One more week of PST has gone by. I keep getting closer and closer to becoming an actual volunteer.
I think most of us are kinda burnt out now with all the training and language and are ready to move to the next step. Especially those of us who've been learning Kyrygz for two months and now need to spend the summer learning Russian... haha it'll give me something productive to do in addition to english clubs and working on my tan. ;-) haha
Nothing new and exciting has happened since the last post, so i'm going to share a few random anecdotes from the past few days.
-Explanation for the title of this blog:
Every now and then the group of trainees in my village will get together and walk to our local lake that is pretty secluded and have a beer or just sit in the sand and listen to music, or go wading. It is just some good down time for us where we can not be in a fishbowl for a little while. Last time we were there, one of the bottles created a little bit of a stir after it was opened. it tasted funny and smelled funnny. after a thourough examination of the bottle (all in russian) it was discovered in the area where the percentage normally is, a 0. after we passed it around trying to figure out the taste, it occured to me: hotdog. gross. so yes, for any of you wondering, non alcoholic hot dog flavored beer tastes as nasty as it sounds haha.
-meeting other americans:
I went to Bishkek today for a visit and ate some expensive (by my standards)american food and did a little window shopping. At one of the little stores, we ran into a group of americans that weren't other volunteers or trainees or PC staff. it kinda blew my mind haha. they are flight attendants. We talked for a bit and had some mutual admiration- "you're flight attendants? that's so cool." and "you're in the peace corps? that's so cool" haha they asked us about the country and what there was to do and our village and such. after describing it to them, one of the guys said to me, "you're wearing chanel sunglasses and you live in a house without running water?" haha that pretty much sums up my experience thus far. :-D
- the roads in KG:
car diversity. there is nothing like seeing a throwback soviet style Lada that seems to barely be held together being passed by a brand new benz or audi or lexus. i might've mentioned it before, but it blows my mind every time i am on the roads here. also the passing-a-car-that-is-passing-a-car-on-a-two-lane-road-with-cars-coming-experience still makes my heart race. but i'll probably get used to it eventually
-I'm planning on doing some shopping tomorrow at the big bazaar and i'll probably write about that soon. I love shopping, still. haha and i get teased for it all the time. i have more shoes than any of the other trainees in my village(only 7 pairs!) and they tease me cuz mom is mailing my winter shoes to me too. whatever. i like shoes. haha i apparently have gotten a spoiled-little-daddy's-girl/material-girl reputation because i like clothes and shoes. me and the other younger girl of our group like to say its because we "haven't let ourselves go yet" and we still like to look nice. also since we're younger we have to work harder to get respected as teachers and if that means wearing a skirt and heels every day, i am so totally okay with that ;-)
-being the voungest volunteer in the country has its advantages- i.e i'll be 22 when i finish, but the constant "you're only 20?" question and the doubts about my ability/emotional maturity kinda get frustrating. especially because i've gotten it more from other americans than from locals. i've done almost everything the others have done, i just did it quicker. :-)
i'm gonna sign off for now. i'm still waiting on my huge package of winter clothes and random goodies from the family. it is gonna be like christmas!
one other random thing that someone could send me in a few weeks if they wanted would be a teach your self to play the piano book (my school and house in my new village have pianos and i wanna learn) or a teach yourself to knit book with needles. i have to fill up my free time this summer somehow.
miss you
love from kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Site Visit Summary
I'm back in my PST training village for the last few weeks of training before moving permanently.
I spent almost a week at my new village in Issyk-kul. In my "completely unbiased" opinion, Issyk-kul is the most georgeous oblast in this country. i WILL post pics soon, i'm not lying, i promise.
It took about 8 hours to get to my village by mashruka, but we made a ton of stops.
