morning at 7:30 by a call from Jordan, who somehow managed to get a
skype app on her blackberry (insert jealous fit here) and can now call
me via skype without having to be glued to her laptop. How awesome is
that? I heard through the grapevine that Aunt Pam and Nana commented
to Mama that I haven't blogged in a while, so I am going to remedy
that. Since I was up at 7:30 anyway, after I made my daily breakfast
of oatmeal, and actually put on pants and make up and made myself
presentable, I decided to go to school and try to grade some papers.
My counterpart and I need to plan for the fourth quarter, but she had
to take her son to Bishkek to the doctor for a few days and I do not
know when she will be back. I can not plan without her, but I can
grade papers. So, I went to school because Meerim (my counterpart)
told me that the teachers should be working this week. Nope. The
school was locked. So I walked around the village for a few minutes
and then came home, so I figured since I have nothing else to do I
will catch you up on the events of March. Prepare yourself. This is
most likely to be a long, rambling blog.
Before I begin, I have to make a few random comments:
-There is snow on the ground during spring break. Are you aware of the
irony? I never had a real spring break in high school because we
always had to make up for snow days, and now that I have a spring
break, it is snowy.
- I am working on learning Russian in my second year, but I think I
have a mental block. Russian always sounds angry to me.
- Surviving the winter has revamped all my senses. The feeling of
denim against my legs is a new experience. I know, I sound like I am
buckets full of crazy, but you trying wearing long underwear for
almost five months straight and then going without them. It is great!
- During my brief walk around the village this morning, I saw roads
for the first time since November. They were covered in snow for the
longest time, then mud when the snow melted. I am not deluding myself
that they will stay visible, but it has not rained or snowed for a few
days and the mud has begun to dry out in places, so- road!
- What is up with people naming big, ugly dogs "simba?" no offense
Kat, if you're reading this. I'm not talking about your dog. Haha
There are two big ugly barking dogs in my village and both are named
Simba.
Okay, I think that is all of the random comments for now.
Now I'll catch you up on all the fun stuff in March.
I left my village a little bit early for Spring Break, to go to the
FORUM conference in Karakol. FORUM is the English Language Teachers'
group and it is awesome. Katie, a university teacher volunteer helped
organize the event. My counterpart attended the event and I went to
help Katie. And by help, I mean that I took attendance and kept time.
But I got to sit in on some cool sessions and see how the English
Teachers in Kyrgyzstan are really attempting to improve their
methodology. Joy, one of my good friends, came up from the south with
her counterpart and taught a lesson. Some of the staff from the
Embassy helped with the event, and took all the volunteers out to
dinner. There is one place in the city with America food, so we had
pizza. They also brought Tostitos and Oreos! This coincided
beautifully because I got a package from Mama that just happened to
have guacamole in it! Joy and I made bean dip and had a regular chips
and dip feast! After the conference, we planned to travel to Talas
together to visit Taylor. We were planning on leaving Saturday, going
halfway, and then going the rest of the way on Sunday, but it snowed.
So we decided to wait and not travel on icy roads, which means that we
had to go from Karakol to Talas all in one day. I'm not sure if you've
seen a map of Kyrgyzstan lately, but they are on opposite sides of the
country. It is a long drive. We left early Sunday morning, and decided
to go by taxi instead of a marshruka, thinking that it would be
faster. The difference is about 150 som, but we splurged. It seems
that if I did not have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Haha just
kidding. It was too good to be true. We found a taxi with two seats,
for a reasonable price, and left almost immediately. No waiting. That
in and of itself is rare enough. But, we would happen to get the taxi
that had something wrong with it and couldn't go over 60km/hour… It
seemed to take forever to get to Bishkek. During the trip we had to
stop for a herd of sheep to cross the road, then cows, and horses, and
turkeys. Yes. A herd?/peck?/flock? of turkeys. The trip was like the
first line of a really bad joke. We finally got to the vauxhall (bus
station) and had to make our switch to get from Bishkek to Talas. I
think I have neglected to mention thus far that Sunday was Nooruz,
which is the Kyrgyz New Year. (Which is why we didn't want to travel
the whole way, everything is more expensive) We tried to find a taxi
with no luck, and then found a man with a mini van who wanted 800 som
a piece to take us to Talas! He was crazy on toast, and I told him so.
