20:30 18 July 2008
Hub Day was good, though the first group session, appropriately enough about Diarrhea, was held inside a building that was approximately 120 degrees. Ugh. Luckily, they learned their lesson and the next session was held outside. We also received our second round of shots (ouch, they still hurt today, especially the rabies and typhoid) and were informed that we will be taking malarial pills if we are in the South of the country. It was really nice to see all the other trainees from other villages, hear funny stories, hear horror stories, and realize how much we missed each other after knowing one another for six days and then being apart for a week. Intense situations breed quick and lasting friendships.
It’s very interesting being in a village were the chance that anybody can understand your English is a number close to zero. When chatting with other trainees and then speaking our broken Russian to the village residents I understand what it is like to be the outsider in America speaking an unintelligible language. I can only imagine what it would sound like in the reverse. Struggling by in a new and difficult language is interesting, and we must sound like complete imbeciles. “I no eat. I am not wanting to have a sick. Thank you for me eating, it tasty. Thank you, I no want. Thank you, I want no food more.” (This is something to how I can imagine us sounding- ridiculous, no?)
Today we had another cross-cultural training program and learned more about the educational system in Kyrgyzstan and how it differs from America. It is amazing the corruption that exists, and the way that they view cheating differently from America. Because of the way it is set up and the collectivist nature of Kyrgyz culture, it is normal to share answers, help each other, and cheat constantly. Similarly, it is common for students to beg and plead and even bribe teachers to have unfavorable grades changed. We discussed coping strategies for these kind of pressures and discussed why the climate exists in Kyrgyzstan. We aren’t here to change culture, but fostering academic integrity could be a major assistance to the countries educational system (though something fellow PCVs have evidently had extreme difficulties with).
1 comment:
Hi, my name is Rachel Olcheski and I am a senior at The College of William and Mary. A mutual friend, Allison Finklestein, told me about your blog. My fiancee and I are considering joining the Peace Corps and it has been really helpful. I have a few questions, though, and I was wondering if I should just post them here or if I can email you? My email is rlolch@wm.edu, or I will just check back to see if you respond in one of your posts or on a comment page. One question that I will just go ahead and address now is that I noticed you mentioned married couples visiting each other in different villages. Can married couples not live together during training? Spaseebo i do-svidanya (so hard to transliterate Russian).
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