Happy Women's Day to You!

The month of March has been interesting thus far in Kyrgyzstan. One of the biggest holidays here is International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8th. Because the 8th was on a Saturday, most people celebrated with co-workers and colleagues on Friday. The flower stands in the center of town were mobbed all day long. Flowers were bought and given to women, along with chocolates, stuffed animals, and other small trinkets. I received a red carnation and a wind chime from my local friend Kanykie, and a small wooden statue of an African looking woman from my tutor.

In honor of Women’s Day the mentor/mentee program at the local university organized a roundtable discussion on bride kidnapping (know as “ala kachuu” here) and showed a short film – Part of Petr Lom’s PBS Documentary. I’m glad I was invited because it was interesting to hear local opinions about this practice, and it got me to thinking about my thesis more.

My little brother turned 4 last week! Happy (Belated) Birthday Nathan!! It was fun hearing about his swimming party at the YMCA and the new Easy Bake Oven he got.

The past few days have been gloriously warm – all of the snow is pretty much melted. The bazaar is much more manageable now. I have a small balcony in my apartment – just big enough to fit one chair. I’ve enjoyed reading out there and soaking in the sun. I let my kitten on the balcony too, but only when I can supervise her. I think she might just be dumb enough to jump off of it after a bird or a fly, not realizing we’re on the top floor.

Cafés have started putting tables and chairs outside again. And some of the seasonal ones are preparing to open. So exciting!

At the end of March we will have another Peace Corps training, this time on Project Design and Monitoring. I have to decide this week who I want to bring with me (it can be anyone from either NGO I work at, who would want to work on a project together).

Old ladies in long skirts, peacock sweaters, head scarves, and orange work vests have been out in full force cleaning up the city. You'd think this would be job for young men, but these ladies get the job done with their homemade brooms. Yesterday on my walk to work I noticed guys on statues scrubbing them clean. And ahh, the smell of buring trash is in the air! All this activity has got me to thinking about Earth Day, which is coming up, and what we could do here...