I know, three posts in one day. It's like Christmas! Just reminding you to read these three in opposite order, so you don't get too confused. I got a cell phone today, finally. My number is 996550324451, and I'll let you do the work figuring out how to call it if you choose to do so. Also, I'm 10 hours ahead of the east coast, so don't wake me up.
Enjoy the posts!
Love!
Leslie
Saturday, July 26, 2008
July 16's post
So, I thought I would be able to access the internet last Wednesday, but the only open computer I could find didn’t have any way to type in numbers, which makes it impossible for me to get into my email. I had an entry all typed and ready to go, but couldn’t get it online. I’ve loaded it up now, so read the next one first.
If I were to write a book now, I would call it “20 Cups of Tea”, because that’s about what I’m averaging every day. Everything is still going really well. I’m starting to get into a routine, which helps. The language classes are intense, but great. There are also sessions on how to teach (because that can be summed up in a few weeks, right Mom?), and Kyrgyz culture. Those are getting me very excited for September, when I head off to my permanent post. The PC has been rotating current volunteers to come talk to us, which has been incredibly helpful. It’s nice to see successful volunteers and have them validate our fears and excitements and everything.
Nothing exciting has really happened here in the last week. The rules are pretty strict, so except for Wednesday meetings, I haven’t been able to leave my village (hence the lack of communication). On Sunday, I went to my friend Serena’s house to meet two Kyrgyz girls who live in Bishkek and have both spent a year in America studying. They were really fun and helpful. It’s great to be able to actually communicate with Kyrgyz people, beyond my limited language ability.
This Sunday, we are having a Mexican day at Serena’s. Her host sister is 16 and just got back from spending a year in the US (there’s a pretty big exchange program here) and says she misses Mexican food and donuts more than anything else, se we’re going to make them together. It’s nice to have Sunday as American day, which makes the culture shock less harsh, especially since we have so long here to spread it out.
My family is still great. There have been various extended family members coming in and out. I’m never sure who they are, when they’re coming, or any of that, but everyone’s been super nice. The girls are still great. I’m really glad I got a family with kids, because they’re great to talk to with my level of Kyrgyz, and it’s fun to see them try to speak back in English (though they’re both much better at English than I am at Kyrgyz).
On my way home from class yesterday, I was about to turn into my driveway, when my neighbor, a Russian girl who is probably about 15, kept yelling something to me. I went over to say hi, and she kept saying something I didn’t understand, grabbed my arm, and pulled me into her yard. She kept speaking in Russian, and I kept trying to say I didn’t speak Russian. She finally switched into Kyrgyz, but kept saying the same words that I didn’t know. I responded with “I don’t know”, and she would just repeat it again. Finally, I was almost out, when she grabbed my arm again and pulled me into the back of the house, with the stables and everything. She told me to be quiet, and led me into a room. She looked in, then got really upset because something wasn’t there. I got that it was small – I’m assuming some small animal or something. She was sad that it was gone, I think. She may have asked me for money, but I said no, and finally left, saying I had to study (because that’s one of the few phrases I have down). Needless to say, the communication levels here can be pretty low.
On Saturday, we’re going to Bishkek to see the National History Museum, which should be interesting, and hopefully get cell phones. It will be nice to see Bishkek again, since we’ve really only been into the city once, and then it was very quick.
In the past week, I’ve gotten a few yoga partners. We have done my one yoga DVD twice now, which feels really good. Jessica has a great room for it. I feel a little bad sweating where her entire family sleeps on the floor, but the room is great for yoga… I also have a NYC ballet workout DVD that we’re going to try soon. It’s very good to find ways to relax and exercise in such a different environment.
Physically, I’ve been feeling great recently. All stomach problems seem to be resolved, and my body seems to be adjusted well to the environment. Having a personal water distiller (provided by the Peace Corps), is so great. I can have a gallon of extremely clean water every day, without bothering anyone about it.
I feel like the training time is going to start passing really fast from now on. In a few days, I have “site placement interviews”, and then in less than a month, I will know exactly where I will be spending the next two years! It will be nice to not be in a ‘transition’ position again once I move there, but I’m really enjoying my time here too.
