Lots and lots (Gope gope)

5/10
Today, as I was busy throwing up due to some food not sitting well, I received a pair of texts from my good friend Robin! Comfort during discomfort.

This was my first time being truly sick at site, 4th time overall. I've had a bit of a cold for the past couple weeks, consequently granting me a constantly running, uyat (shameful) nose - it's shameful to blow your nose at the dinner table, we eat a lot of hot soup, I'm usually trapped inbetween people so getting up (which is a process in and of itself, have to "Omin" every time you get up from the table) is a hassle, and no napkins! - but nothing majorly major. Last night, though, my stomach gave me the "I've had it," grumble, and to the toilet I go! Not only is it very hard to use the bathroom under normal conditions, but it's also very cold outside during nighttime and morning hours nowadays. Add onto that my stomach illness and my cold, and we have a fun recipe. Let's just hope I don't have any urgent needs while writing this... (which, unfortunately, I did). I fear the winter, and though we thankfully have TP and not Ye Ol' Soviet Book, it's sure not huggies soft.

It's a great reassurance receiving news, tidbits, info, remarks, anything! from home. For example, today I was feeling terrible due to my illness and the awful aftertaste it was giving me. But then I received a couple texts from Robin. That turned my gloomy day into a decent one! Getting something from home is like having a bright light break through the dark clouds sometimes; it makes my day and brings me so much happiness. I wish I were able to reply to the texts, but they're sent through megacom and it costs a boatload for me to send a text regularly. But such is life here, it's primarily one-way at this point. However, today, now I have the motivation to do some work while listening to some Cash n' Who instead of moping in bed trying to down some of my putrid oral rehydration salt mixture.

--

So I've had a bit of a good rest. The work I did was primarily trying to get my English Club advertisement and pre-entrance test finished. So far so good, but it's easy working on things by myself -- the real test will be giving the test, seeing how everyone does on it, sorting out who should go to what level, etc. I surely hope this club motivates students to study and work on English better than they currently do (and who knows, maybe they'll learn a thing or two). Right now students don't do homework, in part due to not having books and also I think because they have no encouragement to do so (lack of practicality, lack of decent speakers/teachers [up until now, I hope], old methods of Soviet-style teaching still prevails in the classroom, and the list goes on...). It's a tremendous challenge for me. I'm essentially starting from nothing in most cases, with nothing but the books so generously given to me by the King's English Dept. and Peace Corps, and of course my own imagination. I started with the ABC's in my second grade classes, and I think most/every class could use it... just hope I have my singing voice intact for the 17 different forms/classes I teach (in a given week, if I'm working on Sat, I have 34 classes, 25 without Sat, which I sometimes need to do). It's also difficult working with two other Kyrgyz teachers in all my classrooms - if my methods do nothing, then what then? Oh how I suddenly wish I were an Education Major...

Aside from my health issues, things are going better here with my home life. My little 8 year old brother is becoming something of a buddy of mine - just the other day we were out making leaf soup in the yard, he often gets/shows me how to get apples from the trees in the yard, and we'll play or he'll show/talk to me about something. My other family members are a bit more difficult to interact with, but it's coming along. My 10 year old sister is a cutie-pie; very shy, but very eager whenever I ask her a question. My 15 year old brother likes listening to rap, hanging out with his friends, exclaiming loudly (what about I never know), and generally just being a typical guy, I think. I have two same-age sisters (apparently a couple of the children came in from another family, I'm not entirely sure on the story, but it doesn't seem a-typical Kyrgyz) who are nice enough but probably think I'm a space alien - wanting them to teach me how to cook food, cleaning my own room, offering to do my own laundry, etc. They do the typical Kyrgyz girl routine though; making most/all the meals (though I don't think they made the food last night...), doing the cleaning around the house, actually spending time studying for class, listening to whatever pop-esque music that peaks their interest. My eje (elder sister, aunt, etc etc. - it means a lot of things), who didn't want me calling her apa (mom), seems thrilled whenever I inquire about her work (seamstress, out of the home), family (which is apparently spread all throughout Talas), or anything else. Less so interested when talking about how things in America are, or personal interests, but hey, I appreciate not being the center of attention for once.

