Material Girl... meet the Peace Corps

I love being home...

2006-12-19T12:44:00.000-08:00

My Crazy Life...

2006-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

These are my cute little students! And my new haircut

My crazy life....

2006-09-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah.. I was hailing a taxi and walked into a tree branch. Enough said. It was broad daylight too.

2006-08-21T04:03:00.000-07:00

Starting over again...

2006-08-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

Well the following photos show a little bit of my life since moving into Talas city. The pictures are of my new apartment building, and the surroundings. THe traash is the front yard, unfortunately, and the others are from summer camp.

2006-08-21T03:55:00.000-07:00

2006-08-21T03:51:00.000-07:00

New Photos

2006-08-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

Well, i have a few photos to publish, they are of my new apartment and of summer camp this past week.

More pics

2006-06-26T05:43:00.000-07:00

These are some more grad shots and one of me moving my stuff...

Some pictures from graduation...

2006-06-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

These are all of my girls, they just finished high school and are heading off to study in the city this week...

2006-06-07T02:54:00.000-07:00

February 14 – February 28, 2006 (Now that I have a USB stick and another Internet café has opened in our village, I will be able to update much, much

2006-03-01T01:19:00.000-08:00

February 14 – February 28, 2006 (Now that I have a USB stick and another Internet café has opened in our village, I will be able to update much, much more often.

But of course I must (really, must) remind all of my readers that this blog is the opinion of the author and no one else. In no way does it reflect or have anything to with the opinions or positions taken by the United States Government or the Peace Corps. Its just a small town girl with a lot to say…

Also, the following entries seem to deal with clothing in one way or another an awful lot. Sorry for this.

Valentine’s Day

I couldn’t have asked for a better Valentine’s Day. I’m sitting in my room listening to a new country music CD, eating Dots, drinking and basking in my own happiness. The Internet has made it to my village and it is only a block from my house. It is open from 8 in the morning to 7 at night. It is a fast connection and it only costs 30 som an hour. (That’s really cheap). I used it for two full hours today. It disconnected about 50 times, but still I got everything accomplished that I set out to do today. Plus I got a package from my wonderful sister, Katie, hence me eating Dots. Nichole, Erich and I all received packages today. Mine was postmarked January 25, Nichole’s November 19 and Erich’s December 7. So packages are finally starting to get here and those that are sent after Jan. 1 are flying in. I got a small package from my Mom and Dad last week in 12 days. So I no longer despise the mail workers. Well we’ll see if I get my December boxes before I make any decisions.

I’m also drinking Crystal Light, thanks to my wonderful Aunt in Moscow. This is the first time I have had juice that tastes somewhat normal. I guess I can’t really say things like that though. Just because it tastes American, doesn’t make it normal. There is a whole big world out there, and I am learning, well I guess have learned, that just because we do things a certain way in America, doesn’t mean the rest of the world does the same thing.

I’m going to give an example here of my point, and it doesn’t mean that it is ever going to be a custom that I follow. In Kyrgyzstan people don’t over indulge in clothing. My host family is a rich family by Kyrgyz standards and they each own a limited number of clothing items. Here you have your ‘nice clothes’ and then your house clothes. When you go to town or to school, you wear your nice clothes. For men these consist of faded blue jeans with no holes or tears. The jeans fit perfectly, they are worn fitted and with a pair of fancy black shoes. Every man and boy has a pair and they are always shined and the jeans are never dirty. I can’t say that in America I have met many boys who can wear a pair of jeans like the boys here do (Except for Montana boys). They finish off their outfit with a nice jacket. And a hat. No once leaves the house without a hat in the winter, ever, except for me. Even Nichole and Erich wear hats all the time. I haven’t got to that point yet. All though I do have a fancy new John Deere hat to show off, which I am so excited about.

When they get home from school or town the men immediately change into old track pants or cords and an old sweater with galoshes. Everyone, including me, has a pair of indoor and outdoor shoes. Outdoor shoes are galoshes and indoor shoes are sports sandals. I can get away with slippers inside. I’m probably the only one in the country who has five pairs. But, whenever I have a party no one has to bring their own house shoes. The girls here find it very convenient. In fact, the girls in Talas know that they don’t have to bring pajamas either, as I have enough for everyone.

So women here are very similar to the men. They put on nice jeans to go out, and everyone’s jeans are hemmed to the most perfect length. Including mine as of yesterday. Your jeans will never touch the ground, as it is shameful to get your jeans dirty, which unfortunately, I am guilty of doing. The women wear pointy-toed black boots with their jeans and a nice sweater. And of course a hat. Sometimes they wear knee-high boots with short pants as well. And they can pull it off. The girls here are gorgeous. Thin with long black hair and beautiful eyes that need no make-up.

Now, because this is a poor culture, clothes are not as abundant as in America. You don’t have 30 pairs of jeans to choose from. You don’t have 20 pairs of shoes or a drawer of just black shirts. (All of which I am also guilty of). You have one or two nice things and then old house clothes. Most older women just wear velour robes around during the day with matching pants and head scarves. I have more clothes in America that all of my students in the 11th grade combined. Maybe more.

And what do I do? Go out and buy more clothes from American Eagle online. Some habits are hard to break. All though I have to say six months without shopping is pretty damn impressive for someone with my kind of habits.

So school has been canceled due to illness for the past week. I have spent it relaxing and enjoying the break. Spending time with my puppy and my new calf.

That’s right. My new calf. Yesterday I went outside to feed the cow its daily breakfast, and I saw hooves coming out of its rear end! (It was pregnant mind you). I ran inside and told Zamir, and he ran to the neighbor’s house, coming back with three men to help pull the calf. I got my camera, but ended up helping, so I don’t have good pictures of the process. It was a big freaking cow. I felt sorry for Mrs. Cow. I bet she was regretting her past decisions. That’s for sure. She was bawling and mooing and I was trying to comfort her in English, which personally I think all of our animals are partial to, while three men pulled this monster out of her. It only took a few minutes and there it was, a baby boy. She was tired and didn’t want to clean him very much, so I did it for her and then watched the afterbirth slowly come out of the cow as well. Disgusting. The birthing sac, blood, you name it, that cow spit it out. Yucky. And then of course the damn puppy tried to eat it, so I was chasing him out of the yard. I bottle fed the cow its first meal, which was a task. I was covered from head to toe in sticky fresh cow milk and slobber. But a wonderful experience. I spent most of the day with the calf, teaching it to stand up and walk. He is now quite good. Today he is playing with his mother in the barn. I am hoping to get a picture up of him soon.

Last Friday night we had the first (of many I’m sure) Girls’ nights at my house. Most of the Talas girls came out for a potluck. There are 10 of us in the oblast, and eight came. We also have five boys, but four of them are leaving next year. Hopefully we’ll get more male volunteers in the next batch. (They come in June).

We had a great time. I, on an ego trip from my apple pie at Christmas, decided to make deviled eggs and sugar cookies. Two very challenging recipes. Thanks to whoever sent Melinda an entire case of mustard packets, I made deviled eggs with real American mustard and I even found paprika at the bazaar. Sugar cookies were easy and what made it even better was the heart-shaped cookie cutter my Mama sent me for Valentine’s Day. I made great sugar cookies with chocolate frosting and since my wonderful aunt sent peanut butter as well, I was able to make a double batch of no-bake cookies for everyone. Nicole made a good pasta salad that actually tasted American, Amy made lentil soup, Jesika made stuffing and Melinda brought potato salad, which rounded out our American dishes. It was nice to get away from potatoes and bread for an evening. We drank wine and had a great time.

Last Wednesday I was feeling cabin feverish so I went into Talas on a school day to check my email. I ended up visiting Chris and Melinda, a married couple in Talas City from Seattle, and Chris even made me a sandwich. They live in a mansion. It has three floors, two indoor bathrooms with real toilets and showers, Internet and an American refrigerator. I can’t even imagine. It was the first toilet I had seen since the Hyatt. My bathroom is a shanty 25 yards from our house with a whole in the ground that you squat over, next to a bucket where you put the notebook paper that is stacked to your left when you are finished. Pleasant. Needless to say, they won’t be finding alternate living arrangements anytime soon. Quite the set up. No other volunteer has a set up like that. I don’t know how they got so lucky, but it’s nice that it happened to good people.

So after I spent the afternoon with them I headed back in the last taxi to my village. The drive is about an hour, so I was half asleep in the front seat. I woke up to find that we had strayed from the normal road, and were headed up hill. We were dropping off a couple in the backseat at their house. Well, Kyrgyzstan is a mud field right now, and of course we got stuck in the mud. It was about 7 p.m. I got home after 9 p.m. We had to go around and find men to help push the car through a muddy stream that the taxi driver had attempted to cross. Then the battery in the car died. After a couple hours he managed to get a push start and we were on our way. Or so I thought. We got a couple miles back in the right direction and he stopped to fill up a soda bottle with water from a stream that he proceeded to pour somewhere in the engine. Then we were on our way. I finally made it home, exhausted and done with traveling to Talas for Internet. I am so thankful for this new Internet place that opened up yesterday. All three of us used it today for at least an hour. I think our business alone will keep them up and running for a while.

Tomorrow I head back to school for four lessons and two clubs.

Oh and another good thing that happened this week… we have began having weekly banyas again instead of bi-monthly! A new calf and a bath, all in one week…

February 15, 2005

So I got up this morning to go to school and had a bowl of cream of wheat, thanks to Katie and Everett, and then found out that school had been canceled yet again, for another five days! What am I going to do with myself?

I got mail from the Peace Corps today and one of the mailings was chock full of grad schools that want volunteers. So I am going to spend a lot of time on the Internet, writing emails to admissions offices all over the country. I figure this gives me an early start. A year and a half or so, which leaves me with plenty of time to work on applications and maybe to retake the GREs in the summer.

The schools I am looking at include: Sarah Lawrence, the University of Texas at Austin (LBJ School of Public Affaris), Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, John Hopkins School of Public Health, American University’s School of International Service in Washington D.C. and Costa Rica, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Lesley University, Loyola, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the School for International Training, Georgetown’s Foreign Service program, the University of Pennsylvania and Tulane.

Those are just what I have started to research. I am hoping to begin the 2007-08 session and study foreign-service or public health. I am looking for more options on the west coast though. I would rather be closer to home (says the girl who is 10,000 miles from home right now). The University of Wyoming has a communications grad program for returned volunteers. Another option. Really it all depends on fellowships and grants.

February 16, 2006

Well today has been a beautiful day. I spent about an hour outside jogging in the sun. It was perfect weather. I went down to the lake for the first time since I have been here, but the water level is really low this time of the year.

February 21, 2006

Well. Sorry about the weather back home, but here is amazing. It’s like spring just came out of no where, a month early. I have spent the past week outdoors, jogging, playing with the calf, playing soccer with my students, walking around the village, going down to the lake and basically just basking in the sunlight. The sun comes up earlier now, and I don’t walk to school in the dark anymore. Also it goes down at about 7 p.m. which has been wonderful. And of course now having Internet a block from my house hasn’t been too bad either. I have checked my email around 7 times in the past 10 days!

February 24, 2006 – Friday Afternoon

Well I am in heaven.

Two packages in one day. And amazing packages at that. One package is full of food, a new USB stick, peanut butter, cocoa, body wash, q-tips, cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla, face lotion, MAGAZINES!, my CDs and more. The other was something I ordered for myself and had sent to my parents to then in turn have sent to me… new American Eagle clothes!!!!! Cardigans, long sleeve tops, a new scarf… and they added boxes of contact lenses.

