I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Krygyzstan from 2005-2007. I worked as a TEFL/Community Development Volunteer. This is my story.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Thanksgiving and Scandalous Banyas
Thanksgiving was a hit even though the power went out 3 times when we were trying to cook our goose. It was absolutely delicious and my Mom and Grandma (from America) would be so proud of the way my stuffing turned out. They didn't have celery but we tried to make do with what we had. We also made apple crisp and a fruit salad. We went all out and it only cost 400 som, about 10 bucks American. Not too shabby when it's split between 5 people.
So we all had our language exams and even though I know I completely botched mine I got Intermediate Mid. To put it in perspective, there is Novice, Intermediate and Advanced and within those are Low, Mid and Hi, so I literally got right in the middle, then there is superior which means your fluent which I will probably never get. Some people did better than me, some did worse than me and some people's scores weren't very accurate but I am nonetheless happy. I will definitely continue after training is over, getting a Russian tutor is probably the first thing I will do.
I got my first bout of giardia which is an intenstinal paracite. Pretty nasty but I was loaded up with antibiotics so I think it got cleared up pretty quickly. Thank goodness.
So I am still homeless. I know that I am going to be in the Chui region but I don't know exactly where. We swear in tomorrow so I hope they figure it out soon because I am supposed to be living there Friday. I thought I was supposed to find out last Friday but I guess they meant any Friday. I'm somewhat frustrated but I know that this is probably the best decision for me even though it's going to be hard to inform my family and the school that the volunteer they thought the were getting is no longer coming. I sincerely hope there are no hard feelings.
Tim's girlfriend and I took a banya together last weekend, we were both giggling pretty hard. Especially because Tim's Mama gave me honey to rub on her chest and back since she had a cold (apparently that helps here). Then we took turns beating each other with the herb branches. Have I mentioned that I have lost all conception concerning what is normal here?
We're swearing in tomorrow and I am both nervous and excited. It seems like we have gotten so much information during the past 3 months now we have to sort through it and make ourselves actual volunteers. It's going to be really hard to say goodbye but I am leaving knowing that I have made awesome friends, a great family and a place that I can call home. I guess I can't ask for much more.
Because of medical reasons I am not going to be living in Talas anymore. The Medical Office decided I needed to be closer to Bishkek incase I get sick again. So don't send any mail to that address that I posted.
Today is Thanksgiving and this morning we went over to my LCF's house to pick out a goose. The Apa brought them in and they thought they were going to eat breakfast but instead they let them loose and Tim chased one of them through the maze of beehives and finally caught it. Bohee and I were laughing pretty hard as he was trying to trap it. They handed him a knife and he cut it's head off and as of right now it's being prepared for us to eat. Tim and I are in Tokmok and we're going to go to the bazaar to buy stuff for stuffing, mashed potatoes and everything else you'd expect from an American Thanksgiving sans turkey. He said he feels more like a man now that he's killed something with his hands. Boys. Hmph.
That's all for now. I'll post my new address when I get it.
Yesterday was my Mama's birthay so my Russian group came over to celebrate and I have never seen my Mom and Sister so happy. Izzy, the K-12 who lived in the house before me came from Naryn to help celebrate. We were going to make dinner but we only had time to make Pumpkin Pie but it tasted just like home and was so delicious. We ate a ton of food and drank their homemade wine which was made from raspberries, water and sugar which has been aged for 3 years, it was pretty good, but no Yellow Tail. At least it was red, though. I'd say the party was a success. My Mama loves the Happy Birthday song so we sang it 7 times.
Puppies
I was doing my laundry yesterday and I heard all these squeeking noises coming from my dog house, I asked Tanya what it was and she causally replied,"oh, they're puppies". I was like, yes, I can hear that they are puppies, but... WHAT? I didn't even know my dog was pregnant! There are four of them and apparently they were born yesterday, just like me. They are about the size of the palm of my hand and their eyes aren't even open so they're not really cute yet.
Address
I got my address at my permanent site which is the same as the family I'm staying with. I might get a P.O. Box later but for now, this will do. Since I don't trust any of you to write in Cyrillic I suggest you just copy this, enlarge it and print it out and then send me lots and lots of mail. Thanks :)
Last week all the volunteers went to visit the places that we would be living for the next two years. I really liked my village, and my family. My Apa (mom in Kyrygz) is 50 years old and is Azerbaijani and my Ata (Dad in Kyrygz) is 57 years old and is Kazak. They have two children, a 21 year old daughter who is married and living in Talas, named Nargeeza and a son who is 20 and in the army whose name is Eldar. Since Eldar is in Bishkek I only got a chance to meet Nargeeza who is so adorable and bubbly. I am hoping that having her around will improve my Russian.
