Jonathan's Kyrgyz Adventure

2008-06-06T22:53:00.002-07:00

Community Based Tourism and My Newest Job
As strange as it may seem, I actually work in the tourism industry here in Kyrgyzstan. My organization, Altyn Kol, makes shirdaks (felt carpets) and other handicrafts to sell to tourists so they can remember their trip to the “Switzerland of Central Asia” (I’ve heard it more than one place, so it must be true. And now it’s on the internet, so it is doubly true). In addition to my formal role in the industry, to quote Sly and the Family Stone, “It’s a Family Affair.”
My family works for an organization called Community Based Tourism (CBT). CBT’s business plan is quite simple: use local people to provide the tourism services necessary to attract people to the region. A nonprofit organization, CBT gives 82% of the money it earns directly to its service providers. Kochkorites provide housing, transportation, guided tours, and food to those who come through the area. My family fits into all of these areas: our house is a guesthouse; my brother Nurdin drives people to beautiful Lake Song Kol; my brother Azamat takes tourists on treks through the area mountains; and my mom cooks for anyone who stays with us.
Funny enough, I have picked up a job myself: translator. I never quite realized the ubiquity of the English language until I came to Kyrgyzstan. No matter where the tourists are from, at least one of them speaks more than respectable English. Since my host brother Azamat is still in Bishkek finishing his first year of university, I have become the family’s resident English speaker. The tourists enjoy having a fluent speaker in the house, but I don’t think they quite realize I don’t exactly how to translate their needs into Kyrgyz. I usually just do whatever it is they need done.
I do admit that the one thing that one learns first in this language environment is how to express needs, especially simple ones like hunger and thirst, likes and dislikes, and how to gather simple information. Since these are the primary concerns of most tourists, I seem like a natural, dare I say fluent translator. Little do they know, if they asked almost any question outside of the three aforementioned categories, I would probably just have to lie to them.
So far, we have had some really interesting guests (we call them “konoktor” instead of “tourist-ter” so they don’t know we are talking about them). Our first big group of the year was actually a group employed by Land Rover to drive from London to Singapore. They were a pretty cool group of Brits, I must say. We’ve had a couple of French tourists and Erin’s family has had people from America, Slovakia, and, believe it or not, Kyrgyzstan. From what the CBT director tells us, most of the tourists that stay in Kochkor are from France. I guess I should start polishing up French!

The Political Race

2008-06-06T22:53:00.001-07:00

I’ve avoided writing about the whole US political situation for several reasons. First of all, I don’t really know a whole lot about exactly what is going on over there. Most of my information comes third hand from volunteers or it is translated from Russian into Kyrgyz and then I attempt to understand it. Second, half the reason I joined the Peace Corps was to avoid this whole election cycle and, from what it sounds like, I made the right decision. Third, I’m sure Peace Corps will use this article against me at some point in the future, regardless of what I actually write.
With Sen. Obama apparently wrapping up the Democratic nomination, I figured now would be a good time to talk about what exactly it is people over here think about the whole process in the United States. To be sure, the Democratic primaries received the lion’s share of the press here. The thing that fascinated most Kyrgyz people I talked to was that either a woman or a black man was going to be President (the whole idea of primaries is a little lost on the people here. Sen. John McCain obviously could keep our remarkable string of 43 straight white old guys alive.). Though it is a bit strange that it is the first thing someone will mention during the discussion, the Kyrgyz people seem extremely open to the idea. One gentleman told me he liked Clinton because Margaret Thatcher brought down Communism and set the Kyrgyz Republic free from the Soviets (a bit revisionist, but interesting).
So, now the stage is set for a McCain-Obama showdown. Most people here have never heard of Sen. McCain, but I think that will change. The Russian news does about ten minutes worth of U.S. news every week, so as the campaign heats up, I’m sure they will be introduced to the man. I am interested to see what kind of light they shine on Sen. McCain. He has been very tough on Russia in the past and the press here is anything but objective.
For those of you interested, through a very unscientific poll, I would estimate that Obama would carry all of PC-Kyrgyzstan’s electoral votes with a District of Colombia-like 90%. I am just happy that I get to participate in a system where my vote doesn’t matter, since my place of residence (Arizona) made up its mind who to vote for roughly four months ago. And yet life goes on.

Summer: The anti-inspiration

2008-06-06T22:53:00.000-07:00

Though I know that summer does not officially start for a couple more weeks, things have taken on the tale tell signs of that glorious time of year here in Kochkor. The children are out of school and bugging me to know end (seriously, when I find the teacher who taught them the word “money,” I might do something very un-Peace Corpsesque). Tourists have started passing through town, asking questions that make one feel proud to live here (“Are there any flush toilets around here?”) and at the same time tired of the tourists themselves (“I don’t understand why they don’t just spend some money and build toilets.”). Best of all, the days have gotten much longer and the weather much nicer. My days are filled with sunshine and warm breezes. I don’t even mind all the newly appearing bugs.
With all that said, all I want to do is sit outside and read a book. The grass is so green I just have to lay in it while eating raspberries (we have them, but they are pricy). The last thing I want to do is go to work, be trapped in some building, trying to convince my co-workers that my ideas might actually help them. I never believed in that whole “Spring Fever” idea until now. I don’t know how many more 4 hour work days I can handle in this beautiful weather and its only going to get worse.
In about a week our summer interns will be arriving from Naryn and for some crazy reason I have committed myself to full, eight hour work days with these four young ladies. I still have no idea what exactly I was thinking, but I am regretting it already. In all seriousness, I am excited about their arrival. I am terribly anxious to be doing something truly productive at work. Being eye candy just gets old after a while.
With all of this talk, I would like to wish everyone who reads this a safe summer season. From what I hear, nobody will be driving anywhere due to gas prices, but remember that safety is just as important at home as it is on the road. As an end note, I would like to have some comments posted about this year’s “annoying summer song that you cannot get out of your head.” I believe last year’s was “Umbrella” by Rihanna (spelling?). Year before, I’m pretty sure Shakira won with “Hips Don’t Lie” (An awesome song. I tried to convince my brother Nurdin, age 22, that I would be marrying Shakira upon my completion of service. The reason he didn’t believe me? I don’t speak Spanish). Things don’t always translate straight over here, so I’m interested to hear what you guys are being tortured with over there.

Buildin’ a Yurt

2008-05-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

The yurt is the traditional housing for the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. In ancient times, the Kyrgyz would move with their flocks from pasture to pasture and they needed a mobile dwelling that would not only keep them warm during the harsh winters, but would be easy to set up and take down with regularity. There felt and wood construction materials are all readily available in the mountains and it requires no tools whatsoever. They are actually a fascinating feat of engineering.

Soviet-occupation led to a decline, but not an elimination of, yurt usage. People moved into urban areas (often against their will) and there was less need for moveable dwellings. The yurt is still used commonly today for people who take their flocks out to summer pasture (known as “jailoo”) or for tourism purposes. My family uses it for the latter in the summer.

Last week we built our family yurt and it was just as much fun as someone who doesn’t speak the language fluently can have on a construction site. The first step is to build the circular base of the yurt which eventually becomes the walls of the dwelling. The next, and most entertaining, part of the construction process is the raising of the “tunduk”(pictured). The tunduk is raised by hoisting it up with a chopped down tree and then placing support beams into it and then securing them to the circular base. The resulting structure forms the frame of the yurt (pictured).

Once the frame is built the yurt is wrapped in a series of thick felt blankets that serve as protection from the wind and the cold. The final step requires placing one final blanket on top of the tunduk that can be removed to let the sun in, let smoke out, and keep the inside protected from the rain. The tunduk is considered to be a almost holy part of Kyrgyz tradition. The tunduk is so important that it is actually the center of the Kyrgyz Republic’s flag.

Anyway, the event was fun. It took five grown men and a boy over six hours to complete the project and it was interesting to say the least. I discovered that whenever a dad, anywhere, builds something, he is required to use an insane amount of swear words in order to make it work. It appears that some things are the same in every country.

So, our family has not completely moved into the yurt, but we do spend most of our time inside. We ran a couple of electrical cords into the yurt so we have a TV and even a light. We eat dinner there every night and my two host brothers sleep inside of it now. All part of livin’ the dream.

Bob Dylan won a freakin' Pulitzer!

2008-05-27T01:46:00.000-07:00

Judging from the fact that my only sponsor (and I use that word lightly) is Manas Petroleum, I assume that most of my readership is of the age that they not only know Bob Dylan, but know a little bit about his heyday from personal experience. Even my 18-25 year old demographic should know a thing or two about America’s Greatest Living Poet (according to me) from some of the awesome albums he has put out in the past few years. If you haven’t bought Modern Times, you seriously need to, no matter what your taste in music. It even has a song from a Victoria’s Secret commercial in it!

Long story short, I love Bob Dylan and apparently so does the Columbia University School of Journalism, who recently awarded him the Pulitzer Prize for his “profound impact on popular music and American culture.” He is the first rock artist to receive such an honor. According to Sig Gissler, the administrator of the program, “He has had a great impact on both music and culture. His compositions have a powerful poetic quality to them that I think helped set him apart.”

Not really much else to say about it. I just want everybody to know how awesome Bob Dylan is and you should all go out and buy a couple of his albums. Immediately.

The End of English Classes...

2008-05-27T01:45:00.001-07:00

Some of you may know that Erin and I have been teaching English classes here in beautiful Kochkor for about six months now. I have to admit that it has been a godsend: I am pretty sure I would have succumb to boredom if I didn’t have a full 5 hours of teaching every week during the winter months. If you include lesson planning and walking to the class, it consumed almost 12 hours a week. It doesn’t seem like much, but I needed the little escape during those brutal months. I probably couldn’t have made it without them.

The class started simply, with a couple of drivers for Community Based Tourism (CBT), a nonprofit organization that gives tours and guesthouses to tourists visiting the area. They also happened to be all related to my director, which is probably how the class came about in the first place. It wasn’t too long before we started branching out and by the end of January we had expanded to over ten students in our beginner class and five in our advanced. Though many of the faces would change each week, we had a solid core group that came regularly and enjoyed our innovative teaching style (like no yelling or reading from a book). That group remained pretty consistent until about mid-April.

Then the spring came. People all of a sudden had gardens to plant, errands to run, and tourists to drive and they could not fit our little ol’ class into the schedule. After a month or so of smaller classes, we decided to put the lessons on a break until the other side of summer, allowing people to go about their summer rituals in peace. We only hope that we made a difference.

What did we teach, you ask? Nothing to complicated, though I will admit I learned more about English in teaching than I ever did in studying. We went over a lot of common phrases to help the drivers work with tourists on a basic level (“Do you need…?”) and eventually got to the point where students could handle verbs in present, simple past, simple future, and present continuous (I am running) with some amount of confidence.

I must admit that English is an incredibly complicated language and I never realized how much so until now. Word order is so incredibly important that it can completely change the meaning of a sentence (“I just ate a sandwich” vs. “I ate just a sandwich” are two completely different sentences!). It took a lot of discipline to consistently use the same tense and word order when giving examples. I did get better at it toward the end, though I am far from a pedagogical master.

In the final analysis, it was well worth the effort. Three of our students took us to lunch after our last class, which was unexpected and well received. I truly hope that most of them will come back to our class when we start up again in September.

Introducing Dwight K. Schrute…

2008-05-27T01:27:00.000-07:00

I want to start off by thanking everyone who submitted names for our family’s newest member, the baby cow pictured below. The interest not only let me know whether anybody was actually reading this thing besides my immediate family members, and gave me some great ideas for the naming of the calf. I figured I would give a small cross-section of the names and explain why I liked them. If your entry is not listed, it isn’t because I didn’t like it. Results may vary from culturally insensitive to way too hard to explain to my host family in Kyrgyz (though I do admit the winner has been difficult to get across).

Fifth-Jagerbek (Heeyong Wang). Though I admit it was very tempting to name the calf in the same fashion as every other man in this country (really, not an exaggeration with the “bek” thing), I couldn’t handle confronting my new friend on a daily basis when all he would do is remind me of that delicious black liqueur of my youth (early 20’s, mostly). The other large problem centered on a nickname and I couldn’t handle just calling him “bek.”

Fourth-Billy (Catherine O’Neill). I have to admit that the shout out to the alma mater was pretty tempting. I do admit I miss my Blue Jays quite terribly. I might have even gotten a picture in the Creightonian Magazine, assuming I was selling the cow in order to raise money for some new building or fountain or some crap. In the end, Billy is a girl and our calf is a boy, so I had to rule it out.

Third-Booger (Catherine O’Neill). This one made it up this far just because of the conversation I had with my host brother Aziz about boogers. Apparently, Kyrgyz doesn’t have a word for booger or at least Aziz didn’t want to admit to it. Snot is “chymkyryk.” We decided that possibly hard snot would have to do (katuu chymkyryk, for those keeping score at home). Neither of us had the guts to ask our mother (a Kyrgyz language teacher) what the possible word could be, so we abandoned the plan. I think “Booger” definitely got his vote though.

Second-Pork Chop (Auntie Inee). A few reasons for this one being so high. First, the fact that it is a cow named “Pork Chop” is quite lovely. Second, there are about a million nicknames that I could run with: Porkie, Chopie, PoCho (my favorite), Sir Chops-a-lot, Hammy, GWAS (Great With Apple Sauce). I was really close to going with this name, but two things kept me from it: they don’t eat pork here (Muslims abstain) and my host parents would think I was an idiot and feel the need to explain that beef comes from cows, not pork. It just wasn’t worth the conversation that I knew would entail.

First-McNugget (Catherine’s Roommate, Kristen). There are two things I enjoy more than almost anything on Earth: Bob Dylan and making fun of Irish people. This name had plenty of the second, but I couldn’t find any Dylan references to “nuggets.” If I had (and believe me I tried), this probably would have won out. Kristen, if you want to do the leg work, I only have about 15 Dylan albums and I think there are probably another 20 or so out there. If you find the maestro talkin’ ‘bout nuggets, let me know and I will reconsider the voting. (Ed. Note: Just in case any Irish people are reading this, I have no problem with Ireland and all my dislike for things Irish comes from personal contact with people of Irish lineage [they know who they are]. Seriously, when are people going to figure out that Ireland isn’t that cool? What have they done since Joyce? I guess at least they aren’t the poorest country in the EU anymore. Congrats.)

Winner- Dwight K. Schrute (Erin McFee). A few of you may have no idea what this is in reference to, so I will take the opportunity to extrapolate upon the greatest television show of our generation, The Office. Dwight is not the main character of the show, but he plays a vital role in almost every episode. I would compare him to something of a Kramer (from Seinfeld). He is physical in his comedy and provides the gut-busting moments that have made The Office an object of my obsession in Kyrgyzstan. I would probably speak way better Kyrgyz if I spent a little less time watching The Office DVDs (thanks Mom!) and a little more time talking to people. Anyway, Dwight is a bit of a cult icon in our village of 3 Americans and I can think of no better reason to bestow his name upon the calf. That, and Erin might get mad if I don’t.

So, life is a bit busy

2008-05-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Well, spring is here and life is busy in Kochkor. My family and I have been working hard to get all that winter malaise out of the house and make it a happy place again.
With all that in mind, I would like to appologize for not writing more blog entries. All this yurt building, seminar and internship planning, and general availability of things to do has kept me away from the computer. I hope you all understand.
All of the above things above and more will be written about shortly, as soon as I have a chance. This week should be a good one, since all the women at work are working hard for our upcoming sales exhibition. Please, keep reading.

On a side note, some lucky readers will be receiving a small surprise in the mail soon. Good luck!

Shirdaks!

2008-05-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I work for a handicraft’s cooperative here in Kyrgyzstan which focuses primarily on the creation of shirdaks. I realized the other day when I was going through my previous blog entries that I have yet to dedicate an entire post to shirdaks and that such a travesty cannot stand uncorrected. Thus, get excited to enter the fascinating world of felt!

Shirdaks are, simply put, felt rugs and are perhaps the oldest and most traditional craft still produced in Kyrgyzstan. Due to the large number of sheep and a nomadic heritage that is not conducive to cotton growing, felt is the primary material used in traditional handicrafts within the country. Felt, which is made out of compacted sheep’s wool, is the primary ingredient in any real shirdak.

But how are they made, you ask? The process is quite simple, really. Once the sheep has been shaved and its wool pressed into felt (and possibly dyed), the master cuts it into an ornate pattern and then sows the design onto a larger, uncut piece of felt. After several hours of intense sowing and intricate stitching, a border is usually added to give some balance and depth to the piece.

Shirdaks come in all shapes and sizes. Originally, they were designed to cover the floor of the “yurt,” or portable home of the nomadic Kyrgyz. “Sadushkas” are roughly 50cm x 50cm (20x20 in) and are designed as seat covers. Giant, room size shirdaks can be up to 10m². I have one in my room that is roughly 3m². The felt design allowed for maximum heat storage during the cold winters of the old times. Today, they are more for decoration, but still hold a sacred place in the hearts of the Kyrgyz people.

And now the sales pitch: Where can you get one of these amazing items? Well, the best, most authentic shirdaks money can buy are for sale through my host organization, Altyn Kol (literally translated as “Golden Hands”). All of our shirdaks are made of 100% wool and are handmade by women in Kyrgyzstan. Roughly 70% of the sale price goes directly to the artisan, significantly higher than Fair Trade prices. If you are interested, click here to learn more and see what exactly you are missing.

Alright, got that done. I have to admit I have learned more about sowing and the processes involved in felt production than I ever thought possible. I remember when I joined Peace Corps they said I would learn practical skills that would make me extremely competitive in the current job market. I just hope carpet making is as big in the US as it is here.

10 Month Update

2008-05-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

Hopefully, by the time I get this posted, I will have been in the ol’ Kyrgyz Republic for 10 months! Hard to imagine that it has almost been a year. I can’t say the time has flown by (I actually think it might have been frozen for a little while during the summer), but it does seem that time is keeping on, as it usually does. I have now experienced every season in country, though I still have quite a bit of spring left to enjoy before the death grip of summer comes back around. As always, here is a run of how things are going:

· I have successfully completed 39.13% (45 of 115 weeks), so basically 2/5 done. It seems odd to put it in such terms, but that’s the way it is. Seriously, you guys need to get this economy turned around or I will stay another year. I’ll do it, too. You know how people are when they get those cushy government jobs…

· I haven’t taken another language test, but I can assure you that I am easily within the top 0.008% of Kyrgyz speakers in the world (assuming 6.2 billion people worldwide and 5 million Kyrgyz people). The biggest problem, however, is that I am definitely in the bottom most percentile in my village, except for that one Russian guy who refuses to learn Kyrgyz and is quite proud of the fact.

· We have not had much of a loss of volunteers since the last bi-monthly report. As far as my group goes, we have only lost one person in the last two months. If I do my math right, that should bring us to an even 40.

· I bought a huge Peace Corps shirdak last month. If I remember, I will put a picture on the page. Outside of that, no major purchases of any interest. We got a pay raise last month of a whopping 40 som ($1.11), since Peace Corps found it necessary to differentiating the pay between those in villages and those in cities. So now, not only do the people in the cities actually have a choice of what they can buy, they can actually afford it now too.

· Still have not been the victim of a crime, but I am staying vigilant. If I remember my training correctly, this is the time of service it is most likely to happen, since I am getting comfortable in my site and not being as careful about things.

· My family is down to 3 cows, 2 sheep and 2 lambs. Our cat went missing and is presumed dead. I think that means I can get a chick now, though Peace Corps says I shouldn’t because of “bird flu.” All off our sheep went to pasture, except for one that is pregnant and another that is milking the two lambs. It is starting to get a little lonely, I must admit.

