We are Forty

Whoa, down to a month!  I received my flight and staging info on Friday the 15th, which made me really realize how close my departure really is.  I'll be flying to Philadelphia on the morning of April 16th for staging.  The next morning we will bus to JFK airport in New York to fly to Frankfurt, Germany, then to Istanbul, Turkey, and finally arriving in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan at 3 am on the morning of the 19th.  It will be quite a long day of traveling, but for going about 8,000 miles around the world it is not that bad!

When I first read my invitation to Kyrgyzstan I proceeded to google it since I, along with many others if not most people, had no real idea where this little Central Asian country was.  Since then I've began learning a bit about this country's history, culture, demographics, and language.  Kyrgyzstan is roughly the size of Nebraska and is about 80% mountainous covered by the Tian Shan mt. range.  The name Kyrgyzstan is thought to have to derived from the Turkic word for "40."  This is in reference to the 40 clans of Manas, a hero in Kyrgyzstan who is believed to have united the 40 clans to defeat the Uyghers.  Kyrgyz would literally be translated to mean "we are forty."  The state of Kyrgyzstan was first established in 1924, it became part of the USSR in 1936, and gained its independence from the Soviet Union on August 31, 1991.  Kyrgyzstan's estimated population is about 5.5 million with 70% of that population being ethnic Kyrgyz, 15% being Uzbek, 9% Russian, and the remaining a variety of different ethnicities.  The vast majority of the population speaks Krygyz, a Turkic based language that uses the Cyrillic, and about 10% of the population speaks Russian.  The part I'm most afraid/worried about is the food. I'm in no means a picky eater, but organs, eyes, heads etc... really do not appeal to me!  In our Facebook group someone  asked what the food is like and some of the responses from volunteers currently there include "honestly, the food is not very good," "If you don't mind eating sheep meat, fat, and potatoes then you'll survive just fine but having a well balanced diet in the village is a challenge," "Most days of the week food is soup with combinations of rice, cabbage, potatoes, noodles, sheep meat and fat and maybe some onions or garlic. Or, plov (all it is is rice with carrots, sheep meat and plenty of oil), or just cold sheep leg and bread. Now, that's probably what you'll be eating if you let your host family do all the cooking."  These descriptions don't sound that bad I'm just dreadfully excited for the day I'm the guest of honor since as tradition goes you are given the head of a sheep and expected to eat parts of it!  It is going to be a culinary adventure for sure!!!  

A Past Peace Corps Volunteer's Photo from Kyrgyzstan

Victory!

Woohoo!  That was a pain but it's done now.  My chest X ray came back negative for active TB so I now have 270 days of taking isoniazid...  I ended up having to get a more recent bitewing X ray from the dentist too, but the people at the UF dentistry school are awesome and when I went in they just did it for me under the counter, I was in and out with no fees!  

Bagels, Prodeals Dr.s Appoitments, and Tuberculosis

Bagels:
Over the course of the last month and half not too much has gone on.  I've been working at a convenience store on the University of Florida campus, which is where the bagels come in.  Overall it's a decent job!  It allows me to stay in Gainesville, spend money on things I'm justifying that I need for Kyrgyzstan and even save a little bit.  Essentially I brew coffee, wipe off counters, scoop cream cheese into little cups (the 2nd worst part of the job) and order bagels and other convenience store goods.  I technically am a supervisor also, but I only supervise myself...  By far the worst part of the job is having to be there at 7:30 am everyday which means leaving my apartment at 6:50 am every morning (the worst part of the job).  It stinks being surrounded by everyone else having fun at night but I'm always in bed by 10 pm at the latest!  I know it is more like the real world, but being half in the real world while still being surrounded by the college world is rough!  Overall it's a good job and it's giving me the luxury to afford things that I need and want.  I just finished reading a book titled Vagabonding:An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.  While setting out for
 the Peace is not "Vagabonding" in its true sense I found a lot of the advice in the book to be very practical in setting out for the Peace Corps.  One section discusses working not in order to justify your travels but travel to justify your work.  So while I'm selling bagels at 8 am in the morning I just think of how all these early mornings have paid off with my time spent in Gainesville, with Allison and my friends, and how the early mornings will pay off with my future travels that the Peace Corps will allow me to take part in.

Prodeals:
I've always hated shopping unless it was for outdoorsy related things.  A lot of the big names in the outdoor industry offer prodeals (discounts for the 'Pros').  Fortunately as a Peace Corps volunteer I get the honor of being considered a Pro by many of these companies.  They tend to give about 40% off of suggested retail price!  While I haven't gone to crazy, I don't need that much stuff, I have been able to save some money on some new boots and dress shoes from Merrell, some shirts, shorts and pants from Columbia, and my biggest expense a GoPro.  I was able to save $120!!!  While I did not need this it is fun, and I know I will make great use of it overseas.  Along with spending my well earned money on things that I don't really need I've also been trying some new things at home just because I can!  I bought a flat of strawberries and made homemade Jam, it's delicious.  For valentines day instead of going out for some romantic dinner I bought the supplies and Allison and I made Sushi.  While it wasn't the best Sushi I've ever had it was a lot more fun than going out to eat!  At this point I've got most of everything that I'll be needing for Kyrgyzstan so I'm done spending money and starting to save for the future adventures.