New spring clothes, from America… what could be better? I am saving them for my trip to Bishkek.

Well I was back in school this week, and the students were pretty wild. I was able to tame them down by Wednesday, but of course Thursday was a holiday – National Boys’ Day, so we didn’t have school. And then today most of the students were sick or hung over and didn’t come to class.

I spent the day kicking myself for getting too excited about the weather. Yesterday I woke up to a blizzard after a week straight of sunshine. Today is just as bad. Cold and rainy again. Frost and snow again. Wind, cold trips to the outhouse.

Well after two weeks of having my host mother’s daughter and her two kids stay with us, they finally left. I can’t say I was sad watching them go. I promise never to show up unannounced at my mother’s house with two children under three and stay for weeks at a time. By the end of the two weeks I was so insane that I would have to go for long walks in the afternoon, after going jogging, just to avoid the company for a few hours. And I love small children! I love kids. These kids are just too spoiled for my liking.

I spent last weekend playing with our three cows and the puppy. I guess I forgot to write about the newest cow. Eight women in our neighborhood, my host mother included, have a club that meets once a month. They drew months out of a hat on New Years to pick a monthly host. They then gather at that house for a huge feast. Each woman brings 1000 som and gives it to the host. This way each family can purchase something big with money that they wouldn’t ever have all at once. It was our turn in February. We had a huge spread set up on two tables with meat, cheese, apples, tangerines, salads, vodka, juice, gas water, bread, jams and then the main course of plov and a noodle salad. On a school night. I went to bed at about 11 p.m. and they were still going. So, with the 7000 som, my family bought another cow. So we have three. Not sure why. I am pretty sure that they spent all the money they had for the month.

Yesterday while I was running around the track a group of younger men were playing soccer, which I found myself craving. A ball went out of bounds and I retrieved it and kicked it back for them and got myself an invitation to play! After a while I had to leave, but I had a great time – they were nice to me and friendly and invited me to come back anytime. Of course the thing they were kicking around wasn’t much of a ball – flat, dented and heavy, but it worked. I think I might buy them a ball to play with in the future.

February 26, 2006

Whew. Well when my dad said I probably have more clothes than the Kyrgyz president’s wife I laughed. Now I am not so sure. I spent more than six hours today doing laundry. It really piled up on me this time. Erich came by in the afternoon. I was still outside working and he just sat in the sun and said “My mom better be doing my laundry at my house right now.’ Typical attitude. Boys have all the luck over here. No one helped me. By the time I finished, which included dumping massive buckets of dirty water in the street, I was exhausted and ready to have my Sunday banya, which I immensely enjoyed thanks to my new body wash.

On Saturday evening I made delicious cookies with my new brown sugar and real chocolate chips. They are already gone. Treats go fast in this house. I have to hoard them in my room if I want any. It was nice to have real cookies though.

February 27, 2006

I couldn’t ask for a better situation than I am in right now. I am sitting on my bed, watching a new DVD from yet another package that I got in the mail today and eating cheddar broccoli rice, drinking Crystal Light. Later I am going to have some Godiva chocolate.

Today I happened to stop by the post office to mail a letter and was informed that another of the missing packages had arrived. I went into the backroom with the mail woman who then realized she had lost the keys to the storage place. She searched for about 10 minutes, and of course then pulled them out of her pocket. All that anticipation drives me crazy!

Another wonderful package. Books, magazines, juice, soap, towels, a loofah, DVDs, batteries, chocolate, trail mix, sugar cookie mix and more. All things I really need!

My host mother has left for Bishkek for the week, so I am on my own. Which has been great. I made my own American food, washed the dishes and went to bed last night satisfied.

In classes today I read the students their horoscopes from Cosmopolitan’s annual guide to love, life and whatever else. They loved it. It was nice to break up the regular grammar lessons with something a bit interesting. See, magazines are not only entertaining, but educational as well mother.

The nice thing about having so much clothing is that while other volunteers are wearing the same things over and over and feeling depressed, I haven’t even broke out my spring/summer styles yet. I still have more than 20 skirts and 20 tops that haven’t seen the light of day since I have been in country. I planned this you know. Some people may have laughed at the site of me carrying 200+ pounds of luggage off a plane, but hey, look who’s laughing now? No dirty, over-worn clothes for this girl. (Besides I ruin a shirt after two or three times worn, as I am a little clumsy with food, drinks, chalk, mud, ect.).

The bad news is that yesterday, to celebrate the arrival of spring, I broke out a new dress that I bought last spring before I left. I have been saving it. Of course I have to wear a long-sleeved high-necked top over the dress part so it just looks like a mid length skirt, but I was happy. But, like I said, I am a little clumsy, and I proceeded to sit on a nail and rip the back seem out. So I had to wear a coat the rest of the day. But when I got home my host mother sewed it right up for me and told me to be more careful.

Feb. 10 Update -- Most Recent is Last!!!

2006-02-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

January 23, 2006

Well it’s been a fun couple of weeks.

The big holiday was a good time, all though it is hard to be in a big group where everyone is talking about you constantly. I can understand about every other word they say, which makes it worse, knowing what they are saying and not being able to put all your thoughts together in a different language.

It’s happened though, I think in Kyrgyz now.

We went to seven houses and instead of just having tea at each house we had full on Thanksgiving style meals. I tried to eat a little bit at each house, but the women kept dumping more and more on my plate. I made Zamir go with me to the first four or five houses, but after that he quit, but I still had to go.

It was fun though. School break turned out to only be a week, so I was back in school in no time.

The top ten things that have happened to me in the past two weeks:
(Clearly I am in better spirits)

10. GUMMY BEARS AT THE BAZAAR!!! Real gummy bears, I about had a heart attack. Between the three of us shopping we bought them all.

9. I got a package – so it was only band-aids and amoxicillin from the Peace Corps office, but it was mail.

8. I got a banya, and after only 21 days.

7. I discovered purple Fanta, which is quite good.

6. We got a new puppy, I named it Puppy.

5. We got a new kitten, I named it Kitty.

4. My students (well most of them) have mastered the Simple Present Tense.

3. I learned how to burn my own garbage, feed and water the cow and use a gas stove.

2. Jenny, a K-12 volunteer who went home for Christmas brought back Rice Crispy treats.

And by far the best thing that has happened since I have been in country:

1. A student brought over a disc that his older brother, (a soldgier in Afganastan) gave him: THE ULTIMATE REESE WITHERSPOON CULLOECTION. I mean really, could life get any better than watching Legally Blonde 1 &2 and Sweet Home Alabama over and over? I think not. Of course I had to give it back though.

Not a bad couple of weeks. Last Friday my host sister, who stayed with us for a couple of nights, arranged for her husband of three years to take me into Talas to use the Internet and to shop for gifts for my host mother’s birthday. And my host sister. It was both of their birthdays this past weekend.

Anyway, Zamir and I planned to go, and Asen (her husband) said he would pick us up at about 11. At about 1:30, we finally headed toward Talas. First we had to stop and get gas, which consists of a man with a bucket and a funnel. Then, after we picked up one of Asen’s friends, Mirhat, we were ready. Mirhat, Zamir and I in the back of the little four-door ancient thing. I can’t even decipher what kind of car it is. Asen driving and his twin brother Alman in the front. Wow. Didn’t feel like Kyrgyzstan that’s for sure. It was like being back in college. The boys are all my age, despite Asen’s being married with two kids. They had the music blasting and were singing and driving like maniacs. I think we had to be going at least 70 most of the time. We got into Talas after a fun ride and the boys dropped me off at the University to use the Internet and spent the allotted hour driving around hollering at University girls. I came outside and found them sitting by the building with the windows down and music playing loudly. After I got in they starting blowing kisses at girls and played the same Russian song over and over on the tape player. They yell ‘Chong Cuz’ which means young girl, but literally translates to ‘Big Girl.’ That took some getting used to. When talking to any young girl you say chong cuz, especially to bartenders and waitresses. It throws you off at first when you think someone is calling you a big girl, since the word for big is chong. And girl is cuz.

Anyway, Zamir and I bought a nice sweater for Zana, my host sister and serving platters for my host mother. Then we all piled in and headed back to the village.

On the way home, we stopped and Zamir stole a puppy from his uncle’s house along the way. I was appalled, but apparently it’s okay and normal to steal pets from family.

Of course we ran out of gas on the way. We had to hitch hike back to the nearest village, except it’s not hitch hiking, since you have to pay whoever gives you a ride, and got a coke bottle of gas, that’s how you but it here. We eventually made it back to the village, and Zamir and I were exhausted. We watched a weird Christmas movie that was on TV in Russian and then I crashed.

Both birthdays being on Saturday, we had a big party at Zana’s house. Her husband was scheduled to pick us up at 5 p.m. Zamir and I spent the day making ‘sandwiches’ and attempting to go to the post office, which of course was closed. Our sandwiches consist of cucumbers, shredded carrot salad, cheese, mayo and pickles on a piece of bread, with tomatoes, if we can find any.

They fired up the banya at around 4, which I thought was ridiculous, being that we had to leave at 5. I didn’t get into the banya until five til five, so I knew we were going to be late. He came back for us a 6. It was a much needed banya, after 21 days without one.

We left for the party at 6. I was immediately pushed into the formal dining room with my host mother, and Zamir went off with the boys (Don’t know if I have ever mentioned that Zana is a ‘kelen’ which means her job in life is to take care of her husband’s family. She always must cover her hair and must bow to her father-in-law when she enters and exits the room. Her husband has three brothers and Zana has a five-month old baby and a three-year-old, and must take care of the entire household. She cooks, cleans does it all). We had vodka immediately, and lots of food. Zana wasn’t ever allowed to join her own birthday party. She had to keep cooking, because we eat two meals. And look after the babies, as her husband just watches TV and talks to his friends. I was pretty angry.

We were toasting her for her birthday and she wasn’t even part of the party.

January 31, 2006

Well the last week has been pretty good.

First off I discovered that I can very easily make a pretty good pizza. I even made homemade sauce. Toppings are pretty limited right now. So cheese, corn and onions are about it. I haven’t been able to find any olives or mushrooms, all though I hate mushrooms anyway. I also found cocoa puffs at the store. Just one box, but they were cocoa puffs. I of course bought them and had good breakfast this week. Who knows if they will ever get more in.

Last Friday I got to use Internet in my own village. I walked to the licium and the Internet actually worked. I was able to email, read about All My Children, check out the news, and even order some new clothes from American Eagle, which should be arriving in Sandpoint any time now.

Still no mail here, just a small envelope with JELLY BELLYS!!!! They were so good. The first American candy I have had in a long time. I sat in front of the computer and ate Jelly Bellys for two hours. It was a great day.

Classes have been difficult lately, mostly with my older students, as they are experiencing senoritis, like any high school senior might about this time of the year. They don’t seem to want to learn any English and the boys spend most of their time chatting or running around chasing girls. Sometimes I just send them away, out of the class so that I can actually teach the students that want to be there.

Nothing exciting has happened in weeks. No mice, no mail, no snowballs in the face, nothing.

Oh last Saturday, I had a pizza party with my students though. It was pretty fun. Four girls came to my house and I taught them how to make pizza. They loved it. We made personal sized pizzas and listened to music, (thanks to my host brother I now have a huge selection of Kyrgyz and Russian music on my computer) and then they helped me do the dishes and left.

