Snow... again.

A snowy street near the center of Tyup


There is no doubt it is winter here in the Kyrgyz Republic, although I’ve heard that the last couple years have been much milder than normal. We get a lot of snow in Tyup though, a lot more than any other place in Issyk Kul that I know of. In fact, on the other side of the lake they get almost no precipitation at all except in the mountains.





My back yard


I can’t complain too much though, my house is warm and I have an indoor toilet which makes makes life so much more bearable.





Tomato sauce!




I’m lucky too that I canned several liters of vegetables during the fall so I have something good to eat besides my normal buckwheat and peas. Living so close to Karakol vegetables are actually available during the winter, but they are much more expensive than they were a few months ago. I splurged this month and bought a few peppers and some spinach and am now completely out of money. Fortunately I have plenty of winter salad to tide me through.

Making Kyrgyz Food

We’ve been cooking up a storm in Tyup this week!  I want to learn how to make a few Kyrgyz dishes before I go and since recipes are just passed down through families I asked my host mother to teach me how to make a couple of my favorite foods.



One of the main dishes in Kyrgyzstan is Manti, a steamed dumpling normally filled with sheep, although I’ve had them with potato.  I wanted to try making them with squash.

We don’t do a lot of measuring here, they all seem to know intuitively how much of each ingredient they need (in fact we don’t even have anything to measure with, I’ve just been using regular spoons and tea cups).



To make the manti, my host mother made dough with flour, salt, water, and oil, in unknown quantities.  I then cut up the squash, potato and onion into tiny pieces and she added pepper and salt for flavor and to draw the water out.  We made small flat circles from the dough and filled them with the vegetables.  I’m still working on closing the manti, it’s hard!



They have these really cool steamer pots here.  They’re tall and open on the bottom.  They hold several round trays with holes and an opening in the middle for the steam.  They use these trays for dumplings and oromo (kind of a Kyrgyz lasagna).  They pots fit right over a kazan of boiling water.  We cooked the manti for half an hour.





Probably my favorite thing in Kyrgyzstan is laza.  It’s a condiment made from garlic and chili peppers and it’s been especially useful since it covers up the sheep taste that permeates everything in the country.  We crushed several heads of garlic and then added a bunch of dry chili pepper flakes and a little salt and then poured hot oil over the mixture.





My host mother made peroshkees too.  Peroshkees are delicious (and totally unhealthy) and I eat them all the time because they're one of the few Kyrgyz foods that doesn't include sheep.  Plus they're cheap.  Peroshkees are fried dough with potato inside.  I like to eat them with laza.

Guesting

Guesting is important in Kyrgyzstan, it's how they catch up, relax and do business.  One of the wonderful Peace Corps LCF's invited us over to guest in his village on Friday.



You can take almost anything in a mashrutka, even a door!

His village is on the other side of Karakol from mine so after taking a taxi in and stopping at the bazaar for some cookies and juice (it's typical to bring some kind of gift for the host) we hopped in a mashrutka, literally hopped because someone had bought a large wooden door at the bazaar and was bringing it home.  I'm still not sure how they got it in there!

Timerlan showed us his orchard, huge dog, and his sheep (he has a few babies and they were so cute and fluffy!)  and then led us into his very nice house to meet his family.  His family is unusual in that everyone speaks English, his wife and sister speak English well and his children are all learning.  His wife had made amazing fried dough, along with salads and horse plov.  I also tried bozo for the first time, it's some kind of fermented wheat drink, like an unfiltered beer.  Of course I don't like beer so it wasn't exactly to my liking.



Timerlan and Luke playing guitar

After a wonderful lunch Timerlan brought out his guitar and we played some songs and sang, it was a lot of fun!

Жангы жылыныздар менен (Happy New Year!)

It’s a new year which means of course that it’s time to make resolutions (to be forgotten in a few weeks time as we go back to our old ways).  I figured this was a good excuse to dust off this blog and make another attempt at telling you about my adventures here in KR...

The end of the year was packed with holiday fun.  I was super excited to share one of my favorite holidays with my host family, I went to the bazaar and picked up lots of stocking stuffers, and some new although probably ill fitting socks (I did see my host brother wearing his the other day, 1 out of 3 isn't too bad).  I woke up early and put on my Santa hat (best idea ever, I had strangers coming up to me on the street and wishing me a Merry Christmas) and waited for my host family to wake up.  As all holidays here are accompanied by alcohol my apa and I had a few glasses of wine sometime before dawn.

