My new backyard. Apple trees and grape vines.

My new house.

New house.

Turkeys fighting in my yard.

new kitchen

other room

sleeping area

I had dinner with my counterpart, Aigul, and her family.

We woke up after camping to this. All that snow was brand new.

Joni and Ariel with our sweet fire.

Our sweet campsite above kok-jangkok.

Ariel and I putting together the tent.

Walnut forest.

Ariel and Joni trudging up the hill.

Camping!

After months of talking about it, we finally went camping. Ariel, Joni, and I hiked high above another volunteer's village and set up camp. Since this was a short trip and we didn't exactly have it approved, we tried to stay close to other volunteers. It was beautiful. Much colder than in our area, but it was refreshing to not be roasting. We hiked amongst the walnut trees, in the second largest walnut forest in the world, until we found a stop at the top of the mountain. We waited until the herders were down off the mountain and then we set up camp, and built a fire. It was a great, albeit cold, night.

I started my English clubs this week. The kids were excited; I planned only fun things to do. But I did notice that none of my favorite kids from last year showed up. It turns out that all my best students are now attending Ariel's school, which is the really fancy and better school. I'm a bit disappointed.

Yesterday three of us decided to have a teacher-training seminar on lesson planning. We called and texted teachers from all over the rayon, and personally invited a bunch of teachers. Only one teacher showed up. Even our counterparts didn't come. It was a bit disappointing. So instead of having the seminar, we had chai and samsas (a food bearing a slight resemblance to a samosa), and just chatted in English. The one teacher who came is one of my only true Kyrgyz friends, Gulnaz. She works at the Russian school, although not for long, she too is moving to teach at Ariel's school.

After a rather funny conversation with a taxi driver last weekend, I decided to start compiling a list of reasons of why I love Kyrgyzstan. Also, after this week, I realized that it will be good to look at occasionally to remind myself of why I'm still here.

When trying to choose a taxi driver to take, I always ask what kind of car they have. My favorite response is when they shot, 'I have a big car, a golf.' And they in all serious mean that the Volkswagen Golf is considered a luxurious roomy car, which is this area of the country, it is.

I love that women still bake bread every week for the family to eat.

I love hearing the call to prayer- it adds structure to my day, and allows five moments to pause and rest.

The apples here are unbelievably delicious, and unbelievably cheap.

I never have to answer questions about myself anymore. Enough people know who I am, that when someone asks, they answer for me: 'oh she's American, she works here, she's born in '85, and she's not married.'

Every time I visit someone I leave with a goody bag of candy, nuts, apples and bread. Sometimes I even get meat!

hello!

Time here seems suspended. The weeks go by, and I don't even really notice. I'm starting to get back into my teaching routine. So far my schedule has changed four times, which can be frustrating. Last year I would have gone on some tirade about the Kyrgyz education system, but this year I sort of expected it- I'm going with the flow. And really the schedule does need to be changed, it never comes out right the first time; actually it needs to be changed again, but I'm not holding my breath. This year I'm teaching 5^th-9^th forms. I have three of my five classes from last year, and I replaced my two graduating 11^th forms.

In the past couple of weeks I've also moved. When I found a scorpion five inches from my pillow, I decided enough was enough. The next day I was on the phone, and arranged to look at a new place. My new place is a compound house, not an apartment, so it has the added protection that a family offers. It's significantly smaller than the apartment, but no scorpions! My new family is nice, they keep asking if I need anything else for my room, but I have a pretty sweet set-up. My house is two rooms, a small kitchen and then a bedroom/ everything room. I like it. There's always water at night, available from a pump in the yard, as well as a really nice outhouse and a banya that they actually use. I feel like I moved up in the world.

The volunteers in my area have started planning a fall harvest festival in my village- think elementary school carnival. The festival is going to be a fundraiser for my school toilet, as it is going to end up being a very costly project. We're hoping to get local businesses involved as well as local community leaders. I think it's going to turn out well, and the kids and the community will really enjoy it.

My kitty is really no longer a kitty. He spends most of his time on the windowsill stalking the turkeys that roam the yard. I'm hoping that my new family will agree to sell me one of their turkeys for Thanksgiving. And kill it and de-feather it for me, as I'm not really sure how to do either of those things.

Fall weather teased us for a week, and has since fled, which is disappointing because I am tired of the heat. I just want to sleep under a blanket and have my outfits be temperature appropriate again. Jeans and a t-shirt are very hot in 100+ weather. And don't be thinking I have the luxury of air-conditioning, or shade for that matter.

This upcoming weekend the girls and I plan to go camping. Although we don't yet have any idea exactly where, or any details prepared for it, we're going. It should be fun. We're thinking somewhere in the walnut forest, but we'll see.

The big news of the week, around here, has been that the supermarket in Jalalabad is closing. Our beloved Narodni, where we could buy a few things that were unavailable in the bazaar, such as tonic water (which was really only one time), and nutella. But to be fair, we didn't really go that often, and no one else did either, that place was always empty. However, it really put a damper on a COS (close-of-service) plan of mine. Every time I went to Narodni, they gave me coins for change. Coins! Coins here are basically worthless, and no one will take them (even Narodni!), especially the really small ones that are less than a som. I had this plan to save all the coins the store gave me and in year from now, buy something with only coins! I had already started saving, and now I have all of these coins and there is nothing I can do with them. Ugh.

Alright all. Happy Columbus Day!? That's coming up soon, right? Well enjoy your day off, and as we say in the local lingo-жакшы бар! (Jockshay bar, roughly translates to- good go!).