For this week’s animal story, here are some recent quotes from very normal conversations:“Well, the cow in my yard lets me pet him”“I mean, I ate horse this morning”“Where’s your house?” “Just take a right at the donkey”
And just in case you were wondering, the cartoons are all wrong about roosters crowing at sun-up. They crow all the time, waking up the donkeys, who then “eee ahh” for a while. Village life isn’t quite as quiet and peaceful as it may seem, but it does beat sirens and horns.
Love to all!
Leslie
If I were to write a book now, I would call it “20 Cups of Tea”, because that’s about what I’m averaging every day. Everything is still going really well. I’m starting to get into a routine, which helps. The language classes are intense, but great. There are also sessions on how to teach (because that can be summed up in a few weeks, right Mom?), and Kyrgyz culture. Those are getting me very excited for September, when I head off to my permanent post. The PC has been rotating current volunteers to come talk to us, which has been incredibly helpful. It’s nice to see successful volunteers and have them validate our fears and excitements and everything.
Nothing exciting has really happened here in the last week. The rules are pretty strict, so except for Wednesday meetings, I haven’t been able to leave my village (hence the lack of communication). On Sunday, I went to my friend Serena’s house to meet two Kyrgyz girls who live in Bishkek and have both spent a year in America studying. They were really fun and helpful. It’s great to be able to actually communicate with Kyrgyz people, beyond my limited language ability.
This Sunday, we are having a Mexican day at Serena’s. Her host sister is 16 and just got back from spending a year in the US (there’s a pretty big exchange program here) and says she misses Mexican food and donuts more than anything else, se we’re going to make them together. It’s nice to have Sunday as American day, which makes the culture shock less harsh, especially since we have so long here to spread it out.
My family is still great. There have been various extended family members coming in and out. I’m never sure who they are, when they’re coming, or any of that, but everyone’s been super nice. The girls are still great. I’m really glad I got a family with kids, because they’re great to talk to with my level of Kyrgyz, and it’s fun to see them try to speak back in English (though they’re both much better at English than I am at Kyrgyz).
On my way home from class yesterday, I was about to turn into my driveway, when my neighbor, a Russian girl who is probably about 15, kept yelling something to me. I went over to say hi, and she kept saying something I didn’t understand, grabbed my arm, and pulled me into her yard. She kept speaking in Russian, and I kept trying to say I didn’t speak Russian. She finally switched into Kyrgyz, but kept saying the same words that I didn’t know. I responded with “I don’t know”, and she would just repeat it again. Finally, I was almost out, when she grabbed my arm again and pulled me into the back of the house, with the stables and everything. She told me to be quiet, and led me into a room. She looked in, then got really upset because something wasn’t there. I got that it was small – I’m assuming some small animal or something. She was sad that it was gone, I think. She may have asked me for money, but I said no, and finally left, saying I had to study (because that’s one of the few phrases I have down). Needless to say, the communication levels here can be pretty low.
On Saturday, we’re going to Bishkek to see the National History Museum, which should be interesting, and hopefully get cell phones. It will be nice to see Bishkek again, since we’ve really only been into the city once, and then it was very quick.
In the past week, I’ve gotten a few yoga partners. We have done my one yoga DVD twice now, which feels really good. Jessica has a great room for it. I feel a little bad sweating where her entire family sleeps on the floor, but the room is great for yoga… I also have a NYC ballet workout DVD that we’re going to try soon. It’s very good to find ways to relax and exercise in such a different environment.
Physically, I’ve been feeling great recently. All stomach problems seem to be resolved, and my body seems to be adjusted well to the environment. Having a personal water distiller (provided by the Peace Corps), is so great. I can have a gallon of extremely clean water every day, without bothering anyone about it.
I feel like the training time is going to start passing really fast from now on. In a few days, I have “site placement interviews”, and then in less than a month, I will know exactly where I will be spending the next two years! It will be nice to not be in a ‘transition’ position again once I move there, but I’m really enjoying my time here too.
For this week’s animal story, here are some recent quotes from very normal conversations:“Well, the cow in my yard lets me pet him”“I mean, I ate horse this morning”“Where’s your house?” “Just take a right at the donkey”
And just in case you were wondering, the cartoons are all wrong about roosters crowing at sun-up. They crow all the time, waking up the donkeys, who then “eee ahh” for a while. Village life isn’t quite as quiet and peaceful as it may seem, but it does beat sirens and horns.
