Only Eight More Days...

February 20, 2006

As I write this, I am sitting on my couch in my new apartment. I no longer live with a host family and I am living on my own for the first time in my life. It is great! I didn’t realize how much subconscious stress I was enduring by living with my old host family and now that I don’t live there I have a more positive outlook on my life here and I feel a lot more at ease than I have in the past three months. My things are left alone when I leave, there are no unexpected late night visitors, and no pop music blaring throughout the day and night!
My apartment is near the white house here in Kyrgyzstan. If I lean next to my window I can see the white house from my room. I live in a studio apartment – which means there is a bedroom/living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. It all needed quite a bit of cleaning when I first moved in, as the woman and son that lived here prior to me didn’t really have a working definition of cleanliness. Now, it is beginning to feel more and more like home. I still need some shelves to put clothes on, dishes, sheets and a mirror for the bathroom – but this will all happen with time. I do have one mirror in the apartment…it is about 1 ½ feet by 3 feet and in the wall of my shower. Talk about inspiration to go running! Ha!
There are a lot of great restaurants around my new apartment, but since I’m a little strapped for cash after moving in here I find myself spending a lot of time home reading and eating the squeezable pizza sauce I got in the mail a couple of months ago (and I remember when I received it I couldn’t figure out what in the world I was going to do with it) on top of the traditional Kyrgyz bread here. It’s pretty darn good, in comparison to the alternative samsa or gamburger down the street…so, thanks for the sauce! – sorry I doubted you (Dad and Kim) in sending it!
Work is going well here. I am teaching the women at Sezim English and translating some documents and financial statements…also doing extra research on the issues around human trafficking and domestic violence in Kyrgyzstan and central Asia. I am trying to get a grasp on what I hope to do with Sezim while I am here. Slowly, but surely, everything is coming together.
My English club is going well. I have a few students that are on top of their English skills and a few that just come for the entertainment of the club – I think. There are roughly 20-30 students that come every Friday for the hour and a half club that I hold. This week we will be talking about literature, as one of my favorite students wants to dive into this topic. It may be a problem for me though – being a finance major, literature was on the backburner…but I will try to bring something interesting to the club. Last week we talked about entertainment and I took a bunch of magazines in (US Weekly, People, etc.) to discuss the scene back in the states. The students went into a trance when looking through the magazines…just like I do – it was like looking into a mirror watching them.
Overall, life in Bishkek is going pretty well right now. I do have to be extremely careful about walking at night, and the day sometimes, with the guys around here – begging or being drunk…but being conscious and careful about the issues here are half the battle, I think. Thankfully February is almost over! February and I don’t get along for some reason, so I’m happy to see it leave…just a few days left. The weather is a bit warmer here, there isn’t as much snow and ice covering the streets, and the days are a bit longer…it’s fabulous!
I just got done reading Kite Runner here, and I recommend it to all of you to check out. The reality in the book is pretty intense and I think it’s important to understand that this is a reality…not just some bad story that is going on in a different world. I am now moving on to Life of Pie and Doctor Zhivago here. I try not to read more than one book at one time, but I am inevitably breaking this rule as I can’t pick which one I want to read…so I figure may as well just read both.
Okay, that is a summary of what’s new here…just settling into life more than anything. In one more month it will be half a year that I have lived here…craziness!
One more thing! I do want to tell you all about the crazy cat lady that I saw at the dumpster by my apartment complex a few nights ago when I was taking the trash out. My friends were paying more attention to what was going on than I was, because before I knew it they were pointing in awe at all of the cats around us. There were some 10+ cats by the dumpster and some crazy cat lady feeding them all…it reminded me of the ‘Crazy Cat Lady’ action figure I bought my step-mom before coming here! I do have the ‘Jesus Action Figure’ on my coffee table now – I think some people are caught off guard by it, but it’s interesting to see what positions his arms are in every time people leave after hanging around…
More later! I miss you and love you all!

Love,
Annie

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
Jack Kerouac



February 12, 2006

Five months ago tonight I was busy packing all of my things to leave the states in order to go to Kyrgyzstan. Looking back, it feels like time flew – but then I realize so much has happened in the past months…each day has brought some new and crazy/interesting experience that has had a little effect on my life and the way I do things here. I remember the way I felt getting on the plane to leave my family and friends. I remember how it felt to arrive at the Issyk Kul hotel for the first time. I remember wondering where I was going to live after PST. I remember my first night with my host family in Krasnaya Rechka…wondering what in the world I got myself into. Now, looking back I know that living with that family was perhaps one of the most needed and greatest blessings in my life. My host-mom, Maria, was one of the sweetest and wisest women I have ever met. She took me under her wing and helped me find my way here. I moved into that family as a ‘baby,’ not knowing how to fend for myself in this country and they helped me establish myself here.
I bounced around between Krasnaya Rechka and Tokmok for the first couple of months in country, just to find myself living 30 minutes away after PST. Even though it’s only 30 minutes away it feels like so much further. Without the people I saw everyday and every week, things have become different. I didn’t realize how lucky we were to see all of our friends constantly and now I can’t wait to see all of them in a few weeks.
My experience here is a little different from the majority of Volunteers here, but still a challenge. I am on the other side of the world trying to do this ‘Peace Corps’ thing as well. We all have our challenges here; mine include those of living in a big city and inevitably standing out most of the time. The things I have seen and learned of at my NGO bring to life harsh realities that I wouldn’t have known ever existed had I not come here. The people I have met and the conversations and relationships we’ve had are incredibly important and meaningful to me. I just talked with Tana, another Chui Volunteer, today about how different things may have been had we not decided to come here. There is a fascinating randomness in how relationships and friendships are formed here and how it brought us together along with so many other people.
I deeply miss the states sometimes, but I can’t imagine leaving here right now. I find myself looking back to friends I miss and the things we used to do and get lost in the different paths I have taken in my life. Sometimes it feels like I’ve lived three or four lives with the different things I’ve gone through in my life, and I have to remind myself it’s just one…all of those things did happen and I feel lucky they did. Some people tell me they can’t believe I’m here and sometimes I agree with them…five years ago I would have never pictured myself here – a year ago I would’ve never pictured myself here – but everything comes back to the fact that I think everything happens for a reason.
So here I am, five months later. It’s always up and down here…life’s full of highs and lows, but how could I enjoy the highest of highs if I never had a low point? I wouldn’t be able to look down and say, “wow, the view is really great from up here, this is what life’s about, look how much I struggled before and where I could be, but right now it’s perfect.” I’m in the middle of the road right now, things could be better but things could also be much worse. I feel okay about where I am, I’m content, and spring is right around the corner. I’m excited about the future and I’m over the past…I think that’s all we can really ask for in life.
I think that’s enough reflecting for now! Every month mark is interesting when it comes to looking back on how much things have and haven’t changed. Twenty-two left to go…I’m ready.

I love you and miss you all!

Love,
Annie

“Everything is possible for him who believes.”
- Mark 9:24