and Mike is bringing some of the kids from his town. When I told my 9th grade class today, the boys asked- are girls coming? The girls asked- are boys coming? Then they asked me if he was my boyfriend. Typical obnoxious ninth graders… haha
My eighth grade class was just boys today. My counterpart, who is subbing as the organization vice principal was preparing for a party type thing, and the girls were helping. So it was me, and nine 8th grade boys… it was actually a pretty fun class. They’re good kids. We did a reading exercise; they asked me about America, my family, etc. It is the stuff I expected them to ask the first day, but I guess they’ve gotten used to me or aren’t as shy anymore. Then they gave me flowers. I dunno why. It was cute. Then they asked me for my phone number. I didn’t give it to them. I’m not sure I want my cell number in the hands of eighth graders.
I had a laugh that getting flowers and having someone ask for my number is the most romantic interest I’ve had in months haha… and it was from 13 year olds…sigh… then I remembered the marriage proposals, and even though most of them were jokes (not very funny ones, though) it was still a sobering thought. Dating opportunities are pretty thin on the ground here, but I’m making some local girl friends, which is good. I’m got invited to go guesting with one of the other younger teachers.
…
It is tomorrow/today… well.. the next day now… I’m fixin to get ready to go to school to lesson plan, then teach, then head into the city to pick up the last minute stuff for my festival. I have class til 5 tomorrow and the festival is Friday, so it has to be today.
I figured I’d jot a few more things down while I’ve got time. Azeez, my three year old brother is really starting to grow on me. He can still be really irritating, but he’s three, the only boy, with four older sisters, so expecting him to not be spoiled rotten would be ridiculous. He likes coffee, but we don’t like to give it to him, you know, hyperactive three year old on a caffeine high, plus half the sugar bowl that he puts in it, not a good combo… so, I told him in Kyrgyz that if little boys drink coffee, they won’t grow to be tall. I asked if he wanted to be tall and strong like his dad and uncles, and that he wouldn’t be if he drank coffee… Ata picked up on it really quickly and asked if he wanted Zarina, a cousin who is a few months younger, to be bigger than he was and if he wanted to get beaten up by a girl… it was priceless. There hasn’t been a wanting-coffee-related temper tantrum since. He’s also fascinated by one of my t-shirts. I’ve got that long sleeve tshirt from high school, with the PVHS and the dragon on it. I wear it a lot since it is warm, and Azeez loves dragons, so he loves my shirt. The memory retention of three year olds astounds me. We have our “family language club” every night at dinner, and he picks up words so fast! His favorite is “horse.” I think we only said it once, maybe twice, and he knows it, remembers it, and uses it. He’s also picking up on the good mornings and good nights. It’s pretty cool. I wish I could learn Kyrgyz that fast.
I’ve got a pretty busy week ahead of me. We’re doing our Halloween festival on the 23rd, because next week is the first quarter tests, then we have a week off for fall break. Between the week off for fall break and the week long PC training we’ll have during the second quarter, that only leaves six week of teaching in the second quarter, then the holidays. I have a feeling that the second quarter is going to go by pretty quickly. And since I’m not coming home in the winter, it looks like I’ll be making a lot of scarves… haha I’m getting better at crocheting. I made a couple of hats and scarves, and my teaching staff loved them, I think that the fact that I can make something makes me a little less useless. Haha
OH! I almost forgot! I got TWO wicked sweet packages! One from the fam with my sleeping bag and external hard drive full of the most wonderful media… but somehow the cord for it didn’t make it, and the cord to my old external is wearing out, so I’ll have to get a new cord to fully appreciate it, but it is here, and has enough stuff to get me through the winter! AND I got the sweetest package from Ciara, Sarah, and Sara! Thank you guys so much! S’MORES!!!! I absolutely can not wait to make them, but I’m forcing myself to wait until I have a reason to make them with other people, otherwise I’ll eat the entire bag of marshmallows myself and get sick. Haha it was such a great package, I loved the writing on it- great Cyrillic by the way. Haha I miss you guys, tons, too! thank you thank you thank you
We’ll I’ve got to go get ready. I’ll probably go to the city this weekend, too, so maybe I’ll posts pictures of the festival.
Miss you tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
p.s.
sorry if i said i'd call and haven't, i spent more on my phone last month than i did on my rent and thought i should cut back a bit
Whew. It has been one of those weeks and it is only Tuesday. I found out that my tenth grade class no longer exists. Apparently there is a law that says that if a class isn’t a certain size, it doesn’t get taught. There are about 6 or 7 kids on the register, but average class attendance has been three, so…. No more class. The tenth graders either have to go to another village to school, or they just quit because it is only mandatory to go through 9th grader here…. I don’t know what they’ll choose to do. I’ve also been talking with teachers about how to deal with my more troublesome classes. I’ve been getting advice that I have to be patient, I have to encourage them, praise them, and tell them that they’re doing great. I know the importance of encouraging high school students, having been a high school student myself. I also probably know it better than a lot of the teachers, having been a high school student more recently than twenty years ago… but… maybe it is just me, but I have a problem with telling a class that they’re doing a great job when they’ve only written their homework twice in two months, and when they don’t study. Maybe I’m too blunt, maybe I’m too direct, or maybe I’m just mean and cruel, but I refuse to tell student “great work” when they haven’t done any work at all. And obviously this method has worked so well for the other teachers (all sarcasm intended.) since they kids don’t do their homework in any of their classes. I think they need a little bit of a firmer hand. I don’t mind giving 2s (Ds) for grades. If they get 2s, they have to do summer school to pass…. I’ll be here all summer anyway… might as well… I’m not going to give good grades if they don’t deserve it. I’m more of a rock the boat kinda girl, and the –pass-them-so-we-don’t-have-to-deal-with-them-boat needs to be rocked. We’ll see how it goes…
Well that paragraph was kinda negative, and I don’t want you to think that I’m depressed or anything. That is just one of the frustrations I’ve got right now. So to balance it out, I figure I should talk about some of the positives… I’m integrating into my teaching staff pretty well. We have the Kyrgyz version of the Avon lady on the teaching staff, and I got to be a customer. I bought some clear nail polish because I’m out. (yes, I know I brought nail polish with me, but giving myself manicures keeps me sane, so shuddup. Haha)
In other news, I finished my Halloween costume today. Actually, I started it today, too. I’m going as a greek goddess. I’ve done it before, it is easy, and not too skanky. Seeing as how I’m a teacher, the skanky costumes that I got used to in college don’t really work anymore… they were fun… I’m interested to see how my students will dress.
The volunteers that live close to me are gonna come, too and Mike is bringing some of the kids from his town. When I told my 9th grade class today, the boys asked- are girls coming? The girls asked- are boys coming? Then they asked me if he was my boyfriend. Typical obnoxious ninth graders… haha
My eighth grade class was just boys today. My counterpart, who is subbing as the organization vice principal was preparing for a party type thing, and the girls were helping. So it was me, and nine 8th grade boys… it was actually a pretty fun class. They’re good kids. We did a reading exercise; they asked me about America, my family, etc. It is the stuff I expected them to ask the first day, but I guess they’ve gotten used to me or aren’t as shy anymore. Then they gave me flowers. I dunno why. It was cute. Then they asked me for my phone number. I didn’t give it to them. I’m not sure I want my cell number in the hands of eighth graders.
I had a laugh that getting flowers and having someone ask for my number is the most romantic interest I’ve had in months haha… and it was from 13 year olds…sigh… then I remembered the marriage proposals, and even though most of them were jokes (not very funny ones, though) it was still a sobering thought. Dating opportunities are pretty thin on the ground here, but I’m making some local girl friends, which is good. I’m got invited to go guesting with one of the other younger teachers.
…
It is tomorrow/today… well.. the next day now… I’m fixin to get ready to go to school to lesson plan, then teach, then head into the city to pick up the last minute stuff for my festival. I have class til 5 tomorrow and the festival is Friday, so it has to be today.
