she's where?

Saturday, October 15, 2005

On tuesday all of the trainees hit the road to all corners of Kyrgyzstan to visit current volunteers. It was our big chance to leave the nest and see what life is really like in the Peace Corps. Considering how little we have actually been able to do on our own, it was a bit surprising when the directors gave us a map and some written directions and wished us luck on getting to where we needed to be. It's nice that they have so much confidence in us, but remember we just got to verbs in our language lessons...not too helpful on the road. I ended up being really lucky though, the volunteer that I was goingto be staying with, Rich, was giving a talk to our whole group the day before we were to leave. He just stayed an extra night and took us the whole wayto the lake. I really cant believe that PC doesn't require some sort of excort. the transportation services here are not corporate or standardized at alland people who look like they dont know what is going on get taken advantage of a lot. And it's not like you can tell the driver to take a hike...i can tell him that he's wearing a sweater, but that's about it.
This might be a bit boring, but a little about how Kyrgyzstan is set up. It is divided into different oblasts, or districts. there's Osh and Jalalabad in the south and they are known for being a lot more conservative and traditional. It's supposed to be really hot there during the summer, which is a downside, but on the upside, they have more fruits and veggies. Naryn is considered the most isolated oblast. It's located in a valley that's way up in the mountains so it gets frigid cold and the mountains make leaving almost impossible 6 monthes out of the year. One has to wonder why anyone would choose to settle there and I hear that it was a result of the Russians invading and the Kyrgyz hiding out somewhere where no one would be crazy enough to follow. Desperate times call for desperate measures. As for the North of Kyrgyzstan, I dont know a whole lot of details, except that it's where Bishkek is located, which is the capitol and the biggest city. Then there's Issyk-kul, which is where the lake it and is where I went on my visit.
So about the lake. It's called Lake Issyk-kul which means warm lake. Because of it's size (its really huge), depth, saltiness (i dont know where the salt comes from)and some thermal activity it never freezes. It's actually insulting if you feel the water and say that it's cold, though it's really not any warmer than the Puget Sound. This is really a pretty area and is a big tourist hot spot - a lot of Russians and Kazaks as well as Kyrgyz come for the summer. Thepeople that live here make about 80% of their income just during the summer months and off of tourism. The recent revolutions have really impacted folkscoming around and a lot of people are worried that they wont have enough money to make it through the winter.The water is super clean and crystal blue, there's only like six boats on the entire lake and surprisingly it's not being polluted. Two big mountain ranges border both sides of the lake and the North Shore where I was, is in the foot hills of smaller, green mountains.
On the North Shore there are 4 volunteers that are spread out between 4 different villages and they are all within a half hours ride from eachother. It wasa really nice set up because each volunteer was having one or two trainees staying with them and we all got together pretty much every day. Alex, anothertrainee, and I stayed with Rich, who is probably the closest thing to a frat boy that we are going to see in Kyrgyzstan! He was an awesome host and the familythat he lives with were really nice. The daughter, who is about 16, speaks english really well, so between her and Rich, Alex and I were able to keep up. Heeven made us pizza and starbucks coffee! After three weeks of bread and noodles, it was amazing! I wasn't able to sleep all night from the coffee, but itwas a sacrafice that I would make 10 times over!
We went with Rich to his classes, which was so good because at this point I'm really wondering how I will be equipped to teach anything in just a few months. Alex and I really stood out, so a majority of the time was spent playing twenty questions. There were the usual, where are you from, how old are you, what'syour name and then there was, do you have a husband, why dont you have a husband, when are you going to get a husband, oh, and what are my goals and aspirations.It was a little uncomfortable at times, but coming out of this, I'm feeling a lot better about teaching. I'm not trying to kid myself into thinking that it will be easy,but they are really starting from the basics and there's no set curriculum so you can spend as much time as you need to on the lessons. Most volunteersteach between 2-4 hours a day and also run clubs. Most clubs are centered around speaking English, but really you can make up a club around whatever you are interested in. For instance, Rich has a sports club, so twice a week he heads out to the soccer field with ball and a frisbee and plays for a few hours.A lot of the boys are a bit 'too-cool-for-school' so it usualy ends up being just rich and 15 girls! I think that they are all hoping to score themselvesan American boy!
The volunteers really showed us a good time. We spent some time at the beach, just hanging out and playing cards. We also went on this amazing hike. It wasa path that followed a river through the foothills. There were a lot of trees, which is rare for this country, the mountains, grazing horses...really justthe works. There was one mishap though. A couple of the girls were approached by a mountain man with a few horses. Due to lack of communicationskills (and it probably didnt help that the dude had been drinking) - wanting to just take a photo on the horse ended up turning into a ride on the horse. The gear ended up being pretty shotty and both girls fell off, one of them hurt her leg pretty bad. Fortunatley, and really randomly, a big work truckfull of Russian teenagers pulled up and gave us all a ride back to our taxis. We still dont know what they were doing out there, but in some situations itsbetter to not ask questions. From what I hear, child labor laws aren't the same as they are in the states. For instance one day at the school a few classeswere packed into the back of a big truck to go and spend the day digging potatoes and it is doubtful that furthering their education was the purpose - this is justwhat happens duing harvest season. It doesn't sound like it's the same as going to the pumpkin patch...when they came back at the end of the day they had a huge load of potatoes. I hear that they get payed for it, but I doubt that it really amounts to anything.
Overall, it was a great trip and I am really hoping that I will get placed somewhere in the area for my permanent site. It doesn't sound like I have anysay in the decision at all, but I will try my best!
hope all is well,~machalla

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