Just because I'm an American......

This statement can really be interpreted two ways – angry and nonchalant. During my first week in the South I experienced both.

Currently it’s Ramadan, a Muslim holiday that last one month. Observers do not eat while the sun is up. Many will wake up at 4 am for breakfast then go back to sleep. Dinner is usually served around 7:30pm. In honor of Muhammad, the fast is typically broken with a small cup of water and dates. I think these were his vittles during a long stay in the desert.....

Anyhoo - I really am trying to be sensitive to those fasting all day around me. I drink water when no one is looking and take my lunch away from the office. Kyrgyzstan has it's own versions of fast food but No one eats or drinks on the go like we do in America. To go cups don’t exist. Neither do doggie bags or drive-thrus. On Tuesday I actually drank my coffee in a thermos on the way to work! That’s so American, right? [A small shout out to the New Yorkers. My travel mug is from the Strand. 18 miles of books!] Sometimes it’s impossible for me not to eat in public. Take for example, the samsa. Samsas are flakey square hot pockets of deliciousness sold by street vendors. Usually they are filled with meat and onions or potatoes and currently with pumpkin! Being the true American that I am, I eat my samsa on the run between work and home and shopping. I just don't know where to go to eat my lunch right now since everyone is fasting. There are few to zero benches and I'm definitely not sitting on the steps of a building. Its way too dirty here for that.

On the other hand, just because I’m an American don’t assume you can overcharge me. Yesterday morning I went to an IP telephone shop to call Papa OJ (my grandpa) and wish him a happy birthday. He’s 88 years young! We had a great conversation. It was amazing to hear his voice and I know he appreciated hearing mine! My host brother told me the charge was 5 soms per minute. That seemed a fair price since Bishkek and Kant charged a som or two less. I finished with my call and the attendant said it was 12 soms per minute! I couldn’t believe it! I was frustrated because I knew exactly what she doing. I was prepared to pay the exorbitant fee but insisted she give me a receipt spelling out exactly how much she charged me. She changed her tune pretty quickly. The price was immediately cut in half. I was still overcharged by a som per minute. I would have argued it further but I had to go to work. Did I mention I did this all in Russian?? Go me!! This is the second time someone has tried to charge me twice as much for goods. Over the weekend I found the most adorable Italian coat at a second hand shop. The lady tried to charge me 400 soms for it! I looked at her and was like, “It’s not new.” Again, the price was cut in half. I didn’t buy the coat. All trust was lost. Seriously. Shopping in Kyrgyzstan is like shopping for a car all the time. People are nice here but do your homework before you go!

Other than that, life in the south is grand. Aaron will be here in a few days and I already have lots of adventures in mind - Mount Sulieman, a day hike to see petroglyphs and a waterfall, museums, the park, a trip to see my language teacher, hopefully a weekend in Bishkek and of course lots of eating. There are at least three traditional dishes in Kyrgyztan - Plov (rice), Lagman (soup with noodles) and Mahnti (dumplings). And of course, lots of tea. He'll even be coming with me to work! He's agreed to teach a brief tutorial on web design as well as spend some time at the center for children. We'll play some American games and make them an American lunch like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

And that picture totally unrelated to the blog? That was my last day of language class. I also posted more pictures on my flickr page! Hope you have time to check them out!

Where has the month gone

I gotta be honest. I have no idea where the past 4 weeks have gone since my last entry. Its been a blur! 2 language tests, a visit to my permanent site, warden trainings, trips to Bishkek, time with friends. A complete blur. But big changes are afoot!

In a few days I will be swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. There will be speeches, singing, hugging, crying, laughing and a whole lotta American food to be had in a few days. The past 3 months have really gone by too quickly. I'm going to miss everyone in my K15 group. Now I will look forward to text message, emails, visits and making friends with the volunteers in my new community to the south.

So once again, here are a few highlights from the past few weeks.

-The water was out for 3 days. This is common in Kyrgyzstan so don't be shocked. One village down the street was sans water for almost a week! I've been told if one person in the community fails to pay their water bill no one gets water. I commented to my teacher, " How very socialist of Kyrgyzstan to handle the water this way. This way everyone suffer together." She laughed so hard! I've never seen her laugh that way. If the water ever goes out we can always buy it from the store or pull it from the stream. The stream is pretty scary but Peace Corps provides a personal water filter that boils and steams all the bad stuff out. The problem for me was dirty hair and laundry. I was resigned to greasy hair. I was resigned to Febreezing my clothes, maybe evening hanging them in the wind to blow the bad smell out (it could happen) and a little of the dust. I noticed though Febreeze smells like corn syrup. It specifically reminds me of Dr. Peppers at 6am in my dad's office in Tampa.

