A few days ago, I had one of those experiences that now feels so normal but in hindsight is ridiculous. During the 10 minute break between classes, one of my counterpart’s friends came in to tell Aliya (my counterpart) something. Aliya then turned to me and said “Nurjana (the other English teacher I work with) is having cookies in hter room. Let’s go.” Never one to turn down cookies, of course I hopped up and walked upstairs with her. Nurjana’s office was full of women sitting around a table with a very Kyrgyz spread: bread, borsok (fried bread), cookies, candy, juice, vodka, cognac, wine, hunks of sheep meat, and a bone that a woman was stripping clean of any sign of digestible material. The party, I was awkwardly told by Aliya, was because Nurjana’s relative’s son had just been circumcised (the Kyrgyz don’t circumcise boys until they’re up to 7 years old. They claim it’s a Muslim thing, but I’m not so sure.). I sat down and started picking at the cookies. A woman next to me kept trying to pour me vodka (who cares that it was 11 AM and the middle of a school day?), but I held strong with the juice. The woman cleaning the bone then finally looked up and noticed me. She commented on my eyes (so big!) and my eyelashes (so long!). Then she asked me, and I quote (well, translate, then quote), “Are you a keleen (daughter-in-law/slave for the boy’s parents)?” When I said no, she smiled and said “you’re tall and pretty. You should be a keleen. I have a son.” I tried to pass it off as a joke. Someone finally asked if I have a boyfriend. When I said yes, the woman got very excited. The floodgate of questions then opened. Most importantly, they had to make sure he was taller and older than me. To be otherwise would be unacceptable. They then got it in their heads that we should get married in Kyrgyzstan so that they can have a party for us. And now they’re obsessed with that idea. Sigh.

Fall appears to have very quickly come and gone. My walk to the marshrutka (bus/minivan) this morning revealed frost on the ground and ice on the puddles. It was bound to happen sooner or later... Think good thoughts for another warm winter like last year, because my apartment doesn't have any heat and concrete is far from an appropriate building material for this climate...

As of this week, Kyrgyzstan appears to be especially terrified of swine flu. I had one 8th grade student wear a surgical face mask to class. I think people have the sniffles because of the cold weather, they think swine flu. I hope I'm right.

I recently celebrated Halloween in two very different ways. First, I threw parties in my classes. We played games (bobbing for apples, pin the tail on the black cat, making mummies out of classmates and toilet paper), watched The Simpsons, and ate candy, of course. My students all officially love Halloween.

6th grade boys and their mummy.

6th grade girls and their mummy.

6th graders and Aliya make a mummy.

6a!

Pin the tail on the cat

10b makes a mummy.

10b hanging out during the party

Then, for real Halloween, I went to Osh for the official party (aka the social event of the year for Southern Kyrgyzstan). I went as Wonder Woman (in a fully handmade costume, of course -- my red knee-high boots were made from child's tights cut at the knees and worn over black shoes, with duct tape to keep from sliding everywhere. Creative thought really does matter). My friends included several cross-dressing men, Aloo Tien (Kyrgyz 50 Cent), a pirate, a gangster, a cop, and Aiperi ("Moon Fairy", a popular girls' name, who was actually a boy with a paper dress taped around himself), and others. The party was at a restaurant that is also a "German style" brewery. We danced, socialized, and enjoyed a free red beer and pumpkin pizza.

After Halloween was fall break, which was a much-needed rest from school and all. Now we're in the home stretch until Christmas and winter break, where everyone's main concern is simply staying warm...

Fritz, me, and Ginger.

Svet jok and svet bar (there is not electricity and there is not electricity. And Wonder Woman, of course.