This was followed by a low key Christmas celebration with other volunteers at a cafe in Karakol.  We enjoyed delicious American food and played charades.  The internet gods were also kind enough to let me Skype in to the festivities in Tennessee.

I got my Christmas tree a few days late.  Their New Years is like a mishmash of our Halloween, Christmas and New Years.  They have New Years trees and give presents, they have a Santa Claus and from what I could see at the bazaar a bunch of kids wear costumes, and of course there are fireworks too.

Decorating the tree with Kanat, my host brother

My host mother putting the final touches on our New Years tree.

New Years was a fun and tiring adventure.  It began with my friend’s birthday which just happens to be on NYE.  We celebrated the night before with karaoke and pizza.  The next day I caught a taxi (by far the nicest ride I’ve had to Bishkek and for the normal mashrutka price!) to celebrate the holiday with my PST host family in Kant.

The street was shut down in the center of Bishkek where people were gathered to ring in the new year.

My host brother Arlen with a Frozen hat, proof that it doesn’t matter where you are, kids always love playing with the packaging.

Kant is the land of plenty.  We had so much food it could barely fit on the table and curiously several choices of meat, but no sheep!

We each wrote down our goals for the year, lit them on fire and then drank the ashes with our champagne at midnight.  We rushed outside to see the fireworks and I have to say, it was spectacular.  Expensive, coordinated fireworks shows are great and all, but nothing beats walking into the street and being completely surrounded by lights, colors and explosions.  You can buy fireworks anywhere and just set them off in the street.  It was great!

This was followed by something I like to refer to as the Kant crawl where we go down the street and stop in at each of the neighbor’s houses, have some food, make a few toasts, and drink at least two shots of vodka.  Needless to say I was falling asleep at the table by half past 1.  My host family on the other hand was apparently up til 7:30AM.

New Years Day brunch with the neighbors

I’m back in Tyup now but the partying hasn’t ended.  We’ve had guests at the house ever since I returned.  The holiday season is supposed to last until Wednesday.

Planes, mashrutkas, and automobiles

I'm writing this from the airport in Bishkek. On their FREE wifi.
It's been a long day. I worked this morning, we went to the Rayon center (like a county) government office where my director talked to them about biometric passports. I understood almost none of it. But I've seen a few handwritten passports (they can't be legal anymore, right?) and I guess they were talking about how to make the switch.

My journey to Istanbul began with a walk to the Tyup bus stop, fortunately I packed light. I was lucky and a Mashrutka was pulling out just as I got there so after a brief discussion with the driver about the price (apparently it's gone up since benzene is эн кымбат) we headed out. It was one of the more pleasant Mashrutka rides. There was a young girl up front who spent a good portion of the time vomiting into plastic bags that her very prepared mother had ready for her. This is totally normal. I'm not sure if it's the bad roads, the sugary food and drinks the kids are always eating, the fact that there are no seat belts and the kids are always moving around while we're driving or some combination thereof but they get car sick all the time. So often in fact that if the parents don't have a plastic bag and ask the driver to stop he will chastise them and tell them that they should know better. The ride from Tyup to Bishkek takes about 6 hours plus a half hour stop at chai-eech-stan (a rest stop, no gas but they do have pay toilets, a restaurant, and an amazing view). While this is the longest part of my journey, it's also the cheapest. I met a friend in Bishkek for dinner and then took a taxi to the airport. The taxi was 480 com for a 30 km trip compared to my mashrutka ride which at almost 400 km only cost 345 com.

I haven't been to the airport since I first arrived in country. I didn't get a very good look then as it was the middle of the night, I was at the end of a 30 hour trip, and we were being shepherded into buses right away. I didn't have high hopes, but it's actually a lot better than I expected. Since the airport is small, and Kyrgyzstan is small, it pretty much gets the last pick of departure and arrival times, which means international flights leave in the middle of the night. Although since we're only allowed to travel in country during the day that works out fine for me. The international terminal only has three gates, but it has an Adriano Coffee (which is as good as it gets in terms of Western style coffee shops in country, no Starbucks here!) a Beeline store (that's our phone service provider) and they were both open at 2 am. The toilets are free and have both toilet paper and soap and did I mention the free wifi? 24 hour coffee shops and free wifi, I know a couple airports in America that don't even have that.

