The New Times to Come

So I'm trying to remember the last time I was in town to use the internet, but for the life of me I can't remember. I think it's been about a month or so.
Interesting times. So, a couple weeks back I had a little bit of a going nuts phase. First there was no power in my village for three days straight (record is 4 days) which, though I'm getting used to it, is a bit aggrivating. I invited my friend over so she could take a banya but with no electricity my host family wasn't about to start it up -- when we finally got the power back I took a banya. Banyas are, essentially, a steaming room or sauna which is the only way of cleaning one's self in the village -- this particular banya session was excruciatingly hot. The water was boiling, the heat was immense (and this is after I told my family I'm not a piece of food, I can't handle a banya that hot). About five minutes in I was seeing spots and needed to get out -- it took me about 20 minutes just to collect myself and escape. Afterward I collapsed onto my bed, tried drinking some water, and just rest. Eating later on made me feel better.
After the power came back I was awoken to something rather unpleasant. There are five children in this family, two of them 17 year old girls, and they play music. They play it during the day, they play it during the night. On this occassion, after having no power for 3 days, they decided to blast their ruckus, starting at 7 am (waking me up, rather irritating -- they did so today too) and played it until who-knows-when (it was still going when I went to bed at 10 pm). Now, I'm not opposed to music or it being played in such a manner on occassion, despite my rather non-listening habits, but this excess and the same songs being played over and over (sometimes playing the same song 10 times in a row) drives me nuts. My fam knows I don't like it, but that doesn't seem to stop them from blasting away at any time of day or night. I'm going to have a word because today, in particular, I was rudely ripped from a decent dream at 7 in the morning.
On top of the power outage, banya incident, and music, my family was acting a bit weird. They conveniently forgot to notify me of a few meals that week and were acting standoffish toward me. Some of it, from what I've gleaned, is due to graduation woes -- my sisters are going through all sorts of drama and teenage angst over the matter (personally I'm more disturbed that they put more effort into all this drama, field trips, and dancing than they do into studying and learning). Still, it didn't make that week any easier. I needed a good wind-down session so I headed into a town (not Talas) with a couple other volunteers and hit the gym (which was just recently opened visa vi the health volunteer's, who lives in this town, project). It worked out and I got back a bit more of my sanity. Time away from site can be very necessary here.
One thing that's been disappointing is I haven't been able to start the classroom project. The reason for that is my counterpart hasn't been at work for so long. I know she and my school director think I'm going to write this grant myself, but that's not how I'm going to do a project here. My philosophy is that I'll help, but my counterpart should be the one doing the work (otherwise what's the point of all this team-teaching nonsense, there needs to be a skills transfer). However, when people are sick or busy following husband's orders to hold a party because some neighbor bought a car (essentially an excuse to gambol and imbibe), it makes doing something like getting desks and chairs rather difficult. I'm not going to start spoon feeding, and if there's no willingness to do work for such a prospect then it's not going to get done. One of the sad realities of volunteerism; good intentions don't necessarily add up to results.
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I have to say that the hiking situation at my village is amazing! A fellow K-16 and I have been working on one path that goes into the mountains and have both gone to the end of it (a wall of mountains is there, can't really scale anything at that point) and found a side path that leads to the top of one of the mountains along the side path. It's absolutely gorgeous out there! It also kicks my lazy butt, which is something I enjoy (however, not too keen on taking a banya right after I get back from them -- need some time to recoup from my headache) and is doing my body good, I think. My family is scared, and has gotten the village on their side -- they think that wolves and coyotes and foxes and bears and bandits (quite possibly riding the bears, from what my family says) are all out to get me. More realistically they think that crazy drunk people will come after me, which, ironically, has happened quite often while in the village and hasn't happened at all while trekking outside it (I have met some awesome shephards though, very nice men).
Right now the K-17s are newly arrived and I must say I'm very excited. Yesterday I met with a couple of them, the two who are my neighbors, to spend the day with them, help them a bit, give them info, etc. I'm quite happy about the new group from this first impression -- they seem much more relaxed and mature than I remember things when I first got to site. Unfortunately Peace Corps is being a bit uptight about things and throwing out all sorts of mixed information which is putting a damper on the plans we made to welcome the 17s; it would be nice to have a clear answer and a clear policy from PC. Nevertheless, there are nine new volunteers here and they all seem so happy and fresh and full of good ideas, so it's a good time and something my oblast needs.
Speaking of which, I've had some interesting exchanges with the PC lately. As the VAC representative it's my duty to represent my oblast's concerns etc. so recently I've been doing that. I think we'll be able to make some progress with what's been going on, hopefully improving the relations between PC and my oblast (and, ideally, all the volunteers in country). We'll see how things go, initially I don't think PC was too happy with what I (we) had to say, but if the conversation continues things may get better.
For now, I'm getting ready for Istanbul. It's something that I think I need and I'm really looking forward to. Birthday in Turkey! I'm also trying to get some good pictures of my village -- if all works out I'll get to put them up while in Turkey, hopefully on more reliable (maybe free??) internet at the hotel I'm staying at. Good things to come, May 28th is my departure date!