Ariel, me, and Tristan

Police, Wonder Woman, and Aloo Tien

Ryan, Lance, and Sarah

Vampire victim, cosmonaut, and 80's girl

Ryan, Martha, Ariel, and Sarah

The dance floor at the party

In the past few weeks I somehow went from teaching two days a week to being surprisingly busy (for a Peace Corps Volunteer, that is). In addition to the four classes (6a, 6b, 10a, and 10b) I teach with Aliya, my counterpart, I have begun to teach two classes (8g and 11g) with a different teacher at my school and hold girls’ club at my school, and a teacher conversation club and English conversation club at the Uzbek private school in town.
Aliya continues to be an amazing resource for me. I am especially enjoying my 10th form this year. 10th grade, according to the textbooks is “America” year. Before school started, I made it clear that I refuse to use the textbooks at all this year, because they are poorly written and include a lot of incorrect information. Instead, I have been writing a lot of my own texts to use in class and designing presentations and activities that I think properly reflect America. My students really seem to be enjoying it, because using my pictures and my own experience is bound to be more interesting than a textbook written by Russians.
My 6th graders are still super cute. It’s hard to not love classes that will giggle that much when we play Hokey Pokey and Simon Says.
The other teacher I am working with is, to put it nicely, extremely frustrating. She’s an extremely nice person, but she isn’t the most dedicated teacher. After several weeks of her skipping classes, showing up an hour late, and leaving the classroom constantly, I finally decided to confront her. I yelled at her when she arrived an hour late to class and threatened to stop working with her. It seems to have worked. After that class, we sat down together and planned a lesson for our next class, and she was even on time to our class the next day! If I learn anything in this country, it’s how to be assertive. It really works. Who knew?
My girls club started this week. I’m really excited about it. I’m planning to just sit around and hang out with the older girls at my school. Today I showed them pictures of my friends, family, Charleston, and India. Then we spent a while just chatting about my future plans (they’re shocked that I don’t want to have a baby until I’m over 30 or that I only want 2), my family, and celebrities. Next time, I promised we could watch a movie. The girls are all really sweet, so I’m excited to spend more time with them. They’re also really patient with each other. We talked in English the whole time, and a few girls didn’t understand, so their friends would translate for them into Kyrgyz. I was very impressed with their ability and willingness to do that.
I’m also really happy to be working at the Uzbek school again. I did clubs there with Fritz and Martha last year, but I’m on my own this year, which I’m ok with. The teachers are really nice and really eager to improve their teaching and their English, so they’re really encouraging to work with. The kids are also amazing. The group this year is much smaller (there were 10 last week), more selective (the teachers chose their best students) and younger (the older boys were inappropriate at times to Martha and me last year, so the teachers wouldn’t let them in this year). It’s nice to be able to work with only the best students because we can get much more advanced without leaving anyone out.
Other than work, life here is going very well. There have been a few new low points recently, however. Firstly, a few weeks ago the gas for my stove and oven was cut off. I found out later that all of Jalalabad and Osh was cut off because Kyrgyzstan owes Uzbekistan $19 million in unpaid bills. Since there’s probably very little chance of Kyrgyzstan ever paying that back, I’ve resigned myself to working on my sketchy homemade ceramic hotplate. Since there’s no way to adjust the heat, to make rice, I have to stand in front of it and plug it in until it starts to boil, then unplug it until it stops, then plug it in again, and so on until it’s finally cooked. Let’s just say it’s a bit frustrating…
Also, yesterday I was walking home from school in the morning (yeah, I’m done by 9:00 two days a week), and I was walking past the bazaar towards the main street (named Lenin Street, of course) when I smelled something that smelled very … poopy. As I neared the corner of Lenin street, I saw that the sidewalk was literally littered with human feces. Turns out the sewage system backed up. Onto the main street in town. Gross.
Volunteer life continues to be amazing. Last month, Fritz threw a kick-ass 60th birthday party for Ginger. It was possibly the best birthday party I’ve ever been to. There was free food, free beer, and plenty of dancing for 20 volunteers and 15 Kyrgyz guests. Plus it all went off without a single problem, which is impressive for a volunteer party of that size. Otherwise, I’ve had smaller get-togethers. Last week, I attended a dinner party at Martha’s (she made sweet and sour chicken! Amazing!) and hosted a scrabble/dinner party (pesto pasta!) at my place. It felt very … grownup.
Next week, I’m going to Issyk-kul (the lake) for a “life skills, HIV/AIDS” training held by Peace Corps. Martha was planning to attend with a woman she works with outside of her NGO. She accidentally left information about it at her office, and her NGO got mad that she didn’t invite them, so they called Peace Corps to complain. To make a long story short, Peace Corps suggested that Martha find someone else to go with someone from her NGO, and I jumped at the opportunity. I’m excited both about the training and about the opportunity to get out of the daily routine and see other volunteers for a few days.
My health has been surprisingly good (knock on wood…), my cat is still amazing, and the exciting thing coming up is the annual Osh Halloween party.
I hope everyone’s having a great fall so far!

