BrittaAbroad: Travels

This morning, I was that person—the foreigner walking through Bishkek with a giant hiking backpack and a few extra bags dangling from my shoulders, the American dropping an embarrassing amount of som on French toast and coffee at Sierra, the uber-Western coffee shop in Bishkek. As a Volunteer living in Kyrgyzstan for two years, it’s sometimes frustrating to be taken for a tourist who is just passing through. Today, though, I was willing to play into the stereotype, to soak up air conditioning and wi-fi, and enjoy every bite of that French toast. Because today, after nearly two weeks of traveling around the country, I’m headed home to Toktogul.

The main reason for my trip was a boys’ camp on Lake Issyk-Kul, on the eastern side of the country. The camp—the theme of which was “Teaching Our Boys Excellence”—was organized by Ashley, another volunteer, and run with the help of six of us volunteers. I taught lessons on HIV/AIDS and human reproduction, helped out with various activities, ate a lot of watermelon, swam in the lake and tried not to worry as the boys scampered over giant, slippery rocks as part of our waterfall hike. While I wouldn’t say that 15-17-year-old boys are my absolute favorite type of human, it was cool to see how camps are run and pilot some health lessons that I imagine I will teach often in my time here.

It takes two days to travel from Toktogul to Issyk-Kul, and I made sure to attach stops for visiting and hiking on either end. Before the camp, I spent a wonderful day in the city of Karakol with other volunteers Maryn, Maddie and Max. Maryn made us pancakes and coffee, showed us all over town, introduced us to ashylan foo (a cold, spicy noodle dish. Yummmmm) and was generally a wonderful host. After the camp, Max and I stayed with Ashley in her village outside Karakol, and did a gorgeous day hike to some hot springs. The hike made me realize why Kyrgyzstan is sometimes called the Switzerland of Central Asia. I felt like I was in the Sound of Music the whole time, and had to work pretty hard to keep from breaking out into “The Hills are Alive.”

From Issyk-Kul, Max and I headed back to Bishkek. We met up with fellow volunteers Larissa, Nicole and John for a two-day hike into Ala-Archa National Park, a roughly 40-minute drive south of the city. It took us about seven hours to make it up a gorge to Ak Sai Glacier, and was perhaps the most breathtaking and challenging hiking of my life. At the top, we stayed at a [very rustic] lodge and met mountaineers from Germany, Korea, Britain, Japan, Russia….many of whom use the lodge area as a base camp for further hiking. We hiked down the next day, with plans to return and hike further into the park as soon as we can.

After the hike, I spent an extra day bumming around Bishkek. Yesterday, I ate sushi AND Mexican food, saw many other volunteers and even did a bit of clothes shopping. Being in Bishkek is a little disconcerting—often I feel more like I’m in Chicago or Ann Arbor than Kyrgyzstan—but it’s been so wonderful to relax, to see new places and spend time with other volunteers.

In just a few minutes, I’ll begin the journey back to Toktogul. I’m excited to see my host family, to sleep in the same bed (and to sleep in a bed) for more than one night, to get back to work with renewed energy. As I make my way down that winding road to Toktogul, crammed into a taxi between sweaty Kyrgyz ladies, stopping along the way for chai and kimiz (fermented horse milk) and smoke breaks and more kimiz and lord knows what else, I imagine that any doubt about where I am will disappear. It’s been a great trip, but it’s also great to feel that Toktogul is my home, and that it’s time to return there.