During the summers in middle school and high school I would work at my dad's office. Since I didn't have a car I traveled with him. Before the sun came up we would leave Clearwater and make our way across the Courtney Cambel Bridge to Tampa. Dad would blast AM radio or give fatherly advice on dating, drugs, or career paths I should consider. We'd arrive to work, myself still barely awake, and dad would make the coffee. I don't know what he put in the grinds but it was like tar in my belly! My 8am I as doubled over in pain. I don't know how many mornings I suffered but pretty soon I was resigned to drinking Dr. Pepper with my breakfast. And maybe a donut. I don't even like donuts (but oh! What I would do for Dunkin Donut or Krispy Kreme right now!).

-This week I celebrated Rosh Hashanah with Kyrgyz Jews. It was comforting to be around so much familiarity. I heard the shofar blow and Hebrew prayers chanted. At dinner I ate tons of sweet wonderful challah. I wonder if I can buy any around here? Happy New Year to everyone out there too.

-Ramadan started the same day as the Jewish New Year. And to be honest, I can't tell its a holiday. In the south I'm sure it will be more obvious. I actually need to figure out how and where I'll be eating!

-Had a strange conversation with my host dad yesterday morning too. In Kyrgyzstan people will often ask - are you married? How old are you? and How much money do you make? Miss Manners never made it over the mountain. Anyhoo - about once week my host dad likes to ask me questions related to these topics. The latest round was How much does it cost to live in America and specifically how much did it cost me to live in America. These are both really hard questions to answer because America is so diverse. My language skills aren't adequate enough to be able to ask - well, do you want to live in a city or the country? What kind of skills do you have? Is living near a Muslim community important? What about a Russian or Turkish or Kyrgyz speaking population? Will you need public transportation or a car? do you know what car insurance is? Will you want to grow a garden?

I know. I know I know I know. I'm way over thinking. I don't know how people do it. Surely they head to the nearest expat community with native speakers who then help them relocate, right? I ended up using East Texas as my model and said it would cost upward of $5000 US/month to live in a small town. I have no idea if that is remotely true or not. The conversation ended with my host dad saying I speak bad Russian and don't understand.

I honestly don't care what he thinks. He's a friendly guy but he often asks difficult questions and doesn't do a very good job at helping me understand the question. Plus, I think he's put off by my presence. He might feel Peace Corps isn't necessary in his country. Or why should I leave America and come here, to a place with no jobs. I also think he expects me to know more than I already do. Hey, it's only been 3 months! He's been speaking Russian for over 40 year!

Speaking of language tests though.... I scored Intermediate Medium! What does that mean you ask? There are 3 levels in language learning - Novice, Intermediate and Advanced. Each level is then subdivided into Low, Medium and High. Russian is an extremely complex language so we were asked to achieve only Novice-High. I actually jumped a whole level since my test last month. Yeah me!

So that's it for now from the Kyrgyz Republic. Next time you hear from me I'll be living and working in the south. All the best to you and yours.

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,

all things good

Day 7 with my host family. All things are great so far! They are really wonderful. Again, for privacy, I’m assuming Peace Corp doesn’t want me outing the family so I tell you this – they are a happy family with 3 great children (a daughter and 2 sons). The daughter and the son speak a little English and that has made my transition much, much easier. I just hope it does not hinder my Russian lessons. There is so much I want to express (gratitude to be living with this family, excitement to be in Kyrgyzstan, hopes for my project, life back home) so the language barrier is a bit frustrating. I’m not shy about learning Russian or making the mistakes, the problem is that my vocabulary is very limited so it’s hard to ask questions and start a conversation. But I know this will come in time. I’ve only been here a week! So here’s a run down of my first few days in Kyrgyzstan.

For a day and a half Peace Corps housed all of the volunteers at hotel. There we had our first introductions to Kyrgyzstani accommodations, weather and food. Our hotel was rustic by American standards but good. We had a running toilet (literally), a tub with a shower attachment but unfortunately no air conditioning or windows with screens. Mid day in Kyrgyzstan is very hot but it cools off by 7pm. My roommate and I slept with our porch door open to keep cool. We were on the 4th floor so I felt safe but I feared a swallow would fly in! The entire hotel was covered in their big muddy nests and our porch housed about 10 birds in 4 little “condos.” My roommate Cheng Li would whistle at them in the morning. From our porch you could also see the mountains and a park in tribute to Manas, the great epic hero of Krygyzstan. And yes, the mountains are very beautiful. All of our meals were taken at the hotel and for the most part, everything was delicious. Though it was odd to have spaghetti with meat sauce for breakfast.