I’ve reached the part of my service where things are becoming “the last…”. While my return to America is far from a light at the end of a tunnel (and I don’t want it to be quite yet), but my time here is feeling more finite now. This week marked my last Kyrgyz Independence Day (August 31) and my last first day of school (September 1).
It’s strange to watch such a young country celebrate its independence. There were signs all around town saying “Kyrgyzstan 18 years”. I’m older than the country I live in! Coming from America, that just feels strange for me… It’s also odd to watch the celebrations coming from the only country that voted to stay in the Soviet Union 18 (19?) years ago. Does that mean that Kyrgyzstan is now the Soviet Union? Sounds impressive. The celebrations are very Kyrgyz… The main street was blocked off near the park in town, and different organizations set up yurts around the park and the square near it. There were families eating and wandering around the whole area, enjoying the festivities and the last day of summer for the children.
The next day was the annual “first bell” ceremony. Students, teachers, and administrators gathered, as we did in the spring for the “last bell”, in a big circle. The 2nd -10th grades were already lined up around the edges of the circle. Then the 11th grade processed in, celebrating the beginning of their last year. They were followed by the 1st grade, celebrating their first first day of school. There were speeches and processing; the 11th grade classes gave the 1st graders presents (notebooks mostly), then an 11th grade boy carried a 1st grade girl on his shoulder while she rang a bell. They were followed by the Kyrgyz flag, and then the 11th form walked the 1st grade to their classrooms. This was followed by a brief period of chaos, and then homeroom meetings. After the ceremony, I was swarmed by some of my favorite girls from last year (now in 10th grade), which reminded me of how much I like them and got me very excited for the new year. They were very excited to hear that I had pushed for the club I promised them last year. One day a week, I will have “girls’ club” for the older girls just to hang out, answer their questions, talk, watch movies. It will be pretty much whatever they want, with no lesson planning or official work from any of us. They’re also very excited to work for the ACCELS (a US program that sends high schoolers to America for a year of high school) test that is in a few weeks. It’s a really selective program, but I hope some of my students at least make it past the first few rounds of elimination.
The next few weeks will be confusing and frustrating, since the schedule isn’t even written yet and no one knows what’s going on. By October, we should be settled better into a routine that we may even stick to for a month or so. Like much of working in Kyrgyzstan, this month will benefit from the mantra we’ve developed: “embrace the chaos”.
Otherwise, things have been going as usual. I finished three seasons of Alf, made myself a dress (completely sewn by hand!), read three books, and did god knows what else to make it through the doldrums of summer with my sanity intact. I’m definitely excited to have school starting and order in my life again.








So Mom may be the only one to understand just how glorious this is, but I can now take a (brief) hot shower and refrigerate my food at the same time! Double outlets are pretty impressive.

Happy Independence Day, Kyrgyzstan!

Yeah, that's a McDonald's umbrella. It appears to be Chinese or something. The people under it will take your picture, but have no McDonald's to offer.

The best way to show your Kyrgyz pride? Tie an American flag bandana around your kid's head.

Yurts set up along the street to celebrate...

Boys playing a favorite game involving the throwing of sheep's knees. Fights usually break out pretty fast. The police were there to watch.

Another celebratory yurt

The fountain in the middle of the city. If you look closely, you'll see naked or nude colored underwear-clad boys swimming and sunning themselves.

The top of the flag pole at my school's first bell ceremony is the soviet hammer, sickle, and star. It's obviously more than 18 years old. I don't think anyone else notices how funny these things are.

So, summer has finally hit, leaving me with an empty calendar and hot weather. I've been keeping myself somewhat busy reading, watching tv shows, and wandering the city. I spent one week up in the mountains at a summer camp for 9th and 10th grade girls, which was really fun. I taught a session on self-esteem and self-reflection, and two hours of dance class every day, which was great. The girls were really into the dance especially. These camps make me realize how fun my classes used to be... I'll try to get some pictures from people and put them up eventually.
The real big news I have is that I've officially decided not to go home this winter, as I was previously planning to do (sorry, Finnans). Instead, I'm going to Almaty, Kazakhstan to take the GRE (woo hoo?) and celebrate New Years in what is supposedly a real "city" city in Central Asia. I'm a little skeptical, but I'm excited to see Almaty. So, if you want to see me, your two options are A: come to Kyrgyzstan, or B: wait until next August.

