BrittaAbroad: I've arrived!

I’ve been in Kyrgyzstan for just under two weeks, and I don’t even know where to begin in describing it. The past 12 days feel like a year and a minute, all at once. So much has happened; I’ve met many new people and crammed many Kyrgyz words into my brain (or attempted to), tried new foods and drank about a thousand cups of tea. I’ve been enjoying the challenge of this new place, the sensory overload, the total exhaustion that sets in around 9pm each night.

The journey here was a little rough – due to flight delays, I was two hours late to “staging” in Philadelphia, where I met my fellow K-21s (we’re the 21^st group of Peace Corps volunteers to go to Kyrgyzstan. There are 38 of us) and was slightly concerned that I’d be kicked out of the Peace Corps for being late, which of course was not the case. The next day we got on a bus to New York and hopped flights to Frankfurt, Istanbul and finally Bishkek. By the end of it I barely knew my own name, let alone what time it was and where I was. I will say that I am now a huge fan of Turkish Airlines, mostly because they give you little Turkish candy at the beginning of each flight.

We spent three days at a hotel in Bishkek, attending different orientation sessions and starting our language studies. We weren’t allowed to leave the hotel during that time, which was probably for the best because we are infants in this country.

Once the Peace Corps deemed us sufficiently oriented, we moved in with host families in villages outside of Bishkek. I have two younger host brothers, Azamat and Altai (ages 18 and 4), and a host sister, Ainazik (age 9). My mother is a chemistry teacher and my father is a lawyer who works in Kazakhstan. It is pretty common for family members to leave the country to work, as there aren’t many job opportunities in Kyrgyzstan.

We’re taking intensive language courses in small groups based on which village we live in. There are six of us in my group, and though it’s difficult we’re having a blast. Our teacher is a cool character named Temerlan. He has a wry sense of humor, and keeps things interesting. This is important because we have up to six hours of language class on some days.

On other days, we head to the “hub site” where we attend orientation sessions with the whole gang of K-21s. We’ve learned about the political/economic situation in Kyrgyzstan and the country’s history, Peace Corps policies and approaches to international development, all the diseases we might get and how to deal with them, and a lot more. The session on the political/economic situation in Kyrgyzstan was by far the most interesting – it was fascinating to hear about Kyrgyzstan’s rocky road since the fall of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, instant coffee has been pretty crucial to me getting through “hub days.”

Between language courses and hub days, there’s been a lot of new information thrown at me in the past week. However, the most important education so far has been living with a host family, getting to know them and observing their way of life. My family has been so helpful and kind; I’ve been enjoying them a lot. I could go on and on, but I’ll let some pictures do the talking.