I figured I’d jot a few more things down while I’ve got time. Azeez, my three year old brother is really starting to grow on me. He can still be really irritating, but he’s three, the only boy, with four older sisters, so expecting him to not be spoiled rotten would be ridiculous. He likes coffee, but we don’t like to give it to him, you know, hyperactive three year old on a caffeine high, plus half the sugar bowl that he puts in it, not a good combo… so, I told him in Kyrgyz that if little boys drink coffee, they won’t grow to be tall. I asked if he wanted to be tall and strong like his dad and uncles, and that he wouldn’t be if he drank coffee… Ata picked up on it really quickly and asked if he wanted Zarina, a cousin who is a few months younger, to be bigger than he was and if he wanted to get beaten up by a girl… it was priceless. There hasn’t been a wanting-coffee-related temper tantrum since. He’s also fascinated by one of my t-shirts. I’ve got that long sleeve tshirt from high school, with the PVHS and the dragon on it. I wear it a lot since it is warm, and Azeez loves dragons, so he loves my shirt. The memory retention of three year olds astounds me. We have our “family language club” every night at dinner, and he picks up words so fast! His favorite is “horse.” I think we only said it once, maybe twice, and he knows it, remembers it, and uses it. He’s also picking up on the good mornings and good nights. It’s pretty cool. I wish I could learn Kyrgyz that fast.
I’ve got a pretty busy week ahead of me. We’re doing our Halloween festival on the 23rd, because next week is the first quarter tests, then we have a week off for fall break. Between the week off for fall break and the week long PC training we’ll have during the second quarter, that only leaves six week of teaching in the second quarter, then the holidays. I have a feeling that the second quarter is going to go by pretty quickly. And since I’m not coming home in the winter, it looks like I’ll be making a lot of scarves… haha I’m getting better at crocheting. I made a couple of hats and scarves, and my teaching staff loved them, I think that the fact that I can make something makes me a little less useless. Haha
OH! I almost forgot! I got TWO wicked sweet packages! One from the fam with my sleeping bag and external hard drive full of the most wonderful media… but somehow the cord for it didn’t make it, and the cord to my old external is wearing out, so I’ll have to get a new cord to fully appreciate it, but it is here, and has enough stuff to get me through the winter! AND I got the sweetest package from Ciara, Sarah, and Sara! Thank you guys so much! S’MORES!!!! I absolutely can not wait to make them, but I’m forcing myself to wait until I have a reason to make them with other people, otherwise I’ll eat the entire bag of marshmallows myself and get sick. Haha it was such a great package, I loved the writing on it- great Cyrillic by the way. Haha I miss you guys, tons, too! thank you thank you thank you
We’ll I’ve got to go get ready. I’ll probably go to the city this weekend, too, so maybe I’ll posts pictures of the festival.
Miss you tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
p.s.
sorry if i said i'd call and haven't, i spent more on my phone last month than i did on my rent and thought i should cut back a bit
Saturday, October 17, 2009
wow, this is a long one
17 October 2009
What a week! If the days keep going by as fast as this week has gone, my two years will be over before I know it.
This week has been incredibly interesting. I know I didn’t write anything about the regional teacher’s meeting last Saturday, but let’s just sum it up by saying that it was complete shenanigans. I left at 8am, got back at 8pm, had a blast with my teachers, who all acted like a bunch of college students, ended up with a sprained ankle (I fell out of an outhouse… not kidding…only me, right?), a bruised rib from someone’s elbow because there were 9 adults and a baby packed It was raining and the stones were wet and I slipped… only me, right into a Lada (one of the throwback soviet cars), and my stomach and head hurt from laughing so much… it was quite a day.
This week I also threw an all out hissy fit, judged a talent show, and got my students hyped up for our Halloween Festival.
First: the hissy fit.
So, a little bit of background information: I teach 7-11 grades. I have 2 classes of 7th 8th, and 9th graders, and one each of 10th and 11th. The classes are divided into Russian and Kyrgyz classes. 7a, 8a, and 9a are Russian speakers, and the b classes are the Kyrgyz. For the most part, they all understand Kyrgyz, but a few only speak Russian. My Thursday schedule is rough. I have an 8am, a 12:20, and a 5pm class. On top of the weird schedule, the three classes that I teach are the ones that try my nerves the most- The 9b,8b, and 7b classes. It’s not that they are unintelligent… they’re just less… I guess the best word would be motivated... less motivated. It’s like when they divided my governor’s school class into two. The smart class and the dumb class, as those of us in the dumb class jokingly called them. It is like that here. The b classes just don’t care as much. I know what that’s like, having not cared at all about my physics and calculus classes at governor’s school. Thankfully, the kids here aren’t as bad and Kat and I were, at least they haven’t started doing each other’s hair and taking self-pics while I’m trying to teach. Haha I’d probably deserve it, tho. This is my karma for being so rude myself. Haha
Anyways, enough background info. The 9b class only has English on thrusday and Friday. I know that makes retention even harder having a week between classes, but I got really frustrated because I gave then a vocab quiz on irregular verbs last week and not a single student got more than one word right. I was really frustrated because they’d had a week to study and they only had seven words… So, I told them that I’d be giving the test again, and I really wanted them to study this time, second chances and all that. So, Thursday, I gave the test for the second time, which gave them two weeks to learn seven irregular verbs. The best student in the class only got 4 correct. And here came the hissy fit…. I was so frustrated! I told them that I didn’t want to teach them if they couldn’t even go to the trouble of learning seven words. I have to do work outside of class to prepare for lessons, but they can’t study seven words. They have time to talk and chat in between classes, but didn’t have time to study. My counterpart then gave them the whole she-came-from-america-to-teach-you-and-you-act-like-this-you-should-be-ashamed-of-yourselves-speech. I told them that the 6a class really wanted to learn English and I knew that they would study, so I was gonna teach them instead. We’re having a Halloween festival next Friday, and I uninvited them, telling them that going to festivals was a privilege, not a right, and classes had to prepare things for the festival and this class had showed me that they couldn’t be trusted to prepare seven words for a quiz, much less a tradition to talk about at the festival, so they couldn’t come. Then my counterpart and I left. She is equally frustrated with them. About 30 seconds after we got back to the teacher’s room, the class was knocking on the door, asking us to please teach them. I asked them if they wanted me to teach them. They said yes. I asked why. They said they wanted to learn English, it was important. I laughed. I told them not to lie to me, because if they really wanted to learn, really thought it was important, they’d have done their homework, and studied. I pulled out my grade book (I never would have done this in the states) and started telling them their grades- you’ve only done homework twice all year, you only learned two words in two weeks, etc. I told them that if I taught them, right now, they’d all be getting 2s, which is like the equivalent of a D. I asked them if they still wanted me to teach them, knowing how I grade. They said yes. So, I made a deal with them. I told them that I’d teach them that day, and that if every.single.one. of them did their homework, I’d teach them until the end of the first quarter and then, if they’d improved, I’d keep teaching them. But, if one student didn’t do their homework, the whole class wouldn’t go to the Halloween festival, and I would teach the 6a class instead. They agreed to the terms, so I taught them. (yes I’m aware of the irony of me being an English teacher, and the fact that this was practically one long run-on sentence)
Sigh. I was so frustrated when I left the class, I almost ran into one of my 7b students. I don’t teach them until 5pm, so I wondered why he was at school so early. It turns out; he came to ask for help on his homework! I’ve told every class, every single lesson, that if they had questions, to please come ask, and it was the first time that a student came to ask! Good-bye frustration, hello euphoria! The “emotional-rollercoaster” here is like that. Sometimes the up and down cycle takes a few days, or weeks, and sometimes, just a few minutes.
Yesterday, we had a holiday. The “fall ball” It was kinda like a talent show, I guess. Three different classes did songs, dances, and skits. They asked me to judge at noon, and the show started at 2. So, having nothing else to do, I judged! I was great! They’re so creative, and I found that I could understand more of the Kyrgyz than I thought I’d be able to.
