A New Hope!

Yesterday I went out with my PC program manager to potential sites in my rayon. The next group of volunteers arrives in late March, and will be settling in at their sites in June. It was one of my more productive and insightful days here, I must say. It was interesting going to potential homes and schools, asking questions, giving a bit of an interview, and just overall seeing how things start out with site selections. I hope to go back again and see these said sites -- especially since you can't really get an effective assessment from one prerendered visit. But if I can do what I can to help set up a comfortable environment for a newcoming volunteer, then I think I'll have done something worthwhile.
In Kyrgyzstan people still celebrate the "Defenders of the Homeland" holiday which started up in 1918 (I believe) with the Soviets. Today it's more of a boy's/man's holiday, but it's still interesting that it continues to be celebrated. It's on the 23rd of February (ugh... classroom habit makes me unable to write February 23rd). Honestly I consider every day, except the 8th of March, to be boy/man holiday here what with how the women are constantly doing a good deal of the work. Anyway, I got to participate in a little show put on by the 11th grade girls -- played a game with another agai (male teacher) where I say an English word, he has to repeat, he says a Russian word, I have to repeat. Was fun! I got a picture frame out of it too.
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Random thought for the day: my toothpaste tastes better than the food here. Good incentive for brushing, not so much so for eating.
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After talking with my father and getting a letter from my brother, I never realized that my blog was so... read, or anticipated. I always think I just ramble on and spend a lot of time blowing wind, which is one reason why I'm trying to condense my more recent updates. Part of that, I suppose, is because I don't get a whole lot of feedback. Surprised and shocked, that was my reaction. I thought people were busy with their own affairs. Sometimes it's nice being proven wrong.
The 23rd has come and gone, the holiday "celebrated," I suppose. My friend Dan came back from his trip to southern KY and needed a place to crash, so he spent the night this past Sunday. We got to celebrate man day together! Well, what there was of it, that is. Turns out it's really just guys sitting around getting gifts from girls. My family gave both Dan and I gifts -- it's actually pretty funny. They got us both towels, and they didn't look at them (entirely) before they bought them. Initially my fam thought it was just palm trees and maybe a beach. But, lo and behold, once unfolded and the entire picture is unveiled, there's a rather sensuous depiction (albeit all in shadow) of a man and a women, both well endowed, in a rather provocative embrace. It's nothing outright naughty, but it's definately something they wouldn't have bought if they had realized what was on the towel. Nevertheless, we had a right good ten minute laughfest over the gift -- I particularly enjoy my quip of "For what purpose?" (in Kyrgyz) when my friend said he'd take the towel with him to the banya.
Yesterday I went to a fellow volunteer's camp, the volunteer who lives closest to me. She's holding this camp to educate locals (in this case, all local girls) about health -- particularly HIV/AIDs, STDs, all that kind of stuff. It was interesting going, if for nothing else than a change of pace. It was also good being able to see a volunteer from Naryn who I don't really get to see all that often. It was just fun being able to work with other volunteers, knowing that ideas would be understood, being able to joke around, and laugh at something other than my own stupidity. Also it seems like an effective seminar -- I'm not really all that up-to-date with health knowledge and all that, but the issues covered are becoming increasingly troublesome in Central Asia.
Right now I should be at my morning classes, but I didn't go today. In fact, I won't be going to those classes any more. I'm going to stop working with my one counterpart, save myself from some early grey hairs and eye rings, and stop trying to push mountains. It's a liberating feeling; I just hope this doesn't affect me too negatively if at all in other regards, particularly with work. That, and my problem of not being able to get out of bed in the morning will be solved -- all my classes with my other counterpart are in the afternoon.
