Happy Halloween to all!
Last weekend was the big Halloween party in Osh city. It was held at a restaurant/bar and felt like a real American Halloween party. There was red beer, a DJ, party lights (with a fog machine!), and a lot of people all dressed up and ready to have a good time. The party was a lot of fun – we pretty much all danced for 4 straight hours, and the weekend as a whole was amazing. Osh is such a beautiful city! We also ate way too much food at an American-style restaurant (California Café). Throughout the weekend, I had pesto pasta, burritos, French toast, cheesecake, and brownies all ordered in English! Besides the party and eating, I also went to the bazaar (one of the largest in Central Asia), saw the largest Lenin statue in all of Central Asia, walked through the beautiful park, and even climbed a mountain which is the third holiest site in the Islamic world. From the top of the mountain (okay, so climbing it meant 15 minutes of stairs, but it’s still cool), there is such a beautiful view of all of Osh (which feels so huge now, compared to Jalalabad) and all of the mountains that surround it – into Uzbekistan even. It was also really great to see all of the other volunteers I hadn’t seen since we all left Bishkek over a month ago. The trip there and back was also really easy and beautiful. The marshrutka (a minibus which is the best way to get around here) was about two hours through beautiful countryside and only cost 100 som (about $2.85). I’d been sick for most of last week and definitely still was for the weekend, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me from having fun. On Monday, I found out officially it was yet another case of giardia (third time’s the charm?), which has pretty much cleared up with the help of some amazing medicine… I’m proud that I could still dance for 4 hours and climb a mountain, in that condition. What can I say, I’m hardcore.
I’m headed back to Osh next week, because some other volunteers are doing a special class on the American political system, and then watching the election on international CNN, so we’re probably going to spend the night at the “American center” (where they get CNN) and watch as history is made! I’m really excited because I was sure I was going to be completely cut off from the whole process, but now not only do I get to see it, but it should be really fun too.
For Halloween, a bunch of us are all getting together today. My weekend plans are this: spending Friday night in a creepy abandoned boarding school, watching Halloween movies, and going hiking in the world’s largest walnut forest on Saturday. Just your normal weekend, here in Kyrgyzstan…
I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and upcoming week.
Here’s hoping the news on Tuesday is good!



Osh City from Sulleiman Mountain




















More of Osh











Halloween -- Christie, Nate, and Lauren


















Volunteers and Pakistani med students made up a lot of the party.













Before leaving -- The girls
















Osh people went with the 80's theme...

The past few weeks have been relatively normal (or as normal as working in a Kyrgyz school can be for me right now). I passed the “one month at site” mark, which is exciting. It’s felt like a very long month, but adjusting is always going to be hard, so I’m excited about the next 23 months…

The class schedule I was given turns out to have been a big joke (funny, right?). I still wake up every morning with no idea what will happen in the next day, which keeps things exciting, I guess. I’ve gotten to be an expert at going with the flow, or as some of us decided the motto of PC Kyrgyzstan should be: “embrace the chaos”. Teaching, or trying to figure it out, is still an adventure. It’s still shocking to me how little English the 10^th and 11^th form students know. Today, I taught the alphabet to the 11^th form club (supposedly made up of the best students from the whole grade). Needless to say, they definitely needed the lesson.

To explain some of the limitations of teaching here, here is an excerpt from the 8^th from textbook:

If you can’t read it, it’s the section on the US. My favorite part says, “There are two main political parties in the USA: The Democratic (symbolized by a ) and the Republican (symbolized by an ). They both are parties of monopoly capitalists and the American people do not see any difference between them.”

Some exciting things that have happened in the past two weeks:

Since before I even moved in here, my sister had been talking about this wedding in the family that was happening in mid-October and how excited she was and everything. A few weeks ago, we went to the pa

rty. It turns out the wedding had already happened (a bride kidnapping ma

ybe? I’m not quite sure when or what that was), but the party was when they got presents. We got there at 10 and left at 4, and I pretty much ate non

stop the entire time. There was also dancing:

The lady in the orange dress and yellow scarf never cracked a smile, but she was breaking it down the entire time.

My sisters at the party

Last week was also the 11^thform’s “autumn ball”, their answer to senior prom. It was held in the basketball room at 1:00 on a Tuesday, complete with a table full of bread, juice, carrot salad, and a jar of pickles. Not quite what I remember from senior prom… I was invited by the whole class as an honored guest. Every time I would make any attempt at dancing, everyone would start clapping and cheering. I even got to slow dance (middle-school style) with a couple boys.

The typical boys who are too cool to dance

Always with the curious kids watching through the door, until they got chased away.