· My not throwing up in country streak has come to a terrible end. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I want to remind everyone to remember not to mix alcohol and any kind of medication. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I don’t think I will ever make that mistake again.

· Holidays have been aplenty this April and May. Noroos was at the end of March and was alright. I was in Bishkek at the time, so I might have missed some of the fun. May 1 is International Workers’ Day; May 5 Constitution Day; and May 9 is Victory Day. Needless to say, I won’t get any work done until about June, so I guess I should give up on that front.

· I guess my luster is starting to wear off. Proposals for “daughter meeting” have dramatically fallen off. Maybe my strategy of telling people how I am actually not rich is starting to backfire. Now people have started asking about what I plan to do when I go back to America. When you really look at the question from their perspective, my status has changed from “I want him to marry my daughter” to “when is this guy leaving”? I guess that is what happens when people really get to know you

· I am still reading quite a bit, though not nearly at the level I was during the winter. An increase in my ability to communicate and to walk outdoors has dramatically reduced my time/desire for reading. As mentioned in a previous entry, I read a Chingiz Aitmatov book and enjoyed it. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald was really good. Currently reading a book on the history of the Soviet Union and Jude the Obscure. I really love endings where everybody dies, I guess. Having The Office Season 2 sent to me has not helped in inspiring me to read either.

On an unrelated note, say thank you to all of your teachers and people you know that are teachers. National Teachers Appreciation Week is this week (May 6-12). Sam, you are the only professional teacher that I know, so I guess I will say “I appreciate you” because there is no way I could do what you do. Seriously, little kids are gross.

Issky Kul

2008-05-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

Lake Issyk Köl (“hot lake” in Kyrgyz) is considered to be the “pearl” of the Kyrgyz landscape. A salt water lake located in the country’s northeastern section, it is constantly a topic of discussion among Kyrgyz people. The “hot” part of the name comes from the fact that the lake never freezes, due to the saltiness of the water and geothermal springs located within the lakebed. In Kyrgyz, it is often referred to as just “Köl” since it is the only lake that matters (to some). One of the first questions that someone will ask me is whether I have been there yet or not. It is assumed that I will go or that I have been and Kyrgyz people often have a hard time believing I have been in country ten months and have yet to see the mighty Köl.
Legend has it the salty, warm lake was created out of love. In ancient times, the king of a particular tribe held a traditional matching ceremony for his daughter. The ceremony’s main event was a horse game in which suitors had to kiss the daughter in order to win her hand. The daughter could make the task difficult for men she did not like, easier for those who she did. A young shepherd entered the contest and the daughter put up little resistance to his pursuit. However, when the kind found out that the daughter was to marry a common shepherd (and not the prince from another tribe as he had hoped), he was furious and arranged a marriage with royalty of another tribe.
The day of the wedding came soon afterwards. The girl was so distraught over the loss of her love that she started crying. The crying didn’t stop and eventually salty, warm water began pouring out of her eyes at an incredible rate and eventually the flood washed away the entire wedding party, including the bride and left only a lake in its place. The shepherd, meanwhile, was watching the ceremony from afar and saw his love transform herself into a lake. In order to ensure that he could always be near and watch over her, he turned himself into the mountains that surround the lake.
The area on the lake’s north shore is the most developed in the country (not including Bishkek). Most of the property is foreign owned and developed and include world class health facilities that, if you can afford it, are home to breath taking views and western amenities. Most of the Kyrgyz and Kazakh elite have homes in this area that they use for summer vacations, including President Bakiev who also has a small yacht in the lake. Prices are not exactly American, but they are definitely higher than in just about any other region in the country.
This last weekend I visited the village of Cholpon Ata (star’s father) to see this lake for myself (and see my friend Brian who is stationed there). I do admit that I was impressed. It is a beautiful area and, while it is certainly far from western standards, it is certainly much more advanced from an infrastructure perspective. The beaches are not the white sands of Hawaii, but are comfortable. The water is an amazingly crystal blue that takes a little while to believe in. It isn’t tourist season yet, so I was able to enjoy the area without the hustle and bustle I am assured places a stranglehold on the area in July and August…And shit was really, really expensive.

Note: The picture above is not from Issyk Kul, but from right here in Kochkor. I just figured this blog needed a picture. Those are my site mates Erin and Vanessa.

Money, Money, Money

2008-05-04T22:00:00.001-07:00

The second most popular topic among Kyrgyz people (family and marriage are first) is how expensive everything is. Almost every conversation I have with people centers on the cost of things. If I ever get to the point in a conversation where I really don’t know what to talk about, I just mention how expensive bread (or gas or carrots or apartments in Bishkek) and people instantly become excited to talk with me about it. Making fun of the Chinese is about the only other solid conversation topic.
For the most part, I believe this is just a cultural thing, partially an economic thing.
From an observational perspective, it is somewhat noticeable that prices are going up. A taxi ride to Bishkek used to cost 200 som and sometimes even 180 was possible if you know how to negotiate. Now it is at least 250 and sometimes worse. Other items have gone up as well. Bread was 4 som for a small loaf, now it is 9. The other obvious measure is the exchange rate. The dollar has actually gained value against the som since I entered the country (from 34 som/dollar in July 2007 to 36.5/dollar currently). The fall of the dollar in the last year is well documented and the fact that the som is losing value against currency that is in such a freefall surely shows that something is amiss.
I have a few theories as to why this is the fact. The first is simple supply side economics. Worldwide, commodities have been tremendously expensive due to a combination of shortages (wheat) and increased demand (oil, corn). These commodities, while affecting the lives of people in wealthier nations, have a tremendous impact on the purchasing power of people in Kyrgyzstan. A vast majority of a Kyrgyz family’s budget centers on food. With all the food prices going up due to external factors (not to mention that most food is imported, adding transport costs), Kyrgyz families simply have to spend more to get the same thing they used to buy.
Second, I believe there has been plenty of economic mismanagement to help foster this inflation. First, the country is crippled with a massive foreign debt, not to mention a current account balance (basically the difference in exports and imports) that is incredibly negative. Though small in absolute terms, as a percentage the balance is far more negative than the US’s (though legitimate numbers are difficult to come by). These two acting in unison can easily bring a currency to its knees (see Dollar, US, 2008), making imports (i.e. almost everything consumed here) more expensive. Most economies have the ability to adapt to such a circumstance. The United States will shift production to more consumer goods in the medium term. The Kyrgyz Republic does not have this ability.
My last belief is one of conjecture solely, since data is not available, though anecdotal evidence is common. The money supply in the country is expanding. Any person, let alone any economist, who has ever heard of Milton Friedman can tell you that an increase in the money supply, while good for the economy in the short run can increase inflationary pressures. Though not as easy to track here as in the US (Federal interest rates pretty much explain the US’s), it is something to note that the availability of crisp, new 1000 som bills is quite prevalent, while at the same time small bills (ones, fives, tens, twenties) are becoming worn and difficult to obtain in any case. A country with a huge foreign debt would do well to “service” the debt through inflation (i.e. borrow 10 som when it buys two loaves of bread and pay it back when it only buys one). Though this has almost never worked for the country that attempts to do it, it is tried often by countries that need to pay off debt.
In the end, don’t worry about Jonathan. I am being taken care of by the Peace Corps, though my “salary” doesn’t buy what it used to. I have to start living a little more like a Spartan and a little less like an American. Maybe that isn’t bad advice in any situation, my fellow Americans.

On an unrelated note, I would like to thank Kairatbek, a devoted reader, for pointing out that the former President of Kyrgyzstan is Akayev, not Arkiev as published. It is nice to know that I have people keeping me in line.

Koy Soy!

2008-05-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

So, we eat a lot of sheep here. Words cannot describe what exactly a Koy Soy (sheep slaughtering) is really like, so I have put together a little video to give you an idea. Don't worry, there is no footage of blood splattering everywhere or anything like that. Enjoy.

Chingiz Aitmatov

2008-04-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

If you were asked to name one Kyrgyz person, most of you would naturally say President Bakiev, the borderline dictator of Kyrgyzstan. Others would mention former President Arkiev, who was forced out of the country in a bloodless coup in 2005. Still others would mention Manas, the fictional folk hero about which the world’s longest poem is written (about 250,000 lines or 16 of The Iliad for reference). Again still others would take the simpler route of saying, “Jonathan’s host mother” or something along those lines. In all of these cases, you would of course be right.
But the most famous of all Kyrgyz people is Chingiz Aitmatov, the writer and philosopher. The Kyrgyz freakin’ love this guy, no joke. His two major works are The White Ship, which is about an old Kyrgyz legend set in a remote village and The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years. Though he was a Kyrgyz man, all his writings were in Russian. This year will include his eightieth birthday and has been declared the Year of Chingiz Aitmatov. The guy is like John Lennon and John Updike rolled into one. Easily bigger than The Beatles here.
I recently read The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years and enjoyed it thoroughly (in English, just in case anybody thought my Kyrgyz was at that level). The story was written in 1980 during Soviet occupation of Central Asia and centers on the tale of a man who lives on the Kazakh steppe who must burry his best friend who has recently died. The story takes place over one day, but his thoughts stretch out for decades before and after the actual event (hence the title). The translation I read was not particularly well written (it is choppy in places), but the political and social subtext is obvious to anyone who understands the smallest bit of Soviet history. Aitmatov managed to squeeze many of these un-Soviet themes through the use of ancient tales from Central Asia. The book is masterfully constructed. The names are a little hard to pronounce, but I usually just give them American names and that makes the reading easier.
Anyway, my host mother discovered I was reading the book and we had a quite extended conversation about how awesome Mr. Aitmatov is. It should be noted that she is a Kyrgyz language teacher. The longest conversation I have had with any Kyrgyz person on any subject was right then and there on the couch about Chingiz Aitmatov. I have been instructed that I must read the remainder of his works before I leave Kyrgyzstan, because only then can I understand this place.
So, I just wanted to give a shout out to Chingiz Aitmatov and suggest that anyone who is interested in some good Soviet-era literature, check him out. You don’t have to know anything about Kyrgyzstan (The Day is actually set in Kazakhstan) to enjoy it. Then, when you are at a dinner party, you can impress all your friends with your knowledge of Central Asian writers.

No Real Title

2008-04-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that I tend to have a “theme” behind each posting. My original idea in creating this blog was to keep people back home aware of my current situation, to share my experience, and to make a little ad revenue from the advertisement in the corner (8 cents per click-through, just to let you know. This format seems to work, since I don’t get too many complaints. It is the most popular Kochkor-based blog on the web, unless Erin’s is somehow doing better than mine. Either way, it is definitely in the top two at worst.
I don’t really have much of topic to discuss, so I guess I will just talk about what is going on here right now. First and most important, spring has finally arrived. The trees are blooming, the grass is green, and dogs are humping everything in sight. It is truly a wonderful time of year in Kochkor. With the warm weather, I have noticed that I am more active as well. I don’t mind walking to someone’s office for a meeting. I also have started going on walks just for the fun of it. Who would have thunk it?
Today especially is a great day because I have finished my Small Projects Assistance (SPA) proposal to fund the Ak Sakaldar Sotu conference that I am organizing for September (read related article for more info). The proposal is 13 pages long, which is not especially large by any stretch, but it was extremely difficult to complete. First of all, it is an application for US Federal dollars, so it has a lot of asinine requirements (and by asinine I mean wonderful, just in case anybody from USAID is reading this). Second, gathering information in Kyrgyzstan is a pain in the ass. Nobody will give you a straight answer, no matter how you phrase a question. Luckily, I have an awesome counterpart named Ak Jol working with me on the project and he knows how to get things done. Lastly, we have to constantly write in “Peace Corps speech,” using all the taglines that we have learned from various trainings over the past 10 months: sustainable, community driven, monitoring and evaluation, and priority.
I will say, however, that the best part of my proposal is the name: Kalpaks Optional!. Kalpaks are the traditional Kyrgyz hats that the old men around here wear. I guess it really isn’t that funny if you don’t know what a kalpak is. Actually, it really isn’t funny even if you do know what a kalpak is. I am still a firm believer of the power of titles. And it has an exclamation point in it. I can’t think of a single bad movie, book, or album that has an exclamation point in it. Ipso facto, everything with an exclamation point in it is awesome. You know what book didn’t have an exclamation point? Mein Kampf and we all know what happened with that.
What a terrible way to end a blog entry.

This Really Cool Thing

2008-04-24T02:01:00.001-07:00

One of our buyers came into the store last week. Besides the fact that she is the best looking Kyrgyz girl I have ever seen, she showed me this really cool picture (shown). This was displayed in the National Art Museum in Bishkek. In case it is hard to tell, it is a tree represented by a shirdak for the leaves and a tree stump as the trunk. It is a really cool piece of art, I think.

Me, the Older Brother

2008-04-24T02:01:00.000-07:00

I had never been an older brother until I moved to Kyrgyzstan. Certainly, I had dealt with my share (believe me, one is enough), but I had never been in that “first among peers” position. I can’t say I ever wanted the extra attention and responsibility that comes along with being the elder, but now that I have attained it, I am enjoying it. In Kochkor, I have three younger brothers. I you include the younger brother and sister I have in my training village of Kenesh, I actually have 5 younger siblings. If you add up all those siblings, I have almost three and a half years of “older brothering” under my belt. With that in mind, I thought I would compare myself to the one older brother I know in a few select categories. Justin, I’m sorry.
1. Looks. I think we really know who wins here. Mom once summed it up nicely by saying, “Jonathan got the looks and Justin got born first.” Advantage: Jonathan
2. Smarts. They are really going to be disappointed when they find out I am not nearly as smart as they think I am. Right now, I think the younglings assume language is the reason I don’t seem so clever. Little do they know, it is my lack of cleverness that makes that so. Still…Advantage: Jonathan
3. Car. The “Fun Justy” that he had in high school is kinda like an ugly cousin: the family can make fun of it, but we will fight anyone who mentions a bad word about her. That and Peace Corps regulations don’t allow me to own or operate a motor vehicle. Advantage: Justin
4. Willingness to help. Well, I’m in the Peace Corps, so I think I win by default. He never flew half way around the world for me. Just saying. Advantage: Jonathan
5. Mastery of common language. This one I have to give to Justin. Though he did grow up during the 80’s, he has a pretty solid grip on English. Most of my conversations don’t get much past “Who farted?” with my brothers here. (“Kim usurdu?” in Kyrgyz, for those interested). Advantage: Justin
6. Willingness to read younger sibling’s blog. Though none of the youngsters here have blogs, I’m pretty sure I would go out of my way to read them if they had them, even with the poor internet accessibility. Justin’s younger brother has a blog and I’m pretty sure Justin doesn’t read it, hence the entire article devoted to making fun of him. Advantage(in more ways than one): Jonathan
7. Job. While in high school, Justin worked at fast food places. I really could not think of a better place for an older brother to work until he got the gig at the bowling alley. Currently, I work at a sowing cooperative that primarily makes carpets. Thrilling, I know. Advantage: Justin
8. Providing of nieces/nephews. Admittedly, I am behind the curve here, but just slightly. I could catch up by the end of service, but that probably wouldn’t be in anybody’s best interests. And Justin’s kids are fuckin’ awesome. I think that is really Sam’s fault, but I guess it gets at least partial credit. Advantage: Justin
9. Cool factor. Seriously, if you have ever met Justin, don’t even bother reading the rest of this segment. Even leaving that aside, I’m a freakin’ Peace Corps volunteer. That’s gotta put me pretty high on the cool list. Advantage: Jonathan
As you can see, it was a close race, but I squeak out a 5-4 victory. I’m sure the gap will widen as I gain more experience. He has a pretty substantial lead in that category, but it wasn’t enough here. By the way, if anybody wants to make fun of Justin, whether you know him or not, feel free to post things about him on the message board. Just don’t make fun of his mom. That wouldn’t be cool.

Born a Ramblin' Man

2008-04-20T22:38:00.002-07:00

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? I am sure there are very few people who would say Kyrgyzstan, including your humble author (and I actually like it here). The reason I ask is for a simple reason: I cannot stop thinking about where I am going to travel after I finish serving in the Peace Corps. On one fine day in September 2009, I am going to be given $6,000 and the cash equivalent of an airline ticket from Bishkek to Phoenix. After that, it is completely up to me what happens.
Now, I do have to save a few grand for “re-adjustment” to the United States. It will probably take a while to get a job and I’m sure the ol’ family will get tired of Jonathan after a while. I figure I will have $3,500 to get from Kochkor to Yuma, Arizona.
The big advantage of Kyrgyzstan is that whether I head east or west, I am heading home. Kochkor lies between the 75 and 76E longitudinal lines and 41 and 42N latitudinal line. If I stay on this side of the equator, I am 180 degrees away from Casper, Wyoming going west and 180 degrees from Eugene, Oregon going east. Either way, I end up in the (relatively) northwestern United States.
My first trip will be to India. I’m not sure why, but I really have a desire to see the subcontinent. I have heard so many positive things about it that I think I have to go. I will travel around and “do” India. After that, however, I am completely open to suggestion. Flying from Delhi, I can be to Europe or almost anywhere in the Pacific in one flight. I could go to Australia and New Zealand or Berlin and London. Tough call.
I could also go somewhere else and that is why I am writing about it now. I want to know what you think. If you have been on this side of the world, let me know what you think is worth doing? I have no time commitments (though I should be home for Thanksgiving, for Mom’s sake), but money is an object, though my living standards allow me to live comfortably on little. Respond to the blog or email me directly. These are the pictures you are going to have to look at when I get back, so you may as well want to see what is in them.
This question is open ended, so feel free to take time in responding. I speak decent English, moderate Kyrgyz, and functional German, but would be willing to pick up something else in order to travel to somewhere exotic. Also, if you have a couch that I could sleep on in the area you suggest, it would be greatly appreciated.

That's Entertainment

2008-04-20T22:38:00.001-07:00

I often wonder what exactly I would be doing in the United States at this very moment. Not so much about where I would be working or going to school or living or anything like that. I don’t really like to think about serious things. My thoughts tend to gravitate toward what I would be doing on a sunny, Sunday afternoon in April with no commitments or what I would do between when I get home from work and when I go to bed. We take for granted a lot of the things we have access to in our comfortable US lives.
Downtime is a problem for a lot of volunteers because we have so much of it. Previously, I would not consider it free time when I went to basketball games or movies. That time was spoken for, though it certainly was leisure. Here, since events like such are not nearly as accessible, I have more free and unaccounted for time in which to occupy myself. I would say in a common weekday, I have four to five hours of time to use up. The weekends are generally even freer than that, with up to ten hours of nothing planned, though every other weekend is usually travelling (which is planned and accounted for).
So what does a body do? My main distractions are media in their normal forms. I watch movies on my computer; usually at least one full-length feature film’s worth a day. I read vociferously. I read now more than I did in college, which might explained why I didn’t graduate with honors. I write in a journal and for the blog, both of which are not written in as often as they should be. Sometimes I just stare at the wall, thinking. It is scary to admit that, but it is true, which might be scarier still.
On the weekends, I usually go for a walk around the neighborhood or even into the omnipresent mountains. A good hike of five to six hours can really put a dent into a day. Shopping is often such an adventure that I will go merely for something to do rather than necessity. I occasionally play computer games like Free Cell (54% win rate) or my electronic Sudoku if needed, but I try to avoid anything too unproductive.
Beyond any doubt though, daydreaming has become an absolutely awesome distraction for me. It is so much fun and time can slip away so quickly when lost in your thoughts. I think about life after Peace Corps and where I will visit next month and what to do with my monthly living allowance when it comes. Ever since I have hung my world map on the wall, I have had an excellent opportunity to just drift away in thought as I try to memorize all the countries of West Africa or figure out what they speak in Singapore (it is English, right?). The better question might be how I will handle being back in America when I don’t have so much “free” time.

