My new Hobby

Date: 12/23/08

I have a new hobby. Yes, that’s right ladies and gentlemen. After three months of brainstorming possible ways to entertain myself this summer, an idea fell from the sky and landed under my feet. It is such a perfect fit that I cannot believe I had not thought of it sooner. Are you ready to hear what it is? Brace yourselves! I am learning to ice skate. 

I mean, I thought I had come up with every possible solution. I was going to become a fashion designer and create a whole summer collection. I was going to relearn the piano or maybe even give the guitar a try. I had put pen to paper to practice writing, note I did not say spelling. Sorry guys, I feel like that mountain is just too giant to attempt to climb while in Kyrgyzstan.  

Now, I do not mean to get your hopes up. I am not going to be the next Oksana Biule. In fact, I do know if I will ever even see the inside of a skating rink. 

The other day it began to snow again. Naturally, I was super psyched to wake up and the white fluffy powder floating from the sky. Then I was bitterly upset to walk in the inch on sludge on the road. Little did I know that sludge would soon become my friend. 

You see, Kyrgyzstan is a tad bit different than America. For instance, in America we have these wonderful machines called snowplows. I mean I have never seen one in person but whenever the news shows footage of life up north, there are machines scooping snow off the road. In Kyrgyzstan, only the main roads are snow free. In fact, I have learned that you can tell how many cars drive on the road based on how early in the day you can see the cement. The more cars drive on the snow the more it melts away or swept to the side of the road. 

I almost feel sorry for the snow on the major roads. I mean at least on all of the other streets the sun is not instant death. The snow starts to melt a little and then the cars smash it into its snow friends. All these snow friends refreeze together into giant sheets of ice friends. It is like natures prank on mankind. “I see you humanoid. You think you want to play in snow. Ha Ha! I am not snow. I am snow’s evil twin, Iceman.” Lesson learned: Just because something LOOKS like snow does not mean it is snow. 

I have learned a great deal about different types of ice in the past week. Here, most ice looks like snow or at least that is the mistake I made a few days ago. Now I’m an expert at spotting the difference. How did I become such an expert? I got to walk over a mile to work one day, the day after a “heavy” snowfall. Primarily there are two different types of ice. One looks like snow. The other is so transparent you can see the cement through it and consequently, do not often spot it before you step on it. 

My favorite are the hills on the road. I never noticed how bumpy, uneven, downright hilly our streets are until the ice came. It is like learning to drive a standard all over again. You see that three-inch rise in the pavement and the heart starts racing a little faster. You begin to strategize. “Well, if I walk a little more to that side I can put at least one foot in the snow and that should help me brace myself.” But as some scientist proved long ago, whatever goes up must come back down. Going downhill is the worst; falling is almost guaranteed. It gives me flashbacks to my driving lessons. Only, instead of screaming, “Oh no, please don’t stall. Please just don’t stall,” to myself, I have a broken record whimpering, “Please don’t fall. Oh please just don’t fall.” Of course, once it’s all over I allow myself a silent sigh of relief. 

In Texas, and I assume the rest of the United States, we put salt (or sand) on the road. In Kyrgyzstan, they use coal ashes. By they I mean the train station. I have to cross the train tracks on my way home everyday. I was incredibly worried about this because crossing the tracks includes walking down a two-foot high ramp. Needless to say, I have great appreciation for the ingenuous use of coal ash. 

Thankfully, I have not completely whipped out yet (knock on wood). I’ve come very close but like all true professional ice skaters, I manage to save myself at the last minute when all hope seems lost. Plus, I learned to never leave home without my Peace Corps issues glow-in-the-dark neon green Yak Trax. 

Work Update:
Since I now have my computer, I might actually manage to write these blogs a bit more regularly unless we loose the electricity needed to power the computer. Right now we are preparing for IST, which is the week of training that takes place in January (3 months after you get to site). I will be co-giving a lecture on effective communication. In February, fellow Chui Oblast volunteers, Bridgette, Francis and myself, will be putting on Winter Camps. We will be doing Life Skills and HIV/AIDS training. Since we just had our camp training last week, we are still planning the details of the camp. Also, I have started an English conversation club with a few university students. 

World AIDS Day

Date: 12/1/08

I cannot report on everything that is going on in my town let alone country wide today because it would take too much time but...

To give you an update on my work:
Today is World AIDS Day. My counterpart and I hosted a training for the children at our NGO. At first, I did not know how to approach the topic because our children range in age from 8 to 14. Lucky for me, my fearless counterpart already had a book she had prepared with different activities. Last week we planned out the activities for the day; however, since my counterpart speaks Russian a little better than myself, she did all of the talking today.