I have been tutoring a 24-year-old girl who want to be an English translator in Bishkek. She comes over every afternoon and meets with me to work on grammar and practices speaking. She learned English six years ago from the first volunteer who came to Kyzyl-Adyr (My village), Robert. He actually wrote a book about his experiences if anyone is interested, it is titled This is Not Civilization.

February 1, 2006

Well my illness has overcome me. I have had to take a few days off from school, actually by doctor’s orders. And have spent the past two days laying in bed playing Snake on my cell phone, drinking homemade apple juice and reading. I have read The Loop by Nicholas Evans. White Oleander, Catch 22 and started The Screwtape Letters since Tuesday. (It’s Wednesday evening). But it’s been nice to rest. Tomorrow, no school for me, all though I must venture out of my bedroom to go to the post office. I am not only expecting eight packages from the States, but medicine from the doctor as well. My host sister is here with her babies for a few days. Whenever the power is out at her house she comes here. I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to sit at home and wait on my husband’s family. (My future husband be warned, whoever you are). Dur (one of her son’s, he’s three), has been sick as well, so he is hanging out with me. He drank all my juice though, but I got him back. I gave him a real cough drop – he was expecting candy.

Today I gave my host brother a lecture about going out so much. He seems to be busy every night. Maybe I am just bitter, since I get rather bored in the evening. His response was ‘Don’t tell me in America you didn’t go out partying and to movies and to see your friends. You just don’t have any here. I do.’ Pretty funny. He also had me convinced that the puppy, ‘Puppy,’ died last night. (It is suffering from worms). I about had a heart attack, but it was a joke on me. I found him in the cow barn, sleeping.

So no Internet this week, me not being able to leave the house, and Nichole feeling just as miserable on the other side of town. We’re a bunch of saps out here in Kyrgyzstan. Erich is toughing out the winter… I think he’s healthy.

February 6, 2006

Well I survived. And I am back in school this week. It was actually a pretty good day. My lessons went well and I got a small package from home!

Not the missing boxes, but still, the cutest Victoria Secret ‘Pink’ pajamas ever. I will wear the shirt to school it is so cute! And hot cocoa mix and two new books. Being that I have read just about everything in sight the last week or so, they couldn’t have come at a better time, so thank you thank you thank you mommy!

So anyway, today I watched the craziest television show ever. AMERICAN MEN WHO COME TO KYRGYZSTAN LOOKING FOR YOUNG GIRLS TO TAKE HOME.

They actually come on to this show with a translator and make a plea for a wife, and then wait for girls to call in to the show. They give explanations to why they want brides, and then they have a question-answer session with the hostess.

Disgusting. I don’t even know what to say. I couldn’t believe it. The English was in the background, then the men’s voices were dubbed over. They said things like ‘Kyrgyz girls are so beautiful and they value family.’ Who are they kidding? It was sickening. And my host mom just watched and laughed along with the studio audience.

February 7, 2006

Today was a good day. After school I spent the afternoon basking in the sun with my puppy, from the top rung of our barn ladder. It was great. It was warm and bright out and I got some color in my face.

I had a good day at school as well. We played Bingo in my classes. But with the not-so-advanced students it was a simple version. For example, if you have brown hair you put your marker down,, if you have two cows at home, or if you are wearing blue. In my advanced classes we played parts of speech Bingo, a game sent to me by my Daddy. The kids loved it, and they can pick out adverbs and prepositions better than I can. I was thoroughly impressed.

I am going to make my own Bingo cards for my beginner students this weekend. And I have a few American tokens to give away as prizes. Pencils and flags and pins and such. And some nasty Kyrgyz candy.

Some Fun pictures from the past few weeks

2006-01-08T21:47:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures, hopefully from the past couple weeks. ONe is of me in my new Christmas sweater and the others are random pictures of my room, my students and my host family. Oh and some from Erich's birthday.

Finally -- An update

2006-01-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

December 21, 2005

First off, thanks to Nicole telling my host mom that in America we respect horses, I no longer will be offered any horse meat. We explained that it is shameful, and that said it all. Once you bring shame into a situation, it’s finished.

And second, today my 9th form lesson actually caused a fist fight. Dad, you will have to tell my former Spanish teacher that the fly swatter game doesn’t work in Kyrgyzstan. I got the boys to take it outside which solved the problem, but it was pretty intense for a while in the classroom. I was hiding under a desk with the other girls, when the boys started throwing chairs.

Anyway, that behind me, life isn’t all that bad.

December 27, 2005

All right a long entry… rightfully so. (I have not had Internet access for weeks now, thus why I haven’t written any emails to anyone).

TOP TEN REASONS TO HAVE RESPECT FOR THE US POSTAL SYSTEM

10. Post offices actually open at the posted hours.
9. Packages are not wrapped in a paper sack and tied with twine and glue stick.
8. If you have mail, they give it you.
7. They have stamps available, you don’t have to come back next week.
6. They do not close at noon for a two-hour lunch/vodka break.
5. They don’t decide to not come back after lunch breaks.
4. It isn’t closed for school vacations and random Saturdays too.
3. When you have a package, it fits through the window; you don’t have to go around to the back of the building to receive it.
2. It isn’t a game to hide your mail from you. In fact, it’s illegal.
1. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BRIBE THE WORKER TO GET UP AND CHECK THE BACK ROOM FOR PACKAGES.

So I have had it with the post office. Twice in a week I have left in tears. Today, because Erich had informed me of a blue envelope from America with my name on it, waiting for me. I went in to the office during my free period, hoping to get a Christmas card from home (which will be my first Christmas card by the way that isn’t from my wonderful mother). The regular woman was not there, and these horrible ladies kept laughing at me and yelling that I had no packages and no letters, even though Erich saw the card with my name on it. I tried to explain that I had a blue envelope behind the window waiting for my pick up, but the women refused to look.

Last week I was just disappointed in mail all together, as since I have been in Talas I haven’t received any mail from anyone besides Mommy dearest.

So lets drop the mail subject for a while.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I actually had a pretty great time here. First off, Erich and I had to spend Christmas Eve day at my school giving a test to English students, similar to the SAT. The students were in a classroom and took four different tasks, testing their English. Erich and I proctored, wrote and graded the test, while the rest of the volunteers in our oblast (12) headed to a nearby village for Christmas dinner. Apparently they had fried chicken and spaghetti and sang Christmas carols.

Our testing session took all day, and was quite a sight. Administrators were cheating for their students, the students actually ask each other questions and try to help each other during the test, and it is perfectly acceptable. We tried to stop the talking and have a fair test. The good part was that one of my students, Aziza, won for the 9th form. The test is graded on the spot and one winner is chosen from each form (grade).

Afterward, exhausted, Erich and I headed to my house for a Christmas celebration.

The night before Christmas Eve, I actually baked again. First we hit the bazaar, where I found amazing, delicious apples at a great price. I bought three kilos. We also were able to find some powdered vanilla, cinnamon, eggs, sugar, flour, oats, pickles (just because I love them) butter and milk. Nicole and I headed back to my house, where my plan was to tackle an apple pie.

Following the Peace Corps recipe, I tried to peel about 50 apples. Lets just say apple peeling is not one of my strong points. Maybe in two years I will be Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, but for now, I had a tough time. I sat on my little milking stool (that’s what we sit on for chairs) and tackled one apple, after about five seconds of watching this, Zamir (my host brother) grabbed a knife and showed me up. He peeled all of the apples before I finished my first one, and then took that one out of my hand and finished it for me. I was impressed. He helped me with the entire pie. We made crusts and of course I was having a heck of a time rolling the dough out into a 13-inch flat disk, so he showed me how to do that as well. We made cookies and brownies too, and the pie turned out great. Apparently I don’t qualify to be a Kyrgyz wife; pity the poor man who attempts to kidnap me; I don’t make a very good loaf of bread (which is something we make daily, even though I have stopped eating bread, which again is shameful, but hey, I am starting to hate it).

So everyone came over at about 5 pm on Saturday evening. We set up in my formal party room, which I know has had some good use, as I saw pictures of a former volunteer playing beer pong in it. Kathryn brought a cake, so we had plenty of food, and I made a hot sangria punch, (thinking of Alison the entire time and our nights at Sangria in Moscow). We had beer, vodka, sangria and about 20 bottles of champagne and wine. We played cards and scrabble and gave Christmas toast all night. It was a great Christmas with wonderful company.

Unfortunately, I started to get sick on Saturday, and by Sunday morning was without a voice and without energy (Contrary to what you might be thinking, it wasn’t from drinking, as I don’t drink more than a glass of wine or two here ever since the incident with the Tylenol pm in the training village). I have a splitter in my room that allows about six things to be plugged in at once, so everyone plugged cell phones in and one by one the Christmas calls started pouring in, with me answering all of them and delivering phones to the owners. I also got to open all my presents that I Elizabeth Dalessio actually saved for Christmas. What makes me happy? Anyone want to guess?? Yep, more clothes. Warm ones at that. Fleece jammies, two fleeces, a wool sweater, more long johns (pink!), perfume, a new toothbrush, a thermometer (almost 50 degrees today by the way Daddy), new slippers, conditioner, Godiva, my favorite huckleberry lotion, make up (which I was completely out of and desperately needed – well maybe not desperately, I am in Kyrgyzstan) and turtlenecks. January and February won’t be getting to me (the two coldest months of the year here). So thanks mom and dad, it made Christmas great (and I’ll send pictures of the lovely wool sweater soon).

My village is actually home to the only Frisbee golf course in Kyrgyzstan, (of course developed by volunteers) and Erich and Ian and Amy, Jesika and Kathryn headed up the hill to play nine holes on Christmas, as the weather has been great here. The rest of stayed behind in my room and watched Christmas movies. We watched Christmas with the Kranks for the Peace Corps reference, and wanted to point out that the girl in the movie was not a real volunteer, as you aren’t allowed to take vacations after only a month out of country. We were all shocked by her sudden trip back to the states. We also watched Miracle on 34th Street, my favorite Christmas movie of all time and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Everyone left in the afternoon and my darling brother heated up the banya for us, making Christmas even better. We both got banyas and I got to use my new lotions and wear my new pajamas. I talked to mom and dad and made it though my first Christmas ever away from home (ever).

I went to bed early on Sunday night and stayed home from school on Monday. I am now the warden while Nicole is in India on a three-week vacation, so I have two cell phones and am in charge in case of riots or emergencies…

Today I went back to school all though it is hard to teach because the students are busy preparing for the New Years holiday, in which the school gets decorated and a giant celebration takes place. In Kyrgyzstan people incorporate Christmas with New Years. So students dress up as Santa and decorate like you would for Christmas, including a New Years tree.

On Friday I head into Bishkek for New Years to meet Rebecca. I can’t wait. A night at the Hyatt and dancing and a little bit of shopping… and then an American buffet, that guess what… has a salad bar. It is going to be an amazing weekend. I hope it doesn’t snow through the pass and that we actually can get through the border!

OH WOW! Two very important things that I completely forgot to mention.