Name that Cow!

2008-04-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been over nine months in country and that means a few things. First, since no one has told me they have given birth to a child of mine, which means I am in the clear on that count. More importantly for the blog, however, is that people are probably getting bored and have stopped bothering with the site. I can’t say that I blame them. Sometimes I find my own entries extremely uninspired and lacking that needed pizzazz.
They say the only way to get out of a funk is to do something different and that is exactly what I am going to do. I have better access to regular internet now that a computer with a satellite connection has been hooked up. I can thus actually access blogger, put up pictures, and create links to pages of interest. All of this will take more work, but I really do need my ads to start making more money. It sounds like the economy is not doing too well over there.
In addition, I am starting a contest that will have real impact on the lives of over a half dozen people in my village and possibly even around the country. The contest is related to the cow pictured here. I am asking my faithful readers to name this cow. Submissions can be Kyrgyz or American names. A combination of the two would be acceptable. Judges will look for creativity, suitability, and humor in the names.
A little background on the calf is needed. This calf was born less than three weeks ago and still has no name. His mother has shown no interest in naming him, even after several requests by yours truly. The mother’s name is Stupid Cow. We have another cow, besides the mother and calf. Her name is Herbert. It isn’t ironic or anything, I just didn’t look close enough before naming her, but it works.
Preference will be given to attempts at Kyrgyz names, which will be explained now. It is common that Kyrgyz people name their children after certain characteristics or objects that they admire. My oldest brother is named Akylbek, meaning “the strength of intelligence.” Girls commonly have “gul” (flower) added to the end of their names, while boys have “bek” (strength). If you have an object or characteristic that you always wanted to name an animal, now is your chance!
Submission can be made by replying to this post, sending me an email directly, or calling. I would give you a set date that these are due, but I have a feeling that would only backfire on what may be my complete disaster of a blog. So, good luck and get those entries in!

Ak Sakaldar Sotu

2008-04-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

I just want to start off by saying two things. First, the video I have posted has absolutely nothing to do with what I am writing about. I just discovered I have a movie making feature on my laptop and I am going to start using it and now that I have a decent internet connection, I will try and put up more videos, if anybody still reads this thing, anyway. Second, I really don’t have any problem with old people, regardless of what the next few paragraphs might lead one to believe. I think old people can be or do anything they want to be or do when they grow up.
Kyrgyzstan is a land of tradition. Unscathed by wrath of war, religion, and technology, it has become a society that is struggling to merge the old and the new. The skyscrapers of Bishkek clash with yurts right next door. One of the places that this striking dichotomy can be seen is, strangely enough, in the legal system. All lawyer jokes aside (even the one about the penguin and gonorrhea), Kyrgyzstan is having a serious problem bringing its traditional legal system up to date with the demands of a modern, market economy.
The tradition that can be said to be the microcosm of Kyrgyzstan’s growing pains is the Ak Sakaldar Cotu. Literally translated it means “White Beard’s Court” (I guess that requires some explaining. “Ak Sakal” or white beard is a respected term given to elderly men). This court is used primarily in rural villages where access to professional legal service, either public or private, is extremely limited. In the system, villages select an old sage to help settle legal disputes among members of the community. Usually the judge is elected, though sometimes successors are handpicked. Often these “judges” have absolutely no legal training or knowledge, though they do have legitimate power in the Kyrgyz judicial system.
The problems that can arise are pretty obvious from the start: How does this judge know the law? What happens if he makes a mistake? How can you be a judge when you are related to everyone in the village? These are all excellent questions and that is the heart of what Peace Corps would refer to as my “Secondary Project.”
Along with a local lawyer friend named Ak Jol, I am organizing a training session for these men to help them understand the intricacies of Kyrgyz law, or at least all that can be taught in a three day seminar. In addition to state and county judges, I will be having legal experts from Bishkek coming to speak about important issues facing the Ak Sakaldar Sotu court and how to make the system better. We are also setting up a small resource center (a couple of books at the most) in each one of the rayon’s (think county) eleven government offices. With any luck, these wise, old men will have a little knowledge next time they enter a court/living room to make their judgements.

Spring!!

2008-04-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well, faithful blog reader(s), spring has finally sprung here in Kochkor and it is amazing. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed the end of that cold thing we call winter as much as I have this season. The winter is a point of pride for the Kyrgyz. Though they hate the cold like you cannot imagine, they are quite proud of their ability to withstand everything that is thrown at them from late November to late March. A few cultural and personal observations now that I have 6 months without ice on my windows:

· The Kyrgyz fear the cold. It isn’t a respect thing, it is a fear thing. Winter here is more like Darth Vader than a season. It is constantly the topic of conversation in households and among strangers. My family routinely questioned me about the warmth of my room and strongly encouraged that I use my Peace Corps issued heater, even though it cost them money. I admit that I usually fell asleep right next to it.

· Consumption or exposure leads to illness. This is not a winter only thing, but it was at the center of many discussions. When I first arrived at site, I got had a bit of a stomach issue for a few days. The first question to deduce the cause of my sickness was whether I had drank anything cold, since that is the natural progression of such things. During Pre-Service Training, I had a headache one day (it was routinely above 100 degrees and we had no air conditioning) and my host mother knew it was because my shower the previous day at not been hot enough. Sitting on the ground is believed to cause infertility in women, since it can make their eggs freeze.

· It is the conveniences of America that make the winters seem less harsh. The winter here really was not that bad. I would argue that Nebraska winters are actually colder and harsher. The reason it felt so terrible was the lack of central heating, the power constantly turning off, and never being able to truly escape the cold. Walking to work in near 0 degree weather is not especially fun, but that is the only choice one has. Waking up and your breath being the first thing you see is not a motivator for the rest of the day.

· I ate things that kept me warm. Animal fat is considered a natural cure to being cold here. I was told on a regular basis that eating it would keep me warm. On a practical note, however, we did eat a lot of soups at extremely high temperatures and I do have to admit that they would definitely warm you up. One cannot underestimate the value of a hot bowl of borscht or cup of tea in the dead of winter. On a related note, I was fed a glass of bozo (a carbonated wheat drink which is delicious) everyday to help me from having to go to the bathroom as often, thus saving me exposure to the cold of the outhouse.

· We didn’t have much snow. Kochkor is known for not having much snow, though we actually received record amounts of it this year (almost 5 inches). I am perfectly fine with not having much snow, since it turns the dirt roads into nothing but mud when it melts. The lack of snow did make it seem colder than it actually was, but I will gladly take the tradeoff. Clean shoes are an important thing.

· I seriously ate only 7 different things all winter: meat/fat, potatoes, noodles, carrots, cabbage, beats, and turnips. I guess I had the occasional apple and candy from home, but really that was my diet. It really makes you appreciate the variety in your diet that you have back in America. I couldn’t find a tomato at any price in February. I guess I’ve grown used to it now.

But now it’s all over. Spring is here, vegetables are in the market place, and I no longer sleep in a sleeping bag under a quilt next to my heater. I am really looking forward to this spring more than I think any spring I have ever experienced. It is really interesting how the whole “going without” thing can make you appreciate the little things life offers you. Like fruit.

What your tax dollars are buying...

2008-04-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

For the first six months of service, I have to admit that I really didn't do much. That isn't just me being modest or anything. I really didn't have much to do. The country shuts down for the most part during the winter and since I work with an organization that is primarily tourism based, I really didn't have much of a job.
The tide is changing, however, and now I have plenty on my plate. I figured I would run through a few of my activities:

I have started an internship program with my host organization to help relieve our summer time staffing shortage and help give college age women an opportunity to see how a real, woman-run business in Kyrgyzstan operates. It is a lot of work so far, but I think the planning will work out to everyone's benefit. If anything, at least I get to wear a tie when I have meetings with the university director.
I have (with the help of my counterpart Dinara) restructured the company's inventory and sales tracking system, which were two of the biggest problems the sales side of the organization had. By simply creating two new binders to keep track of things coming in and things going, I have helped make Dinara's life much less stressful and our inventory and payment systems more accurate. Hopefully it will last.
I am working on a coupon program throughout the village to increase the visability of Altyn Kol as a place to buy quality, hand made shirdaks. Coupons are not a common thing here, but people seem to be pretty open to the idea.
I am in the planning stages of a Rayon (country) wide judge training seminar to take place in September. Why do judges need training? It takes to long to explain, but they do and I am helping to create a resource center for rural citizens and judges to help make justice a little more real in Kyrgyzstan.
I teach English classes twice a week to a class of about 10 students, most of which work in the tourism field and a functional level of English can dramatically impact their earning potential. It also helps me tremendously with my Kyrgyz, which is coming along slowly.
I am working with an organization called LARC (Legal Assistance for Rural Citizens) to help build organizational capacity through various means.

So, as you can see, I am actually doing something now and it is great. I am far from being done as a volunteer, but I am starting to see some of the benefits from my "wait and see" mentality of the first 6 months. I have a little bit of that "volunteer high" at the moment and I can only hope that it continues through the next 18 months.

PDM

2008-03-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

I am in Bishkek this weekend after finishing a week long Project and Design Management Workshop hosted by Peace Corps and your Federal Tax dollars. So, I would like to thank all of you who supported our little get together. It is greatly appreciated.
The workshop was a great success. I brought a community member from Kochkor and we designed a judge training workshop throughout the week, instantly applying what we had learned earlier in the day. All we need to do now is trick a few people into giving us some money and we basically will have saved the world. All in a day's work.
Nothing else too exciting to report. I did learn a lot of Kyrgyz while doing this seminar and I actually stumbled across something that has become my new outlook on life: in the Kyrgyz language, excited and nervous are the same word. From now on, I plan to approach life from that very same perspective: nervous is just a different kind of excited and should be treated as such. I didn't want to get too philosophical, but I thought I should share that insight.
Good luck with your tournament brackets. Georgetown losing hurt me pretty bad.

Seeing the Sights in Historic Osh

2008-03-21T20:15:00.001-07:00

It may be hard to believe, but we did do a little more that just work during our time in Osh. Even though the city was basically torn down by the Soviets, it still retains much of its 3000 year old charm. Though there aren't a ton of things that will have tourists lined up for miles, it has its share of cool things to do.

First, we toured Osh Technical University with our fellow volunteer Ed. The school itself was not terribly impressive, but it was interesting to see the Soviet approach to education. OshTU was one of the last Soviet universities built before the fall. They must be doing something right because I saw a supply and demand schedule on one of the chalk boards. The professor did mislabel the X-axis (it should be Qd, not Q), but all in all it seemed like the new what they were doing.
The next stop on our journey was the Osh outdoor bazaar. Some people have told me that it is the largest outdoor market in Central Asia. It is large and it is outdoors, but I'm not sure about the title. It seems to me that larger cities (Tashkent, Samarqand) would have larger ones, but maybe they have made the transition to indoor markets. Either way, they had all these colorful fruits that I have not seen since September. I was taking pictures of bananas! I ended up buying some Uzgen rice for my host family, which is supposed to be awesome and unavailable in Naryn. I would guess that we walked for 2 hours in the bazaar and didn't buy very much. That should tell you about the size of what we were walking through.

We walked through the city park which was filled with really scary Soviet-era park rides. I don't think pictures or words can accurately describe how freaky these things were. Next, we walked to the park near the city center. Usually this wouldn't be worth mentioning, but then we saw a camel. He was the saddest creature in the world. If a camel somehow ended up tied to a tree in an American park, he would at least be supervised by someone or someone would be interested in it. Nobody was interested. There were several children playing in the park, but nobody cared out the poor camel. We named him Simon.The Lenin statue was the next stop and it was awesome. Again, this one was claimed to be the largest of Lenin in Central Asia, but this time I think they might just be telling the truth. It was freakin' massive. It certainly did not disappoint. One of the Osh volunteers who is organizing a kite flying program in the city square is planning on tying a kite to his raised hand. We can only hope.

Last on the stop was Mount Sulayman, the third holiest site in Islam (again, according to locals). The city of Osh lies in a large valley and then this giant mount jumps up into the sky. It is certainly an interesting geographical phenomenon. On the top is a small mosque built in 1510 and a "fertility slide" that granted those who slid down healthy babies. The problem for me, however, was that no one told me what the slide was before I went up, so I slid down it a couple of times for fun. Apparently, I was supposed to slide down 7 times in order to gain fertility and healthy children. I guess I will get one or the other. I really hope I don't have mongaloid children.

Osh

2008-03-21T19:43:00.001-07:00

As some of you may or may not know, I traveled to the historic city of Osh this past week. Osh is often called by Kyrgyz as the "capitol of the South" and rightly so. It is truly a different country on the other side of the Tian Shan Mountains. There is no other way to describe it.

Why did I go? Well, if you ask anyone who works for Peace Corps or pays Federal Income Tax, I went in order to develop capacity in local nationals that I could not deliver in my original site. That, and they have this really cool statue of Lenin. The intended purpose was to give a series of seminars on business and NGO management to interested parties in the Osh region. We soon discovered, however, that nobody was interested. What can I say? We tried.

The first day was short and included a tour of Osh Technical University, a couple of classes, and a leadership roundtable seminar. Our second day included a small gathering of volunteers and their counterparts (host organization's "buddy" for the volunteer). Outside of the organizers of the event, only two volunteers and one counterpart showed up. I got to talk about my organization for a while and a few of us brainstormed on different ways to be more effective volunteers, but really no Host Country Nationals were helped in the process. The third day was supposed to center on the three visiting volunteers (Martin on the left, me in the middle, and Virginia on the right) giving extended seminars on various topics. Mine was entitled, "Using the 5 Basic Goals of Every Organization to Improve Cash Generation." Again, nobody showed up. Maybe somebody leaked the name of my lecture...

The rest of my time was spent sight seeing and meeting the volunteers in the southern region that I will probably never see again. All in all, I had a wonderful experience that was worth the 10 hour care ride with my Program Manager. Believe me, the whole ride was not this beautiful, but it did have its moments.

Hello Everybody!

2008-03-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I just got back from Osh yesterday and I am exhausted. Lots of exciting stories (mostly involving nobody showing up for any of the things I was supposed to do). I stayed up late last night to watch the first round of the NCAA tournament and I must say I am way behind on my college basketball.
Nothing else to report for now, though I will have a few stories for tomorrow. Today is Noroos, the Muslim New Year, even though it is only celebrated in like 4 countries. The Kyrgyz love their holidays...Read up on Osh through Wikipedia here.

Shopping in Kyrgyzstan

2008-03-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, there are absolutely no Wal-Marts in the entire Kyrgyz Republic. Five million people and not a single Target. A country the size of Nebraska and they can’t even fit a single Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Some of you may be completely astounded that I have managed to last as long as I have without these modern, one-stop shopping havens. How do I procure my necessary commodities? I have my ways.

The most obvious place I go for food and other things is the store. I would guess that Kochkor has roughly 50 small stores. Most of these are identical in nature: they carry the same basic stock and usually the same price. Almost every store has basic commodities: bread, cookies, juice, and vodka. If I need any one of those things, almost every store in town will be able to satisfy my desire. We have two larger stores that are a little bit diversified in the food department. The store Kumush (Silver, in Kyrgyz) has the best cheese and even has cereal. The Bereke (no idea) has peanuts, the ramen noodles I like, and even cakes! These last two stores are where I do most of my shopping.

Fruit and vegetable stands are always operating in the streets, in addition to small kiosks that have everything from photo developing and Sega Genesis to horse tranquilizers and cigarettes. These small booths are typically nothing more than a small tarp laid out with boxes of produce stacked on top of them, though some have full tables. I have yet to see this side of the retail market in full swing, since I have been here primarily through the winter months. I have been assured that these little booths multiply by a great deal in the summer. I can’t wait.

For non-edible items, we have one large store that has several shops inside of it. The place reminds me of the hardware/electronics store in a small town in the Midwest. It has everything from school supplies to TVs and cookware. If I ever get the need to just buy something, I head over to this little store and just wander around until I find something worth buying. As a last resort in Kochkor, we have a weekly bazaar that has just about anything you could want: clothes, animals, appliances, even cars. The bazaar is held on Saturdays and is an experience in and of itself. Rarely have I needed something that I couldn’t find at the bazaar.

If what I want can’t be found in Kochkor, I make the trip to the big city to get it. Bishkek, the nation’s capitol, is roughly a three hour drive from Kochkor and only costs about $8 to get there. Bishkek has several large stores that have anything a person could want. Zum has any and all electronics. Beta Stores is an exquisite, European grocery store that services the expatriate crowd. I could buy Pop-Tarts and microwave popcorn there, but they are a bit on the expensive side. Bishkek also has two “mini-malls” that are comprised mostly of small, overpriced clothing stores. I would never buy anything inside the malls, but they are like a small, therapeutic journey to remind me that I am near civilization, if only for a visit. Bishkek also boasts the Dordoi Bazaar, the largest outdoor market in Central Asia. I have yet to see it, but I’ve been told it is amazing.

If, by some chance, what I need cannot be found in Bishkek, then I just don’t need it. I have come to a great appreciation for living without since I have been here. I have learned to satisfy any needs either on my own or by ignoring them. I do not want the audience to think I suffer, just that I view things in a very different perspective than I used to. There are lots of material things that would make my day to day life just a little easier, but I would rather save up a little and travel or go to a restaurant. I guess I’m learning a little financial discipline. Not bad, I guess.

Santa

2008-03-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

You may find it odd that I am writing an article about Santa in the middle of March. Most of us are so happy that the jolly fat man has been put away for the next eight months that we can hardly contain ourselves. That was my feeling, too, until a strange thing happened on top of a mountain here in the famed Kyrgyz Republic.

In the middle of January, my family was eating a normal dinner, watching the Kyrgyz news. There was a special report on about caves or something (I really wasn’t sure what the hell they were talking about). Then, in the distance, a man in a red coat and hat planted a flag into a peak and claimed it “Mt. Santa Claus.” From then on, this year in Kyrgyzstan has been called “The Year of Santa.”

I don’t want to speculate on the existence of Santa (he isn’t real, Justin), but this whole event was orchestrated by the national tourism board as a way to increase the number of tourists that come to Kyrgyzstan. How would a year dedicated to ol’ St. Nick make that happen? To be honest, I just have to assume that I am not smart enough to comprehend such a brilliant marketing campaign. I have to accept my limitations as an intellectual being.

The idea may have started back in November, when a logistics company (I forget the name) sent out a press release regarding Santa Claus. In the statement, the company suggested, based on demographics and other variables, that Santa’s optimum center for operations would be here in Kyrgyzstan. Our access to population centers like China and India along with our proximity to Europe made us the prime candidate. While the message was merely a simple ploy to get people interested in the company, it may just be possible that they tricked the Kyrgyz government into believing Santa Claus actually lived in our neck of the woods.

The biggest problem with Santa in this country is that people don’t understand what he is or what he does. Because this is a Muslim nation, the people do not celebrate Christmas. However, because of Soviet domination, they were forced to give up their religious and ethnic celebrations. The Soviets made New Year’s Day a pillar holiday. Somehow along the way, people starting associating Kris Kringle with New Year’s. On December 31^st, there are people dressed like Santa everywhere, not to mention the “New Year’s Trees” that everyone puts up and decorates. I can only assume that the commercialization of Christmas being translated into additional tourist dollars is the goal.

I cannot put into words exactly how insanely stupid this idea is. However, I can say that my organization, Altyn Kol, has started making felt Santa Clauses to sell to various organizations in Bishkek. They are cute little buggers (Santa rides on a yak instead of a reindeer pulled sled) and I think we are making a tidy little profit off of them. In conclusion, most of the people who regularly read this blog will be getting a felt Santa next year for Christmas. At least you will know what to do with it.

