Rewarding Projects Even in Times of Uncertainty

As I mentioned in my last post, the past few months have kept me busy.  I’ve been involved in many projects and teaching always has a busy set schedule. There has also been a pressing matter regarding the visas of the volunteer group before mine.  But I’ll get to that later.  First, I’ll pick up where I left off… 

The women’s empowerment training went well and our lessons in Balykchy have started. One of my site mates, Taylor, wanted to help with the women’s club and because I have been very busy, she’s taken over it for me basically. She’s a health volunteer and has had less work lately. It worked out very well. I still try to get over to the Education Center, an after school art and English school focusing on extra curricular classes. Students learn English, puppeteering, dancing, singing, fashion design, computers, building engineering, drawing, and felting among many others. I really like the feel of this school and there is creativity shown all over the walls. I think I like it so much because it reminds me of DSA, the art school I attended from middle to high school. It has a good vibe and great teachers. Because my counterpart for the women’s club project was a teacher from this school, she thought our club base could be drawn from the female teachers at her school. They are great people and have such awesome personalities. They love Taylor teaching Yoga and they came up with some very interesting topics to discuss.  Our first lesson was like a teaser and getting to know you. We played some name games, personal question games, and asked them to brainstorm what they wanted from the club. They came up with a comprehensive list including how to illuminate stress, relationships at home regarding gender, money management, terrorism in our world, time management, fashion, and exercise. I asked them why they wanted to talk about terrorism and they said because it is becoming a big issue in our world today. They also talked about how the main focus is directed against muslims. I’ll be interested to hear what comes from our in-depth discussion later. But I do want to say, all the friends I have made and the families who have accepted me into their home here are wonderful, caring, good-hearted people. 

Chinara and I after the 5k run finishing the Women's Empowerment Training.

First lesson in Kochkor and of the entire grant!

Some of my favorite people in country are the group of girls from the ‘Girls Leading Our World’ summer camp I was a part of. For World Aids Day on December 1st, Taylor and I wrote a grant to take the girls out to neighboring villages who do not participate in the GLOW program and have the girls give lessons. We took 11 girls and at each village they taught one 9th, one 10th, and one 11th grade class. Our plans and villages changed a lot throughout the planing process but in the end our results were amazing! I feel it was a great success and I’m happy at the work we all accomplished as a group. Because older students only go to school from 8am-1pm, we decided to divide up our lessons into two days. On Monday November 30th we went to Kochkor city, a small city 45 minutes away in the neighboring oblast of Naryn.  Our girls taught at two schools, one with a Peace Corps Volunteer and one with a Japanese Volunteer. This trip was the first time for many of the girls to go to Naryn. We stopped by the reservoir between our city and Kochkor and took some pictures to celebrate our first day! They had so much fun and were very professional. 

A different lesson in the second school in Kochkor.

At the reservoir.

End of grant picture in Tory-Aygur.

The second day we stayed in the Issyk-Kol oblast and went to two neighboring villages, one 15 minutes away and the other 25.  A fellow Peace Corps Volunteer was at the farther of the two villages, Tory-Aygur and helped us get a contact with the first school in Sari Kamish. Again, our girls did great. You could tell they got an adrenalin rush after teaching and would always come back to the meeting room and discuss with other groups how they did and how active the students were. A few times the students were naughty or not as active and our girls handled it very well. They took command of the classroom and asked quieter students to answer questions.  I am so proud of these girls. They are 15 to 17 years old and teaching a sensitive subject but held their own and gave very informative lessons.  

Earlier in November I went on a trip to Issyk-Ata in Chui oblast with Photo Club. Issyk-Ata has hot springs and is a place where many sick people go to relax in the healing waters.  There is also a great short hike to a waterfall. In my third phase of training I went, but seeing it in the snow was amazing! The mountains in this area remind me of the Tetons and the snow made it even more magical. We had fun tromping through the snow. 

Playing with falling snow.

Heading to the waterfall.

Teton-like mountains.

Frozen waterfall!