It is usually 350 som with a mini van. I figured we would have to pay
a bit more, but not that much more. So, we tried to take a marshruka
because they are normally 250, so we figured they'd be about 350. We
found a marshruka, but couldn't take it. There are two ways to get to
Talas, one through the mountains, and one through Kazakhstan. That's
right. We were going to the part of Kyrgyzstan so isolated that you
have to go through another country to get there. Haha But, we do not
have Kazakh visas, so we couldn't go with marshruka. The original mini
van driver knew we were in a fix, so we tried to bargain. We refused
to pay more than 600 and we wouldn't go below 650. But, he had a buddy
who would take us for 600. So we got to the other mini van and are the
first two to get in, which usually means that we would have to wait,
possibly for several hours to fill up. Luckily, we had a full van
within an hour. Unluckily, all the other passengers were men. Neither
Joy nor I wanted to ride in the middle, so we ended up in the very
back row with a little Kyrgyz man between us. The other guys were all
very friendly and chatty, but the man between us wouldn't speak to us.
We ended up leaving Bishkek around 4:30. We stopped on the outskirts
of Bishkek to pick up one of the guy's aunt. It made me feel a little
bit more comfortable having an eje with us. At this stop, they also
got the requisite bottle of vodka, and proceeded to toast the holiday
and each other. Joy and I both turned down drinks, but chatted quite
amicably. Joy is a university teacher and rarely has to use Kyrgyz,
but one of the guys knew a bit of English and they talked. I talked to
the guys and the eje. The guy between us, after a few shots of vodka
got positively chatty. The eje asked me, "don't you want to come be my
kalen?" I had not been asked that in a long time, probably because I
hadn't left my village for a long time and my villagers know the
answer. I laughed it off, but she brought it up again. So, I told her
that I would be a horrible kalen because I don't eat meat, don't want
kids, and can't cook. While all of that is not necessarily true, it
pretty much disqualifies me from being a good Kyrgyz wife. Haha One of
the guys showed us pictures of his wife and son. Then, not ten minutes
later asked me if I had a boyfriend. When I told him, "no," he said he
could be my boyfriend. I politely declined. We stopped for a break
about halfway through the mountains. I threw up. This means that I
have visited all of the oblasts in Kyrgyzstan and been sick in all but
one. Haha go me! We chatted with the other passengers all the way to
Talas, and they asked for our numbers. A lot of volunteers won't give
out their number, but I give mine to anyone that asks for it (within
reason) I like talking to people and if I don't recognize the number,
I just don't pick up. I do get a lot of heat sometimes for being to
open. Or "flirting" as one of my friends here calls it. I don't see it
that way. I'm just friendly and outgoing and can't not talk to people.
I still say "hello" back to people when they yell it at me. Most
volunteers ignore it. Anyways, even though we paid twice as much as we
should have for the ride, and were in a car for over twelve hours
straight, the trip from Bishkek to Talas was by far my favorite trip
in country. We got to Taylor's village about 9:30 or so and spent the
next few days doing nothing and hanging out. Alex came up from the
south, too. Heidi was supposed to come, but couldn't get a taxi. We
watched TV, swapped movies, made American food. We made lasagna, from
scratch. (Well we kind of cheated with the sauce; we had to sub tomato
paste because tomatoes are still really expensive.) I also made
bagels; they are getting to be my specialty, and burritos. I think I
probably gained five pounds in three days! Taylor kept apologizing for
us not doing anything, but it was exactly what I needed. A lot of
times when volunteers get together we have to be "doing something." It
was really great to just hang out, talk, eat good food, and not be
going nonstop. We left Talas on Wednesday to head back to Bishkek. Joy
had to pick up a form from the PC office, and I got a dentist
appointment because one of my teeth has been really sensitive and
hurting. We got into Bishkek in the afternoon, went by the PC office
for a few hours, chatted with the staff. I haven't been into Bishkek
since our training in November, so it was nice to see the PC staff and
go to an American café. The next morning Joy headed to the airport and
I headed to the dentist. I found out that my tooth had been hurting
because I lost a filling. Too many stones in my beans, I supposed. She
also told me that I had lost part of another filling and as a result,
got a cavity under the rest of the filling. Go figure. She refilled
the tooth that was hurting, but as the one with the partial filling
missing wasn't hurting, decided to wait until my mid service exam to
remove the entire filling and redo it. My exam should be right after I
get back from America. Lovely. Something to look forward to. After my
appointment, I went to my PST village for a visit. Apa wanted me to
stay the night, but I had been out of issky-kul for long enough and
wanted to come home. So, I managed to be in and out in less than two
hours. Miraculous. Every time I've gone from Chui Oblast back to
Issyk-kul, I've gone directly from Bishkek, but my village is in
between. It didn't make sense to go two hours out of the way, so I
tried my luck leaving from Tokmok, a good sized city the opposite
direction. There were no marshrukas going to Karakol and the big buses
did not leave til 8. We're not allowed to travel between oblasts at
night, so I took a taxi to Balikchy, and was the last person in, so we
left right away. In Balikchy, I found a marshruka to Karakol but there
were only three people so I figured I'd have to wait awhile. Nope.