This weekend I'm planning on doing a few things. First I'm heading into the city to help my friend Michael move into an apartment he managed to find. In a way I'm a bit jealous... living with a family is ok, but I dunno, the American in me, particularly after living by myself for the greater part of 2007 and 2008, just wants to be independent and self-reliant. Anyway, I'm also trying to meet up with a student from my village and find her a nice volunteer tutor -- she made it to the national olympiad competition for English (she speaks very well, and has a good knowledge of English) and wants all the help she can get... she studies in the city, though, so I can only help her on weekends. After that, I'm trying to see if I can go to Taraz. Taraz is (from what I've heard) a nice city, comparable to Bishkek, very clean, has stores, businesses, people -- basically a lot going for it. It's in Kazakhstan though, so I have to see if I'm elligible to go. Right now my program manager should be (fingers crossed) finding out if I'm within range to go on weekend travel -- all Talas volunteers within a certain distance from the Kazakh border can take 1 or 2 weekend travel days a month and visit Taraz. The closest volunteer to me can, so I'm hoping I can as well. It's sticky, though -- I'm the farthest away from the border before you get to the city volunteers. We all have visas, it's just a matter of how PC policy works in this regard. If worst comes to worst, I'll have to take an annual leave day to visit, while my friends five minutes away can simply take a weekend day.
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So the worst case scenario with Taraz travel happened (worst of the two options, that is) -- my manager said I live 60 kilometers (take that, British kilometre!) away from the border and that's not going to cut it for the 35 km restriction. It's aggrivating, especially seeing the health volunteer program manager willing to go to bat and say the volunteer next door can go, give or take a couple km's. I feel let down... I'm the only volunteer west of Talas city that can't go to Taraz without taking a vacation day. It's also indicative of how my PM doesn't try to help out unless we rake some muck, and unfortunately I'm the volunteer least likely to kick and scream.
On another note, I finally dropped the ball and am no longer working mornings with counterpart B. Instead I'll be sticking with my afternoon classes, teaching in tandum with the good counterpart. It's a relief. I feel bad for the kids who have to put up with B's constant yelling and condescending remarks, but having got nixed in favor of a very flawed, printed-in-Moscow British English book, it's a decision I can live with. What I can take from this: be there for the next group of volunteers, willing to work out problematic work situations, give advice, and make sure that they're working only with one person, the official counterpart, at reasonable hours and decent working situations. I could go on about how I wished someone came out to help me in such a manner, like seemingly all the volunteers (save a few misfits like myself and Michael) in the oblast received, but it's just air at this point. Lessons learned, experience gained, time to move on.
So it's settled with the classroom. I'm getting a real fix-me-upper -- essentially just an empty room. It has some crummy desks and chairs, and other falling apart things, but not much in the way of anything truly usable. It's a good thing the PC KY Project Design and Management Workshop (PDM) is being held during the second week of March -- my counterpart and I can learn how to write grants to obtain necessary materials, like said desks, a good blackboard, etc. I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm sure it won't be easy, but if I can get it to be a good classroom (probably the best in school, if all works out) then I'll have something tangible to look at as an accomplishment.
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I've been feeling down the past day and a half, and it's all because of the Taraz situation. I shouldn't really let it get to me, but I have. To me it feels like another link in a chain of things gone wrong or neglected by the 'erudites' of my wonderful employer. It's set my mood to tempermatic, enough so that I've foregone the trip idea and will simply spend a weekend doing other things. Hopefully one of those will be rest, my mind feels about ready to explode.
However, all is not for naught. Today I was showing my host brother pictures from a fortutiously sent 'simple suppers' cookbook and seem to have a green light for making beef stew. That got me into an hour long talk or so in which I fondly recalled my favorites from the States, particularly lasagna (brother asked me if it can be made with ketchup -- blasphemy!!) and seafood - lobster (all-time favorite), chowdah, scallops, shrimp, haddock, sushi... I hate the buggers when they're in water, but when on a plate it's daaaaamdooo (tasty -- Kyrgyz, but less aaa and ooo). If I can find a place to buy milk I think I'll be in business. Also I need to work on a ricotta cheese replacement... I think my 'Eating Well in Kyrgyzstan' cookbook has a recipe.
After this week it's ever-so-apparant that I'm in need of a vacation of some sort. I can feel it in my eyes. My friend Michael has been talking about a trip to Turkey (Istanbul) in June, and some other volunteers are talking about different things as well (such as a bus trip to Moscow). I really want to start looking into something because the headaches just seem to compound and I just need something nice. Istanbul would be interesting I think, especially for the (minor) history buff in me. I need to get an account of costs, times, feasibilities, options, and all that. We shall see...