Living for Sun

The past few months, as mentioned in my previous posts, have been far beyond what I thought my "Peace Corps experience" would entail. However, we have moved past it, collected our visas for the next few months and I am not letting them go to waste. I refuse to let these next few months (or year, if the Kyrgyz government allows it) be anything but enjoyable. Last year I was very focused on integrating, being a part of my new family and working with my counterpart. This year, I won't waste my time on students who don't care, and only cause distraction. I won't be hard on myself when I don't want to go to another guesting with my family. And I will allow myself to reject all the besh barmak that is offered to me.

I plan on working with the American Corners in Kant many times a week this year, starting a new talking club with students who are engaged and excited to learn english and visit different parts of the country and see how other volunteers live. Also, and this may seem small, but making my own food will be a battle with my family and one I intend on winning. Less sheep and more spice please.


First things: Ala Archa National Park. Absolutely beautiful. (I wonder how many times I can use the word beautiful in this post)

My mom living for herself

Peace out, mama

After the admin hold scare, we were given the option for Interrupted Service. This "IS" option allowed us to leave Peace Corps due to the stress and, well, interruption the situation put on us and our sites. We had said goodbye, several times, to our families and counterparts. We had packed and closed up our projects. And for some, there was no reason to go back. So we had to say goodbye once more, to our fellow PCVs who decided to leave.  

(Also, only two of those pictured left, but it's all I've got)

Obviously, I couldn't wait to snuggle with Karema and watch some cartoons. Home at last.

My plan for Kyrgyz was to see every oblast that I could. And with that plan in mind, I rarely left my Chui oblast. I was a lazy bum all year. But with the admin hold scare behind me, I  got a marshrutka to Issyk Kul and bought a ticket to the south and spent too much money seeing this beautiful country.

Though the lake in Issyk Kul is of course the main attraction, this is only true because no one has seen Molly Pace's kitten yet. Milton almost broke me down when I had to say goodbye. 

And again...cows having babies.

September 1st, First Bell, begins the school year with an hour long ceremony and then no classes. I got a lovely spot at the teacher table and didn't even have to give a speech. Happy days.

Kyrgyzstan truly is one of the most naturally beautiful countries I have ever been to, and each region has a different landscape. It's not all mountains and hills - though there are a lot of those. So for with last bit of freedom I took to the south with my friend Julia and saw the most stunning parts of Kyrgyzstan.

Mountains were a little too close for comfort

Lenin feeling himself

In the middle of the city there is an ancient mountain that you can climb up and then take pictures. 

So we did.

On our next leg, we headed to Arslanbob. In this small mountain village there is an ancient and massive walnut forest. The whole village smelled like fresh and rotting apples. It was wonderful. It turns out I didn't take any pictures of the forest, so let that be a testament to how engrossing it was. Here are some other sites:

Little waterfall

Be sure to click on this picture. 

The village wedged between mountains.

Later, Julia and I went onward to find the big waterfall. This one was a bit of a stretch for me. Towards the end, it's just a few kilometers of rocky stairs to the top. Yikes. As you can see for the picture below, I was trailing behind the bionic woman - also known as Julia.

And if you look really closely, you can see a little white line on the mountain

...

yeah that's the waterfall.

Here it is close up

Not impressed

Just kidding, it was pretty rad.

The view from the big waterfall. 

Next destination - Sary Chelyk (yellow bucket). Traveling from one small village in between the mountains to a small village in the canyons isn't so simple in Kyrgyzstan. We spent 6 hours going from marshrutka to taxi to marshrutka, but the stars aligned and somehow we were going the right way. Plus, sometimes the traveling part gives you some great views.

But alas, we got to Sary Chelyk and I am so glad we did. As we were taking a shared taxi up the mountain the taxi driver told us "It's best in July and August". Well I would recommend going on the off season because other than the apparent and striking beauty of this lake, the silence surrounding it left an impression. We spent about 2 hours up there just watching the reflections change from the wind patterns, playing with the fish and looking out for snow leopards. We arrived in the morning while the air was still cool and refreshing, leaving just in time for it to heat up. 

As always, the pictures don't do it justice. Being surrounded by these massive mountains, feeling dwarfed by them and listening to the silence was incredible. Reliving it now is incredible. I feel really lucky to be living here and being able to experience these places that not many plan on visiting. And what's great is I know there are more places in this country for me to see.

So who wants to come visit me now?