August 21, 2007
It seems like it has been a while since I’ve written. I’ve begun to feel stressed about my masters- or more precisely, my thesis. Frankly, I’m scared. Scared I will get placed in an NGO that has nothing to do with what I want to research, and scared that my Internet access will be as it is now – sparse and expensive. However, I’ve met a current volunteer who is a K-13 (I’m K-15) and hasn’t started his thesis. I do not want to be him.
On a more positive note, I’ve gotten really close with my 2 oldest host sisters. They are 13 and 15 and every night we watch a soap opera, called “Tanya,” that is on TV and we talk about the main characters. Today when I got home from school/ my practicum we talked for an hour about tattoos and body piercing and compared prices and our fathers’ reactions. It was pretty funny.
On Sunday, the volunteers in my village and I decided it would be a nice idea to cook a diner for our host mothers. So, early Sunday morning we ventured out to a neighboring village that is famous for their huge bazaar. We paired up to buy ingredients and make dishes. Nicole and I decided, since we are not very good cooks, to make pizza (which we thought would be simple and easy).
The bazaar turned out to be a gigantic zoo – packed with people and vendors and products. Sheep heads piled in wheelbarrows and men pushing old-school baby carriages filled with fresh loaves of bread were common among the plethora of produce and household-goods vendors. Candy, cookies, nuts, coffee, tea, and such are all sold by the kilogram. Tomato paste was hard to find. And we ended up buying bread for the pizza dough.
The party was a lot more work for us, and for Tracey and Adams’ parents (whose house the party was at) than we had expected. Adam and Tracey made an oriental salad with cabbage, carrots, ramen noodles, and almonds. Nicole and I made 8 pizzas with pepper, eggplant, onion, and basil toppings, Karen made an Indian soup, Cameron made no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies, Meg made thank-you place cards for the mothers, Brian made stuffed peppers, and Theo made BBQ chicken. The most hilarious part was that Theo didn’t realize that the vinegar here is 80% concentrated. So instead of diluting the vinegar like he should have, he used an entire bottle on one chicken. At first the mothers pretended they liked it, but by their second bites, eyes watering profusely, they couldn’t help but comment. One mother threw her chicken leg to the dog and even he wouldn’t eat it. Then, because toasting is customary, one mother began, “We’ll never forget this dinner…and the lots of vinegar…” It was priceless.
My mother, unfortunately, didn’t come to the dinner because she had a family thing to go to. But I brought home some leftover pizza and it was gone by the morning.
Last week Brian’s mother sent him a huge package and he brought it to language class to open. Inside there were presents for us all and it felt very much like Christmas. I got a box of cheese-its and Frank’s Hot Sauce. Meg got Peppermint patties and Cameron got Crystal Light. It was so funny to see how happy we all got over little things. I shared my Cheese-its but brought my hot sauce home. My host mom and dad love it! At every meal they take it out and put it on everything. Already the bottle is half gone. But I’m more than happy to introduce Frank’s to the people of Kyrgyzstan. That has been my greatest contribution thus far!
Today, during language class we had a practice language exam. One of the PST managers came to test us. In class, at home, and in my community, at the bazaar, and in the stores, I have been feeling confident with my language skills. Today, for some reason, I felt like I totally failed the exam. I scored Intermediate-mid – the same as everyone else in my group, but felt really disappointed afterwards. The PC tester told me I have 3 weeks to improve my grammar and sentence structure, while he told everyone else they were doing well. The PC tester is Russian, and although he is a really nice guy, speaks really fast and really softly. I can barely understand him when he speaks in English. So needless to say, I was in a really bad mood all day. I hate doing poorly on things, especially when beforehand I feel prepared.
After we finished for the day today around 5, we found a really nice restaurant and splurged on 40 som Baltika beers. It was bout a dollar each – or – one day’s salary. But worth every drop.
Tomorrow we are visiting an NGO that helps street children and pensioners. We met with them today to learn their history and such. The director is friends with the Kyrgyz ambassador to the United States. She is 70 but very spunky.
Next week we’ll spend some time in the capital with current volunteers at the NGO’s they are working with, which should be really fun and interesting. Also, at the end of next week, we’ll find out or permanent site placements. I’m anxious and excited to see where I’ll end up, and which NGO I’ll be working with.
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1 comment:
BELKY!!!!! I just remembered you had this and I had to go through 2000 emails in my old email account to find the link. I miss you so much, but I am so happy to be reading about you and how you are and what you have been doing. Was that a bed of home fries? That would be heaven for us, lol. It sounds like you are doing excellent. I would have loved to dance at the wedding with you. Haha, I love and miss you so much!!! Keep in touch. If you have a number at some point let me know, and I will steal my parents phone card for a few.
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