This Is For My Girls

When I joined Peace Corps, I was in the same boat as the majority of the K23 class. I did not know a single soul that I would be living and working with for the next two years. As someone who makes friends pretty easily, and has no problem with putting myself out there, I wasn’t really worried. My only concern was that I would seem too eager, and freak people out. I have the literal coolest and most amazing group of friends back home. Shout out to my goons. The bar was set pretty freaking high for any new friends. Let me just say, my PC friends are unbelievable. The family I have built here with my friends is something I cherish. The friends I have here are the kind that you want to have. They are supportive, funny, give you confidence just by being around them, and will call you out on your bull.

And while the friendships I have with my bros are great and I need them, the real champions in the group are the amazing female friendships I have here. Being a woman in Kyrgyzstan is difficult. Like, I mean there is some issue EVERY SINGLE DAY that occurs, and it occurs because I am a female. I feel like I deal with the attention fairly well (note: I receive far less negative attention than many volunteers). But, y’all, sometimes it just gets to you. In times like this I turn to my girls. They get it. Don’t get me wrong, I now I can call Andy or John and they will listen and care, but they can’t fully understand.

The girls GET IT.

However, this post is not about being a female in Kyrgyzstan. This post is about the amazing women that I get to call my friends. So, here’s to you guys. You are all badasses, and I love you. Thanks for always building me up, going shopping with me, and just making everything fun, whether it’s dancing at Coyote or going get breakfast after we spent too long at Coyote the night before. You’re all my fam in and out of da clurb.

Sports Camp

Welcome back! Since I last posted some pretty cool things have happened, but this post is focusing on Talas sports camp. Sports camp is by far one of my favorite things. Last year I was able to assist every day, and even lead basketball day. It was a great way to get to know the youth of Talas and my fellow volunteers, 22s and 23s alike. It made me kind of sad that the timing didn’t work out this year for the 24s to get to participate, but I’m sure we’ll have lots of other projects they’ll get roped into. This year Andy and I headed up camp. The coolest part of this camp, in my opinion, is that it is designed to be smaller. We had an average of 7 to 8 students a day (some days we had more, some days we had fewer) with 4 out of 5 days being all girls. Don’t let the group size fool you, though. This was a successful project! When the numbers are small like this it is so much easier to forge personal connections and really give each participant personalized attention. These girls were so committed to learning these sports. They never stopped playing, never said a drill was too difficult, and just never complained. I can’t put into word how proud I am of these awesome girls. Also, we definitely saw some raw athletic ability that I hope they keep developing.

The camp was Monday though Friday. The sports covered were soccer, volleyball, basketball, kickball, and Frisbee. Due to meetings I had scheduled, I was only able to attend camp MWF. Fortunately, Andy and I had a great group of PCVs who helped us out. Shout out to Chris who came every single day, and helped in anyway we asked. We also had a PCV come all the was from Issyk Kul oblast to help the middle three days. It is always great to have friends visit our little oblast, and even better when they can help with a project. Thank you, Sarah. LeAnne, Leah, and Hännah were also huge parts of making this camp possible. I can’t leave out our great translator either. Bektersun came every single day and help us translate for the participants.

Things like this camp are the reason I joined Peace Corps. I really hope that next year the 24s keep this little camp alive. Maybe even grow it.

Long Overdue

 Okay, I’m terrible at this. Like really bad, but here we are. When I posted about my trip to Dubai I wrote that I would have entire post about the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Now is that time.

On our first full day in the UAE, our friend and fellow PCV, Ben, drove to us and took us to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque. I’m so glad that we got to do this. I had zero expectations about what this would be like.

So, after Ben picking us up and stopping along the way to get coffee we made it to Abu Dhabi. The GM was visible right away.

We pulled up to the entrance, and I got told to cover my hair, which I obviously knew was coming. We got up to the mosque and started taking pictures. I eventually decided that I wanted to go get an abaya to cover up, instead of the hood of my jacket. Anyone who is coming to tour the mosque can take traditional covering for free.

This place was so beautiful. UNBELIEVABLY beautiful. I was in such awe of the entire building. Everything was so ornate, yet somehow also humble. I really can’t describe how amazing the entire experience was. So, I’ll keep this short and just post pictures.

Du-BYE Kyrgyzstan. (I'm so lame)

If you somehow haven't seen any of my social media, let me catch you up. I WENT TO DUBAI! That's right guys, I went on vacation.