Making pancakes with skinheads

I had an awesome weekend!  It’s a tradition that all of the volunteers in an oblast meet up somewhere so that the new volunteers can meet the old ones.  We met up in Balykchy which is about 2 and a half hours from me on the North shore of the lake.  It was like a little paradise.  Balykchy is a touristy beach town, which is not something I usually like, but after a few months in Kyrgyzstan I was thrilled to have indoor plumbing, I mean, the works! a toilet, a shower, with hot water no less!  And it was fun to see people doing things like jet skiing and parasailing.  It was a very Western.  I spent some time on the beach  (although i didn’t get past my knees, the water is way too cold for me!) and rode the ferris wheel, it’s huge!  It takes twenty minutes to go around.  We went out dancing one night and made awesome meals like salads and pancakes!

 I don’t think I’ve gone one day here where I haven’t said something completely ridiculous.  Fortunately everyone at work has a good sense of humor.  Yesterday I was the first one at the office and went to ask if anyone had the key.  Unfortunately I mixed up key and door, and then mispronounced it on top of that which meant that what actually came out was: ‘Do you have the donkey?’  Today I was telling my director about how much fun I had this past weekend and how we had great food, like the delicious pancakes they made with chocolate and raspberry sauce.  Of course when I was trying to explain how to make pancakes I said that they are made with taz.  My director started laughing hysterically and informed me that the word for salt is tooz, taz is a skinhead (or in English a bald person).  We both got a good laugh out of that.  Fortunately I finally found a Kyrgyz teacher, so hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon.

Studying Kyrgyz has definitely made me more sympathetic to the mistakes EFL students make.  I had the first meeting with my English club today and they kept adding extra a’s and switching y’s with u’s.  Understanding the sounds the cyrillic characters make and some of the more common sounds in Kyrgyz words, I understand completely why they make these mistakes.  

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)

Adventures in cooking

Beans and legumes are considered 'poverty food' in many parts of Kyrgyzstan, so although they grow a lot of them, people don't eat them and most are exported to surrounding countries.  This makes it hard to get protein as a vegetarian when the only real protein option is sheep.

A couple weeks ago I decided to make make a meal myself and headed to the bazaar for lentils.  Of course, the word for lentil isn't in our dictionary, and it wouldn't have mattered if it were because the bazaar in Kant is mostly Russian anyway.  Fortunately everything is in large open bags so you can just point at whatever you want to buy.  I saw a large bag of горох at one of the stalls, it looked like lentils to me so I bought a kilo at the bazaar and brought it home.

I was surprised to see how large they got as they cooked! In fact as they cooked they started to look less and less like the lentils I was sure they were.  Finally I called my teacher and discovered that they were actually peas.  Oops!

Bishkek Day

We all took a trip to Bishkek on Thursday.  It was fun to get out and see the big city!  Last year's volunteers had created a scavenger hunt of some of the important sites to see around town.



Victory monument






















Paniflov Park


























Osh Bazaar

















Philharmonia

View from my backyard

The mountain view is pretty spectacular

It's Monday already?

The weekend went by in a flash!  We have a half day of language on Saturday so really we only get a day off.  I feel like I could use a week.

I had an enjoyable weekend: taught my host siblings how to play Uno and Set (it turns out they actually picked up Set pretty quickly, perhaps my explanation is too confusing when I try to show people who speak English!)  I also took my K-sis to one of the other volunteer's homes to do yoga.

We got right back into it with our language lesson today.  Kyrgyz has different terms for every type of family member (aunt on your mother's side is different than on on your father's side) but strangely they use the same term for older brother, uncle on your father's side, and any of his older male children.  So confusing!



Lunch with my language group




When we're in our villages for language lessons our host families take turns making us lunch.  Today we had lunch at Juliann's house, in their guesting room.  Juliann is also vegetarian and her host mom made us a soy dish!   We also had some great local honey.  We are taking advantage of the good food while it lasts since it seems like bread will constitute most of our meals once training is over.

