We've been at our permanent sites for almost 3 weeks now and a lot has
happened. Despite my large amount of free time I've neglected doing
too much journaling or blogging. I'll try to do my best and go in
order of what has gone on over the past few weeks but I'm sure I'll
forget something.
My first week was really rough at site. I spent way too much time
sitting in my room, dwelling upon things, and feeling kind of down on
myself. I finally mustered up the energy to get outside and explore
and start running which has been great and helped me out a lot. I
went on a picnic with my counterpart and a lot of our co-wokers my
first weekend at site. I arrived at 8 am at the hospital where I work
because I was told to meet at that time. Amateur mistake, we didn't
leave till a little after 9. We headed to Balakchy, then proceeded to
go shopping in the bazaar for our picnic supplies. After that
we went to a cafe to eat which was confusing to me since we just
bought a ton of food, but I've learned if I try to make sense of a lot
of things here I just end up frustrating myself. After the cafe we
drove out to some gorgeous area along a river and then proceeded to a
security checkpoint. I was confused at where we were going or what we
were doing. After passing through security I found myself starring at
a huge rush of water coming out of a dam. It was very unexpected but
really cool. There was a militsia guy in his full cammo and a nice
sized machine gun guarding the dam. After taking pictures and getting
sprayed with mist we left and went to where we were actually having our
picnic. We chai eeched, ate some bread and fruit, had some shots of
vodka and hung out. We were right next a river and all around people
were at jailo with their yurts set up, making kymys, and vacationing
Kyrgyz style. I was exhausted so I laid down in the car for a nice
nap. I was then abruptly awaken by my counterpart for what reason? Of
course there was a cow floating down the river and I had to see it.
At this point I stayed up and started wishing to be home, I was
exhausted and can only handle so much Kyrgyzstan in one day. We
finally ate dinner at our picnic and got home around 8 pm. Being with
a bunch of middle aged Kyrgyz women for 12 hours in one day with no
break is beyond exhausting!
happened. Despite my large amount of free time I've neglected doing
too much journaling or blogging. I'll try to do my best and go in
order of what has gone on over the past few weeks but I'm sure I'll
forget something.
My first week was really rough at site. I spent way too much time
sitting in my room, dwelling upon things, and feeling kind of down on
myself. I finally mustered up the energy to get outside and explore
and start running which has been great and helped me out a lot. I
went on a picnic with my counterpart and a lot of our co-wokers my
first weekend at site. I arrived at 8 am at the hospital where I work
because I was told to meet at that time. Amateur mistake, we didn't
leave till a little after 9. We headed to Balakchy, then proceeded to
go shopping in the bazaar for our picnic supplies. After that
we went to a cafe to eat which was confusing to me since we just
bought a ton of food, but I've learned if I try to make sense of a lot
of things here I just end up frustrating myself. After the cafe we
drove out to some gorgeous area along a river and then proceeded to a
security checkpoint. I was confused at where we were going or what we
were doing. After passing through security I found myself starring at
a huge rush of water coming out of a dam. It was very unexpected but
really cool. There was a militsia guy in his full cammo and a nice
sized machine gun guarding the dam. After taking pictures and getting
sprayed with mist we left and went to where we were actually having our
picnic. We chai eeched, ate some bread and fruit, had some shots of
vodka and hung out. We were right next a river and all around people
were at jailo with their yurts set up, making kymys, and vacationing
Kyrgyz style. I was exhausted so I laid down in the car for a nice
nap. I was then abruptly awaken by my counterpart for what reason? Of
course there was a cow floating down the river and I had to see it.