So I just passed the first big anniversary this week. July 7 marked my "one year in Kyrgyzstan" point. It´s crazy to think that it was only a year ago that I got off the plane in Bishkek and started this whole adventure. It´s also strange to think that it´s been a whole year -- time has been so strange that I can´t believe it either way. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I am in Spain. I´ve been here for about a week and a half, visiting with Aubrey, relaxing, and basking in the comfort of the first-world. This will be a nice break for me, getting me ready to start this second year. Everyone says that the second year flies by, so I´m sure before I know it, I´ll be back in America, with the lovely task of starting the next stage...
Spain has been amazing so far -- I´ve spent most of my time in Logroño, the capitol of the La Rioja region near the France border. It´s also the capitol of wine country, so I have been taking full advantage of that, the food, and the coffee. We´ve been hanging out with Aubrey´s friends, both Spanish and American, and having a great time. Aubrey works every morning, so I´ve spent a lot of time wandering on my own, which is fun. We had a party for the 4th at her friend Ben´s apartment, where we made sloppy joes and drank Budweiser. It doesn´t get much more American than that... She also took me to the town she lived in last year and a small town that is all about wine production. There are caves under the entire city to hold wine and we went on a tour of one of them.
We´re heading to Bilbao on Saturday, and I´m leaving for Kyrgyzstan on Sunday...
Otherwise the summer has been going great. The big visit from Mom and Dad went really well. They were troopers through my whole whirlwind tour of the country and even claim to have enjoyed themselves! It was great being able to see them and help them get closer to understanding what I´m doing now.
The rest of the summer will be more relaxing. Right after I get back from Spain, I´m working at a summer camp for 9th and 10th grade girls, then it´s back home for the month of August, which I plan on spending sweating and working on a grant with my counterpart.
I hope everyone is doing well!
Wish me luck on the next year...

Yesterday was the last bell ceremony, the official end of school/graduation for the 11th form. For the schools that had several months off this winter, it wasn’t really the real end of the year. They all had the ceremony yesterday, but they have up to a month of school left. As for my school., they have exams through the first week of June, but I’m done, since I have nothing to do with the national exams. The ceremony itself was really fun. I had a seat with the honored guests at the front, so that I could take pictures and see everything that was going on. The whole thing happened in a lot right next to my school, with the students standing in their classes all around the edge and the teachers/adults at the front.

In Kyrgyz schools, each class (11th form has 11 A, 11 B, 11 V, and 11 G at my school – they’ve been in the same class since 5th form and have every class every year together) has a “class jetekji” – a homeroom teacher/advisor. They clean their class jetekji’s room every day, and the teacher advises them, yells at them, talks to parents, and serves as their parent/teacher/friend. After years together, the students and the teacher are very close. My counterpart was the class jetekji for 11 B this year. Since they spent so much time in our classroom, I’d gotten to know the girls pretty well.

The girls in 11 A all wore the same dress. The girl looking at me was my host sister when I got to the city.

This is what kids usually wear to school. The uniform throughout Kyrgyzstan is black pants/skirt and white shirt. Different classes have different colors of neckerchief. They don’t usually wear those. I haven’t quite figured out what they mean.

This is the first grade. They recently started wearing that plaid uniform. I don’t know if this is an elementary thing or a new thing. It’s pretty cute, though.

Some of my 9th form students marching with the Kyrgyz flag. The girls marching behind the flag are two of my favorites.

Each 1st grade and 11th grade class put on a little performance. These 1st graders sang a little song. It was adorable and Russian.

These two did a really Kyrgyz dance. They were actually impressively good.

11 G did a Kyrgyz dance too. The dresses were impressive.

At one point, all of the 11th form came into the center and played with bubbles, balloons, balls, and jump ropes. Rediscovering their childhood?

All of the class jetekjis for the 11th form gave speeches about their class. This is my counterpart telling her class that they’re great, and wishing them health, wealth, and happiness.

The students hugged their teachers and gave ridiculous amounts of flowers. I was given three bouquets.

As in the first bell ceremony, the official beginning of school on September 1, an older boy carries a first form girl around the circle as she rings a bell. It’s pretty cute.

