Kyrgyzstache

11:15 23 October 2009

I’m looking to get some feedback on a new look I’ve been rocking recently. I had a goatee for quite some time ad was decided that it was time for a new look a few weeks ago. So I was just going to shave it all off, and started to, but decided just for fun to leave a mustache for the day, with no intent of showing anyone. I forgot about it however and went to the bazaar later that day with my gloriously sheathed upper lip. I got a few strange looks, and was wondering why that was. Of course… it was because I was wearing a mustache. I decided at the very least that I would keep it until Halloween (I make a mean Goose from Top Gun with a pair of aviators and volleyball shorts) and I planned on shocking and disgusting my fellow Peace Corps volunteers. Admittedly, somewhat to my disappointment, I didn’t receive this disgust… While a volunteer or two gave me the reaction I was hoping for, the majority didn’t notice it and some even said that it suits me! So I am now appealing to you, my readership audience to give me the truth, is it ridiculous? Does it actually look good? Should I shave it the morning of Nov. 1? I heard a rumor that mustaches are coming back in style in the States but I’m skeptical of this at best. Anyhow, I would very much appreciate your input! Thanks in advance.

End of Summer Fun

Pictures of how I celebrated my birthday, on the beach of Issyk Kul with the last remnants of summer still lingering in the air- something I wish we still had now. It's getting cold!

Pictures from my Horse trek

Pictures from my August horse trek that I took with Saori. We went to the high pastures (jailos) and even to a glacier! Loads of fun.

Pictures from my Horse trek

Good times!

Svadbar time! (again)

14:30 18 October 2009

This weekend was a lot of fun! I found out that my extended host family (two sisters, brother in law, nieces, and a few cousins) would be in town for a wedding and I was more than pleased to meet with them, I definitely miss having that family element in my life sometimes and it was wonderful to see some of the people I am closest too for a while. Also, the way that I am treated within the family is very much as a sibling… I mentioned last week at the wedding how I felt very much part of the community, well the last two days I have felt very much part of the family. In particular, my host sister Aijan and her cousin Aidai, both of which speak English pretty well are a real riot and fun to hang out with, they are both two years younger than me, but they are really funny girls and I love to hang out with them.

While I just came to visit the family the day of the wedding, being family it was insisted that I also attend the wedding so after I went home and put on a suit, I headed over to the wedding (at the same café that I was at a week ago). The funniest part of the wedding was that the program was EXACTLY the same as a week ago. The menu, the salads, the music, the decorations, and even the games were the same ones that I had seen last week. This was funny because the MC played a joke on the couple where he gave them each a half of a cabbage and told them something was hidden in the folds of it. Fifteen minutes later and without luck, the groom and bride were informed that they just ripped up a cabbage for nothing, as the whole game was a practical joke. Being able to call this despite my host sister’s objections “No! He says that there is a prize inside the cabbage!” was funny. Overall it was just eerie having the same wedding with different people.

All things considered though, this wedding was even more fun than the one last week because of the company I kept. Rather than a few students around whom I felt an obligation to keep my professional demeanor, I was able to kick back and relax knowing I was in the careful and considerate hands of my extended family. While I didn’t drink to excess, it seems like most of the rest of my family did and a good time was had by all.

It was a great time and this morning I went back to play with my nieces and say goodbye to everyone before they headed back to Bishkek. Not terribly surprisingly all of the family woke up with horrible headaches (apparently after I went home they went back and continued drinking). It was funny to sit around and recount the night before, a scene that didn’t seem out of place to me, just it was funnier to be doing it with 40-60 year old Kyrgyz adults rather than my college buddies.

Oh, in other news, I got my internet working! I’m updating from home! Woo! Also, I have google talk, an instant message program based on gmail, and I will be on a fair amount since it is cheap for me (I pay by the megabyte and it used very few MBs). So chat with me sometime!

Cell Phones and English Clubs

23:30 15 October 2009

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. I bought a new cell phone this last weekend that should theoretically allow me to access the internet from home. This has had a negative impact on my budget for the rest of the month though… Looks like my diet will consist mainly of potatoes, bread, and tomatoes for the rest of the month but it will all be worth it if I can start accessing internet from my house!

So the good news is that probably by the time you are reading this I have obtained internet at home but the bad news is it isn’t today. I bought the phone last weekend but they did not have any USB cables left to sell so I have been waiting anxiously to be able to go back to Karakol to get one. Today was the day as I was in Karakol to cover an English club for a friend that is in the States at the moment and was able to pick up the cable! Hoorah! But it’s not working :o(. Anyhow, something is messed up with my computer so I think I will have to wipe my hard drive and see if I can get it working then.

About the English club though… I have taught a whole lot of English clubs since my service started here, probably somewhere of an average of three a week (so well over a hundred I believe) but this one today I believe was the most successful and most fun one I have ever given. Overall the schools in Karakol are better (urban flight is not the problem here that it is in the States) and the club was given only to very interested students. This meant they were already pretty advanced and SUPER motivated. I used a lesson plan I had written before but it was so much more fun when the kids where as into learning it as I was! It really gave me hope and showed me how much fun teaching English can be at its best. I’m currently applying to the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship program which would, if I am successful, provide me with an opportunity to teach in Russia for a year. Having classes like the one today make me excited at that prospect!

Svadbar time!

11:30 10 October 2009

Yesterday I had a really great experience. I was invited to and attended a wedding of the brother of one of my students. While I didn’t know him personally, it was still a lot of fun to attend a wedding, and I was the only non-Kyrgyz person out of nearly 200 (there weren’t any Russians even!). The food was great, we danced the night away, and I felt more integrated than I ever had in this country, I was really treated not as an outsider but as a member of the family. What a great experience!