Love to all!
Leslie
July 9's post
6'Today marks the end of the first week with my host family. Everything has been going really well. I got a little sick (as expected) for a few days, but I’m feeling much better today. My family is incredible. I have a mother, a father, three sisters (aged 10, 16, and 23). There’s also a 22 year-old boy, but he lives away from here on work. Supposedly, he asks about me every day on the phone. The girls are great. The 23 year-old is a high school chemistry and biology teacher in Bishkek, and is in and out of the house for the summer. The other two are so cute. The 10 year old (Benazeer) informed me yesterday (with the help of a Russian/English dictionary), that her future profession was to be a clown and practiced for me. The 16 year-old is really sweet and has impressive English, so she’s my resident translator. My mother and father are also great. They’re both really patient with my language and everything. On my second day here, my mother was going over all the names of the family, and my father kept pointing at himself, smiling really big, and saying “Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton”. We later had a “conversation” where he said “George Bish, Condaleeza Rice” and gave a thumbs down and made a bad face. Then he smiled and switched to a thumbs up and said “Bill Clinton. Albert Gore. Barack Obama”. He has an impressive knowledge of US politics…
I showed everyone pictures I brought from home recently. The comments were: whenever she saw a picture of Ashley, she would ask if that was my sister. She asked how old Mom and Dad were, and then asked what kind of exercise they do to stay so young. Whenever a picture of Dad would come up, she would smile and say “Jackshay!” (Good!) They also asked if Derek was a movie star.
Communication here is an adventure. There is a lot of smiling and nodding, with constant gesturing. I’m going to rock charades when I get home.
The house here is really nice. Most of the houses in my village are very similar. Apparently they were built by Germans… In the complex of my house, there is a main house with bedrooms and a living room. Next to this building is another building with a “summer kitchen”, where we usually eat, a kitchen, a storage room, and a “banya”. The banya is where they bathe, once a week. It’s a small room that they heat up like a sauna and sit in and bathe. Some people can last in the banya for 3 hours. Next to that building is a stable with sheep and a cow, then an outhouse and a sink. I like to show off that my outhouse is nice because it’s tiled, which is a point of pride in these parts. Behind the house, there’s a big garden, where they have apple trees, tomatoes, and other vegetables and flowers.
The Peace Corps split us all up into groups of about five (mine is down to four, because one girl is leaving tomorrow to go home). There are two groups in my village. We all meet together to eat lunch every day at people’s houses, which is a lot of fun. All of the mothers compete to outdo eachother every week, which makes the food amazing every day. The one that should be had to beat should be Chris’s. His family butchered a sheep in the morning before class, then served it to us for lunch. We also ate it in the yurt in his backyard.
The food here has been incredible. It’s all so fresh, which is new after living in America. My mother bakes bread every day, and most of the vegetables come from our garden. I’m assuming that the meat is also fresh, judging from Chris’s family. There’s also the best melon I have ever had. After putting out a strong, but unsuccessful attempt to like tomatoes in the US, Kyrgyzstan has finally won me over. Every day, I get a “salad” of tomatoes, cucumbers, and dill that is amazing. My mother decided that I don’t eat much (for Kyrgyz guest standards) because I’m a dancer. She tells everyone that when they try to force more food on me, which is great.
The host families are all really well trained by the Peace Corps to make us comfortable and safe. With all of the rules in place by the Peace Corps, I feel kind of like I’m 6 years old again, but it’s really safe. The Peace Corps takes great care of us. They gave us each a nice water purifier, so I have a gallon of clean water every day. If anything goes wrong with us, medically or safety-wise, there are great people to call who can fix anything. I also feel really safe in this community, which helps with the adjustment a lot.
The language is coming along. It’s getting confusing, with more endings added to the verbs and everything. I’m starting to feel like I can form more complex sentances now and everything. I can even pick up various words in people’s conversations, which is always a fun feeling.
The American culture here is funny. They show American TV and movies on TV, all dubbed into Russian. I fall asleep to 50 Cent, Jay Z, or other similar artists playing in the next room. My sister also really likes Hillary Duff. When I first got to my house, my sister was watching Scrubs.