So, now that that’s over, it’s officially officially summer for me now! I’m still going to work with my counterpart on a grant we’re trying to write and I’m helping her with planning for a teacher training summer camp that she and Ginger have been working on. Otherwise, I don’t have much of a chance to get bored anytime soon, since Mom’s going to be in Bishkek two weeks from today (!) and then I’m busy between Mom, Dad, and Spain (!!) until mid-July. I’m excited, to say the least.
Also, last week, the new volunteers came to visit. We’re getting two in the city and eight others in the oblast. We got a really awesome group of people, so I’m very excited about the next year we all get to spend together. With so many new volunteers and the overlap of the new ones and the K15s who won’t leave until August/September, it’s going to be a really full house here all summer. Also, my kitten keeps proving herself as the best $2.50 ever.

Big news, everyone! Yesterday I bought a kitten! She is the best 100 som ($2.50) I've ever spent! She's three weeks old and beyond adorable. I'm still working on names, but right now I'm thinking "Peri", which means fairy in Kyrgyz (it comes from Persian folktales -- "Peris are descended from fallen angels who have been denied paradise until they have done penance. In earlier sources they are described as agents of evil; later, they are benevolent. They are exquisite, winged, fairy-like creatures ranking between angels and evil spirits. They sometimes visit the realm of mortals" -- thanks wikipedia).

In other, non-cat-related news, we have the new set of volunteers coming for a visit this week! They get here tomorrow. We're all very excited to meet our new best friends. Also, it's the last week of school here, so summer is upon us! I'm excited for school to be out and my summer adventures to begin.

So, the year is definitely winding down, as the temperatures go up... I'm not quite sure how many more weeks of school I have left (my counterpart also doesn't know...), but it could be between two and four. I'm betting on two, but don't hold me to that. As the days have become increasingly gorgeous, I've been finally motivating myself to spend more and more time outside. My school is pretty much in the opposite corner of the city from my apartment, so I always assumed it would take hours to walk to school. Then, one day a few weeks ago, I decided to experiment. It turns out it only takes about 30 minutes to walk from the center, and about 45 from my apartment. I have started walking to and from school as much as possible, which I'm really enjoying. I walk down some railroad tracks most of the way, so I don't have to worry about traffic or even many people, except for the occasional train, which is more exciting than anything else. It's a great way to take up some of that free time I talk about so much, save some money (12 som a day for marshrutkas! That's... 30 cents...), and get to actually move a little. I've also been going for more walks in the hills behind my apartment, which is really relaxing. I love how quickly I can get out of the city and into what feels like the middle of nowhere. Once I turn off onto the dirt road that leads up the hills, the only people I ever see are the shepards and plenty of sheep. When I went up this week, however, I came across a freshly dug coffin-sized hole in the middle of the field, which is a little disconcerting...
This week was full of Kyrgyz holidays, so I haven't had much school recently. On Tuesday, Ginger's counterpart, who I've met a few times before, invited me and Fritz and Ginger to her apartment (in a "microrayon" (a city within a city) called Spudnik) to go "guesting". It was such a pleasant experience! We met her young kids and her husband, who was really nice. She made a full spread of Kyrgyz food and salads which was really delicious. I also had my first (and probably last) sip of komus (fermented mare's milk). Gulbara's husband poured us each a large bowl full of the carbonated milky liquid with brown chunks floating in it out of a dirctly recycled soda bottle. The three of us looked at eachother, and decided that there was no time like the present, so we all took a sip at the same time. The taste was ... unusual. It's much smokier than I anicipated. It tasted a lot like hickory, as Fritz pointed out. As we all sat there, we metally checked on our throats, hoping we wouldn't have a horrible allergic reaction (some people are deathly allergic to horse products, which you don't quite figure out until you comet to Krygyzstan...), but luckily none came. Fritz drank a few more sips to be polite, but I couldn't force more than that first one down without gagging, so I left it. Besides the komus, we had a great time and even walked away from the day with presents and food in hand!
And in exciting news, last night a bunch of us went to Sarah's apartment to celebrate her birthday (by eating tacos!). While we were sitting around before dinner, Ginger suddenly screamed something. We looked down and saw that she had just been stung by a scorpion! Her foot got really swollen and red and obviously hurt a lot, but the doctors said she should be fine in a few days. She and Fritz are heading to Bishkek today, and then they're flying home to America (this trip was already planned) for their son's graduation.
Good luck with the end of the semester, to those of whom are affected by it. I'm off to walk to work!