During our training in country we were all told that winter can be really difficult in Kyrgyzstan. Not only because of the cold, but also because life and work tend to slow down a lot. Schools close for winter break for about 15 days when it gets too expensive to heat the buildings. All these reasons make it the perfect time of the year to go on a vacation. Back in mid-November another volunteer, Andy, call to ask me if I would be interested in taking a short-ish trip to Dubai. (Many times PCVs take a couple of weeks for their trips) I jumped at the opportunity because my limited funds mean that a short trip is really all I could afford. Plus, flights to and from Almaty to Dubai are relatively cheap. We also invited other PCVs to join, but they were in the group that left, so it ended up being just me and Andy. Our trip first started in Bishkek to celebrate Ethan's birthday. Then Andy and I, along with Jacob, a PCV from Kochkor who was going to Shanghai, made the journey across the border to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Although we were only in Almaty for about 18 hours, we all agree that we loved Almaty, and plan to go back soon to really spend some time there.

Our flight from Almaty to Dubai was at 7:40 am, so at 4 am Andy and I dragged ourselves out of bed and got outside to try and find a taxi. We completely lucked out. We pretty much figure we would have to walk to the intersection at the end of the street to flag someone down, but a guy stopped and offered to take us almost immediately. He was really smart and nice. He also happened to speak English so no early morning translating, haha. The flight and all that was super basic. We stayed with a guy through AirBnB. Shout out to Mohamed, our awesome and sweet host. Our building was right on the Marina. We could see the water from one side of the balcony and the Burj Khalifa from the other side. Although, you can probably see the Burj Khlalifa from just about anywhere.

Day 1: We got to the apartment in the early afternoon. We hung out with Mohamed for a while, but Andy and I knew what we really wanted, SEAFOOD! Before the trip we talked about how we really wanted some good food on this trip, so we started off strong.

We had some delicious and fresh Middle Eastern seafood. And great shisha. (Shisha was just a constant throughout the trip.) We walked around the Marina to get our bearings, but I have to say the public transportation is Dubai is incredibly easy to navigate. 

Day 2: Our friend and fellow PVC, Ben, happened to be in the UAE as well. He was visiting his parents who were on a trip. Ben graciously offered to pick us up and drive us from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque, one of the largest in the world. On the way to Abu Dhabi we stopped at a gas station and I got a McDonald's coffee. It was so nice. 

The Grand Mosque was unbelievable. So much so, that I am going to have an entire post about it alone. Until I get that up, here is picture of the outside...or part of it.

After a few hours at the Grand Mosque having my mind blow by the beauty, Ben drove us to the Place of Emirates. It is a Palace that now serves as a hotel. It was mind-blowingly opulent. There was a little cafe that served deserts with actual gold on top. 

 Here is a very bad picture of the front of the palace.

The fountains in front of the palace as the sun was setting.

Day 3: THE DUBAI MALL/ Burj Khalifa. Guys, it has been almost 9 months since I have been inside a real mall. The Dubai Mall has over 1000 stores. 

A scale model of the mall. It wouldn't all fit in one shot. That should tell you all you need to know.

Andy and I separated for a good part of this day. I loved just getting to put in my headphones and wander. I looked, tried, watched, and bought. Andy and I met back up later in the day to go see the fountains and Burj Khalifa. The fountains are very similar to the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. During the dancing fountains the Burj Khalifa, which is something like 120 stories and the tallest building in the world, was lit with twinkling lights. It was quite spectacular. 

 The start of the show.

So difficult to get a picture of the whole thing.

Day 4: We hit up Old Dubai and the Souqs. We made our way from the hustle of New Dubai, and saw a different side. 

 Here's a boat?

 Pic by a canon.

 Some dudes hanging out.

 OKAY! GUYS! PAKISTANI FOOD! So before we ever left Andy was constantly saying he wanted to hit up this one specific Pakistani restaurant, Ravi. He was so insistent. After we ate there, I know why. SO FREAKING DELICIOUS. It is a local favorite. We had so much good food for so cheap. Chicken tikka masala is now my favorite dish in the entire world.

 Then we took a boat ride to the spice and gold souqs (bazaars, essentially.) It was really fun. The seagulls were EVERYWHERE!

 Andy really wanted to get in on a picture. 

 In the souqs we got a lot of attention, but nothing scary. The best part was that all the vendors kept calling me Shakira. I honestly have no idea why, but heck I'll take that amazing compliment any day. When we walked past one little shop the man came out and tole me he'd make me Arabic. He also made Andy Arabic, as well.

The gold souq was incredible. Just all gold everything all the time. The necklaces, breastplates, dresses (or whatever) in this picture, are all solid gold. I'm not sure of the karats, but probably unbelievable quality.

Day 5: Beach and Safari day. 

