From my window I can see the Big Dipper

[I posted 2 entries today! here's the first!]

I don’t know what altitude my village sits, but the stars never appeared closer or twinkled brighter. Bands of the Milky Way come into sight as thin immobile clouds. There is depth to the night sky. No smog or light pollution to hide the distance between each illumination – 1 million, 3 million, 10 million light years away (OK, maybe not that far).

As fellow trainee Tristan said, it makes 3am visits to the outhouse bearable.

Life continues to be good in Kyrgyzstan though the newness is starting to wear off. My dad made a very good point. He said the first month was like a vacation, now reality is beginning to set in. And set in is has. I miss my family and friends. I miss cooking for myself. I miss owning my own time. I actually miss Starbucks (darn you Gingerbread Latte! You were my demise!). We had training a couple of weeks ago about Culture Shock so whatever I’m feeling is normal and valid. It’s just growing pains and I take comfort in that. To stay positive I’ve been keeping a list of good and just plain silly moments over the past few weeks. I really like lists.

--Good –
-With two of my host brothers, pulling down a sunflower and eating the seeds directly from the flower.
-Within one hour sending out 5+ emails and IM with a friend back home (the systems are so slow here I’m lucky if I read 2 emails let alone reply to them).
-The animals know me. The dogs bark less and sometimes when we eat dinner outside the chickens will walk under my chair. A bold brown hen actually pecked my back pocket in search of a snack! I didn’t hurt. J
-Riding the marshruka by myself.
- For Cross Cultural Day my village had to explain the components of a Russian engagement and we had a real Russian matchmaker helping us! So I just had to thrown in a little Fiddler on the Roof. It was my way of integrating. I sang one line from the Matchmaker, Matchmaker and I think I nailed it. [this photo is from Cross Cultural day. i'm wearing a traditional Kyrgyzstani hat and standing inside a yurt.]
-On the hard days, knowing who I can go to for support and knowing who feels comfortable coming to me.
-I have an indoor shower and I can use it every day if I want to.
- Learning, understanding and saying at least one new Russian word a day. I should probably improve that number……..

--Silly--
-Trying to carry on a conversation with my host brother. Okay, he’s 4. And he speaks another language besides Russian. He’s invented his own gibberish and ironically those are our best conversations.
-I try to hold my breath when I visit the outhouse but sometimes on the way out I catch a whiff of the pit. My immediate reaction is to blow the air out of my lungs through my mouth. What good is that going to do?

Our communities are on lock down for a week so this will be my only internet visit until next week. Till then!

Cross cultural moments creep up on you.

[I’ve been carrying this entry around for awhile. Unfortunately during my previous visits either the internet was slow, Blogger was out of commission, the computer didn’t recognize my flash drive or I couldn’t find a way to access it. Hey, everything is Russian. This entery was written on July 24]

Since arriving to Kyrgyzstan I’ve come to learn and understand some very important words and phrases–
-“Jzarkah! Jzarkah! Jzarkah!” - Hot! Hot! Hot! as in the weather mid day in Kyrgyzstan. Its reached 100F a few times.
-“Harashow!” - Good!
-“Ya oustalah.” - I’m tired.
-“Mojzne.” – Excuse me.
-“Bajalousta.” – Please and You’re Welcome
-“Spaseeba!” – Thank you!
-“Chai?” - Tea? Hot brown tea is served with every meal. I’ve read Kygryzstanis believe cold beverages are bad for the throat.
-“F’cousna!” - Delicious!
and the most common phrase,
-“Cushite, Kelly, Cushite!” - Eat, Kelly, Eat!

“Cushite” is a common phrase all Peace Corps volunteers hear from the host parents. We all have our stories and methods for politely refusing food. My host mother is an excellent cook and I swear she’s trying to fattening me up! One afternoon my host sister was saying she’d like to loose some weight and that she should start exercising. I said I would love to exercise with her. I mentioned that I had belonged to a gym for the past 2 years and would love to keep up with it, especially for stress relief. My host mother teased me in a haughty sort of way afterwards. I know she meant no ill feeling but I still felt like an outlandish American. It also got me to thinking about leisure time……

My host mom works very hard. She’s up at 5am to prepare for the day and goes to bed around 10pm. During the day she prepares breakfast, lunch and dinner from scratch then washes all the dishes by hand, lets the cow out, bakes bread, makes pasta, sweeps the courtyard and the house, washes the laundry by hand then hangs it on the clothes line to dry. Then there’s entertaining the neighbors.

Kyrgyzstani culture is defined as collectivist - the good of the group come before the individual. An unplanned social call to a neighbor’s house is very common place. Friends and family will gather outside each others homes, come inside for tea or walk the dusty roads of the village together. These social calls can last from 15 minutes to an hour. It could involve one neighbor or 4 plus their children. Understanding this is very important to integrating into the community so I always plan a little cushion time when scheduling my day.

With all of their responsibilities (host mom and sister) where would they find time to exercise even if they wanted to?

Americans work just as hard as my host mom and neighbors. I think my host mom and sister were surprised that I knew how to do chores! The obvious difference is our modern conveniences that allow us to schedule our leisure time and multi task. Instead of slaughtering a chicken in the backyard we buy it skinned and quartered at the grocery store. We load the dishwasher or washing machine and walk away. We schedule gym time. We work at the office late. We go out to eat. And most would consider uninvited guests rude. Americans are generally considered Individualist - our personal needs come before the community.

Once again my lack of Russian prevented me from having this conversation with my host family. Though I really would have liked to. No doubt I’ll have plenty more little moments like that.

Hope all is well with you, whoever you are reading this now.

hey everyone!

sorry its been a long time between posts! blogger has been down and the connection very slow. i hope to have pictures posted on flicker today or sometime this week. everything is still going well. my russian gets a little better every day. i actually helped my friend sara negotiate the purchase of pepper in the bazaar!

i also managed, with the help of russian speaking PC staff, to negotiate cell phones for 43 trainees. look at me go!

for those of you who have my email address, i'm looking for some good basic recipes. like bread pudding, sugar cookies, apple pie, biscuits.... please send them along if you have a chance!

all; the best,