With ten minutes, we were on our way. We stopped a lot on the way
picking up and dropping people off, and from about 45 minutes out of
Karakol, I was the only passenger. That has never happened before. The
driver was really nice, though and we chatted. He also dropped me off
close the apartment instead of the vauxhall so I wouldn't have to walk
alone at night. It was too late to get a taxi to my village, and I had
one of the city volunteer's keys that I needed to return, so I stayed
in the city. By some weird stroke of chance, I was the only volunteer
in the city. All the city volunteers were gone. I needed to return the
key, so I had to wait until the volunteer came back, which was not
until Saturday afternoon. I had almost two whole days of alone time. I
missed my village, but had been around people non-stop for such a long
time, it was really nice to have an "alone time" break. I left Sunday
morning (in the snow!) to come back to my village. I was hoping to
find a taxi directly here, and not just to the intersection because I
had a ton of stuff to carry. I got kind of lucky. There was only one
taxi, and the driver is my host uncle. I know his car, so I waited by
it because he was in the bazaar. There were a group of Kyrgyz men
waiting near by, and they were not entirely sober, but I was in a
crowded place and felt safe. Two police officers approached me, and
while I am not afraid of the police, being a foreigner requires a
healthy level of caution when dealing with police officers. I thought
they might ask for my id, because I so obviously stood out holding so
much stuff, but one of the guys spoke in English and asked me a few
questions, then told me I should be careful because the Kyrgyz guys
were drunk. Life is always full of surprises. The Kyrgyz guys were
talking to me, and I tried to ignore them because I don't like when
drunken people shout at me. I tried to pull the face that my country
director called a touch me and I'll kill you face, but I've never been
able to pull it off. Haha One of the men talking to me asked me if I
wanted to marry his son. I gave him the same excuses that I gave the
eje on the way to Talas. Usually that deters people, but this guy was
persistent. He told me that they could teach me to be a good Kyrgyz
wife and they could just take me. Bride kidnapping is not a funny
topic, but usually people are joking when they mention it. It is not
something that I find amusing or want to joke about but for the last
year, laughing it off has kind of been my defense mechanism to deal
with it. I just can't do it anymore, so I ignored the guy. Most of the
time, the drunk men I see are pretty harmless, and I didn't'
necessarily feel unsafe, more irritated. My inner voice (it sounds
eerily like mama) was just started to suggest that I think about
removing myself from the situation when the drive walked up. It
probably worked out for the best because otherwise I would have had to
wait at the intersection to my road and when we drove past, there were
two groups of men, and one group was doing vodka shots at the back of
the car. Now before you start to freak out that I'm unsafe or in
dangerous situations (yes, Aunt Pam, I'm talking to you haha) I'm not.
I normally feel very safe in my community and in Kyrgyzstan in
general. I just wanted to write about the way things are.
So, spring break. It was quite an adventure, went to Talas, and had my
one year anniversary, made bagels. Oh, and you are going to laugh, but
I also wrote a little song yesterday. It was my one year anniversary,
it was spring break, it was snowy, and I was bored. So sue me. I
thought it would be appropriate to go to the tune of the "12 Days of
Christmas." I was, truthfully, really, really bored. Haha
"The first year in the Peace Corps, Kyrgyzstan gave to me:
A house with an apple, apricot, and pear tree
2 lost fillings
3 crocheted blankets
4 weekly clubs
5 months of snow
6 oblast visits
7 antibiotics
8 falls on ice
9 Kyrgyz classes
10 host family members
11 summer salads
12 months of adventure"
I think it sums up my first year in Kyrgyzstan quite well. I still
can't believe that a whole year has gone by. If the next year goes by
as fast as the first, I will be home before you know it!
Miss you tons,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
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