My village is nice. Tiny, but nice. it is about 1400 people. my school has less than 300 students. it wasn't the best time to observe classes because they were in final exam week... but i still got a pretty good feel for the school
my village has been trying to get a volunteer for the last 4 years, so there is something to be said for being wanted :-D they all seem really excited to have me
my new host family is a lot bigger than i'm used to. i'm the youngest of 2 at home, but have 5 younger siblings there. i'm gonna have to adapt to that.
i'm about half an hour from the nearest big city where there are like 13 vounteers, and i have to go there for my banking and mail (i'll have a new address soon) so i'll hopefully get to see a lot of the other volunteers.
i was told that my village is about an hour hike to the lake. i can totally deal with that haha.
the summer is probably going to be difficult because i will have a lot of free time, and we all know that i don't deal so well with free time, but if i can lounge by the lake and go swimming, i can probably pass a little bit of time ;-)
i'm hoping to conduct some english clubs and work on learning russian, since most of my village speaks more russian than kyrgyz. (great use of my 2 months of language studies, right? haha) this is where being flexible comes in i guess. some of the teachers have told me that we can trade tutor hours haha
it was a long week visiting. its the first time i've been so completely isolated from other americans.
i also hit the first downward emotional slump of my trip. not fun. the pc actually has a scarily accurate little chart thingy describing the emotional ups and downs of being a trainee and a volunteer, and lets just say that the downs are... down. luckily tho, i have made some pretty awesome friends here so far and we help each other through the down times. also, my family is fantastic, as usual, and called just when i needed reassurance and reminders about why i want to do this. gotta love 'em
coming back to my training village, we took a taxi, and lets just say that it is so worth the few extra som because we got back in less than 5 hours.
my host mom here is sweet. she really missed me while i was gone and is so happy to have me back. i'm gonna miss her when i go for good to my new site.
again, i apologize if i've not been emailing a lot lately, i've been super busy and haven't had a lot of time to read/respond to emails. but i'm working through my packed inbox (which i love) and will get back to you all soon.
also, since i've had several questions about the address thing, now would be a good time to quit sending mail until i get my new address because it takes about 3 weeks to get here and about that time i'll be moving. but emails are always awesome!
miss you!
love from kyrgyzstan!
Jess
I spent almost a week at my new village in Issyk-kul. In my "completely unbiased" opinion, Issyk-kul is the most georgeous oblast in this country. i WILL post pics soon, i'm not lying, i promise.
It took about 8 hours to get to my village by mashruka, but we made a ton of stops.
My village is nice. Tiny, but nice. it is about 1400 people. my school has less than 300 students. it wasn't the best time to observe classes because they were in final exam week... but i still got a pretty good feel for the school
my village has been trying to get a volunteer for the last 4 years, so there is something to be said for being wanted :-D they all seem really excited to have me
my new host family is a lot bigger than i'm used to. i'm the youngest of 2 at home, but have 5 younger siblings there. i'm gonna have to adapt to that.
i'm about half an hour from the nearest big city where there are like 13 vounteers, and i have to go there for my banking and mail (i'll have a new address soon) so i'll hopefully get to see a lot of the other volunteers.
i was told that my village is about an hour hike to the lake. i can totally deal with that haha.
the summer is probably going to be difficult because i will have a lot of free time, and we all know that i don't deal so well with free time, but if i can lounge by the lake and go swimming, i can probably pass a little bit of time ;-)
i'm hoping to conduct some english clubs and work on learning russian, since most of my village speaks more russian than kyrgyz. (great use of my 2 months of language studies, right? haha) this is where being flexible comes in i guess. some of the teachers have told me that we can trade tutor hours haha
it was a long week visiting. its the first time i've been so completely isolated from other americans.
i also hit the first downward emotional slump of my trip. not fun. the pc actually has a scarily accurate little chart thingy describing the emotional ups and downs of being a trainee and a volunteer, and lets just say that the downs are... down. luckily tho, i have made some pretty awesome friends here so far and we help each other through the down times. also, my family is fantastic, as usual, and called just when i needed reassurance and reminders about why i want to do this. gotta love 'em
coming back to my training village, we took a taxi, and lets just say that it is so worth the few extra som because we got back in less than 5 hours.
my host mom here is sweet. she really missed me while i was gone and is so happy to have me back. i'm gonna miss her when i go for good to my new site.
again, i apologize if i've not been emailing a lot lately, i've been super busy and haven't had a lot of time to read/respond to emails. but i'm working through my packed inbox (which i love) and will get back to you all soon.
also, since i've had several questions about the address thing, now would be a good time to quit sending mail until i get my new address because it takes about 3 weeks to get here and about that time i'll be moving. but emails are always awesome!
miss you!
love from kyrgyzstan!