Tourism Kyrgyzstan: The only way to go

2008-03-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

This blog entry is as selfish as a blog entry gets and might possibly ruffle a few feathers, but I’m gonna say what I need to say and anybody who doesn’t like it can just get over it. Okay, now that that’s done: Would somebody please come see me in Kyrgyzstan? It’s really nice, I promise you that. Since all that college taught me to defend a position, here I go:

First, if you came you would have a free tour guide who not only speaks the language of the people and knows the terrain pretty well; you would get a man who understands Americans and your needs. This well connected tour guide could take you all over the country, introduce you to people who live in the areas we would visit, and help you understand the culture from an insider’s perspective. I’d like to see some cruise beat that.

Second, you would be coming to the Switzerland of Central Asia (so it’s called). The scenery is breathtaking. The country is dominated by the Tien Shan mountain range that gives way to sweeping jailoos (pastures) that lay above the tree line and are assured to dazzle. Several mountain lakes are completely untouched by development and require a horseback ride or hike to get to them. The Kyrgyz are a people of the mountains and the mountains are sure to impress.

Third, Issyk Kul. This beautiful lake is a well developed, tourist area with completely Western amenities. Though a little (err, lot) touristy, it offers everything anyone who wants to just lie on the beach could possibly want: sand, sun, Russian girls. Only 3 hours from the airport, this destination is worth the trip in and of itself.

Lastly, I really want people to come see me and where I live. Everybody goes to Europe. Where’s the adventure in that? Everybody knows about castles and all that boring shit, but who comes to Central Asia, the land that time forgot? I make you this promise: shirdak from your adventure to Kyrgyzstan will be a whole hell of a lot more interesting than some stupid figurine of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. C’mon, live a little!

If none of that convinced you, I do have a compromise. Next spring (2009), I am planning a trip to Istanbul, Turkey. I am very flexible about dates and I think it will be an awesome time. Kyrgyz and Turk are both of the same language family and other volunteers have told me that they are so similar that you swear you know everything people are saying. Just throwing it out there. You might not get a chance like this e’er again.

Picture of shirdak display in our store:

Six Month Update

2008-03-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

Well, hello again everybody. As I seem to do every 5 blogs or so, I want to apologize for the long delay between blog posts. I’ve been going through some tough times here over the winter and blog-land wasn’t always on the top of my priority list. That and the internet just breaks down for weeks at a time here and I haven’t been to Bishkek since the end of January. With all that apologizing out of the way, let’s get down to business!

1. I have successfully completed 32.17% (37 of 115 weeks) of my term in Kyrgyzstan and am at the 25% mark for service. At this pace, I will be back in the States in no time. From what I understand, however, I won’t be able to get a loan, a car, or an apartment, so I might just stay here for a little while longer…

2. I officially, according to my last Language Proficiency Interview, speak Advanced Low Kyrgyz. I have the ability to tell cab drivers that I am not stupid and the necessary words to convince a drunk man that I am not a tree (guess which one I’ve used more. You might be surprised.) That’s a resume booster if I’ve ever heard one.

3. Amazingly enough, we have only lost four volunteers since last update, bringing our K-15 group to 41 members. Sadly, Lorenzo, a fellow Arizonan and Kochkorite, was transferred to Karakol after a little incident with his family. He’s only a few hours away, but it still hurts to lose a local.

4. Money situation is still the same: I don’t make much, but I am definitely comfortable. I save up a little money and am going to buy a shirdak with the Peace Corps emblem in the center. I am very excited, since this little purchase will cost about one month’s pay. No other exciting purchases, unless you count my awesome new Texas Longhorns sweatshirt. It was either that or Notre Dame and I couldn’t let Erin McFee across the street have the satisfaction.

5. I have still not been the victim of any crime, except for getting ripped off every time I take a taxi anywhere. The drivers always assume you have extra money because you are not Kyrgyz. My new strategy: ask for the price of a taxi whenever I walk by, even if I’m just going to work. When they give me a high price, I just walk away. Hopefully, by the time I need a taxi, they’ll know that I mean business.

6. My family has 4 cows, 9 sheep, 4 lambs, and 1 cat. Everybody is cool except for the ugly lamb (I call him Yoda) and all the sheep. I seriously don’t get what their deal is. Every time I go to the bathroom, they start baahing at me like they want me to do something. I named one of the cows Herbert. He lets me pet him and we are friends.

7. I still have not thrown up in country yet. I have come to believe that my system has gotten to the point where it can handle almost anything. I eat a lot of potatoes and noodles, with the occasional beet thrown in. I cannot put into words how excited I am that spring and fresh vegetables are so close. I saw tomatoes in the market yesterday, but they were 150 som/kg. To give you an idea, I give myself an allowance of 300 som a week. In a few months, they will be less than 30 som.

8. I’ve celebrated quite a few holidays since the last update. New Year’s was a pretty huge deal. International Women’s Day was on the 8^th of March. It was great to honor all of the country’s women by making them cook a huge feast for us men and then clean up after us. Noros is on March 21 and I will be sure to share that experience. Two of my host brothers and my Apa celebrated birthdays in January as well. I don’t remember Nurdin’s too well. Those 22^nd birthdays can really fly by.

9. I’ve been told approximately 3,879 times that I should marry a Kyrgyz woman before I leave. It is actually pretty funny how important it is to be married. First question: “Where are you from?” Second question: “What is your name?” Third question: “Are you married?” Fourth question: “Would you like to come to my house for tea and meet my daughter?” I used to be very flattered by the whole thing, until someone informed me that the man paid a dowry for the right to marry his bride in this country and the parents just assumed I have money. Once I explain that I actually owe the federal government more money than they can imagine, the leave me alone. Maybe by the time I leave, I’ll start thinking about it…

10. I am still reading quite fervently. My most recent triumph was Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I thought it was a great book. The narrative was pretty interesting and there is enough modern history to keep you guessing through the first half of the book and the second half really builds sympathy for a confused protagonist. Plenty of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll to boot (actually, none of the three, unless you count an obscure reference to Morris Day and the Time).

Concerts on TV

2008-03-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

To put it lightly, television is a little different over here than it is in the States. We have a lot of various Russian TV channels that we receive via our gigantic satellite dish. This is not DirecTV by any stretch, but it offers a solid twenty channels to choose from. The shows that are shown here are the ones that have absolutely no “moral” implications. No shows that mention premarital relations, adultery, or homosexuality. Because of the rigid standards, these Russian channels consist primarily of two things: bad American television and even worse Russian concerts.

The bad American TV can be broken down into three distinct categories: terrible cable shows, “after school specials”, and 80’s movies. The cable shows are typically science fiction or something with a lot of action and little plot. My youngest host brother, Aziz, loves the serialization of StarGate (an awesome movie from the mid 90’s). The show, however, is not nearly as awesome. The “after school special” department consists of tween type shows that are about high school life that in no way reflect actual high school life (think Saved by the Bell, except not nearly as cool). I take my afternoon tea with a show called Big Wolf on Campus which is centered on a boy who is a werewolf, but tries to lead a normal, high school life (because the idiom “on campus” doesn’t translate well, the show is called Tommy Werewolf in Russian). Needless to say, the show is pretty bad. Finally, 80’s movies fill the weekend with great memories of a simpler time: like that time Chuck Norris had to fight a drug ring and an out-of-control police robot in Canada. Sadly, these movies are not classics and are similar to the terrible cable shows in the high action/low plot arena. (If anybody can find out the name of that movie, I would really appreciate it. I walked in halfway and the Russian title translated into Kyrgyz really didn’t make much sense.)

The other category is concerts. For lack of a better phrase, I just have to say that Kyrgyz people eat that up. They love it. My Apa becomes transfixed during the Kyrgyz concerts on Sunday nights. I have to admit that I don’t mind the Kyrgyz “concerts.” I have to be careful using that word, because it is really much more like early MTV done Kyrgyz style: low budgets, an old lady VJ, and only songs about how much we should love our parents (really wishing I was making the last one up). At least the Kyrgyz concerts give me a way to practice my listening skills. The Russian concerts, however, are definitely concerts. Large auditorium, some 60 year old lady singing a bunch of songs I don’t know. It makes me laugh how much my parents enjoy some of the older performers. You can just tell that some of these singers were an integral part of their lives in the Soviet days. I guess if they enjoy it, it can’t be that bad.

There is one more category that probably doesn’t deserve its own category, but definitely deserves an honorable mention. Russia has its own Candid Camera-type series, but with a twist: all of the pranks involve beautiful, young Russian women somehow losing their clothes and Russian men reacting. Walls falling down in dressing rooms, skirts getting caught on escalators, boobs falling out while pointing. Nothing is too over the top for this production and because of Russia’s lax broadcast rules, we lucky viewers get to see the whole shebang. At first I thought it was kind of funny, but now it just creeps me out. Either I’m maturing or I’m just a stick in the mud. Not sure which.

But perhaps the worst part about the TV here is that I don’t understand any of it. We only have two Kyrgyz language channels and a solid half of their programming is in Russian. The Kyrgyz half is spoken way too fast for me to understand, though I am starting to pick up on pieces during the news. My favorite show, by far, is called Kermebet Kocho (Kermebet’s Street). It is an animated UNICEF program designed to teach kids things about safety and health in a “fun” way. I like it because the two main characters and their crazy cast of friends speak very slowly. Even with my limited language skills, I learned not to throw firecrackers at other people.

In all, I have to say that I do not watch nearly as much television as I used to, which I would say is a good thing. My family does sit around the dinner table and watch TV not so differently than most American families. They may have a lot fewer channels, but they certainly enjoy a good evening around the boob tube.

Dads: A Comparative Analysis

2008-03-05T17:28:00.000-08:00

I was going to hold off on this blog until Father’s Day in June, but there are just too many juicy tidbits of fatherly goodness to compare with each other. Every father is unique in his own fathering style, even within his own children. Men, however, often share many of the same characteristics. I used to think this was more of an effect of “nurture,” or our surroundings. I figured American men liked beer because that is what their dads drank and so on. Recently I have come to discover that either all men across the globe have a lot in common or I just happened to get a host father that reminds me of my old man.

This idea first crossed my mind one day when we were watching TV in our living room back in October. My brother Aziz loves this show called “Stargate SG-1” which is a serialization of the mid-nineties movie “Stargate.” Anyway, we were watching the show and all of a sudden I heard a snort and then small lip-smack from my right. I turned my head and saw my host father (Ata, Kyrgyz for Dad) with his eyes closed and adjusting his posture in the chair to make sleeping more comfortable. I looked over at Aziz and he just laughed. He later told me that this was a regular occurrence and over the past few months I have learned as much.

This moment is important because, as anyone who knows my father knows, he routinely does the same. The snoring from Ata is a little more subdued (though just about anything is subdued compared to Dad’s chair-snoring). It struck me as amazing that two men, who grew up on opposite sides of the world, have the same television habits, namely sleeping. They both are big fans of trying to find movies on TV. Dad has the luxury of HBO and about 7 million channels. Ata has a son who gets up and changes the channel (yes, even me on occasion).

Is that it, though? Hardly. Both are pretty funny drunks, though I have to admit my comprehension of Ata goes down pretty fast if I’m drinking with him (drinking loosens the tongue, but clogs the ears). Both have insane cures for illness: Dad swears by cold bacon wrapped around the throat and drinking Vicks mixed with water; Ata is a fan of hot water mixed with jam and wrapping several layers of clothing around whatever hurts to keep it warm. Both pout just a little bit when they don’t get a small thing they want exactly how they want. The amount of puttering by these two men combined is probably longer than the twenty three and a half years I’ve been on this planet. They are both a solid 4 inches shorter than me and I’m pretty sure at least one of them kidnapped his wife.

But probably the thing they both have most in common is that they are both my dad. Though neither had much of a choice in what exactly they were getting for a son, they both are pretty protective and caring about me. That, or they are both really good at faking it. Yet another thing they have in common.

Hello, again

2008-02-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

Hospitality Kyrgyzstan

2008-01-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

One of the first things I learned about the Kyrgyz people was their hospitality. To put it mildly, they make us Americans look like jerks. The Kyrgyz people take hospitality to a new level. They take the practice so seriously that it borders on unfathomable. Let me give some examples.

I have lived with my current host family for about 3 months now. They are loving and kind. They are constantly concerned about my level of comfort: whether I am hungry, thirsty, cold, sick, confused, bored, missing my family, or any other thing that could bother me. Granted, a big part of that is language: one of the first things you learn in any language is how to express yourself from a basic standpoint. Sometimes I wonder whether it is just a way to fill in the silence of my presence. Then, my brother Azamat (who speaks great English) will come home from university and proceed along the same lines of questioning. Then, right before he leaves, he translates for my parents to ask whether I need anything. Though I am certainly not complaining, it is obvious that they want to make sure I am comfortable in their house.

The part that is most strange to me (or at least used to be) comes when visiting another person’s house. No matter how mundane the reason for a visit, a huge spread of jams and salads are put out, only to be put back after the 15 minute visit has concluded. If staying for dinner, more food is constantly thrust upon your plate until you almost cannot take anymore (and then the Besh Barmak comes out!). Drinking alcohol is almost mandatory because the host will not understand why you wouldn’t want to have your fill of everything! Tea is refilled time and time again, regardless of how bad you have to pee. Food and drink are literally forced upon you. It is almost impossible to fully convey this message, since such a practice is so unheard of in the United States. We like our guests to certainly have their fill, but we almost never make them eat anything!

Then, there is the take home bag. After any visit, you are compelled to take a bag of food home with you. Sometimes it is merely a bag of candies or some fruit. Usually, it consists of meat that was not consumed during the meal. This may seem odd, but really the meat would just go to waste if nobody took it home.

Some of you may recall my experience at a cousin’s wedding. I made the mistake of enjoying the first course of the feast (these little sandwich like things called samsa). After the fourth round of food and probably the tenth or twelfth of vodka, I was ready to throw up for more reasons than usually required for the act.

All of this being said, being a weak American has forced me to develop some strategies to avoid too much discomfort

Besh Barmak

2008-01-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

I’ve written before about the food here in Kyrgyzstan, but I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I don’t know if it is the fact the I get home cooked food every night or I’m just losing my mind, but I love the food here! Plov, manti, pelman, soups, and lagman. But above all things in the Kyrgyz menu, one item stands above the rest.

Every other item eaten in Kyrgyzstan, so I am told, has roots in some other culture. Plov comes from the Uzbeks and most of the soups are from the Russians. Besh Barmak, however, is a Kyrgyz as it gets. This dish is not just a meal. It is an experience. To put it basically, Besh Barmak is a noodle dish served with sheep meat and onion. But it goes a little deeper than that.

The hungry eaters are sat down at the table. The youngest boy comes around with a bucket and a kettle of warm water to wash everybody’s hands with (this is necessary). After cleansing, the woman of the house brings out a large plate of meat, usually the legs of the animal, though sometimes rib meat is used. Each person grabs a piece and proceeds to eat the meat by cutting it off the bone. Usually, the broth left over from the cooking is brought out to be drunk. This is called Shorpo. The lone exception is the man of the house, who cuts the largest piece of meat into small, pea-sized pieces on a large plate. Once he is done, long, Ramen-like noodles that have been cooking in an onion broth are brought out and the two are mixed, along with additional onions (if desired). Once the dish has been thoroughly mixed, each person grabs their portion with his hands and puts it on his plate. The dish is then eaten by hand. After everyone has had their fill, the youngest boy again comes around with the water and bucket to help everyone clean up.

Besh Barmak, literally translated, means “five thumbs.” Believe me, I have made plenty of “but I only have two thumbs” jokes. It really doesn’t go over as well as one would think. According to legend, all of our fingers used to be the same length. One day, however, the thumb said to the other fingers, “Let’s go steal a sheep from that shepherd and have a feast!” The index finger said, “I think that is a good idea. Let’s do it!” The middle finger said, “God sees everything and will punish you for your wicked ways!” The ring finger said, “God sees nothing, but I do not want to be caught and punished!” Finally, the pinkie finger said, “God sees nothing and we should steal the sheep!” After God heard this, he punished the fingers by making some longer than the others, according to the goodness/badness of their actions.

So, while Besh Barmak is not my favorite dish here, it certainly is one of the most fun. There is a certain camaraderie among those who eat it together. It is a great end to most parties. Possibly my favorite phrase here has been, “The party isn’t over ‘til the Besh Barmak comes out!” So true.

Christmas/Being bitten by a dog

2008-01-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

Things had been a little too normal around here. Work had been progressing normally and family life was pretty much just as it has always been. The days were starting to get shorter and the nights a bit colder, but nothing out of the ordinary was occurring. Blogs had been getting harder to write. Who wants to know about a normal day?

The Christmas season, pretty much came and went. The whole holiday hustle and bustle just doesn’t exist here. Kyrgyzstan, being a predominantly Muslim country, does not celebrate Christmas. I had a hard time getting into the whole Christmas spirit without a TV shouting at me to buy something. No late nights closing up the store, no credit card debt, and no Santa Claus. To be honest, the day kind of snuck up on all of us. Before we knew it, Christmas was here.

My Christmas Day started off pretty normal. My friend Erin and I decided to make an American breakfast that morning (well, kind of American. She’s a vegetarian, but don’t hold it against her). Eggs over easy, hash browns, kiwi, and hot bread got the day off to a good start. We decided to head to the post office since we knew we had packages. Upon arrival, we realized we had a lot of packages, including one for another volunteer named Lorenzo. Since Lorenzo wasn’t feeling well, we decided to make a Christmas house call.

Lorenzo enjoyed his package and the company. Erin and I left, but soon separated when she expressed a desire to use the internet in the café on our way home. I proceeded on my way homeward with my two packages in hand. I walked for about 15 minutes and finally made it to my street. I was humming along with quite a bit of excitement, wondering what could be in the boxes (truth be told, I peeked at the Monopoly game). All of a sudden, I felt a sudden presence on my left leg. I turned around and sure enough, a dog was biting me. After dropping the packages and a couple F-bombs, I swung around to kick the mutt, but he had already scurried away. I picked up the packages went limped the 200 yards left to get home.

Once home, my dad helped me wash the bite and treat the wound. There wasn’t much damage: I was wearing jeans and the dog hadn’t actually pierced my skin. I was bleeding, so I called the Peace Corps doctor to be on the safe side. Sure enough, Peace Corps decided to error on the side of caution and I got a free vacation to Bishkek for three days to get rabies shots! Anyway, I went to my room and unwrapped the presents. They were wonderful.

That night, Erin’s host family had a Christmas dinner for us. While it wasn’t a ham, it was very nice. Her mother was quite determined to make sure that we felt at home. They had a small gift exchange and we had a cake (which is a big deal here). The evening was delightful. Afterwards, I came home, took a few pain pills, and packed for my trip to Bishkek. Pretty much a normal Christmas!

To end, I would like to thank everyone that sent boxes (listed in order they arrived): Stephanie; Mom and Dad; Karla, Inee, and Laurie; and Yong. I would also like to shame those of you who didn’t: Darrel Moreland. It really does me good to get things in the mail. It is just nice to know that people back home are thinking of me!

Election Day

2008-01-05T21:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I want to start by apologizing for the previous entry. Some of you may have noticed that I was a little annoyed by the whole election process. Democracy is a process that every country must find its way through to fruition. I guess I just wish they could do it a little quieter.

Election Day has come and gone. While I don’t have the results, I can tell you that Election Day is like a holiday over here. Everybody has guests over to talk about what and who they saw, family members come from remote villages in order to cast their votes, and the whole village comes to life. So, what did I do on Election Day? Well, I stayed home and helped my Peace Corps buddy Erin make cookies. Peace Corps told us several times that going out was not a good idea from a Safety and Security standpoint and that we should avoid being anywhere near an event that might makes us appear to be taking a political stance of any kind. Thus, we made snickerdoodles!

