Spring in Review

Hi everyone…

Sorry I haven’t written in a while, but chances are you’re used to having me gone now and are tired of checking this damn blog all the time. But, in case you’re not these things, I’ll give you a quick recap of what’s been going on the last couple months.

I believe the last time I wrote was in February when Graeme posted all those pictures. Since then, the third school quarter has ended and the fourth begun, I’ve given my first quarter grades in Kyrgyzstan, four Kyrgyz holidays and three host family birthdays have passed (plus Valentine’s Day and April Fool’s Day which are both observed here but sadly are still working days), I’ve made a trip back to my old village of Koshoy, one volunteer from my group was “administratively separated” (aka sent home) for writing inflammatory things about Kyrgyzstan on her blog (notice the new disclaimer above), I’ve enjoyed a week long In-Service Training Peace Corps seminar in Bishkek, and I’ve spoken at a training seminar for Kyrgyz English teachers. I’m also in the process of writing a thousand word dictionary (English to Kyrgyz) for my students and applying for a Partnership Grant through Peace Corps to create an English resource center at my school for English students and teachers in my region (more to come on this grant later).

February 23th, Men’s Day – An excellent and well deserved break for the men in this country. We had a party at school and all the female teachers made food, gave toasts, and sang songs for the men. We also drank vodka. The female students did the same thing for the male students, minus the vodka. It was fun.

March 8th, Women’s Day – Basically the same idea as Men’s Day, but instead of making Ploaf (actually the national dish of Uzbekistan – essentially rice, carrots, and mutton) like the female teachers did, the male teachers went to the store and bought bread and canned sardines to eat. That day I found myself killing off a bottle and half in my director’s office with him and the computer teacher. The Kyrgyz was flowing that afternoon.

March 21st, Nooruz (Muslim New Year) – This was really a fun day. In the morning we had a concert at school where students and teachers both performed songs, skits, and poems. Then in the afternoon there were horse races and a big game of ylack (like polo but more of a free for all and with a dead goat instead of a ball) in the field outside my village. On the way from the school concert to the ylack, we stopped in a little cafe (dark cold room in the back of a store would probably be more accurate) to polish off some V. Good day indeed.

March 24th, Revolution Day – This day was the 1 year anniversary of the “Tulip Revolution” during which ex-president Akaiev fled to Russia, and the current president Bakiev took office. Bakiev declared this day a national holiday about a month before the anniversary. I’ve heard it also called Bakiev’s Holiday or Bakiev Day by non-believers. This holiday was during spring break so there was no party at school and nothing exciting to speak of really happened. There was no repeat revolution as some had speculated.

Upcoming events…
This coming weekend I’m going back to Koshoy again because my good friends Anna, Fife, and Jesika from training are all going back. Anna and Fife both live in the town of Toktogul (down south in Jalabat) and Jesika lives out west in Talas City. Both Anna and her Koshoy host mother have birthdays in April and before we left, Rose Oppa (Mother Rose) said she would have us all back, slaughter a sheep, and have a kick-ass party. So that’s why we’re going. Also our friend Charlie who lives in the village over from me is coming along for the ride.

Also Charlie and I planned our first golf outing of the season for Saturday, April 22nd. I’ll be sure to post some pictures of that for you all. May is the month of holidays – there are three in a two week period. Also many of the boys stop coming to class to go work in the fields (the only work available) so I’m told in May the wheels pretty much come off the school bus as far as secondary education in Kyrgyzstan is concerned. But then it will be summer and I’ll most likely have enough free time to drive a normal person insane. I feel up to the task.

Rick