The other volunteers are great. I really like my language group and my village, which is very important.
Just so no one worries: I haven’t gotten bride kidnapped, bitten by any animals, pickpocketed, forced vodka, or any serious illness.
I hope everyone is doing well on the home front. If anything important happens in the world or in your lives, call me (when I finally have a cell phone), text me, email me, write me, or any way you want. I’m pretty much as out of touch as you can get here from Thursday through Tuesday.
Village life seems to revolve around animals, so here’s an appropriate ending: an animal story.
Most families here have dogs. Mine is tied up and locked behind a fence. He growls and barks whenever I come in and doesn’t seem very nice. Chris, on the other hand, has two dogs who are both very skittish but nice. After just a few days at his house, he discovered that the dogs follow him wherever he goes. He calls them his bodyguards, since they protect him from the other dogs in the neighborhood. One day, he and his mom came to visit at my house, and they kept sneaking in the gate when we were standing outside. Chris and I thought it was funny, but my whole family kept chasing them out. Wherever Chris goes, he has these two dogs following directly behind him.
I’ll update this whenever I can.
Love to all!
Leslie
I showed everyone pictures I brought from home recently. The comments were: whenever she saw a picture of Ashley, she would ask if that was my sister. She asked how old Mom and Dad were, and then asked what kind of exercise they do to stay so young. Whenever a picture of Dad would come up, she would smile and say “Jackshay!” (Good!) They also asked if Derek was a movie star.
Communication here is an adventure. There is a lot of smiling and nodding, with constant gesturing. I’m going to rock charades when I get home.
The house here is really nice. Most of the houses in my village are very similar. Apparently they were built by Germans… In the complex of my house, there is a main house with bedrooms and a living room. Next to this building is another building with a “summer kitchen”, where we usually eat, a kitchen, a storage room, and a “banya”. The banya is where they bathe, once a week. It’s a small room that they heat up like a sauna and sit in and bathe. Some people can last in the banya for 3 hours. Next to that building is a stable with sheep and a cow, then an outhouse and a sink. I like to show off that my outhouse is nice because it’s tiled, which is a point of pride in these parts. Behind the house, there’s a big garden, where they have apple trees, tomatoes, and other vegetables and flowers.
The Peace Corps split us all up into groups of about five (mine is down to four, because one girl is leaving tomorrow to go home). There are two groups in my village. We all meet together to eat lunch every day at people’s houses, which is a lot of fun. All of the mothers compete to outdo eachother every week, which makes the food amazing every day. The one that should be had to beat should be Chris’s. His family butchered a sheep in the morning before class, then served it to us for lunch. We also ate it in the yurt in his backyard.
The food here has been incredible. It’s all so fresh, which is new after living in America. My mother bakes bread every day, and most of the vegetables come from our garden. I’m assuming that the meat is also fresh, judging from Chris’s family. There’s also the best melon I have ever had. After putting out a strong, but unsuccessful attempt to like tomatoes in the US, Kyrgyzstan has finally won me over. Every day, I get a “salad” of tomatoes, cucumbers, and dill that is amazing. My mother decided that I don’t eat much (for Kyrgyz guest standards) because I’m a dancer. She tells everyone that when they try to force more food on me, which is great.
The host families are all really well trained by the Peace Corps to make us comfortable and safe. With all of the rules in place by the Peace Corps, I feel kind of like I’m 6 years old again, but it’s really safe. The Peace Corps takes great care of us. They gave us each a nice water purifier, so I have a gallon of clean water every day. If anything goes wrong with us, medically or safety-wise, there are great people to call who can fix anything. I also feel really safe in this community, which helps with the adjustment a lot.
The language is coming along. It’s getting confusing, with more endings added to the verbs and everything. I’m starting to feel like I can form more complex sentances now and everything. I can even pick up various words in people’s conversations, which is always a fun feeling.
The American culture here is funny. They show American TV and movies on TV, all dubbed into Russian. I fall asleep to 50 Cent, Jay Z, or other similar artists playing in the next room. My sister also really likes Hillary Duff. When I first got to my house, my sister was watching Scrubs.
The other volunteers are great. I really like my language group and my village, which is very important.
