Women's Day

International Women’s Day. It isn’t a big holiday in America because we have mother’s day. However, in Kyrgyzstan it is a BIG holiday. And let’s just say as a woman I kicked it! It was also my counterparts birthday, and she is awesome so we had to have a big party.

The 7th was when the teachers rocked out. There are no male teachers at my school so the women through their own party. First, at the school we had a concert and my students gave me cards, candy, flowers, and a little angel figurine(very me :P). After the concert the teachers thought all the students were gone and were joking around saying, “We got wine and there are no students or men are coming along! So, We are going to drink and PARTY and be loud and stay out all night!!!”(we stayed out till 4 when the pay checks came in) What they didn’t realize was to male students were still in the room taking care of audio equiptment and they were mortified.

The Physical education teacher at my school also gave me a Russian Language book for beginners. She kept putting a lot of emphasis on the Beginners part. I kept nodding acknowledging that I know I don’t speak very good Russian.

At the party in the café we ate so much. I was bit over joined at the abundance of cheese, which I can’t afford. I kept whispering to myself, oh, sweet, sweet calcium. Also, when I took a little bread, with a piece of kalbasa, and some cheese… having a psuedo-sandwich and getting protien and calcium at the same time. It was too good to be true.

We sat around singing old Russian songs. I’m currently trying to learn two. We danced to Russian techno and there were only 3 songs on the play so we heard the songs 4 or 5 times a piece. There were some soldiers who danced with us for a while. They ended up buying us women a bottle of champagne to celebrate with. In my mind you sit around and enjoy champagne but we had to take it as shots. They also made me sing a song in English. I went with I just called to say I love you, by Stevie Wonder. It’s easy and for some reason they all know it. They also made me stand up and give a toast so that teachers who didn’t know me could get to know me a little bit. My counterpart told me I could give it in English and she could translate if need be. I didn’t want everyone thinking I couldn’t speak any Russian and also didn’t want to give a bad toast, so I might… MIGHT have spoke a little long. For some reason even though I know very little Russian I know a lot of toasts and congradulatory phrases. So, I just kept talking. Fortunately I proved that, yes I do in fact know some Russian and it is alright to talk to me in Russian, versus chopped up English.

Later that night Svetlana(my counterpart) took me to a concert. It was mostly in Russian but a little bit was in Kyrgyz and Ukrainian. When the Ukrainian part came up I was like dang I don’t understand anything. Fortunately, Svetlana calmed my nerves by leaning over and telling me that it was in Ukrainian.

The next day actually on the eigth we had a party at Svetlana’s it was women’s day/her birthday party. She invited another volunteer, Rick, from a near by village to rock out with us too. There was sooooooo much food. All Rick and I could keep saying was I’m so full, I’m so happy, mmmm, ahhh I guess I’ll have one more plate full. I have already written to Max after Man’s day about the dish she made for us(he is the only one that regularly asks about the food) it was Scalloped potatoes with cheese and pork. On Man’s Day I ate about half the tray this time with Rick there to compete I got a little less. But she also made us Bish Bermak, because I ahd told her that I didn’t know what it is. It is a Tradtional Kyrgyz meal that has noodles and normally Mutton(she made it with beef). It’s literal translation is five fingers. Your suppose to eat it with your hands, but since we were in a Russian home we dished it out with a spatula and ate it with forks. We also had a cake that had like Grahmam Cracker layers, it was amazing!

Mixed in with the eating was a good bit of Kareoke and dancing. On Man’s day I had to sing all the songs on the English Kareoke CD by myself. It was nice because this time I could pawn off some of the songs onto Rick. I did an amazing back up to his Losing My Religion and Hotel California. However, when I tried to help with My Father’s Eyes Rick yelled(put southern drawl on it) “Carol be QUIET! I’m singing like ERIC CLAPTON RIGHT NOW!!!!” I had to reliquish myself to back up dancer. When my turn came to sing like Whitney Houston and belt out some I Will Always Love You, Rick and Sasha(Svetlana’s husband) did not settle for being backup singers. Even though I had a microphone I could not overpower them. I got my turn later when I made them sit through Hello, Dolly and they didn’t know all any of the words. Sasha and Rick were readily best friends despite the fact that Rick, though he speaks it perfectly, he only speaks Kyrgyz. Sasha being Siberian, only speaks Russian. Although they all did force Rick to sing a couple songs on the Russian CD despite, him not knowing any of the songs.
Overall it was a great time. Can’t wait for women’s day next year.
Spraz-nikam.