Next week is our Halloween Festival! I’m so stoked! My 8 classes, from 7th-11th, are all presenting a different fall tradition that I’ve taught them about this week, and then we’re going to do the traditions- pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples, etc. There’s also going to be a costume contest, so the kids are making their own costumes. I can’t wait to see what they come up with! As a matter of fact, I’ve got to come up with my own costume… we’ll see how that goes. I’ll try to post pictures after.
We’ll I’ve written quite a bit, and need to get off to do my shopping. Guess I’ll turn of my billie holiday and try to go hitchhike, I mean, get a taxi… haha
Miss you!
Love from Kyrgyzstan!
Jess
What a week! If the days keep going by as fast as this week has gone, my two years will be over before I know it.
This week has been incredibly interesting. I know I didn’t write anything about the regional teacher’s meeting last Saturday, but let’s just sum it up by saying that it was complete shenanigans. I left at 8am, got back at 8pm, had a blast with my teachers, who all acted like a bunch of college students, ended up with a sprained ankle (I fell out of an outhouse… not kidding…only me, right?), a bruised rib from someone’s elbow because there were 9 adults and a baby packed It was raining and the stones were wet and I slipped… only me, right into a Lada (one of the throwback soviet cars), and my stomach and head hurt from laughing so much… it was quite a day.
This week I also threw an all out hissy fit, judged a talent show, and got my students hyped up for our Halloween Festival.
First: the hissy fit.
So, a little bit of background information: I teach 7-11 grades. I have 2 classes of 7th 8th, and 9th graders, and one each of 10th and 11th. The classes are divided into Russian and Kyrgyz classes. 7a, 8a, and 9a are Russian speakers, and the b classes are the Kyrgyz. For the most part, they all understand Kyrgyz, but a few only speak Russian. My Thursday schedule is rough. I have an 8am, a 12:20, and a 5pm class. On top of the weird schedule, the three classes that I teach are the ones that try my nerves the most- The 9b,8b, and 7b classes. It’s not that they are unintelligent… they’re just less… I guess the best word would be motivated... less motivated. It’s like when they divided my governor’s school class into two. The smart class and the dumb class, as those of us in the dumb class jokingly called them. It is like that here. The b classes just don’t care as much. I know what that’s like, having not cared at all about my physics and calculus classes at governor’s school. Thankfully, the kids here aren’t as bad and Kat and I were, at least they haven’t started doing each other’s hair and taking self-pics while I’m trying to teach. Haha I’d probably deserve it, tho. This is my karma for being so rude myself. Haha
Anyways, enough background info. The 9b class only has English on thrusday and Friday. I know that makes retention even harder having a week between classes, but I got really frustrated because I gave then a vocab quiz on irregular verbs last week and not a single student got more than one word right. I was really frustrated because they’d had a week to study and they only had seven words… So, I told them that I’d be giving the test again, and I really wanted them to study this time, second chances and all that. So, Thursday, I gave the test for the second time, which gave them two weeks to learn seven irregular verbs. The best student in the class only got 4 correct. And here came the hissy fit…. I was so frustrated! I told them that I didn’t want to teach them if they couldn’t even go to the trouble of learning seven words. I have to do work outside of class to prepare for lessons, but they can’t study seven words. They have time to talk and chat in between classes, but didn’t have time to study. My counterpart then gave them the whole she-came-from-america-to-teach-you-and-you-act-like-this-you-should-be-ashamed-of-yourselves-speech. I told them that the 6a class really wanted to learn English and I knew that they would study, so I was gonna teach them instead. We’re having a Halloween festival next Friday, and I uninvited them, telling them that going to festivals was a privilege, not a right, and classes had to prepare things for the festival and this class had showed me that they couldn’t be trusted to prepare seven words for a quiz, much less a tradition to talk about at the festival, so they couldn’t come. Then my counterpart and I left. She is equally frustrated with them. About 30 seconds after we got back to the teacher’s room, the class was knocking on the door, asking us to please teach them. I asked them if they wanted me to teach them. They said yes. I asked why. They said they wanted to learn English, it was important. I laughed. I told them not to lie to me, because if they really wanted to learn, really thought it was important, they’d have done their homework, and studied. I pulled out my grade book (I never would have done this in the states) and started telling them their grades- you’ve only done homework twice all year, you only learned two words in two weeks, etc. I told them that if I taught them, right now, they’d all be getting 2s, which is like the equivalent of a D. I asked them if they still wanted me to teach them, knowing how I grade. They said yes. So, I made a deal with them. I told them that I’d teach them that day, and that if every.single.one. of them did their homework, I’d teach them until the end of the first quarter and then, if they’d improved, I’d keep teaching them. But, if one student didn’t do their homework, the whole class wouldn’t go to the Halloween festival, and I would teach the 6a class instead. They agreed to the terms, so I taught them. (yes I’m aware of the irony of me being an English teacher, and the fact that this was practically one long run-on sentence)
Sigh. I was so frustrated when I left the class, I almost ran into one of my 7b students. I don’t teach them until 5pm, so I wondered why he was at school so early. It turns out; he came to ask for help on his homework! I’ve told every class, every single lesson, that if they had questions, to please come ask, and it was the first time that a student came to ask! Good-bye frustration, hello euphoria! The “emotional-rollercoaster” here is like that. Sometimes the up and down cycle takes a few days, or weeks, and sometimes, just a few minutes.
Yesterday, we had a holiday. The “fall ball” It was kinda like a talent show, I guess. Three different classes did songs, dances, and skits. They asked me to judge at noon, and the show started at 2. So, having nothing else to do, I judged! I was great! They’re so creative, and I found that I could understand more of the Kyrgyz than I thought I’d be able to.
Next week is our Halloween Festival! I’m so stoked! My 8 classes, from 7th-11th, are all presenting a different fall tradition that I’ve taught them about this week, and then we’re going to do the traditions- pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples, etc. There’s also going to be a costume contest, so the kids are making their own costumes. I can’t wait to see what they come up with! As a matter of fact, I’ve got to come up with my own costume… we’ll see how that goes. I’ll try to post pictures after.
We’ll I’ve written quite a bit, and need to get off to do my shopping. Guess I’ll turn of my billie holiday and try to go hitchhike, I mean, get a taxi… haha
Miss you!
Love from Kyrgyzstan!
Jess
10 October 2009
When things get kind of frustrating here, without fail, something will happen that makes me feel not quite so far away. Sometimes several things will happen all in one day that make me realize that no matter where in the world you go, people are the same. Teachers still confiscate and laugh at ninth graders’ love letters, kids still put off doing their chores until the last possible minute, mothers still make their kids put on too many clothes when it is cold, and people still show off when they have something that others don’t. Although, in the last case, the something that they have that others don’t… just happens to be… me. Haha
So, a little bit of a geography lesson… Kyrgyzstan has seven oblasts (the equivalent of a state). The Peace Corps has volunteers in six of them. Each oblast is divided into rayons (the equivalent of a county, I guess). In my rayon, there are two volunteers: me, and Mike, a health volunteer. So, that makes me the only TEFL volunteer in my rayon. Last weekend was the teacher’s holiday. I went guesting with all my teachers and had a great time. Today, in honour of the teacher’s holiday, every school in the rayon sends five or six teachers to the rayon center for a bit of a celebration. Guess who is one of the five or six from my school? You’re right! Me. Apa told me, jokingly, this morning that they wanted me to go so they could essentially show me off as their volunteer. Woo-hoo. I’m not 100% sure what we’re going to be doing. Apparently we’re going to the rayon education office to meet with all the other teachers and watch a concert, and possibly going to a café with the teachers from my school. My counterpart is going too, and told me that we shouldn’t be gone long, but Apa told me I’d probably be back late, so I haven’t the foggiest idea what exactly I’ll be doing.
I’m meeting the teachers at 8:30, which, at one time would’ve seemed really early to me for a Saturday, but I’d have been up that early anyway. The students here go to school on Saturdays, so my family is all up and ready and going to school anyway, but as part of my PC contract I only teach Monday through Friday. I’m normally up on Saturdays anyway because a family of seven can’t get ready without making a considerable amount of noise, that plus, my internal alarm clock has been set for 6:30 for so long that I’m usually up.