Recent news, at the end of October I moved out of my host family’s house and into an apartment. My commute was too long from home to school and since it gets light so late and dark so early, I decided to move closer to my school. Apartment life is really nice. I have my own space, can cook my gluten free food, and keep my face acne free. I do miss my host siblings who call me every other week or so and who I see in class almost every day. 

Naryn Thanksgiving!!

With the snow comes the holiday season and I know we all get a little homesick now. We’ve been in county for about six months and all our friends and family back home are doing festive things.  It’s just not the same here. To try to keep it festive, for Thanksgiving I went down to Naryn city and had a huge dinner with about 35 volunteers. We had turkey, pumpkin pie, veggies galore, lots of potatoes, and even cranberry sauce from America! It was good to see a group of people I don’t easily get to be around and explore a new city. The ride to Naryn reminds me of the canyon to Glenwood Springs. Except these roads are gravel/dirt and only two way roads.  It was a good trip and even though I missed my own Issyk-Kol Thanksgiving, I’m glad I went. 

Most recently a fellow Issyk-Kol volunteer, Emily, came to my city and helped give a presentation on earthquake preparedness.  Lately there has been many earthquakes in the area and not many people know what to do. My women’s club counterpart, Chinara, at the Education Center gave the 15 minute presentation to her English students and then we practiced protecting ourselves under desks and had a building evacuation test. Students now know what to do during an earthquake while they are at school and they know they must save enough water for all members in their family at home in case of an emergency. 

So now for the news…of uncertainty.  It’s been hanging in the air. The volunteers from the year before us, K-22s, had to wait a long time for visas in August and were only given four month visas. It was a very complicated event last time and we were hoping it would be easier this time. It’s now December, four months later, and we’re doing it all over again. Visas for the K-22 group expire at the end of December but there is a whole process of getting accredited and then actually processing the visas. The group has been given an option of leaving and completing service now or staying in country to find out what happens with visas. However for my group, either way, we have to wait for the final verdict. We keep questioning - will they be given visas or will they not? What happens if they don't get them? What happens if it’s only another four month visa? What will happen to us? So, there is a lot of uncertainty. Right now it’s a waiting game. We will hopefully know the outcome by the 16th of December. No matter what happens, reflecting on my time, I feel I accomplished some positive things. I am also proud of the confidence and better teaching I see in my counterpart and the growth in the GLOW girls' leadership. This is all certainly an adventure.  

And They Said We Would Have Lots of Free Time...

but I’m constantly busy and my days are packed. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) volunteers thankfully have a pretty set schedule and tasks. I’m happy for this because my organizational brain does need a little consistency to function. Unlike Health or Business volunteers, TEFLs have to teach a set schedule of 12 hours a week (in their first year). In-between lessons we lesson plan or curriculum plan with our counterparts. On top of all this, we hold English Clubs and work on writing grants/attend trainings. Usually I am gone daily from 8am to 5pm either going to class, leading clubs, or planning with my counterpart. We keep pretty busy and I like it. 

One of my 5th grade classes. They were in charge of ringing the bell to signify the end of class this day. 

I am really enjoying the clubs I run or that I am a part of. They are fun and help occupy/share some of my other interests. On my own I run two to three English Clubs. I actually haven’t started them yet because I’ve been so busy with schedule changes and trainings that the times would keep changing or the days and dates. Depending on how many kids show up, I’ll hold a beginning, intermediate, and advanced English Club. Or I may just run the clubs by grades. I’ll get there next week after yet another training I attend. On top of the English Clubs, I also have a FLEX Club/Olympiad Club which are for more advanced students. FLEX is the Future Leaders Exchange program that sends kids from other countries to the US for one year of high school. All of the students I helped prepare for the earlier testing sessions passed and so now we have to get them ready for the final round. The final rounds includes an interview and a skit of sorts where the student’s leadership and work ethic is observed. It’s much like the theatre skits in middle school I did but instead of acting skills being judged, it’s how you set up the skit and think outside of the box. For example, you may be given a pen to sell as if you were on an infomercial and you have five other students to work with. AND GO! Olympiad is a subject competition that starts at the city level and then goes to Oblast level and then national level. Subjects range from Math, Science, Kyrgyz, and English. Kyrgyz people love competitions and this is the school intellectual one. I have to wait to see what the Olympiad exactly holds because it’s not until January. We shall see.

