22 January 2010
This has been such a fantastic week! The sun is shining, today is warm (and that is completely relative by warm I mean maybe above freezing?) I am in a great mood and just had to share. I’ve got a break before my afternoon classes and thought I would take the time to tell you how awesome this week has been:
My director and zavuch (vice principal) observed our seventh grade class on Monday and gave us a “5” which is like an A! She loved our teaching style and said that our lesson was so good that not only the kids understood, but so did she and she does not speak English. So next week we’re starting an English Club for the teachers! Being honest, the class’ theme was “weather” which is not a hard theme to teach, so we can’t really take that much credit, but it is still cool that my director liked it.
My little brother told me I was awesome.
On Wednesday, thirty girls came to girls’ club. Today thirty three came! Today, we were talking about what problems the girls have, and what things they want; some things that they said were that they wanted an English Club, a Computer Club, a volleyball club, and a dance club. (they also mentioned some other, more serious problems and issues, but I promised I wouldn’t talk to other people about what they told me:-) So, next week we’re gonna talk about how they can get the things they want. I’m super excited Also, as I was using one of my free periods to prepare for the club, a group of boys asked if they could participate or have their own club! How awesome is that?
This week I made food-gasmic cinnamon rolls and vegetarian fried rice that was a huge hit with the family- my picky sister ate TWO helpings! I also make chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They were good, but a little burnt because I got distracted talking to my sisters. I’ll take that trade though, bonding with my sisters for crunchy cookies. Haha
I’ve learned half the words to my favorite Kyrygz song, and I’m still practicing.
Today 100% of my students in all classes did their homework! Our rule is that the kids that don’t do their homework have to clean the floor, so today we had no one to clean the floor! I love that problem! Haha
My hair has gotten long enough that I can manage a single French braid and I did my hair in sort of a French twisty thing that looks really cute and hides the grease really well. Yay!
And I have two days in front of me filled with beautiful nothingness. Aside from washing laundry and straightening my room, I have nothing to do this weekend and it shall be lovely!
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
I don't even like snow yet I can't deny the snow covered mountains are breathtakingly beautiful
I’m graceful. Wait, no I’m not. I’m dead clumsy. Oh no, my big secret is out! Haha seriously though, I fall down. A lot. Living in an extraordinarily cold place for the first time in my life has proven (unnecessarily) that snow, ice, and clumsy people can coexist, but it isn’t much fun for said clumsy person. My host family and counterparts and local friends, who have known me for several months, are starting to act like my family and friends that I have know for years back home. When they see me fall or hear that I fell… again… their reactions have become sort of an exasperated sigh of “again?” I guess it’s nice that my clumsiness endears me to people (loved the comment sarah elam haha) I almost fell today leaving school. That would have been embarrassing because there were about twenty kids milling around. The last time I fell at school, luckily, there was no one around. Today as a slipped and caught myself I surprised my counterpart who is one breath said “ohnoohmygodbecareful.” Haha We had a Peace Corps training last week, and I fell out of the shower… I know… who else would do that? In my own defense, I had gotten used to stepping out on the shower mat, and it wasn’t there the last time. Anyways I have a huge nasty bruise on my foot from it. When my family saw it, they asked me what happened, got the usual response of “again?’ Then my Ata told me we should have a toi so I won’t fall down. To understand this, you need some background info. Kyrgyzstan is a land of parties, or tois. One of the traditions is a toi the first time a baby walks. At the toi, they tie the baby’s feet together. Then, they have a race with all the kids, and the person who wins gets to cut the binding and the baby walks. It is a really cool tradition and people express their wished that the baby will have a clear path and good fortune and all that jazz, which literally translates to “white road” and “won’t fall down.” My Ata told me we should have this toi for me, so that I won’t fall down as much. And then he laughed hysterically at his own humour. Just like dealing with Dad back home.