The remainder was written several weeks later once results were known.

It appears that the President’s party, Ak Jol, was the big winner of the election, almost taking a majority of seats by itself. Turan and SDRP both took significant pieces as well. The big surprise, however, was that the Ata Meken party did not receive the required 10% of the vote in the Batken Oblast and thus failed to get representation in Parliament.

Shouting Cars

2008-01-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

Well, election season is in full swing here in the ol’ Kyrgyz Republic and I have to say that I am impressed. Campaign managers have managed to get on my nerves here the same way they do in the United States. So much for that brilliant plan of being out of the country in 2008!

The election here is not about a single man, but about the election of parties to fill the parliament that was left vacant by the countrywide Referendum that was passed in October. Instead of a certain person to elect, voters are asked to vote for a party based on their platform. The parties will later then select the members of parliament based on the percentage of votes they received. If a party gets 25% of the vote, they get 25% of the seats in parliament.

There is one catch, however. In order to receive any representation, a party must receive at least 10% of the vote in every oblast (state, of which we have seven).

There are, from what I gather, 17 parties that are running for parliament. The “Ak Jol” or “right path” party is backed by the President and clearly has the most financial backing. “Ata Meken” (no idea what it means) is certainly the loudest. “Turan” or “Birth” party has the most professional commercials, though that really isn’t much of a compliment. The Socialist Democratic Republic Party (SDRP) and the Communist Party both certainly have some footing in the community.

I want to point out that I have not mentioned a thing about anybody’s platforms. I have done this for two reasons: first, Peace Corps says I’m not allowed to and second because I really don’t care to know. As far as I can tell, which isn’t saying much, none of the parties are talking about issues or what they want for the country. Sadly, neither are any of the voters.

The campaigning here reminds me of what used to happen in the 1950’s (or modern day Iowa). The parties drive into towns and throw a huge party, put up some signs, and have some people drive around with megaphones attached to their cars shouting propaganda while you are trying to eat dinner. I don’t know if I would be more or less irritated if I actually knew what the cars were saying! Either way, I’m definitely tired of the process and cannot wait for it to be over.

Bana!

2008-01-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

I’m sure many of you are interested in how exactly things work over here. I’ve had the toilet questions a few times; usually food and preparation are discussed. The one thing that I do enjoy here, possibly more than those other to things combined, is Bana.
What is Bana you might ask? Well, in Kyrgyz it is called “Moncho.” Still don’t know? It is a steam bath that was imported here by the Russians long ago and I have to admit that it is freaking awesome.

To answer your first question: no, I do not get to shower/bathe every day. You could probably substitute the word “day” in the previous sentence with the word “week” and it would still be accurate. Though my house does have running water (kind of), it is certainly not hot. Thus, we don’t really have a place where a bath or shower could really take place, except for the Bana.

The room itself is very basic, maybe 3 meters by 3 meters. It has benches built into the walls on two sides that present themselves as you enter from the antechamber that keeps you from having to undress outside. One corner is consumed by what, from the inside, appears to be a long, plaster box attached to the wall with a huge metal box sitting on top of it. There is a small light in the exact opposite corner that allows you to bana in the light.

From the outside, a fire can be created and stoked inside the plaster box. The heat seeps into the room through the metal box that also happens to be filled with water. A small layer of rocks sits next to the tin so that the heat to be better kept in the room. Once inside the bana, one can poor water on the rocks to create extra steam to really make the room sizzle. While there, you can use the boiling water (mixed with cold from outside) to clean yourself from head to toe. This is an opportunity not to be taken for granted.

During the summer, the bana disappears for what is called a “douche.” (Really, I’m not making that up.) We best refer to this as a sun shower, where water is heated by being in the sun all day and then the bath is taken late in the afternoon. I don’t know if I wrote about these previously, but I took one probably every other day during my pre-service training. Believe me, the water gets plenty hot in Kyrgyzstan brutal continental summers.

I don’t know if it is bana’s fault that I love it so much, but I don’t care. Maybe it is the fact that I get to just relax and take some “me” time. Maybe it is the fact that being clean is actually a state I prefer to be in compared to its alternative. Either way, I can tell you all that I love bana and you can’t take that away from me.

Hi Everybody!

2007-12-26T01:20:00.000-08:00

22 to go...

2007-11-22T02:19:00.000-08:00

As of Wednesday the 21st, I have served exactly two months as a Peace Corps volunteer. It may seem like a long time, but constant fear of starvation and murder has made the time fly by! I figured this would be another good time to get a few points out there just so people know exactly what has been going on with me in Kyrgyzstan in a more convenient package for your on-the-go lifestyle:

1. I have officially completed 17.39% of my adventure (20 of 115). Only 22 months left, but two of those are February, so they barely even count. The biggest problem now is trying to figure out what I’m going to do when I get back. I’ll start sending my resume to those interested. You know where to find me…

2. My Kyrgyz probably isn’t much better than it was when I left PST, but I do know some cool new words. “Oshonduktan” means therefore, like “I woke up late, therefore I am late for work.” My director was so impressed she wasn’t even mad!

3. We have lost seven more people since last update, bringing the total number of K-15s to 45. That means over 4% of volunteers nationwide are right here in my village. And to think, we thought we were in the middle of nowhere!

4. I currently make about 1/8 of the income I made in the United States and I don’t even know what to spend all this money on. To put it simply, there really isn’t much to buy here. I did buy one of those cool water boiling kettles. You know, the ones that plug into the wall and then snap into the little base and boils two liters of water in about 3 minutes? You don’t? Well, those of us who don’t have hot running water enjoy those kinds of things. Thank you very much.

5. I have still not been the victim of any crime (knock on wood), unless of course you count the piece of crap extension cord I paid 200 som for that literally melted itself together when I tried to use my new water boiler. Now I have a beautiful piece of artwork to liven up my trash bin.

6. I have hit a dog in the face with a rock. He had it coming though and I didn’t really mean it. It was dark and he was barking, so I stepped down and picked up a rock. Usually, that’s all it takes, but he stepped toward me. When I yelled “Bish” at him and stepped toward him, he came closer so I through the rock about two feet in front of him and it bounced up and hit him in the head. In retrospect, I feel bad, but man it felt good at the time.

7. I have not thrown up in country yet (again, knock on wood), but I have come close. I have threatened having to throw up in order to get out of drinking more. Apparently, it is really shameful to throw up in front of anybody that isn’t family, so most Kyrgyz men will let you slide by without drinking if you pull the “Tus” card.

8. I celebrated the country’s second biggest holiday with my family at the end of October, called “Orozo Aite.” The holiday is the end of Ramadan and families are required to go to seven other houses and eat. My street is either incredibly social with each other or they hate everyone who isn’t them, because our eight families hung together and went house to house until we had all fulfilled our requirements. There was a lot of food. I then went with some other volunteers to more houses, bringing my total to eleven. I’m gonna go for the PC record of 27.5 next year. I guess you only get half credit if explode in the last house.

9. My Kyrgyz friends probably equal my American friends in Kyrgyzstan count, if animals are included. Our family has two cats who I helped name. One is called “Chong Bash” or “Big head” in English (seriously, the biggest I have seen on a cat not featured on Discovery Chanel) and the other is simply “Cat.” It doesn’t mean anything in Kyrgyz. I just met our new goat today. He is much nicer than this new asshole sheep we have. I apologize for the language, but that guy is really a dick. It might be mean to say this, but I can’t wait till I get to watch him die. I will enjoy every bite.

10. I have been told officially 1,439 times that I need to marry a good Kyrgyz girl while I’m here. When I tell the people that I have someone waiting back in America (and yes, I do that Stephanie), the men tell me that I need a girl in every country and the women tell me that their daughter is probably better. In any circumstance, I get free tea and cookies out of the deal usually, so that’s nice.

11. The reading list continues, though not quite as long as before, since I’ve started watching movies and hanging out with human beings: The new Alan Greenspan book, Silk Road to Ruin (Great book if you are interested in Central Asia and have a sense of humor), Free to Choose, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Wuthering Heights, Critical Mass (not recommended), tons of The Economist (thank you sweetie) and Newsweek (thank you federal tax payers), and getting ready to dive into Mayhew’s London Labor and London Poor.

My next post will be officially during the Christmas shopping season. I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone to be nice to their local retailers. Most of them don’t want to be there any more than you do and their jobs definitely sucks way more than yours. Unless you work in retail. Then it sucks just as much.

New Office!!!

2007-11-22T02:18:00.000-08:00

As some of my more faithful readers may remember, my office was torn down my second week at work (See: The Most Legitimate Excuse to Miss a Meeting, Ever). Well, what goes down must come up and I have a new office, kind of. The attachment to the old building the required the other old building to be torn down is almost finished and, in good Kyrgyz style, we had a party to celebrate the new office.

Literally translated as “Building Birthday Party,” this little celebration has several interesting (some funny) rituals that I actually wish we did more often in the US. This same celebration is repeated for homes as well, though on a much larger scale. The most important of the ritual revolves around the smell of the new building. It is important that as soon as possible, “borsok” should be made in the building to create the smell of a home and of good times. “Borsok” is essentially fried dough (think flat doughnut with no sugar) cooked in oil with onions. They are made especially for parties, so it is important that the first meal in the new building be that of a party, so that the smell of this “good time” gets into the walls and remains forever. Personally, I love fresh borsok, so I really didn’t care why it was made, I just ate and kept my mouth shut.

After the smell has thoroughly permeated the room, and we all come to sit down and eat, a few passages from the Koran are read to bless the new place and to ask for protection against any dangers that could destroy it. After that, we all ate and drank tea to welcome our new little building into the world

Personally, I am quite excited for the new building. The women started working with the World Bank before I got here and it appears they have secured the funds to procure office equipment, including computers and desks, even possibly internet access at our office! With the new office almost complete, the workers are moving on to remodeling the “store” side of our complex. The basic plan is to knock out a wall that created two separate rooms in the old building (one for the office that customers had to walk through, another for the store). I am using all of that grand Target experience to help create the ideal shopping experience for our future customers and my director seems very interested in my perspective on layout. I knew those couple of months on the planogram team would come in handy someday (don’t be concerned if you don’t get the joke. You should be happy you don’t.)! Anyway, I am told they already know where my desk is going to be. Besides the disappointment of not having my own office, the building seems to be going great.

About that whole "Legislative Branch" thing...

2007-11-22T02:17:00.000-08:00

This entry will be a little difficult to write due to some of the restrictions of Peace Corps service, but I think it is necessary to write it none the less to let people know what is going on in the most under reported region in the world. According to the Peace Corps Kyrgyz Republic 2007-2008 Handbook for Volunteers, “Material that might be viewed (on websites) as disparaging to the host country or as politically sensitive by the host government could create significant problems for the Peace Corps program in that country.” Thankfully, it does not say that politically sensitive topics cannot be discussed, just that they cannot be considered “political activity.” That being said, here is my attempt to explain what is going on here as politically sensitive-ly as possible.

In March 2005, the Kyrgyz Republic had what they now refer to as the “Tulip Revolution.” Then President Arkiev was forced from office as hundreds of thousands of protesters lined up in Ala-Too square to demand answers from what had been an ineffective government. Things never turned violent and eventually President Bakiev came to power.

Since the Revolution, things have not changed much. Corruption is still a major part of daily life (thank you, Communism) and the economy is not growing at the pace that is needed for the country to enter even the “developing” world category, even though it has infrastructure thanks to the Soviets that should vault it into the category automatically. Given all of this, it was decided that the executive branch was not the only one that needed a complete reversal of power and in October of this year, the entire parliament was dissolved. That’s right. The entire country voted the entire parliament out of office.

While I will not go into the multiple reports, both anecdotal and from the media, that there were serious objections to the validity of the process, it is worth noting that this country currently has no check on the President’s power. Granted, this isn’t too big a deal. Mr. Bakiev does not have a huge military nor does he poses power over anything that could cripple the world or even Kyrgyz economy. He does, however, currently have more power than his predecessor did. Even Arkiev had to deal with a freely elected parliament.

Political parties have been given until this week to officially register with the government and select candidates to run for the open seats (all of them) in parliament. The elections are set for December 16 (or 18, I can’t remember). One party is meeting right next door to my work and the people always look so angry. I don’t really know if that has anything to do with anything, but it makes it hard to get work done when people keep walking in accidently and then just staring at us until we tell them they have the wrong office.

I haven’t noticed anything terribly different since the dissolution. There is talk of a new constitution and I don’t know whether anything will be done with it until after the new parliament is installed. Easily said, there are lots of conspiracy theories in the air and it doesn’t take much to imagine a few 1984/Turkmenbashi characteristics coming to life (if you don’t know Turkmenbashi, Wikipedia him. It is worth the read).

Alright, that’s it. Hopefully I won’t get kicked out of Peace Corps for this. I really suggest reading up on the politics of this region. There are some characters in Central Asia that definitely do not get the attention they deserve because they don’t have enough oil. That, and anyone who knows the difference between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan automatically gets a free drink on me when s/he comes to visit!

Work, work, work

2007-11-22T02:16:00.000-08:00

It is a perfectly valid question: What exactly is it you are doing over there? Why are you there? I probably have asked that question of myself on more than one occasion. We all have pretty grand illusions about what exactly it is Peace Corps volunteers do. I will try and explain this by describing my work and other projects I am (attempting) to work on.

I work for an organization called Altyn Kol (literally translated, “Golden Hand”). My organization is a small, nonprofit business that makes traditional Kyrgyz handicrafts, namely shirdaks. Shirdaks are basically felt carpets that are ornately decorated in crazy swirly patterns (see picture). The organization’s goals are (1) to export Kyrgyz culture to the wider world through the art; (2) to pass down the art of shirdak making to the next generation; and (3) to give women a chance to be economically independent and, as a personal corollary, the ability to become equals in this society. Currently, the organization is a loose cooperative, where the members who produce the shirdaks have some power of management to set prices and appoint the director, but in practice it is very rarely player out in such a way. The organization pays above “Fair Trade” prices to all of its craft masters and all shirdaks are one-of-a-kind.
So, what do I do? Still, good question. Technically, I am a Sustainable Organizational and Community Development Volunteer. That means my mission is to make this organization more sustainable. Since the primary goal of every business is survival (ahead of even profits), I am essentially a business advisor to the organization. Though I have been here for over two months, my job is far from steady and I am still in the process of figuring out what exactly the organization needs.

Most of the “problems” that the women at Altyn Kol have asked me about are typical of any business. Quality control processes are needed. More customers are needed. Better customer relations are needed. More efficient systems for order fulfillment are needed. None of these things are exceptions in the business world. Moreover, they are really what every company in every developed nation deals with every day. The difference here is the culture of the organization and the community. To put it bluntly, rocking the boat is not exactly what makes people popular around here.

All that said, I am really trying to observe right now. I have convinced the women that we cannot make good business decisions until we have good business information. To put on my list of accomplishments (somewhat) is a marketing survey that I wrote to help us better understand who buys our shirdaks at our semi-annual exhibition this Thanksgiving weekend. I have been slowly teaching my counterpart, Dinara, about market segmentation and how to better focus our limited resources. All of this is really a foreign language for them, but believe me they are willing to accept help and that is definitely more than I can say for a lot of my friends scattered throughout the country.

The second part of my job title (Community) requires me to work to make my entire community better by working with others outside of my primary assignment. As is typical of government, this extra work is referred to as “Secondary Projects.” Sexy name, I know, but there is more to it than just a fancy etymology. I have started making friends in the community to see who I can have work together to make this little village a better place. I have found a few people I would be willing to help here in the area.

I have a lawyer friend who is planning a judge training session in April and I have agreed to help. The law has changed so many times here that it is necessary to educate local judges on what the law is and where there jurisdiction ends. Many of the judges in rural communities (and I mean rural), have no formal legal training and are often just wise men selected by their fellow villagers for their wisdom and (mostly) age. The training is necessary to help the legal system work the way it’s supposed to.

It may seem to some that I am really not doing a lot here, and I cannot argue that, so far, I really don’t have many accomplishments to brag about. To be honest, just getting through the day without embarrassing myself too badly is usually considered a success. During Pre-Service Training, I heard more than a hundred times, “Learn the language and stay healthy, the rest will fall into place.” I guess we’ll have to see…

The kind of excitement you can only imagine

2007-11-22T02:15:00.001-08:00

My day to day life here in Kyrgyzstan, obviously varies quite significantly from that of my previous American routine. In general, things are much slower here, but things also take a lot longer to do. This complex dichotomy gives the basic structure of what I do on a daily basis.
Let me start by saying I wake up whenever I feel like it. I know that sounds a little odd and possibly even lazy, but it is the truth. I don’t sleep in until noon or anything like that, but if I feel tired at 8 AM, I just roll over and go back to sleep. Monday through Friday my office does not open until 10 AM, so that is the earliest I can report to work. The problem with reporting at 10 AM is that no one is ever there at 10 AM and if by chance anybody is, it is only one or two people that I don’t necessarily need to work with. In short, I usually get to work around 11.

Before work, once I decide to get up, I go through a pretty regular routine. I get cleaned up a little, brush my teeth, shave if necessary, and so on. All of these things take time. I don’t have a shower, so I generally use baby wipes and baby powder to keep myself clean during the week, taking an occasional “bucket bath” to keep me somewhat sanitary. Shaving requires hot water, so I have to go put a kettle on the coal stove and wait for a good while for it to get hot. All of that, plus getting dressed, runs close to 45 minutes. In the States, I could shower and be ready for work in under 20.

After getting ready, I go have breakfast. Breakfast is not exactly a big meal here in Kyrgyzstan. Usually it consists only of tea and bread. Those of you who know me well, know I prefer to have a decent size breakfast. I usually will have peanut butter and bread, coffee, some cheese, fruit (if I have any), and sometimes a bowl of Ramen Noodles if I know I am going to be busy that day. All of this is consumed while I watch MTV on our satellite dish.

After breakfast, if I am still running early for work, I go back to my room and putter around. Sometimes I read, sometimes I clean. Often I will write my letters and blogs in this free time. When it gets close enough to go to work, I leave for my 25 minute walk to work. On the way, I usually stop at the internet café to see if the internet is working and free, two events that rarely converge. If it is, I will jump on and do the whole email thing.

By the time I get to work, everyone is there and we begin to get down to business. I will discuss it in greater detail in a different entry. Most days we are done with work between 3 PM and 4 PM. I walk home, maybe stopping to pick up some groceries from the market. Twice a week I have language class after work. My Kyrgyz isn’t going to get better all by itself!

I get home between 4 PM and 6PM, depending on whether I have class. The 90 minutes before dinner are usually spent just winding down: reading, playing on the computer, maybe watching a movie. Dinner is at 7:30 and I eat with the family in the other house of the compound. We usually hang out and watch TV for a little while afterwards. My little brother and I will look over his homework and compare our notes on the other’s language. Aziz doesn’t like English. I don’t blame him. I retire to my room around 10. If I am still awake, I’ll watch a movie, but usually I start getting ready for bed and read a little until I fall asleep.

That’s about it. Exciting, I know. Weekends are just the same, except replace work with laundry or with absolutely nothing. The other volunteers and I try to entertain each other as best we can, but life can get a little stagnant over here, especially when you think about the fact that we don’t make much money and even if we did, there really isn’t anywhere to spend it here in the village. You just have to find creative ways to occupy yourself. Cooking, we have found, is an excellent way to keep us entertained and busy for at least a few hours on the weekends. Who knew I would ever be excited to do dishes just because I had nothing better to do?

MEHИH YЙ-БθЛθM

2007-11-22T02:13:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I live in Kochkor, Naryn Oblast, Kyrgyzstan. I could ask some rather daunting existential questions about what that really means and hope that the metaphysical discussion that ensues assures me that I am actually at home with my family, but that probably wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as just talking about my family. That, and this way I can put some pictures up, too!

