A lot has happened in the past few weeks!
First, last week was the Bazarkorgon winter camp. Than meant five days of overnight camp with 38 7th and 8th form (12-14 year-old) kids. We had so much fun and everything went amazingly well the whole time. The kids were adorble and relatively well-behaved. The worst incident (and this goes to show just how good they were) showed just how much American movies are corrpting the world. By that, I probably mean the Lindsay Lohan "Parent Trap". On the first day, some boys asked us if they could put toothpaste on the girls' faces while they were sleeping. We obviously said no. Two days later, we were woken up at 4 AM to the sould of running and laughing (boys) and screaming and crying (girls). It seems the boys had ignored our rule and snuck into the girls' room, toothpaste in hand, ready to wage war. We were not pleased, mostly because it was 4 AM and our rooms had only three walls and a curtain, so the children were unavoidable. When we threatened to take away their talent show, tey all straightened up and behaved for the rest of the week. The camp iself was a "Life Skills" camp (that's how we got the funding -- obviously the most important part). All day, we had three hour-long sessions. I taught one on self-esteem and one on community service/volunteerism. One of the best things about our camp was the group of nine 11th form and university students who were our "helpers". They all had good English, so they served as our translators, counsillers, and friends throughout. Because of their help, we were able to talk about much more complicated topics than our Kyrgyz would otherwise allow. After the sessions, we had activity time for two hours. The activities included English club, sports, movie, arts and crafts, and (most importantly!) dance. I had choreographed a simple dance to NSYNC's "Here We Go" thinking that teaching it would last me the three days of activities. In the first hour-long class, the girls had learned the whole thing! I also had a really sweet helper ith me the whole time (who is an awesome belly dancer -- really popular here) and other visitors because dance is obviously the most fun... My helper, Ika, taught a swing dance and I choreographed another dance on the spot to fill up the rest of the time. The girls (and even a few boys, after Joni's session on gender stereotypes) were so cute and excited to dance with me. They performed all three dances at the talent show, and looked fantastic. It made me realize how much I missed dancing. I've already arranged a dance club at my school to start next week!
Overall, camp was a huge success. The kids had a great time. On the last day, we got trapped by all 38 of them crowding around us volunteers and begging for "autographs" in their notebooks. My hand was cramping by the end. We're already gearing up for summer camp in July in Arslenbob (only the world's largest walnut forest...)
While we were at camp, other news was breaking. Frst, we heard that the US Airbase (Manas) in Bishkek was probably closing. While this doesn't directly affect us, it's putting us on our toes a little. None of us really want to be kicked out of the country quite yet...
Also while we were at camp, there was intra-peace corps drama. Because of it, an apartment in Jalalabad opened up, so I now have my very own apartment! I got it approved on Tuesday morning and moved in on Tuesday afternoon. Now I'm working on unpacking, getting settled in, and decorating. It's really great to have my own place finally and to be able to settle down for a whild. My last year has involved moving in May, July, Septemer, December, and now February. It is fitting that I would become a nomad in Kyrgyzstan, but that doesn't mean that I like it. I feel like much more of a grown-up now waking up in my own apartment, commuting to work, coming home, making dinner, amusing myself.. All this time with host families has made me realize just how much I value my independence, control over my own life, and time to myself. I feel like I'm finally settling into what I'm supposed to be doing here (right after the 7 month in country mark...) between my apartment and being at school full-time. Now I see what the next year and a half (almost exactly) should look like.
I'm in the middle of my first real week of school now. It's been going really well -- my conterpart is amazing and my students are great. As I write this, I'm sitting on a bench outside (it's still a bit cold, but pleasant with a coat on) between classes. A policeman who guards the school (?) is pacing in front of me asking various questions and commenting on how much I am writing (so much! bad for my eyes...) while adorable little children run by. It's nice having breaks between classes every day, even though I was told no one can go down the hall where the teachers' room is. I have no idea why, but that explains my presense on the bench.
Otherwise, most of the volunteers who went home or to other places for vacations this winter have returned, though Sarah just left for Gong Kong (Kyrgyz people replace "H" with "G"-- Garry Potter, Gamburgers, Gitler, Holly -- you may be "Golly" here.), so it's nice to have most of the family back together again. We're headed to Bishkek again in less than month for PDM (Project Design and Managment) training -- the last group get-together until COS conference next summer! Straight after that,my friend Nick (who lives in Karakol -- the complete other side of the country) is coming to visit. I'm very excited, because I love sharing my homes with people I'm close to and this city is so hard to understand if you haven't seen it. (The cop just asked if I'm sad -- I guess that's the only way to justify writing this much. I showed him a picture of my family I had in my notebook and he pointed at me,gave a thumbs up, and said (in English) 'I love you'. Now he's intently watching me write. Good thing he has no idea what I"m writing...)
And to close this with a story: On Tuesday, to move all of my stuff from my house to my apartment, I flagged down a car (a Tico -- a tiny Uzbek car that's all over the South-- kind of the Kyrgyz equivalent of a rickshaw) and explained in Kyrgyz what I needed. The driver said ok and drove me to my house. We started to load everything in the car, but he insisted on doing it in two trips. I didn't feel like fighting much, so I got in the car and we started driving all the way across town. About half-way through the first trip, I finall convinced him that I'm American (as opposed to Uzbek or Turkish -- his first guesses. I take that as a compliment on my Kyrgyz) and continued to beg me to go to a restaurant with him. I spent the ride telling him I wasn't hungry, I have a boyfriend (big, scary, and protective, of course), and that I don't want any friends. I even gave him a fake number to get him to stop begging for it. We got to the apartment, unloaded everything, and started back to my house. This trip was an English lesson. He pulled out a notebook and made me write various English words (spelled out in the cyrillic alphabet). He asked me if I knew how to drive. When I said yes, he stopped the car in the middle of the street and told me to drive. I refused, for obvious reasons, but he kept insisting. He finally took off again, but kept asking me to shift for him. I did no. Once we had unloaded everything from the car, I handed him the money we had agreed on in the beginning. He refused to take it, shook my hand, and walked away. I guess that was payment for my excellent English lesson...
I will probably post some pictures from camp in the next few days, so stay tuned!