We had 4 boys and 5 girls show up. Before we did anything, we had the children take a 10 question test about AIDS. My counterpart read fake letters written by a mother and a teenage girl, and explained some facts about AIDS. My director told a personal story about meeting someone who was HIV positive. We played two different games with the children. The first was more of a role play to teach them about how to interact with people who were HIV positive. We had one kid sit in a chair wearing a hat that said “ВИЧ +”. The first three children all reacted poorly to the “HIV positive” child. They said insults or ran away to wash their hands, etc. The last child sat down next to the “HIV positive” child and had a conversation while holding hands. The second game taught the children about how AIDS affects the immune system. Three children attempted to protect the “HIV positive” child from different diseases like tuberculosis, pneumonia, and flu. The “immune system” formed a barricade around the “HIV positive” child and pushed away the different diseases. The “diseases” were trying to tag the “HIV positive” child. At the end, we allowed the children to ask questions and then gave them the same test again to measure what they learned.

Coming up on the work agenda:
Later this week we will have Volunteer’s Day. I have volunteered to help with a cultural training by teaching line dancing and the Texas Two-step to a group of street children/orphans. Right now I am working to set up a TOEFL preparation class and an English conversation hour with various university students. Later I hope to get involved with the dance school in my town. I a working on getting my NGO an anaerobic digester, and I am also looking into research to make the technology more available to Kyrgyzstan. My director and counterpart have asked that I help them learn how to use Powerpoint and other programs on the computer in our office. They also want me to make a film about the organization but this will have to wait until we can find a camera. I am looking into getting balls for the children in our soccer training. Thankfully, work has finally picked up and I am no longer lacking things to do.

Thanksgiving

Date: 11/29/08

At first I was going to describe how, since we did not have Thursday off of work, the volunteers gathered together for a Kyrgyz style pot luck Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. A feast complete with rotisserie chickens, mashed potatoes, hashbrown casserole, carrots, tuna salad, stove-top stuffing from the states, several homemade pumpkin pies, rice pudding, and an apple pie. But as we ate, someone jokingly asked “Is this the time we go around and say what we are thankful for?” We all laughed but it made me think.

I want to say thank you to my friends and family. As I sat there in a room filled with other volunteers, I realized that I have an amazing support system back in the states. I have a family that calls every Sunday morning and sends me anything I can imagine in the mail. I have friends who call almost like clockwork to remind me that I am not forgotten just because I live on the other side of the world. I know that if I ever have a problem over here, I have several people to help talk me through it. I know that I have people back in the states who will do anything they can to help me out. It is an amazing network that is easy to take for granted. Honestly, I don’t think that anyone will ever be able to completely understand how much easier my life is because of their tireless support. So this thanksgiving, I would like to make a very public announcement and tell all of my friends and family that what I am most thankful for is their support. I would not be able to do this work with out you guys. THANK YOU!!!

Let it snow...

Date: 11/9/08

We had our first and second snow fall in my region. I SAW SNOW!!! I know that this may seem like a minor event in the life of an average person but for someone who has never lived farther north than Waco, Texas, snow is a huge ordeal. As in, it was my first time to see snow.

It could not have come at a better time. After a few tough weeks, I had been looking forward to seeing other volunteers that weekend. On Saturday night, walking back to the apartment after dinner the temperature began to drop. It had been raining all day and there is nothing better than being in wet clothes as the temperature drops below freezing. The guys had stopped to run an errand. When they came back, they entered flicking snow off their coats and announced that it had snowed. As intelligent as I am, I jumped up and raced for the balcony forgetting that I was not wearing a coat or socks. They attempted to thwart my excitement by telling me it was too warm and the snow wasn’t sticking to the ground. After the initial shock of watching the snow fall wore off, I realized how cold it was and ran back inside. Since my clothes were drying on the heating pipes,* I crawled inside my mummy sleeping bag and quite literally inched my way back out to the balcony.

The next morning I woke up a littler earlier than the rest of the people. Chris told me that I should look outside. And what did I see? A blanket of white over all of the ground. There was not much snow on the window seal, maybe 2 cm, but I still managed to make a tiny snowball. It is great fun being with people from states like Alaska, Oregon, Connecticut and Vermont when you see snow for the first time. As I am mesmerized by the crunching sound beneath my feet, they keep warning me to watch out for ice. None of the attempts to explain why nearly ankle deep snow is no fun registered with me. On the way to breakfast, Annie made a softball sized snowball for me to throw at Nick. It was a fantastic idea…

…Two days later it snowed again. I came up with a brilliant plan. All the way to work I had been practicing making snowballs but I only had inanimate objects like trees and walls to throw them at. Through a text message, my friend Micah pointed out that “humans make much better targets.” I already had plans to meet my site mate, John, and a volunteer from a nearby village, Serena, later that afternoon. When I got off work 30 minutes early, I called Serena and told her to meet me in the park. I filled a plastic sack with handmade snowballs. Snowballs made by hand without gloves, a mistake I will never again make. I made her hide in the bushes with me and wait for John to show up. The brilliant plan for the surprise attack would have worked better if John had not showed up late, come up the pathway behind us, and if the bag filled with snowballs had not broken when I went to throw one. Nevertheless, it was still an amusing seen to witness.


*note: Buildings in Kyrgyzstan are heated by pipes filled with hot water. And in a land without dryers, these pipes dry clothing with amazing speed.