Life around the village

In Kyrgyz culture, the youngest daughter or the daughter-in-law does most of the household chores. Since ВеНЕРА is one year older than me, I feel awfully awkward having her wait on me. No one around here gets up to help her; they just let her wait on them hand & foot. I could not imagine taking on the workload that she has. She cooks, cleans, does laundry, milks the cows and sells the milk. She also farms a field of sugar beets. Soon it will be time to harvest, and she has to cut down each plant by hand. I plan to help her, though I don’t know if that will be good or bad. I’ve also started helping with the baby and the dishes. It’s not much, but it helps a little bit.

We have an outhouse too. It’s not very fancy, but it gets the job done. It doesn’t have a seat – just a hole in the ground. Its tricky to aim in a hole in the ground while squatting and trying not to hit your leg. And it’s a drafty outhouse. I don’t know what I’ll do in winter. I think I’ll have a damned cold bum.

Bathing is interesting. There's a bathhouse called a БАНЯ (pronounced baña). Once a week they light a fire that heats up a tank of water. The water tank is inside the bathhouse, with the fire accessible from outside. The water heater has stones sitting on top of it. When the water is hot the whole БАНЯ is hot, and they splash water on the hot stones to create steam. Then you sit in there for as long as you can take it, and sweat like crazy. Its like a sauna, but reminds me of the temazcal in Mexico. To wash up, we bucket bathe by putting warm water in a bucket and using a small container to scoop it up and pour it over ourselves. No more long, hot showers for a while.

Last night АЗИЗ (Azees), the son, had his cousin АЗИM (Azeem) and a friend over for dinner and drinks. I hung out with them outside while I did my homework and practiced the language. At the end of the night I was explaining to АЗИM that in the U.S. people hug and kiss on the cheek to say goodbye; and in Mexico men kiss women on the cheek. ВеНЕРА freaked out and explained that they don’t do that in Kyrgyzstan and my Ata would get upset if he saw that. Ok, I can dig that. But she explained it to me over and over again. I was very irritated. I was still upset when I woke up this morning and consequently had my first bad day. I realize now that there was a lot of frustration built up behind that.

That’s the shortened version of the lowdown. There’s more, but I’m super tired right now. I’ve made a list of the things I could use. If anyone’s feeling charitable you can make a little care package. And things take a while to get here, so keep that in mind.

• Fleece or sweat pants – wide leg, size L
• Any good books you’ve read – and I recommend Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Long sleeve t-shirts – thick ones that will keep me warm and last a while
• Instant oatmeal – take it out of the box so it takes up less space, and I like the fruit & cream variety pack -> this would be good because the food here is greasy and I’m STARVING
• Febreze
• Cayenne pepper, garlic, Valentina Extra Hot Sauce, cinnamon, oregano, salt, pepper and anything else that you think would make bad food enjoyable
• Tootsie rolls – the flavored ones and fancy suckers from Aunt Tina
• My hiking boots – mom, they’re in the bag I sent with you in Philly and I could really use them for the spring
• A small 3 hole puncher and a binder
• Hacky sack & Frisbee
• Chili Cheese Fritos
• Any other kind of food, especially junk food

I didn’t say it was a small list 

I love everyone and miss you sooooo much. XOXO.

P.S. Everyone was asking me this before I left. We started with 66 volunteers. After our first week in country, we’re down to 62. Its been TEFL volunteers that leave, not SOCD (which is what I am). We business volunteers appear to be much tougher ;)

The new host fam

Today I met my new Kyrgyz family and they rock. My Apa (mother) came to the Peace Corps Trainees lunch to pick me up and hardly said two words to me. I was really worried about how things would turn out, but I was worrying for nothing. At the house are my Ata & Apa (father & mother), their 28 year old son, his wife and 2 children. The wife, ВеНЕРА (pronounced Veniera), is 23 and has kind of taken me under her wing. She wants to learn English as I’m learning Kyrgyz. In Kyrgyzstan women generally get married when they’re 19 and start having babies, though she was married at age 18.

She’s very interested in everything I do. Every time I came into my room to attempt unpacking, she followed me in and read my language notebook, so it took me all day to unpack. As we were sitting in my room, 3 cows walked past. Apparently those are our cows, and she took me to the barn to milk them. I’ve never milked a cow before so it was not a great performance, but it entertained her. The word for cow and house are almost the same, and to me they ARE the same. So now to distinguish between the two, everyone makes the cow milking gesture to me and laughs.

