25/07/2008
Last evening, Elena and I went to the magazin (a little shop) down the street to buy a watermelon (darbus). The sun was going down and we had t walk through more than one swarm of misquits, but we made it unscathed, well almost- I have thee bites on my wrist. Once at the magazin there was only one watermelon left, huge, but rather unsightly, we bought it anyway; it ended up weighing 11 kilos- and Elena, being only five, could not carry it. Finally our blue gate was in sight, and I unloaded the watermelon and Aizada, my host mom (Apa), cut it up. DELICIOUS.
Watermelon season is fantastic. I don't know if I've mentioned watermelons before, but they are worth mentioning daily. I eat watermelon at least once a day, sometimes three. When my language group and I are walking to one of our sessions, we pass by quite a few watermelon sellers on the main road- their watermelons stacked neatly by the dozens. If this is the way fruit seasons go, I'm excited for the upcoming apricot and apple seasons.
My host brother Sultan, who's 8, loves rocking out with my ipod. I love listening to him try and sing 'apologize.' He doesn't quite get the lyrics right, i imagine it's what i sound like when trying to speak Kyrgyz. I'm finally starting to get used to the cyrillic alphabet, at least when the word is in Kyrgyz, with Russian words I have a bit more difficulty.
I've finally fallen into a bit of a routine, after a couple of weeks in-country. I have morning language clasds, followed by various PC sessions in the afternoons. After which, my language group hangs out, walks home, visits the magazin, etc. Nic and i usually end up walking home together, since we live practically next door, and on the opposite end of town from everyone else. By the time we start walking down his street, the chon apas are looking curiously at us, and all the small kids come running up to Nic to say hello. It's possible that the neighborhood has the wrong idea. I drop Nic off and continue walking, this time saying hello to all the old women congregated along the street. Half of them are relatves anyway. It seems as if there is at least on house on all the surrounding streets that have family members related to my host family.
There is one family, almost across the street from Nci, that is my host father's younger brother's family, s well as his parents. In Kyrgyz culture the youngest son's family lives with the parents. My Ata's brother is married, to a women who is also 23, and they have two of the cutest kids. I've been over a few times for chai or some watermelon. Once, about two weeks ago, I attended a family party. Their sone, who's three, was circumcised and there was a party to celebrate. There was food, laughter, some vodka shots (not me, of course), and a very upset three year old hobbling around.
I have my permanent site interview this upcoming week. I'm rather anxious to know where I'll be living for the next two years. I've got my fingers crossed for Naryn oblast, although I think anywhere would be awesome. Thre are seven oblasts (regions/ provinces) in Kyrgyzstan: Naryn, Talas, Issyk-Kul, Jalalabad, Osh, Chui (where I am now), and Batken. Naryn is the most traditionally Kyrgyz, 98%, has beautiful mountains, is the largest and most central oblast, as well as the coldest. I should find out my prmanent site in mid-late August.
28/07/2008
I was talking to a K-14 earlier this week about the Kyrgyz interest in Santa Claus. It began when all of the k-16s were in Bishkek for a cultural event (more on that later) anda k-14 took a few of us to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. On the table was a toothpick holder shaped like a santa hat. It turns out that a couple of years ago, a study was done by some company (I think American) to determine the most efficient santa claus. They discovered that for St Nick to be the most efficient he could be, he would live in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz people latched on to this, embraced Santa Claus (despite their being no Christmas) and even named a mountain after him.
Saturday, my group of volunteers was in Bishkek, the capital. Our first stop was the art museum. It was small, but there were a lot of words by Kyrgyz artists. I'll have to go back when there are not 60 americans running around. For the most part there words were pastoral scenes. There was one room devoted to traditional kyrgyz rugs, the shirdak. Huge, beautiful, and colorful felt rugs ( I can't wait to buy one). After our museum vist was our chinese lunch, followed by the TsuM, a sort of giant electronics bazaar. Then it was back to my village for dinner and fun with my host family.
I've tried to post photos- but i keep accidently deleting my jump drive once i get to the internet cafe, i really should learn some russian. hopefully i'll get some up soon. also- i got a cellphone- email me if you want the number, i'll get back to you next wednesday (my internet day.