As with pretty much everything in Kyrgyzstan, it started well after it was supposed to; my invitation said to come at 17:00 to the café and I stood outside for a good 90 minutes before the wedding celebration actually started. While Kyrgyzstan is nominally Muslim and certainly there is a minority of religious Muslims here, wedding traditions seem to stem more from Western/Russian influences as the bride and groom come dressed in the western traditional tux and white bridal gown. There are definitely some marked differences between Western weddings and Kyrgyz ones however.

I think the world throughout weddings are known to be times of excellent and plentiful food- certainly Kyrgyzstan is no exception to this rule and the spread started with about six or seven salads, bread, borsok (Kyrgyz national fried dough), and the obligatory alcohol. This was followed eventually by a “first” dish of a Kazahk soup with beef and noodles and then the main dish of a beef stew with a beet salad, mashed potatoes, and rice. But no Kyrgyz gathering is complete without besh barmak, the national dish which consists of pretty much just meat and noodles and is eaten with hands. While everyone eats a little of this, everyone is already stuffed at this point so people take it more lightly and the more important aspect is that everyone takes home a huge chunk of boiled meat to eat over the next couple days (this is such an established tradition that the waiters and waitresses actually supply each of the guests with plastic bags to stuff full of meat, salad, bread, etc.)

One thing I found interesting about the wedding was the way the cake was served. I don’t know what the tradition comes from, but instead of everyone getting cake, the different tables try and outbid each other to get one of two hunks of cake. Once the auction is over, the money (which at the wedding reached 2,000 som- about $50 and more than a teacher’s salary for a month) is given to the new couple in exchange for the cake- every one else goes hungry… (Not that that is possible given the rest of the food)

Given that I was with several of my students, I was careful to limit my alcohol consumption (I’ve become pretty good at resisting the huge amount of societal pressure when I want to) but that didn’t prevent me from having a lot of fun doing things other than eating. Given the mostly secular nature of most Kyrgyz, the biggest official moment was when the couple both signed the state marriage contract, something very different and much more official and divorced from the love aspect of the marriage, no kiss, no “I do’s”. But regardless, following this there was a lot of dancing, and different silly games played by everyone in attendance. One thing I have noticed about Kyrgyz gatherings and parties is that they usually have to have a program which usually includes unusual activities and games and prizes. While I haven’t been to so many weddings in the States, parts of this one seemed more like a Bar Mitzvah than a wedding but maybe I’m just ignorant.

Throughout the entire night, each of the tables should make a toast to the new bride and groom, with a few representatives from each table getting up and speaking. Despite knowing the bride or groom, but being the only foreigner there, I was asked to give a toast, something which was nerve-racking but also rewarding after I gave it and felt that I did a good job. But, as I said, it was one of the most positive experiences in this country and really made me realize that I was integrated into this communicating more than I realized I was. That’s always a good feeling.

The (not so) triumphant return!

20:35 08 October 2009

The (not so) triumphant return!

So, my friends, I apologize for the long absence from this electronic forum. Actually, that isn’t true. I’ve spent the several months I haven’t been writing here spending time with Saori. Sorry guys, but I was a bit too busy falling in love to keep up with my blog. Unfortunately, Saori is gone. Certainly not from my heart, but from this glorious and increasingly cold country. Her two years finished up a few weeks ago and she is currently back in Japan. Of course, on the net, this is a negative thing for me, I miss her terribly and can’t wait until we are together again. But it does have some positive side effects, one of which being that the time I am not spending with her can be used for other pursuits- like updating my blog for the first time in three months.

I promise you now that I will do a better job of keeping up with this open electronic diary in the future, but I figured a bit of a recap of summer was in order to start things off.

Summer was fun. A lot of fun. And not only fun, it was actually a pretty productive time for me too. While I didn’t have classes, the leadership club that Saori started and that I currently run was still meeting and we had some things going on even then. The most impressive, I believe was a 300 kilometer walkathon between the cities of Balykchy and Karakol. The walkathon was staged over ten days and was staged to raise awareness of the plight of the handicapped in this country (no ADA laws exist here and ramps, good pavement, and wheelchair friendly areas are hard to find even in the capital city). The kids didn’t participate in the marathon, but we partnered with the Kyzyl Suu orphanage to have the kids prepare the welcoming event for the participants. We prepared a huge mural for the welcoming party to write their dreams about the future on (The theme of the marathon was Куда мы идём? “Where are we going?”) and so the wishes for the future were written on slips of paper resembling animal tracks and then pasted on our mural of the world. In addition to this, the kids helped organize the crowd at the finish and half walked the final 5 kilometers (we brought some disabled children along with us that were excited to participate and see how many people lead rich and fulfilling lives despite their disabilities). So that was a really positive experience for me and I believe the children got a lot of benefits from participating in it.

On the fun side of my summer, apart from my trip to Russia, I spent a lot of time at the South Shore beaches, hosted some friends from Switzerland for a week, and went on a horse trek with Saori. The horse trek was a really great time, we went up very high into the mountains behind our village and even got to a glacier and got to hike around on it for a while. It was cool to think that while we were in a completely different landscape (despite the nearly 6,000 ft. altitude, my village is relatively flat) even though we were only about 25 kilometers from where I sleep! I’ll try and put up some pictures of that in the future.

Well, I think that is enough for now, I will have to get used to writing these things again… But know that this is just the first of more frequent updates.