At this point I stayed up and started wishing to be home, I was
exhausted and can only handle so much Kyrgyzstan in one day. We
finally ate dinner at our picnic and got home around 8 pm. Being with
a bunch of middle aged Kyrgyz women for 12 hours in one day with no
break is beyond exhausting!
 |
| A dam thing |
 |
| My counter part in the middle, co-workers, and out driver. |
 |
| The cow on its way out of the water. |
The following week things started to become more normal. I'd go into
work at 9am and shadow my counterpart and attempt to talk with her and
her patients. From 10 till 12 I'd work on language with my tutor
Gulzada. It's nice to have 1 on 1 time to work on language, but her
English is not that great, so at times it is very challenging to get my
point across or figure out what I'm trying to ask. It was a rough
week though. I was really struggling with feeling lonely and confined
myself to my room. It was hard to find motivation to do much else.
In my old village I'd go out and play and talk with the kids, help my
family out with chores, or go play some volleyball or soccer. Now i
was being a sloth and sitting in my room. NOT GOOD. I finally was
ready to get out and do something but then we had 2 cold rainy days.
One day it got really cold, really close to freezing and we even got a
little snow in the hills to the South of my village. About an hour
away some other volunteers got snow from the storm. The next day I
was being a bum and finally was sick of it. It was cold and grey out
but I had to get out and do something. I threw on some long
underwear, grabbed a beanie, my go pro, and headed towards the hills.
I started running and kept going. I saw some snow up on the hills and
decided that's what I was going for. After about an hour and a half
of jogging and walking I found snow. It only made sense to me to make
a little snowman. After that I headed back down because more clouds
and weather were moving in and the temperature was dropping. On my
way back my site mate called me because he was at my house. I felt
bad because I wasn't there and even though he was only 4 km down the
road I had yet to see him for more than 5 minutes. He ended up having
an interesting day and more interesting evening. He got in a car
wreck later that day due to his counterpart being irresponsible. As a
result he had to get a site change which is great for him, but now I'm
even more alone, 45 minutes and an 80 som mushrutka ride from the next
closest volunteer. At this point I was feeling really down and
lonely.
work at 9am and shadow my counterpart and attempt to talk with her and
her patients. From 10 till 12 I'd work on language with my tutor
Gulzada. It's nice to have 1 on 1 time to work on language, but her
English is not that great, so at times it is very challenging to get my
point across or figure out what I'm trying to ask. It was a rough
week though. I was really struggling with feeling lonely and confined
myself to my room. It was hard to find motivation to do much else.
In my old village I'd go out and play and talk with the kids, help my
family out with chores, or go play some volleyball or soccer. Now i
was being a sloth and sitting in my room. NOT GOOD. I finally was
ready to get out and do something but then we had 2 cold rainy days.
One day it got really cold, really close to freezing and we even got a
little snow in the hills to the South of my village. About an hour
away some other volunteers got snow from the storm. The next day I
was being a bum and finally was sick of it. It was cold and grey out
but I had to get out and do something. I threw on some long
underwear, grabbed a beanie, my go pro, and headed towards the hills.
I started running and kept going. I saw some snow up on the hills and
decided that's what I was going for. After about an hour and a half
of jogging and walking I found snow. It only made sense to me to make
a little snowman. After that I headed back down because more clouds
and weather were moving in and the temperature was dropping. On my
way back my site mate called me because he was at my house. I felt
bad because I wasn't there and even though he was only 4 km down the
road I had yet to see him for more than 5 minutes. He ended up having
an interesting day and more interesting evening. He got in a car
wreck later that day due to his counterpart being irresponsible. As a
result he had to get a site change which is great for him, but now I'm
even more alone, 45 minutes and an 80 som mushrutka ride from the next
closest volunteer. At this point I was feeling really down and
lonely.
 |
| A snowman in June. |
The weather finally improved and I got outside exploring and running
more often which has been great. It keeps my mind clear and gives me
a chance to do something for myself. I can't help but find it weird
that getting outside and exploring the hills on my own for 4 or 5
hours helps me not feel lonely and isolated yet when I do that I'm
further away from anybody and do not see any one for hours! I was
very ready for the weekend once it arrived. I hopped on the Mushrutka
early in the morning and headed towards Karakol. From my village it's
about a 4 hour ride to Karakol, and the whole drive is absolutely
gorgeous. It was so nice to arrive in Karakol and finally see other
Americans and be able to think and speak in English! That night we
all hung out at a volunteer's apartment and had taco night and took it
easy. The Tacos were amazing.
