BrittaAbroad: May 2013

Overall, we’ve been having lovely weather here in Kyrgyzstan, and I woke up today to bright sun and chirping birds. The giant wall of mountains due south of me has been visible almost everyday, and never ceases to stun me. Our stretch of sunshine got broken up yesterday by an afternoon hailstorm, which turned out to be the perfect thing to cut the humidity that had been building for a few days. Spring weather here is pretty similar to that in Michigan, and I’ve been enjoying watching everything come into bloom.

This week was the third week of PST (“pre-service training”) and life is beginning to feel routine. We were at our hub site two and a half days this week for group-wide information sessions and sector-specific trainings (I’m in the health sector). The rest of the time, we’ve been in our language courses in our villages. This week, I learned the past tense, present continuous, indirect speech, possessives and a bunch of vocabulary. Sometimes it feels like the language comes in one ear and out the other, especially on our long days of class, but I’m realizing that I have to hear most words and concepts a few times and then they stick. It’s always a pleasant surprise when, in the midst of a conversation later on, I’m able to conjure up some word or phrase that I didn’t realize I’d actually retained. My trusty Peace Corps-issued Kyrgyz-English dictionary, while sometimes lacking in terms of common, useful words, has provided some interesting gems of new vocabulary. For instance: galantereyee (haberdashery), sogoosh (warfare), jaak sogu (jaw bone), zambeerek (howitzer). Also, the word achoo means both spicy and angry, which I really enjoy.

Speaking of sogoosh: May 9, if you didn’t know, was WWII Victory Day. It’s a big deal here in Kyrgyzstan, as Kyrgyz soldiers fought in the war as part of the Soviet forces. My host brother explained it to me as “Kyrgyzstan beat Hitler,” and then mimed Hitler’s death to really drive home the point. I mentioned that the U.S. was also involved in that war, which was clearly a preposterous suggestion. After some thought, my host mom said that it was possible that the U.S. had been involved in WWII, but if so our role was probably kichinae (small). It’s interesting to be on the other side of revisionist history.

I got home from language class on Victory Day afternoon to find my house PACKED with relatives – my host mom’s parents and sisters, lots of kids running around everywhere. I even learned that one guy who I thought was just my host brother’s friend is actually a cousin (these type of realizations happen to me almost daily. The language barrier keeps life interesting). We barbequed “shashlik” (goat shish kebobs, marinated in a really great spicy sauce) and ate it with thinly sliced, vinegary onions. Midway through the barbeque, the hail came tumbling down and everyone ran for cover – reminded me a 4^th of July that got interrupted by a big storm several years ago in Marshall!

Another highlight of my week was making chocolate chip cookies with my host sister, Ainazik. Chocolate chips were improvised by breaking a chocolate bar up into little bits, but otherwise all ingredients were on hand. The cookies turned out surprisingly well, despite the fact that I was eyeballing all measurements. My host family (and a few neighboring Peace Corps volunteers who were magnetically drawn by the smell of baking cookies) enjoyed the “American pechenie” a lot. The best was my 4-year-old host brother Altai, who at first refused to try them. Then he took a nibble of one….then a whole cookie….then another….then another. I think he ate six or seven of them in the end (reminds me of another young man I know. CoughQuinnFlemingCoughCough).

Finally, last week I went on my first hike in Kyrgyzstan! It was pretty short, just a two hour romp up into the hills near the village of some other Peace Corps-ers. Half the adventure was getting to the village and back (modes of transportation utilized: mini-bus, taxi, donkey cart). What I saw was beautiful; it made me realize just how little of the country I’ve seen so far, and whet my appetite for all the traveling, hiking and general adventuring to come.