It continually surprises me how everywhere I go in the world; people are essentially the same, whatever the culture. It is great! As my language improves (I got an Advanced-Mid) on my last language proficiency) I understand more of what is going on around me. I’ve started to catch the…. I don’t really know what to call it. It isn’t sarcasm, but it is similar. The little-under-the-breath-comments and off-hand remarks crack me up. They aren’t that funny, per se, but something about the fact that I can understand them makes me smile. After I came back from a week long training, but Ata and I had “the you’ll miss us when you go back” conversation for the seventeenth time. I thought that I was the only one that it irritated, but then Apa said something along the lines of “are you saying that again? You’ve only said it twenty times already” and I cracked up. It was great. Three of my sisters are teenagers, so the little snarky comments they make to each other and with each other are hilarious. It is just like how Jordan and I used to bicker… what am I saying “used to?” It isn’t serious; they’re just picking on each other and I am beginning to understand it!
I’m also working on learning some Kyrgyz songs so I have better material for tois when I am forced to sing against my will haha that and reading, well attempting to read, newspapers has helped me improve my language. I still need a lot of work, but at least I can communicate.
I’m gonna go make some lunch before I head to my next class. Yay boiled eggs.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
It continually surprises me how everywhere I go in the world; people are essentially the same, whatever the culture. It is great! As my language improves (I got an Advanced-Mid) on my last language proficiency) I understand more of what is going on around me. I’ve started to catch the…. I don’t really know what to call it. It isn’t sarcasm, but it is similar. The little-under-the-breath-comments and off-hand remarks crack me up. They aren’t that funny, per se, but something about the fact that I can understand them makes me smile. After I came back from a week long training, but Ata and I had “the you’ll miss us when you go back” conversation for the seventeenth time. I thought that I was the only one that it irritated, but then Apa said something along the lines of “are you saying that again? You’ve only said it twenty times already” and I cracked up. It was great. Three of my sisters are teenagers, so the little snarky comments they make to each other and with each other are hilarious. It is just like how Jordan and I used to bicker… what am I saying “used to?” It isn’t serious; they’re just picking on each other and I am beginning to understand it!
I’m also working on learning some Kyrgyz songs so I have better material for tois when I am forced to sing against my will haha that and reading, well attempting to read, newspapers has helped me improve my language. I still need a lot of work, but at least I can communicate.
I’m gonna go make some lunch before I head to my next class. Yay boiled eggs.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Friday, January 15, 2010
how sweet it is to be loved by you
What a great week!
I spent the week at a PC training so I got so visit with a lot of my favorites here.
I did a polar plunge- a.k.a. jumped in the lake in the middle of january.
I made omelets last night and the kicker:
I ATE GUACAMOLE!!! I finally got my Christmas package (the post office closes for a week at new years) and my family sent me a jar of guacamole. my life is complete.
I am at the internet cafe now, so i'm gonna keep this short, but i will write again soon!
miss you
love from Kyrgyzstan,
jess
I spent the week at a PC training so I got so visit with a lot of my favorites here.
I did a polar plunge- a.k.a. jumped in the lake in the middle of january.
I made omelets last night and the kicker:
I ATE GUACAMOLE!!! I finally got my Christmas package (the post office closes for a week at new years) and my family sent me a jar of guacamole. my life is complete.
I am at the internet cafe now, so i'm gonna keep this short, but i will write again soon!