I had my first thought of fleeing this country. Last week I was teaching a lesson to the 9th form about clothing and body parts, when I giant freaking mouse ran across the floor right in front of me and went into a hole in the wall. Once again I ask you to happy and thankful that your office buildings are heated, have coffee pots, hot water, bathrooms, electricity and NO HOLES IN THE WALLS WHERE MICE COLONIES RUN RAMPID. I am deathly afraid of mice. Terrified. Horrified. Appalled. Sickened. Aghast. Shocked. Get the idea? I hate mice. Big small, whatever, I despise them and their disgusting tails. Anyway, I screamed, yelled ‘Oh My God’ and ran to the back of the classroom onto a desk occupied by two male students. I think I about cried. The students were shocked. I don’t think they have ever seen that kind of reaction to a mouse sighting before. When I told the other teachers, they laughed and said they are all over the school. Reassuring huh? I have class in that room tomorrow, but will be moving the students to my own classroom. (I go from classroom to classroom, as it assures that the students will actually come to class, if they have to walk to a different room for class, they won’t come).

And second I, the hair genius of the world, have found a way to use my electronic devices in Kyrgyzstan. My leatherman has been the best thing ever here. It has a file on it, so I filed down the plug in part of my curling iron and straightner cords and they now fit into a little converter that cost a quarter and plug into the wall perfectly. No adapter needed. I have beautiful hair again. I blow-dried my hair today and flipped it out and feel wonderful. Oh the things that make me happy, I know. But hey, that’s four months with no curling iron or straightner. Pretty impressive. (This is me we are talking about).

And also, I never thought my favorite meal would be macaroni noodles with ketchup? Who knew? I have to thank Nicole for the closest thing to a sandwich that I have had in months… bread with carrot salad, a little fake mayo, pickles and cheese. It works and if you try hard enough, its like having a veggie sandwich from Subway.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all.

Jordan, what can I say, we all miss you and hope you get better. You lasted a lot longer than I would have in your situation and all of us are thinking about you.

Mom and Dad, thanks for making my first Christmas away wonderful. I miss you both tons and tons.

KINSIE LIPP!!!! Happy Anniversary!!!!! The first year is the toughest… now you can survive anything. Congratulations, I hope I can find someone like Mikey to make me as happy as you are. I love you.

December 29- January 3

Five Things to be Thankful for when traveling this holiday season:

5. That in order to get to the nearest big city, you don’t have to leave the country and then come back in.

4. Cars with heat, hell, cars with seatbelts…

3. That you don’t have a stamp on your forehead that says ‘Rich American’ like I do.

2. In order to cross the border, you don’t have to give the guard your phone number

1. When you stop at a rest area you don’t have to pay to use a whole in the ground and then extra for toilet paper, hoping that the marchrutka doesn’t leave without you.
Well, I made it to Bishkek. I made it to the Hyatt. I survived.

Barely.

On Friday morning Zamir and I walked to the bus station (about a 30-minute walk) from my house after a big fight over me having a third cup of tea. (There is an unspoken rule about always having at least three cups of tea at a meal). He carried my bag, which to my own surprise was pretty small for what I usually travel with. Amy was waiting for me at the bus station, all ready in a taxi. She assured me that the driver was taking us through Kazakhstan, not through the mountain pass, (which I am deathly afraid of), so I hopped in. After an hour the driver was finally ready to go, and I noticed right off the bat that we were not headed toward Bishkek. Instead he took us up some mountain and messed around with a horse and a bunch of people in a small village for another hour. At this point Amy decided to just forgo the trip entirely, but I couldn’t.

We got back to my village, where we had started from and I jumped in a marchrutka headed for Bishkek, through Kazakhstan, exactly what I needed. It was cheap too. I talked to the driver before getting in the van, and he assured me that we were headed to Taraz, a city in Kazakhstan, and the only border in which Americans are allowed to cross. I settled in nicely and listened to my Ipod until I noticed we were slowing down at an unfamiliar place. It looked like a border crossing, but not one that I had ever been to. Immediately in a panic, I got my passport out and waited for the guard to come on board. The first crossing is the Kyrgyz customs crossing, which I had no problem getting through. Next we moved on to the Kazakhstan crossing. A man came on the marchrutka and began checking passports. When he got to me, he looked at my passport, looked at me and shook his head. He finished checking all the other passports then picked up my bag and plucked me from the marchrutka, sending it on its way, without me. (Keep in mind that I did not get my money back for the prepaid trip to Bishkek).

I knew I was in for a long day.

He took me inside the station and because I was a little teary-eyed, he lightened up a bit, introduced me to other officers, and brought me tea. There were four in all and they kept me pretty entertained while I waited for a bus to arrive and take me to the correct border crossing. They tried to teach me the Kazak language and referred to one another as King Kong. After about four hours a bus showed up. They escorted me onto the bus which seriously had at least 100 people crammed on it. I had to sit on the steps, where the automatic door opens. Because we had become such good friends, the border patrol warned each and every person on that bus to stay away from me, respect me and not to even think about stealing from me. The driver had instructions on where to take me, and he did so, but it was the absolute worst bus ride I have ever been on. Ever. It stopped every 25 feet and let people off and each person seriously had about 100 pounds of oil, bread and fireworks for New Years. When I finally reached the border, I was able to cross fairly easily, after an interview with the main guard on the Kazak side. He was friendly though, and helped me into a taxi, which was supposed to take me to the bus station in Taraz. Instead, he took me to the bazaar. From there I had to find another taxi to the bus station. This man was not friendly, and the doors only opened from the outside. I tried to pay him in som, but because I was no longer in Kyrgyzstan, he only wanted Tinge. (Kazak money). Which I don’t have. I begged him to let me out of the car, but he refused, wanting more som than I was giving him. It was only a five-minute ride, so it shouldn’t have cost much at all. I got out my cell phone and tried to call for help, but Kyrgyz cell phones don’t work over there. Finally, after banging on the window, a man opened my door from outside. I ran from the crazy taxi man and tried to find a marchrutka headed to Bishkek, but because it was all ready 4:00 p.m., (Mind you I left at 9 am and was technically only an hour from my village) no marchrutkas were going to Bishkek. I found the taxi section, but the man started taunting me after I turned down their offers to drive me for 3 thousand som. I walked in circles trying to find a way, but ended up back at the taxis. One man asked me if I was going to walk to Bishkek. It was a wonderful experience. By this time I was in tears, cold and tired and had no choice but to pay the man and go. Of course though, he wanted Tinge. So I had to first go to the ATM and withdraw American money and then exchange it at a bank.

Four and a half hours later the taxi arrived at a huge neon sign that said Customs. It looked like the entrance to Disneyland. I knew once again that I was at an unfamiliar border crossing. Of course my lying piece of crap taxi driver dropped me off and left, with pretty much every cent I had. Another girl had ridden in the taxi with me, and she and I went across the border together. Of course she turned out to be conniving as well, as when the desk took a long time to process my passport, she told me to pay them! Like hell I was going to pay the Customs guy to let me across the border! I told her to get lost, but she kept following me. From the border I grabbed a taxi, got a hold of Xouhoa and Rebecca, who had been in Bishkek waiting for me since noon, and took the last leg to Bishkek. The taxi dropped the girl and I off downtown, which was decorated with Christmas decorations, and was crowded and in good spirits. It reminded me off home, seeing so many people all getting ready to celebrate a holiday. Anyway, the girl booked it from the taxi, and I was raging by this point. I threw money to the driver, got out of the car, spotted her, and then heard familiar voices. It was Scott and Leslie, a married couple, both lawyers from Colorado, also volunteers who live in Bishkek. I ran to them, in tears, and Leslie chased the girl down with me and demanded money. I got it. And then to top it all off, a big fat rat ran across the sidewalk. It was 11:00 p.m.

And that was my trip to Bishkek.

Rebecca, Xouhoa, Charlie, Anne, Phil and Katie were all inside the café waiting. It was a wonderful reunion. We all headed out on the town, hitting a local hookah bar first. Rebecca and I wanted to go the hotel and get some sleep, as it was after 1 am, so we took a taxi to the Kyrgyz Alton, a small adequate hotel. But, of course we were taken to the wrong place. The sign said Kyrgyz Alton, but it was an apartment building, not a hotel, which we found out after accosting the bellman for a half hour. We took another taxi to the correct hotel and checked into a single room. We found a rollaway bed in the hallway and crashed, (Communal bathrooms by the way). In the morning we headed out on the town.

We had pancakes at a café and then trekked to the Hyatt, hoping for early check in. We stopped along the way at an ATM, at a department store to pick up speakers for my computer, and then ran into an older military couple on the street. They told us the base was having a big concert for New Years, part of the USO Tour. A country concert… Well, everyone knows me and country music…but the man couldn’t remember the name. I did some investigating, it turned out to be Carrie Underwood, from American Idol. I was jealous.

Anyway, we got to the Hyatt at 11 and were able to check in. We were sent straight up to the top floor as we were staying in the Regency Level. We were immediately given a fruit basket and taken by a bellboy to our suite. He gave us a tour of our room, explaining how everything worked, (Internet connection, heated towel rack, etc.) There was a tray of Christmas cookies and lots of oranges for us, along with robes and slippers. We booked massages right away, and relaxed in the room before heading down to the gym. The massage was incredible. Hot stones, for more than an hour. Amazing and so worth it. Afterward we headed to high tea for all the ice tea and American food we wanted. It was also amazing. I have never been so happy to see ravioli with real spaghetti sauce and I think Xouhoa felt the same way with cappuccinos. We headed back to the room, relaxed longer and then headed to cocktail hour at our private lounge. Because we were the only guests staying on that floor, we were treated amazingly. We drank so much Kahluha, it was wonderful. I was the bartender, which was fun, and we had more hoer'doerves, watching fireworks from around the city, (fireworks here are abundant, it was like the fourth of July). Afterward we took turns taking baths in our amazing Jacuzzi tub and then rang in the New Year at our balcony with pizza and French fries, delivered from the hotel kitchen.

We caught word that all phone calls with Bitel cell phones would be free for one week, so we tried calling everyone we could. But so did everyone else in Kyrgyzstan, so now the system is entirely shut down.

In the morning we headed down to the sauna and whirlpool and say for a couple of hours, trying to figure out a way to put off checking out and heading back to our villages. We all showered (probably for the fourth time in two days (or more like the fourth time in months)) and then we drug our feet down to the checkout, where we were given more oranges. Oh yeah, first we go to watch the ball drop in New York though, which was fun.

We hit the New Years’ Brunch, which we all agreed was the best part of the trip. It has cereal, an omelet bar, a salad bar, an ice cream bar, a spaghetti station, chicken, duck, lamb chops, fruit, basically everything possible. We were mesmerized. We had mimosas and fish and absolutely no potatoes. We also met a couple of Americans who promised to bring us goodies from home, as they were going on vacation and then coming back to Kyrgyzstan. (Ask me for more info).

We got a late start on traveling, but I was able to find a marchrutka back to Talas. It wasn’t heated and it wasn’t fast, and the blizzard didn’t help. But I made it through the border, knew better when the man didn’t turn to take me to the correct border, had him stop, got a taxi back to the only border I could cross, and made it home safely at midnight, only to be locked out of the house. It took snowballs at the window to get Zamir to let me in. Thank god I have a good arm, because I had to through them up to the second story, over the massive compound-like fence that we have, and in the cold blizzard.

Quite a trip.

Oh yeah, and on that one bus in Kazakhstan, my pink American hat with matching gloves was stolen, along with a mini flashlight/lighter combo from my pocket. Very, very sad.

But I’m back, and taught classes today, and vacation starts on Friday, for one week. Hopefully cell phones will start working soon, but who knows.

Oh yeah, also, in Bishkek I was able to buy DVDS. I got Narnia, Harry Potter 4, the Dukes of Hazzard, Just Like Heaven and Fever Pitch. For less then $3. Pretty sweet deal.
Too bad I watched them all already. I loved Just Like Heaven, but really is there any Reese Witherspoon movie that I don’t like?