Jess
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Sweet Sweet Kyrgyzstan
I love this country.
Riding in a packed mashruka with a view of poppy fields with a snow-capped mountain range in the background is such an awesome experience.
I'm writing this in an internet cafe in the nearest village with kelly clarkson music playing in the background after coming back from our PST Culture Day. glorious. haha
Culture day was pretty awesome. All the different villages presented an aspect of kyrgyz culture, a kyrgyz food, a talent, and a kyrygz game.
My favorite part of the day was presenting our talent in the talent show. In my opinion, my village was the best. And of course, i'm biased, but not really. haha
we sang a song and i'm gonna share it with you and i expect comments haha.
here it goes:
(to the theme from the fresh prince of bel-air)
Now this is a story all about how,
my life got flip-turned upside down
and we'd like to take a minute
just sit right there
to tell you about our live as peace corps volunteers
we left philadephia, new and unfazed
on an airplane is where we spent three of our days
chillin out maxing out relaxing all cool
final destination: hotel issyk kul
when a couple of guys who were up to some good
started training us about our neighbourhood
i took one little bite and my tummy got scared
i wish dr. eldar could examen me here
i tooshed a marshruka and when it came near
the door broke off cuz 40 people in here
if anything i could see that this place was rare
and all the ladies yelled out "oh damn" to valer
I pulled up to my oohee about 7 or 8 and i yelled to my apa
yo homes chai eech later
looked at my banya i was finally there
to squat on my throne as a peace corps volunteer.
there are a few inside jokes mixed with the kyrgylish that y'all might not understand but im not gonna take the time to explain them right now. if you really want clarification, just shoot me an email and i'll clarify.
i leave in a few days to do my permanent site visit and i'm really excited. i get to meet my new host family, visit my new school, meet my counterparts, and explore my village!
expect a really long blog post soon!!!
happy belated mothers' day to all my mothers and a huge CONGRATS to all of you new or soon to be new grads! i'm so proud of you all!
lovvvvvvve from kyrgyzstan,
jess
Riding in a packed mashruka with a view of poppy fields with a snow-capped mountain range in the background is such an awesome experience.
I'm writing this in an internet cafe in the nearest village with kelly clarkson music playing in the background after coming back from our PST Culture Day. glorious. haha
Culture day was pretty awesome. All the different villages presented an aspect of kyrgyz culture, a kyrgyz food, a talent, and a kyrygz game.
My favorite part of the day was presenting our talent in the talent show. In my opinion, my village was the best. And of course, i'm biased, but not really. haha
we sang a song and i'm gonna share it with you and i expect comments haha.
here it goes:
(to the theme from the fresh prince of bel-air)
Now this is a story all about how,
my life got flip-turned upside down
and we'd like to take a minute
just sit right there
to tell you about our live as peace corps volunteers
we left philadephia, new and unfazed
on an airplane is where we spent three of our days
chillin out maxing out relaxing all cool
final destination: hotel issyk kul
when a couple of guys who were up to some good
started training us about our neighbourhood
i took one little bite and my tummy got scared
i wish dr. eldar could examen me here
i tooshed a marshruka and when it came near
the door broke off cuz 40 people in here
if anything i could see that this place was rare
and all the ladies yelled out "oh damn" to valer
I pulled up to my oohee about 7 or 8 and i yelled to my apa
yo homes chai eech later
looked at my banya i was finally there
to squat on my throne as a peace corps volunteer.
there are a few inside jokes mixed with the kyrgylish that y'all might not understand but im not gonna take the time to explain them right now. if you really want clarification, just shoot me an email and i'll clarify.
i leave in a few days to do my permanent site visit and i'm really excited. i get to meet my new host family, visit my new school, meet my counterparts, and explore my village!
expect a really long blog post soon!!!
happy belated mothers' day to all my mothers and a huge CONGRATS to all of you new or soon to be new grads! i'm so proud of you all!
lovvvvvvve from kyrgyzstan,
jess
Saturday, May 2, 2009
30 April 2009
30 April 2009
Okay, I realize that when I finally get to post a blog, you are all going to be blown away with the amount of new info from me. Pace yourselves. It might be a while in between posts. Right now I’m 4 blogs behind being posted. Hopefully I’ll be able to post these this weekend, but who knows?