miss you
love from Kyrgyzstan,
jess
Thursday, January 7, 2010
A blog about nothin'
7 January 2010
I just typed November 2009 instead of January 2010. sigh… where does the time go? I’m sure I’m probably boring you all silly with such frequent blogs, but having internet in my village makes it so much easier. Nothing at all has been going on, really, and I am still writing. I wonder why that is? It is snowing today. Again. I was hoping we’d gotten past the worst of the winter weather. My family keeps telling me how warm this winter has been compared to others. I guess I’m still a southern girl at heart, because I can’t make “warm” and “snow” go together in my mind. If this is a “warm” winter, then I guess I got really lucky because to me it is cold. I shudder to think what a cold winter would be like. I thought winter would be really hard to deal with, what with staying indoors, but thus far, it has been easier than I thought. Maybe it is because it seems like there is always something going on? My family had a huge party, partly for new years, partly for Kaciet’s birthday, and all the extended family came. There were like 30 people in my house. It was overwhelming, but I managed to have a good time. For one thing, there were actually people my age. Granted, all the young women that are my age are married and have kids, but at least I wasn’t stuck in that weird gap between the ages. I had a fun time trying to get my one host aunt from Bishkek to realize that I do not speak Russian. She must have been told forty seven times by me, and the rest of my family that I speak Kyrgyz, but she lives in the city and normally only speaks Russian, so it took her a while to realize. She, along with most of the family thought that I’m fascinating, and my room turned into an exhibit. They love that I put pictures and the cards from home on my wall. I don’t get it. I really don’t think I am that interesting of a human being, but I suppose it IS kinda like being at the zoo, seeing something that you’ve never seen before haha. My aunt brought presents for the whole family for new years. I got a really pretty necklace, and some lipstick. It is actually a color that I will wear, which is surprising coming from someone who had never met me. That ought to make momma happy, since she’s only been telling me that I need more color since, oh, let me think, the first time I ever wore makeup. Haha Speaking of makeup, I’m starting my girls’ club tomorrow with a party. We’re gonna do makeovers and do all the girly slumber party type stuff, minus the slumber party. It will be weird for me helping the girls with makeup, since I’m no expert myself, but Heidi is coming up for a visit, and is gonna help out. I wanted to do manicures and stuff, too, but that will have to wait for another time because we don’t have a whole lot of time tomorrow afternoon for the party. I’ve realized that the condition of my nails corresponds to my mood. When I’m in a bad mood, giving myself a manicure perks me up (I know! I am such a girl…) and when I’m in a good mood, my nails are much more likely to look ragged. Weird, huh? Well, Heidi is coming back with me from the city tomorrow, so I’ve got to straighten up my room so Apa won’t flip out haha (just like being at home). I know. This blog was such a waste haha. I figured I should share my nothing-going-ons with you.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
I just typed November 2009 instead of January 2010. sigh… where does the time go? I’m sure I’m probably boring you all silly with such frequent blogs, but having internet in my village makes it so much easier. Nothing at all has been going on, really, and I am still writing. I wonder why that is? It is snowing today. Again. I was hoping we’d gotten past the worst of the winter weather. My family keeps telling me how warm this winter has been compared to others. I guess I’m still a southern girl at heart, because I can’t make “warm” and “snow” go together in my mind. If this is a “warm” winter, then I guess I got really lucky because to me it is cold. I shudder to think what a cold winter would be like. I thought winter would be really hard to deal with, what with staying indoors, but thus far, it has been easier than I thought. Maybe it is because it seems like there is always something going on? My family had a huge party, partly for new years, partly for Kaciet’s birthday, and all the extended family came. There were like 30 people in my house. It was overwhelming, but I managed to have a good time. For one thing, there were actually people my age. Granted, all the young women that are my age are married and have kids, but at least I wasn’t stuck in that weird gap between the ages. I had a fun time trying to get my one host aunt from Bishkek to realize that I do not speak Russian. She must have been told forty seven times by me, and the rest of my family that I speak Kyrgyz, but she lives in the city and normally only speaks Russian, so it took her a while to realize. She, along with most of the family thought that I’m fascinating, and my room turned into an exhibit. They love that I put pictures and the cards from home on my wall. I don’t get it. I really don’t think I am that interesting of a human being, but I suppose it IS kinda like being at the zoo, seeing something that you’ve never seen before haha. My aunt brought presents for the whole family for new years. I got a really pretty necklace, and some lipstick. It is actually a color that I will wear, which is