One of my first days in KG

I finally made it to Kyrgyzstan. It took about a day and a half to travel here from Philadelphia, during which I got about 3-4 hours of sleep. That was a nightmare, because I was running on next to no sleep when we started traveling. We had a 6 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey but we couldn’t leave the airport. So there was a pile of luggage with arms and legs sticking out in the middle of the airport as everyone tried to catch as many Zs as they could. We weren’t even at our gate; we were lying in front of security. Random people were taking pictures of the group as they walked by. Who knows, we could have been in a Turkish newspaper a few days ago with a headline like “Crazy Americans Invade Airport.” That’s not a very good headline. I hope they came up with something better.

We got to the hotel on Sunday at about 3:30am Kyrgyz time, which is about 4:30p.m. Chicago time. We didn’t get to see anything because it was dark on our drive from the airport (and we still haven’t ventured out of the hotel yet). They let us sleep for about 3 hours and then we had to be up for breakfast and the first day of training.

The food is very different. EVERYTHING has meat in it. I started getting the vegetarian dishes and they gave me breaded, fried cabbage for lunch today. I haven’t eaten very much in the past 4 days. I’m also getting sick from all of the traveling and lack of sleep and food. During language class yesterday (I’m learning Kyrgyz) I was blowing my nose. I was under the impression that it was the logical thing to do. My language instructors looked at me funny, but didn’t say anything. I found out later that blowing your nose in front of people is a faux pas. I would have been getting up every 10 minutes, so I ignored that social norm (just for the time being).

The people here are super nice. Most of the PC staff is Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Ukrainian, etc. That was a surprise to me, since I thought there would be a lot more American expatriates. Later today I’ll be meeting my host family. I’m really nervous, because they probably won’t know English and I’ve been studying Kyrgyz for one day. I’ve heard that they constantly try to feed you and it’s not unusual for a volunteer to gain 10-20lbs during the first few months as a result. Yikes.

Last Night in Chi Town

I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I'm still trying to cram the last of my stuff into 2 suitcases. Living the Bohemian lifestyle is getting off to a rocky start. I'm really getting nervous. I sat and watched Full House and Step by Step for a few hours this morning. I kept thinking "I won't get to see these shows for a few years," but I don't even LIKE those shows. Weird.

The Kyrgyz peeps like to write their addresses backwards. Email me for my address. And here are some tips for sending letters and packages:

• Number letters and packages so I'll know if any turn up missing
• Putting religious symbols all over the letter deters people from opening them
• Wrap boxes in brown paper and tie a string if the post office will let you
• Use tape and always include a detailed inventory list on the inside. Typed address labels help as well. Be especially careful with padded or manilla envelopes--they're easy to get into.
• Insure packages.

But don't let this stop you from sending me some love. I love to get letters no matter where I am, so keep them coming. Now I have to get back to packing. My Ps want me to pack up everything in my old room so they can use it while I'm gone - and I've really been procrastinating.

What the Heck am I Thinking?!?

The countdown is 6 days. Sometimes I still can't believe that I'm actually joining the Peace Corps. Its one of those things that I dreamed of when I was younger. Whenever I accomplish something big on my list of TO DOs, I have to take a step back because I'm amazed that I've got it together (somewhat).

The BIG question everyone asks is "What made you join the Peace Corps?" And my response is: "I'm going to save the world." I know its a hokey response but its so much simpler than delving into all of my reasons. So here's the down & dirty, E! True Hollywood Story (I'm kidding, they haven't done a show about me yet).

At Truman State University, I studied Accounting and Business Management. I guess at first I wanted to make money and live comfortably. But by the time senior year rolled around, I was unhappy with my choice of focus. For three years, I had studied best business practices, with profit being the bottome line. I woke up and realized that profit is NOT the bottom line, and that I care more about people than I do about money.

After this realization, I couldn't figure out what I would do with my degrees without helping some evil empire (ie Walmart) make more money. After researching several unfeasible options, I rediscovered my previous dream of joining the Peace Corps.

Basically, I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have as much education as I do. There are countless people who would love an education, but have to sacrifice it to work for their families at a young age. I took school for granted for too many years. And since I had good opportunities, I think the least I can do is to go somewhere that people need and want my help.

I also want to see every place on Mother Earth. Maybe its unrealistic, but this adventure will give a few more notches in the old tiller.

I know this sounds like a bunch of idealistic propoganda, but there it is. At least some of it.

Peace.


P.S. Tiller = steering wheel of a sailboat