My FLEX Club practicing essay writing.

The girls practicing at the clinic for their lesson.

The other two clubs I enjoy being a part of are GLOW Club and Photography Club. GLOW Club is an offshoot of our camp over the summer and includes meeting two to three times a week.  Once for the girls to lesson plan, once to practice their lesson, and a third to give their lesson at a local school. So far the girls have taught two classes, one of which I was able to attend, and they are great! I am so proud of what they have accomplished and teaching their peers about important topics that everyone should know about. I work on this club with two fellow Balykchy volunteers, Taylor and Jake. I enjoy all our girls as they are motivated and keep positive attitudes. I can’t wait to see where they go. Many of them are also trying for the FLEX program and are pretty spectacular people. I have high hopes. 

GLOW peer leaders planning the teaching schedule with the camp girls.

First lesson about nutrition given by two GLOW girls. So proud.

Photography Club is great because I get to hang out with more volunteers and follow my photography passion. Eric, Taylor’s husband, started the Photography Club last year with one of his business organizations. He got funding to buy cameras, go on field trips, and start a website. I have had the pleasure of going on two field trips with the Club this year and I love it. Again, another interesting group of kids and we have fun exploring and taking pictures of neat places. We teach the kids photography skills, editing skills, and website skills. Also, essay writing.  First we went to the ‘new beach’ in Balykchy and a couple weekends ago we went to Fairytale Canyon on the south shore of lake Issyk-kul.  I hope to work with the kids and Eric this year and then take over the Photo Club when he leaves. This year Eric’s goal is to build a website about Balykchy, Right now when you Google our city, some interesting blogs/articles turn up. The Photo Club page would hopefully be more informative and a much more real representation of this city we call home. Next year, I’ll have to come up with some other good goals and/or add to the website. But that can be left for later. So much to work on now. 

Taking photos at New Beach.

Having fun at New Beach.

Beautiful Fairytale Canyon.

Exploring. 

Sisters helping each other and one member observing in the distance. 

When I’m not in class, at clubs, or working with my counterpart, Peace Corps keeps us busy with reporting information, attending trainings, and applying to grants. At the beginning of October I finished a volunteer wide report on activities, community integration, and feedback. We do this report every six months and continually update it throughout our service. This past week I attended a training on grant writing and how to manage funds while living in Kyrgyzstan. This is very useful as it will help with the projects I want to do and the larger secondary project we complete in our second year. I am happy to announce that I applied to a grant in August for World Aids Day on December 1st and was given funding to proceed. I am working with Taylor, the health volunteer at my site, and we are bringing in our GLOW girls for the project. December 1st is World Aids Day and in their GLOW camp, girls learned about HIV/AIDS and how it is transferred. Our goals are to create a video that the girls produce and show it at the clinic Taylor works at as well as take it on tour with a lesson the girls will write. We will travel to three neighboring villages on the World Aids Day and give lessons at the school in each village. It should be fun, interesting, and engaging. I’m happy to be starting off with something small too. It’s a great intro into the grant and project writing world.

This week I am attending another training, see I told you I’m always busy, about women’s empowerment. The goal is to start a club when you return from the training and work on physical activity, life skills, etc. With this training you bring a local from your community interested in leading the club with you.  I have befriended an English teacher at the local Education Center and she was interested in working with me on things. She wants to practice her English and become more active in the community. Taylor and I will also work on this project and maybe start a women’s club in the coming months. 

I have been talking with other volunteers and we agreed that sometimes the days go by slow, but the weeks and months are going by fast. On October 24th, we will have been in Kyrgyzstan six months. SIX MONTHS! As Peace Corps Volunteers, we are committed to 27 months; we have three months of training and two years of service. In this long period of time away, we have many ups and downs, good days and bad. We were given sound advice to travel at some of these known downs. So around the holiday time, new years to be exact, two friends and I have decided to take our first trip. We wanted to keep the group small so we can move faster and not be keeping up with a ton of people. We decided to go to India! We will spend New Years in Almaty, Kazakhstan and then two and a half weeks in India. I can’t wait, 22 days of travel and a sari in my future. 