surprising coming from someone who had never met me. That ought to make momma happy, since she’s only been telling me that I need more color since, oh, let me think, the first time I ever wore makeup. Haha Speaking of makeup, I’m starting my girls’ club tomorrow with a party. We’re gonna do makeovers and do all the girly slumber party type stuff, minus the slumber party. It will be weird for me helping the girls with makeup, since I’m no expert myself, but Heidi is coming up for a visit, and is gonna help out. I wanted to do manicures and stuff, too, but that will have to wait for another time because we don’t have a whole lot of time tomorrow afternoon for the party. I’ve realized that the condition of my nails corresponds to my mood. When I’m in a bad mood, giving myself a manicure perks me up (I know! I am such a girl…) and when I’m in a good mood, my nails are much more likely to look ragged. Weird, huh? Well, Heidi is coming back with me from the city tomorrow, so I’ve got to straighten up my room so Apa won’t flip out haha (just like being at home). I know. This blog was such a waste haha. I figured I should share my nothing-going-ons with you.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Highlight from the past week and the New Year
Hearing the “I think I might be sick tomorrow” excuse from one of my favorite smart ass students
Hearing the Kyrgyz equivalent of the “it’s clean, but is it mama clean?” question (at least it wasn’t directed at me haha
Hearing my absolute favorite line in a Kyrgyz new year’s toast (and I heard a bunch of toasts) here goes: “may all your daughters get married”
Giving my host siblings their crocheted scarves (the youngest three wore theirs all day)
Going to the village new year’s party- although, I think this deserves a paragraph to talk about instead of a bullet. I really wanted to go to this party, after all, I didn’t go home to America for the holidays so I could be here to celebrate, but I didn’t want to go by myself because the whole walking-alone-at-dark-thing is highly discouraged. My host sisters and I have been bonding and we conspired that I should ask the parents if they could go with me, because they’ve never been allowed to go. I asked. Ata was wavering and Apa said “no,” which sucked. The girls were kinda upset. I was too. Their reasons for not giving permission were uber frustrating (partly because I heard it growing up, too) My host dad is kinda a big deal in the village and Apa thought that if the girls went, they’d be what translated to the Kyrgyz equivalent of “easy girls” and it would reflect poorly on my host dad because people would think he wasn’t strict and yadayadayada. How many times did I get the “your behavior reflects on me speech?” Yeah, it still sucks haha. So the girls couldn’t go, and I resigned myself to not going to because I didn’t want to go alone. Then, one of my favorite 11th grade students (who is more like a friend than a students, because we’re like three or four years apart) came and asked if I wanted to come guesting at her house, so I did. I went and had chai and stuff with her family, and then we went to the New Year’s party. I think my host parents were a little overly strict because the majority of my 8th-11th graders were there, not to mention families with toddlers. Sure, there was a drunk guy or two, but you can encounter that just walking down the street… Anyways, I danced a bunch (I’m going to come home and wow you all with hitherto unsuspected dance skills haha) and met a bunch of kids who would’ve been my 11th grade students, but quit after 9th grade. We also played a bunch of games. I got dragged into playing tug-of-war and ended up on a team with my students against my teachers because they divide it by birth year, and I’m closer in age to my students than my co-workers (that is still weird to me) --Also, a side note on the birth year thing- often, instead of getting asked how old I am, I get asked what my year is. Since I’m 1988, as of January 1, I can start saying that I am twenty two because I will turn twenty two this year, even if it isn’t for another eight months. I think I’m gonna stick with twenty one, though. I’ve only just started answering twenty one instead of twenty. Time bewilders me here. I was still writing October in December. This 2010 switch is gonna throw me off until at least March. Sigh.)
I went back to my student’s house and we celebrated the countdown with sips of champagne and fireworks. I love fireworks. At midnight, what seemed like every single family in the village set off fireworks (I was much to close to exploding things for my comfort, but still had a great time) I felt like Jordan, or any other ADD kid haha, 360 degrees of sparkly, shiny things going off in every direction had my head spinning. I got home a little after 12. Apa was asleep, and Ata was watching T.V. It was just like being in America, haha. And that pretty much sums up new years, because I did absolutely nothing on new years day.
Today, I helped make borsok and just spent an hour cleaning the floor of my room. You know those little car “vacuums,” that are really just rolling lint brushes that you attempt to use for ten minutes before realizing that they don’t work, giving up, and paying the fifty cents to use the powerful sucker vac at the car wash? Yeah, that is what I use to clean my floor, without the fifty cent cop out option. We have an actual vacuum cleaner, but just take my word for it that the hand held non-powered option is easier.