In Kyrgyzstan, the family is sacred but ubiquitous. When dealing with strangers on the street, you refer to them as “bi-kay” (brother) or “A-Jay” (sister). I refer to all the women as “Your Name A-Jay.” My actually family, however, is a little bit smaller than “everyone.” I have a father, mother, and four brothers. Do not fear, though. I am handling my own in this new experience of sibling bonding (I do love you Justin, but c’mon, you left when I was pretty young).

My Ata’s (dad’s) name is Cuban (pronounced with a long u). To be honest, I am not exactly sure what he does for a living, though he certainly does do something. I do know that he works at a school (or multiple, possibly), but he makes sure people know he is not a teacher. He carries a binder with him to work and sometimes he runs through numbers at home after work. I have decided to offer a reward for the first person to guess what exactly it is that he does. Once I figure it out, I will pay out. Anyway, he is an extremely warm man who still insists that
my little brothers do everything for me.

My Apa’s (mom’s) name is Satagul. She is a Kyrgyz language teacher and, essentially, a vice principal at one of the schools in Kochkor. She also is one of the primary cooperative members at Altyn Kol. I’m pretty sure that is why I am living with them, since my work had to come up with somewhere for me to live before they got a volunteer. She is a very sweet lady and she even made me slippers when I told her I couldn’t find any big enough for me here (size 12 doesn’t really translate well over here). She is a great cook and every time I pay her my monthly rent, she gives me a speech about how I need to ask for help more often. Oh, and she is quite wee.

Brothers in Kyrgyzstan are separated into two very distinct groups. The aforementioned “bi-kay”s, which are older brothers, and “Ee-nee”s, which are the younger brothers. I have one of the prior and three of the latter. I do not know my older brother. I have yet to meet him as of press time and to be honest cannot remember his name. My oldest “Ee-nee” is Nurdin. He is about 6 months my junior and though it feels weird, I am to refer to him as an inferior in the language (Note: see entry on language). Nurdin just recently bought a car and is currently a taxi driver from Kochkor to Bishkek and lives with us.

Azamat, 18, is currently studying foreign languages and computers at university in Bishkek. To be honest, his English is pretty much on par with mine and I’m pretty sure he has read more books in my mother tongue. He is a very sharp kid, even though he likes 50 Cent (the rapper, for anybody who doesn’t know him). Aziz, 13, is the youngest brother and the one I hang out with the most. He is in 7th form (grade) and doesn’t mind repeating things 20 times before I understand it. He’s a pretty normal kid who likes to tinker with his bike and doesn’t always like doing his chores. He does whatever I need done though, because I am his “bi-kay.” I try not to abuse the power, but sometimes I just don’t want to help clean up!

Seriously, 1000 Apologies

2007-11-22T02:07:00.000-08:00

First off, I want to apologize to everyone for the lack of blog entries over the past month. I would like to come up with excuses that were somewhat valid, but alas I have no one to blame but myself. The internet in Kochkor works on a fairly regular basis, I have free time daily, and there is always plenty to write about.

To be honest, though, I really could say all three excuses could work. The internet is always down or somebody else is using the one computer whenever I go to the café. The new Alan Greenspan book is over 500 pages long and that definitely took some time (by the way, thanks Mom and Dad!). And finally, material isn’t as easy to come by as it once was. Things have started to normalize for me here, even though by Western standards things aren’t normal at all. I got into an argument with a sheep the other day. How often did that happen to me in the States (for the record, I won the argument)? I guess my point is that things don’t seem strange to me anymore and what used to hit me as an idea for a blog entry have recently just become a part of life. That either means things aren’t as crazy here as they were or I am getting adjusted. Most people I talk to make it seem like the later is more likely the case.

All that being said, there is no excuse for leaving my family and friends to wonder what is going on in my daily life. I hope I that all of you who have been patiently checking for my updates are happy to see the process resume and that you will please let the others who gave up hope long ago that I am back and will try my hardest to complete the third goal of the Peace Corps: “To educate Americans about the peoples and cultures of host nations.”

So, without further ado, I will start writing some more blogs and taking more pictures to send over the ol’ internet. Keep responding to the blog or sending emails. It is definitely a pick up in the spirit when I get an email I am not expecting. Stay safe and warm everybody and I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Update on Me

2007-10-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

To be honest, this whole blog thing has started to make me feel a combination of narcissism and anxiety at the same time. “Why?” you might ask. Well, either lots of people are reading the blog, and are loving it, or nobody is reading it and I am wasting my time. I’m really not sure which one is true, by I guess I should just continue loving myself and not worry about whether anybody thinks I’m funny or entertaining (Note: Does anybody think that?). I figured I would dedicate this blog to letting everyone know that all things considered, I’m doing pretty well.

Physically, I feel fine. I have lost a bit of weight since I got here, but I don’t think it is an unhealthy amount. I won’t say how much because either my mom or the Peace Corps Medical Staff may be reading and I just don’t want to have that discussion with either entity. I certainly eat regularly (reference previous entry) and I get plenty of exercise since my work is a good 20 minute walk from my house. I probably don’t eat as many fruits and vegetables as I should, but I never did, so why change now? I still have all the teeth I came here with and nothing is broken (that I am aware of). I don’t get to bathe as often as I like (I am going on two weeks since my last sauna/bath) but I try to make up for it with baby wipes and powder. Besides that, I’m as fit as a fiddle.

Mentally, I’m doing pretty well. I don’t think I’m going crazy, but you never can tell. I do have to admit that I really do not have enough to keep me occupied right now, but hopefully that will change as soon as I can get into a steady work habit. My nights are very cold and sometimes that keeps me from getting the optimal amount of sleep I need, but that is not terribly bad either. Besides that, there really isn’t much going on upstairs!

Spiritually, I’m doing great. All the volunteers and locals here have been great and I have already formed a good network if I do need any help. My language is improving almost daily, so I have a great motivation to keep learning and applying myself. My family is absolutely amazing and I do get to talk to the folks back home (especially Stephanie) on a pretty regular basis. I still feel like I just want to tackle every problem in the whole country. I guess that means I am still pretty ambitious enough to get something done (maybe).

Hopefully, that didn’t make anyone cry of boredom or shame. In short, I’m doing well over here, but of course missing some of the little things. Volunteers often talk of missing certain foods (peanut butter and fast food are the big ones) but I have to admit I am enjoying the food. I will also admit that I broke down and asked mom to send Frank’s Red Hot sauce to me. The food here just has no kick! I miss everybody in the States but I have to focus on new relationships and making them work.

With all that said, I just want everybody to know that I officially have 707 days left of PCV life. I am looking forward to them all, almost as much as day 708.

Orozo Ait

2007-10-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

I know you all have been holding your collective breath and have been waiting with great diligence for the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. Well, wait no longer. Orozo Ait, which marks the end of the fast, was yesterday (October 12) and everything is back to normal.

Orozo Ait is a huge holiday here in Kyrgyzstan. From what I am told, it is second only to New Year’s Day in terms of celebration. The basic premise of the holiday is that after 30 days of fasting, families break their fast by visiting other families and eating at their houses. Each family must visit seven separate households, not including their own, obviously. The practice sounded absolutely fascinating in theory, but efficiencies have been devised by locals to make the process a little quicker a smoother and honestly a little less enthralling.

Nevertheless, my family’s strategy greatly worked to my benefit. Along with seven other houses, we went as a large collective to each house where we carried out the required rituals and moved on to the next house. This was great for me, since I got to meet almost my entire street in one day. Now I can actually shake hands with the guys standing around as I walk home from work!

The day was, in the end, a great success. I visited all my immediate neighbors and then went with a few volunteers to other houses in the village. In all, I visited ten houses, eating at eleven. I never thought I would live to see the day when I was upset at plov (traditional fried rice dish with carrots and meat) was being brought to the table, but much like Thanksgiving I was stuffed beyond what I could have ever considered my natural limit. Good thing I stocked up on antacid before I left training. I’ve been eating them like candy since yesterday about 5 PM.

In even better news, we get to do the whole thing over again in 30 days. Apparently in another month the feast is basically repeated but with a different theological justification. After that, I have to wait another 321 days (365 days- 30 days for second feast- 14 days because the feast is based on the lunar calendar, which moves ahead 2 weeks every year) for a feast like that. Good thing I have a few American holidays to hold me over.

Language

2007-10-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

This will probably be one of the more boring topics to discuss, but language is currently at the absolute heart of my daily struggles, triumphs, and anecdotes. If I spoke Kyrgyz fluently, half of my stories would be less funny and the other half simply would not be stories. Needless to say, I think the language needs a little clarification.

Kyrgyzstan, like most other former Soviet Union countries, is bilingual. By and large, everyone in the country speaks both Kyrgyz and Russian. Since entering the country, I have been learning Kyrgyz, a language spoken by fewer than 5 million people. Kyrgyz is a Turkic based language that because of the Russian influence is written using Cyrillic letters. In my personal opinion, the language does not necessarily lend itself easily to these letters and actually has two letters that are not present in the normal Russian alphabet: Y (which sounds like the German ö) and θ (which sounds like the German ü).

Like most other Turkic languages, Kyrgyz is an algluative language, which means suffixes are added to the end of words to give information such as time, manner, and place. For example, instead of the preposition “to,” Kyrgyz has a suffix that is added to what would be the object of that preposition. To say, “To Kochkor,” I say “Kochkordo.” The suffixes are difficult to conjugate at first, but with practice it makes more and more sense.

Another interesting characteristic is a property called “vowel harmony.” At the risk of being too simplistic (since I don’t totally grasp the whole thing yet), essentially Kyrgyz vowels come in pairs that always go together. For example, E (which sounds like “eh”) is always matched up with the vowel И (which sounds like “ee”). The word MEHИH (the “H” sounds like “N” in English) means “my” or “mine.” The vowels always stay together in their pairs.

This also makes it obvious when a Russian word that does not follow vowel harmony works its way into the vernacular. MAЧИНА (machine-a, which means car) obviously is a borrowed word, not only because it does not follow vowel harmony, but also because it obviously sounds like the English word. I have been amazed at all of the cognates that exist between this language and English.

Also, like many other languages, Kyrgyz has a formal and informal word for “you.” CEH (informal) and CИЗ (pronounced like “seas”). People are very strict about making sure that people are called by the proper title here and will gladly correct you if you are mistaken. Even boys who are born weeks apart refer to each other in different terms due to age. It feels odd, but I call my younger brother (whose birthday is only about two months after mine) CEH or ЭНИ (pronounced “ee-nee”), which means little brother. Really, I don’t mind the whole idea except it is yet another conjugation that I must learn and practice. One day I will have the whole thing down. Until then, I can just make my readers suffer by listening to my incessant rambling about this crazy language! ЖАКШЫ (jak-shay, meaning good) КАЛ-(the verb “to stay”)ЫН (command suffix) ЫЗ (polite suffix). Stay well everybody!

The Most legitimate excuse to ever reschedule a meeting, ever.

2007-10-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

I was in very high hopes today before setting off for the office. I had convinced my director that staff meetings were important for the organization to function properly and currently they had never even heard of the idea, yet alone have them. She thought it was a wonderful idea so we arranged a staff meeting to be held at 10 AM on Monday, right there in the office. We said our good-byes for the weekend and I said I was excited for Monday.

My walk to work is a solid 20 minutes, unless I get stopped by a drunk or someone who just wants to talk. One situation quite pleasant, the other not so much. At the end of my daily journey, I go through a small gate that opens upon the office of Community Based Tourism (CBT), with whom we share half of a building for our sales floor and then have a secondary building for our offices around the corner. I stopped in to CBT to say hello to some tourists from Belgium since I had a little extra time. I apologized for having to go to work and we parted ways. I turned the corner and guess what? The second building is not there. Literally, it has been demolished. It no longer stands. Not one brick upon another. Biblical type stuff!

I went up to the workers that were half standing/half working and asked them if anybody was here. They said no and that the meeting was over there (pointing) at the “something I didn’t understand” building. I said okay and left. The Belgian tourists caught me leaving and poked fun at my plight while I went toward town to go use the internet, since my morning was now free.

I ran into my predecessor from Altyn Kol and while he thought the building being torn down was strange, he hardly seemed too worried. I guess that is what happens when you only have 30 days left in country. We went and helped a friend of his with some web page stuff and decided to check in at the office just to see if anyone had shown up. When we get there, of course all the women of Altyn Kol are carrying and stacking bricks to help with the demolition of the building.

My director came right over to me and started asking where I was this morning and that everybody was ready for the meeting and that I wasn’t there and so on and so on. I explained that I had come to the building that no longer existed and was quite honestly confused and assumed that they had just failed to tell me the meeting was cancelled because, I don’t know, the building was demolished. Apparently, they had told the construction guys to tell me the meeting was at the “something I didn’t understand” building. I asked where that was and Trent (my predecessor) told me that was the home of the sowing cooperative.

Long story short, we rescheduled the meeting for the afternoon and it was a smashing success. All the women seemed to enjoy it because they actually got to find out what the other people were doing and had a chance to air their problems in a constructive matter. My director even scheduled another one for 2 weeks out! Things are going too smoothly around here when the only problem is a demolished building.

My Epic Ramen Noodle Story

2007-10-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Working in Kyrgyzstan in some ways is very similar to the United States. One of the trends that has made its way from the US office to here is the working lunch. In the States, I was not a big fan of this concept and here it is worse.

By working lunch, I really mean that people do not go home or out to lunch during the midday break. They stay in the office. That in itself would not be so bad, but all we eat is bread and tea. I still consider myself a growing boy (even though I am shrinking) and I need a real lunch. So, I suck it up and walk the 2 km back to my house to prepare a nice meal.

By nice meal, I mean a package of Ramen noodles or at least the cheap package of them that they sell at the stores here. Being all volunteer-like and trying to conserve my resources, I bought a 15 pack of noodle blocks (not individually wrapped, but in a stylish plastic grocery bag) for about 23 som, or roughly 75 cents. I was totally beating the system! Three weeks of lunches for less than a dollar! Then I had my first noodles.

I broke the noodles and put them in a bowl and added hot water, just like in the US. While they cooked, I figured I would cut up some tomatoes, add a little salt, and have a kielbasa (sausage) sandwich on the side. A nice, economical lunch to say the least. To put it mildly, the noodles tasted like Elmer’s glue. Who would have ever thought that day in first grade would give me the insight to my culinary experiences in Central Asia? Anyway, I figured that the noodles could not be that bad and that my mistake was merely one of preparation.

My next attempt, after re-consulting my typically college quick-fix, was to add chicken bouillon to the mix. It would be just like the 15 cent Ramen packets back home. Now, however, I had to spend another 15 som on bouillon, since I was positive that was the necessary solution. Again, the noodles tasted like Elmer’s glue, except this time I had a wonderful chicken broth to drink afterwards. An improvement no doubt, but hardly a satisfactory answer.

Peace Corps gave us all a cookbook after we finished training as a way to help us recreate local favorites and give us creative ways to improvise. Apparently, Ramen is a common dish for many of the volunteers that live on their own, since it is cheap and easy. Frying up the noodles and throwing in some extras is a sure fire way to make a good dish. So, with my third attempt, I ended up with greasy noodles that were crispy and still tasted like Elmer’s glue. So, I have decided to give up on the sub-2 som packets of Ramen noodles.

In the same grocery store where I bought my original cuisine, one shelf above the bulk packages, are 7 som packets of Ramen noodles that contain their very own seasoning packets and everything! I have not tried them yet, but the other volunteers in town say that they are the only ones worth buying. I can’t decide if I can afford them or if I should just go back to bread.

Training Village

2007-10-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

All of us in my training village.

One Week Down

2007-10-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

Written by Jonathan 10/1/07

Hi Everybody!

Well, officially I have been a volunteer for over a week now. I really wish I had something terribly exciting to add after that last comment, but really things have been somewhat slow around here, which is far from a bad thing in many respects.

My work at Altyn Kol was slow this week. The director, most of the managers, and my counterpart were either on vacation or somewhere else. The volunteer I am replacing, Trent, was at his COS (close of service) conference for the whole week as well. So, needless to say, I didn’t have much work to do, but I stuck it out (somewhat, read more later). All in all the week at work was far from bad and I am anxious to get to this next week to find out what I can do for the ladies of Altyn Kol.

Besides work, I met several tourists passing through the area and had a good time showing them around and helping them with some of the country norms. One older couple from England are driving from London to Sydney, Australia in their Land Rover. Apparently, they only have to take a few boat rides to get there. I also met a couple from the US. Audrey is actually a RPCV from Estonia. She and her husband had been living in Prague the past five years, got bored and have been to essentially every former Soviet state. Their blog is www.uncorneredmarket.com. I haven’t been there, so I apologize if it is some bad site.

My host family has also been hosting a pair of Israeli hikers at the house. They are very friendly guys and very easy to talk to. They are big into the whole walking around thing and are fascinated by the whole idea of the Peace Corps. They have asked me a couple of times to go on their adventures with them, but I have to decline. Work is just too important right now!

Other than that, nothing too exciting going on here. I woke up this morning and my room thermometer said 10 degrees (50 F). I don’t know why, but the house is way colder than the outside. It seems counterintuitive, but I sleep with the window open to let the warm air in. Hopefully we will be turning the heat on soon. I hope everybody has a good week and try not to default on your mortgages!

Really Jonathan, this time

2007-09-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

Well, as you may already know, Stephanie has been posting my blogs for me since my site does not have great internet access and "blogger" is too big of a page to load. However, I have travelled to the grand metropolis of Balikche (about 40,000 people) to check in and make sure she isn't lying to you all.

So far, everything looks great. Nothing seems too bad. I am doing fine and I want to appologize to all the faithful readers about the lack of new entries. I am trying my best to get as much quality stuff up. There is plenty of writing material, but I hindered by a) "cultural sensitivity", b) lack of internet access and c) worrying about other things like being safe and secure. So, thank you to everyone for hanging in there and reading as often as you do and I hope to be putting up plenty of stuff soon.

Last Day as a Trainee

2007-09-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well, finally I am going to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. Yes, for all of you who were not in the know, I have yet to actually start my service in the Peace Corps. As of when this was written, I have just been a lowly “Trainee,” who could not be trusted to leave his host family’s side. Alas, now I will be a full- fledged PCV and those three letters will follow my name for the rest of my life (until in about two years I get an extra “R” for “returned). Anyway, now that this big stage is done with, I thought it might be a good idea to review exactly what has happened in the past 11 weeks and some interesting notes to go along with them.

1. I have already completed 9.56% of my journey! With eleven weeks down and 104 (2 years X 52 weeks/year=104) to go, time is sure to fly by!

2. I now speak an “Intermediate Middle” level of Kyrgyz, something that fewer than 5 million people in the world say they have an ability to do. The only problem is that the other 5 million all speak much faster and better than I do.

3. We have lost a total of eleven people from invitation acceptance to swearing-in. 1 person never showed up in Philadelphia, one never got on the plane to come here, 8 left on their own accord, and one was administratively separated. 52 brave survivors will go on to save the world!

4. I have accumulated more stuff than I have used in country. A combination of birthday gifts (thank you everyone, by the way), Peace Corps literature, and Peace Corps issued Medical supplies, water filter, and heater have made my bags a little heavier on the way to Kochkor. It’s okay though, because I do not have a weight limit on bags this time and I have packed my backpack to its max. It was 50 pounds on the way here, it will be 65 (at least) on the way down.

5. I have not been a victim of any crime (yet, that I know of). I think that is a pretty good start, but one never knows. As our safety and security officer says, we must stay vigilant! That goes for all of you back in the USA as well! No measures work as well as a heightened state of alertness!