Sooo. Exciting news from Kyrgyzstan…
I got a surprise mid-week banya! My apa decided that the reason I’ve been getting sick is because I do a bucket bath in the middle of the week. And since I don’t get sick after taking a banya on the weekends, the bucket bath should be replaced with a banya. The fact that she’s right about me always waking up sick the morning after a bucket bath is kinda funny. I think its more because I go to bed with wet hair after a bucket bath, but my hair dries on the weekends after a banya, but who knows? (I need to invest in a blow dryer) Anyways, since turning down a banya is on my Top Ten List of Things I’ll Never Do in The Next Two Years- I banya-ed. And it was as glorious as ever. Le sigh. Another reason for why my Apa is the best host mom.
I got to wash dishes for the first time today! Super exciting. Okay, not really. Who likes washing dishes anyway? BUT I got to do it Kyrgyzstan and that makes it cool. I think my apa is beginning to think that I’m maybe not a total waste of space… haha
The whole “holy cow, I’m in Kyrgyzstan” moments still get me from time to time. They’re still awesome. I actually had quite a few today. I sat in the middle of the reservoir (sans water) with most of the volunteers in the village, had a magnificent view of the snow capped mountains, saw sheep being herded back from the village, and realized how blessed I am to have this opportunity. Who gets to go to Kyrgyzstan to live for two years? Me! Haha A lot of the kids in my school know my name. There are three of us that have names that are relatively easy to pronounce for them/that they remember and mine is one of them. Plus I taught one of the bigger/biggest 6th grade classes twice so they all knew me. It is nice to walk around and have “hello jessika” yelled at me.
I’m going to go sneak a ferrero rocher that mom sent me and read the US newspaper before my second dinner (I think I might pop)
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Okay, I realize that when I finally get to post a blog, you are all going to be blown away with the amount of new info from me. Pace yourselves. It might be a while in between posts. Right now I’m 4 blogs behind being posted. Hopefully I’ll be able to post these this weekend, but who knows?
Sooo. Exciting news from Kyrgyzstan…
I got a surprise mid-week banya! My apa decided that the reason I’ve been getting sick is because I do a bucket bath in the middle of the week. And since I don’t get sick after taking a banya on the weekends, the bucket bath should be replaced with a banya. The fact that she’s right about me always waking up sick the morning after a bucket bath is kinda funny. I think its more because I go to bed with wet hair after a bucket bath, but my hair dries on the weekends after a banya, but who knows? (I need to invest in a blow dryer) Anyways, since turning down a banya is on my Top Ten List of Things I’ll Never Do in The Next Two Years- I banya-ed. And it was as glorious as ever. Le sigh. Another reason for why my Apa is the best host mom.
I got to wash dishes for the first time today! Super exciting. Okay, not really. Who likes washing dishes anyway? BUT I got to do it Kyrgyzstan and that makes it cool. I think my apa is beginning to think that I’m maybe not a total waste of space… haha
The whole “holy cow, I’m in Kyrgyzstan” moments still get me from time to time. They’re still awesome. I actually had quite a few today. I sat in the middle of the reservoir (sans water) with most of the volunteers in the village, had a magnificent view of the snow capped mountains, saw sheep being herded back from the village, and realized how blessed I am to have this opportunity. Who gets to go to Kyrgyzstan to live for two years? Me! Haha A lot of the kids in my school know my name. There are three of us that have names that are relatively easy to pronounce for them/that they remember and mine is one of them. Plus I taught one of the bigger/biggest 6th grade classes twice so they all knew me. It is nice to walk around and have “hello jessika” yelled at me.