Well, I’ve got to go to school to meet with the teachers, so I’ll wrap it up for now, but maybe I’ll write about today when I get back.
When things get kind of frustrating here, without fail, something will happen that makes me feel not quite so far away. Sometimes several things will happen all in one day that make me realize that no matter where in the world you go, people are the same. Teachers still confiscate and laugh at ninth graders’ love letters, kids still put off doing their chores until the last possible minute, mothers still make their kids put on too many clothes when it is cold, and people still show off when they have something that others don’t. Although, in the last case, the something that they have that others don’t… just happens to be… me. Haha
So, a little bit of a geography lesson… Kyrgyzstan has seven oblasts (the equivalent of a state). The Peace Corps has volunteers in six of them. Each oblast is divided into rayons (the equivalent of a county, I guess). In my rayon, there are two volunteers: me, and Mike, a health volunteer. So, that makes me the only TEFL volunteer in my rayon. Last weekend was the teacher’s holiday. I went guesting with all my teachers and had a great time. Today, in honour of the teacher’s holiday, every school in the rayon sends five or six teachers to the rayon center for a bit of a celebration. Guess who is one of the five or six from my school? You’re right! Me. Apa told me, jokingly, this morning that they wanted me to go so they could essentially show me off as their volunteer. Woo-hoo. I’m not 100% sure what we’re going to be doing. Apparently we’re going to the rayon education office to meet with all the other teachers and watch a concert, and possibly going to a café with the teachers from my school. My counterpart is going too, and told me that we shouldn’t be gone long, but Apa told me I’d probably be back late, so I haven’t the foggiest idea what exactly I’ll be doing.
I’m meeting the teachers at 8:30, which, at one time would’ve seemed really early to me for a Saturday, but I’d have been up that early anyway. The students here go to school on Saturdays, so my family is all up and ready and going to school anyway, but as part of my PC contract I only teach Monday through Friday. I’m normally up on Saturdays anyway because a family of seven can’t get ready without making a considerable amount of noise, that plus, my internal alarm clock has been set for 6:30 for so long that I’m usually up.
Well, I’ve got to go to school to meet with the teachers, so I’ll wrap it up for now, but maybe I’ll write about today when I get back.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
ugh.
so... it looks as if i won't be making it home this winter to visit after all. you might be a bit upset, but i almost guarantee you aren't as upset as I am. I was hoping to come home the end of january or beginning of february, but PC has this rule that TEFLs can't take vacation while school is in session. I totally understand that rule, after all, we are teachers. but, apparently a lot of volunteers have been requesting leave, so they broke down and said that TEFLs could take vacation between December 20 and January 12. I'm sure this is great for some people, but they're just really bad days for me to be out of site. I've got so much stuff that I want to be here for those weeks: end of semester tests, i'm planning a christmas program, winter camps, and I feel like i'm finally integrating and becoming a part of my community and I think that I really should be here for the new year holiday. don't get me wrong, i'd LOVE to be home for christmas and new years, but really think that i should be here. So, no winter vacation for me. I'm sure there's a good reason for all the bureaucrap... I mean bureaucratic rules and stuff, but it doesn't really mean that i have to like them. I personally don't see the difference in missing a week of school in december versus in january, but... alas... there you are.
After having a minor temper tantrum, (I actually stomped my feet. haha) and crying for a bit, and calling momma... I've forced myself to think positive and tell myself all the cliches like it happens for a reason, look on the bright side. as a result.... i'm hoping to maybe come home next summer? the pros would be that i'd be able to come home for a longer period, people will be out of school so it'd be easier for me to see you. the cons are that it is next summer that we're talking about and seems extraordinarily far away right now. Oh well, thats the way it goes. I signed on for two years, so next summer would be the halfway point if i come home.
we'll see.
miss you all
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
After having a minor temper tantrum, (I actually stomped my feet. haha) and crying for a bit, and calling momma... I've forced myself to think positive and tell myself all the cliches like it happens for a reason, look on the bright side. as a result.... i'm hoping to maybe come home next summer? the pros would be that i'd be able to come home for a longer period, people will be out of school so it'd be easier for me to see you. the cons are that it is next summer that we're talking about and seems extraordinarily far away right now. Oh well, thats the way it goes. I signed on for two years, so next summer would be the halfway point if i come home.
we'll see.
miss you all
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
2 October 2009
2 October 2009
I’m a liar. You know how I said that I’d never leave laundry for three weeks… ever… again? Well, two weeks ago was my bi-weekly laundry day, but I was temporarily evicted, and then last weekend, we lost power and it rained, so here I sit with A MONTH of laundry to do. Granted, a month’s worth of laundry here is so much less than it’d be back home given my redefinition of the word “dirty,” but, even with my rewearing schedule, a month of clothes is still a lot. For example, clean underwear every day, that’s 30odd pairs, most shirts I wear at least 5-7 times to school before washing, unless I spill something on myself, haha, so let’s say 6 dress shirts if we include overlap from last month, too. My jeans I usually wear for a month without washing. (kinda gross, I know, but denim is a pain to wash and dry here…. I still haven’t figured out why Peace Corps volunteers are assumed to be dirty... haha) My dress pants usually go for a month too, but I’ve got the long ones that I wear with heels and the shorter ones that I wear with flats, and I haven’t washed them since getting to site in June… so that’s two pairs of dress pants. Plus, two skirts that I’ve been alternating for a month, and then there’s my house clothes. I usually wear a t-shirt and a pair of bum pants around the house and to sleep in for a week straight, so that’s four more shirts, and four more pants… plus my bedding, and my towels, and my socks… sheesh. It is a ton. Other background information that you need to know… I was supposed to teach four lessons today until 1. But, my second class, the boys all got called out to do work to winterize the school. Then I had a break and was supposed to teach two more lessons, but after the third lesson today, it was cleaning time and the students have to clean the school, which means no class. So. Here it is, 10:15am and I am done with work for the week. “Why don’t you do your laundry now?” you might ask. That’s a very good question. Well, I went to start hauling my water and was going to light a fire under the big kazan (it is like a huge cauldron type pot, seriously it’s so big I could take a bath in it haha) but then I looked in the big pot, and there was food in there. We lost power yesterday so Apa cooked in the pot, and what with it being potato harvesting time, winter salad making time (like canning in the states), school cleaning day, and the other regular work, I guess there hasn’t been time to clean it yet, and it isn’t really a job that I want to undertake myself. Alas, since tomato, potato, and noodle-flavored clothes are really what I want to wear, I’m not doing laundry right now. AND tomorrow I’m going guesting since it is the teachers’ day holiday, I probably won’t be able to do it tomorrow. Oh, the disadvantages of having too many clothes… I can feasibly go another two weeks before I run out of underwear, and another month or two before I have no clothes… If only I had less clothes, I’d be forced to do laundry… sigh. Poor me. Haha
Anyways, enough ranting about laundry. The time has come to talk of other things. (love that movie) Teachers’ day, for instance: I was given a present today by my 11th grade class. They gave me one of the felt souvenirs that is shaped like an old fashioned canteen; I found out later that one of the girls made it. They also gave me a hand made beaded necklace and ornament. They also made a really sweet card with paper flowers. I am continually wowed at the ingenuity of the students here. In America, kids would just buy something, but here they make everything. Even my creativity is improving here.