I just want to spend a bit of time talking about women in Kyrgyzstan. Aside from the fact that people here keep insisting that I'll be married within the year to a Kyrgyz girl, there really aren't many options for me, and here's why. In the village (particularly) girls 26 or older are pretty much considered old croons or bad if they aren't married. So, pretty much everyone my age is married. The only other option, and what I think people who insist I get married infer, is a current high-school girl. Here in KY, graduation day has a different name for these girls - kuz bazaar (girl bazaar) - and it disturbs me, immensely. Not only are these very young girls expected to become a wife, they can be forced into marriage through bride kidnapping - essentially relegating the rest of their life (if they run away from the marriage they're shamed to no end and have difficulty getting more legitimately married - some resort to suicide). Add to the fact that every man I meet, aside from generally being a lot lazier and single-minded from the women, always talks about "Kuz Al," taking a girl, it's just revolting to me. Now there is consentual bride-kidnapping, presumably where both partners love each other and it's a cheaper option than the traditional marriage, which I sort of understand - it's the unconsented kidnapping and overall male attitude I'm concerned with, especially since it's so foreign to me and vehemently goes against my values. It makes me want to join up with other volunteers or a women's awareness group. It's especially a problem here in Talas - an oblast known for its machismo and hubris. Some traditions I can understand and mentally tolerate - this is not one of them.

Power's out again, hurray. Looks like time to sign off.

Peace,

Chris


--

16/10

I usually don't write so soon after finishing, but oh my, today was something else.

So today my counterpart was feeling sick as well, so we decided to divvy up our packed schedule so she taught 3 classes on her own and I the same. Unfortunately for me, I thought (must emphasize this, I thought!) I could handle the 2nd grade class on my own. Oh hoho. What a fool I am. Never have I had such a hard time with anything ever before. People complaining at Six Flags? Sure. People calling and talking to me at Lieb's office about how their son is being sent off to Iraq? Ok, hard. This? Wow.

First off, technically speaking I'm really supposed to be sticking to older kids, 'cause it usually takes someone skilled to handle the little 'uns. But since I'm co-teaching, and figured what the heck why not help teach the class since they're learning English, I took it up. Take the co-teaching out of that equation, however, this is the situation we see. Imagine yourself in a nice, quiet, calm place. It's bright. It's sunny. There's your favorite beverage right there, you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want.

Now, rip that all away, and throw yourself into a rolling morass of hot chaos. That cry, my friends, would be me in the middle of it all, with my nice happy place going bye-bye. Oh man. The kids had no respect for me and no concept of me having authority. First we started out singing the ABC's. Loud, but semi-controlled, so all's good there. But, like a rollercoaster, the ABC's was the peak-point and everything was rickety rolling out of control down a crazy lane. While I'm trying to get my "Connect the big letter to the smaller version of that letter" game going, half the class decides to get up and do some kung-fu action moves on each other in the back of the room, or start taking stuff from other children. I call out "Tinch!" which is essentially peace, what the teachers here use in an attempt to restore order. Some kids fall in line, some don't. So I have a few kids up at the board doing the game, and the naughty ones in back going at it again. Arg! "Baldar otur!" - boys sit - I call out. That lasts a whole 2 seconds. I then have some of the kids up at the board practicing their writing. Well, for the first 10 seconds that went well, until 10 students stormed the board in an attempt to do their own thing. Now they're up at the board trying to steal chalk from one another, the ones in the back relentlessly go about doing whatever their little hearts desired, and I'm in the middle trying to do about 20 things at once. Halfway through class an Eje pokes her head in and I give her a motion of complete exasperation - she gives them a minute talk on being nice, has them sitting down quietly etc. She leaves, and chaos resumes. I try to continue on, using my recently drawn pictures in an attempt to teach them the names of some animals in English. Oh my. I call out "What is this?" and what sounds like 50 eehawing donkies reply. While I'm doing this, the tentek baldar (naughty boys) apparently had had enough of class, and ran out of the room. I sit there, stunned. Two or three more kids decide to bolt for it as well. What is going on?!? I go, look outside, see no kids, then shut the door. Well... at least there's peace and quiet now, I thought. I won't let those kids back in. But that lasted for about 2 or 3 minutes, the tentek baldar have apparently been herded up by a different Eje and rounded back into the room. At this point, there's about 10 minutes of class left, and my head is screaming to me "Why oh why God why why why?!? Make it end!!!" So for the rest of the time I'm trying to review the animals, and the tentek baldar are basically miming/mocking me throughout the rest of the lesson. I somehow survived to the end, sat down, had most of the class leave, gave my grades to the few angels in my class (all girls, of course), then exasperatedly left to teach my final lesson for the day.

If I didn't have what I consider an amazing class in my 7th "G" formers directly after, I don't know what. I came into class grouchy, but having the angels of my class calling the boys into line, doing the work, and sticking up for me, I happily gave them the 5's (A's) they deserved. Never again. Never again will I teach the 2nd grade on my own. Much credit to all teachers around the world who teach little children. A few small kids, I can handle. Twenty, half of whom are screaming mischief-making heads? Not so much. Oi... where's my tylenol...