So this month has been going by so fast! I feel like I’ve really settled into a rhythm here, which feels really good. School has been pretty uneventful. We’re really in the final stretch of the year by now. I only have three more full weeks of school, because May is so full of holidays. The last day of school is May 25, but with all of the holidays, we’re so close to being done. All of you still in school – you may not believe when people say that the teachers are as excited, if not more, for breaks, but it’s so true. I like my school and my kids and all, but I am very excited for summer break to start.
Last weekend was Orthodox Christian Easter. Susan, another volunteer here, is Orthodox, so she goes to church a lot. Saturday night, Anthony and I went to church with her. The service was supposed to start at 11 PM. It ended up starting around 11:30, and ending at 3:30 AM. The service itself was very different from any Christian service I’d been to before. There were two people standing behind a divider who chanted pretty much the whole time, plus a priest who also chanted. The congregation was pretty uninvolved, except for constantly crossing themselves. Early in the service, we all lit candles and walked outside around the church, then came back in. There are no seats in the church, so we all had to stand in a small, hot room full of incense the whole time. About half-way through, I started feeling really lightheaded, so I went outside to get some fresh air and to sit down. I then ended up making all sorts of friends. It was weird to be surrounded by so many Russians, since we don’t have that many here and they’re usually far outnumbered by the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Since I don’t speak much Russian, it was interesting to try to talk to these guys. In the couple hours I spent outside, I had three guys tell me they love me. Two of them were standing with me at the same time and have set up a duel (like Puskin, the famous Russian writer), complete with pistols and all. Near the end of the service, two guys came up to me, one was in his mid-twenties, and one in his teens. The older one (Mischa) spoke some English, and the younger one (his brother) spoke Kyrgyz. So we had an interesting conversation, where Mischa would say stuff in English, and if he didn’t know something in English, he would say it in Russian to his brother, who would then say it in Kyrgyz to me. We did pretty well with this operation. Early on, they were asking me what I did here, and where I work. When I told them what school I teach at, Mischa looked at me and said “I teach there too!”. Turns out, he’s the “informatika” (computer, kind of) teacher. He was also taught by my counterpart and her former volunteer. He’s a really nice guy, and it’s nice to meet someone closer to my age. I may meet with him about once a week to help him with his English.
Otherwise, some of the most exciting things in my life recently have been food-related (isn’t that always true)? Two weeks ago, I found a flyer in my door handle advertising (in Russian) a new pizza delivery place. I’ve now ordered from them twice, and am very impressed. The first time, we got this: (yeah, I was so excited I had to take a picture).
We ordered “ground beef” pizza, and we got ground beef, olives, and pickles (actually a surprisingly pleasant addition to pizza. I’m a fan of it now!). The flyer advertized that it would be at my apartment in “29 minutes and 59 seconds”. It showed up around 32 minutes after we called, but I’m still very impressed.
I also found ice cream cake this week. We got one on Sunday for Susan for Easter (she had given up meat and dairy for Lent) and two pizzas (for 7 of us, not just the three). It was amazing. It felt like a real American birthday party.
I like that I’m finding the comforts that make life just that much more pleasant, plus becoming happier with whatever I can get here. It’s nice to have a life that seems to make more sense here now that I have such a rhythm I’m living through.
As for this summer, I have finally settled on a trip to take (the third try at a plan). In mid August, I’m heading to India to go to Mumbai and to lie on a beach with a bunch of hippie tourists in Goa. I’m very excited to be going back, and to see the ocean again.
Also, since I talk so much about how much I love my 5th form kids, here are some pictures of my 5 “A” class that I took last week.

These are four of my best students

Who knew Kyrgyzstan would make me like boys? These little boys are amazing. The one on the right is a good student too.

These girls are cuties too

Some of the ... quieter students.

After I took these pictures, the kids started talking (in Russian) about why I was taking pictures of them. One of them guessed that maybe I was leaving, and another said "no! She's staying for three more years with us!". I don't want to break his heart with the truth, but they'll be surprised to see me this week

