PST

We've been so busy lately.  When I first arrived they talked about pre-service training as a kind of boot camp and it really is.  We have class six days a week, a mix between language lessons and administrative sessions.  We spend pretty much every waking minute with either our host families or other volunteers, we eat every meal with them and are always under their watchful eye.  We even have a curfew, although after our long days I wouldn't want to be out past 9 anyway.

Learning Kyrgyz is really a struggle.  It is so unlike any language I've ever studied before.  I commonly find myself listening to something my teacher or host family or the mashrutka driver is saying to me and realize that I haven't understood one word of it.

It's the small successes that keep me going.   Today I stopped by the bazaar to get some cashews and thought I'd try my luck with lentils.  I've been wanting to make daal for a few weeks now but most of the vendors don't sell them, and the market normally closes before I get out of class.  On a whim I asked a guy selling fish because I saw a few bags in the back of his stall and he actually had them so I bought half a kilo.  The more amazing thing is that I was able to do all of this in Kyrgyz!

As a treat since I haven't really taken any good pictures lately, here is a video of me and some of the other volunteers dancing today at Culture Day.  (I'm the one blocking the camera)