Peace,

Chris

P.S. Just had to add this because I couldn't stop laughing - so I saw the family washing machine today. All I can say to describe it is that it looks like a vending machine out of the Jetsons, or perhaps the Flinstones. Oh Soviets, what will you think of next??

PPS. Brilliant idea! Take a photo of said vending/washing machine.

--
19/10

I think a lot of Peace Corps is a lot happening despite it feeling like very little, or perhaps a little happening feelings like a lot. Who knows, but that's kind of the impression I have right now.

First off, I just received the text from my brother Pat about my Great Uncle Johnny dying. It makes me sad - he was a good man. He always used to call me Christopher Columbus. His actions were very kind and he was a gentle man. It's sad thinking about how he always cried at funerals, even for people he didn't know. I'm sorry I won't be able to make it to his own; he's in my heart though.

This weekend (if it can be called that) I had work on Saturday, and my 'sitemate' visit me today (Sun). My school decided to schedule English classes on Saturdays, even though I said I shouldn't be working on Saturdays (which PC does say). When I inquired about it, I was told the person who devises the schedules isn't very good (as accredited to how the schedule changed about 5 times since I arrived in late Sept. -- well into the schoolyear at that point) and that they wouldn't change the schedule. I told them that's fine, but I'm not coming in every single Saturday because quite often Sat/Sun are days volunteers get together and do stuff. That plus it's nice to have 2 days off in a row. I do meet the hour requirement without working Sats, but I do feel a bit bad just not going to class all the time. I imagine I won't feel as bad once I get my English club up and running though.

My sitemate visited for the first time. I put it in quotations the first time because techically I don't think I have a sitemate -- I'm the only volunteer in my rayon (district). However, this volunteer is about 5 minutes away, so she's the closest American to me here in KY. It was a relief after this almost-month of being at site to have someone I could regularly and openly communicate with at home, even if for just a few hours. For anyone who knows me, it's difficult for me to just start up a casual conversation, particularly with someone I've just met (being personally rather shy and quiet), even when I understand what's being talked about. Add on the language barrier, and it's been tough for me. In my training village, I really only needed to know a few people, a few families, etc. and I got along fine with that. Here, I have an entire collective (teachers staff), new neighbors, new students, who knows how many family members & their friends, and just random people yelling out my name all the time. My counterparts, while knowing decent English, don't really know me, or I them, and as (I believe) I've noted before there are some issues with them, particularly taboos, and their views being completely Kyrgyz (i.e. when I was sick, they told me to start drinking a lot of milk, and the old 'wrap a dead snake in a jar around your waiste to cure your ails' trick). So yeah, complete relief to finally get to see my sitemate and have a pleasant afternoon. That, plus my family went all-out and cleaned the outhouse (wow!) and made an amazing lunch, complete with fruit (also wow!- first time having a perssimmony), fresh bread, some of the good winter salad, candies (always brought out for spec. occassions), varenia (jam/preserve, but a bit different, and very tasty - albeit very very sugary), and just about whatever they could given they only had about 12 hours notice of my sitemate coming.

So I'll be starting up my English club soon. This week I'll be giving a test to all those interested in participating. It's fairly basic (by my standards) - translate a few words, write a few sentences of their own, describe why they want to join the club, etc. Right now I just have no idea how many people want to partake in it. Sometimes I get the impression that there are a ton of people who want to join, sometimes I get the impression that there are very few. We shall see on Tuesday. I'm also not enjoying that one counterpart of mine is trying to make me do all this stuff for the club that I really don't think is necessary - such as developing 2 months worth of material and using x y or z book. She's freaked out by the Kyrgyz school standards - essentially the record books for each class/form (grades, attendance, homework assignments, dates, etc.). I'm not too concerned with it, personally, cause I think it's a load of... well... you know what, 'cause in KY grades can be bought, you can miss classes for a month straight and get the highest mark, or essentially just fudge the entire thing and have it be squeaky clean at the end. I could care less about the system at this point - I'm more concerned with developing a system, both for my club and for classes, where students actually learn something instead of memorizing something straight from a block of text that they'll forget tomorrow, or not even bothering to try. Oh Soviet system...

