Chapter Ten: T minus 3 days
I'm about to transistion yet again. On the first of December, I leave the comforts of Kegeti and swear in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). Like I said before, I'm moving to the southshore of the lake. I'll be the only PCV in my village, but there will be some others close by. I'd label myself "nervous but excited." So maybe "anxious" is better.
I'm kinda bummed to be leaving all my friends, as well as my host-family, but my new one seems ok. It's so strange knowing that if things go as planned, I'll probably be living with them for 2 years.
I was on the phone will She-She last night, and I asked her what I was doing here. She responded, "Well, Col, you're volunteering." There's nothing like a mother to say it like it is.
So Saturday night was Guljakan's 45th birthday. I helped make borsok (fried dough)and this Kyrgyz potato salad thing. Apparantly, I dice too big.
I'm in Tokmok right now, about to go to the bazaar and buy my host family a going away gift. The day of the birthday party, a chicken got into the house when I accidentally left the door open to go fill up my water distiller. When I told my Apa about it, she went to fetch it, but in the process, the little creature wacked two of the flower vases with its wings, and they broke into little pieces on the floor. Maybe I'll look into getting replacements.
So my computer is fixed, but I ended up losing all of my information, like iTunes songs, pictures and Word documents. If you feel the Spirit move you, let it groove you, and mail me a photo of yourself or something. Being the genius I am, I also left all my hard copies of my pictures on the flight from JFK to Istanbul. So basically, some random Turkish dude is walking around the world with pictures of me and all of you. Either that, or an Delta Airlines stewardess.
All my love.
Chapter Nine: A River Runs Through It
It's been a while since I've posted anything, and I blame that largely on the reality that the Start-Up disc my brother sent me via air mail was not sufficient. Another three weeks, and I should be smooth sailing. That, and I'm purchasing a cell phone at the Osh Bazaar this weekend.
Anyway, I got back from my permanant site visit to Jety-Oguz on the South Shore of Lake Issyk Kul on Sunday. Although I was exhausted, I was welcomed back warmly by my host-mother who made me walk to the public banya with her, and for 40 com, I enjoyed a nice sauna-type experience, only to be busted in on not once, but twice, by Apa herself. I guess she could hear me through the metal door, cursing the scolding hot water that wouldn't turn off and continued to overflow on to the banya floor, splashing every which way, burning my frail body. Thanks, Apa.
So like I said, I was on my visit to the Lake to meet my new family, school director and English-speaking counterpart. All in all, I think it's going to be a challenging next three months, transitioning yet again, but come spring, the flowers will be out, the snow will be melted and my Kyrgyz will be oh so much better. I'm sure it didn't help that I was reading The Catcher in the Rye for the 10,000th time on my trip as well. Talk about a downer. A good one, but a downer. On a positive note, there's a river that runs through my village. Looks like I'm in the market for a new pole, too.
I have stories.
But not now.
Now, I have my new address:
Kyrgyz Republic
Issyk Kul Oblast
Jety-Oguz Rayon
Jety-Oguz Village
722418
Marshall Colleen (Volunteer)
Oh, and I got a creepy phone call last night from some Uzbek chick who got my local number in Kegeti from "a friend" because she heard that there was some girl named Miss Colleen from Chicago living in Kyrgyzstan. I thought it was a joke, but she denied it, apoligized and then hung up the phone. My mom called me three minutes later. There was no apparant connection.