I’ve started a routine on my days off (by“routine” I mean I did it two of the past three free days, with this most recent free day off because of yet another fun bout of stomach problems). In this routine, I spend the morning walking around the village, taking in the beauty of the scenery, especially in this season.

Then I head into the next town over, get lunch at a nice (or very grungy but delicious and cheap) Uzbek café and run errands in the bazaar. It turns out to be a lovely way to spend my days and

get things done at the same time. It also means I now have a lot of pictures of my village. I hope to keep it up as much as possible until the weather makes it too unpleasant.

I really like the mountains, as you can tell

A very nice shephard lady watching her sheep

That's my village, in all of those trees

Also, in true Kyrgyz style, Lenin is always watching.

A pretty big pop star came to do a concert at my village, so my sister and I obviously went, and got there an hour early so that she could get an autograph. I found myself sitting backstage (or on folding chairs on the side of the stage) with a 14 year-old Kyrgyz pop star and his midget sidekick. The midget was getting very flirty. That can get added to the list of things I never thought I would do…

This picture is pure gold, in terms of how many cool points it could give me.

I found out yesterday that my host mother is probably moving to Russia this winter. Her friend works in a grocery store there and invited my mother to come work with her. It’s sad that someone can make enough more money working in a grocery store in Russia than as a nurse in Kyrgyzstan that my mother will leave her two-year-old daughter. Her leaving means that I get an entire house to myself, for the most part, though, which would be nice.

This is my official immediate family

This weekend is the famous Halloween party in Osh, and I’m heading down there tomorrow. Apparently over 20 volunteers will be there, which should be really fun. The party itself is at a café, and semi-decent beer and food and a party full of Americans and Pakistani med students has been promised. I’m excited, of course. I’m sure I will have plenty of pictures and stories for my next entry.

Until then, take care, and check back in later!

Some very exciting things have happened in my life this week!
I don’t know if people have heard, because supposedly it made big news, but on Sunday night, there was a pretty major earthquake here in the South. I was sitting in bed, reading a book, when I suddenly heard the windows start to rattle. I thought that was strange, since it hadn’t been windy or anything last time I checked. Then I realized that the bed was shaking too, and it didn’t take long to realize what was going on. I was alone in my house because my mother was at work and the rest of the family was in the other house, but I didn’t really think to be scared until later. I found some plaster on my floor the next morning, but no real damage was done here. Supposedly almost 100 people died in a village in Osh, where it was much more intense. So there’s my first natural disaster in Kyrgyzstan!
After a few weeks of waiting, I finally got a schedule of my classes this week! It was wrong when I got it, and people are still confused (because it involved moving classes around—apparently no one had really thought that I might need a schedule or anything before I asked for the 100th time), but I think it’s all ironed out now. I’m teaching with two different teachers, one for 11th form, and one for 9th form. “Teaching with” has very different meanings for the two teachers. For 11th form, I teach and my counterpart sometimes shows up, but usually is off talking to the builders. I never know what I’m supposed to be doing, but I’ve been able to pull some uninspired lessons out of a grammar book when I’m left completely on my own. The other teacher uses the English books left over from Soviet times and teaches extremely random, useless vocabulary. So far, some of the highlights that the students have “learned” are one lesson on the British education system where the students were taught four words: to apply, prestige, tutor, and curriculum vita. Yeah, the 11th form is learning pronouns, and the 9th form is learning curriculum vita. On Thursday, I’m not sure what the lesson was supposed to be on, but they learned Gulf Stream, mild, mine, miner, and to keep in mind. I’m positive that in all of the classes I have observed, I haven’t seen a single lesson plan in use or any foresight as to what will be taught before the teacher walks into the room at the beginning of class. I’m working on a way to start working on lesson plans without completely insulting my co-teachers.
I also started “English club” this week. On Thursday, I had 10th form, with the students handpicked as the best of the class. About 3 or 4 had some clue as to how to say a simple sentence, whereas the other 10 stared blankly at me. I’m assuming a lot of them will stop coming soon, so hopefully I can focus on the few who actually care. On Friday, I had 11th form, and even less of them were at all cooperative. Next week, I agreed to do another club for 7th form, which I’m hoping will be more fun, because 7th formers aren’t quite as “cool” and distant as their older counterparts.
I had another breakthrough in my life here. I’ve been feeling bad about eating with my family recently, because I have lost the ability to stomach most of the meat (I realized that swallowing chunks of unchewed sheep meat is not healthy, but was the only way I could eat it without gagging—I really am a texturephobe), and I don’t drink milk, which makes most of the food my family eats completely useless to me. Monday night was the low point for me. We were eating dinner by candlelight, because the electricity goes out between 5 and 10 most nights. Dinner consisted of horse meat and potatoes, so I was picking around at the potatoes, pretending to eat. That will go down as the night when I realized how similar potatoes and large chunks of horse fat look by candlelight. After eating several large pieces of horse fat and weathering my grandmother yelling at me (though I can’t understand a word of it) for not eating the meat, I decided enough was enough. Since then, I’ve been cooking for myself. We have a gas stove, but so far no gas (supposedly we’re getting it on the 20th), so I’ve had to adopt a strange schedule. Since the power goes out at 5, I have to cook around 4:30, so I eat a big lunch, a smaller meal around 4:30, and another stack later if I’m hungry. My family’s not very happy that I’m not eating dinner with them, because they don’t understand that I count my 4:30 meal as dinner, but hopefully they’ll soften soon. Once the gas gets here, I can cook whenever I want, and that should make it better. This new development has made my life so much better, though. The food has been amazing – no meat, no oil, lots of flavor, pretty much the opposite of Kyrgyz food. The real breakthrough has been psychological, though. Having just a little control over my own life has made me realize just how important that control is to me. Before this week, I was told what to do all the time. At school, I’m shuffled from place to place, then I come home and people tell me when to eat, to drink more tea, what to eat, and it was driving me crazy. Now that I’ve taken a stand, I’ve been much happier.
I also had one of the most pleasant days ever on Wednesday. None of the English teachers work on Wednesdays, so I don’t either. I woke up at my normal time, ate a leisurely breakfast with my family, then went to my room and did an exercise dvd (thanks, Mom!). Then I got a taxi into town, and in the taxi made friends with a nice man. I accidentally promised to teach his 5th form daughter English (he stopped by my classroom on Thursday to schedule the classes – we start on Monday), and he insisted on paying for my taxi ride in exchange. I then went to buy some food for dinner, and stopped by my favorite chickpea lady – she’s an incredibly warm woman who cooks giant pots of chickpeas and sells them with really good spices on them. I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m Danielle, or was asking about Danielle, but she’s really sweet and the chickpeas are amazing, so I don’t really mind. Then I went to pick up a package from my mom (thanks, Mom!), and came home to sit in my window seat (or the ledge I’ve turned into a window seat), drink real American coffee (thanks, Mom!), eat cookies, and read a book. It’s amazing how the simple things can make me so happy.
With a class schedule, and clubs in the afternoon, I’m starting to get a lot busier, which is good. I’m also settling into a routine, which is really comforting (I am definitely your daughter, Dad). It’s still exciting to figure out life here, though. Next week, my cousin is getting married, so I get to experience my first real Kyrgyz wedding. I’m sure I’ll have some good stories from that!
Hope everyone’s doing well!
Love to all!