Speaking of which, I finished my first ever crocheted scarf. I used the dark red yarn that Jenn sent me and bought some grey to accent with. I’m working on a hat now. I’ll post pics modeling my goodies when I finish. It is hard to make things without a pattern, but through trial and a lot of error, the finished projects should be reasonably mediocre. Haha
Other bits of randomness:
I’m learning some Kyrgyz superstitions. I know every area has their own different little things, for example, I was always told when I was little that if your nose itched, someone is coming to visit you. My host dad and I had an encounter this morning when I was on my way to the outhouse, and the outer door to our house had a massive spider web with a half-dollar sized epic monster spider in the middle of it stretched across it. Me, being my typical brave, courageous, daring self… was paralyzed with fear. Haha Okay, really, I was looking around for something to get rid of it with, when my host dad came and just wiped the web with his hand (ew, shudder, gross) and grabbed the spider and took it outside. He then told me that having a spider build its web across your door is good luck because it means someone is coming to visit. It is opposed, of course, to my belief that having a spider build a web across your door simply means that there is a huge nasty spider blocking your way to the outside. Haha
miss you
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
I’m a liar. You know how I said that I’d never leave laundry for three weeks… ever… again? Well, two weeks ago was my bi-weekly laundry day, but I was temporarily evicted, and then last weekend, we lost power and it rained, so here I sit with A MONTH of laundry to do. Granted, a month’s worth of laundry here is so much less than it’d be back home given my redefinition of the word “dirty,” but, even with my rewearing schedule, a month of clothes is still a lot. For example, clean underwear every day, that’s 30odd pairs, most shirts I wear at least 5-7 times to school before washing, unless I spill something on myself, haha, so let’s say 6 dress shirts if we include overlap from last month, too. My jeans I usually wear for a month without washing. (kinda gross, I know, but denim is a pain to wash and dry here…. I still haven’t figured out why Peace Corps volunteers are assumed to be dirty... haha) My dress pants usually go for a month too, but I’ve got the long ones that I wear with heels and the shorter ones that I wear with flats, and I haven’t washed them since getting to site in June… so that’s two pairs of dress pants. Plus, two skirts that I’ve been alternating for a month, and then there’s my house clothes. I usually wear a t-shirt and a pair of bum pants around the house and to sleep in for a week straight, so that’s four more shirts, and four more pants… plus my bedding, and my towels, and my socks… sheesh. It is a ton. Other background information that you need to know… I was supposed to teach four lessons today until 1. But, my second class, the boys all got called out to do work to winterize the school. Then I had a break and was supposed to teach two more lessons, but after the third lesson today, it was cleaning time and the students have to clean the school, which means no class. So. Here it is, 10:15am and I am done with work for the week. “Why don’t you do your laundry now?” you might ask. That’s a very good question. Well, I went to start hauling my water and was going to light a fire under the big kazan (it is like a huge cauldron type pot, seriously it’s so big I could take a bath in it haha) but then I looked in the big pot, and there was food in there. We lost power yesterday so Apa cooked in the pot, and what with it being potato harvesting time, winter salad making time (like canning in the states), school cleaning day, and the other regular work, I guess there hasn’t been time to clean it yet, and it isn’t really a job that I want to undertake myself. Alas, since tomato, potato, and noodle-flavored clothes are really what I want to wear, I’m not doing laundry right now. AND tomorrow I’m going guesting since it is the teachers’ day holiday, I probably won’t be able to do it tomorrow. Oh, the disadvantages of having too many clothes… I can feasibly go another two weeks before I run out of underwear, and another month or two before I have no clothes… If only I had less clothes, I’d be forced to do laundry… sigh. Poor me. Haha
Anyways, enough ranting about laundry. The time has come to talk of other things. (love that movie) Teachers’ day, for instance: I was given a present today by my 11th grade class. They gave me one of the felt souvenirs that is shaped like an old fashioned canteen; I found out later that one of the girls made it. They also gave me a hand made beaded necklace and ornament. They also made a really sweet card with paper flowers. I am continually wowed at the ingenuity of the students here. In America, kids would just buy something, but here they make everything. Even my creativity is improving here.
Speaking of which, I finished my first ever crocheted scarf. I used the dark red yarn that Jenn sent me and bought some grey to accent with. I’m working on a hat now. I’ll post pics modeling my goodies when I finish. It is hard to make things without a pattern, but through trial and a lot of error, the finished projects should be reasonably mediocre. Haha
Other bits of randomness:
I’m learning some Kyrgyz superstitions. I know every area has their own different little things, for example, I was always told when I was little that if your nose itched, someone is coming to visit you. My host dad and I had an encounter this morning when I was on my way to the outhouse, and the outer door to our house had a massive spider web with a half-dollar sized epic monster spider in the middle of it stretched across it. Me, being my typical brave, courageous, daring self… was paralyzed with fear. Haha Okay, really, I was looking around for something to get rid of it with, when my host dad came and just wiped the web with his hand (ew, shudder, gross) and grabbed the spider and took it outside. He then told me that having a spider build its web across your door is good luck because it means someone is coming to visit. It is opposed, of course, to my belief that having a spider build a web across your door simply means that there is a huge nasty spider blocking your way to the outside. Haha
miss you
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
28 September 2009
I swore when I graduated that I would never take another math or science class as long as I could help it. Anyone who knows me knows that me and numbers don’t really get along. So can someone please tell me why I just spent the last hour discussing Newton’s laws and Einstein’s formula’s and converting from the metric system…. in KRYGYZ? Sheesh My host just had to get his degree in Physics, my worst subject. Ever.
Things have really settled down into a routine here. A.K.A. I have a lot of free time on my hands. A.K.A. I’m bored out of my mind. Things I’ve done this week: cut letters out of magazines and newspapers and put together the names of all the volunteers in my group separated by oblast and taped them to my wall, wrote a few emails, gave up knitting (temporarily) after destroying a half a skein of yarn and reverted to crocheting and destroyed another half a skein of yard before remembering how to do it and made half a scarf and showed my host sisters how to make bracelets. Things I’ve managed to avoid this week by doing other things: laundry (give me a break, it’s been raining every day) writing in my journal, and vacuuming my floor. Lovely.
I’ll be starting the elective English classes next week with 3rd through 11th grades. It’ll add four more hours of classes to my schedule, which will put me at 20 and that is the maximum that the PC wants me to teach. I might do additional clubs if my students want them. They all say that they want to have clubs, but whether or not they want it bad enough to actually come, we’ll see. I had a pretty steady turnout over the summer, so I think I might have a big enough core group to make it worth it. I only taught one class today, but wrote lesson plans for most of the week. I think the teaching staff is conspiring to make me 500lbs before I leave. We have a tea break every day and I swear if I don’t have my cup to my mouth or some form of food in my hand they’re telling me to drink and eat more. I’m getting better at faking it and drinking really really slowly to avoid drinking 15 cups of tea a day.
I swore when I graduated that I would never take another math or science class as long as I could help it. Anyone who knows me knows that me and numbers don’t really get along. So can someone please tell me why I just spent the last hour discussing Newton’s laws and Einstein’s formula’s and converting from the metric system…. in KRYGYZ? Sheesh My host just had to get his degree in Physics, my worst subject. Ever.
Things have really settled down into a routine here. A.K.A. I have a lot of free time on my hands. A.K.A. I’m bored out of my mind. Things I’ve done this week: cut letters out of magazines and newspapers and put together the names of all the volunteers in my group separated by oblast and taped them to my wall, wrote a few emails, gave up knitting (temporarily) after destroying a half a skein of yarn and reverted to crocheting and destroyed another half a skein of yard before remembering how to do it and made half a scarf and showed my host sisters how to make bracelets. Things I’ve managed to avoid this week by doing other things: laundry (give me a break, it’s been raining every day) writing in my journal, and vacuuming my floor. Lovely.
I’ll be starting the elective English classes next week with 3rd through 11th grades. It’ll add four more hours of classes to my schedule, which will put me at 20 and that is the maximum that the PC wants me to teach. I might do additional clubs if my students want them. They all say that they want to have clubs, but whether or not they want it bad enough to actually come, we’ll see. I had a pretty steady turnout over the summer, so I think I might have a big enough core group to make it worth it. I only taught one class today, but wrote lesson plans for most of the week. I think the teaching staff is conspiring to make me 500lbs before I leave. We have a tea break every day and I swear if I don’t have my cup to my mouth or some form of food in my hand they’re telling me to drink and eat more. I’m getting better at faking it and drinking really really slowly to avoid drinking 15 cups of tea a day.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
"i'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints"
25 September 2009
The title of this is just the songs lyrics that are playing right now.