All up in the air.

So sorry that I haven’t written here for a while. Life has been a little crazy. This entry will probably be a little boring but it is to catch people up on my life.

I recently switched sites. New school and an apartment to myself. The apartment came furnished with only a couch so it is my little oasis in the mass of my junk that I have no place to put anywhere. The apartment also came with; hold your breath, a hot shower and a FLUSH TOILET!!! This was very exciting for me, and since I have no real furniture to speak of the first few days I spent hanging out in the bathroom admiring my flush toilet. I ended up putting up a map of the world I have in Russian so I could feel like I was learning something hanging out in there all day.

My new school is awesome. A much better fit for me. I teach 4th and 1st form, although I haven’t had 1st form because they have been on vacation all week. I’m running lots of different clubs: Debate Club, Science Club, Conversation Club, ACCELS club, and I’m going to be starting some sports clubs soon. I also teach adults English twice a week at the American Corner in the Library.

It is strange starting at a new school because I have to start the process of introducing myself with everyone all over again. The other day I had to use the bathroom before my classes but an older lady, I don’t know if she is a teacher or not beat me to it. So, I patiently waited as she turned off the light to the bathroom I said Hyet, Hyet, ne nada (no,no, no need) She gave me a little bit of a dirty look and didn’t say anything. She then pointed to a door down the hallway. I looked at it, and then looked back at her. She then took me to the other door and told me this was the student’s bathroom. I said fine, not understanding at first that she thought I was a student and then she left. I looked in at the squatter holes that are for the students and back down the hall at the teacher’s bathroom with a flush toilet. The older lady had turned down another hallway but I could hear her talking so I knew she was close by. I decided to make a run for it; the only problem is I was wearing my rain pants still. I was wearing because it is always muddy and dirty yet everyone talks about if I have mud on the bottom of my pants so I was trying to keep them clean. I made a run pasted her only 5 feet from her swishing as loudly as possible. I locked the door and took my time hoping she wouldn’t be outside the door when I opened it. I must have stalled long enough because she was gone. It’s weird I have always been considered much older than I actually am and now I’m an adult and need to be viewed as one I get accused of being a student.

There is a very good sports complex near my school, so I wanted to take some classes there. I found the perfect one for me, belly dancing. I have already gone to two classes. I’ve always been bitter that I have never gotten to take a dance class and there might be good reasons for me never having taken one before. I’m terrible. I have no expectations though and just view it as a chance to get out in the community and meet some more people. It’s also one of the perks of being a foreigner. In America I would have to acknowledge that I know I look ridiculous, here I’m just the foreigner that doesn’t know any better. Love it! The first lesson was tough because I was in the very back of the room and couldn’t see the instructor and it was like a bad game of telephone where everyone is just watching the person in front of them and it becomes slowly worse down the line. Even though I couldn’t see the instructor in the mirror in the front of the room I’m a good 6 inches taller than anyone else in the room and could easily watch myself. I have lessons three nights a week so maybe by the end of my service I’ll be able to do one maybe even two moves correctly. I’m really focusing on the hand movement parts more then the booty shaking and the actual belly dancing part.

Before moving to my new site I spent a week down in Naryn which is considered the “Authentic Kyrgyz” part of Kyrgyzstan. It was very interesting for me, because to be honest I don’t know much about actual Kyrgyz people. Although, now at my new school I do have a few Kyrgyz students and my Director/neighbor is Kyrgyz. I got to spend sometime with my friend Remer’s family which was interesting for me because it was one of my first interactions with a Kyrgyz family. Remer’s host father told me I speak good Russian. When I said that wasn’t true he corrected me with, “I said GOOD not Excellent.” Ahhhh. Thanks I stand corrected. That has become one way I have figured out if guys are flirting with me when I am talking to boys my age, they will tell me I speak good Russian. That being a blatant lie that we both know is a lie I now know where we stand.

Overall, everything is going well and it is good for me to have a new site. I like it a lot and hope things will be going better now. Sorry for not updating sooner for those of you who have complained and please email me telling me how you are doing.

