Arrival in Kochkor

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!