Meeting my host family

It has been an exciting and exhausting week in Kyrgyzstan.  Trying to learn Kyrgyz is tough!  There are so many things about the language that just don't make any sense to me; like, why do they need 12 different endings for plural nouns?  (Boggle here would not be nearly as fun)  And why is there no word that just means sister?

We arrived in Kant last week and met our host families at a ceremony where they also showcased local music and dances.  It was exciting and a bit scary to meet our 'appa's' for the first time (mother in Kyrgyz).  We barely knew how to say hello in Kyrgyz (I like to think I know a bit more now) and they couldn't speak any English.



Tim and I with our appas

Since our group is so large they've split us up between several villages.  I was lucky enough to be placed in Kant, a larger town, which has been especially great this week because we're not supposed to leave our village during training and Kant has everything I could need, including an American Corner with wifi and a sports complex with an outdoor track (a bit run down but there are always people there playing basketball or soccer or just enjoying the cool evenings).  It's also only a short mashrutka ride from Kant to the hub site where all of the volunteers meet for training a few times a week.

I'm staying with a pretty large family; my appa and atta (father), two sons, a daughter in law, two grand children, and a niece.  There's also another daughter who lives in Bishkek with her husband and 6 month old and they visit often.  We're definitely being spoiled with our training host families.  My family has a two story home with indoor plumbing (including hot water, a shower, and a washing machine!).

My host family has been really great about helping me with my Kyrgyz, and just taking care of me in general.  I guess they were told ahead of time that I'm vegetarian so we've had plenty of salads and veggie meals.  It feels like they feed me constantly.  My first day I wasn't really sure when dinner was and ended up eating three.  Yesterday I stopped by after class just to pick up my computer and my appa insisted that I chai eech (translates to drink tea, usually accompanied by bread, or in my house and entire meal), she then gave me a bag full of salad, cookies and jam to bring when I met up with my friends.  My singdee (younger sister) and I run every evening at the track, and my eenees (younger brothers) are finally starting to accept me and now love to play with their toy cars in my room, ask me to help them cut up their food, and will chatter to me in Kyrgyz (I don't think they realize that I don't understand them).

The next month and a half will be filled with trainings on language, safety, and technical training.  I'm looking forward to being able to communicate in the language (better) and finding out my assignment.

Toe in the water

My first few days in Kyrgyzstan have been great.  It’s a beautiful country and we’re staying right on lake Issyk-kul; the view is amazing.

We arrived very early Monday morning, a little after 3AM local time.  I was thankful that all of my luggage made it, several of the other trainees weren’t so lucky.  We immediately boarded buses for a five hour trip to Issyk-kul and got to our hotel just in time for breakfast.  We’re staying at a resort right on the lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains.  This of course, is nothing like what our lodging will be like for the rest of our stay but they’re trying to ease us into our life in K.  I can’t decide if it’s nice or cruel to spoil us these first few days!

Our first days have been devoted to introductions and medical tasks (glad I’ve already gotten most of my shots!) and our first language lessons.  Kyrgyz is not going to be easy.  I'm longing now to be back in Spanish class, at least they're letters didn't look funny!

We've all been suffering from jet lag.  I barely made it through dinner last night and passed out before 8 while trying to study.  The food is going to take some getting used to as well.  They're are three other vegetarians in my group and the hotel has been great about making us special meals but it's still a lot of bread and a LOT of dairy. 

We leave our nice hotel today and will meet our first host families tonight, who we'll stay with for the first phase of training.  I'm excited!

Kyrgyzstan, here we come!

It’s finally happening! After over a year of waiting I am finally beginning my Peace Corps adventure.

We all met in DC on Thursday for our staging event.  It was kind of strange meeting all of these people in person for the first time because we’ve had a pretty active Facebook group and I felt like I knew many of them already.  We have 55 in our class, which is more than the two previous groups combined.  We're a mix of recent college grads, retirees, and everything in between, from all over the country (and even two from Canada with dual citizenship).

We just finished the first leg of our journey and are on a layover in Frankfurt right now, but we still have two flights to go, Istanbul and then Bishkek, followed by a long bus drive to the hotel where we will be staying for our first few days in country. I can't wait!