And now to add to the “things I will never hope to understand” / “reasons I’m sure this is all just an extremely elaborate episode of ‘Punkd’ (if Ashton Kutcher were to jump out of the bushes one day, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest)”: Yesterday, I had a few hours between classes, so I went to the closest café to get a pot of tea and read for a while. As I was sitting there, an old woman came in, sat down, and started doing something with her socks. A woman who works at the café went over and was talking to her. They both stood up and walked to a very specific place in the café (which happened to be about two feet away from me). The younger woman squatted down, and the older one muttered something (I’m assuming some sort of prayer), and they both “omeened” their hands (holding them in front of them like a book, then rubbing them over their faces – it’s done at the end of every meal and often during religious ceremonies). The older woman then took her right shoe off and pressed her foot forcefully into the younger woman’s neck. The younger woman grunted. They repeated that again. Then, the older woman put her shoe back on, turned to the younger woman, and wacked her on the back a few times. The younger woman then stood up and went to work in the back. The older woman washed her hands at the sink and left the café.
Another oddity, and one that I understand even less, has to do with my landlady. She’s Russian, and Christian, which is why I’m so surprised by it, because there’s less of an excuse to not understand. The last two times I have gone to her apartment to pay her for the month ($75 for rent and $5 for water, trash, electricity, and gas – hard to beat), there have been men at her door. They ring the bell, and she opens the door, spears a few pieces of food (the first time it was apple, last time it was bread) on a fork, and feeds it to them. She then gives them a few sips of water, and they give her some money. They then turn to leave, and she closes the door and turns to me like nothing happened. Needless to say, I’m very confused, but my Russian is definitely not strong enough to ask (the closest I can think is “what apple water man”. I don’t think I would understand her response even if she did understand me).
My landlady and I do have an interesting relationship, though. Since we really can’t talk to each other, we’ve bonded over the few words of Russian I know and the few of Kyrgyz she knows. Other than that, it’s a lot of pantomiming (this month, she was asking if there was any leaking like there used to be. That meant she said “vada (water)” and pointed to the ceiling, and made rain-like hand motions. I understood, and answered in Russian, she gave me a pat on the back and a cookie. I like the way this is going.
Last week was spring break for me, which was nice. I pretty much just relaxed around here, besides one small trip down to Uzgen, a town about an hour south of me, to see the silk road ruins and the pretty bazaar and have lunch with the only other volunteer in the area on spring break. It was nice to have time to relax here, though. School started again this Wednesday, and we’re now on the “summer schedule”, meaning we start at 7:30. That means that two days a week, I have to get up at 6:00 in order to eat some breakfast and get to school on time. It’s a bit rough, but at least it’s only two days of the week… I agreed, along with Fritz and Martha, to do a club for Ginger’s counterpart who teaches at the Uzbek university’s lyceum (grades 1-11) on Wednesdays. It should be a lot of fun – they picked the best students from 6th-9th grades (with one university student and a few teachers as well), and asked us to talk about American culture. I’m excited, because the kids are super cute, and you’ve probably all noticed that I have a great love of Uzbeks, so the room full of adorable Uzbek children is very exciting for me.
School’s gone well this week too. Just to give you a taste of what we do, here’s yesterday’s 5th form lesson:
We started by singing “the ants go marching”, which they loved. This country is turning me into someone who actually sings in front of people. We then went over the vocabulary they didn’t know from the song, and quizzed them on it via miming. Then we taught them “need” “want” “need to” and “want to”. We asked them each what they wanted, needed, wanted to do, and needed to do, to get them to practice. The week before spring break, we’d given them a story to read and translate, so I then read it to them, and they followed along on their sheets. We then asked them comprehension questions about the story. For homework, we told them to write about what their family does in the evenings (related to the story we read).
So that’s a pretty typical class for me, for the 5th form, that is. They’re a lot of fun to play with because they’re all so cute and excited about everything. As long as I never get upset that they never do their homework, they’re amazing…
This weekend, I’m going to my old village on Saturday to watch my family make sumolok (a Nooruz tradition, it’s a wheaty thing they boil down for hours – I’ll write more after this weekend). Then Saturday night is the big birthday party, finally. I’m sure I’ll have more to report later.
Happy spring to everyone!

So, the past few weeks have been full of drama. I had a normal, full week of classes and everything, but it was all done in a sort of daze, since I kept being constantly updated about drama going on within Peace Corps. Though it doesn't directly effect me, it has effected some of my good friends and my confidence in my position and security here has taken a huge hit. I can't say what happened (security measures...), but needless to say, four (five actually, but one is from an unrelated incident) volunteers are leaving on Friday to go back home, because they're getting kicked out of Peace Corps. The frustrating part for me is the futility of the whole thing -- three of the four getting sent home were not at all in the wrong for anything that happened. One of them was my good friend and Oblast-mate, so it's going to be hard with him gone. He came into town yesterday to say his final goodbyes, and we saw him off this morning. The political situation here is on shaky ground, and we're all just hoping that the political problems don't mean more problems for us and our service here.
In better news, I'm on spring break here, and getting excited for a joint 3 person birthday party (Mexican dinner/"NOW... That's What I Call Music"/Enrique themed...) this weekend. So, I'm pretty much floating at the moment, but hopefully this will pass and everything should be more secure soon.

