Coming soon... Blogs

- my family (in Kyrgyzstan)
- my co-workers
- kg geography

Are there any specifics or request? There is so much to write and I want to make sure I hit all the things you want to know or are curious about. : )

Photo: Me and the Kyrygzstan Legendary hero "Manas" (statue in the background)

Be-lated Chinese New Years, holidays, other thoughts

So my previous blog has been sitting in my computer for a while and I decided to post two back to back posts. Hope you'll enjoy reading them.

First all, Happy be-lated Chinese New Years to all those who celebrate it along with my family and friends around the world. As always, I wish everyone good health, good career, good fortune and of course a happy year to top it all. It was hard to find people to celebrate with me in KG but I managed... The week before CNY I had shabu shabu (hot pot) which was a real treat. I never imagined that there would be such a cuisine in KG. I still wished I had people to celebrate CNY with me on the day of thou. Hopefully in 2015, I will be celebrating the traditional way.

Happy Women’s Day—March 8^th. I received flowers on this day. It’s a big holiday in KG. But I haven’t heard about it much in America.

March 21^st—Happy Nooruz. It’s the New Year Day for the Muslim culture. People here are majority muslim and with a small percentage of Christians/Catholic. Since it was New Years, I had the day off to attend a festival. I also had the chance to go to my friend’s village to celebrate with her family. I made Or-ra-mo with her family. Or-ra-mo is a Kyrygz tradition dish consisting of carrots, onions, and meat (fat) wrapped in a thin layer of dough and then steamed. Of course it was tasty but super unhealthy with all the pure fat in it. We also took a short hike behind the mountains : )

Once again, I apologize for replying late to all the private e-mails that you all sent me. I will try my best to stay on track.

2013 so far has been a great year for my friends. Without any name mentioning, I have a few friends going to medical school and then another few friends going to graduate schools, a friend getting married and a few friends who have found a job. I want to say Congratulations to you all in person! I wish you all the best and hope that all will continue to go well for you all as it thus have.

As for myself, I am still learning bit and pieces every day. It's like a puzzle where even after these 2 years of service... I will yet be finished. Working in a collective culture has its perks and challenges. Behavioral changes for some folks are very very hard as they are easily affected by their elders and people around them. I have worked with many individuals and it seems to be that making choices and decisions for yourself is hard. Logic and critical thinking is…. Let’s say that I don’t encounter that too often.

I was very hurt by the fact that a local OBGYN has failed to inform the dangers of alcohol drinking to the pregnant women that sat next to her. Perhaps it was my fault too for realizing so late. It was frustrating to know that the local OBGYN knew about the dangers herself but was unwilling to express it to the pregnant women. Situations like these make my heart ache.

Following a proper schedule is also another problem that I frequently encounter here. Are people in America too dependent on our agendas/planners? Is that a bad thing? But not having any sense of schedule/planning is even worst. People forget about scheduled meetings, weekly classes and project plans. It may sound funny and minor but I am very excited when people show up for my computer classes (it's alright if they are late.. I have learned to forgive and to have patience). If I can teach how to use computers in Russian, I think I can tackle it is Chinese as well. With that said, if I have time when I return to America, I might teach computer classes in Chinese. Following my thoughts, Scheduled weekly meetings require constant reminders. While it's true that I am working with mostly adults, there were many times where I have to chase people down. It may not sound frustrating at first… but it adds up.

Photos:

-          Shabu shabu

-          Women’s day

-          Nooruz festival + tent

-          Me making Or-Ra-Mo

-          Short hike

Thanks for all the support

I would like to take the time to thank all the support in various forms (care packages, e-mails, photos, phone-calls, skype dates, reading my blog and many more) from all my family and friends. Thank you for taking the time to keep up with my experiences at KG. It has already been 11 months since I left my home country and started leaving my footprints in a foreign country. I miss each and everyone of you. I look back at all the pictures that we've taken and think about all those good times that we've had. Some were as recent as the week before I left back in May... and some were back as far as to when I was in high school. : )

To those that have had e-mail/skype communication with me may have noticed that my English is a bit rusty. I hope that it doesn't make me become weird thou. Sometimes, I simply just forgot the English word that I want to say. But the funny part is that I may know a Russian replacement of that word.

The road conditions are rough here and I feel like I am walking on snow/ice 85% of the time. When it first started to snow, I questioned why people didn't sprinkle salt on the ground like we do in the states... now I know why. I think the problem was that the temperature was too cold and it snows too often. The salt won't really do much and plus it is expensive. Trying not to slip and fall is kinda tricky. Thankfully Peace Corps provided Yak-tracks to use so that we won't go slipping as often. But still got to walk slow and steady.

A brief mentioning of dogs. Did I mention to some of you that I wanted to have a dog in the states? I think it might be a part of the American dream to eventually own a dog for many individuals. So the situation here is that you don't need to go to the SPCA, the pound, nor the breeders to adopt/purchase one. They are quite available here...sadly on the streets thou. It hurts me to see the stray dogs in the cold in the winter. But this is apparently a part of the culture and how things are done here. Dogs on the street are normal. Dogs inside the house are not normal. Man’s best friend gets kept outside rather than next to you in the house.

My internet connection is not the best here so I apologize if I don't get to your e-mails in a timely manner. The other reason is because work has been busy lately and I am tired by the end of the day. I will try to respond sooner : ) G

 Pictures:

-a huge dog that I encountered on my journey to Talas. HUGE.

- A little dog that I met in the village

- Summer festival photo from my friends organization