Oh this is great, one of my students gave me this card for New Years:

Happy New year Elizabet!
Dear Elizabet
I wish you Good Luck for Cristmas happy new year!
You are so good, so pretty, so kinds, so nice, so best, cool friends.
I want to wish you many good friends for you, But I’ll wish you very main friends.
My present/gift and Santa Claus!!!
I kiss, to hug you
I love you Elizabet
Iaza

It was written on the back of a framed picture of a waterfall. My students are really great.

January 3-7, 2006

Well it was an easy week at school, that’s for sure. Hardly any students showed up and on Thursday I spent the entire day just filling out journals for each of my eleven classes. Journals are similar to grade books, except students receive grades 1-5. A five is the best and a four is above average and a three is average. I am not allowed to give anything below a three. I have a hard time tackling the journals because I cannot read Kyrgyz cursive writing, and even if I could it only says the students last name. I know the students by first names. (This is because the average last name here is something like Kurmanakunov). So, when asked to fill the journals out, I couldn’t figure out which student was which. This is where having a ‘counterpart’ comes in, as they are supposed to translate and help you as needed. No sign of one at Lenin School. Turns out I didn’t need to know my students’ last names anyway, because the teachers insisted that they change all my grades. I was not allowed to issue a single grade based on my own observations and assignments. Not even going to get started on corruption.

So the phones are still off in the country, so I haven’t been able to communicate with anyone for more than a week now. I guess I am in the Peace Corps though, so maybe I shouldn’t rely on a cell phone so much…

I was feeling down one afternoon this week after another uneventful trip to the Post Office. Still no packages. I don’t have any paper. I write letters daily and I have no paper. I know there is some in one of the packages headed here, and I am trying to patiently wait, but writing on graph paper is not fun… (wait til’ people start getting my graph paper letters). Anyway, Zamir (host brother) went out to buy some more ketchup and noodles for me and came back with an American DVD. I don’t know where he got it, but it had five movies on it, and they were all in English. Since I had watched the four movies I bought in Bishkek all ready, (okay the Reese Witherspoon one like 100 times) it was great. I got Shark Tale, Ladder 49, Forgotten, Mr. 3000 and Sky Captain oh yeah and Spiderman 2. I can’t bring myself to watch Ladder 49 though. Too sad.

Also no Internet in weeks. You can probably tell by the length of this blog entry. Oh, I just found out the 10th is another one of those big holidays where you have to go to at least seven different houses for a meal and tea or you are shamed. Not looking forward to it. It takes me about two days to recover from these things. So much tea in the system I have to fast and drink about 2 gallons of water to get back to normal. Not that I mind giving up potatoes and ketchup for a day or two…

Could someone please send me some magazines? Girls I know you all buy the new Cosmos and Glamours every month… send me your old copies please… I’m begging you… I need my fix… Its bad enough I have to miss TWO years of All My Children. I need to know the Glamour Do’s and Don’ts! (Even though everything’s a do over here, believe me).

So I’m on vacation for 2 weeks, in a village with no Internet and no Nichole (she’s in India for three weeks). What am I going to do? It’s too cold to be outside and I’ve read so much that I am starting to feel guilty about it. I mean today I read Great Expectations in one sitting… What have I become?

Damn no power again… Thanks for reading.

Finally an update!!!! Most recent last

2005-12-20T01:41:00.000-08:00

December 11, 2005

Well its Sunday afternoon, and I am bored.

Thursday and Friday were pretty fun teaching days, though it’s a long week of classes. I have 22 hours to teach and four of my classes are really advanced, which is great. I have my first day of club tomorrow at 2, as well. I think I am going to bring whatever I can find, and we will decorate my classroom. Clubs are kind of like extra English lessons after school, where we can discuss anything students who show up want. I haven’t decided what kind of club to have, if I will center it around a certain topic or not, I mean.

So I spent Thursday in my room intently working on a Christmas puzzle that my parents sent me. The thing about me is that once I start something I don’t stop until I finish it. I guess that is good and bad, but I seriously spent 7 hours working on this damn puzzle until it was complete. And then to top it off I was missing one of the 500 pieces. I gave up after searching my room for another hour, and then went to bed. I woke up in the morning and saw the puzzle piece, blending in with my rug, right in front of me, of course. So thanks mom and dad for sending me the puzzle, it was entertaining…

I had my first Kyrgyz lesson here as well. My host mother is a Kyrgyz teacher, so I don’t have to get a tutor. We are starting at the beginning, again. This way I’ll maybe remember some of the stuff I learned in September.

My favorite student, Myrambek, (the one that white-washed me) is becoming a pain in the ass. He likes to kiss my hand and put his arm around me, and then leaves the classroom to ‘go to the toilet’ and never comes back, Maybe its better that way.

On Saturday I was silly. I woke up at 8 to head into Talas City to meet Macheala and use the Internet. I didn’t bother to check the weather, as it is dark here until about 9 am, since we are the only country in the world that doesn’t change the clocks, ever. So I put on jeans, wool socks, a sweater and my shell of my coat. And then a hat and gloves. I walked to the bus station which is about a two-mile walk, and I thought I might die. It was so cold. My fault for dressing poorly, but I figured I would be in a warm marchrutka, sweating from having a hundred people crammed in with me, like previous times. Apparently the times have changed. The marchrutka I took had no heat, and I was next to the back window, which never thawed. The driver didn’t even bother to thaw out any of his windows. He just scratched a little part off so he could see and then me and 17, seriously, 17 other people headed into Talas. Its and hour ride. Without stops. But, in a marchrutka you stop and pick people up along the way, and let people off. It was horrible. I had a 17-year-old girl on my lap and I still froze. I was so cold that I was shaking and she kept looking at me to see what was wrong. Never again will I go out without my thermal long underwear, and at least two sweaters and my down coat. When I finally got to the multi-media center I just sat on a heater until I could feel my body again. It was a horrible experience but self-inflicted, I know Dad.

Well we emailed for a while and then had lunch at a cafÈ with the best pizza I have had in Kyrgyzstan. We found out new treat for trips to the city. Chris and Melinda, a married couple in the city got there internet hooked up, so they have dial-up in their house, and I am jealous. They say it works wonderfully and is actually cheaper at night, which is when I will be using it. I can’t wait.

Macheala and I hit the bazaar to try and find the ingredients we needed to make no bake cookies and hot chocolate. After quite a struggle, we managed to find vanilla and baking cocoa, the two tough ingredients. Vanilla is powdered and comes in tiny packets like yeast comes in. You can only buy half a teaspoon at a time. So if someone wanted to send vanilla to me, I would be grateful, powdered or bottled. (Preferably powdered). We bought oats, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, butter and powdered milk and went on our way. I also bought a dress coat, finally to wear to school over my nice clothes. Appearance is extremely important in Kyrgyzstan. Everyone dresses nicely in public, especially the men. I whacked one of my students with my chalkboard eraser rag and I thought he would rip my head off, he was so mad. So my big red coat has gotten me some weird looks at school. Now I have a black button up quilted pea-coat style dress coat to wear to school, with removable fur trim, as that is the style here.

We took a marchrutka with heat back to the village, which is now a two-hour trip as we don’t have snow plows here. Nicole came over and we listened to music and I actually made hot chocolate mix. I am pretty proud of myself. My family brought a small table into my room so we could eat supper in private which was really sweet, even though unneccesrry, and then my brother served us. Such a sweet family. Macheala and I got a surprise banya, so we were happy, and then we made no-bake cookies. We have a gas stove, so it was pretty easy. We brought my computer downstairs and listen to Christmas music and cooked. The family loved it. (My host sister was visiting with her two babies and her cute husband). Afterward, to let the cookies cool, we just stuck them outside and they were cold within minutes. They were a huge hit, the family ate them all. They even asked for the recipe in Kyrgyz, but you can’t get peanut butter here, the main ingredient. A pretty successful cooking venture. Next is Kahluha and pumpkin pie for Christmas.

So all in all, a good weekend, with a hard lesson learned. DO NOT LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT LONG JOHNS. EVER.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I’ve brought Christmas to Kyrgyzstan!

As I walked home from my daily trek to the post office this afternoon, I saw a lonesome Christmas tree in front of a small, local shop. Next to it was a table filled with all sorts of ornaments and stars for the top. I couldn’t resist… Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I bought the tree, (its about four feet tall), and a star topper, along with a box of silver and blue bulbs and a box of red and blue bigger bulbs. Oh yeah and a red garland too. I rushed home, in such a hurry to decorate it, that of course I broke the stand when I slipped on the ice (NOT WEARING MY YAK-TRACKS, SILLY ME), but it still stands up and looks great in my bedroom. I hung my stocking above it and put my Christmas presents underneath. I am proud to say that they are all still unopened and re-wrapped (Thanks to Laurie, when the postal workers took the liberty to open my package). Christmas shouldn’t be that bad!

Two days into school this week and all ready I want to throw students out the window, (and by the way my own window, as I finally got my classroom up and running and in use). What the hell do you do when two 10th grade boys are fighting in the classroom, seriously fist fighting, and they don’t really understand the words stop, go the director’s office or sit down? I tried to beat them with a stick, really Dad, but they just ignored me.

Lucky for me the other students like me a lot and feel like those rowdy boys are shaming me, so the good students got them to settle down and wait for class to end to finish the fight.

Now I don’t remember ever being as active and obnoxious in the 8th grade as my 8th grade students are. I know that 8th grade was the year where I threw a tantrum when one teacher gave me an A-. I was an angel. I went to class, I played a million sports and I did my homework. I didn’t throw things at the boys or knock over people’s chairs during class. I didn’t try to get the teacher to write obscenities on the blackboard. And I definitely did not get up and leave class and go home for the day, whenever I felt like it (Those days came in high school). My 8th graders might just drive me insane by the end of the year. On top of that half of them don’t speak and Kyrgyz, so I can hardly communicate with them. Twice a week, only twice a week.

At home, my host mother is a kick in the pants. She loves to use my Kyrgyz dictionary to look up every new word she teaches me, to make sure that I understand it. Even if I tell her, yes I understand. She’s hilarious. Today she looked up a word to describe my 8th grade class, and the English translation was ‘greenhorn or raw youth.’ Then she told me something about her son, and pointed to ‘manpower.’ I sometimes get the jest of what she is saying. But how funny is it that I had to look up the English translation in the dictionary to find out that ‘greenhorn’ means somebody who is naÔve and unsophisticated. I love our Kyrgyz lessons.

More exciting news, that may make some of you laugh. But thanks to the last female volunteer before me, I am the proud owner of a Kyrgyz curling iron, which I have been looking for all over. (Mine have to be converted for heating reasons and I don’t like using all my propane for my portable). Pretty exciting!

Another sad note. My puppy here, Chase, was kidnapped from our house last night! He was so fluffy and cute, and I hadn’t even got around to taking his picture yet. That’s the last straw with me and dogs in this country. I’m happy with the stuffed one sitting on my desk. That poor puppy didn’t even have ears, and someone still took him? I don’t understand. I had trained him too, to be nice, to cuddle and to come when I whistled. Such a letdown. And don’t ask why he didn’t have ears. (They cut them off. I don’t know why and they just laugh at me when I ask).

December 17, 2005

If I decide to stay in Kyrgyzstan and become a ‘kellen’ I have had more than enough offers this week, (A kellen by the way, is a woman who marries the youngest son in a family. She then proceeds to move in with her husband’s family and will spend the rest of her life basically as a slave, working to keep the in-laws happy and have babies all the while).