So, we've invented a word that often summerizes our lives here. The word is CAWA (pronounced kah wah). It stands for "central asia wins again". It's part of the "embrace the chaos" theory that is the only way to survive and thrive in this country sometimes.
This week is PDM (project design and managment), a PC training in Bishkek. It's the last time our whole group will be together until COS (close of service) conference in May 2010. Or, that is, it's supposed to be a group thing. Yesterday was the travel day to get to Bishkek, so Sarah, Ariel and I left Sarah's house at 7 AM to drive to Bishkek. The Jalalabad airport only flys on Wednesday and Sunday, so to fly, we would have had to drive to Osh and take a flight from there. In all, it would have taken longer and cost a lot more to fly than it would have to drive, and the drive is beautiful. It's supposed to be a great way to see the mountains. Sarah did the drive to and back within the last month, and said it was great.
We had driven over half-way there, admiring the mountains, the gorgeous teal water of the Naryn river, and just the spectacular scenery, when we stopped at a random stop thingy about 150 kilometers from Bishkek. We sat there for about an hour, when our driver finally told us that there had been an avalanche (in which seven people had died) so we wouldn't be able to get through for 3-5 days. We talked with the police there, some Peace Corps people, and the driver, until we finally decided that our only option was to turn around and drive all the way to Osh. We were speeding down the windy mountian roads, coming in and out of cell phone reception, obviously, trying to organize our flight. Bryan, another volunteer, was in Osh trying to find flights for all of us (there were 8 volunteers and 5 counterparts all driving at the same time). Somehow, all of the flights were full until Thursday, so we finally realized that we are literally stuck in the South. After finishing rewatching the fourth season of LOST, I have strong theories that we're not meant to leave the South. There are strong forces at work here.
So now, I'm back in Jalalabad, about to head to Osh. On Thursday, the people who are wardens are flying out for warden training, and I'll head back home. We're not sure what's really going to happen, but PC claims they're going to probably have a mini PDM down here for the 8 of us and our counterparts to take part in since we need the training.
Now we have an unexpectedly free week, so we're going to discuss grants and projects in Osh, in an attempt to put on our own PDM without Peace Corps's help. CAWA is all I can say. Just CAWA.

So I'm getting comfortable in my apartment now. Decorations-wise, it's still a work in progress (Martha stole the only hammer we own, so I'm at a standstill now), but here are preliminary pictures, to give you a little idea how I'm living now.



so, again, I have a lot of free time. Here's the layout of my apartment



























The stairway leading to my apartment. Kind of scary and dark at night. Thanks for the flashlight keychain, Mom. You've saved my ankles.


















The view from the front door, into the bedroom
















The living room (I have big plans for this room's decor)















Books and stuff
















So, in moving my couch, other volunteers found that it could be split into two parts. So now the couch top sits on the floor, and the legs are propped up on their side, covered in fabric, and splitting the otherwise oppressively large room into two. This section is the "Turkish lounge".









These are the couch legs. Lovely, right?















Ugly, uncomfortable chairs and two greats of Russian literature. This is the unused half of the living room.











The "sun porch". I'm very excited for spring out here.




















Lots of windows














The view from the sun porch















My dumpster is over there, and more apartments

























The kitchen



















































View into the kitchen from the hall.


























Pots, pans, dishes...

The stove (it works surprisingly well)

My bedroom. You can't see it,but when my sleeping bag (thanks Mom!) is spread out, I think it looks like a flying squirrel

My bedroom wall

My closet/dresser. Plus, my bedroom doubles as the Jalalabad library.

Books. Lots of them.

THe view from my bedroom balcony.

My window box. I may try to actually do something with this.

The view

The toilet room. Admittingly, not the loveliest part. Don't mind the things growing around the pipes.

The shower. It's been over a week since I last had poop coming out of the drain, so that's a big improvement. It also explains the bucket in the tub.

The shower room

Also, I got the fence project from my old village finalized.

The much-hated fence

Oh, and I went to Osh last weekend. We climbed Sulayman mountain again.

Prayer flags tied to the trees