Well, I’ve been living in Станция Ивановка (Ivanovka Station) now for about a week and am still having a blast! My Kyrgyz language lessons are coming along quite well when I have my books in front of me, but when speaking I’m still limited to жакшы, рахмат, and каечиресиз (good/hello [jakshay], thank you [rakchmat], and sorry [catch-er-isis) but I feel like with the progress I’ve made in my understanding of Kyrgyz grammar the speaking will come along soon enoughJ Ivanovka Station is by far the least scenic of the various PST (pre-service training) stations in the area, but with that said it is still incredibly beautiful! The people here are so warm and friendly and the Kyrgyz mountains that I can see every day I walk to class are so big (honestly they put the Cascades to shame) they take over the sky in front of me even though they’re about 10km away! It’s extremely hot here right now. Every day has averaged about 95+ of dry heat, but there are a few signs that it might be letting up. Last night Kristen’s host mother, or ‘apa’ as we call them all (‘ata’ for host fathers) invited my apa and me over for “guesting” at her place. Guesting basically means you’re treated like a king with more food than you can possibly eat forced upon you and more vodka served than you thought humanely (yes, humanely) possible; then about mid-way though our four hour guesting it rained. Granted, it rained for about 20 seconds but there hasn’t even been a single cloud in the sky since I’ve been here so hopefully the weather will be cooling down a bit soon.
PST is coming along well…though I can’t wait to be done with it and it’s only the second week. They do too much hand-holding for my taste. Those of you that know me know that I am by nature extremely independent (too much so, according to my mother) and being required to dress a certain way, do certain things and have permission for everything is tiresome to say the least. But, I was speaking to a K-14 (I’m K-16) who’s service is up in September about it and he said that once I’m placed at my permanent site not only does the hand-holding stop but they pretty much leave you alone altogether…just 10 more weeks…just 10 more weeks…
I know I mentioned something similar in my last blog posting, but I am still surprised at how adjusted to this I already feel. I know that I’m still experiencing the ‘high’ that comes with travel and living in another culture—I experienced the same thing when I studied abroad in Perugia, Italy, and I know this will be followed by a ‘down-turn’ so to speak. However, after working in a law firm for the past 2 ½ years, and for 8 years before that being so focused on “the future”, finally being thrust into a situation where I’m literally living day-to-day with nothing to concern me except day-to-day activities is incredibly liberating! When I was working at Williams Kastner I was constantly reminded of what day it was, what time it was, and what I had to get done by when. Not that it was necessarily a ‘bad’ thing, but I feel that my daily personal life was sacrificed at the expense of a generous pay check. Now, I’ve decided to sacrifice the generous pay check for the ability to live my personal life day-to-day…not a bad deal, in my opinionJ
Kyrgyzstan is amazing. I’m reminded of that fact every single day I’ve been here. The weather is great (though too hot right now), the people are beautiful, the scenery is gorgeous and the food is amazing! Also, outhouses are not nearly as bad as I feared, and already everyone in my group is becoming somewhat of an outhouse connoisseur. For instance, mine has a wobbly board on the left and is just a big hole, whereas Jonathan’s is brand new, has solid footing and a very nice discrete hole. Though Kristen’s is not as nice as mine she at least has a door that closes properly, and Jenna’s has more open air at the top. I think I definitely drew the short straw with my outhouse, but even still it’s really no different than squatting in the woods. I think that when I’m done with this I’m going to write a definitive piece of literature on the topic of outhousesJ Also, the sun-shower is still the most amazing part of this whole experience. Showering outside is incredible, and with the sun on your face it’s almost heavenly…honestly, if you can get away with it, I sincerely recommend trying it!
My host family is awesome! It’s me, Apa, Erchayim (she’s 22), Tonya (she’s 20) and Adi (he’s 17). On Sunday I helped Adi with some yard work, and then we drove his motorcycle with side-cart up to the water-pump station to fill up three giant jugs of water for use at home. Unfortunately they don’t have running water in Ivanovka so we have to get it from a pump about 4 miles away…but that just means I get to ride on the back of a motorcycle that was probably built in the 1950’s, whipping around turns with a side-cart that’s always threatening to tip us over, while holding on to my host brother who’s ultimately only trying to show off how fast he can go without killing both of us. I love the Peace CorpsJ
Also, the beer here is phenomenal! They don’t have the same quality control that America has, so they can get away with so much more! For instance, they’ve got this beer called “Baltica” that ranges from #1 - #11…#1 is practically non-alcoholic, while #11 will knock your teeth out (it’s roughly 17%)! After much experimentation with Jonathan and Joe (yeah, Jonathan, Joe and James…it’s a sitcom waiting to happen) we’ve concluded that Baltica 8 is the best and actually better tasting than ANY major American brand. They’ve also got this beer called Piva, that’s about 5% but comes in a 2 liter plastic bottle (that’s about four beers in one) and only costs 53c (Som) which is roughly $1.25…Baltica 8 is 35c which is about $1 for a 22oz. glass bottle. The vodka is amazing too. I was really worried about it before I got here because I’ve never really liked vodka, but what they’ve got here is amazing! Take the top shelf Vodka in any American bar and you’ll likely get something that would be considered mid to low range here. Seriously, I’m completely convertedJ
That basically sums up what I’ve got going on right now. Today is “HUB” day, which means ALL the Peace Corps trainees get together in Kant (in Kyrgyz it’s pronounced ‘cunt’…I think I have way too much fun with that oneJ) for medical and technical training. HUB days are every Wednesday in Kant (ha ha ha) and it’s really just a great excuse to see everyone again. All 62 of us got really close during Staging in Philadelphia and Orientation in Bishkek, so now that we’re in our smaller groups (about 5-8 people per location) everyone really misses everyone else. I can already tell that HUB days are probably what I’m going to be looking forward to the most during these next 10 weeks.
That’s it for now…again, I’m actually paying to use the internet so I’ve got to keep this short and sweet. Rest assured o loyal reader, more stories are yet to comeJ
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2 comments:
What kind of businesses do they have there? Is it all market vendors or are there real stores some places... and are they all outdated? or do they have like.. mcdonalds and stuff?
Thanks for the update. I don't know if you remember, but when I was crashing at your place in Capitol Hill I brought home some Baltica from the QFC up there. I think it was the 4 and 9. Do people smoke Pine cigarettes there? Anyways, good to hear from you. I'm enjoying your stories. Tell Adi to simma!
Barry
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