Blogless

Well, folks, it's been an incredibly long time since I've had access to the internet, and even longer since I've had the time to sit down and blog. Sorry about this. The time is now!

As many of you know, the southern part of Kyrgyzstan is unstable and violent. I am, luckily enough, living in the northernmost part of the country in the Talas region, a dry, rocky, hilly area filled with friendly people and herds of animals. The drive from my old home to my new home was incredible. We drove through clouds and valleys. We passed by yurts and drove through herds of cows, sheep, and goats. The driver made no efforts to slow down; he simply honked until the herd moved out of the way. The long, hilly drive took a bit over six hours. We made a few stops to get a tire repaired, and eventually made it home in pitch black. Nic and I are living in two rooms; we have a sitting room and a bed room. The sitting room is connected to the eating area. From the eating area shoots of the family bedroom and a kitchen. There is a hallway that leads from the kitchen to our banya, and to the outdoors. You know, I feel dull talking about this stuff. I know it isn't as exciting as discussions about the violence and instability in this country. But let me put it this way: I'm a stubborn soul that is forcing herself to see positive and to focus on the positive elements of my life here in Kyrgyzstan. Thankfully, I am in a peaceful region of the country. Anyway, Nic and I have four host siblings, three sisters and a little brother. The youngest is our brother, 9, and the oldest is my host sister who is 21. She has worked with volunteers before, and can speak English. My counterpart is a tiny Elvish woman who speaks English pretty well, but she has recently had a baby, and does not have too much time for me just yet. I'm waiting and working to maintain my patience. Nic and I have tried to organize English clubs and meetings, but the unrest in the country has caused some interruptions. Peace Corps is working hard to keep us safe, but this means sometimes that we cannot complete the work we were sent here to do. Once again, I'm waiting. The Peace Corps is an incredible test of patience.
Our village is a former German village, my school is a former German school, and my home is a German style home. I've actually gotten to use my German here in country, which is surprising. At each major corner in the house, there are large black pillars that are heating stoves. This is a trademark of German-built homes in my area. Most older people speak some German (with an adorable accent mind you). Our family has two milk cows that they milk daily, and in the morning they sell milk. We get tons of fresh milk and cream daily. We also have two calves that I've fallen in love with, but one is quite shy, and doesn't like attention from people. Our family also has some cows "in savings," aka, in the mountain. They are saving up livestock to later use to purchase my youngest host brother a car when he is old enough. The current exchange rate is 6 cows equals 1 car. Nic is working with my host sister to help build a chicken coop, and we might eventually get chickens. We'll see.
The best news so far is that the volunteers are out of the south, safe, and sound. Staying positive. I mailed my mom a letter with our new address in it. Please get it from her. I am a dummy and didn't bring the piece of paper with our zipcode written on it....maybe soon .Keep in touch, ya'll.