The next day I went to another volunteers house for lunch with our
more often which has been great. It keeps my mind clear and gives me
a chance to do something for myself. I can't help but find it weird
that getting outside and exploring the hills on my own for 4 or 5
hours helps me not feel lonely and isolated yet when I do that I'm
further away from anybody and do not see any one for hours! I was
very ready for the weekend once it arrived. I hopped on the Mushrutka
early in the morning and headed towards Karakol. From my village it's
about a 4 hour ride to Karakol, and the whole drive is absolutely
gorgeous. It was so nice to arrive in Karakol and finally see other
Americans and be able to think and speak in English! That night we
all hung out at a volunteer's apartment and had taco night and took it
easy. The Tacos were amazing.
 |
| Tacos in Kyrgyzstan! |
friends and her Kyrgyz family. The hospitality of Kyrgyz people is
amazing and they are so caring. Just the thought of inviting a bunch
of strangers into your house to eat and talk is so foreign and weird at
home in the states... it's sad. Even hitchhiking here is perfectly normal
and fine. You can flag down any random car and pay them a little bit to
bring you an hour or 4 down the road depending on where you are
headed. Along the way you'll talk with them and essentially become friends.
Later that night we ended up going to a bar and having some drinks and catching
up with each other about all of our adventures and stories so far.
When Sunday rolled around I was not ready to go home.
That's past week did not disappoint as far as keeping life exciting.
On Monday things at work finally started looking up. I got to meet
with the health committee. Their job is to produce and distribute
educational material and do health trainings in the village. I will
end up doing a good bit of work with them if not all of my work. They
even go around door to door i the village doing trainings and checking
on health conditions. I got to go around with them on Friday to talk
about hand washing. It was an enlightening experience, mainly to be
welcomed into a bunch of strangers homes and as Kyrgyz hospitality
goes be practically forced to eat some bread and drink some tea or
other Kyrgyz beverage at every house we went to. I'm excited to start
working on such projects when September rolls around. On Tuesday my
brother's daughter was born! This made for a very interesting day.
It started off with our neighbor coming over and bringing a bottle of
vodka which my mom, my self, and a couple of other neighbors split.
We even had some Kymyz (fermented horse milk) to go along with it.
After that we ended up going to the hospital to visit my sis-in-law
and the baby. After the visit we stopped at a magazine (convenience
store) and bought a big bottle of beer. We all split that back in the
car sitting out front of the hospital. Oh Kyrgyzstan! Once we got
back home my brother and I went out to meet up with his friends at the
billiards hall. After playing billiards for an hour we headed to his
friend's house to grill some shashlek (shish kabob) and continue the
celebration. We got home around 3 am and fortunately I didn't have to
go to work the next day.
I also finally hiked all the way to the lake
this week. It was a beautiful hike and when I got to the beach I was
the only one there (there is nothing around so no one goes to this
part of the beach) and I had my own little slice of Kyrgyz paradise
for the afternoon. The water is still a bit chilly but as it warms up
I definitely plan on heading out there more often.
up with each other about all of our adventures and stories so far.
When Sunday rolled around I was not ready to go home.
 |
| The Village health committee doing hand washing demonstrations |
On Monday things at work finally started looking up. I got to meet
with the health committee. Their job is to produce and distribute
educational material and do health trainings in the village. I will
end up doing a good bit of work with them if not all of my work. They
even go around door to door i the village doing trainings and checking
on health conditions. I got to go around with them on Friday to talk
about hand washing. It was an enlightening experience, mainly to be
welcomed into a bunch of strangers homes and as Kyrgyz hospitality
goes be practically forced to eat some bread and drink some tea or
other Kyrgyz beverage at every house we went to. I'm excited to start
working on such projects when September rolls around. On Tuesday my
brother's daughter was born! This made for a very interesting day.
