Where has the last year of my life gone???

11/27/06

 

This year’s Thanksgiving was far more traditional than last year’s.  I had a small dinner at my house with a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and biscuits.  It was a lot of work, but everyone was very appreciative.  I went to the bazaar on Wednesday to hunt down the ingredients.  I bought what I thought was a chicken.  It seemed overpriced, but I didn’t want to cook two small chickens so I bought the biggest one I could find.  Turns out it was a turkey.  That was a nice little surprise.

 

We made plans to go Day-After-Thanksgiving shopping at the bazaar with two of our Kyrgyz friends, but we all backed out because it was a blizzard outside.  Instead we watched movies, ate leftovers and drank hot tea.  I have a cold, so it was a wise choice to avoid the elements.

 

One of my friends, Almaz (whom I call Al), just came back from Bishkek.  He showed up at my house at 8:45 a.m. because he had time between classes (the university is a block and a half away).  After a pot of coffee and a quick straightening up of the house, Almaz advised me to heat up vodka, add pepper, drink it and go to sleep.  This is to cure my cold in case you are wondering.  I haven’t tested it out, though if I don’t get better soon it will probably sound more reasonable.  We then went to the Telecom to pay my phone bill because I get embarrassed about my language when I have to pay bills.  All of the customers crowd around the counter with no semblance of order, which means I can’t be discreet when talking to the woman (I prefer not to have all the college-age boys here my name, address and phone number).  Not to mention the fact that they stand too close for the comfort of a personal-space-loving American while staring at my extra two heads.  He didn’t let me chicken out for the 3^rd time this month and, thanks to him, my phone is back in working order.

 

Next, I headed to the university.  On Monday the 4^th I will begin my business skills club for the 4^th and 5^th year English students.  The point is to teach them some basic skills since they will be entering the work force soon.  The all study the English language and nothing else.  While some of them speak the language well, they cannot do anything else.  Hopefully, if I teach them about organization and tracking documents they will make small improvements at their future office jobs.  The exciting thing is that the teachers in the English Department also want to learn these things.  I will hold separate sessions for them.  Who knows, maybe they’ll pass the information along to their future students. 

 

 

11/29/06

 

Karakol is home to a lovely little zoo.  As far as I know, it’s the only one in KG.  I went for the first time today and what a treat that was!  It houses birds, goats, sheep, dogs – shocking to see them here.  But as something a little more interesting, I saw 3 bears, some lamas, camels, and yaks.  It wasn’t the best zoo, but fairly impressive for Karakol.  I was told there used to be a monkey that sat at the refreshment stand, but he’s passed away. 

 

I went to dinner with some volunteers tonight.  I ordered the “Dream” salad, and a dream it was.  It consisted of potatoes, corn, crab, pickles, croutons, and mayonnaise mixed together with a slice of lemon on top.  Who thinks of mixing these ingredients together?  This is the type of stuff that must have gotten the oh-so-hard-to-attain (I’m guessing) creativity awards during the Soviet era.  Nicely done Mr. Creativbaev.

 

Pictures for all of today’s events are forthcoming. 

 

P.S. December 1 is my one year anniversary of being sworn in as a volunteer.  I think I deserve a small pat on the back (or congratulatory mail *wink*)

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11/01/06

Today water started pouring out of my radiator because the cap was missing.  It was coming full force and I couldn’t manage to keep a bowl or bucket under the radiator to catch all of the water.  My bowls were filling up too quickly and my buckets were too tall to fit underneath.  It was a complete nightmare.  My landlord is out of town and whoever is watching his house didn’t offer any help.  I called the guys at work to see if someone would come help me, but they didn’t.  There was so much water on my floor and I didn’t know what to do with it.  I don’t have towels and rags that I was willing to put down to soak all of it up.  My carpet soaked much of it up.  Finally my landlord’s younger brother (Ulan) showed up.  He is 17 years old and didn’t know what to do either.  Luckily he knows many people, because he went and found some men to help me.  They were able to plug up the radiator temporarily.  My carpet was drenched in muddy water.  I talked Ulan into carrying it outside for me and cleaning it.  I cleaned the bedroom by soaking water up with a single rag and squeezing it out into a bucket.  Who knows where the water came from.  It had a lot of mud in it.  As I was cleaning up the mud, the man who lives downstairs came and told me that he wants me to pay him because the water leaked through to his apartment.  I’m not the owner and I have no intention of paying for this.  It’s days like this that make me think I can’t handle this life.