Bizzare Baazar

Hey folks! I just got done doing some shopping at the Kant Baazar and man, it felt strange. I did shopping in Taiwan too, but for whatever reason shoppng here feels a bit more stressful than it should feel. I shopped more effeciently with less language when I was there...I am not sure what the difference is, really. Oh well. In a few months once I have more language things will be much easier. Either way around, I am coming home with exactly what I need: A pencil (I'm still kicking myself for accidently leaving my bag-o-pens and pencils at home), a huge sheet of stiff paper (which will be cut into notecards), some round knitting needles (interesting: I could not find a single vendor that sold straight knitting needles) and pants to replace the ones I tore yesterday. I'm a happy camper. I've been working on Nic's scarf, but needed some needles to switch the scarf over to, as I am currently knitting on some needles that I borrowed from my host sister.
The baazar is basically rows of vendors with all sorts of items available...you can find almost anything, pants, shampoo, fish, statuettes, candy, laid out for you on a table or hung on a rack. It's fun to look, and fun to wander, but complicated to buy, for now. Last time I came here, I had to buy a pound or two pounds of the food items that I bought because I only knew how to ask for a kilo or a half kilo of something... which meant coming home with a half kilo of cookies, a half kilo of almonds, a kilo of apples etc... I'm still eating some of them. I have since learned how to purchase smaller amounts of things.
Nic and I went with our trainee group to a beautiful mountain resort yesterday, and took a few pictures, which eventually will be uploaded. I never know exactly when I'll have internet, so I am never prepared for this. The resort was rolling hills and peaks dotted with waterfalls, statues, and cows. It was beautiful, the weather was pretty good(we did get rained on a little bit), and it felt great to get some exercize.
A few days ago the trainee group living in my city (there are four of us) went to a concert at the local school, which consisted of many grade levels performing songs and dances in Russian. We also watched a play. There was a group of 8th/9th? grade girls that danced to a Michael Jackson mash up and they were incredible dancers. I was very shocked and pleased with their black hats, black vests, white button ups, and mad skills. My Kyrgyz teacher's host-sister sang several songs. She's an adorable talented little girl. She hand wrote us invitations to the concert in shiny pink ink. Here, huge white bows are very trendy. Many of the girls at the concert were wearing bows that were as big as their heads! Imagine: tiny pigtails, tiny girls, big haloes of white silk, satin, and lace. Now imagine them singing in Russian.
The only thing that is missing from my life is salt water taffy. Things are going better every day, and I am more excited about my work every day. Today I finished working on my activity cards for the class I am teaching on Tuesday. I will be teaching 5th graders the concepts of some, few, couple, and many combined with the phrase "There are." I will also be teaching basic food vocabulary (apples, bananas, noodles, eggs, etc). If things go well, by the end of the class, the students will be able to say: "There are not any apples in the refrigerator, but there are some noodles in the refrigerator" (and things of that general nature).
That's all for now. Take care, ya'll!

Keepin on

Hey folks! We are now a few weeks into training. I have my site placement interview tomorrow, and in a few weeks Nic and I find out where our permanent site will be. I'm getting more adjusted to life in my host family, which is definitely a good thing. I have been a bit sick lately, but have had some antibiotics and now am feeling much better. As a consequence of being sick, I was served hot milk based meals which were simple but delicious. I'm getting mad hankerings for coffee, so whenever I get the chance to go to a store, I might actually pick up some coffee. At lunch, the volunteers rotate visiting one another's host families for meals, and we have gotten to taste a variety of foods and seen a variety of homes because of this. On the walk to a fellow volunteer's home, there are geese that will hiss at you. It's kind of funny.
All in all, things are well, although my language is not progressing as quickly as I wish it were. I have been relaxing the past few days which both helps and hinders m language skills. It helps because I am more comfortable and relaxed when I go the class the next day, but hinders because I spend more time reading/writing in English.
The mountains that surround my village are stunning. Every day when I can wake up and actually see them, I am amazed at how beautiful they are.
Yesterday, I had my first active practicum. I got to teach a grand total of five students. We as volunteers were told what to teach, but had some flexibility in presentation and formatting of information. I look forward to next week, as hopefully I will have a full classroom. I will be team teaching animals and the present progressive tense with a Kyrgyz volunteer and a Peace Corps trainee. Should be great. The actual in-classroom time that volunteers get to have during training is in my view extremely helpful. It seems like we will in theory be teaching an English lesson every week with variable topics and in variable situations, i.e., with or without a trainee partner, in large/small classes, etc. I can't wait to get my own classroom and meet my own counterpart.
That's it for now. Maybe one day I will get some photos for ya'll. I just never know when I will actually have the internet...I mailed a few letters today, so watch your mailboxes if you have given me your address.

Life in the Kyrgyz Republic!