It started off with our neighbor coming over and bringing a bottle of
vodka which my mom, my self, and a couple of other neighbors split.
We even had some Kymyz (fermented horse milk) to go along with it.
After that we ended up going to the hospital to visit my sis-in-law
and the baby. After the visit we stopped at a magazine (convenience
store) and bought a big bottle of beer. We all split that back in the
car sitting out front of the hospital. Oh Kyrgyzstan! Once we got
back home my brother and I went out to meet up with his friends at the
billiards hall. After playing billiards for an hour we headed to his
friend's house to grill some shashlek (shish kabob) and continue the
celebration. We got home around 3 am and fortunately I didn't have to
go to work the next day.
 |
| My newborn Kyrgyz niece, Syakal |
this week. It was a beautiful hike and when I got to the beach I was
the only one there (there is nothing around so no one goes to this
part of the beach) and I had my own little slice of Kyrgyz paradise
for the afternoon. The water is still a bit chilly but as it warms up
I definitely plan on heading out there more often.
 |
| My own slice of Kyrgyz paradise |
Today (Saturday) was also very interesting. I went to my friend's place on Friday to
hangout and was planning not to come home until Sunday, but they got
sick this morning so I headed back to my village just in time to
witness my first sheep slaughtering. It was both fascinating and
disturbing. Before the slaughter we all say a prayer and then the
women leave and the men slaughter (or watch) and butcher the sheep.
It's a very quick and efficient process and nothing goes to waste.
All of the organs are cleaned and used. All of the meat is eaten.
The head and feet are blowtorched and also eaten. No part of the
animal goes to waste. The hide will be sold or used. Every organ is
eaten and every bit of fat and meat is eaten. I tried some tongue,
brain and eye tonight at dinner. The eye was surprising tasty, the
tongue had a little bit of an irony organ taste to it, and the brain
was disgusting. It had the weirdest mushy slimy texture and taste
downright nasty. Intestines do taste worse in my opinion though.
Overall it has been a good week full of excitement and new
experiences. This upcoming week I'll only be at site for 2 days then
most of the volunteers are converging in Bishkek to have a good old
fashioned 4th of July party that we are making last all week.
hangout and was planning not to come home until Sunday, but they got
sick this morning so I headed back to my village just in time to
witness my first sheep slaughtering. It was both fascinating and
disturbing. Before the slaughter we all say a prayer and then the
women leave and the men slaughter (or watch) and butcher the sheep.
It's a very quick and efficient process and nothing goes to waste.
All of the organs are cleaned and used. All of the meat is eaten.
The head and feet are blowtorched and also eaten. No part of the
animal goes to waste. The hide will be sold or used. Every organ is
eaten and every bit of fat and meat is eaten. I tried some tongue,
brain and eye tonight at dinner. The eye was surprising tasty, the
tongue had a little bit of an irony organ taste to it, and the brain
was disgusting. It had the weirdest mushy slimy texture and taste
downright nasty. Intestines do taste worse in my opinion though.
Overall it has been a good week full of excitement and new
experiences. This upcoming week I'll only be at site for 2 days then
most of the volunteers are converging in Bishkek to have a good old
fashioned 4th of July party that we are making last all week.
 |
| It's not pretty, but you have to eat. |
 |
| Cleaning out the organs |
 |
| I'm not sure why, but you blow torch the head and feet. It's a nasty smell... |
 |
| My Apa cleaning and preparing the organs |
 |
| Dinner! |
 |
| Yum brains in a bowl |
Things are definitely still very challenging here, and the loneliness
is difficult, but as everything else has been looking up that too has
not been as challenging. July is looking up to be a fun month with
4th of July, my Birthday, I'm working a girls camp, and then going on a 4 day
backpacking trip near Karakol with a few other volunteers.