It is Friday, almost 9pm, and I’m settling in for the night. How drastically my life has changed in the past year! I’d just be starting ready to go out a year ago. Alas, here I am… in Kyrgyzstan, at 9 on a Friday; I just had my nightly battle with the humongous spider that guards our outhouse, while wearing my headlamp, with my pants tucked into my socks… could I get more sexy? Haha Now I’m sitting in bed under my snuggie (amallie told me they came out with designer patterned snuggies?!?!?! Sweeeeet), writing this, and trying to decide if I’m gonna get up early and go the city to the internet café so I can attempt to chat with some people before coming back here to do laundry. What an exciting weekend!
I made dinner for my host family tonight. I made vegetarian taco pasta casserole, with soy meat. Mmmm I thought it was good. My host parents and two host sisters liked it, the other two, not so much. It wasn’t as good as the chili, but it was okay. I need ideas for other American food to make. I also made carrot cake for the first time, and if I may say so, I make really good carrot cake, from scratch. It was about as popular as the actual meal. Most Kyrgyz people don’t like food with cinnamon, because they think it is spicy. Oh well, more for me! Haha
Everything has gone topsy-turvy again. I feel like that has happened every three to six months for the past few years, though. And by everything, I mean my outlook on life here, my opinions, etc. When I first came to site to visit, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna like it (understatement of the century). When I moved here, it was rough at first, and I wanted to spend a lot of time with other volunteers, I stayed the night in the city almost every weekend. I’ve only spend the night in the city one weekend this month, and that was because I couldn’t get into my room. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the other volunteers and like getting to hang out with other Americans, but I could take it or leave it. I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would. (I still miss all of you loads, though, don’t worry) I also was unsure if my counterpart and I would get along when I first started, and now I feel like we understand each other a lot better. We went to a teacher training today in the rayon center, and we went to lunch afterward. It was the first time that we’ve done anything together that wasn’t Peace Corps or teaching related, the lunch, I mean. It was nice to get to talk to her about non-school related things. Granted our conversations can’t get very deep because my Kyrgyz and her English make communicating a bit difficult, but we’re learning how to. I’m not sure that we’ll ever be best friends, because our lifestyles and priorities are so different, (she’s a married, mother of three,) but we are definitely getting closer.
And now for something completely different:
My random thoughts of the today:
My hypothetical children that I’ll most likely never have (at least not in the next five to ten years) will never play with toy guns, and not because I’m anti-guns, but because I find it immensely irritating to be “killed” by a three year old fifty eleven times a day.
Food tastes better made from scratch
My music collection has doubled since coming to country.
I’m having a hard time deciding which I hate more- geese or chickens
Tomorrow (today) will be six months since I left Kentucky
My random cravings of the week: carrot cake (check) and tuna casserole
We heard that some of the K-18s got their invitations and you have no idea how excited I am for them!
I’m saving up to buy: a rice cooker and an awesome Kyrgyz winter coat
Three cups of coffee is my minimum requirement to be awake enough to go to school every mornin’. And that’s bad instant coffee, too, so you know I’m desperate. haha
Alright, well, I’m gonna try to finish up some letters and such,
Miss you loads,
Love from Kyrgyzstan, six months in,
Jess
The title of this is just the songs lyrics that are playing right now.
It is Friday, almost 9pm, and I’m settling in for the night. How drastically my life has changed in the past year! I’d just be starting ready to go out a year ago. Alas, here I am… in Kyrgyzstan, at 9 on a Friday; I just had my nightly battle with the humongous spider that guards our outhouse, while wearing my headlamp, with my pants tucked into my socks… could I get more sexy? Haha Now I’m sitting in bed under my snuggie (amallie told me they came out with designer patterned snuggies?!?!?! Sweeeeet), writing this, and trying to decide if I’m gonna get up early and go the city to the internet café so I can attempt to chat with some people before coming back here to do laundry. What an exciting weekend!
I made dinner for my host family tonight. I made vegetarian taco pasta casserole, with soy meat. Mmmm I thought it was good. My host parents and two host sisters liked it, the other two, not so much. It wasn’t as good as the chili, but it was okay. I need ideas for other American food to make. I also made carrot cake for the first time, and if I may say so, I make really good carrot cake, from scratch. It was about as popular as the actual meal. Most Kyrgyz people don’t like food with cinnamon, because they think it is spicy. Oh well, more for me! Haha
Everything has gone topsy-turvy again. I feel like that has happened every three to six months for the past few years, though. And by everything, I mean my outlook on life here, my opinions, etc. When I first came to site to visit, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna like it (understatement of the century). When I moved here, it was rough at first, and I wanted to spend a lot of time with other volunteers, I stayed the night in the city almost every weekend. I’ve only spend the night in the city one weekend this month, and that was because I couldn’t get into my room. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the other volunteers and like getting to hang out with other Americans, but I could take it or leave it. I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would. (I still miss all of you loads, though, don’t worry) I also was unsure if my counterpart and I would get along when I first started, and now I feel like we understand each other a lot better. We went to a teacher training today in the rayon center, and we went to lunch afterward. It was the first time that we’ve done anything together that wasn’t Peace Corps or teaching related, the lunch, I mean. It was nice to get to talk to her about non-school related things. Granted our conversations can’t get very deep because my Kyrgyz and her English make communicating a bit difficult, but we’re learning how to. I’m not sure that we’ll ever be best friends, because our lifestyles and priorities are so different, (she’s a married, mother of three,) but we are definitely getting closer.
And now for something completely different:
My random thoughts of the today:
My hypothetical children that I’ll most likely never have (at least not in the next five to ten years) will never play with toy guns, and not because I’m anti-guns, but because I find it immensely irritating to be “killed” by a three year old fifty eleven times a day.
Food tastes better made from scratch
My music collection has doubled since coming to country.
I’m having a hard time deciding which I hate more- geese or chickens
Tomorrow (today) will be six months since I left Kentucky
My random cravings of the week: carrot cake (check) and tuna casserole
We heard that some of the K-18s got their invitations and you have no idea how excited I am for them!
I’m saving up to buy: a rice cooker and an awesome Kyrgyz winter coat
Three cups of coffee is my minimum requirement to be awake enough to go to school every mornin’. And that’s bad instant coffee, too, so you know I’m desperate. haha
Alright, well, I’m gonna try to finish up some letters and such,
Miss you loads,
Love from Kyrgyzstan, six months in,
Jess
Friday, September 18, 2009
i'm happy. мен бактылумен
I got temporarily evicted from my house. Haha. My family is cementing the steps to my room so i can't get in it for three or four days, so i'm visiting a friend and going back on monday.
Monday is a holiday, it is the end of Ramadan, so my apa told me we'll be going big time guesting. I'm excited about it. No Class! Yay! haha
Other random news: I got my first apple from a student today! haha
This is really short, but i just posted a really long one, so it'll balance out.
miss you!
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
Monday is a holiday, it is the end of Ramadan, so my apa told me we'll be going big time guesting. I'm excited about it. No Class! Yay! haha
Other random news: I got my first apple from a student today! haha
This is really short, but i just posted a really long one, so it'll balance out.
miss you!
love from kyrgyzstan,
jess
a long day, and a long post
14 September 2009
Happy Birthday Camden! Today is my only nephew’s first birthday and I’m not there to help celebrate. I hate it. The drawback of being here is missing so many things like that back home. It seems so weird to think that a year ago I was just about getting my hand broken by my darling sister while she was in labor. Haha the year has flown by!
And, I got my flu shot today. What a day.