Hey folks! Internet access for me is highly irregular, so I haven't been able to update this thing since I've been here. Long story short, things are great! I have an awesome host family; five host siblings, a host mom, and a host dad. Today they were planting potatoes and flowers in the front and backyard gardens. I have a great dog named Fox that protects me when I have to go to the outhouse. It's the cutest thing...he walks with you to the outhouse, stands guard in front of the door while you are, ya'know, busy, then walks you back to the house. I live on a small plot of land, maybe an acre, and do have an actual shower sometimes. My language learning is going slow, but it is nonetheless going. I have six more weeks to get to a good grip on the language, and then we'll have an exam. Here, we eat alot of lamb. Tons and tons of lamb. Most families have their own chickens (we do...I get fresh eggs every day), many have their own cows, and even more have their own herds of sheep and goats. All of the meat that we get is fresh, grass-fed, and pretty good. The meals do tend to a be a bit fatty, which has been a bit hard on my stomach, but I feel like I've adjusted pretty well. I got sick once, once, and only once. I've been pretty careful with water filtering, which I think has made quite a bit of a difference.
The mountains surrounding the Kyrgyz Republic are incredibly beautiful. Stunning. Like a photoshopped postcard. Except even better. And REAL. Huge peaks of white shattering the skyline, enormous towers of green protecting protrusions of grey and blue...I have never seen anything like it.
My favorite thing about my time here so far has been the presence of animals. Donkeys (and fuzzy ones to boot), cows, cats, dogs, sheep, goats...roaming in a beautiful and wonderful way. Practically maintained, albeit they are a bit dirty, and utilized fully (i.e, milk and manure do not go to waste). The entire village that I live in reminds me in some ways of a giant Heifer project come to life. Zero grazing pens, no-electricity milk and cream separators, and hand-sheared sheep.
Anyway...I'm going to get gone for now, but please feel free to drop me an email and I will reply whenever I have internet access again. Take care, everybody!

Staging

Hello! Nic and I have successfully made it to staging. I accidentally brought along Amber's [Noah's girlfriend's] hair barrette instead of giving it back to her, so I am going to take some pictures of it in historical Kyrgyz places. We have our first full day of orientation tomorrow. I've already met a few of the people that are going to be volunteers alongside Nic and I, and they made good first impressions. Overall, I'm pretty excited about this great adventure.

Yesterday, I had a great time at Vino's chilling with the people I won't be seeing for a while. There are some folks I am really going to miss. Thank you to everyone that was able to come, and thank you to everyone that didn't but sent blessings anyhow. Basically, thanks to everyone that has been so supportive to Nic and I during our efforts to get into the PC.

I am not sure how often I will be able to update this, but definitely often enough for it to be worth checking, I hope.

Beatbox girl

If you haven't seen this amazing video of Beatbox girl, a brunette beat madhouse with a ponytail, then please watch it hear via Scienceblogs. It's amazing, I promise. BEATBOX GIRL!

38 second book reviews and update

I love being unemployed, because it means I have plenty of time to read. Although I will not be unemployed here in a few days, I still anticipate having plenty of time to read before I get myself socially established in the Kyrgyz Republic. Either way around, I recently finished two great books.

Cockroach by Rawi Hage. Frantic, driven, schizophrenic, sexy, and dirty. A cockroach that thinks he's a man, or a man that thinks he's a cockroach, takes on the crusty upperclass of a sick Candadian city. This brilliant work of truths-nested-in-fiction wrestles with concepts of greed, poverty, naivety, and filth within the context of the almost subhuman lower classes of the insane. Or, as it may be, the only real ones out there. Anyway, you should read it.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. This non-fiction work tells the larger than life story of a taller than average dude who works to free impoverished children of their chains via education. Mortenson works in Afganistan and Pakistan to build balanced, well-rounded secular schools that educate both genders. I found the work inspiring and hopeful. What a hero!

Just a note: Mortenson's organization, the Central Asia Institute, recently received a $100,000 donation from Barack Obama. The source of the money? Obama's Nobel Prize cash, which he is donating in it's entirety to a slew of very very worthy organizations. Obama and Mortenson have won my heart.

Ok, and for the actual update. Nic and I are leaving in 9 days, and I am going through various stages of happy, excited, mellow, frantic, sad, worried, energetic, enthusiastic, etc, etc, you get the point. I'm running in circles and running in a straight line at the same time. I am busy packing, reading, and really, just tying to stay healthy and keep my bearings while I wait. My little brother got married, and it was a beautiful fairly religious ceremony in a methodist church. Him and his wife have side by side computers and play WOW together. Does it get much cuter than that?