My School
My school (grades 5-11) is fairly big, it has about 900 students. It’s in pretty decent shape and since the school has a gym and I am thinking about starting a volleyball team as one of my secondary projects. They even have a computer lab with 6 computers and the teacher, Sergai seems to know what he’s doing. My counterpart, who is also the only other English teacher doesn’t speak English so I am not sure if that’s going to make my job easier or harder. My director seems like a nice enough guy but when he was doing the formal introductions he told the entire staff that I speak “Bad Russian” I was like, It’s not that bad, it’s just slow, plus I’ve only had less than 2 months of training. Other than that, everything seemed pretty good. When the Kyrgyz girls found out I was visiting the school they all came to the teachers lounge and called me out to talk to them. They were so cute asking when I was coming back, if I would be their teacher and if I wanted to come over to all their houses. It feels good knowing that they put me somewhere that I am wanted and needed.
Pee Trips
When I went to visit my permanent site my Apa (mom in Kyrgyz) told me to tell her every time I had to go to the bathroom so she could accompany me. As I went to the bathroom in the outhouse she would drop trou right outside and pee facing the outhouse door. One time I wanted my privacy so I went without her and as I was coming back in she was like, what are you doing!? I’ll go with you, don’t pee by yourself! I guess that’s like of like the women in America who can’t go to the bathroom alone.
Detained
We had plans to leave our sites on Sunday to return to our villages outside of Tokmok. My Ata put me on a Marshrutka (the local transportation which is like a small bus), got on and was like, this is my daughter, she is an American, please make sure to help her get on a Marshrutka to Tokmok once she gets to Bishkek. All of the volunteers were supposed to leave the Talas oblast together but either my director didn’t get into contact with them or they didn’t get into contact with my director but I was all alone. I didn’t find out until the next day that all of the other volunteers ended up traveling together. I thought I was going to be fine since I had a Kazak visa and they said that it’s common for marshrutkas to travel through Kazakstan to avoid the high passes through the mountain range, plus I had a whole marshrutka of people that were supposedly going to look out for me.
Once we got to the border, they took my passport and were like, no get off, no Americans can travel through this post. I didn’t understand what they were talking about because I told them I had a legitimate visa and passport. The guy started to move towards me as if he was going to physically remove me from my seat so I was like alright, alright, I’ll come, I’ll come. Up until this point, I thought my Russian had been progressing rather satisfactorily but now I see exactly how much work that needs to be done in the next two weeks before I leave PST. So anyways, they sat me in a chair and I didn’t know how long I would have to wait or where I would go once they finally decided that I could leave. After a couple hours they finally put me on an autobus even though I had no idea where it was going. It took me to another border site and I got detained at that one too. I am not sure why or what they were doing but it seems like everyone wanted to question the American that couldn’t pass through the border post. After more stamps and questioning they finally let me through.
At this point I was furious because the two things that Peace Corps told us not to do were 1) travel alone and 2) travel at night. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t even inform us that there were certain places that Americans were not able to travel through and how no one contacted me so I could travel with all the other volunteers. I hadn’t cried at all, but I can’t even describe how distressing the situation was and knowing there was nothing that I could do about it. At this point I had been traveling for 10 hours, even though I should have been home in 5 and I was running out of money because every time I got on a new vehicle they wanted me to pay even though I had paid 3 times already. The lady sitting next to me in the marshrutka had a baby and two children and she told me that I should just go home with her and spend the night because it wasn’t safe to travel alone at night. I thought it was against Peace Corps regulations so I told her that I had to get home but looking back in retrospect I probably should have just gone with her. One girl finally saw how distressed I was so she told me that she spoke little English and she escorted me to a bus station and put me in a taxi and told me that it would drop me off at my front door. I couldn’t have been more grateful. I left at 8 in the morning and got home around 10 at night and my only saving grace the entire day were the 2 women that tried to help me get home safe.
As if it’s not hard enough being here, I haven’t seemed to catch a break- If I have already 3 trips to medical and was detained at the Kazak border in the first 2 months I can’t even imagine what the next 2 years has in store for me.
I have completely lost every conception concerning what is normal in this country. Putting these experiences into words can’t really do them justice but just to give you a clip of what everyday life is, I will try. Here it goes.
Galloping and Galllivanting
The other day our group was waiting to go to Hub Day and Phil’s mom hadn’t realized that Kyrgyzstan decided against daylight savings this year so they were an hour off schedule. When he rushed out of the house, she forgot to pack him a lunch. Right as he was telling us he had nothing to eat, a little boy (maybe 5 years old) came riding in on a horse that was ten sizes too big for him yelling “Philippe! Philippe!” We didn’t understand what was going on until the little boy threw Phil a bag of warm pita bread- then we figured that his mom felt bad so she sent the neighbors boy on horseback to deliver his lunch.