I also waged war on the spiders in my room… with the vacuum cleaner. I sucked ‘em up. No more creepy crawlies in here. Jessika: 1 Spiders: 0. haha (although, if I’m being honest, its is probably more Jessika: 1 Spiders: 3, because they’ve scared me half to death several times)
I had the thought today about how my tastes have changed since coming here. For example, the newest list: “Things Jessika didn’t like at home, but likes now,” includes things like: honey, beets, eggplant, cabbage, beer, raspberries, peaches, singing (I’m still not very good), and flossing her teeth haha. And “things Jessika liked at home, and really, really likes now,” includes: beans, hummus (home made is SO much better), apples, tea, peppers, peanuts, peanut butter, raisins, reading books, and going for walks. Of course, some things don’t change. “Things Jessika didn’t like at home, and hates here,” encompasses vodka, meat, and doing laundry. And “Things Jessika loved at home, and still loves,” contains chocolate, giving herself manicures, and cooking (although the last two are both more difficult here). (Yes, I realize I wrote that in third person. Haha)
Speaking of cooking, I think I may have mentioned that after making it for myself, I was attempting chili for the family, too, but don’t think I mentioned how it went over. For the most part, my family loved it. 5/7 is pretty good odds. 6/8 is better, if I include myself. My host dad and the guy who is helping with the construction on our house had two servings. My mom and two oldest sisters finished their bowls, which is more than they would’ve eaten if they were just being polite. My two younger sisters didn’t care for it, I don’t think. The youngest barely ate any, but she doesn’t like vegetables that much, and considering that it was vegetarian chili… I wasn’t surprised.
I posted my last blogs when I was in the city skipping school, a.k.a. chaperoning my three students who took the FLEX test. The first round was a 16 question multiple choice test, and they took the top ~35% on to the second round which is supposed to have a listening portion and an essay. The test started at 9am. I was told that the FLEX program people were expecting about 200 kids. 410 took the test. They did it in groups of 100, and my girls were in the third group, so they finished about 11:45. We were expecting results in the early afternoon, but the sheer number of test-takers meant that the results weren’t going to be posted until 6. So, I had the conundrum of keeping three ninth graders busy for six hours. (Truthfully, I feel that they kept me busy instead of the other way around) I took them to the American Corner, and they poured over some American Magazines. I showed them Virginia and Kentucky in the big photo atlas. They liked the pictures. They looked up cities that they had heard of, like Chicago, New York, and L.A. and were amazed at the population numbers. (The entire country of Kyrgyzstan has between 5-6 million, so having a single city with double that blew their minds) I took them to an internet café, and showed them email, my blog, facebook, and they helped me find a copy of the US constitution in Russian, because I couldn’t find it when I searched in English and I can’t read the Russian. (It blew my mind to be with ninth years who had never been on the internet!) I treated them to lunch, then we went to the big store, zum, and they bought some dvds. I found the sixth Harry Potter, but it was only in Russian, not English, so I didn’t buy it. I want to understand it the first time I watch it, haha. They bought me a pen that is made of a wooden carving since I treated them to lunch, and we looked at some of the cool stuff in the store. I bought cake pans, and hopefully I’ll put them to good use soon. After zum, we went to the Karakol Museum (I didn’t even know there was a museum). I was pretty cool. The room with the animals kinda creeped me out, though. The stuffed boar that stood almost to my waist (Its tusks were huge!) was intimidating, but the classic clothing and wool portrait of Stalin was cool. I also learned a little bit of history, because there were some English captions. My village’s old name was named after a Russian explorer. We walked from the museum to a park, which was really pretty. It had some old carnival rides, swings, and a mini roller coaster, and a ferris wheel. I don’t think they work anymore, and you couldn’t pay me to ride them if they did, but it was cool to imagine how nice of a place it was during its peak. From the park, we went to the zoo, and I use that in the loosest term possible. It was kinda sad. The zoo here is just animals in cages, none of the “natural habitat” stuff that we attempt in the states. (PETA would have a hissy fit, I imagine) I did manage to turn the zoo in to a lesson. I taught the girls the English names for animals and they taught me the Kyrgyz and Russian. I met up with Holo, another volunteer, who just moved up here, and we caught up while the girls ate ice cream, then my students and I headed back to the school to wait for the results. We got there at 6, and then waited til 7:45 for them to be posted. None of my students made it past the first round. I wasn’t really surprised, but it was still disappointing for them, I think. We talked about how it was good practice, because now they know what the test is like, and they can take it again next year after more preparation. Getting home was sort of a fiasco because it is next to impossible to get a taxi after 6, but we made it back home okay, eventually. It was so bizarre for me to be the one in charge. I had an image of what would happen if a teacher took three students out of school for a day, without permission slips, and kept them out until 10pm in the states... The girls’ parents did know where they were, and I made them call home and tell them that we’d be later than expected, in my defense. Also, since I’m only about 5 years older than my students, and have the language skills of about a six year old, it seemed really weird for me to be the responsible one.
Well, it is almost 11, so I’d better start getting ready for bed. (I’m turning into such an old lady…)
Miss you!
Love from Kyrgyzstan, (the country where I wear wool socks in September)
Jess
Happy Birthday Camden! Today is my only nephew’s first birthday and I’m not there to help celebrate. I hate it. The drawback of being here is missing so many things like that back home. It seems so weird to think that a year ago I was just about getting my hand broken by my darling sister while she was in labor. Haha the year has flown by!
And, I got my flu shot today. What a day.
I also waged war on the spiders in my room… with the vacuum cleaner. I sucked ‘em up. No more creepy crawlies in here. Jessika: 1 Spiders: 0. haha (although, if I’m being honest, its is probably more Jessika: 1 Spiders: 3, because they’ve scared me half to death several times)
I had the thought today about how my tastes have changed since coming here. For example, the newest list: “Things Jessika didn’t like at home, but likes now,” includes things like: honey, beets, eggplant, cabbage, beer, raspberries, peaches, singing (I’m still not very good), and flossing her teeth haha. And “things Jessika liked at home, and really, really likes now,” includes: beans, hummus (home made is SO much better), apples, tea, peppers, peanuts, peanut butter, raisins, reading books, and going for walks. Of course, some things don’t change. “Things Jessika didn’t like at home, and hates here,” encompasses vodka, meat, and doing laundry. And “Things Jessika loved at home, and still loves,” contains chocolate, giving herself manicures, and cooking (although the last two are both more difficult here). (Yes, I realize I wrote that in third person. Haha)
Speaking of cooking, I think I may have mentioned that after making it for myself, I was attempting chili for the family, too, but don’t think I mentioned how it went over. For the most part, my family loved it. 5/7 is pretty good odds. 6/8 is better, if I include myself. My host dad and the guy who is helping with the construction on our house had two servings. My mom and two oldest sisters finished their bowls, which is more than they would’ve eaten if they were just being polite. My two younger sisters didn’t care for it, I don’t think. The youngest barely ate any, but she doesn’t like vegetables that much, and considering that it was vegetarian chili… I wasn’t surprised.
