I really am trying to make this blog thing more frequent. It is becoming more and more difficult to call because I have started working and all I want to do is sleep when I get home. But there have been some major events in the past month...so here goes a doozy.
At the beginning of August, I moved back in with my PST family (in the same village) and started our last phase of training. This mainly focused on teaching in kyrgyzstan and language. One week before training was over, I received a visit from Chinada, who was the counterpart of the volunteer before me. She came to tell me my counterpart, Meerim, has suddenly gotten married and resigned her post at the school! Yikes. So the next day I talk to my Peace Corps Program Manager and she informs me that yes, Meerim got married. Though I don't know the specifics, I haven't been able to get ahold of Meerim since the beginning of August (still), I do suspect she was bride kidnapped.
Side bar: Bride kidnapping is a Kyrgyz tradition, and it's exactly what it sounds like. These weddings can be semi-planned or completed forced by strangers. And it is so grossly underreported that any statistics of bride kidnapping will be wrong. No one knows really the percentages of marriage occur from bride kidnapping, how many are successful and how many aren't. The government mostly stays away from it and the vast majority don't really see it as a major problem. That being said, this will most likely be my last mention of bride kidnaping (I hope) because it is the main tradition the world knows about Kyrgyzstan. This country has so much to offer and incredible beauty, I wouldn't want my family and friends to be left with only knowing of this horrifying tradition. To me it is awful, as I'm sure it is to all of you reading, but I refuse to let that be your only impression of this country. Ok.
Anyway, so my counterpart whom I worked with all summer is gone. I had one week to prepare to work with Chinada - who has worked with plenty of volunteers before, her teaching methodology is great and her english skill is high for a teacher - and Aida - whom I had never met before and previously only taught primary school, so her english level is quite low. But, that's why I'm here. So at this point, I'm just hanging on day by day; trying to find ways to improve with Chinada, and trying to communicate any point to Aida. It's going to be a trying school year.
Moving on. The First Bell Ceremony in this country is considered a national holiday. The Soviet Union made education a priority for all citizens, and that tradition has stayed true. Here are a few pictures to sum up the day:
Songs are sung
Speeches are said
Bells are rung
Flowers are given
But all in all, life in the villages is pretty slow moving and unchanging. A day in the life of Sarah is as follows:
7:00 wake up - or have my eyes open but stay in bed until I absolutely have to and won't be late
8:00 get dressed and eat breakfast - sometimes 2 eggs, but mostly bread and tea
8:45 walk to school and try to keep up with my awesome counterpart
2:00 go home - nap, get fed by my family a lot, hang out with the farm animals, play games with my family, shenanigans
9:00 get into bed - hope that I can do it all over again