6. I am now incredibly comfortable in situations that would/should bother Americans. Foreign objects in food do not bother me in the least, nor does the idea of throwing a rock at a dog (if he gets to close. This is only for protection, not recreation, I promise). It is amazing what one can get used to if you give it enough time.

7. I have not thrown up in country (again, yet and not that I know of). I have not been nearly as sick as many other volunteers, but nobody has had anything too serious yet. I have had my share of long morning outhouse visits, but I think it is par for the course. The word is that there is a Peace Corps handshake that everyone will encounter before they leave. I will leave it to your imagination, but it involves the words “shitting” and “your pants.”

8. I have been to a wedding and gave a speech. Speaking in front of 200 people is pretty nerve-racking when you are fluent, let alone when simple future conjugation is the homework you skipped in order to go to the wedding anyway. The wedding was much fun. I have also been to a cow slaughtering and several of what are called “guestings,” when people just stop in to have a drink and some fried meat. Ramadan has slowed the trend, but I’m sure it will pick up soon.

9. My Language/Cultural Facilitator (also known as my language teacher/buddy) Temirlan was blessed with his first child on National Independence Day. I can’t remember the boy’s name, but everyone was very excited, even Temirlan. We made him promise to invite us to all the parties for the babe while we are in country. In Kyrgyzstan, I think there are roughly 934 parties for a child before he turns 5 (actually the number is 4 plus birthdays, but whatever). Anyway, it is an excuse to go to the Lake region.

10. I have made many friends, animals included. My fellow volunteers are really an amazing group of people. I also have some animals of which I have friendly relations. My family’s puppy, Bobeek, is a feisty a fun little guy and the cat, name Mishuk (Kyrgyz for “cat”) comes to sleep with me whenever he can. So far, the country seems pretty friendly.

11. I have read a lot of books (in order): The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pentateuch, Atlas Shrugged ,Moneyball, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a few Kate Atkinson books, 4 Business Weeks, 2 The Economists, and 1 Rolling Stone. This does not include the couple hundred pages of The Wealth of Nations that I have struggled through, nor does it include the hours of reading my language textbook, which, believe me, should count for something!

Well, next post will be me as a volunteer and will probably come from sunny (for now) Kochkor village! Stay safe and cheer for the Diamondbacks. They need your help!

Koy!!!

2007-09-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

Sheep are a very big part of the culture here, especially in the Narin oblast. In my training village in Chuy oblast, sheep are just as pervasive as bad habits: everybody has a few and some more than others. My host family in Chuy has four sheep, but the story goes much deeper than that.

Most of the idioms involving sheep are true. They are incredibly stupid animals that are incredibly easy to trick. No doubt about it. They are dumb. For example, the sheep know what time they usually are fed every day, and just like Pavlov proved years ago, they get anxious when they don’t have their meal. However, unlike most animals, they do not actually need their meal to be quiet. If you go into the pen and pretend to give them food, they will stop crying. We ran out of food one day and my Ata showed me this trick. “Ackaldoo emes” means “not intelligent.”

Sheep are also flock animals that stick together no matter what. Wherever the leader goes, the others follow, no matter what it takes. A babe will try and knock you over in order to get back to the pack. If it was alone, you would have no problem walking up to it and picking it up like a kitten. You only make the mistake once of getting between the followers and the leader. It is not a pleasant experience.

They are incredibly easy to herd, however. If they are going the wrong direction, you just have
to run in front of them, raise your hands, and yell. They will turn right around. A stick also works pretty well. Ata takes them out with him into our garden behind the house (roughly an acre) and they graze while he does whatever it is that he does out there. Occasionally, you can hear him yell at the sheep for eating the tomatoes or running away. It is the one thing that always pulls me out of any funk.

The biggest problem with the sheep is them running away and breaking into the housing compound. As I’ve written earlier, our house consists of three buildings with basic 8 foot walls connecting/surround the compound. The sheep like to break into the compound and eat Apa’s roses or whatever is lying around. Usually, all one has to do is yell and throw your hands up and they run back outside. No real problem. I have even gotten in the habit of Ata imitation when it comes to sheep herding.

Then came Sunday. When I got up in the morning, Ata and Apa were already in the fields, doing something. I went to the water fountain (for lack of a better term) to brush my teeth when I saw the Papa Koy eating the corn harvest that Ata had been bringing in for the past few days. I was pretty sure the koy was not supposed to be eating it, so I raised my hands and it ran back outside. I closed the door after it. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard the door kick in again and the Papa Koy was back for more corn. This time I took a little different angle and raised my hands and yelled. The koy reared back and threw its head at me, just like those rams on The Discovery Channel. I was lucky in two ways: first, the koy has no horns; second, he is pretty fat and came nowhere close to hitting me.

I realized that I had cornered him and his usual “flight” response had been replaced with “fight.” His lack of skill at the latter proved his propensity for the former. I was angry now because the damn thing tried to hurt me. I walked away and considered my options as the sheep continued to eat the corn. Ata would be disappointed if I didn’t protect the corn, but I didn’t want to get my ass kicked by a sheep either. So, I thought about the greatest invention in the history of man and used it to my advantage: the tool. I went and grabbed the iron poker that Apa uses to stoke the fire and came back to my friend. I took a different angle and whacked the sheep on the ass. He looked at me and reared up, but I hit him again and then he saw his escape route outside.
Crisis averted and good wins the day.

Fast forward to today. Ata lets the sheep out and Papa Koy tries to munch on some corn on the way out to the field. Ata, stickless, whacks the koy with his hand, but is soon cornered by the sheep who attempts to head butt him. I was reaching for a stick when Ata reared back himself and kicked the sheep square in the jaw about six times before it turned around. It didn’t even faze him! I guess I have a long way to go until I am a Kyrgyz boy!

Ata's Birthday Picture

2007-09-11T06:45:00.001-07:00

Jonathan was able to send this picture of his Ata's birthday party. I thought I would share it with everyone. - Stephanie

Arrival in Kochkor

2007-09-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Kochkor yesterday and promptly met up with Trent and Rebecca, two of the three volunteers in our general area. They took us on a nice little tour of our new village, which is definitely not village like. Everything I read said this was a tourist town, but I do not think that accurately portrays the village. I am sure tourism is the reason we have so many restaurants and an internet café (yes!), but it is definitely not the heart of the community.
The landscape is one of those “I-don’t-think-I-will-ever-get-over-how-beautiful-this-place-is” kinda things. The mountains to the South and West are remarkable. Even the current volunteers said they are still not used to waking up every morning and seeing the mountains on the way to work. A bit outside of town is what is called the jailoo, or basically the pasturelands. Right now they are a bright green and nothing taller than a wildflower grows on them. I cannot even begin to describe how iridescent the colors are. I cannot believe that everyone did not request this place. It is absolutely the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
My house is a member of Community Based Tourism (CBT), an organization set up to help locals in tourists areas provide cheap and efficient housing for locals, while also giving a unique experience to those who stay with them. Essentially, my room is like a hotel. It is far bigger than any dorm is ever shared in college and definitely way nicer. They have compound housing and I essentially have an entire wing of one of the units to myself. I share the building with my two younger brothers, but their room is toward the entrance of the unit, my room is in the back. If I really want to be alone, it is quite easily done. It is also nice that I would be able to have guests over and not disturb my family. It has the nicest outhouse I have ever been in (read more later).
My new family is awesome so far. I have four brothers, only two of which live at home. My mother is a Kyrgyz language teacher and administrator and my father works at the school, but I’m not really sure what he does. He makes sure that people know that he is not a teacher (teachers are very highly regarded in Kyrgyz culture and to be misrepresented as such would be bad). They both seem to work a lot, which has its advantages as far as living with them. My youngest brother is eleven and cooked me lunch one day. He has his act together, that is for sure. I have a 22 year old at home and I believe he is a driver for CBT and other organizations. He speaks enough English, but I try to discourage it while I am learning Kyrgyz.
My first full day started about 5 AM, when my stomach awoke me with more of punch in the face than a tap on the shoulder. I ran (literally) to the outhouse and did not return to my bedroom until roughly 730 AM. Yes, 2.5 hours in an outhouse. It was about as much fun as you would think 2.5 hours in an outhouse would be. When I finally summoned the courage to leave, my new Ata was milking the family cow and seemed confused as to where I had come from. I told him my stomach hurt (“Menen ichem orup jatat”; I got that one down a week in country) and he was so concerned that I needed medicine and he even made me tea.
Now with my second family, I have concluded that Kyrgyz people believe heat cures everything and that sickness comes from the cold. With my upset stomach, I needed to drink hot tea, put on a sweater, and go back to bed under the covers. I felt good enough to go to work around 11 and around 1 PM I ran back home for the same reason I got out of bed earlier that morning, only this time in my haste in the outhouse, I dropped my sunglasses down the hole! I was so mad for 30 minutes that I didn’t even care how bad I was hurting on the inside.
In short, I am very excited about my permanent site. The group I am with seems to be genuinely good and fun, the location is beautiful beyond comparison, and my host family is extremely friendly. I have yet to negotiate my terms as far as food and utilities go, but I have heard that those sort of things in Narin are relatively cheap. 500 som/month ($15) is usually good for dinner and breakfast every day. Hopefully all goes well. More info to come!

Wedding Bells!!!

2007-09-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Written by Jonathan on 9/4

As mentioned before, my cousin was to be married and needless to say, it was one hell of a party.
My host parents were quite worried we were going to be late. I was supposed to be in Kant until 5 and then I had to go home and come back to Kant before 6 to be at the wedding on time. As it turned out, my training day was only until 3, so I had plenty of time to prepare. Ata came out of the changing room in a full suit, so I threw on my jacket and we proceeded to Kant with Apa.
We got to the restaurant at about 5:15. Since nobody was there, we just looked at each other. I asked what a few things were, but most of it looked pretty similar to an American wedding reception. There was a DJ and a separate table for the wedding party. I ate light that day because of how full I was the day before and I was starting to pick at the salads and bread that were laid out. We all went outside to meet the married couple a little before six.
And then we waited. The uncles were all on the phone yelling and shouting and confusing everybody. I was really confused because I wasn’t sure if this whole thing were normal or if I should be worried. At seven, the party arrived and we could finally eat! I was so hungry.
Well, I was seated at the distant friend’s/family’s table, which would have been fine, but I was sitting with a couple from Azerbaijan who spoke no Kyrgyz. Our common language was German, but I have this terrible habit of putting Kyrgyz words into German sentences. I kept confusing the hell out of them, but we had a nice enough time.
For lack of a better term, the wedding had an MC. He had a microphone and would yell and get everybody excited about things. It was very interesting. Once the couple entered the large hall, they had a few official looking procedures to go through, including signing in a book and the parents giving permission. It was all very nice. They, along with the best man and maid of honor, went to their table. Then the close families on the groom’s side, including yours truly, were invited to the front to give toasts. Lucky for me, I had already written a little speech with the help of some of the Peace Corps staff. To put it lightly, I brought the house down! After we sat down, the eating began.
While we were eating, the MC broke up the crowd into 5 teams, consisting of about 40 people each. After giving ourselves names (I think our team was “0”), we played small game throughout the night that our team could win points for. The games were not complicated, but the team format helped people participate, so they were quite fun. One game was as simple as finishing a common Kyrgyz phrase. Another was a catwalk. We got points for dancing or for having the most Americans on our team (we totally won that game!). Throughout the night, each team came up and gave toasts to the wedding party. The whole thing gave structure to the evening and made it quite entertaining, until the end.
My other host uncle (a) likes to drink and (b) likes me a lot, so invariably I become his drinking buddy during any festivity, which is perfectly fine, because he is friendly about it and we have a good time. Anyway, like I said, I was quite hungry, but the simple rule in Kyrgyzstan is never eat yourself full, because it will come back to haunt you. After eating moderately from the salads and sandwiches, I ate a little of the soup that was brought out, but thoroughly enjoyed what I assumed was the main course, a chicken dish. Of course, I was smart and only ate about half. Then, sure enough main course number two came out: a beef dish with rice that was delicious. And that was my fatal mistake: I ate the whole thing. I was stuffed beyond my limits and approaching drunkenness at an alarming pace when Besh Barmak (the Kyrgyz national dish) was brought out. I, being a foreigner and guest, was given the largest piece of meat at my table. It weighed at least a kilo. Simply said, I had women literally forcing food into my mouth by the end of the evening. By midnight, the women finally left me alone to suffer the consequences of my gluttony. I was home before 2 AM, with a long day ahead of me.

Most exciting birthday ever!!!

2007-09-11T06:37:00.001-07:00

Written by Jonathan on 9/3

Or at least the most unusual. The day started with lovely gifts from my parents: a kalpak (traditional Kyrgyz hat) and a nice sweater, since it is so cold in Kochkor (according to them). I went to class and everything as normal and nothing else too exciting happened until about 5 in the evening.
As it turns out, my host “cousin” (Ata’s brother’s son) will be married tomorrow and in celebration a cow was slaughtered. The party for the cow slaughtering is actually quite simple and functional. The idea reminded me of barn raising ceremonies back in the day. The reason people were invited was to help with the job at hand. The honored guests, the grandparents and yours truly, were exempt from any labor. Grandma and Grandpa were seated and I took a position closer to the cow who had just been removed from his pen. Warning: the next paragraph will be explicit and detailed. If you do not want to read it, please skip to the next paragraph.
The cow was tied around its head and 8 men surrounded it. They started tying rope around its feet and then on a single command, the cow’s head was jerked one way and the body pushed the other and it landed on its side. Two men on each set of legs tied the cow instantly and the head was placed on a block near a pre-dug hole in the ground. Once the cow was stabilized, two men grabbed the horns and another punctured the animal’s neck with a knife and ripped half way across the throat. The cow’s cry was nothing but a puff of air through a torn trachea. The butcher finished his slice across the throat and brought the head back to allow the blood to drain more quickly into the hole. The cow’s legs kicked for several seconds in vain, until the great beast lie dead. Occasionally, nerve endings would fire and different body parts would move, but only as an inconvenience to the killers. Once dead, the cow was wedged between two rocks and the butchering began. The skin was peeled off by the men quickly but with great precision. The sternum was broken and then unwanted intestines (including the largest stomach I ever want to see) were removed. The men quickly broke into two separate groups. Half remained with the carcass to remove the meat; the other half processed the meat further after removal. The women took the fat to wash it and brought buckets of water to help keep the areas clean. After enough meat was processed to feed the current company, the women began cooking. The entire process lasted just over 1 hour. Where there once was a cow, there was a cow no longer.
After the slaughter, the men sat around and drank and just talked. My Ata and uncle (the one whose son is getting married) had a few drinks and talked about the Army. The uncle was actually stationed in Alaska from 1980-82. He is a very nice guy. Anyway, then we ate and ate and ate. I thought I would never be so full in my life when we were finally permitted to go home. My most unusually birthday ended a little after midnight, with two Tums, two Advil, and a whole lot of beef in my belly.

Kochkor bound!

2007-09-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

Written by Jonathan on 9/5

Waking up with a massive hangover and more beef in my belly than is considered rational or responsible, I set off to go to Kant for our weekly Hub Day and then to Bishkek, where I would meet my new family. Thank God there were ten hours for recovery between waking and meeting. After a struggle to get a cab into town, our medical and cultural lessons went as normal and then we packed on the bus for Bishkek.
We met the US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan before meeting our families. We were all threatened pretty harshly about saying anything out of order and I think we all toed the line. She was a very bright lady and very articulate. She seemed excited to have us here, even saying she wanted to do Peace Corps after she retired. Sometimes people go a little too far in their compliments. Still, it was the first time I ever meet someone who had diplomatic immunity. I wanted to ask her if she ever felt like using the privilege, but I was afraid that would be considered rude. Still, you have to wonder what you would do if you had the option to break the law without legal ramifications.
All of us from the Narin and Issik-Kul oblasts went into one room filled with all of our families. One thought ran through my mind: welcome to the people you will spend the next two years of your life with. We went through a simple matching ceremony and I was the last to get a family. I was nervous that no one showed up, but my new Ata was there and very friendly. We talked for a little bit (as much as I could) and then I met my village mates to do a little strategic planning for the upcoming weekend.
Lorenzo is a TEFL (teaching) volunteer from Tucson. Pretty remarkable that two people from Arizona end up in the same little Kyrgyz village. Staying along the I-8 path, Vanessa is also a TEFL from San Diego. She is Filipino, so everyone here assumes she is Kyrgyz. That may work to her advantages in some ways, but I am a bit concerned about it in others. Erin is a health education volunteer who lives three houses down from me. She is from Connecticut, but went to school in North Carolina. We all graduated from college this past year, save Vanessa who is a year older. I don’t say this too often, but I really think I am with a pretty extraordinary group of people. That and they’re pretty fun to hang out with, so that helps, too. Tomorrow, I will be able to tell all about my new home.

Site Placement

2007-09-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Written by Jonathan on 8/30

One of the major causes of stress during pre-service training is worrying about where one will be placed. Geography plays a huge part in this, but so does your school or organization and host family. But for now, I at least know where I am going and the answer is Kochkor.
First, geographical location. The Narin Oblast is the largest oblast in Kyrgyzstan. It is located in the middle of the country, directly south of Bishkek down to the border of China and Tajikistan. The village of Kochkor is located in the northeast corner of the oblast. If you are looking at a map, find Issik-Kul Lake (the really big one!) and then find the city of Balikchy. Follow the main road west and south and you will run across Kochkor. They say it is only 1 hour from the Lake. I guess now you have to visit! It is not in the high mountains, like the city of Narin. More on that in the next paragraph.
It says in the packet that I received describing my site says that Kochkor has “mild climate.” I’m not sure if that is in relation to Narin City, which is the coldest place in Kyrgyzstan and certainly anything mild by comparison may be not so mild after all. The region is not in the mountains, so much of the adverse weather that makes Narin so difficult is not to be found in Kochkor. Narin is still the coldest oblast and anyone from the region gets their fare share of weather. The biggest bonus is that the roads to and from Kochkor are not blocked off for the winter like the roads to Narin. Whew!
The village itself is about 15,000 people and is surrounded by about 8 more villages in the direct vicinity. From what I understand, it is a well developed area, comparatively speaking. It is the center of its rayon (think county government, kinda). The closest city is Balikchy (which I just realized means “fisherman” in Kyrgyz) and the closest large city is Narin City. From what I am told, it is about 4 hours from Bishkek.
My job will be working with an NGO called Altyn-Kol Women’s Handicraft Cooperative. I am replacing a volunteer who came and spoke with us at the beginning of PST. His name was Trent and we will have some overlap before he goes to the States. The Coop was started by a Swiss volunteer and has been around for 11 years. They make shyrdaks, which are traditional Kyrgyz blankets and then export them or sell them during tourist season. They have a storefront and have been working on developing an internet storefront as well. I’m not sure what I will actually be doing yet. We’ll see.
One more note: Today, (August 31) is Independence Day in The Kyrgyz Republic. On an even more exciting note, my Kyrgyz teacher/buddy Temirlan’s wife just had their first child, a boy. Even the stoic Temirlan had to smile. Hopefully he will get to see his son soon.
We will visit sites soon and will give an update. I have homework to do. Bye!