Now I think I’m going to go wash my hair, because I’m going to be put on exhibit tonight and tomorrow, a.k.a. we have guests coming, and I’m pretty sure our weekly banya is not going to happen because of the aforementioned guests.
Miss you
Wishing you all the best in the new year,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Hearing the Kyrgyz equivalent of the “it’s clean, but is it mama clean?” question (at least it wasn’t directed at me haha
Hearing my absolute favorite line in a Kyrgyz new year’s toast (and I heard a bunch of toasts) here goes: “may all your daughters get married”
Giving my host siblings their crocheted scarves (the youngest three wore theirs all day)
Going to the village new year’s party- although, I think this deserves a paragraph to talk about instead of a bullet. I really wanted to go to this party, after all, I didn’t go home to America for the holidays so I could be here to celebrate, but I didn’t want to go by myself because the whole walking-alone-at-dark-thing is highly discouraged. My host sisters and I have been bonding and we conspired that I should ask the parents if they could go with me, because they’ve never been allowed to go. I asked. Ata was wavering and Apa said “no,” which sucked. The girls were kinda upset. I was too. Their reasons for not giving permission were uber frustrating (partly because I heard it growing up, too) My host dad is kinda a big deal in the village and Apa thought that if the girls went, they’d be what translated to the Kyrgyz equivalent of “easy girls” and it would reflect poorly on my host dad because people would think he wasn’t strict and yadayadayada. How many times did I get the “your behavior reflects on me speech?” Yeah, it still sucks haha. So the girls couldn’t go, and I resigned myself to not going to because I didn’t want to go alone. Then, one of my favorite 11th grade students (who is more like a friend than a students, because we’re like three or four years apart) came and asked if I wanted to come guesting at her house, so I did. I went and had chai and stuff with her family, and then we went to the New Year’s party. I think my host parents were a little overly strict because the majority of my 8th-11th graders were there, not to mention families with toddlers. Sure, there was a drunk guy or two, but you can encounter that just walking down the street… Anyways, I danced a bunch (I’m going to come home and wow you all with hitherto unsuspected dance skills haha) and met a bunch of kids who would’ve been my 11th grade students, but quit after 9th grade. We also played a bunch of games. I got dragged into playing tug-of-war and ended up on a team with my students against my teachers because they divide it by birth year, and I’m closer in age to my students than my co-workers (that is still weird to me) --Also, a side note on the birth year thing- often, instead of getting asked how old I am, I get asked what my year is. Since I’m 1988, as of January 1, I can start saying that I am twenty two because I will turn twenty two this year, even if it isn’t for another eight months. I think I’m gonna stick with twenty one, though. I’ve only just started answering twenty one instead of twenty. Time bewilders me here. I was still writing October in December. This 2010 switch is gonna throw me off until at least March. Sigh.)
I went back to my student’s house and we celebrated the countdown with sips of champagne and fireworks. I love fireworks. At midnight, what seemed like every single family in the village set off fireworks (I was much to close to exploding things for my comfort, but still had a great time) I felt like Jordan, or any other ADD kid haha, 360 degrees of sparkly, shiny things going off in every direction had my head spinning. I got home a little after 12. Apa was asleep, and Ata was watching T.V. It was just like being in America, haha. And that pretty much sums up new years, because I did absolutely nothing on new years day.
Today, I helped make borsok and just spent an hour cleaning the floor of my room. You know those little car “vacuums,” that are really just rolling lint brushes that you attempt to use for ten minutes before realizing that they don’t work, giving up, and paying the fifty cents to use the powerful sucker vac at the car wash? Yeah, that is what I use to clean my floor, without the fifty cent cop out option. We have an actual vacuum cleaner, but just take my word for it that the hand held non-powered option is easier.
Now I think I’m going to go wash my hair, because I’m going to be put on exhibit tonight and tomorrow, a.k.a. we have guests coming, and I’m pretty sure our weekly banya is not going to happen because of the aforementioned guests.
Miss you
Wishing you all the best in the new year,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Forty Kilograms of Flour
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
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
"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
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