Speaking of traveling, a couple weeks ago I got to go on my first big hike and yurt stay in Kyrgyzstan. I went with Taylor and Eric from Balykchy to a city called Kochkor in Naryn and met up with another volunteer. Together we grabbed a taxi and headed to the mountains. On our second day we got snow over night and woke up to the reality that winter is coming sooner than we had thought. I am bummed I did not get to go on many hikes this summer, but next summer I hope to be around in country to experience more of this place. Kyrgyzstan has such beautiful landscapes and not many people. If you are a true nature seeker and don't like the crowds, KG is the place to come. 

Walking from the village towards the foothills.

Basecamp and my bedroom.

Heading into the clouds.

Our hiking trail was more of a shepherds horse trail.

Made it to the lake!

Sunday morning snow!

Enjoying the mountains with the sheep and goats.

For now, I’m still getting used to working as a teacher and teaching with a counterpart. Some days we have great lessons like today when we were teaching the verb ‘to have.’ The kids loved our activities and were fully engaged. Others days our lessons are okay and could have gone better, but there is always something new to learn.

#letgirlslearn and End of Phase III

I haven’t written since July and boy do I wish I had. So much has happened that I need to catch people up on a lot. The biggest news is that tomorrow is September 1st and this marks the first day of school in the Kyrgyz Republic. The first day of school is actually more like a giant assembly and not much of actual getting down to school work. It’s considered a holiday and we will probably just meet for a short time to welcome students and teachers back. But after all this training, I can’t believe my school year officially begins tomorrow! Time to teach English!

Now to back track a little:

In the middle of July I participated in the GLOW Camp where girls from four villages came together to learn about HIV/AIDS, healthy relationships, bride kidnapping, leadership, discrimination, public speaking, healthy eating, our bodies, teaching others, and volunteerism. At the camp we had six volunteers and three counterparts who taught lessons on the topics important to the GLOW program.  Also this year we had peer leaders, girls who had gone to camp the previous year, who taught some sessions. It’s always better to hear information from someone near your own age. Along with the sessions we had classic summer camp activities like swimming in the lake, cabin decorating contests, movie night outside, a talent show, and a camp fire (s'mores included). I was able to bring along my host sister and we had a great time.  I also had my counterpart who picked five other girls from our school who she thought would be good leaders for our community. The girls were happy they made new friends with people from other villages and got some questions answered on topics not openly talked about. My counterpart and I taught lessons on self-esteem and identity, healthy relationships, and public speaking. It was good to lesson plan with my counterpart and see her teach. We got closer and learned how to work with each other during this time. At first we had planed to teach in English, but most of the girls knew Kyrgyz only, so we had to switch up our plans. I took more of a back seat during the lessons, but had helped plan the lesson, the activities, and helped pass out papers during the actual lesson. It was a challenge at first to get my counterpart thinking in a different way, but we got it down and the lessons went great! I’m so proud of what we accomplished! Next year I hope to run the GLOW camp once again and continue to share valuable knowledge to young girls. #letgirlslearn

Part of the GLOW camp requires girls to take back the knowledge they learned from camp and teach others in their villages. This way the girls get to be leaders, the information spreads, and students are more likely to listen to their peers. One of the volunteers in my city and I had an idea for one of the girl’s lessons. Of course our girls will teach at other schools in Balykchy, but for World Aids Day we wanted to do something a little special.  Taylor, the health volunteer in my city, came up with the idea to make a video about HIV/AIDS and have our GLOW girls create and star in the video.  We will produce and film the video together. On World Aids Day, December 1st, we will show this film and have our GLOW girls give one lesson on HIV/AIDS to three other schools in villages around Balykchy. After the day is over, the video will be added to the rotation of health videos at Taylor’s health clinic. Taylor and I are currently writing the grant for this project, but we hope to get it funded so we can start working on the video soon. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful site mate who is taking me under her wings and letting me work on this project with her. Also it’s a great way to get our GLOW girls back together and give them teaching experience. I’ll update later on how this is progressing.