Just so no one worries: I haven’t gotten bride kidnapped, bitten by any animals, pickpocketed, forced vodka, or any serious illness.
I hope everyone is doing well on the home front. If anything important happens in the world or in your lives, call me (when I finally have a cell phone), text me, email me, write me, or any way you want. I’m pretty much as out of touch as you can get here from Thursday through Tuesday.
Village life seems to revolve around animals, so here’s an appropriate ending: an animal story.
Most families here have dogs. Mine is tied up and locked behind a fence. He growls and barks whenever I come in and doesn’t seem very nice. Chris, on the other hand, has two dogs who are both very skittish but nice. After just a few days at his house, he discovered that the dogs follow him wherever he goes. He calls them his bodyguards, since they protect him from the other dogs in the neighborhood. One day, he and his mom came to visit at my house, and they kept sneaking in the gate when we were standing outside. Chris and I thought it was funny, but my whole family kept chasing them out. Wherever Chris goes, he has these two dogs following directly behind him.
I’ll update this whenever I can.
Love to all!
Leslie
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Just a quick update
I've now written two entries to make for last week and this week, and have them both safely on a flashdrive (along with some picutures of my village), but apparently this computer does't have a USB drive, so there goes that brilliant planning. I'm going into Bishkek for a trip to the art museum there, so I will get better computer access from there. I'll post both of those brilliant entries then, so I'll keep this one short.
Everything is going extremely well so far. I absolutely love my host family (a mother, father, three daughters, aged 10, 16, and 23, and a 22 year-old boy who doesn't live here). The house is cute and has been voted the best outhouse of our village houses!
Training is intense, but great. We have class six days a week, for most of the day, so I'm learning a lot but having fun too.
The weather is hot, but nothing I'm not used to, and almost always sunny.
Stay tuned on Saturday for more comprehensive updates, and hopefully a cell phone too!
I hope everyone at home is doing great. Let me know what's going on in your lives.
Love to all!
Leslie
Everything is going extremely well so far. I absolutely love my host family (a mother, father, three daughters, aged 10, 16, and 23, and a 22 year-old boy who doesn't live here). The house is cute and has been voted the best outhouse of our village houses!
Training is intense, but great. We have class six days a week, for most of the day, so I'm learning a lot but having fun too.
The weather is hot, but nothing I'm not used to, and almost always sunny.
Stay tuned on Saturday for more comprehensive updates, and hopefully a cell phone too!
I hope everyone at home is doing great. Let me know what's going on in your lives.
Love to all!
Leslie
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
First days in Bishkek
I finally made it to Kyrgyzstan! I've been in bishkek, the capital, for three days now. Today was the first day that we we allowed to leave the hotel property, though, so i haven't gotten much of a feel for the country yet. After the marathon flight from the US, I arrived in Bishkek at 1:30 Monday morning. Since then, we have been sitting in classes and meetings all day, and trying to adjust all night. The classes are going well. I am learning Kyrgyz language (as opposed to Russian), which I am very excited about. Now, I can pretty much only say the survival "Hello, my name is leslie, I am from south carolina" conversation, but I'm getting the alphabet down, which is important.
This afternoon, we leave bishkek for Kant, where we will meet our host family and leave for their houses. I am very excited and nervous about that. It should be a big deal, with plenty of visitors, family, food, tea, and the necessary vodka. From there, I start the real language and culture classes. My group is about five people, and we'll meet every morning at our teacher's house for lessons all morning, and cultral and technical (ie: how to teach) classes.
The group of people i am with is great. We're starting to separate a little into different little groups, as happens with 63 people, but leaving the hotel for host family houses will change a lot of that.
The hotel we are staying in is a prime example of Soviet architecture at its finest. It is a cement block-type building. Every room has a pretty sizeable balcony, though, which is very nice.
The rooms are pretty low for American standards, but I'm sure we will look back on this as luxoriuos (we even have indoor toilets, shower heads and attempted hot water!). The really cool part of the hotel, however, is behind it. I am not quite sure what it is, but there is a huge statue/sculpture park with towers, yurts, and other sculptures scattered. It seems very ... soviet, but it is really fun to wander around in and climb around on.