I’m going to go sneak a ferrero rocher that mom sent me and read the US newspaper before my second dinner (I think I might pop)
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
29 April Part II: PERMANENT SITE PLACEMENT!!!
29 April 2009 PART 2
Okay, I know I have two posts for April 29, but I got massive big news today and felt that this post deserved to be on its own.
Are you ready?
I GOT MY PERMANENT SITE PLACEMENT!
Drumroll please….
I’m going to Issk-kul!
Issk-kul (it translates to hot lake) is one of the biggest mountain lakes in the world and I’m going to be living next to it for the next two years!!! I’m on the china-side of the lake, not the Bishkek side.
It’ll be awesome!
I’ll be the first PCV at my site. They’ve been trying to get a volunteer for a few years and now they get me! I’ll be teaching 7-11th grade at a school with 300 students. My village is very small, which I’m hoping will make integrating easier.
Issk-kul is one of the most moderate oblasts (an oblast is like the Kyrgyz equivalent of a state) temperature wise. It doesn’t get the -40 or 120 because the lake helps to regulate the temperature. Yay!
I meet my new host family in a few weeks and then travel to the village to see it and meet people, then finish PST (pre-service training) and move some time in June.
Guess who’s super excited!
Love from the girl who is soon to be moving to “God’s gift to Kyrgyzstan”
Jess
Okay, I know I have two posts for April 29, but I got massive big news today and felt that this post deserved to be on its own.
Are you ready?
I GOT MY PERMANENT SITE PLACEMENT!
Drumroll please….
I’m going to Issk-kul!
Issk-kul (it translates to hot lake) is one of the biggest mountain lakes in the world and I’m going to be living next to it for the next two years!!! I’m on the china-side of the lake, not the Bishkek side.
It’ll be awesome!
I’ll be the first PCV at my site. They’ve been trying to get a volunteer for a few years and now they get me! I’ll be teaching 7-11th grade at a school with 300 students. My village is very small, which I’m hoping will make integrating easier.
Issk-kul is one of the most moderate oblasts (an oblast is like the Kyrgyz equivalent of a state) temperature wise. It doesn’t get the -40 or 120 because the lake helps to regulate the temperature. Yay!
I meet my new host family in a few weeks and then travel to the village to see it and meet people, then finish PST (pre-service training) and move some time in June.
Guess who’s super excited!
Love from the girl who is soon to be moving to “God’s gift to Kyrgyzstan”
Jess
29 April:Anything your Apa can do, mine can do better!
29 April 2009
Sometimes, I think I have the best host mom anywhere. Then I stop to think, you know, maybe I’m just a wee bit biased… Then I think some more and realize, that no… She’s totally the best. haha
She is so concerned with making sure that I have things that I like. She watches me eat- and the things that I eat more of, she makes more often.
I’m pretty sure that I eat, at bare minimum 2 kilos of tomatoes a week, at least. Apa makes this really good tomato, cucumber and onion dish. I love it. And… I eat it at every meal. Not that I’m complaining. It’s delicious.
Ususally, for breakfast, I have eggs of some sort, the tomato dish and sometimes cheese. And the ever present bread and tea, of course. Usually, I mix my eggs with the veggies and it is kinda like an omelet and sometimes I put a little cheese on it. The cheese here (at least the kind at my house) has the hard edges around it, and I usually pick that off. This morning, when Apa called me to eat breakfast, I had a plate of the tomato and cucumber dish, with boiled eggs on top, and little pieces of the cheese with the edges cut off. How awesome is that!?!? It’s like when your mom cuts the crust off your sandwich for you when you’re little… but better. haha
I’m really getting spoiled… and it is awesome. Apa realized that the only time I drink milk is in my coffee… Now I have coffee for breakfast EVERY morning. Its is great!
