Learning to Ski

The day started with an overly enthusiastic spirit that made leavingthe apartment at 8 AM absolutely painless. We even woke up earlyenough to cook breakfast. Looking back it was probably more of thegroup effort and the planned breakfast that got me out of bed thatmorning. After all, I was still the last person actually out of thebed that morning. Through the aid of friends, I was loaned a raincoatand pants to put over my own winter coat and jeans. I needed to bewaterproof to play in snow, and having never skied before, I had nogear of my own. Looking like a puffy marshmallow, we left to meet theothers where the taxis were waiting.

We took a beautiful taxi ride through the mountains to a ski lodge. Itwas a short ride but the mountains were covered in massive Christmastrees covered in snow. So the entire experience was like a postcard.

The wait for rental equipment wasn’t too bad for a place that had onlyone person working. I do have to say learning to put on the boots andskis was a slightly frustrating process. I was too worried aboutbreaking the equipment. Luckily there was one other volunteer who hadalso never been skiing before. Two of our friends stayed behind withus to show us how to use the chair lifts, and we thought they teach ushow to ski.

The entire process of the chair lift is absolutely terrifying if youhave never used such a contraption before. First, you have to raiseforward on these seemingly giant slabs of whatever it is that skis aremade from. You have to make sure you are standing in the right spot tosit down when the chair comes. Then you pull some crazy bar down, andmight I add, this bar is incredibly awkwardly placed if you didn’tknow the chair lift isn’t really one giant bench seat. Those lifts donot stay very close to the ground. Oh no, you are high, oh so veryhigh above the earth. It makes this screeching sound as it passesthrough the posts holding the wires making you think that it isbreaking, and as you are so far above the earth, you will of course besmashed into a million pieces. Never fear though, it doesn’t break.Once you’re at the top, you have to get off. It always looks soeffortless in the movies. But there is so much to remember. Skis up,poles up, but don’t forget to stand up… and don’t forget to stopbefore you start going down the mountain.

That’s right. See, while on the chair lift, my seasoned chair liftfriend coached me on getting OFF the chair lift but forgot to mentionwhat to do once I was off. Thus, I slid about 10 feet from the chairlift before managing to stop myself, and by stop I mean every soslowly inch down the mountain in this sideways backwards stance. Theyhollered after me that I needed to make my skis like a pizza slice tostop. I screamed back that only made me go faster. Then I ate snow. Ifell awkwardly enough that my skis actually popped off.

I only fell a few times in that day, all in the beginning. The secondtime I fell is when I skied into 3 feet of powder. When you don’t knowhow to take your skis off, or stand up while wearing them, thissituation takes no less than 30 minutes to remedy. It is like swimmingin snow. There is no bottom to push yourself up against.
People kept screaming at me not to hit the young children learning howto ski. I had no ability to steer myself and was already screamingfrom fear

After reaching the bottom of the mountain for the first time, anotherfriend was waiting there. She taught me how to stop and how to turnside to side. She showed me how to put my weight on the skis. It allbegan to make sense. Skiing is like ice skating but going down amountain.

With each trip up to the top of the bunny hill, the chair lift and theentire act of skiing became less terrifying. By lunch I was eveningsaying that skiing was fun! I told my parents I am never again livingsome place where I cannot go skiing. I am still trying to find a wayto go again. As odd as it sounds, the mountains in Kyrgyzstan are notentirely easy to reach. I am sure there is some easy way to do thisbut I have not figured it out yet.
Anyways, if you have never gone skiing, give it a try. Best adrenalinerush ever. Well white water rafting is still better, but skiing ISTOTALLY AWESOME FUN!!!!!

Old New Year

I think this holiday is quite fun if you know what it is…I, however, did not know.

I was sitting at home one quiet day waiting on my site mate to gethome so I could go visit her. There was a knock at my door. I look outand it is a group of youth. I thought for a minute before I answeredthe door. Ultimately I determined that maybe one of the neighbors hadsent them to tell me something.

I was wrong.

I answered the door and almost immediately these enthusiastic youthbegan singing in Russian and through handfuls of rice at me. I was sostunned it took at least 7 handfuls of rice before I thought to closethe door. I was particularly upset because I had just swept the floor.I crouched by the door holding it closed. They kept knocking. I wouldperiodically stand up to look out of my peephole to see if they werestill there. This was so small task as my peephole is the size of asilver dollar; so, if they were still there, they would be able to seeI was at the door. I took the angle approach. I could stand as faraway and to the side of the peephole as I could as still view out ofit. After what seemed like an eternity, they left.