Helping a kid out

Today on one of my 12 year old students I could smell cigarettes all over him. He tried to deny that he had smoked cigarettes and then caved and admited... maybe he had one. His older sister came in my room later and I told her, she granted me permission to tell their Babushka who lives on my street. But before I told her I gave him a lecture on the dangers of smoking. I also had a pamphlet on smoking in my room and showed him a picture. None of this seemed to be phasing him, he seemed more impressed that I could tell he had smoked. As, if I knew some kind of vodoo or something. So, I took him aside and gave him a piece of advice: If your going to smoke don't wear a wool sweater it traps in the smell. Lighter fabrics breath more, therefore not trapping in the smells. Lighter fabrics ruin my magical power for knowing if you ahve smoked or not. I feel in my own small way I'm making a difference in the world.

Well those are powerlines

I have gotten several comments asking me what my everyday life is like. The things I don’t think you guys understand is I do write about my everyday life, my everyday life is just that random. But here let me try:
There is one bus that goes back and forth from my village. It never leaves on time, except the very last one from the city I need to catch it from at five. If I show up even a minute late I have to walk 20 minutes to the edge of the city where I can hitchhike back to my village. The other day coming back from New Year’s celebrations out on the other side of country I came back at 5:05. I tried to get back in time. I left early. I didn’t eat. I was focused. Alas, I was 5 minutes too late. I walked to the outside of town, if it now VERY cold here. By the time I got to the outside of the city I had lost feeling in my feet, face, and hands. Then I had to wait for about an hour, for someone to stop for me. Finally I did get picked up, by a milk truck. The milk truck was able to drop me off within a mile of my village. As I walked into it I was confronted by a new trend, sleds being pulled by cars or motorcycles. Some of my students have asked me to hope on board but first I consulted my P.C. Handbook and no where in there does it say we can’t get pulled behind a car on a sled. Granted if I do it and get hurt there will then be a rule against it and future generations of PCVs will have to ask themselves who was stupid enough to do that. I’ll probably have to wear my bike helmet for it.
I rang in the New Year to Smack That. A delightful little song that is played none stop here. We didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy the song because we were in a state of panic over the fireworks display. No, this was not a display put on by the city it was all the fireworks that the locals were setting off in the crowd of people. Not just setting off in the crowd of people but it to power lines. My mom wouldn’t even let me fly a kite anywhere near the power lines much less shoot off FIREworks into them.
Because every other volunteer here has a computer I was able to watch two bootleg copies of recent releases. The first is Borat. It is a story about Kazakh journalist traveling through America. Very funny, but Sacha Baron Cohen should have come out here first because he could make Borat even funny if he studied this area. It’s kinda weird because he makes Almaty sound trashy and Almaty is awesome, very expensive, and very westernized. There are a lot of gypsies who are camped out near where I live so I do appreciate any references to gypsies. Also, in season two of the Ali G show his beat the Gypsy dance kinda looks like how some guys here dance so I have incorporated it into my dance moves.
Also, I saw The Departed. Good. No Great movie. Even on crappy bootleg copy it was really great so I can only imagine in America on in the theater. Although the boys did get to see how worked up I can get in a suspenseful movie.
Oh, I read A LOT. Do you feel like you understand my everyday life now? No? I’ll try better next time to explain the complete randomness.

Working on Christmas

In Peace Corps we are not given Christmas Day off. So, I still ahd to teach class. I was able to have some of the boy volunteers come and stay with me and give lectures to my kids and do activities to explain American Holidays.

One of the boys, Gino, was born and spent his childhood in Russia so he speaks fluent Russian. The other boys Brandon, Zach, and Justin don't speak any Russian. They learned Kygyz here in country. So, what we did is those boys talked in English and then Gino would translate into Russian. Then we did some activities with the kids. The lectures were, um... interesting to say the least.
Zach talked about Christmas in all of his lectures. He seems like a pretty good teacher. He was engaging and asking them questions and getting them to read what he wrote on the board. Even taught them what CAROL means. Great teasher I give him a 5(A in America).

Justin, well he is not a teacher. He is a business volunteer. It was a scandal and a half that he wrote with his left hand. For me it felt like he was trying to diagram how to get the GDP up for Halloween. His talk to my 5a class about Ground Hog's day made us look less than intelligent. Gino couldn't think of the word for Ground Hog so he said Large Rodent. Hearing about a day where a large rodent comes out and sees it's shadow was weird. My students looked perplexed, I could understand where they are coming from. It does sound like a pretty stupid idea.

