From the past month or so...

February 15, 2008
January came and went in a flash. Happy Belated 26th Birthday Ben!
I’ve been spending my days working at 2 different NGO’s, reading, watching movies, writing, taking care of the little one, thinking about my school work, and hanging out with friends. On VDay we had a heart-shaped cookie decorating party at Kristina’s for Valentines Day in conjunction with our weekly PCV meeting.

Last week I wrote my first grant proposal, with Meg’s help. We’re planning a 4-day Women’s Leadership Conference for this May and want funding so we can make the event as professional and as fun as possible – including T-shirts, certificates, and a close of ceremony celebration. We asked for less than $1,700 for 50 participants from the US Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic – Democracy Commission - Small Grants Program. We’ll see what happens. I’m anxious to find out if we’ll get it. My first grant – so exciting!

The Saturday before last, after attempting to construct the 20-pound gingerbread house Meg and Theo got in a Christmas package, we went dancing at a local disco under a bridge (I know, sounds sketchy, but it was actually pretty nice). It was fun but expensive – 100som for ladies to get in, 200 for the fellas. We had a big group, which made it better and safer. The pop music here is interesting. Enrique and the Back Street Boys, as well as Shakira, Nelly Fertado, Jennifer Lopez, and Justin Timberlake are all very popular.

The past few days were a bit warmer and the ice started melting, then it froze again, and it’s snowing today. The roads and sidewalks are so slick – I could strap on a pair of ice skates and skate to work. The locals have been saying this is the worst winter in 50 years. It’s comparable to a New England winter, but feels colder because most buildings aren’t heated very well. My friends who are teachers here keep getting weeks off because the schools have been shut down because they’re too cold. This is happening throughout the country.

I have a new Russian tutor. She’s not a co-worker, but works in the same office building. It has been working well so far – she teaches me Russian and I teach her English. We’re trying for 3-4 lessons a week. She’s a former English teacher so I’m a little intimidated – I feel like I’m not a very good teacher. But it’s good to be back into a steady language routine.

I learned how to knit a few weeks a go. I’m not very good, but I got the basics down. Kelly left a nice pair of needles and Meg gave me some green yarn, so I’m working on my first scarf. I bought a ball of yarn at the bazaar, but it’s way too thin so now it’s a cat toy. Roo goes crazy over it.

I started a fridge fund – a bucket for my 1 com bills. Since my charmingly flawed apartment has no fridge, and my cardboard box in between the window panes is starting to fray, I decided to start saving. I’ve been asking around and found out I could get a small used one for about 3,000 som, so I’m hoping I’ll have enough saved to buy one in April. I’ve been able to go without one because stuff stays cold enough in the window or on the balcony, but come warmer weather I’ll need one.

Last Sunday I had a humbling experience. I had a few friends over for brunch and at one point I looked out the window and noticed a person laying face down in the snow outside. When yelling didn’t produce any results my friend agreed to go down with me to do something. It was an elderly lady and she looked nearly dead. We couldn’t shake her awake. One of her shoes was off, her coat was open, and she wasn’t wearing any hat or gloves. Her cheek was literally on the snow. She felt alarmingly cold, and was barely breathing. Eventually a nice Uzbek woman came out and luckily my friend could speak Uzbek, so they talked for a while about what to do. We knew if we left her she would die in an hour or two. It was snowing pretty hard. At one point I looked up at my apartment building and noticed faces in every window – people were just watching us. Finally we found someone who could tell us where this passed out lady lived and just as we were about to carry her there (it was close by) two young Russian teenage girls walked by and offered to help. So the four of us carried this old lady who eventually opened her eyes a bit up to the third floor of a nearby apartment, where she lived. I knew I did the right thing by taking initiative, but for the rest of the day I couldn’t stop thinking about the faces in the windows, and why it was the foreigners and not the neighbors who took action.

I’ve been on a soup kick. The Peace Corps gave us these Kyrgyz Republic Cook books – made up of recopies compiled from previous volunteers. It’s really great and I’ve been trying lots of new things. But, as the winter is in full force, the produce selection has been minimal – I’m talking potatoes, onions, and carrots. So anyway, I tried the French onion soup recipe and it was amazing and easy! So the next time I made it I added carrots and potatoes, and then the third time I got creative and added pasta and soy meat too. I’ve been making up big batches so I can have leftovers for lunch (trying to save those soms).

It’s weird that planning for the next group of volunteers is already underway. It seems like we, the K-15’s just got here, and already the K-16’s are on their way. They arrive in July, and will be sent to sites in late September. Unfortunately, no more volunteers are being placed in cities, so I won’t be very close to any of the newbies.

What else…I just found out today that my director at the Central Asian Alliance for Water is four months pregnant. She’s so cute. We talked for a while today about pregnancy and marriage and she seemed concerned that I’m 23 now, will be 25 when I go back to the states, and I don’t even have a boyfriend, never mind a husband or children. Women here in Kyrgyzstan usually get married young – between 18 and 22.

Learned a new term for prostitutes: night butterflies.

Translated 2 SWOT analyses at work today from Russian into English. That was fun.

It just took an hour and 37 minutes for water to boil in a small pot – that’s how low the gas is. For some reason they turn it down in the winter. The electricity has also been very weak. And my heat stopped working. I can see my breath in my apartment. Good thing I have sweaters!

My friends and I tried a new Chinese restaurant, which just opened in the new Chinese hotel. It was a bit strange. The restaurant was on the fourth floor and to get there we had to take an elevator, and then walk down a long hallway of rooms then up a flight of stairs. The food was okay, but I probably won’t go back anytime soon.

The volunteers here have a pretty decent collection of DVD’s – I’ve watched many in the past few weeks because it’s been too cold to do much else, including Grey’s Anatomy and Weeds season 1. Last week I rearranged my apartment. It feels more spacious now.

Meg and I walked to the bazaar and the supermarket yesterday morning. We had to stop on the way back to rest because we were carrying a lot of stuff and it was unusually warm out. I bought an economy size bag of cat food, which seemed like a good idea at the time, by the time I got home my arms were shaking. Work out for the week: check.

Last night I went out for Plov (a traditional Kyrgyz Dish made from rice, vegetables, and meat) with a friend who was a K-10 but is now back working for an International Development Agency. Her friends are visiting and wanted to eat at a chiahanah – which is like a restaurant but you rent a small room. Most of the time only men go to chiahanahs. You take off your shoes and sit on pillows around a short table. The food is communal, so everyone just gets a spoon and digs in. We drank lots of tea, ate lots of plov (1 ½ kilos!) and pickles and talked about politics for a few hours. The Chiahanah was in a neighborhood on the outskirts of town and when the taxi we called didn’t come after 30 minutes we started walking. Eventually we flagged one down and got home before 10pm. And on the way home my mom called which was a fabulous surprise! Thanks mom! It was great talking to you.