We have had all of our meals at the hotel restaurant so far, and I have actually been enjoying them. We have had fresh fruit every day, a lot of vegitables, delicious soups, amazing fruit juice and the necessary meat and potatos. It's all pretty greasy, as expected, but I have been enjoying it. Most of all, we have been having a lot of tea, which is only the beginning, supposedly.
A great part of the training so far has been the fact that they brought in some current volunteers to live with us and answer all of our millions of questions. They are all really enthusiastic and friendly and helpful, which is great.
I am very excited to actually leave our hotel and experience what Kyrgyzstan has to offer. I don't think it has really hit me yet where i am and what i am doing, but that probably will come this evening when I get to my new home.
I hope everybody at home is doing well. I should have more access to internet from now on, depending on where I am and everything, so keep in touch and let me know what is going on.
Cheers!
This afternoon, we leave bishkek for Kant, where we will meet our host family and leave for their houses. I am very excited and nervous about that. It should be a big deal, with plenty of visitors, family, food, tea, and the necessary vodka. From there, I start the real language and culture classes. My group is about five people, and we'll meet every morning at our teacher's house for lessons all morning, and cultral and technical (ie: how to teach) classes.
The group of people i am with is great. We're starting to separate a little into different little groups, as happens with 63 people, but leaving the hotel for host family houses will change a lot of that.
The hotel we are staying in is a prime example of Soviet architecture at its finest. It is a cement block-type building. Every room has a pretty sizeable balcony, though, which is very nice.
The rooms are pretty low for American standards, but I'm sure we will look back on this as luxoriuos (we even have indoor toilets, shower heads and attempted hot water!). The really cool part of the hotel, however, is behind it. I am not quite sure what it is, but there is a huge statue/sculpture park with towers, yurts, and other sculptures scattered. It seems very ... soviet, but it is really fun to wander around in and climb around on.
We have had all of our meals at the hotel restaurant so far, and I have actually been enjoying them. We have had fresh fruit every day, a lot of vegitables, delicious soups, amazing fruit juice and the necessary meat and potatos. It's all pretty greasy, as expected, but I have been enjoying it. Most of all, we have been having a lot of tea, which is only the beginning, supposedly.
A great part of the training so far has been the fact that they brought in some current volunteers to live with us and answer all of our millions of questions. They are all really enthusiastic and friendly and helpful, which is great.
I am very excited to actually leave our hotel and experience what Kyrgyzstan has to offer. I don't think it has really hit me yet where i am and what i am doing, but that probably will come this evening when I get to my new home.
I hope everybody at home is doing well. I should have more access to internet from now on, depending on where I am and everything, so keep in touch and let me know what is going on.
Cheers!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Mid-flight!
Hello from Istanbul!
I am in the middle of my long trip around the world. We have a very long layover here in Istanbul, so a bunch of us left the airport to explore the city. A few of us took the metro out to get lunch (or whatever meal this is) a few stops away. We got to eat great kabobs and drink Turkish coffee. On the way back to the metro, I experienced my first call to prayer. It was beautiful to hear the voice on the loudspeaker for the first time.
Soon, we'll be leaving for Bishkek. We arrive at 1:30 AM, but supposedly the airport is an experience, and will take a few hours to work through, so it will be a long night/day/two days.
The people in charge warned us that it will probably be about a week until we have access to phones or internet next, so don't worry if you haven't heard anything -- no news is good news!
Think good thoughts for my first days in Kyrgyzstan!
Let me know if you have any questions or anything.
-- Leslie
I am in the middle of my long trip around the world. We have a very long layover here in Istanbul, so a bunch of us left the airport to explore the city. A few of us took the metro out to get lunch (or whatever meal this is) a few stops away. We got to eat great kabobs and drink Turkish coffee. On the way back to the metro, I experienced my first call to prayer. It was beautiful to hear the voice on the loudspeaker for the first time.
Soon, we'll be leaving for Bishkek. We arrive at 1:30 AM, but supposedly the airport is an experience, and will take a few hours to work through, so it will be a long night/day/two days.
The people in charge warned us that it will probably be about a week until we have access to phones or internet next, so don't worry if you haven't heard anything -- no news is good news!
Think good thoughts for my first days in Kyrgyzstan!
Let me know if you have any questions or anything.
-- Leslie
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