I went back to the couch utterly confused. I had no idea what I haddone to get rice thrown at me.
I watched out my window as more groups of youth entered the apartmentbuilding and subsequently knocked on my door and that of my neighbor’sbefore ascending the stairs. There was Russian singing heardthroughout the building.

I walked to my site mate’s apartment doing my best to avoid any groupof children that looked like they were holding something. One childrenhollered, “Zdravstvuite!” (a formal hello) and I flinched. Maybe hehad more rice to throw at me.

About this point I started to feel slightly ridiculous and thinksomething was up. I texted a local friend and asked, “Why are hordesof children walking around through rice at people?” She responded,“It’s Old New Year. It is the day that New Year was before we switchedcalendars. It is like your Halloween. You are supposed to give themcandy or fruit. The more rice or wheat or grain they throw at you themore wealth you will have this year.“

About 5 minutes after this, another friend stopped by to wish us ahappy old new year.

I later decided this is a fun, interesting holiday. I was also rather embarrassed by being so frightened of youth throwingrice at me. After all, its just rice.

Long overdue update

Well friends and family, I have put off writing this update as long asI possibly could. I was honestly excruciatingly busy for the months ofSeptember and October. To be honest, when I had spare time, I went tosleep or watched a movie. Then November came. By this point, enoughhad happened here in KG that I got to thinking, writing an update isgoing to take a long period of time. The procrastination dancepromptly began. For the last month or two, I would sit down to writeyou all, get overwhelmed by the task at hand, and run away before Icould ever start. I managed to find every excuse possible to keep fromsitting myself at a computer. Besides, my parents call every week. Soif people really wanted the most up to date news, all they need to dois seek out the ‘rents. See it’s not that I do not love you all andit’s not that I am not extremely grateful for your support. But howdoes one begin an email that is meant to cover 4 months ofawesomeness? This is not a task I could halfheartedly accept …butrather a challenge of life shattering importance set before me to letyou know I have not forgotten you.

Before I start, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas , Happy NewYear, and Happy Valentines day. I have a feeling this year will be aninteresting one. I hope that you are all well and having a good timewith family and friends as you get a break from work and/or school.May this next year be filled with time to relax and truly enjoy life.

So let’s start with a brief timeline:

September:
- My birthday
- Looking for and finding a new apartment
- Starting working with an English Club at a school near my new apartment
- Advanced Community Development Conference

October:
- Moving into my new apartment
- Trip to Osh
- Start teaching conversation clubs at a TOEFL center
- Life Skills Conference (I was a trainer.)
- Handicraft Training at work (I wrote a grant for this back in March.)
- Start doing Talking Club at TOEFL Center in Bishkek
- We got an English speaker at work

November:
- Volunteerism Seminar with UNDP Street Children Program
- Start a dance club for school children
- Thanksgiving presentations at a university
- Thanksgiving!!!

December:
- Volunteerism Seminar at a university
- Training with school children on how to write a questionnaire
- Christmas!!!

January:
- Holiday break
- Conference on how to Write & Manage Projects and how to Work with Volunteers
- Old New Year
- Learn to Ski

February (so far…):
- Writing a grant to do a Training of Trainers with local youth aboutHIV/AIDS prevention

When I first started writing this I thought about giving an update onhow all of those things went. Then I realized that would make anobscenely long email. So I will sum it up: it is all going great!!Honestly, life has been hectic and busy but I am enjoying. I do haveto remind myself to relax a bit and not get overworked. Right now, Iam just anxious to see if our grant gets funded.

No, I have not started to think about what I will do after I am donehere. I am just going to wait a little while longer and see how lifepans out first. I have several ideas about moving to different placesand doing different things but that is as far as I have gotten.

I would like to say that I promise to be better about posting on here.In all honesty, I don’t think I could get much worse after this longhiatus. I think I will manage to get another email to everyone beforeanother 6 months have past. Shootka! (Joke!) But for real, I startedwriting this back in December and I am JUST NOW finishing it.

I wish you all well. Take care!