Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The light

What's in a volunteer? A common feeling amongst my fellows is that we feel like we're not doing enough, not being effective, not fulfilling goals and ideas and dreams of what it is to be a volunteer. I know this is something I've had in mind for quite a while. Kyrgyzstan has a culture that will often make volunteers feel inept while they are performing well, mainly because of indirectness and because goodbyes are the time to show gratitude. In any case, I feel like I've had a a roller coaster of a time over here so far -- periods of feeling completely useless and periods of seeing the lights in eyes of people I'm dealing with. It's taken a lot of time and effort and will continue to do so. But I've learned fairly intuitively that more patience than what I have in stock is needed to be an effective volunteer; more community involvement and integration and just locally-focused initiatives should be the primary drive of a volunteer (which means being more of a guide/mediator/transitioner/voice than an actor, as many might see volunteerism); an exchange of ideas and skills and culture and generally everything is key to volunteer service, it's not just the "Hand of God" coming down to show a right way (something I believe integral to any, any volunteer work); mistakes and miscommunications are, while at the time of occurrance a burden and aggravance, some of the best tools for learning and developing. Slow, gradual development is what makes the world progress and it's the same regarless of whether someone is trying to get books for their school or implement a clean, safe, and operational new hospital. Volunteer virtues (many of which I need to improve on) in my mind are: patience, open-mindedness, tough skin, tenacity, humor, humility, awareness and perception, and having a positive mindset the majority of the time (particularly while doing the volunteer work).

I'm not sure why I chose now in particular to write about that. I guess it's just a state of mind currently. I've been here long enough to learn what I'm decent at and what I need to improve, and to gauge what's feasible with the rest of my service. In many ways it feels like I just got here, and in many ways it feels like I've been here for ages. It's an interesting situation. I'm in a spot now that I wasn't 4 months ago and I feel I've grown (hopefully for the better) quite a bit since the start of my service. I'm definately not the same person I left the States as, and with 16 months to go there's just so much possibility and potential.

Right now I'm really happy with my site. My host sister is pretty cool -- the rest of the fam is still a bit awkward and whatnot, but she likes it when I bring other volunteers over and how we talk and joke and are generally more frank and open. The food I get here isn't too bad most of the time either -- sure it's probably not the healthiest or tastiest food, but within the week I get at least some variety (some vol's go for weeks straight of the same food, which is usually just noodles). Annoying/naughty kids at school aside, classes are going alright and I enjoy teaching my clubs and motivated students. And, and, I found something really great at my site.

So one or two blog posts ago I put up my "excursion to the mountains" story. Hiking. My village has some truly amazing hiking, and my first trip out sort of opened the door to it all. A couple days ago some other K-16s (my group) and myself were planning to go visit some Australian residents for lunch; they cancelled the lunch, however, so I was asked if it would be possible for the three volunteers to come to my site and try out the hiking scene. I said yes, of course (I usually don't get many guests over). Once everyone arrived we made some lunch preparations, packed them up, then headed to the northern range that encapsulates Talas Valley and picked a destination. It was nice and sunny, and although most of us are lethargic and out of shape from the grueling winter, we made it in good time to the base of the mountain-mountains (again for me, though to the east rather than west, which is where I went last time).

On this trip I saw a lot more cool stuff than the first time I went. First, we went past the cemetary that's right outside my village, which is an interesting place in and of itself (though I think it's taboo for people to just wantonly go to it or take pictures or whatever, we stayed a good ways away, esp since there was a funeral that day). Walking past that, we decided to go to one of the bigger hill/mountain type areas just before the moutain range itself and set up our little picnic there. So we just walked up the road until we got to a decent spot near the hill where we could easily hike up. Everything out here was simply gorgeous, lots of interesting rock formations, colors, distant sites, everything. First, we saw that if we continued following the road it goes right into the mountains themselves, looking something like the way to Mordor. We also saw that it's possible to hike paths that go to the top of the mountains (we even saw a shepard doing it that day!) so, once (at least for me) in better shape, that will happen sometime in the future. I also learned what the heck "Purple Mountains Majesty" means because I got to see some purple mountains which were very amazing, or majestic as it should aptly be put. At the top of the hill we got to see lots of interesting tidbits of the surrounding land. The spot that drew my attention the most was this tower-esque looking thing that was mostly blocked by a smaller hill directly in front of us; we couldn't determine if it was natural or man-made. I'm going to go out on another trip and check it out sometime soon.

A couple days later, today (for me), I invited my friend Brock out again. Brock is sportsman! (Try to imagine that with something of a Russian accent) He's been wanting to go hiking and exercise a lot, but doesn't have the means to do so quite as readily due to living in the city. So he got to my place around 10:30ish in the morning and we decided to head out again, despite the weather being grey and misty. This time, instead of heading up a hill before the mountains, we followed the road into the mountains themselves. The road seems fairly used (esp since a truck was going along it while we were making our way up) so that's good in and of itself. Also what's good is that it seems vacant for the most part -- no bottles or trash or signs of people traversing it on foot, so it's just quiet and peaceful and beautiful. The road also has a steady incline, and despite my puffing (need to get in better shape... arg) it seemed to be very slight. When looking back after going in for about an hour or so, however, we could see that the incline was much more pronounced than what was perceived... not dangerous, just we were higher up than we initially thought we would be. Nevertheless, there are all sorts of really interesting formations and rocks along the way (some of the mountainsides look like trees instead of rock) and the road goes pretty deep in. We decided that after a while we'd head back, particularly since the rain was starting to pick up. But we got pretty far in, and almost reached another mountain wall (didn't go up to it and see where it went due to some people up ahead in that area, didn't want to bother ourselves with them). On the way back there was some mist picking up in the pass, making things simply gorgeous (and making me think of the Misty Mountains -- seriously, LOTR could have been filmed in Kyrgyzstan). It was just an amazing path to take, despite my not being in the best of shape to traverse it, and I'm really glad I did (despite being cold and drenched now -- hope I don't get sick!). I now think I'm going to try at least a weekly trek on different paths, and I may have something of a treasure on my hands as far as the volunteers go (as far as I know my village is the only one close enough to these mountains to go on a hike such as this, AND have a bridge that crosses over the Talas River -- which is necessary to get to these mountains). Hurrah!

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