Also, here's a map of my house area. I have a lot of free time.

Instead of any coherent thoughts (you really can't expect too much from me), here is a list of fun facts and updates, jotted between classes yesterday.
-- I haven't bathed in 20 days (as an update, this morning, aka day 21, I took an incredible cold shower that changed my life and made me feel a lot less tan than before)
-- Did you know Santa Claus lives in Kyrgyzstan? Some Swiss engineers wit far too much time on their hands decided that, in order to reach every house in one night, Santa had to be leaving from Kyrgyzstan. Nationally, this is the "year of Santa". He plays a big part in New Years celebrations. This year should be especially interesting.
-- My counterparts claim the fence will be done next week. I translate that as two months from now.
-- Still no sign of a schedule for my classes. Whenever I ask, the other teachers just say they're so busy with the fence. Every day is like the first day, just over and over and over...
-- Sometimes, classes of students show up in my classroom, expecting to be taught. I usually have no idea who they are, what class they're in, or what to do with them. All the teachers ever tell me is to teach pronouns (I've taught them to 9th, 10th, and 11th grades. Apparently that's what they're learning this year). "Winging it" is very difficult with little language knowledge, skills, experience, or training.
--Inside apricot pits, there is a little seed. It tastes a lot like an almond and was a very pleasant surprise.
-- It's also walnut season now, here near the largest walnut forest in the world. I had bread, coffee, and fresh walnuts (they just fell off the tree) for breakfast. My mother told me if I eat walnuts, I won't get the flu. I'm willing to test out this theory.
-- I broke my family's heart this week. On the same day, their cows (3 adults and 2 babies) came home from summering in the mountains (yeah, I said it), so I had to tell them I don't like milk (blasphemous!). Then, for lunch, they served me a plate of sheep lungs and onions, so I told them I don't eat much meat (even more blasphemous!). Their eyes expressed confusion, sadness, offense, and concern all at the same time. Now it's a fun activity to talk about my meat intake during dinner. Always fun to be talked about.
The power's about to go out, so I have to end this.
Please update me on the world, to make my trips to the internet more exciting!
Love to all!
Leslie