In class this week, I got my first love note. It was from a student named Nurmat. Instead of taking the test over body parts like the rest of the class, he drew me a fancy heart with an arrow through it and my name and his inside and gave it to me.

It was a good week though, all in all.

I did have a bad experience with a nasty Russian woman though. I went down town to the little cafÈ where Erich and Nicole have a community English conversation group on Wednesday nights. I was very bundled up after learning my lesson last weekend, so I had entered the cafÈ without looking around, slowly peeling off layers. After a minute of thawing out, this nasty woman came flying at me like Cruela Deville, grabbing my arm and my coat off the coat rack, pulling my toward the door. I had no idea what was going on, and tried to object, only to get an earful of Russian screaming, and then was pushed out the door, it shutting in my face. I stood outside, on the verge of tears for a minute and then a waitress came running outside to explain to me that the cafÈ had been rented out for a private party. Feeling a bit defeated, I trudged back home in my yak-traks, and went to bed early.

I have been having bad luck with the Internet this week, every time I have gone to use it, it has stopped working or the dial up shuts off. So no Internet for more than a week. Hopefully this one is better.

Five days of walking to the Post office too, and nothing. Mail is not going to get the best of me though, that’s for sure. I’ll keep walking down and checking every single day, no matter how hard those postal women laugh at me.
Nicole and I did some more baking though, we successfully made Erich a birthday cake and I made oatmeal cookies for the family, despite not having vanilla, brown sugar or cinnamon. They still tasted good. We cut up a chocolate bar for the chocolate chips, and everything worked out. Next week for our Christmas party we are having apple pie, made by me and a date/walnut cake made by Nicole. I also made Kahluha last week and am going to try a hot sangria punch this week. Should be a pretty good time.

Today is Erich’s birthday and all the volunteers are coming to our village to have a get together at the cafÈ, and then are planning to come here afterward. I love having a big house. In case I haven’t described it, it was two floors, which is extremely uncommon here, and four rooms upstairs. Four bedrooms and one giant formal dining room. Downstairs there is a kitchen, a smaller dining area, a foyer and a side room for laundry and storage. We have a big yard and our outhouse overlooks the town, which is extra special, because as the students walk home from school, they can see you going out to the outhouse, and like to yell hello and such. We also have a barn full of hay and one cow that we keep as a pet.

I experienced my first awkward student-teacher-principal encounter as well this week. I am not sure what was going on, or just what I walked in on, but the assistant principal was holding a big stick in her hand and three third form boys were in tears, yelling in strained Kyrgyz, which of course I couldn’t even begin to understand. Older students kept being called into the teacher’s room to be scolded. I saw one teacher chasing an 11th former down the hallway. It was madness and I am afraid to use more detail than that.

December 18, 2005

Well the cake was a success! It was actually really good and our group ate the entire thing. Six of us got together on Saturday afternoon for Erich’s birthday. We met at a cafÈ and then opened gifts from each village. Surprisingly, Nicole and I had gotten Erich the exact same thing as the other village. A Jesus clock. These are very popular here, so we thought Erich should have one. IT is a regular clock but the middle is Jesus on a cross with his arms coming out to point to the time. Pretty funny. Everyone in Kyrgyzstan has one, so now Erich has two, one of which is set to daylight savings time, which is an hour earlier, as the time is supposed to be here, but isn’t. We had a pretty good time, and even danced a bit at the disco until some of the Kyrgyz men got a little too friendly with Nicole, Machalla and I. We left and went to my house where we ate bread and this cheese spread stuff that we found at a store. Erich had a pretty good birthday and I just want to say thank you to his family for sending him bottles of Jim Beam. I enjoyed my whiskey and coke immensely.

Sunday I have devoted entirely to laundry. I haven’t done any laundry in a month, so it was a long and hard process, even with a machine. The machine only allows a bout a quarter of an American washing machine load, so it takes a lot of time. I even was picky in what I washed, but a month is a long time. I have every pair of underwear I have on the line outside. It is actually a pretty sunny day, so the clothes are drying pretty quickly. I am drying some heavy socks on my heater, it helps speed the process along.

With this post I am hoping to put up pictures… who knows if it will work or not. Thanks to Machalla for loaning my her USB stick for a while. I have great friends, here and at home. (I miss you guys so much)!

December 20, 2005

Still no Internet. Hopefully this afternoon. And also no mail.

What a day. I guess I am just starting to get used to the quarks of teaching in a crazy country, because just as I thought I was settling in and getting comfortable with my schedule, my students pointed out that I was in the wrong place today, every lesson. I went down and tried to decipher the ‘class schedule.’ Which is completely in Russian. I figured out the Russian word for English, and noticed that all of my class times had been moved and switched around. An entirely new schedule that no one thought to inform me of. Wonderful. So most of my lesson plans that I had prepared this week had to be changed, because I would no longer be seeing some certain classes on certain days and such. Because of this certain classes were missed on Monday, which puts some classes behind, etc. A real pain. Oh well. It also gave me two more lessons, which brings me up to 22 lessons a week.

And besides the scheduling crisis, my 8th grade still has not calmed down. It was worse today. I don’t know if they got anything out of my entire lesson. They were wild. First off I don’t have enough chairs for all of them and absolutely cannot get more. Second, one of them, after being punished, decided to pull his coat up over his head like the headless horseman and walk into the walls. Seriously, do they not discipline these kids or teach them how to act in the classroom? I am not going to resort to chasing them around with a giant stick like I’ve seen done, but I am about to that point with the younger ones. The rest are very well behaved. As long as the subject isn’t too dull, then the students are very attentive, even the boys who can’t write their own names in English. But, not the 8th grade. It’s tough.

I am trying to post a picture of my favorite boys at school. They made me a Happy New year’s sign on their own, and brought it to me today. They are 11th formers and all though they don’t speak any English and really don’t want to, they still behave well and are very sweet.

Christmas is not celebrated here, but New Year’s is a big party. I have been trying to explain Christmas and music, and one student actually burst out singing
Yesterday’ by the Beatles. Apparently Mr. Green, the volunteer before me liked the Beatles.

December 5-7

2005-12-09T21:32:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my old host family at the swearing in ceremony.

Top 5 Things that have happened to me this week so far (It is only Wednesday)

5. One of my 18-year-old students white washed me on my way home from school.
4. The kids at the Internet Café stole my USB stick.
3. My new ‘Apa’ (Mother) poured hot water into my cereal
2. I sat through my first ‘teacher’s’ meeting
1. More than half of my 200 students speak Russian. (I don’t).

Well, the good news is my school has heat. As does my house.

The bad news is, half of my students are Russian and I speak a total of six words in Russian. I can’t even pronounce their names. It’s a little bit difficult teaching English to Russian speakers when my small amount of language is Kyrgyz. The Russian students do not speak Kyrgyz. The Kyrgyz students speak Russian though, but that doesn’t really help. It does when the classes are mixed, so then I say something like “What is your name” or ‘sisdene atum askim’ in Kyrgyz, and then they translate it into Russian for me, and then the students answer. It’s a tough system, but it will have to work. I am spending my nights now trying to learn some basic Russian with a couple of manuals and books that I have. I would like to eventually be able to teach in all English, but I have to be realistic. Yelling out ‘Quiet’ in English doesn’t have much affect on any of my students. (There are more than 1000 students at my school).

But besides all that, it has been a great week so far. I began on Monday, walking into the teachers’ room to be greeted by my Director. (Director=Principal). She is a big, touch looking woman who wears a warm furry hat, and when I say fur, I mean like real fur, covering her whole head. She likes me though. A lot. She likes to touch my hair. Don’t ask me why, but she always smooths down the right side of my hair, even though it isn’t out of place or anything.

Anyway, on Monday I went straight into my lessons, beginning first with a 10 A. This is tenth grade, class A, which is 16-year-olds. And some 17-year-olds too. In Kyrgyzstan you have 11 grades, not 12, so my 11th grade students are 18 and some 19. My first lesson only had six students. The way school works here is, if you come you come, and if you don’t you don’t. Reasons for missing class include, working at home, being sick, not polishing your shoes (Shoes here must be polished all the time), not wanting to come, being ‘on duty’ which means you are standing in front of a door, being bored, etc. Students are not required to come to class. It is hard to get them to come all the time.
Anyway with all of my first week classes I have decided just to review and try to find out what English they all ready know. It seems to be working, I began with days of the week, numbers, introductions, basic getting to know one another questions, animals and family.

I see each class twice a week. I have 10 classes, so 20 lessons per week. Five everyday. Which is okay, as there are six periods in a day and I have one free period. School starts at 8:00 and ends at 1:00. On Mondays and Wednesdays I will have English Club after school, be request of my students, at 2:00. Here I will bring my computer, Cds and such, and we will speak English, listen to music and try to have discussions.

I teach one section of Russian 8th grade, both sections A,B, four sessions of 9th grade, sections A,B,V,G. (No idea why they are those letters), three sessions of 10th grade, sections A, B, V and two sections of 11th grade, sections A and B. Totaling more than 200 kids. I am trying to get a fifth grade as well. (Fifth grade is as young as they can strat English).

Can you believe that I am responsible for teaching more than 200 kids English? It’s an awesome, amazing opportunity.

The hard part is that the 11th graders are barely three years younger than me, and are fully grown boys, some with mustaches. The girls are at the point where they either get married or go to college, depending on money. Its going to be hard to teach them, both because it is so important for some of them to learn English, and also because a lot of the boys know they aren’t going to college and will be working in the fields for the rest of their lives. Really a split class, but today I just sat on my desk and talked to them. One of the boys in the class is very tall and big, he looks like a college student. Throws me a little off guard, but its okay. During introductions the class convinced me that he was 20 and has a wife and two kids at home. I believed them, this is Kyrgyzstan afterall, land of the ‘get married when you are 15!!!’ It turned out to be a joke and one girl actually asked me if we could learn things like the future tense and the simple present. I looked at her like she was crazy, I didn’t expect students to be that advanced. But, only she is. So she will work with me one-on-one after school.

In between classes today, I noticed a gap in the schedule for 10 minutes. Confused, I went and sat down in the teachers’ room wondering why from 10:25-10:35 we had a break in the schedule. Little did I know that was actually the time when the director conducts a teachers’ meeting, in the teacher’s room. It was insane. Everyone was quiet, and the director went on and on harshly in Kyrgyz, banging her fist on the desk as she went. I was a bit confused. But my name was being thrown into her fanatic speech! No idea why. And also I wondered about the Russian teachers, do they understand Kyrgyz?

Oh yeah, so this morning I got up, looking forward to my daily treat, cereal that I found at the bazaar. Cornflakes, mind you. Every morning I get up, run outside to the outhouse, come back into my warm bedroom, get dressed, fix my hair, make my bed, fill up my water bottle and head downstairs for tea. My apa is all ready up, as she gets us extra early and milks the cows. Here we don’t sell our milk though, we just drink it. Usually I have breakfast alone and then we walk to school together. (She is a Kyrgyz teacher at the same school). But, this morning she fixed my cereal for me, against my will. When I reached for the jar of milk, she grabbed the tea kettle and poured hot water on my precious cornflakes, then added milk. It was a sad morning. But, me being the go-with-the-flow sweet girl that I am, just put a little sugar on em’ and sucked it up, pretending it was oatmeal. Anyone who knows me knows I am a texture eater, so anything with a weird texture, I don’t eat, (Like squishy grapes, any kind of bruised fruit, ANYTHING SOGGY, leftovers, cottage cheese, etc). I managed though. I’m a new girl I tell you. I don’t think there is anything I can’t handle anymore. Well, maybe a mouse in the classroom, that might put me on a direct flight back to Idaho. (I forgot to mention that the students in Erich’s school (another volunteer in my village) brought a live mouse into his classroom last week).

