YAY!

I feel good! Hee hee! I haven't felt this good since I got my first glimpse of a Kyrgyzstan morning. It's amazing!
Yesterday was great. I got up early and went to the bank (hurray for settling-in allowance), with my eje barking a bit at me to get her her money. But whatever. I purchase an electric chinek (basically a water heater, good for boiling purposes) and a pair of coffee mugs - should have bought some more things, like teaspoons, bowls, etc. but that can wait. I go home, see nobody's there so I stash my allowance and storm off to the post office. It's not open! Wonder wonder... anyway, I head back to my home and stop at a couple stores along the way - some have cups, but no spoons or bowls. As I exit the last store, I see my little little brother with a bow & arrow that seems to be so popular among boys here. I ask him what he's doing, and stand by him a bit until he drops the 'toy' and comes home with me. We spend the afternoon picking apples off the tree and playing a bit. At one point he decides to snap off a couple branches from a tree and tries to get me to use it as a sword/javelin/staff (as he's so transfixed with violence and kung-fu) - I pull the brilliant idea from my days of scouting to get my pocket knife (so happy I brought it - very useful) and start whittling like I did with so many-a walking stick back in the day. This sort of blows my brothers mind, and he goes off to find his own 'knife,' a razor, to join me in the yard. After shredding the bark, I try cutting a few designs into the fresh wood - on my second design, the guy who delivered my first bit of mail rides up into the home on a newspaper bicycle.
I got mail! Some piece of language learning from PC, and my ballot (hey, the election's tomorrow, thanks!). He also has news - I have not one, but two packages for you, and they're waiting at my house! I would have gotten them to you earlier, but I was at a party this weekend - I've had them since Friday. So we trek down to his house, and I nab the two rather large boxes. He needs my passport and signature, but we're neighbors (this word looks very strange to me now, having been using the British version for classes...) - he'll do it next time.

Things first travelled to Bishkek, then Talas city, then my rayon center, then to my town (by taxi, or something). All the wrapping was intact, everything was there. Wonderful! In the middle of opening my package, I'm called to eat - twice, because I was so transfixed with the packages. My hand is shaking all throughout dinner, and I down 3 cups of coffee (why are we drinking coffee for dinner?!?); the packages await! I get to a package within the package - a playmobil lego-type box. I think "Uhh... why was this sent?" So I walk into the bedroom across from my own, thinking, "If this is a toy, I'll share it with my sibs." Oops, forgot my knife in the other room - I go get it, and open the box. Inside is a plethora of pens, pencils, post-it notes, all sorts of goodies. I have tons of notebooks - don't think I'll be wanting for paper anytime soon. Shared my skittles with the fam - they seemed to like them.

Some spices (cinnamon & vanilla, wonderful! I get to try my baking hand now), some food items, a down comforter (!! so good), razor & toothpaste (hurray, I can stop cleaning out my disposables for a while), and all sorts of good stuff. It felt like Christmas, and I felt like a kid all over again! Huzzah! Best day I've had in a long time.

Notes on food - don't be shy with sending me anything. Peanut butter. I love it, and here they don't have it. So if there's a spare box lying around, filling the entire thing with peanut butter would be... decadent. Other snacks are great as well. Big bags of candy, boxes of whatever will last, anything. Things that can last a while are much appreciated, i.e. a big bag of something. But most importantly - peanut butter, they don't have it here (and when/where they do it's small, very rare, and sells out lickety split).

My goal is to try and get an inventory of things so I can try to make American food, improvise and perhaps concoct something of my own, and just get a cooking deal going. I could also use some measuring instruments - I have a 1-cup cup that I primarily use for painting (i.e. it's my water cup) and that's about it. I'm going to try getting some stuff when I go to Bishkek, like a pie dish, perhaps a bread pan, things like that. If I'm going to have to eat besh barmak for breakfast, they're going to have to eat the good American stuff! Ha...

This week off is amazing. I get to rest, kids aren't calling out my name and opening the door to the class I'm in, my fam seems a bit more nice now that they have monthly rent and I've shown & shared some of my packages, I get to travel and visit my first host family as well as other volunteers, and I made one volunteer super happy just for showing up to Talas on his birthday (all the partiers seemed to come to near-worship of me for that... odd...). But this is definately the most positive I've been in a while. Packages can make it here! Woo!
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Just took my weekly banya. Refreshing, and revealing. Since I part my hair, and it's usually dry (thus curlier at the ends), I don't have an accurate account of how long it is most of the time. Today I got to see just how long it really is -- halfway down my nose. Now, I believe long hair here is uyat - shameful - but I'm not too concerned about that. What I am concerned about is the hair cutting situation. What with the lack of decent communication skills and very, very scary 80s haircuts people sport here (mullets, freaky fades, hairspray), I'm afraid to chop this monster on top of my head. Every volunteer I've seen that has gotten a haircut has told me, "Yeah, they didn't really get what I was trying to say..." as they're sporting chach joke - no hair. I don't want that, especially since it's getting pretty cold out and I have enough problems getting sick here as is. So I'm presented with a dilema - no vision, or no hair? If only the hairstyles here weren't so... vintage 70s/80s.
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So this morning I get a call from my dad - Obama's in the lead with about 200 electoral votes to McCain's 80. California, Washington, and Oregon (all projected to go to Obama) are still open, and those three alone would push Obama past 270. I remain in contact with a volunteer I know is staking out the results via internet. At about noon or so here, I get the results.
Obama is president! Or, will be in January, when our current slophead gets out. And I thought my week couldn't get any better! Oh wow, what a relief. I can keep my two copies of my ballot as relics from one of the most memorable, intensive, and important elections ever. Amazing! I can come back to the US after done here in Kyrgyzstan! And we can get the blindness out of our highest governmental office. Huzzah! I'm sure many of you are celebrating back in the States, I know my fellow volunteers and myself will be.

Hee hee!