SUSHI

Dr.s Appointments:
The Peace Corps medical process is a royal pain in the a**.  Fortunately I had an easy application process so I guess this is Karma catching back up with me.  So far I've been to three Dr.s offices, had blood work done twice, two tuberculosis (TB) tests, and an X-ray.  The good news is I'm healthy and everything is pretty much normal except for my positive TB tests... 

Tuberculosis:
No need to freak out I don't have active TB!!!  (I hope)  I had a positive ppd TB skin test so the Peace Corps nurse wanted me to get a second test that is more accurate, so I had to go get blood taken a second time for the quantiferon gold TB test.  No luck in getting a false positive on the ppd, the gold TB test was positive also.  I'm not coughing up blood or have any TB symptoms so chances are I don't have active TB.  I got a chest X-ray taken today so I'll found out for sure in the next day or so!  What this means is I more than likely have latent TB.  Essentially at some point in my life I was exposed to the  TB bacteria and it is inside of me.  I'm assuming my contact probably happened while I was studying abroad in Ethiopia, but there is no way to know for sure.  Normally nothing else would happen and you would continue living life normally since there is only a small chance of developing active TB.  However, not with the Peace Corps.  They require anyone with latent TB to receive treatment.  Treatment consists of either a 4 or 9 month long prescription of medication to be taken daily.  While this is not the end of the world it's a pain and delaying me from being medically cleared since I must prove to the Peace Corps that I have initiated treatment.  Hopefully this will have happened before the end of the week so I can check one more thing off the pre-departure list!

All in all I'm happy with the way everything has been going.  There are stressful days of dealing with Peace Corps paperwork, there are amazing days hanging out with friends and enjoying the nightlife of Gainesville, and bittersweet memories of Valentine's day an other memorable moments with Allison that I cherish, but know that all too soon those moments will turn into phone calls and emails.  Spring break is right around the corner and my whole family including my niece, my sister's BF and Allison are off to Colorado for a week of skiing in the Mountains!  I can't wait!

"That is the charm of a map.  It represents the other side of the horizon where everything is possible." -Rosita Forbes, From Red Sea to Blue Nile

In the Beginning

Wow I don't leave for another 3 months but I feel like I already have so much to say.  I guess I'll start with my timeline of the Peace Corps application. 

I submitted my application on October 11
Interview with recruiter on October 25th
Received nomination on October 26th
Received invitation on December 19th
Accepted invitation on December 23rd
I leave April 16th for staging

Normally you hear all about how long and tedious the application is, which it is, but I got lucky.  From the day I submitted my application till when I leave will be just 6 months!  The average is 9-12 months and most people complain all about the long waiting periods.  So I happened to have a positive application process and I feel like I'm in the minority, but I'm okay with that!  My good friend Nora submitted her application after she graduated last spring and I'll even be leaving a couple of weeks before her! 

I received my invitation while I was on a cruise with my wonderful girlfriend Allison.  I hadn't checked my email in a few days and I was expecting my invitation soon since I had just received the email asking for an updated resume and some additional information.  From talking with other applicants I knew this meant the invitation was near!  We were in Costa Maya Mexico on December 20th the day before the end of the world.  We had just gotten back from the Chacchoben ruins and were relaxing on the beautiful beach sipping on some piña coladas.  The restaurant had free WiFi and Allison let me check my email on her phone and my invitation was there!  I did not want to spend a lot of time reading over everything while on vacation so I quickly found where I was headed.  The Kyrgyz Republic aka Kyrgyzstan was going to be my new home for 27 months.  My initial response was WTF along with excitement!  The Peace Corps has a knack for throwing unexpected things at you and this was one of them.  My educational experience along with my study abroad experience all aimed me for Sub-Saharan Africa, but nope Central Asia it would be!  Nora also had a similar experience with everything aiming her towards Central or South America, but nope she's going to Georgia.  I did a quick google search to figure out exactly where Kyrgyzstan was and to make sure it was not where Borat was from!  While initially Kyrgyzstan was a shocker the more I have read and researched the more excited I am.  It looks like such a beautiful country, the people are supposed to be incredibly hospitable, and it gets cold!  I love all three of those things.  More to come about the country in the near future.

Chacchoben Ruins

The application process was fun and I'm happy a lot of the uncertainty is gone.  There is still plenty more of it to come though.  Now I get to focus on living my life here in Gainesville and making the most of my remaining time here with my friends, family, and especially Allison.