My morning’s chores range from fetching water to washing and rinsing my pee bucket (ever since it has gotten cold, my mama gave me a bucket to keep in my room so I don’t have to haul it to the outhouse in the middle of the night).
Martha the Cow
Everyday, my cow Martha gets into some kind of trouble. I can’t even explain how funny it was when I went to the outhouse and I heard something crash into the back of it. I was so worried that it was going to break, causing me to fall in. I ran out and realized that our cow had gotten stuck behind it. I went around to the other side to see how sticky the predicament was and almost lost it when I saw her face, because she knew she was screwed. I went and got my mama and Tanya and as Tanya was trying to get her to back up by throwing pebbles at her, my mom runs around to the other side of the fence and started beating her head with a stick until she backed up. I guess she was kind of freaked out because she launched backward and almost took the entire outhouse down with her. Tanya and I were dying laughing but my mom seemed pretty pissed until she realized what had happened and she started laughing too. They moved two metal crates in the small opening behind the outhouse but I swear not one of us would have thought she would have been able to fit there in the first place.
Trouble
I think I am starting to get too dependent on my neighbor Tim because it seems like we’re always getting chased by something and he’s the only one who instinctually reaches down to pick up a rock for some kind of defense (my instinct is always to run). He chooses fight, I choose flight even though I think that I would be much safer if I carried a large rock or stick around with me. Whether it be the town drunk, who we so fondly refer to as “chai guy”, geese, donkeys or dogs, he’s always there to ward off or deflect some kind of danger. Since we’re living almost 9 hours apart (he’s in Jalal Abad) I figure I should get used to being left to my own devices. Not to say that he avoids trouble or anything, he’s already been bitten by his dog and slammed his head into a tree on the way out to my outhouse one night when we were hanging out (he didn’t cut through the chicken coup like I told him to and now he’s got a pretty nasty permanent dent). I secretly think he’s trying to rival the number of times I have been sent to the medical office, even though his ways seem to be much more creative. He’s probably one of my closest friends here (literally and figuratively) so we spend a lot of time together even though I think we are a very unlikely pair seeing as how together we attract all sorts of trouble. Maybe it is best that we are on opposite sides of the country.
The Russian Banya
The real Russian banya involves two people who take turns beating each other with herb-like branches. Every week Phil gets beaten by his dad in the banya. One day we were over his house for lunch and afterwards as we were leaving his mom comes out and asks Tim if he wants to join Phil and his dad in the banya tonight. I looked at him and told him he probably wouldn’t get the offer again so he should just do it, so he was like, alright, I’ll be there. Then Phil’s mom looks at me and she goes, and do you want one too? Since you only get one banya per week, when one is offered, you never turn it down so I said, “sure why not, but only if you promise to beat me hard”. So Tim and I went home to get our towels. On the way back over I was like, Tim, what are we going to do right now? And he goes, the answer is simple, I’m going to go bathe in a hot steamy room with Phil and his Dad and we’re going to take turns beating each other with branches while we’re naked; and you’re going to do the same but with his mom. Once we got over there, Phil’s Dad told the guys that it was ready and I wished them good luck. Apparently the banya was so hot and steamy that during the middle of it then went outside (into the freezing cold) and Phil’s dad hosed them down with freezing water so they could stand the heat when they went back in. They both told me that Phil’s mom was busy making dinner and could see straight out of the kitchen window at their naked butts running around in the freezing cold getting drenched by water. I think they agreed that it was rather refreshing.
After they went, Phil’s mom told me that she was busy making dinner so I was going to take a banya with his 10 year old sister Alyssa instead. I am almost certain that she had not bathed with her brother’s friends before but since she seemed like it was no big deal, I didn’t either. So we go in and she throws some water on the rocks to make the room steam and she gets the big bundle of herb sticks. I faced one of the walls as she steamed the branches and then beat me on the back with them. I asked her if she wanted me to beat her too, but she politely declined. Afterwards we took turns washing using the communal bowl and communal wash clothes. It was actually pretty helpful to see how someone else takes a banya because I learned how to be much more efficient with my water use. After taking a banya you’re not supposed to do anything but rest and drink tea. Since we live on opposite sides of the village so his mom told us that we had to sleep over there. Tim slept on the floor in his room and I slept on the pull out couch (which is a little bit smaller than a double bed) with Alyssa and Phil’s other 4 year old sister Vika. So as I was going to bed Vika rested her forehead on mine, threw her arm around my neck and slept as close to me as possible the entire night. If I tried to move over as much as a centimeter, she would shift her body over too. Finally I gave up and resigned myself to the fact that I would wake up to a 4 year old with her face pressed up against mine. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep but she’s the absolute cutest girl in the world. I opened my eyes once during the night to see her teeny face and big cheeks and started to laugh quietly when I saw that her nose was pressed up against mine.