Food

2007-08-23T06:27:00.001-07:00

Food in Kyrgyzstan is very basic, but in my opinion very good. You will certainly not confuse it with French delicacies and it is far from the experimentalist Americans. The diet changes with the seasons, much like other countries that do not have regular market access to different fruits and vegetables throughout the year. The staple ingredients are not foreign at all: bread, potatoes, meat, carrots, cabbage, and rice. Most Americans eat at least one of these with every meal. In the summer, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelon, apricots, and corn are all common. The only two truly new things I have eaten to this point are sheep’s meat and a certain cone-shaped melon that I have never seen in the States. They both are delicious.
The staple dishes are simple and few, but I have enjoyed most of them quite a bit. I am rare in that I have yet to completely say “No” to a meal. Either my mom is a great cook (which my fellow trainees agree on) or I just don’t turn down food (which, I’m sure, my fellow trainees would also agree on). Besh Barmak is the national dish of Kyrgyzstan. Sheep’s meat is cooked in an onion broth for several hours and then placed on top of, for lack of a better term, spaghetti noodles. In olden times, it was eaten with the hand (besh means five, barmak, thumbs) but today is eaten with a fork. Sometimes a cook is judged solely on her ability to make besh barmak.
Plov, probably my favorite, is rice fried with carrots and meat. Lagman is a spicy mixture of vegetables and meat put on top of noodles. Pelman are very similar to Korean “potstickers” and can be served in either soup or individual form. Manti are like pelman, but stuffed with potato and green onions. Borsch is an old Russian soup containing potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and meat. Shorpo is essentially the same, but no cabbage and a different broth. Fried potatoes are common when time is running short. It is like the tuna noodle casserole of Kyrgyzstan.
Bread and hot tea are served with every meal. Tea is served up by the woman of the house (more discussion on that later). It is still strange for me to hand my empty glass to my mother and have it filled up and handed back. Tea is the cure for everything here. Colds and stomachaches. It makes me think about that Chris Rock bit about his father and Robitussin. Bread is very holy here. It should always be the first thing you take a bite of and you should save every piece that isn’t eaten.
Lunch and dinner do not vary much. We can have any dish either time. Breakfast often consists of just bread and coffee. My mother and I have come to this understanding that all I need is bread in the morning. I feel she does so much that I don’t want her to make an extra meal for me, since everyone else eats breakfast much later than I. When we all eat together for breakfast, fried potatoes that the have an egg broken over them is one of my favorites. How did I never think about that in college! Fried eggs are also common, along with fruit.
That is it for food. I do wish it was a little spicier, but it is fine for now. I’ve heard in the winter it can become quite bland because all they have is meat and potatoes. Somehow I think my years of Midwestern service will help out there. Food is very important to the culture here. Eating and the etiquette surrounding it I very important. I seem to fit right in.

My Current Situation

2007-08-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

As you all know, I up and joined the Peace Corps. That’s the whole reason I started this whole blog thing. I wanted to share experiences and pictures with the non-Central Asian world. I figured I would start by telling everyone what I am doing now:
First off, I am not yet officially a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). Currently, I am a trainee during Pre-Service Training. I go to language class for a minimum of 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. The other two days are called Hub and Technical days. Hub days center on medical seminars, safety and security seminars, cultural awareness seminars, and seminars about seminars. Hub days are the length of an Arizona work day (about 7 hours), but become brutal because the small school we rent is far from air conditioned. 3 PM in Kyrgyzstan in August is not a comfortable situation. Technical days are centered around training for my actual job once I become a PCV (more on that later!). They are very similar to Hub days, but only the 12 SOCD trainees are there. It makes it more bearable, sometimes.
The rest of my day centers on my host family. I have a wonderful host father and mother (lovingly called Ata and Apa, respectively), a 20 year old host sister, and a 17 year old host brother. I also have an extremely large extended family throughout our small village. It seems that everyone I meet is a relative of some kind. I have my own, very large room. It is far from ornate, but it is certainly nicer and bigger than anything I had in college. We have electricity (most of the time) and a running water hose in the back of the compound. There are systems in place that make the lack of indoor plumbing quite unnoticeable. To put it simply, I have no complaints about either my family or my living accommodations.
I am in training to become a Sustainable Organization Community Development (SOCD) specialist. What that means, I’m not really sure. I will be working with a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) of some kind in some manner. My job primarily will focus on individual capacity building. The idea is to help the people here help themselves. It should be interesting to see exactly what that all entails. I will be moving at the end of September to my new, permanent site. I do not know where that is, but needless to say August 30th is circled on my calendar! Once at site, I become a community resource. I work for a specific organization, but I am really there for the entire community. It really means that I am always working, even when I’m not at work!
Well, that’s it for now. From experience, I can tell you that the brain stops paying attention after 500 words. That means I have 10 more words to make an impact: be safe, don’t do drugs, I love you all. Kaleidoscope.

Hi Everybody!!

2007-08-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

So, first and foremost, I would like to apologize for the awful delay between blog posts. The problem was twofold. First, the internet connections in Kyrgyzstan are not the fastest or most reliable. While at internet cafés, I have had difficulty getting the Blogger website to load. It is not a particularly large website, but a pit of a pain to load. In these cafés, one is charged by the transferred megabyte; hence the website is rather expensive. Second off, my plan for writing the blogs on my personal computer and then cutting and pasting onto the site failed due to (a) the Russian version of Microsoft Office that I cannot read and (b) most cafés only allow you to have one program running at a time, so cutting and pasting would be impossible. Needless to say, the problem has been resolved with the help of beautiful and gracious girlfriend, Stephanie (Yes, I wrote those words, not her!). I will be emailing her my thoughts and she will be posting them to keep everyone in touch. Again, feel free to email me anytime at my Gmail account: Jonathan.Baas@gmail.com. If you have questions about any particular topic, feel free to send me questions. It lets me know that people are reading. The Peace Corps says I have to be “culturally sensitive” on the website, but if you want an insensitive email, just let me know. I don’t have much to be insensitive about yet, but you can always ask!

Well, now that we have that out of the way, we have a lot of things to cover. I have a serious backlog of information to share with everyone, but I don’t want to bore everyone with a terribly long post. I have decided to split up my last month’s experience into a few general topics. First, I will explain my situation with my host family and what exactly it is I’m doing. Later, I will add some general points of interest about the culture in here Kyrgyzstan, from food to housing to rituals and the like. I will only have access to internet about once a week, so I will probably give Stephanie a couple of posts at a time. She might post them all simultaneously upon reception, she might not. It depends on her prerogative. Everyone’s prerogative, however, should be to click on the ads on the side of the blog! I need some income generation. I only make $100/month!

I want to thank everyone that has been reading and again I apologize for the delay in writing. Once I get more settled in here in the old KG I’m sure things will get a lot better. By the way, I do have a cell phone here. If anyone would like to speak with me, I can be contacted at 1-996-503-047951. I hear the going rate is $1.50/min from a cell phone, but calling cards are in the $0.20/min range and internet calling is under $0.10! Just remember the 10 hour time difference (EDT). Everybody, stay safe. Enjoy the last weeks of summer vacation!

Sorry for the delay

2007-08-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay everyone. I am having some logistical issues regarding the whole blog thing.

I am still alive. I am doing quite well. I was afraid to step on the scale at the medical office yesterday. I am pretty sure I'm the only person gaining weight. Looks like that whole "joining the Peace Corps to lose weight thing" is backfiring. Who knew?

I am almost half way done with Pre-Service Training. Thank God. One month in the country is already done. I will write more on these matters soon. Please keep reading! I will have this whole thing resolved quickly! I promise.

Big Party Time!!!

2007-07-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

I everybody!

Everything is going swell here. I can't seem to get my flash drive to work, so all the pre-writing I did for the blog is useless. Oh well, you'll just have to live with my quick post.

Last night was my host father's birthday and I had my first taste of Russian vodka. It pretty much tastes like what I would imagine turpentine tasting like, but it will do the job if you want to get drunk. I cut myslef off at 4 so I wouldn't feel too bad in the morning. Mission accomplished. My host father, however, cannot say the same. The party was very interesting and small. Just family. They were all very interested in me. I was concerned I was stealing attention from my host father, but I think he was too drunk to really care. I also gave my first Kyrgyz toast, which is a very big deal in this area. All I said was, "My father, my brother, my friend." We haven't learned adjectives yet, but I think I did well with my personal pronouns.

Anyway, everything is great. I hope the pictures get up on the site. I can't really figure out if they are working or not.
Love,
Jonathan

Salamatsysby!

2007-07-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Things are going well here. We have our first "hub day" in the big city. We are getting more shots and I learned about malaryia. I wouldn't be worried to much though. Everybody seems alright here.
Everything is going fine at my host family. They are very nice people. The dad is a retired Soviet Officer, so that made for some interesting conversation. He kinda reminds me of my dad. He mumbles and then just walks out of the room because nobody pays attention to him.
The country here is absolutely beautiful. I get to watch the mountains on my walk to class every morning. I am taken aback every time I see those beautiful peaks! I will post a picture when I get the opportunity.
The food is very good. Potatoes, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, and cucumbers are the big things right now. There is meat in everything, but not very much. It is actually quite enjoyable. My host mother keeps asking what I ate in America and honestly it isn't too different from what I am eating now. I hope everybody is safe. Feel free to email me and let me know what is going on in the world!

2007-07-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,
So I am safely in Kyrgyzstan. Everything is quite lovely thus far. We are staying at a hotel right now, but tonight I am to meet the host family that I will be living with for the next 11 weeks. I am quite excited.
The scenery here is ridiculously beautiful. It is very similar to the Alpine border towns. The mountains just dominate the landscape. The people have been very friendly thus far, but I really have only interacted with the staff and my fellow trainees, so really I don’t have much to report on the local’s front. The food is actually quite good. Meat is in every meal, but not nearly the massive quantities we use in the United States. It is nice. Rice, cabbage, vegetables, and fruits. I’m sure my host family will not be cooking as well as the hotel, but one never knows.
I have started my Kyrgyz lessons and am almost fluent. I can say hello, tell people my name, and count to ten. We are moving to our villages today. I would tell you where, but it is against the rules! Anyway, I hope everybody is doing ok. This all seems somewhat surreal thus far. I really don’t feel like I’m in a foreign country, but I guess I am. Be safe everybody!

Safe in Kyrgystan

2007-07-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!!!

2007-07-08T02:06:00.000-07:00

Don't have much time, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I made it to Istanbul. Everything is going great thus far. I am greatly impressed by the caliber of individuals on this trip. I guess it makes sense in some ways. It is 2 AM in Nebraska now, but noon on sunday here. I have five hours to burn in the airport before we arrive in Bishkek at 1 am local time. In case you couldn't tell, I'm quite excited about both propositions. Much love to everyone. Bye.

Last Day in America

2007-07-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, this is it. My last day in America. I went through all the training sessions today and they still say I am allowed to go overseas. Learned bunches of stuff today, too. Apparently, this whole blog thing will not be as easy and convenient as once presupposed. The Peace Corps has all kinds of restrictions on what can be put on public space. I won't be allowed to name my town or mailing address. I also will have to remain "culturally sensitive" at all times. I think the secret location thing will be the toughest, but if anyone wants to send letters or packages (!!!), just let me know through email and I will be glad to give you the address. However, Mom or Stephanie will usually be the first to know and they both have more ready access to the internet, so they will probably get you an answer first.

I've had this great debate as to what picture I should put up for my last blog. At first, I thought something patriotic or something I loved. Those are good ideas, but really nothing seemed to fit me or the general theme of the blog (not that anyone reads any of this, but oh well). I will be shutting my phone off at about 10pm EDST tonight, so if you read this before then, give me a call. Anyway, enjoy the picture, go Jays, and Kyrgyzstan here I come!!!

Stage One: Staging

2007-07-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!

Today is the first official day of this whole Peace Corps thing. And as it is in everything government, sure to be filled with endless amounts of paperwork. I arrived in Philadelphia yesterday with no problems and arrived at the Cherry Hill Crowne Plaza safely.

Last night I went out with my friend Brendan from high school. He had joined the Coast Guard Academy but did not get a commission due to some eye problem. He now works for Pat Murphy the Congressman here in Philadelphia. According to his snazzy card, he is the Military and Veterans Affairs Director. According to his stories, he has to let the cleaning crew in on Thursdays.

So, we went out for the big Philadelphia 4th of July celebration. No better place to be on America's birthday than America's birthplace, right? Not just that, but Hall & Oates were performing. All of these factors go to show why we decided to walk through a torrential downpour to get to the park where the show was. After becoming completely soaked, we decided that Hall & Oates were never coming on and that we should just leave. As we started walking away, the rain suddenly slowed and all of a sudden I heard "Maneater." We were all taken by the moment. We were also taken by hunger and a fear of pneumonia, so we walked in the rain some more and ended up at a chic near-downtown restaurant named Continental. The idea behind the menu was that the food ordered was really designed to be shared by everybody at the table. Since Brendan's friend Emily was a vegan, the menu was a bit limited, but delicious nonetheless. I did manage to have Philly Cheese steak egg rolls. Excellent!

That's about it for now. I have about 4 hours until check-in with the Peace Corps. My roommate David has left to go see a friend, so I'm kinda stuck in my room for a few hours. Philadelphia is too far to away and the only stuff to do is a few car-less miles away. That's okay. The hotel is very nice. I will update soon. Only a couple days left in country! Uh-oh.

Criminals are on the loose

2007-06-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

Very strange thing happened to me today. I went to the little corner market down the street to buy some milk. That was it. I went in and got the milk (skim) and went to the checkout. The total came to $2.47. I gave the very nice checkout girl a $20 bill and waited for my change. As soon as she hit the enter button to accept the money, change shot out of a contraption to my right. I had seen these before, so I wasn't shocked or amazed or anything. Anyway, as I was putting the remaining $17 in my wallet, I noticed a bag lady swooped past the change machine. Then, as I was going for my change, it was gone. I looked up at the bag lady. She looked me dead in the eye and said, "Do you want help out with that?"

She stole my money! 57 cents! That's at least two quarters. So now, I had a choice. Do I confront a woman, roughly 40 years of age, who has potentially (because I did not actually witness the theft) stole my change, or do I let it go? I'm not going to lie, I was so impressed by the gaul that I just let it go. If you have the balls to steal 57 cents right in front of someone, you deserve it.

Anyhow, a few updates. I got my orders to report to Philadelphia on the 5th of July. Since no flight out of Phoenix would get me there before 3 PM, I get to leave a day early and get an extra night in town, all furnished by the US Government! Its a beautiful thing. So, I will be in Philadelphia on the 4th of July. I guess the big wigs just want to pump me full of as much America as they can before I leave the country, just in case I was lacking in patriotism. Hopefully, I will be meeting up with a friend who works in the area now.

Here is a picture from Chase being here over the weekend.

Master Chase and His Family

2007-06-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hello again, everybody.

As you can see, I'm slowly getting this blog thing down. There have been some changes to the layout of the site and I figured out how to add links and various other things to make reading more enjoyable and interactive. I put a news feed on the side here, but I am not getting the results I had hoped for. I wanted to have updates on my alma matter, but everytime someone gets shot in Omaha, Creighton University seems to be a part of the story. In short, I wish the newspaper would not say the victim was taken to Creighton University Medical Center for treatment. It is really killing my buzz from the whole newsfeed thing.

My cousin Jen, her husband Matt, and their todler Chase are coming to town. I haven't seen Chase in forever, but I remember him as being a pretty cool 6 month old. I'm sure that he is a pretty cool two year old. Let's face it, people in Arizona are pretty awesome in general, so the fact that he was born here only helps his cause. They will be here for the weekend, so that means mom will be cooking, so that's a good thing too. Is there nothing Chase can't do?

In related news, I got hooked on Sim City 3000, again. It seems like the more education I get, the more addictive the game is. Being an economics major in a post-Friedman tradition, I generally believe that the less intervention by higher authorities in a society, the more bountiful the fruits of that society will be. However, since this would make a very boring video game, much intervention is needed to make the city run properly. All of this, however, is counterintuitive for me. Needless to say, I was up until midnight playing the damn thing. My new airport developed, though! Pretty sad, I know. Here's a picture of Stephanie and my BFF Yong. It makes me giggle everytime.

One heck of a weekend

2007-05-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hello again

Sorry for the delay between updates. I was vacationing in the mountains of Julian, California with my parents over the weekend and quite frankly this blog was the last of my concerns. For proof of this adventure, see the picture on the side. Just so I can get better at this, visit the Julian homepage here. It's not especially interesting, but I need to get better at this whole hyperlink thing.

Anyway, on our first day, we came back from the little town to our campsite, we were attacked by a hillbilly. As we parked by the camper, he started yelling, "I went to channel thirteen 'cause nobody never uses that one." He looked at his walkie-talkie and laughed. "And that feller over there is using it and I found him!" He was looking at a couple of guys across from us trying to back their 5th wheel trailer into their camping spot (not an easy task, might I add). Needless to say, his lack of a shirt, shoes, or teeth made the situation all the more uncomfortable. To add to the excitement, he then asked/yelled, if anybody had an objection to him picking some banjo. The results are posted on the left.

That was probably the most exciting part of the weekend. We relaxed alot, which was good, and ate some pie and enjoyed mother nature. Good time had by all.

I finally got all of my pictures from my digital camera onto my computer, so I can put up all my pictures that I have saved up over the past couple of months. All of this is an excellent lead in to the last segment of th is entry.
So, Stephanie has this obsession with Care Bears.
I don't have any objection to this, of course, so all is well. One day, she decided to take a myspace quiz about "what Care Bear are you." She filled out both of ours and she was Funshine Bear and I was Grumpy Bear. Quite appropriate, I guess. Anyway, I got her a giant Grumpy Bear to remind her of me. Damn thing was way over priced on E-Bay, but my baby is worth it. Well, the picture is below. Love ya, babe! That is all for today.

The desert is beautiful, better than winter

2007-05-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

For all those concerned, I am back in Yuma, Arizona, the hottest metropolitan area in the US. The high today was a blistering 86! A figured I should give a little more background information on myself as we go forward.

I was raised an Army brat and travelled all over the world by the time I was thirteen. So, upon high school graduation, I decided to leave the beautiful desert and head to the chilly oasis I call Omaha, Nebraska. I spent the last four years there and ended up with two pretty awesome things: a college degree and a kickass girlfriend. That's right, the one on the right is all mine! I know, she's out of my league, but I have some incriminating photos of her so she has to stay with me or her evil plot will be revealed! Anyway, I just wanted an excuse to put her up on the site and she looks way better than me with my diploma.

After receiving these two awesome gifts, I decided to give a little back and join the Peace Corps and go to Kyrgyzstan. I have been studying about the country for the past week and will be updating everyone on the country. Until then, here is the wiki article about the country for those of you (like me, 2 months ago) who haven't a clue where in the hell I am going.

After all of that, I have to mention that this blog, currently, is being sponsored by Baas Insurance of Yuma, AZ and I am happy to say that 15 minutes can save you 15% or more on your car insurance. Give'em a call at 1-928-726-9610. They'll hook you up GEICO style. Mention this blog and get a free gecko doll! (And by sponsored, I mean my dad won't stop bothering me about putting that stuff on, so don't be surprised if I never mention it again).

2007-05-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

So, this is me eating a Mexican pastry. There really isn't much more to say about that. I am sad that I will not be going to Mexico any time soon, since I sent my passport to the Peace Corps and I need it to go there.

Oh well, more updates soon.

First Entry on New Blog

2007-05-22T16:19:00.001-07:00

Hi Everybody!!!

This is my new blog. It probably isn't going to be very interesting for the next month or so, but I figured I would start it early for when I actually got shipped off to Kyrgyzstan. I guess I should start off by telling any strangers to the site who I am.

My name is Jonathan Baas and I recently graduated from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska with a double BSBA in Economics and Business Ethics. Since nobody will hire me with these degrees, I decided to join the Peace Corps and will be shipped out on July 8th, 2007. I will be volunteering in the Kyrgyz Republic, working with nonprofit organizations to help them to become more efficient and effective with all my mad skills.

I have now become anxious to see how this looks, so I will end the post here.