Before I forget, I just have to mention. The other weekend, I was out at another village because it was one volunteer's birthday and we were getting together to celebrate. We were out playing frisbee golf in what I could only describe as hilly wasteland, and lo' and behold, up in the sky, something gigantic. At first I thought, "That's a small plane right there." But then I realized it's too small to be a plane. But it was too big to be a bird. So my next, for whatever logical reason, thought was, "That's a pterodactyl." So I sat there, stunned, thinking either I'm really stupid or some space-time continuoum has opened up and everything is going topsy-turvy. Fortunately it was the former. And there was a second one, right behind the first one. These giant things in the sky were eagles. As I finally processed that thought, having never really seen an eagle in-person, I stood in complete awe, mouth hanging open, as these two giant and majestic birds soared across the sky (horizontally from us, the volunteers). Part of me wishes I had my camera on me at the time, but part of me also is glad that I didn't. I don't think a camera could have captured just how big these eagles were, and would perhaps diminish their magnitude. But it was truly a memorable experience, seeing these animals that could really do some damage, in person, in the wild, freely flying off into the distance. Eagles seen in KY: 2, eagles seen in US: 0.

--

The prospect of me teaching is a bit scary to me. I'm not an authoritarian, don't have all these wonderful methods for teaching & communicating, and just feel unprepared in general. But, today, I was given reign to run the older classes (11th formers) on my own, while my counterpart observed. Well, she sat and translated a lot for me, particularly when I started fumbling with my Kyrgyz. But overall it felt good. My activity of the day: giving parts of sentences (ie one word on a slip of paper) to students in the class, have them get together up front, and figure out how to correctly configure it. While the majority didn't get the sentences right, I think it was just so completely different from what usually goes on in class that it was enjoyable for everyone. That, plus I gave everyone top marks for effort, cause heck, everyone was involved. Of course that means I had to sign everyones homework notebook, but hey, if it gets them involved, interested, and actually doing some studying/working with English, I'll wear my hand out with kol koi's (signatures). I just hope it works...

As I'm sitting here, gnawing on a piece of dried apricot, I reminice about the days of summer when good, fresh fruit was available. Last night I was dreaming (and subsequently drooling...) about having something nice, tasty, and healthy to eat. Here in KY I generally eat decently, but meals basically consist of the following: something fatty, greasy, or oily, perhaps something spicy or salty, and maybe (if there's a party or celebration) something very sugary. As I was longing for my favorite fruits last night, pineapple, plums, pears, any type of berry... (note: I love all fruit, but these are my favs) I realized how very little I get here, and how next-to-none will exist in winter. Here, pretty much all fruit is preserved in some fashion; most goes into varenia, some is made into a dried version. I understand this, but still - I miss good, fresh fruit. In the meantime, I'll just resort to my newly-concocted snack: pieces of cut up dried apricot mixed with peanuts.

Speaking of food, I think I'm rather fortunate with the different foods my family makes, despite getting ill from some monte (dumplings, often filled with potatoes, onions, peppers or squash, some form of meat, and usually lots of fat). Lots of families feed their volunteers the same thing all the time, usually soup or something simple. Lots of volunteers have been getting tons of besh barmak - the Kyrgyz national dish of broad, flat noodles cooked over oil and topped with meat (usually sheep), particularly intestines, stomach, head, lungs etc... - and that's not going so well. I usually get something different, albeit perhaps similar, every day. For instance, one day I might get macaroni with some sort of sauce, the next day macaroni soup. But it seems lots of Kyrgyz people love their fatty, greasy foods. As an example, one volunteer, for Orozo Ait, went to a house that had an amazing spread of fruits, breads, and sweets. The Kyrgyz men touched none of it. When the besh barmak came out, they went to town on it, leaving all the fresh amazing healthy food untouched. Oi... The bread here is amazing, and the fruits/veggies are usually excellent as well. The problem is they tend to be a bit pricy, and people want sheep guts over a nice piece of fruit. Luckily I don't have to deal with that often (hurray for a female-dominated household), and don't get tons and tons of meat here as other volunteers do. I'll hold off on making that a definitive statement, however, because winter is closing in and soon I must bid veggies (aside from potatoes and cabbage) and fruits farewell, and usher in an age of fat...

--

Hrm... so today was rather interesting. Teaching my own classes was fine, esp. since the students seemed excited about subjects/activities for once. However, since tomorrow I'm giving my English club test, the questions and requests have been non-stop. First is the students - what time will it be, what do we need, who can take it, etc. etc. (most of which is on the advertisement I put up). That's understandable. But, and most annoyingly, the teachers have been bugging me about it too. Not because they're interested in the club, want to talk to me, or whatever - they're mostly afraid because their children all go to the school, they want them to join the club, but know their children don't know English. So I've had a whole bunch of my collective come up to me requesting special preference for their child, giving me their names, offering to introduce them to me, and overall bombarding me with questions. They fear that I'm going to make some sort of elite English group with this test I'm giving - all I want to do is see how many students are interested (which seems like a lot at this point) and get an idea of where everyone's English level is at. I don't mind having students who took German while the school still had it, or someone from a form that doesn't have English, or someone from 6th form (I said 7th + 'cause that's the cutoff point for the big kids I teach). But it's all fear, and why I can understand, but with how quickly word gets arround I'm a bit exasperated at how many times I've had to tell parents to just send their kids in to the test tomorrow, it's not a big deal if they don't know English. That's the way it goes, though, so here's to tomorrow and the start of my grading (for something substantive) career!