After our site visits we were ready to start our two week practicum, where all the volunteers in our village would teach 3 classes per week. The morning of my first class, I threw up on the way to school and it wasn’t because I was nervous. Phil, also in my group, did the same thing (we thought we might have both had food poisoning) so we were not looking forward to spending the next 4 hours in a school trying to muscle through our first teaching session. I went home instead and slept for the next 8 hours only to be woken by my mom and sister when they brought me tea. I was in really bad shape. By Tuesday I was even worse and couldn’t even communicate to my family about how bad I was feeling and I didn’t have the energy to walk across my village to get our LCF to tell her to call the Medical Office in Bishkek. All day long I got progressively worse and by the time night rolled around I had a 102.7 temperature and something violent was going on inside my body. The Peace Corps medical office brought me into Bishkek and they were afraid that it was acute appendicitis so I had to go to a local hospital to get checked out. My blood test came back negative but I had lost so much fluid over the course of 2 days that I had to receive my second IV since being in country. I have been deemed by everyone here as a “high medial priority”.
I didn’t eat for about 4 days and after that my diet consisted of bullion and toast. Like I said my mom was a cook for 25 years so she started slowly introducing different foods into my diet. My family here was so worried about me at first because they didn’t know what to do with me and they thought I was going to go home. They were both crying when I left for Bishkek but I told them that it’s going to take a lot more than this to get me to leave the country. Thanks to the staff, my family and the other volunteers, I was able to get back on my feet in no time, I have no idea what I would have done without them. Chris Burns, one of the guys who led our orientation in Philadelphia said that you’re not a real Peace Corps Volunteer until you’ve crapped your pants. We thought he wasn’t serious but when I was really ill, I definitely pooped my pants twice. I thought it was hilarious because I started thinking about all those old SNL skits, “Oops I crapped my pants.” If anyone wants to send me Depends, I am sure they will be put to good use. Hey, don’t judge until you’ve lived in a developing country too.
Practicum
Since I was sick, I missed the entire first week of my practicum so I only ended up teaching twice. During my second class, the PST director ended up observing me. I had prepared so much by cutting out pictures from Newsweek and made up a game called “now or later” and even incorporated a tennis ball into my lesson plan. My discipline was definitely lacking and I had absolutely no control of my students and one of them wanted to leave so they were asking my director how to translate a note in the middle of my class! One of them brought it to me and it said “myxno (May I, in Russian) to go out please”. At first I said sit down and pay attention but finally I was like alright, just go, just leave. I think the director knew I was distressed because he thoughtfully added, “well, at least they came back”. Needless to say, I think this is going to be a much harder job than I had originally anticipated.
My Russian is slowly improving and we had our Mid-Service Test on Monday. At first I was really nervous, but then I realized that I’m not in college and this “grade” won’t actually count towards anything. I ended up getting an “excellent” in listening and speaking and a “good” in grammar and pronunciation. I couldn’t have been happier because I thought I completely botched my oral exam. My mama and Tanya were so proud of me and I said it was all because Tanya is so patient and sits with me for at least an hour everyday and makes me tell her everything I know how to say.
Site Placements
We got our site placements on Wednesday and I am going to be living in Kok-Oi which is a village of about 6,000 people about 10 km out of Talas. Since there is a mountain range separating the Chui and Talas oblasts the easiest route is through Kazakstan, which makes it kind of isolated. Regardless, everyone who lives there or who has been there loves it so I am really excited. Mostly everyone was happy with their placements but it was a really weird day. It’s kind of sobering to find out where you are going to be living for the next two years. Luckily I already have a place I can call home and I am sure I will visit Koshoi often. I didn’t make any specific requests during our interviews because I figured I would be happy no matter where they placed me. I just wanted to be somewhere where I could learn and develop my Russian. Phil, Bohee, Tim and I are all pretty much on the opposite sides of the country which kind of sucks, they completely botched our Russian group. All the other groups were kind of put in the same area but ours was hacked apart. I guess it will give us a good reason to travel during our down time, though.
Note: these ramblings, observations, attitudes, beliefs, opinions and views do not in any way relfect those of Peace Corps or the United States Goverment.... so don't even think about it.
