Sunday, July 15, 2007

First week

Hello All,

Lauren and I have seemingly made a slight, but difficult transition in our first week in the Peace Corps. One week ago, we arrived in the Kyrgyz Republic after two days of orientation in New Jersey and a one and a half day trip to Bishkek via Istanbul. It has been an exhausting week, but I think that we have made a lot of progress.

The flight between New York and Istanbul itself was fairly uneventful, but Lauren and I were not seated together on the plane giving us another chance to meet other people. There were two films on the plane (Breach, which we already had seen, and Premonition, a Sandra Bullock film which was actually worse than the last Sandra Bullock movie that we saw on a plane, Lake House), which we skipped. The food was equally bad. The Istanbul Airport was an adventure in itself. The temperature inside the airport was quite hot, probably 85 degrees, and very smoky. With our 8 hour layover we were able to buy a $15 gyro and salad and sleep for about a half hour each. Our 5 hour flight to Bishkek was much nicer, despite the Ice Cube in-flight film.

We arrived into Bishkek at 1 AM, exhausted but still intrigued by what was coming up. The first thing that I noticed is that all signs and advertisements were in Russian and English, and sometimes in Kyrgyz. After a lot of hassle we finally arrived at our hotel in the outskirts of Bishkek at 3 AM. We were completely lost about time and where we were and the only thing that we could do was sleep, until our orientation began at 9.

The two and a half days of orientation were mostly a blur. We had a lot of safety and cultural adaptation seminars, some shots, and I was told that I drink too much (1-2 drinks a day is too much?). Only a couple of things that I will ever remember about orientation. First, it can get pretty hot out in the middle of a Kyrgyz summer day, but the evenings are very nice when the breeze kicks in. Second, having Russian skills is both good and bad. Almost everyone in the Western part of the Kyrgyz Republic speaks Russian as their primary language, especially in the cities. That is good because I understand a lot, but it is trying because Lauren and I were placed in a Kyrgyz language program. It is hard to intensely concentrate on one language when everyone can, and wants to, communicate with me in Russian.

As I said, Lauren and I were placed in a Kyrgyz language group, which may effect our placement later in the Peace Corps. (Kyrgyz speakers live in the south and northeast of the country, although most areas have some Kyrgyz speaking communities.)

We will be living in a Kyrgyz village for the next 10 weeks, during which we will have intensive language and job training. Approximately 4 days a week, 5-6 hours a day will be spent on language classes and on the other days we will have job training and cultural interaction. The classes just touch the tip of the iceberg in terms of the language that we are picking up, especially the language from our host family.

The family that we are staying with consists of a father (ata), a mother (apa), two sons (baykeler), a younger daughter (karindash or sindi), and an older married daughter (edje) who is only over on weekends. Besides them, there is always an arrangement of family members over, especially on the weekend. Additionally, there are two cows, a calf, three dogs, a cat, and a newly arrived sheep. I wonder if the sheep is here to stay, or will be dinner in the not so distant future. The house is pretty nice. Inside, there are several bedrooms, an eating room, a TV room (they have satellite television), and a couple of other rooms that we haven’t seen. Outside, they have an outhouse, a sun shower, nighttime stables for the animals, and a food preparation and cleaning area. There are some adjustments, obviously, that we have had to make. First, there are several sanitary differences. The Muslim and Kyrgyz tradition requires that we wash our hands and take off our shoes when we enter the house, before meals, and whenever else it is necessary. Despite what we were told before we arrived, everyone has extremely dusty shoes. Second, the outhouse is a challenge and probably the biggest psychological and ergonomic difficulty in the country. Third, personal privacy is fairly challenging, especially for American women. Personal space is not big in such a collectivist society, which is good and bad.

The diet may be a big adjustment, especially in a place where exercise is not understood at all. Almost every meal includes tea, a fresh vegetable salad (no lettuce, but cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions), and wonderfully fresh and doughy bread. Usually, we also then have a main course, usually including potatoes or noodles and some kind of meat or eggs. Lauren has adjusted ok eating some meat, but we both have had difficulty with the not-so-lean meat. The food is pretty good, but very rich and oily. The tea is also good, except a little warm on some the steamier days.

My host sister says that she knows everyone in the village. The village is pretty self-sufficient with school, an administrative and meeting hall, pasture land, and two stores. Almost everyone speaks Russian, most speak some Kyrgyz, and some speak Turkish. We have our lessons about a ten-minute walk away and everyone has stared us at least once. We have received a fairly warm and intriguing welcome in the community and have been invited by two people to come over sometime for tea. It is pretty much a rural community, where everyone has one job and takes care of animals as a second source of food and income.

Meghan asked about how we stay cool, and that has actually been one of my biggest challenges, Lauren has not yet felt too warm, but I feel like I am melting some days. The best strategy that I have is to wear shorts when at home, take afternoon sun showers before the water gets too warm, drink lots of water, and go outside in the morning and night when it is cool and breezy. It is tough, though, especially when people keep their windows closed, there is no A/C, and fans are rarely used. Besides that, I am eagerly awaiting cooler weather and better acclimation.

Martin

P.S. For those of you who are interested I have a picture I will email you involving the fate of the poor sheep that arrived two days ago. Minutes before Sunday night’s dinner, we said a prayer for the poor lamb and it was silenced. Then we went to dinner. Some people say that my family has strange pre-dinner conversation.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Pre-departure trip









Before leaving for orientation on Thursday, we wanted to post some pictures from our pre-departure trip to New Jersey, Chicago, Milwaukee, Lake Forest Oasis, somewhere in Ohio we're never going to again, Virginia, and back to New Jersey with a stop in NYC. Highlights were seeing family and eating lots of food to keep us full for the next couple of years.