I posted my last blogs when I was in the city skipping school, a.k.a. chaperoning my three students who took the FLEX test. The first round was a 16 question multiple choice test, and they took the top ~35% on to the second round which is supposed to have a listening portion and an essay. The test started at 9am. I was told that the FLEX program people were expecting about 200 kids. 410 took the test. They did it in groups of 100, and my girls were in the third group, so they finished about 11:45. We were expecting results in the early afternoon, but the sheer number of test-takers meant that the results weren’t going to be posted until 6. So, I had the conundrum of keeping three ninth graders busy for six hours. (Truthfully, I feel that they kept me busy instead of the other way around) I took them to the American Corner, and they poured over some American Magazines. I showed them Virginia and Kentucky in the big photo atlas. They liked the pictures. They looked up cities that they had heard of, like Chicago, New York, and L.A. and were amazed at the population numbers. (The entire country of Kyrgyzstan has between 5-6 million, so having a single city with double that blew their minds) I took them to an internet café, and showed them email, my blog, facebook, and they helped me find a copy of the US constitution in Russian, because I couldn’t find it when I searched in English and I can’t read the Russian. (It blew my mind to be with ninth years who had never been on the internet!) I treated them to lunch, then we went to the big store, zum, and they bought some dvds. I found the sixth Harry Potter, but it was only in Russian, not English, so I didn’t buy it. I want to understand it the first time I watch it, haha. They bought me a pen that is made of a wooden carving since I treated them to lunch, and we looked at some of the cool stuff in the store. I bought cake pans, and hopefully I’ll put them to good use soon. After zum, we went to the Karakol Museum (I didn’t even know there was a museum). I was pretty cool. The room with the animals kinda creeped me out, though. The stuffed boar that stood almost to my waist (Its tusks were huge!) was intimidating, but the classic clothing and wool portrait of Stalin was cool. I also learned a little bit of history, because there were some English captions. My village’s old name was named after a Russian explorer. We walked from the museum to a park, which was really pretty. It had some old carnival rides, swings, and a mini roller coaster, and a ferris wheel. I don’t think they work anymore, and you couldn’t pay me to ride them if they did, but it was cool to imagine how nice of a place it was during its peak. From the park, we went to the zoo, and I use that in the loosest term possible. It was kinda sad. The zoo here is just animals in cages, none of the “natural habitat” stuff that we attempt in the states. (PETA would have a hissy fit, I imagine) I did manage to turn the zoo in to a lesson. I taught the girls the English names for animals and they taught me the Kyrgyz and Russian. I met up with Holo, another volunteer, who just moved up here, and we caught up while the girls ate ice cream, then my students and I headed back to the school to wait for the results. We got there at 6, and then waited til 7:45 for them to be posted. None of my students made it past the first round. I wasn’t really surprised, but it was still disappointing for them, I think. We talked about how it was good practice, because now they know what the test is like, and they can take it again next year after more preparation. Getting home was sort of a fiasco because it is next to impossible to get a taxi after 6, but we made it back home okay, eventually. It was so bizarre for me to be the one in charge. I had an image of what would happen if a teacher took three students out of school for a day, without permission slips, and kept them out until 10pm in the states... The girls’ parents did know where they were, and I made them call home and tell them that we’d be later than expected, in my defense. Also, since I’m only about 5 years older than my students, and have the language skills of about a six year old, it seemed really weird for me to be the responsible one.
Well, it is almost 11, so I’d better start getting ready for bed. (I’m turning into such an old lady…)
Miss you!
Love from Kyrgyzstan, (the country where I wear wool socks in September)
Jess
Friday, September 11, 2009
8 September 2009
I experienced the first frost of the season today. Truthfully, I like the frost here about as much as I like the frost at home, which is… not at all. Being 1500meteres above sea level (according to my Ata) sucks. Haha Suffice it to say, if… scratch that… when I make it through this winter, I’ll be just about unstoppable.
My “sinus infection” has turned into bronchitis according to the PCMO, so I’m picking up another antibiotic and inhaler today so I can get over this junk in my lungs and feel better! It is the strangest feeling. I kinda had the symptoms of a sinus infection, but it’s different. I don’t understand how my nose can be congested, runny, and so dry that it bleeds all in the same day. The direct correlation between me feeling like this and me teaching has not gone unnoticed. My philosophy: If this new antibiotic doesn’t get rid of my “bronchitis,” then it isn’t bronchitis at all. I have a sneaking suspicion that the chalk here doesn’t agree with me, my nose, or my lungs. That or I’m just allergic to school.
I’m still not 100% sure that teaching is the right choice for me. I lack the patience to be a good teacher, but I’m trying, and classes seem to be going well. I told off my tenth form because they didn’t do their homework. It was pretty great. I asked them why they didn’t do it. They didn’t answer, so I asked again. They said it was because they didn’t all have books, which is total b.s., and I told them so because the homework I assigned didn’t need the book. I asked them if they wanted to or like to get 5s. (a 5 is the equivalent of an A in the American Grading system) They all said “of course!” And me, being the lovely, charming, sympathetic person that I am, said “oh well, because if you don’t do your homework, you will not get 5s.” It felt good, although I don’t know if it sunk in. I have that class again tomorrow, so we’ll see.
After class when my counterpart and I were planning for tomorrow’s lesson, she told some of the other teachers about what I said, and they all kinda shared this knowing smirk, that seemed to be part “yeah right” and part “hmmm” and part “huh?” I’m not 100% sure what that means.
So, today my classes started at 8:00am, and I had five 45 minute classes back to back, finished at 12:15, made lunch (a.k.a. salad) met with my counterpart at 3 to lesson plan, taught another class at 5, then had a pseudo club / tutor session with some of the girls in my village who are going to try for the FLEX program. I’m tired.
The FLEX program is a student exchange program where 9-11th graders can go to America for a year during high school. It is really competitive, so I hope they do well on the first round, which is an English test.
Oh I almost forgot- from the last blog- the vegetarian chili- foodgasmic! I haven’t attempted the eggplant parmesan yet, and might just use my last eggplant to make another batch of chili instead, it was that good. There is absolutely nothing better than a bowl of chili on a cold day, especially since I don’t feel that great.
I’m waiting on my Apa to come and get me when it is my turn for the banya. I can’t wait! It is only my second banya since coming to site in June, and a banya is so much better that the bucket baths I’ve been having. Granted, a banya is a bucket bath, but the additional sauna part makes it wonderful. Especially now that it’s cold. The banya is the only place I’m really warm!
Alright, well I’m gonna save this to post tomorrow.
Miss you!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
I experienced the first frost of the season today. Truthfully, I like the frost here about as much as I like the frost at home, which is… not at all. Being 1500meteres above sea level (according to my Ata) sucks. Haha Suffice it to say, if… scratch that… when I make it through this winter, I’ll be just about unstoppable.
My “sinus infection” has turned into bronchitis according to the PCMO, so I’m picking up another antibiotic and inhaler today so I can get over this junk in my lungs and feel better! It is the strangest feeling. I kinda had the symptoms of a sinus infection, but it’s different. I don’t understand how my nose can be congested, runny, and so dry that it bleeds all in the same day. The direct correlation between me feeling like this and me teaching has not gone unnoticed. My philosophy: If this new antibiotic doesn’t get rid of my “bronchitis,” then it isn’t bronchitis at all. I have a sneaking suspicion that the chalk here doesn’t agree with me, my nose, or my lungs. That or I’m just allergic to school.
I’m still not 100% sure that teaching is the right choice for me. I lack the patience to be a good teacher, but I’m trying, and classes seem to be going well. I told off my tenth form because they didn’t do their homework. It was pretty great. I asked them why they didn’t do it. They didn’t answer, so I asked again. They said it was because they didn’t all have books, which is total b.s., and I told them so because the homework I assigned didn’t need the book. I asked them if they wanted to or like to get 5s. (a 5 is the equivalent of an A in the American Grading system) They all said “of course!” And me, being the lovely, charming, sympathetic person that I am, said “oh well, because if you don’t do your homework, you will not get 5s.” It felt good, although I don’t know if it sunk in. I have that class again tomorrow, so we’ll see.
After class when my counterpart and I were planning for tomorrow’s lesson, she told some of the other teachers about what I said, and they all kinda shared this knowing smirk, that seemed to be part “yeah right” and part “hmmm” and part “huh?” I’m not 100% sure what that means.
So, today my classes started at 8:00am, and I had five 45 minute classes back to back, finished at 12:15, made lunch (a.k.a. salad) met with my counterpart at 3 to lesson plan, taught another class at 5, then had a pseudo club / tutor session with some of the girls in my village who are going to try for the FLEX program. I’m tired.
The FLEX program is a student exchange program where 9-11th graders can go to America for a year during high school. It is really competitive, so I hope they do well on the first round, which is an English test.
Oh I almost forgot- from the last blog- the vegetarian chili- foodgasmic! I haven’t attempted the eggplant parmesan yet, and might just use my last eggplant to make another batch of chili instead, it was that good. There is absolutely nothing better than a bowl of chili on a cold day, especially since I don’t feel that great.
I’m waiting on my Apa to come and get me when it is my turn for the banya. I can’t wait! It is only my second banya since coming to site in June, and a banya is so much better that the bucket baths I’ve been having. Granted, a banya is a bucket bath, but the additional sauna part makes it wonderful. Especially now that it’s cold. The banya is the only place I’m really warm!
Alright, well I’m gonna save this to post tomorrow.
Miss you!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
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