She’s also been cooking a lot of food without meat. (awesome) The host families of the volunteers cook us all lunch on a rotating basis, and when we eat at my house we always have a lot of vegetables, and Apa uses big pieces of meat and puts them on top of the bowl, instead of mixed in because she knows I’m going to pick it out. Haha. She also noticed that the only meat I’ve actually eaten here is chicken, so we have that a lot.
Just today she was worried that we were running out of eggs. She said (translated) “If we don’t have eggs, what will you eat?” haha I eat A LOT of eggs. It is good that I love eggs and that they have good protein. Mmm delish
AND a few days ago, she actually let me cook my own eggs!!!! I made over easy instead of fried, and now she is starting to cook me over easy eggs. Sah-weet.
Now that my “my apa is awesome” schpeal is over…. I figured I’d update you on some of the other things that are going on here:
-I’m really sorry if I’m not responding to emails. The internet here is kinda slow, so getting and reading emails takes some time, which I usually don’t have a lot of.
-I got more letters and a package from home! You all know who you are and you’re the greatest!
-The cannabis plant grows wild here. Everywhere. It is weird to see it as you’re just walking down the street. (I’m not 100% sure that I’d recognize it, but some of the guys in my group pointed it out and now I see it everywhere haha)
-I’m not sick anymore (knock on wood)
That’s all for now.
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Sometimes, I think I have the best host mom anywhere. Then I stop to think, you know, maybe I’m just a wee bit biased… Then I think some more and realize, that no… She’s totally the best. haha
She is so concerned with making sure that I have things that I like. She watches me eat- and the things that I eat more of, she makes more often.
I’m pretty sure that I eat, at bare minimum 2 kilos of tomatoes a week, at least. Apa makes this really good tomato, cucumber and onion dish. I love it. And… I eat it at every meal. Not that I’m complaining. It’s delicious.
Ususally, for breakfast, I have eggs of some sort, the tomato dish and sometimes cheese. And the ever present bread and tea, of course. Usually, I mix my eggs with the veggies and it is kinda like an omelet and sometimes I put a little cheese on it. The cheese here (at least the kind at my house) has the hard edges around it, and I usually pick that off. This morning, when Apa called me to eat breakfast, I had a plate of the tomato and cucumber dish, with boiled eggs on top, and little pieces of the cheese with the edges cut off. How awesome is that!?!? It’s like when your mom cuts the crust off your sandwich for you when you’re little… but better. haha
I’m really getting spoiled… and it is awesome. Apa realized that the only time I drink milk is in my coffee… Now I have coffee for breakfast EVERY morning. Its is great!
She’s also been cooking a lot of food without meat. (awesome) The host families of the volunteers cook us all lunch on a rotating basis, and when we eat at my house we always have a lot of vegetables, and Apa uses big pieces of meat and puts them on top of the bowl, instead of mixed in because she knows I’m going to pick it out. Haha. She also noticed that the only meat I’ve actually eaten here is chicken, so we have that a lot.
Just today she was worried that we were running out of eggs. She said (translated) “If we don’t have eggs, what will you eat?” haha I eat A LOT of eggs. It is good that I love eggs and that they have good protein. Mmm delish
AND a few days ago, she actually let me cook my own eggs!!!! I made over easy instead of fried, and now she is starting to cook me over easy eggs. Sah-weet.
Now that my “my apa is awesome” schpeal is over…. I figured I’d update you on some of the other things that are going on here:
-I’m really sorry if I’m not responding to emails. The internet here is kinda slow, so getting and reading emails takes some time, which I usually don’t have a lot of.
-I got more letters and a package from home! You all know who you are and you’re the greatest!
-The cannabis plant grows wild here. Everywhere. It is weird to see it as you’re just walking down the street. (I’m not 100% sure that I’d recognize it, but some of the guys in my group pointed it out and now I see it everywhere haha)
-I’m not sick anymore (knock on wood)
That’s all for now.
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
26 April 2009
26 April 2009
I don’t know when I’ll get to actually post this blog, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna keep writing it. Haha. It is Sunday night here, and its been over a week since I wrote my last post. Nothing too exciting has been going on, just more of the same.