At the hotel we learned a little bit about Kyrgyzstani culture as well as how to keep ourselves and our belongings safe and secure in the country. We also started our language lessons and vaccinations. Russian is not easy! In the evenings most volunteers gathered at a Tiki bar on the hotel property. We had our first introduction to Kyrgyzstani beer which, while not cold, was delicious! On the day we met our host family we hopped a Marushka to Bishkek (the capital) to buy presents for our host families. Marshrukas redefine “clown car.” Imagine a Volkswagon van with about 30 people crammed inside plus their children and packages. And its 90+ degrees outside. And its humid. And there is no A/C, only windows. And your lucky if you get a window!! No bueno. (side note: I find myself reverting to Spanish all the time. I don’t even really speak Spanish. Other volunteers are doing this as well………). This is the preferred method of travel by Peace Corps. I’m not really sure why…….it’s probably cheapest.

In Bishkek we visited the internet café as well as the grocery store and florist to buy presents for our host families. We all bought these ridiculous bouquets for our 2nd families. I don’t know how they weren’t crushed on the way home.

Last Wednesday all volunteers relocated to their new homes. Peace Corps hosted a very sweet matching ceremony where the families and volunteers met on a stage and swapped bouquets, hugs and kisses. Unfortunately the language barrier kept the conversation short but there was definitely happiness on my part as well as my host family. I was told I look just like my host mom, a wonderful complement. After refreshments we went outside to find the car and collect my 125 pounds of gear. My host sister explained that her cousin was to take us home. The only problem… he was no where to be found. Five phone calls later the cousin finally arrived with much panache. Driving a slightly beat up Audi, he jumped the driveway into a small pot hole and bounced to a stop. He jumped out to my host sister and mother yelling and me just standing there with my 125 pounds of clothes, toiletries and electronics. I was pretty embarrassed by the weight so I had prepared an apology - Mai sumkee tejouleeah. Eevee nitzya (My bags are very heavy. I’m sorry.). The cousin just smiled and gave me the universal sign for “I’m strong.” So this was my introduction to my family! They argue, laugh, arrive late, and are fairly disorganized. I actually found their disorganization the most comforting. It was very humanizing and left all formality at the matching ceremony.

Meeting our host family and .04%

Today I will meet my host family. Per the Peace Corps, for safety reasons, I will not be able to share where they are located on my blog. I am very excited to meet them and I’ve heard they are very excited to meet us. We’ve started to learn a few cultural norms (take shoes off when you enter the house, most homes have summer showers located outside, many families eat on the floor and you best be careful not to put your feet on the tablecloth!). I’ve also started my Russian lessons. I will be learning that language instead of Kyrgyz.

On July 8th we arrived in Kyrgyzstan. Angela calculated that from the time we left the hotel in New Jersey to the moment we arrived at our hotel, we had been traveling for 36 hours straight. It was uneventful, which in this case, is not a bad thing.

But it was an emotional day.

On the flight from Turkey to Kyrgyzstan I sat next to a Host Country National (HCN) whose name unfortunately I’ve forgotten. He had already made friends with a few other volunteers and we immediately struck up a conversation when he took his seat. His English was basic but we were still able to discuss his children, trade vocabulary, why I was not married and eventually my religion. I told him I was Jewish.

He didn’t recognize the religion so he asked “Catholic?”
I replied “No, Jewish.”
“Protestant?”
“No, we came before the Christians. Do you know Israel?”
“Evangelical? Baptist?”
Once again I said “no” then asked his religion. He replied Muslim. So I drew the symbol of each of our religions – Star of David, the cross and a crescent moon – and that registered. The conversation soon tailed off and he took an interest in the couple sitting opposite from him.

A few minutes later HCN says very excitedly. “You know high holy day? People go to Tel Aviv for symposium. You contact 2 weeks after.”

What?!?! What people? What symposium? In Tel Aviv? In Kyrgyzstan? I told him I didn’t understand so he turns away again and speaks rapidly in Russian to the couple again and HCN hands me a business card.

I don’t know if it was my travel weariness, fear of isolation, leaving home or just lack of sleep but the moment I saw the menorah in the top left corner of the card the tears came up and wouldn’t stop. My reaction took me completely by surprise. I was crying so hard I couldn’t speak. Even now I’m getting misty. Poor HCN was so confused. Once I calmed down I explained what a wonderful thing he had done, that my tears were tears of joy and I was extremely thankful. I don’t know if he quite got it.

There are 5 million people in Kyrgyzstan. I’ve read only 2000 identify as Jews. That’s .04%. And this wonderful man introduced me 2 of the 2000. The couple I met work for the Jewish Culture Society of Kyrgyzstan. They invited me to visit their community and while they will not be in town for the High Holy Days we’ve already discussed Pesach. While I’m writing this I have not had a chance to visit their website but here it is http://www.hesed.kg. They also said if I need anything, to call.

What angels. What a small world.

I told Peace Corps staff about my new acquaintances and my hopes of connecting with the Jewish community. They are very supportive and glad that I made the contact.