 We spent the morning just laying in the sun. I loved it. I had missed the beach and ocean a lot. That afternoon/ evening we got picked up and went on a desert safari/ dune bashing trip. It was really cool to see the desert.

 Our dune bashing was at sunset. It was really cool to be out there at such a picturesque time of day.

This guy was riding around on the world's smallest 4-wheeler with his falcon and for 10 dirham you could take a picture with it. I didn't do it because the guy seemed rude, but I did snap this one for free.  I didn't get any pictures of the food and entertainment of the night, but the bellydancing was awesome as was the food.

Day 6: Leaving :( Our flight home to KG wasn't until 7 pm, so we made the most of our last day. There is cool mall/ souq combo that we decided to check out. 

 In the distance you can see the Burj Alarab which is a really fancy, expensive hotel.

This is an ATM that instead of money vends gold bars. Just think about that.

And that is literally our trip day by day. Sorry it was so long, but each day was so packed and amazing, I didn't want to leave anything out. I'll post about the Grand Mosque in full soon. As wonderful as the trip was, and it really, truly was amazing, I missed my family in Talas a lot. I'm glad to be back and ready to get some work done.

New Year, Same Blog

Oh, has it been over a month since I've posted? Oops. Sorry. I told you I'm bad at this. Since I last posted stuff has happened. Some of the 22's left, we had Christmas, and New Year. I've also planned a trip and worked on some stuff. Where to begin? 

So, back in August there was some uncertainty with visas and whatnot. All of this affected the 22's pretty much exclusively. It was difficult for the 23's mentally and emotionally, but our immediate future was not nearly as jeopardized as those of our K-22's. Everything ended up working out. However, over the course of the last few months we have a lot of change. Our country director had to leave Kyrgyzstan for family reasons and we just recently found out who her replacement will be. We also had another issue with visas. Once again this only affected the 22's. Since this was not the first time they had been put through this turmoil they were given the option to complete their service early.  About 18 volunteers took this option. 5 of these were from Talas. So that sucked. I completely understand why they chose to leave. Most had already naturally found a sense of completion in the projects they were working on, so they did not feel that leaving was abrupt. As much as I miss my friends, I get why they took the COS option and wish them the best. 

Now, on to Christmas. Thanksgiving was a huge gathering, we had so many people. Christmas was very different. Being as it's winter and we have been here over 8 months, many volunteers have gone on vacations to warmer places. So, Christmas was a small affair consisting of everyone who wasn't going to India and Cole, who apparently just doesn't want to ever spend a holiday with us. Anyway we had a good time just hanging out. Christmas Eve we all met up at an apartment, got some groceries to make dinner, and spent the night just chilling and talking. Christmas morning we ate some breakfast and then Andy and I went to my Teen Club. the club this week was about holidays, both American and Kyrgyz. Later, we went to a cafe owned by a volunteer's family, thanks Lauren! We ate some, had some wine, and danced a little. It was a lot of fun. Then we came back to an apartment and hung out, ate some more, and then I fell asleep so I have no idea how the rest of the night went. It was really nice. 

Before I get into New Year and my trip. Here are some pictures that I took with my computer. I love these kids.

 They discovered the effects of my laptop photobooth

So, if there ever was a Kyrgyz equivalent to Christmas it is Jangi Jil. It's actually a kind of New Year, Christmas, Halloween hybrid. With fireworks. My family and I spent the pretty much the whole day together. We ate so much food. At about 8:30, Aizada, Medina, Aiperrie, and I went to the center of town. There was a huge gathering. We took a picture with the Kyrgyz Santa and then we took the little girls roller skating. at about 10 pm we got home, ate again, and then everyone took a rest. The festivities picked back up at 11:45. We ate more, toasts were given, and the kids got to open their New Year presents. At midnight, the fireworks started. We all ran outside to watch. I held Kanikei while we were watching the fireworks so she could see better, and I have never seen a child so excited for anything. It was really special to witness.

 Our New Year Tree with all the goodies

Our cake

 Kanikei in her NY dress

Shooting off fireworks

Next up, let's talk about my work. It's definitely more clearly defined than it was a month ago. I have club that meets once a week. It's a club of mostly teen girls, sometimes a rogue boy will join us. We talk about health topics mostly. I'm also starting a yoga club that will meet once a week. My secondary work is mostly centered around working at a day center for children with disabilities. It's fun working with this organization. 

I'm feeling much more fulfilled in my work. It took some time to figure out my place and a routine, but now it's really starting to come together. 

Now about my my upcoming trip. I'm going to Dubai, guys! I'm so excited! I'm going with one other volunteer. It's going to be great. I'll post about it after it has actually happened. 

Well, that;s all folks.