So now that my nose is starting to subside at meals, my club will begin soon, and I'm teaching a bit on my own (in an attempt to purge this system of the stringent teacher-student superiority and boring, mindless, ineffective class wall), things seem to be picking up and looking brighter. Granted, it's still very early, but I'm starting to feel optimistic. My host family is growing on me a bit more, I'm talking some more with them, and generally we're all being nice to one another. The banya (see behind Super Soviet [Jetsons] Washing Machine) is so blisteringly hot it gives me a headache and I can't breathe, but better that than bucket bathing with how the weather is turning cold. Sometimes I get a taste of home in the food prepared - tonight I had puree, which is essentially mashed potatoes (mmm mmm) with oil (of course), topped with peppers, some bits of meat, and onions. The latter isn't so much the taste of home part, but mashed taters is all gravy (hmmm... oil... gravy... not quite, but similar results). I've had more laghman (long thick spaghetti-esque noodles in oil, cooked with diced peppers, potatoes, meat, onions, etc.) than besh barmak, which is good 'cause hot laghman on a cold day hits the spot. Free time is a bit difficult because I haven't had the opportunity to swap out my books with the Talas library, but that will change in a couple days (and you'll all know because I'll get to post this monstrosity of an entry, at last), but I still could use some more in the way of entertainment. However, that's not a high priority at the moment. Right now it's just establishing myself, getting my PC money for coal to heat the home this winter, figuring out how to wash up/brush teeth decently in the winter (now I do everything at the sink, which is, of course, outside), trying to visit other volunteers and have them visit me, find the village post office so I can get some mail out, dagu dagu dagu (etc. etc. etc.).

It feels good to end on a happier note. So to all,

Peace,
Chris

Reflect

Hello all,

As I'm sure some of you heard, and I had only heard second-hand the other day, Kyrgyzstan had an earthquake just recently. This took place in Osh Oblast, in the south of Kyrgystan, which is far away from me (relatively). Earthquakes and avalanches are the two biggest natural disasters Kyrgyzstan has, though they don't happen often. I am unaffected by the recent earthquake, but my heart goes out to the victims there.

Things are going decently well for me. I'm started to get develop a better relationship with my host family, and my fellow volunteers are proving to be good friends as well. My biggest challenge at the moment is trying to develop some form of curriculum that will prove to be effective. Herein lies the challenge:
A) My students have no books
B) My counterparts all teach from one book per class, some of which are very old (i.e. books from the early 80's that contain lines about how Soviet citizens have great freedoms to pursue their vocation of choice, while Capitalist citizens primarily join the army of the unemployed)
C) Seeing above conflict, students don't do homework and essentially learn nothing
D) Each class progresses as if students do the work, in effect continuing on with more and more complicated topics
E) English isn't learned, and everyone - both students and teachers - become frustrated with it all
F) It's taboo for me to meet with my counterparts outside of the school, they essentially have no free time after school, and lesson planning isn't done at school, so coordination and communication is very difficult

So seeing the above problems, I have a tall task ahead of me. I'm hoping to allieviate some of them in part by opening an English club at my school; that's not a complete answer, however. It will take a lot of dialogue, brainstorming, fresh ideas, compromising, and overall blood sweat n' tears to do what needs to be done in order to have an effective English program at school. As for me, right now I'm just trying to make do with what I can, i.e. adopting the partial-cursive (ouch for me) writing style they use here, and working with one of the things that should have died out with the Soviets but didn't - the dreaded blackboards.

Recently I've been able to read a lot of articles from other volunteers etc. both from past and present. It's heartened me to go back to my quintisential roots at King's by reading the happenings from my years there. Right now I've just received news of the tragedies that have happened on campus and my heart goes out to the faculty, students, residents and families - and I hope that the messages of hope and humility that were so prevalant during my time there will come through in these times to strengthen the community and give a strong sense of reality to sadness to everyone there. Please be safe, keep the victims in your hearts, and rely on one another to be there for support.

Peace,
Chris