Halloween in Kstan!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog and I apologize but lo and behold pics of Halloween! An American culture with a touch of Kyrgyz flavor. Enjoy.

Trick or Treat!

Oh yes we did. A Jack-O-Lantern. Mini style!

And the crowd goes wild!

A fellow volunteer from a neighboring village with some of my older English club students.

 Me with some of English club students. I don’t know what I’m dressed as either… all I knows is that I found that sweet cloak at my host families house and decided to dawn it on.

And there it is. Halloween. Kstan. 2009. 

Summer Camp 2009

Last week a few PC volunteers and I organized a summer camp entitled “Keep Our Land Clean and Our People Healthy,” (cheesy name I know), where me and 5 other PC volunteers taught Life Skills (Team-Building, Communication Skills and Leadership Skills), Environmental education and nutrition—all topics I believed were important for children in the 8-11th form (~8-11 grade). After organizing my winter camp, I wanted this camp to be more sustainable, because all I did the first go-around was give them information and so I never knew to what extent they applied it to their own lives. So what we did differently this time was we had a training of trainers the first day, in which we taught 6 school students the above subjects and trained them so that they would, in turn, teach the other camp participants enabling them to become leaders themselves. Although we were nervous about whether the trainers would take their positions seriously, they turned out to be super enthusiastic and extremely educational. Here are some pictures of the first two days of camp:

Meet your friendly PC volunteers.

For the next three days, we wanted all camp participants to implement what they learned in a real-life situation. So what we did to try and target all topics taught was to take them somewhere where they can do a clean-up project… and what’s a better place to do a clean-up project in the middle of the summer than at a beach? Three beaches!

The idea for nutrition was to have them cook a nutritious lunch for everyone while enjoying the rest of the time out at the beach. Unfortunately, the meal didn’t stray much from a typical Kyrgyz cuisine. Oh well, can’t have everything!

At the end of it all, we all had a lot of fun. The camp, in my opinion, was a success and it showed that learning can be done in a fun way. After all, no one wants to give up their summer to do a lame camp. I know I don’t.

The next two days the weather was great.

All campers showed great teamwork by collectively cleaning up the beach and promoting a clean environment for on-lookers to see. Unfortunately on first day at the beach it was raining, but that didn’t stop the campers!

Even locals joined in on the cleaning!

FYI: Some of the pics and captions are out of order. I was having trouble with my comp and uploading pics so please bear with me. Thanks!

Winter Camp 2009

On Feb. 16-20th, my organization and I held a 5-day life skills winter camp in which we taught 35 school children the importance of peer education, HIV/AIDS and STI prevention and awareness, relationship, decision-making, communication and leadership skills. Below are some pictures of my camp:

This is another volunteer, Brock, who came from across the country to help out with the camp. The background is of the Great Manas, an epic war hero who is very much revered here in country.

Yes, that’s right, you’re eyes don’t deceive you. We had crowd surfing going on at our camp.

This is a somewhat successful attempt (after many failed ones) of a jumping picture. The Kyrgyz don’t really do much of these types of pictures and so it was a little difficult explaining to them what I wanted.

This is a picture of the children laughing at my Russian, or so I think...

During the camp, we had everyone’s name across the wall and each day people could write compliments to one another. This kid developed a crush on a girl and made her this:

This is a picture of the collective group outside the school where we had the camp.

One of the games that we played with the children was to lay your head on each other’s stomachs. The object of the game was to get everyone to start laughing so that all you would see were heads bumping up and down. Haha.

For the last day of camp, the school children came together and did a number of performances for us. One of them was impersonations of all the American/PC volunteers. They did an amazing job and it was hilarious. Can you guess which one is supposed to be me?

This is the closing picture for the winter camp. Each kid received a certificate (they love those here) and after all the goodbyes were said and done they wouldn’t stop asking when the summer camp would be… If you look closely, I have braids.

Pictures of the New Year extravaganza:

My colleagues’ boogying down to a mix of the Beatles/ABBA/Ace of Base/Modern Talking:

Sis and I at our villages New Year celebration:

My brother, pops and I right before President Bakiev (see TV) announces the New Year. PS. I sleep on that bed that I’m sitting in:

Moms and pops just seconds before 2009. We all decided to light sparklers for the festive occasion.

Sledding down our backyard-ish hill immediately after 2009 began:

AIDS

So, the first project I did in country was a HIV/AIDS education and awareness month in which we held seminars for each 10-11th form students at the three schools in Tyup. We then had a festival as an educational celebration entitled “Youth Against AIDS.” During the festival we showed films, sang songs, performed a play, and had a competition between schools on who could perform the best anti-AIDS campaign. Below are pictures of the festival:

Who did it?

My permanent site family, who apparently don’t like to smile; nonetheless, they are really nice and hospitable. This particular day we celebrated Orozo Ait, which is a holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Ramadan is a month long fast where people are suppose to refrain from eating during the day; thus, Orozo Ait is a time when families go around guesting at each other’s houses eating an unbelievable amount. I think I visited close to 10 houses where in each house I received a full course meal. We started at 11am and It was only 6pm when I decided that I couldn’t hang anymore and had to pass out due to a food coma. I think my family stayed strong until 11pm that night.
This is what I get to see everyday. Above is my permanent site village and the building with the yellow sign is my host family’s shop.

My Russian language training group with our teacher. Although we look happy, the times spent studying Russian proved otherwise. Luckily we had a great teacher who often put up with our frustration.

This is my entire pre-service training host family, plus guest from Germany in the middle. They’ve had three PC volunteers before me and so they knew the routine with how to house an American. In short, they were pretty much awesome.

Above are my host father and nephew during pre-service training. This day was the last day of my training and thus, my last day living with them. In celebration, they cooked amazing “chashlik” (chicken kabob). Also, don’t be fooled by that child’s looks, he’s not as innocent as he seems.

This is a celebration of the first day of school in my village. My village has three schools and this particular school used to be named Karl Marx. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but during the celebration they had kumus (a national instrument) and accordion players, announcement of sorts, and everyone was dressed in their school uniforms. As I took this picture, everyone thought I was the photographer until I attempted Russian and almost immediately they knew I was foreign.

To the left are “yurts,” where people live and are good reminders of the nomadic past. Inside they are ostentatiously decorated with colorful carpets and are designed for easy mobility. They are easy to break down and easy to build. They say that it takes a family an average of 4 hours to reconstruct one.