After GLOW camp, my counterpart needed a break before school started so we stopped our English club at school. We really only met four times with our students, but they seemed to enjoy the time they had with us. We worked with grades four to eight in the morning for an hour and then repeated lessons right after (with more English vocabulary) for grades nine through eleven. I was still wanting to work on things and keep busy because I had two weeks left before I went back to my village near Bishkek for part III of training. I had some girls from English Club and GLOW Camp who wanted to work on their English for a test coming up in September. This test is called FLEX and sends students from other countries to America to study in high school for one year. The test has three rounds; the first round is English grammar in multiple choice form, the second round is essay writing, and the third round is an interview and role play. Most of my girls do not need help with grammar. Their English is very good and they made it past the first and second round last year. What we focused on in the two weeks I was able to work with them was essay writing and interview questions. Essay writing is hard because students are not taught the five paragraph essay or they do not have much practice in arguing their own ideas. On top of this, the questions they are given are hard. Questions like ‘what are your three biggest weaknesses?’ are hard for students to answer. The culture is very positive here and hard times or negatives are not openly talked about. 

My girls and I worked on critical thinking and driving deep into their lives to find reasons why they REALLY wanted to study in America. I felt like a two year old asking ‘why?’ and ‘why?’ over and over to try to get to the bottom of a thought. After my two weeks though, girls were talking confidently about themselves, both negatives and positives. They were also casually adding in how going to America will help them with their futures even after a question about their weaknesses. It comes so easy to us Americans to talk about tough times and how we overcame them, it was hard to figure out how to extract that information from the girls. In the end, I was happy to work with them and provide support for one of their dreams. These are great girls and I wish them the best in their applications this year! 

After these two low-key weeks, I went off to my first host family and back to the training site near Bishkek. I took the train with other volunteers from my city (Balykchy) to our training villages. The train took about four hours and was a relaxing ride through the mountain passes. In our last phase of training, we got more specialized training in our sectors (teaching english, health, or business), more language lessons, and time to eat food in Bishkek.  Overall this time was very nice to meet back up with all the volunteers in my group and hear about their permanent sites. We would go out often to Bishkek to eat food and hang at coffee shops. The small comfort of being together and tasty, ethnically diverse food, was great. Now, we have all left our training sites to start our two years of service. We will have more trainings and meetings during our service where we will be together again, but most of our work will be within oblasts and at site. 

For now, I’m enjoying my last day off before school starts by celebrating the Independence of the Kyrgyz Republic.  In 1991, the Kyrgyz Republic left the Soviet Union and became a democratic state. With this excitement in the air, I’m ready to begin the school year and put to use the training I received the past four months. 

And So It Begins

It has almost been a month since I became an official volunteer and moved to my permanent site in Balykchy. Our induction ceremony was an early, hot and long day. We had to get up at the crack of dawn with our host families and drag all our luggage to our training site. From there we were bussed with our family members to the Philharmonic in the capital city of Bishkek for an hour long ceremony. The ceremony included speeches by the US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and the Director of Health in Kyrgyzstan. Also our very own volunteers performed a national Kyrgyz dance and we all sang a national song. 

My Colorado friend, Tamlyn and I.

Getting ready to be sworn in.

Kyrgyzstan's Director of Health

US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan

Official Volunteers!

After the ceremony it was mass excitement as we had to say goodbye to our current host families, say goodbye to friends, and find our new counterparts to begin the journey to our new village or city. It was hectic trying to get last minute photos in, but we did manage to get one with the Ambassador. Most people left in groups relating to which area of Kyrgyzstan they were going to move to. Much like our states, Kyrgyzstan has regions, or oblasts. My counterpart and I went with other Issyk-Kul volunteers on a packed marshrutka. Issyk-Kul is the name of the oblast as well as the large lake in that region. 