Since I wrote last I taught again, had 4528475745894 more hours of language class ( I think they are going pretty well, also, at least my apa tells me I’m getting better), made spaghetti for my host family, banya-ed, helped out at an orphanage, and painted my nails. Haha
Spaghetti was a pretty big hit in my opinion. It is pretty expensive on my salary, but I think it was worth it. Not that I’m really missing American food- I’m not- I just miss being able to cook and cooking something that Apa doesn’t know was my only way. I bought tomato paste, pasta, onions, tomatoes, ground beef, and used the spices I brought from home. (I’m gonna need more garlic powder- it was a big hit- I made garlic bread, too-kinda) I made a freaking ton of spaghetti- I’ve never been so good with the whole –guessing portions- thing. It worked out well because apparently I had family visiting and a lot of people came over. One of the other volunteers is my host mother’s daughter’s host son. So his part of the family came over too. If I can get it to work, I’m going to try to upload the family picture we took.
Oh! Random thought- I got letters from home! Three all in the same day! I was the envy of my village when we went to our hub site! Loved it!
I spent yesterday with the rest of the k-17s helping to fix up an orphanage. The weather was beautiful and warm for the maybe second or third day since I’ve been here. We repainted playground equipment. I ruined my white and blue striped capris with blue oil based paint. It was the first time that I’ve worn them… le sigh… oh well. The slides and swingsets and curbs looked fantastic when we got done. Other groups also fixed up flower beds, cut grass (with a scythe), and mixed concrete for a path. The place looked a little nicer when we got done, and that’s really all we could hope for. We also got to play different games with the children. I got involved in a capture-the-flag game that got pretty intense. I haven’t played that game since elementary school. Haha
I also washed laundry by hand! Needless to say, I’m never letting three weeks worth of clothes accumulate again and I’ve also completely rethought my definition of “dirty” haha.
Apa is calling me to “chai each” drink tea. So I’m gonna make this a short blog.
I’ll write again soon!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
I don’t know when I’ll get to actually post this blog, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna keep writing it. Haha. It is Sunday night here, and its been over a week since I wrote my last post. Nothing too exciting has been going on, just more of the same.
Since I wrote last I taught again, had 4528475745894 more hours of language class ( I think they are going pretty well, also, at least my apa tells me I’m getting better), made spaghetti for my host family, banya-ed, helped out at an orphanage, and painted my nails. Haha
Spaghetti was a pretty big hit in my opinion. It is pretty expensive on my salary, but I think it was worth it. Not that I’m really missing American food- I’m not- I just miss being able to cook and cooking something that Apa doesn’t know was my only way. I bought tomato paste, pasta, onions, tomatoes, ground beef, and used the spices I brought from home. (I’m gonna need more garlic powder- it was a big hit- I made garlic bread, too-kinda) I made a freaking ton of spaghetti- I’ve never been so good with the whole –guessing portions- thing. It worked out well because apparently I had family visiting and a lot of people came over. One of the other volunteers is my host mother’s daughter’s host son. So his part of the family came over too. If I can get it to work, I’m going to try to upload the family picture we took.
Oh! Random thought- I got letters from home! Three all in the same day! I was the envy of my village when we went to our hub site! Loved it!
I spent yesterday with the rest of the k-17s helping to fix up an orphanage. The weather was beautiful and warm for the maybe second or third day since I’ve been here. We repainted playground equipment. I ruined my white and blue striped capris with blue oil based paint. It was the first time that I’ve worn them… le sigh… oh well. The slides and swingsets and curbs looked fantastic when we got done. Other groups also fixed up flower beds, cut grass (with a scythe), and mixed concrete for a path. The place looked a little nicer when we got done, and that’s really all we could hope for. We also got to play different games with the children. I got involved in a capture-the-flag game that got pretty intense. I haven’t played that game since elementary school. Haha
I also washed laundry by hand! Needless to say, I’m never letting three weeks worth of clothes accumulate again and I’ve also completely rethought my definition of “dirty” haha.
Apa is calling me to “chai each” drink tea. So I’m gonna make this a short blog.
I’ll write again soon!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
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