The best talkes, for those of us who understand English at least, were my friend Brandon's. They were passionate and heartfelt. His first talk with my 6a was about Independence Day. He came out of the gate swinging, "We all know one thing: America is the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!" Gino looked at him, Brandon gave him the eyebrow raise to translate it. He did, with a little change. He translated it to, "America has many holidays." Myself and Gino were the only ones who knew what had just happened so Gino had to suppress a giggle and keep translating, while I bit my lip and started making squeeking noises as I tried not to laugh. Brandon then kept going between my world map; that is situationed under some bubble letters that say, "Life is calling, how far will you go?", and the front of the room. He went on about the evil empire of England and the Great nation that is America. He started writing on the board about 1776. My 6a is already a generally confussed class, so I instructed them to take out their notebooks and copy down what he was writing on the board. He started ranting and raving about tea and the Bostonians dressed up as Native Americans. The thing about his rants is:
a. He was so passionate and loud
b. Gino was quite and none emotional while translating
c. Gino rarely actually translated what he said

Brandon also did a lecture for my 4a class about St. Patricks day. The day where we all become Irish, we get pinched if we don't wear green, the ADULTS drink green beer, and the city of Chicago dyes its river green. My students that I was sitting by kept asking why to all these things and I wanted to just say, "It's an excuse to party." I instead kept telling them it is a tradition and aren't traditions fun, and asking them what they think about traditions. It really does sound stupid to the outside world. We're all Irish for a day?

The best of his talks and probably the one that actually had the most impact on my students was his talk on Independence day with my 5a. He started out this time with a question: what is the most important thing in the world? My students answered: love, life, beauty... Brandon picked up the numb of chalk and wrote, "FREEDOM". He then turned around threw his hands into the air and yelled, "FREEDOM!!!!" My students giggled but didn't know what to do. Gino translated it into Russian very monotone. I then instructed my students in Russian to repeat what Brandon had just said. So, they all said freedom. I then again instructed them to repeat, and this time I participated myself all of us throwing our hands into the air and yelling "FREEDOM!!!" in unison. Then we started repeating it and I told them to be passionate. FREEDOM!!! The boys I was sitting next to pulled out their notebooks and wrote down freedom and the russian translation, if they didn't have a notebook they tore a piece out of the other kids. They then kept practicing the rest of class and asking me if they were pronouncing it correctly. After the freedom chants were done Brandon said, "All men die, but few truely live." Gino actually translated it. He explained how the British treated us like dirt and how we had to break free from these oppressors of FREEDOM. I feel he was one step away from claiming we were trying to get away from the taranicale rule of Longshanks not King George. Also, his lesson let me know we are going to do geography in English, because he pointed to Enlgand on the world map and some thought it was Kyrgyzstan. They recognized America though...(?)
At the end of my 5a all the girls asked for "Very Beautiful Zach" to autograph their notebooks. All the rest of the kids joined in and got autographs too from all the boys. These guys were super stars to my kids. Overall, it was great. I had a great time. The guys had a great time. My students got to learn about American Culture. But for me part of why I wanted those guys to come and talk to my kids was because I wanted them to see an example of great guys. They don't always get that where we live. And judging by my students treating them like rock stars I think they did just exactly what I wanted them to. And as always...
FREEDOM!!!!

Sledding and ice skating

The kids in my village say they like sledding, yet we live in a FIELD!!! No where for kilometers and kilometers is there so much as an incline. I live in pretty much the flattest part of on of the most mountainous countries. When they say they like sledding they like having someone, normally me if I'm around, pull them on a sled. They also like ice skating. This includes holding onto the back of someone's coat while they walk along and they slide on the ice. Yesterday I had a line of 8 children latched on to my coat and they thought it was hillarous as I ran faster and faster on the ice. They thought I was playing but in reality I was just trying to shake 'em loose. Didn't work and my neighbors came out to watch the specticle and kept telling me they were impressed by how strong I was. "My, you'd let 8 children in a line be pulled be hind you that is impressive." I was too embarressed to admit that I was only pulling so many children cuz I wasn't strong enough to get away from them. So I smiled flexed my arm and kissed my bicep and went into my house to do some push-ups.

Dance for it.

Yesterday I went to an English speaking Church in the capital city. It had people from all over the world. India, China, New Zeeland, America. The pastor is Scottish. During the service he had us get up and make a conga line to celebrate the good news. :) It was pretty boss.
I was told by another volunteer that maybe if there had been conga lines at his church growning up maybe he would have kept going to church. I do have to admit it was pretty fun.