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? 

What just happened?

Let's back up a few weeks. The award was given by the US Embassy and the Kyrgyz government reacted. Our visas, unfortunately were due around this time.

On July 29th, our country director made contingency plans for us to possible go to the US on "Administrative hold", meaning we would go back to the states and wait to see if/when we would get our visas. Being the planner that I am, I packed.

On August 4th, we received verbal confirmation that our accreditation (the first step to visas) was approved for 4.5 months. I unpacked and celebrated with my family. Began planning the year with my counterpart. And then...

On August 7th we were told that Mid-Service Training was urgently cancelled due to visas complications. If we would not receive our accreditation by the end of the week we would have to travel to Almaty and then the US and put on "Administrative hold"...again. This looked like it was it. It was getting down to the wire and the PC staff seemed to be panicking. So I packed again, told my family again that I could be leaving, and this time it look more serious. I said good bye to my counterparts, started making plans in the states and really starting to lean into it.

On August 10th, we got a text message at 8pm saying we were given accreditation by the Kyrgyz government. Because we still didn't have  our visas, we would continue with the plan to possible leave the country, pack up all our junk, continue to say goodbye to everyone here and just be emotional messes.

August 12th, everyone arrived in Bishkek with huge bags and tired faces.

August 13th, we got our visas. Peace Corps said we should stay in the hotel for the weekend and just rest. I was mostly pissed that I packed twice.

So that was my month so far. I wanted to break it down for everyone who got some serious mixed signals from me about whether or not I would be coming home. That is why.

And now I'm tried after reliving it.

Coming up: School starting. Trip to Osh and Jalalabad. Fall slowing approaching.

Standfast

I have had a pretty uneventful summer. It's been over 100 F for the past few weeks. I have been hiking quite a bit and working at summer camps around my village. It's been nice relaxing, seeing other volunteers and having the opportunity to travel around the country.

But yesterday we received some concerning news, the tension between the US and Kyrgyz government is growing. Today the government has reported that :
            1.         The DCA – Defense Cooperation Agreement for US Military will not be renewed.

2.         The 1993 Agreement (for USAID and programs) is being revoked.

3.         The size of the Mission (USAID mission) will be reduced.

These actions have been caused because the US Embassy gave a humanitarian award to an ethnic Uzbek Kyrgyzstani who is currently imprisoned (Click here to read more!) 

What does any of this mean for Peace Corps? We don't really know yet.  We are kind of waiting and watching the reaction of the Kyrgyz people this weekend. And while on standfast, we are locked down in our villages. This was our first time having standfast status, which was making most of us very jumpy. I have already started to separate my belongings in case we have to consolidate (aka all huddle together until 1) the storm blows over or 2) we get the hell out of Dodge) 

It's still hard to tell what will happen. I think all of us were overly anxious because this was the first time the country has had this kind of security threat. I'm was feeling very uneasy last night because our country isn't the most stable compared to the other Peace Corps countries. There have been revolutions in the past, there is a strong Anti-American sentiment here and we have the highest reported incident rate in all of Peace Corps. Yeah, we have some problems. 

And as much as I complain about eating sheep and pooping in a hole, I'm not ready to leave. Again, I'd like to note that I am getting way ahead of myself, at this point we are not leaving. But it's hard not to prepare for the worst case scenario. I will be extremely disappointed if we have to evacuate. I feel like there is more work to be done here and I'm finally at the point with my language and integration to do it. I can't help be think of how I will feel if we leave. How I will feel my work was incomplete, taken from me and possibly wasted. But if we do evacuate, and I got the opportunity to join a different post, would I? Would I want to go through this incredibly difficult year again? Luckily, we are no where near that decision. Once more, I was just stuck in my village. Nothing more, nothing less.

The holiday (Eid, the end of Ramadan) has definitely been eventful. After 6 hours of marathon guestings, we got this news. Good thing my village has water right now, or else I'd be screwed! (touch wood)

Today we were told that our standfast status has been lifted, however it was noted that we may be going on standfast again in the upcoming weeks. Things are touch and go, which is putting me in a strange space.

And as always, pictures from around Kyrgyzstan:

Mountains, mountains, mountains

Summer camps

This little girl was giving me Kyrgyz Side-eye on the marshrutka, so I took a picture of her.

When the electricity goes out, I braid hair.

Hiking, hiking, hiking

We fell upon this family living in the mountains for the summer. They were very kind and even did a little casual Kok Boru for us. You know the game, the one that is like polo but instead of a ball it's a dead headless goat. Such fun!

See the goat?

Since it's been ungodly hot outside, we found a pool in Kant and enjoyed about 5 hours of it. 

And Eid came and went. We spent the whole evening beforehand preparing. Mostly just frying every kind of dough my family can make. 

That's all!