It snowed this morning and hasn’t stopped. I woke up with just a little bit of snow, and when I left school there was nearly a foot. I guess the first snow always makes the students anxious, because as I mentioned above, the male student who was said to married tackled me and white washed me right in front of my school. Of course I wasn’t about to take that from some boy, so I had to fight back. I guess he wasn’t used to girls with good arms, because I pelted him in the back of the head as I walked away. Caught him off-guard. Thanks dad for always pelting me with snowballs when I walked up our driveway at home, it kept me on my toes. Sorry mom that you still have to deal with that, I’m sure every day.

My counterpart, well acting counterpart, until the real one comes back from ‘being sick’ (three and a half months), abuses the command tense. She yells at me, ‘Sit down.’ ‘TAKE OUT YOUR SCHEDULE.’ ‘WHERE ARE YOU GOING?’ ‘GO HOME NOW.’ It’s a bit frightening at times. Like when she says ‘Go home now.’ I feel like I am getting kicked out of school or something.

I do have a brother that lives with us here. His name is Zamir, and he is wonderful. He corrects my broken Kyrgyz and offers up random English words all the time. But he always comes running to open the gate for me, after I got caught jumping over it, instead of ringing the doorbell. He is 18 and is studying to be a lawyer. Here you just go straight to law school, no college. He does all the work around the house, including making me lunch, which I feel guilty about. But he forces me to drink at least two cups of tea all the time, which I can’t stand. Oh well. I love this family and am 100 times happier here than where I was before. We have honey here too, so I can put it in my tea if I want. We also have milk and juice. Homemade tomato juice, which is another one of those texture things I was talking about, but I manage to drink it anyway. We also have homemade bread and I am not forced to eat anything I don’t like. My apa understands that I don’t like giant steaks of fat, so she always prepares something else for me. Its great. Privacy too. I love it.

This weekend Machaela and I are having a slumber party at my house after we go into Talas to use the Internet. We are going to try to make hot chocolate mix, which I have a recipe for, and no-bake cookies too if we can find oatmeal.

Hopefully the Internet Café owner will find my USB stick, he said he would interrogate every boy that comes in to play video games. Here they don’t mess around, when an older person confronts a child, it isn’t usually pretty. I think he’ll find it.

THE GOOD NEWS IS NEXT WEEK I AM GETTING INTERNET AT MY HOUSE!!!

2005-12-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

Wow! Umm... December 3, 2005

December all ready, that’s exciting. Well we did it. All 59 (We started with 66) of us are now official Peace Corps volunteers. Thursday morning we got up early to say our good byes to our host families. A taxi came to pick me up at 9:00 am, but because this entire country runs on ‘Kyrgyz time’ it showed up closer to 10. Thus creating a small situation, as we were supposed to be at the Culture House in Tokmok for the ceremony by 10:30. And on top of that, the car broke down on the road. We ended up flagging down another beater car to take us the rest of the way to the ceremony but about a block away, he got a flat tire. We eventually made, walking.

Our host families were invited to the ceremony. Mine showed up about an hour into it, with the little spoiled kid who screams constantly. Rebecca’s were about an hour and a half late.

The ceremony was great. We sang the National Anthem, and really felt patriotic throughout the whole thing. I think most of us were a little teary eyed, but we held up. Jeff gave an amazing emotional speech to us, that helped keep us all motivated. Each speech given was translated into Kyrgyz and Russian, or English for us. The Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Kyrgyz Republic, Alikbek Djekshenkulov, spoke to us, telling us that “the outhouses may be cold, but our hearts are warm.” Also, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary her Excellency Marie Yovanovitch spoke and rendered our official oath to become volunteers. Three of my fellow volunteers gave speeches as well. Dane in English, Phil in Russian and Jesika in Kyrgyz. Afterward we took pictures, which I will try to post, and had refreshments. It was quite a site, watching all of our host mothers filling their pockets with all the appetizers.

We took a bus to the Issucle Hotel after the ceremony to check in , drop of luggage and relax before heading to the Ambassador’s house for a reception. Rebecca and I sat and watched our once channel of Russian talk shows and ate Chips Ahoy cookies that her mom sent. Neither of us were looking forward to the separation the next day.

At around six we headed to the reception. The house was fabulous. Makes me want to go into Diplomatic work. Waitresses served us mini pizzas, mini hamburgers and soda. She had bowls of Doritos and pretzels around the house for us. We were in heaven. People swarmed the waitresses as soon as they walked into the room. And a real bathroom…

I had a chance to meet and talk with the Ambassador, as well as a few other employees from the Embassy, which was really great.

Afterward, we headed into the city and hit the Fire and Ice club. The entire downstairs was a bowling alley, much nicer than the bowling alley in Sandpoint, and the upstairs was a big dance club. We actually had a blast, bowling and then dancing. I even got to drink a rum and coke. And I didn’t have to pay for it. It was total culture shock. I forgot I was in Kyrgyzstan for a few hours. We headed back to the hotel at about 1, where we realized it was Rebecca’s birthday. The two of us shared one shot of Bailey’s, all we could afford, and some oreos, again from Rebecca’s mom, and she called home on her cell phone, for about 22 seconds, as cell phones run on units here, so you have to buy units to talk or text message. And one unit does not equal a minute. For example, for me to call America with units, it takes about 40 to connect and then for each minute, about another 40. So for a one-minute call it is 80 units. And I buy 200 unit cards. So one call would use half of my card. To send a text message to another volunteer it is about 2.5 units. So we never call each other, we only send texts. It doesn’t take away any units to receive calls or messages.

Then came the morning. It was tough. After all we have been through together, we all went our separate ways. At 8 am, we said good-bye in the hotel lobby, as people piled bags and bags of luggage into taxis, busses, marchutkas and me, the Peace Corps private bus, that took us into Talas. We have about four Peace Corps couples now, so watching all the good byes was pretty miserable. All the couples were places hours and hours from one another. Rebecca and I are about seven hours apart. Laurie and I are about 20. Xouhoa, Christabelle and I are about 7 hours apart and one hour apart from each other. Its going to be tough up here in Talas. I keep hearing that they send the hardcore people to Talas, but hardcore is probably not a word I would ever use to describe myself in less we were talking about shopping.

The Peace Corps bus is a big white diplomatic vehicle with a private driver. He took us first to a nice store in Bishkek, where I actually found a can of Diet Pepsi, that I am saving for Christmas. We drove through Kazakstan this trip, as the mountain road is closed. It was a long drive.

The eight of us, down one as Katie was moved into Bishkek, mostly slept until we reached the first border crossing. We had to get out of the bus and wait for about 40 minutes to get out of the country and then walk across the border and do the same thing again to get into Kazakstan. After that we were on our way. We drove for a couple of hours through a flat part of Kazakstan and then were back at the border, once again having to get out of the bus and try to get approved to leave Kazakstan and then again, walk across the border and enter through Kyrgyzstan. It was a hassle, but still much better than driving through that mountain pass.

By the way, Amy, a volunteer in Talas with me from Chicago, called me a priss and said she was impressed that someone as material as me joined the Peace Corps. I just can’t escape my material background. It think it was mostly because as I attempted to deal with the border crossing’s disgusting outhouse, she was laughing. I told her she was just more ‘third world’ than I was. She took that as a complement. Its funny, I think we are complete opposites. But, she’s great. She is an SCOD, or a business volunteer, and her NGO is at an internet media center. Lucky break.

My village is about 35 kilometers from the border, and we got to drive right past the dam, with a giant Lenin head potroding from the concrete. The lake level was down as we drove by, but otherwise was beautiful. The scenery in Talas is amazing. You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful place to live. It may be isolated, but I have permission to travel into Kazakstan twice a month to shop and use the internet in Taras City. Apparently there are lots of ATM’s and crosswalks. Nicole, the other volunteer in my village (K12), said I might feel culture shock going there as it is so clean and nice.

After quite a struggle to locate my four massive bags from the bus, my new host mother’s nephew carried them all upstairs to my room. We immediately had soup and tea and then instead of attempting to unpack I went and met Erich and Nicole at a local cafÈ. We sat and talked for a few hours and then they walked me home. I didn’t wake up until 9 this morning. (Saturday).

I unpacked. Everything. All my clothes are neatly organized once again. My closet is bursting, as it isn’t as big as my previous armoire. I covered the walls with pictures of friends and family, and of course of Kodi, (My puppy). I created my own bookcase, hung up posters of Chris Shivers (rodeo), the Dixie Chicks, a map of Kyrgyzstan and used the shelves that I have for my water distiller and my Angel of Courage, my mini-Kodi (Justin), my horseshoe and a picture of Katie and I with Santa. I also hung up all the decorations that my mom sent for Christmas, and my stocking as well. I made a table out of my heater box and a piece of fabric and am proudly displaying my ‘Grinch Stole Christmas’ book, my musical Santa merry-go-round and my clock. I think it (my room) turned out pretty nice. And its warm. I have heat in the house as well as my own heater, and every time I turn my purifier on, it creates heat as well. So no more nights of sleeping in five layers and my hat and gloves, waking up to my Nalgene frozen. I think I will be much happier here. All ready I am content with the freedom that I have.

After I unpacked, I took my list of things I needed to buy and walked to the post office, which wasn’t open, and then to the bazaar. I ended up buying pomegranates, as they are my new favorite, can’t live without, fruit, an electric-cordless hot pot, to heat water with, a sweater and some expandable folders. The weather was gorgeous, and the walk is nice. The bazaar is small, I couldn’t find any hangers, but I was very happy with what it has. I can even get bottled water in the village, without bubbles. (The only kind of water people drink here is gas water).

Tomorrow I will head into Talas City for a welcoming party from the K-12’s.

So I saved my exciting news for last. Through the local post office I can get dial-up Internet for my computer. Neither Nicole nor Erich have computers, so they want to chip in and share it with me. So I will soon be on Messenger again. I can’t wait. Such exciting news!

Anyway, I start teaching on Monday morning, even though I have no counterpart, and have no idea what is going on, but I’m going to try anyway. I guess if I just show up at the school, they will point me to my classroom and I’ll get by!

By the way this is my address, I’m sorry I change it all the time. It is still the same as the last time I sent it; just one line is being taken out. I don’t need to include my street, as any American mail is kept separate at the post office, and I have to go pick it up.

Elizabeth Dalessio
Kyzyl Adyr Village
Kara Buura Rayon
Talas Oblast 722700
Kyrgyzstan

Hope everyone is doing well. I miss everyone so much!

Forgot to spell check, sorry

2005-11-30T01:39:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving through November 29

Oh another week gone by.
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, thanks to good friends, good spirits and the other 5 girls in my village. We spent the day calling home and emailing home, as well as shopping at the bazaar.