Driving.

Could be Colorado.

KG flag!

After a two hour ride through mountains that looked similar to Southern Colorado, I was in my new city and my new host father picked my counterpart and I up from the bus station in his car. I immediately noticed the cooler climate and the closeness to the mountains. While the city may not be that pretty or architecturally interesting, the surrounding area and the view from my house is great. My house is on the outskirts of the city. We have no houses directly across from us or behind. Our view is pretty great. 

My family consists of a mother (Akjoltoi), a father (Kandibek),  and five siblings. Three of my siblings are older and live outside of the house. The oldest daughter (Maral) is a doctor who lives in town with her husband and two kids. The second oldest sister (Saikal) lives in Bishkek and works as a bank manager. The oldest brother (Semuk) is studying to become a doctor. I also have a 16-year old sister (Taazem) and a 13-year old brother (Akniet). They are wonderful. 

Siblings.

The next day after a much needed sleeping in, my family was celebrating a relative's 60th birthday, a baby’s 1st birthday, and my arrival. What a day! With big celebrations, the tradition is to kill a sheep, koi so, and grill/boil the meat. Well, more like everything except the lungs. We killed one of our sheep at home and then went to a place outside of town by a river and had a picnic. The meat was cooked, salads and fruit were on display and lots of toasts with vodka were made. Relatives of my father kept appearing and we had a great crowd of over 25 people. 

Cleaning the sheep parts.

PICNIC! 

Just around the river bend.

I had survived my first koi soi and my first weekend. I was now eager to see what work had in store. My first week was slow and hard. We went from seeing other volunteers every day to now only being able to talk to each other on the phone. My counterpart was busy the first week so we only met twice. The first day was to watch the 11th grade class graduate. I was introduced to the school and made a speech in Kyrgyz. The second day, my counterpart and I met with the other English teachers at our school and planned my summer English Club. The other days I tried not to get homesick with little to do and hung out with my host family to get to know them more. 

Graduates!

Library Day!

My second week I was thankfully given the opportunity to help lead the American Corner Sports Camp in Karakol. While Balykchy is the farthest west city on the lake, Karakol is the main city in the oblast and on the most eastern side of the lake. I helped teach lacrosse, lead warm-ups, and got kids excited about trying new sports. The camp was a month long and four volunteers were needed each week. I joined the group for the last week and was rewarded with a library promotion day. It was great that they worked with the library to promote reading and sports together! Camp was usually from about 10am to 12:30pm every day so we had a lot of free time after. The other volunteers and I took advantage of the free time and hiked, hung out together, and planned our Fourth of July celebration. This week was much better for me as I was busy, with other volunteers and got to visit a new city.

KARAKOL!

Play Ball!

Hiking.

Karakol from above.

Fourth of July was great. A volunteer who lives in Issyk-Kul now had a relative who owned a beach house away from main resorts. We rented the house and had two great days relaxing in the sun on the beach.

America in KG.

Making s'mores.

The Crew.

Most recently I went to a training for a different camp I will be helping at. This time I get to work with my counterpart and we will teach three sessions. Peace Corps has a great grassroots camp for girls called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and a great camp for boys TOBE (Teaching Our Boys to Excel). Both camps promote volunteerism, leadership, and teach about health related topics that may not be discussed in everyday life but are important. For example: reproductive health, HIV, healthy relationships, and drugs and alcohol. My counterpart has a huge heart and seems to be very excited to work on this camp. It is a free camp for both the participants and the teachers. The best part is that after participants attend the week long camp, they are supposed to peer teach to other students in their community and pass on the information. I’m eager to see how this will go and how my counterpart and I will work. The sessions we will teach are self-esteem and identity, healthy relationships, and public speaking. 

Overnight training.

Session working.

For now, I am feeling much better. I know my town, I’ve traveled all around the lake on both the North and South shores, and I am busier with work. I also have three great site mates (fellow volunteers) who I can organize things with, bounce ideas off, and use as resources. It’s beginning to come together.