For once in my life, I didn’t go shopping. I used the time at the Internet phone to call Kinsie, Lindsy, Edie and the boys and Justin. I tried to call more numbers, but I couldn’t get through to anyone else, and I didn’t have all that much time. So I am sorry to those whom I couldn’t reach, its really hit and miss from here. Of course I talked to my mother, father and sister too, but they called me, first thing in the morning. After phone calls we all went to our favorite café, Café Banu, for good food and good company. Another group of volunteers were there as well, and we ended up singing Christmas Carols all afternoon and dancing until we had to get back to our host families. It was a lot of fun, and it made Thanksgiving a lot happier, despite all the phone calls and homesickness.

On Friday we had our language tests, (LPI’s) which are required in order to become an official volunteer. We were each put in a room with a tester for about 30 minutes, and he asked questions, put us in situations and basically just conversed with us until he felt like he could estimate our language level. I hated every minute of it, but passed, am becoming an official volunteer tomorrow, and am satisfied. I have to give props to Laurie and Chrystal though, as they both passed with flying colors.

We spent Friday afternoon watching the Forty Year Old Virgin on Xouhoa’s computer and relaxing. Friday night though my host mother and I killed a chicken to have our own version of Thanksgiving. She gave me all the white meat, which was wonderful. My host cousin, Aleena, has been staying with us for two weeks, which makes me wonder about where the heck her mother might be? She doesn’t seem to mind; she’s three, and she actually is calling my Apa, which means mom. I am even letting her sleep in my room at night, as she keeps my bed warm. It is so damn cold here that I can almost freeze my nalgene bottle in my room at night.

On Saturday we had Russian language lessons to give us a few basic phrases and somewhat of an understanding of the Russian language in case we need it later on during our service. We were pretty burned out so we pretty much boycotted the lesson. Afterward we had lunch and found out that due to a paperwork medical glich back in DC, Chrystal was being sent home. We spent the afternoon saying horrible good byes and then watching her drive away with a driver to the Manas Airport. (Chrystal I know you are back home reading this now, and I miss you so much already. I am so proud of the way you handled yourself with your head up throughout all this crap, and I hope you give em’ hell from the States. I love you and miss you). Rebecca and I were feeling pretty down after seeing her leave so we headed to my house to watch Sex and the City, season 6.

Guess who was there, my yellow hat disco date! He was working with my host brother on some old pickup in the yard. After a while I had to have supper with him, and then once again he invited me to the discotecha. He was in work clothes though so he had to go home and change and then was to come back for me at 8. Unfortunately the disco got cancelled, so no date for me. I went home to watch more DVDS and had the absolute coldest night since I have been here. There is no heat at my house and my heater is up in Talas, waiting for me. As I write this now, the power is out. I could not get warm no matter what I did. A horrible night.

On Sunday though we got up early and headed into Bishkek. Laurie, Rebecca and I decided to go the giant bazaar, which is seriously bigger than any mall I have ever been to, except its more like tin stalls set up in thin rows, full of random items. If you don’t move fast enough, you get squished into the crazy Russian woman behind you, pulling your hair. I hate the bazaar, but it is really the only place to buy things. We were on a mission for a winter coat for Laurie and a dress coat for me. No luck. We went to ever section of that massive bazaar and neither of us could find a coat that would fit us right. Kyrgyz women are no bigger than 100 pounds and barely five feet two inches tall. All the sleeves were short, and the coats that fit us were the ugliest things you have ever seen, I did buy a sweater with a matching scarf, a teaching skirt and about five pomagranites, which are my absolute favorite fruit in the entire world. (Despite the fact that I had never even had one until I got here).

After our horrible bazaar experience, we decided to go to the American Café, Café Metro. We didn’t really know where it was, but we took a taxi to the cross streets we knew were nearby. We got out of the cab and stood on a street corner, each of us staring off in different directions, trying to remember which way the café was. We asked a woman selling cigarettes and bananas on the street, but she wouldn’t help us. After about five minutes of deliberating, we heard a voice from above us say ‘Where are you trying to go?’ We all looked up, shocked to hear an American, and saw a man smoking a ciggerette on a balcony about five stories up. He was laughing and said he couldn’t watch us any longer. He pointed us in the right direction. Crazy…

At the café we ordered Pepsi Light. It is so wonderful to have Pepsi Light as it is on ice, and this is the only place in the country you can actually get ice. We ordered pizza, a club sandwich and a cheeseburger between the three of us, and we ate every bite. It was wonderful. After three months straight of rice, carrots, potatoes and sheep meat, it was a welcome meal. We even had dessert. Brownies. After that we were content and headed back to the village. But, it was one of the best days we have had in a while.

And then to top it off, I got a banya when I got home. Stuffed with American food, and clean. You can’t beat that.

Monday we had warden training. I am an assistant warden right now, and next year I will take over as warden. The warden is a volunteer who is in charge of a cluster of volunteers in all emergency situations. The warden has a special med kit in addition to our own med kits, as well as an emergency cell phone and a ton of responsibilities. If anyone is hurt the warden accompanies them at all times, if there is a situation that calls for consolidation, the warden is in charge of gathering all the volunteers and using their home for a consolidation point. And this is pretty serious, as last year there was a revolution in Kyrgyzstan, and all the volunteers were consolidated for a few days. Consolidation is the step before evacuating. Last year 13 countries were evacuated.

On Tuesday we spent the day wrapping up medical and safety sessions, before Thursday’s swearing in ceremony. Tomorrow we will officially be volunteers, and then Friday morning we head of to our separate sites, leaving one another behind.

This is where it all begins…

2005-11-24T02:52:00.000-08:00

These are some photos, first of my new host mother and her grandson, also the three children that have been staying at my house in the village and a picture of us having a good time at Charlie's birthday.

Party Pics

2005-11-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

November 21, 2005

2005-11-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

I spent the day in bed today after a mishap with Tylenol p.m.

I woke up early this morning with quite an intense headache, and as the power was out, stumbled from my warm bed, through my freezing bedroom to my cabinet and took four Tylenol pms instead of IB Profen. At 6:30 in the morning. Needless to say I didn’t actually wake up until about 4:30 this afternoon, when my host mom came barging in, insisting that I get up for tea.

We had a pretty fun weekend in the village. First of all I was introduced to Sex and the City, which I cannot believe I have been missing out on all these years. Xouhoa’a friends sent her a box filled with DVD’s, hot chocolate, cheetos and candy. We watched the entire third season, and I am now a fan. I can’t wait to see the rest.

On Saturday after a morning of language lessons, I was invited to the Disco by the yellow hat guy. His name is Moshot. Don’t ask me, I just went with it. Anyway, he came over and invited me by asking my host mother if he could take me. She said I would go, as long as my brother went too. So I went to get dressed, as after all this was my first Kyrgyz arranged date.

We left for the dance at about 7 p.m. Of course we walked, as no one really has a car in the village. It was cold. And the boys kind of ignored me and walked in front of me. Language barriers make for a rough date. I tried to put those issues aside, as well as the whole bride-kidnapping issue jumping out in my mind. The disco tech was held in a basement room at the school. I walked in and of course didn’t have to pay, being an America. When we hung our coats up and walked in, I was quick to notice that I was the only female in the place. All older Kyrgyz boys and a few young ones that I had taught in the mix. Thank god for cell phones. I started texting all the girls and after a half hour they all showed up to rescue me. After that we had a lot of fun. Laurie and I danced with random guys to random old American pop songs. We all chimed in to Tony Braxton’s Unbreak my Heart. It was a blast. I didn’t actually ever get to dance with the yellow hat guy, whom by the way has finally moved on from the yellow hat, only to be replaced with a more winterish one, but he didn’t seem to mind. He stayed nearby and visited with friends home for the weekend from the University. The highlight of the evening seriously had to be when some 17-year-old tried to grope me in the stairwell and my host-brother and my date took him outside. Don’t know what went on, but the kid never came back, and the boys didn’t leave my side again for the rest of night. It was nice to have them looking out for me. They both walked me home, and that was that. A pleasant evening.

On Sunday I got up early to do laundry, but no one else was awake, so I had to resort to watching more Sex and the City episodes on my computer and then got a phone call from home. After about 10, my family got up and I was able to do laundry. Once again I had a lot, and took up the whole line. After laundry I washed my hair and got ready for Charlie’s birthday party in Ivanafka, a Russian village with more volunteers. Laurie and Rebecca showed up and we all took turns using my propane curling iron to get dolled up. We took a cab into the other village and had a blast. About 35 other volunteers came to the bar and we had a Russian cake and lots of beer. It was a lot of fun.

And that leaves me where I am today, just waking up from a deep sleep, ready to start my day, except its dark all ready and 6:30 p.m. Damn that Tylenol pm.

November 22, 2005

I got my first of two Christmas packages today, and to my dismay it was broken into. I tried to mentally prepare myself for this a head of time, but nothing really helps when you open a package and find pieces of wrapping paper and ribbons not attached to anything floating around in a box. The good news is, I figured out what belonged with each piece of wrapping paper, and I taped all of the gifts back up and sealed them for Christmas. The stocking appeared to be in tact as though, as it was full, so I don’t think anything was missing. It just makes Christmas not so fun, when you have a slight preview of what you are getting! Oh well, two of the gifts were still in tact, so no giveaways there, as well as the stuff in the stocking. So thanks mom. And the country Christmas CDS are just what I needed… but just so you know, inside of one of them is really George Strait’s Christmas CD, so when you open that case at home, maybe you’ll find Country Christmas? I probably mixed them up last year… sorry. Hopefully the second box comes as well, as I know that my photo album is in it, and I would hate to lose that. But I think it made it, and that stocking is absolutely wonderful, thanks mom and dad, I am excited for Christmas all ready!!!

Anyway all mail from now on must be sent to this address:

Elizabeth Dalessio
47 Jzerskinskya Street
Kyzyl Aydr Village
Kaara Buura Rayon
Talas Oblast 722700
Kyrgyzstan

Apparently the mail in Talas is wonderful, packages always get there, quickly and in tact too. Don’t mention Peace Corps on the packages anywhere. Printed labels are more reliable as well. Xouhoa had a package sent to here with the label written in font that looked like it was dripping in blood. That didn’t get touched. Keep on duck taping them up… They got into my mother’s last one, apparently not enough tape. They have never seen duck tape here either, so let’s try that now…. Maybe it will be more affective. Could someone send me a new AP style book? That’s Associated Press, for journalists, mind you, I feel like my journalistic style is slipping… (Like should I have used affective or effective in that last sentence)? Yikes!

Today was our final day of technical training. Tomorrow we have medical and safety sessions and then on Friday we have our Language Proficiency Test. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and we decided to go into Tokmok to call home and then have a nice afternoon meal at the fancy restaurant there. They have a version of pizza. It has like a weird sour cream/ cream cheese layer and then a sort of cheese and ketchup on top of that. What can you do? It’s the closest thing to pizza I have seen in months. And the crust is actually pretty good. They also have Coke products. No diet though. You can only get diet coke in Bishkek. And actually in Bishkek its only Pepsi light that you can get. Strange. Too bad we don’t have access to the military’s PX stores…

Anyway tonight I am sitting here listening to Jingle Bells on my Christmas snow globe type thing that my family sent from home… Happy Thanksgiving!

In Memory...

2005-11-18T01:41:00.000-08:00

WELCOME TO KYRGYZSTAN

2005-11-18T01:36:00.000-08:00

This picture symbolizes Kyrgyzstan totally. Two toddlers baby-sitting an 8 month old child outside in front of their home. THe second picture is of some mountains in Talas, taken from the car window.

Some new pics

2005-11-18T01:32:00.000-08:00

This is a party at my house, Rebecca and I are in the back, where the honored guests sit.