Permanent Site Visit
My Family
Last week all the volunteers went to visit the places that we would be living for the next two years. I really liked my village, and my family. My Apa (mom in Kyrygz) is 50 years old and is Azerbaijani and my Ata (Dad in Kyrygz) is 57 years old and is Kazak. They have two children, a 21 year old daughter who is married and living in Talas, named Nargeeza and a son who is 20 and in the army whose name is Eldar. Since Eldar is in Bishkek I only got a chance to meet Nargeeza who is so adorable and bubbly. I am hoping that having her around will improve my Russian.
My School
My school (grades 5-11) is fairly big, it has about 900 students. It’s in pretty decent shape and since the school has a gym and I am thinking about starting a volleyball team as one of my secondary projects. They even have a computer lab with 6 computers and the teacher, Sergai seems to know what he’s doing. My counterpart, who is also the only other English teacher doesn’t speak English so I am not sure if that’s going to make my job easier or harder. My director seems like a nice enough guy but when he was doing the formal introductions he told the entire staff that I speak “Bad Russian” I was like, It’s not that bad, it’s just slow, plus I’ve only had less than 2 months of training. Other than that, everything seemed pretty good. When the Kyrgyz girls found out I was visiting the school they all came to the teachers lounge and called me out to talk to them. They were so cute asking when I was coming back, if I would be their teacher and if I wanted to come over to all their houses. It feels good knowing that they put me somewhere that I am wanted and needed.
Pee Trips
When I went to visit my permanent site my Apa (mom in Kyrgyz) told me to tell her every time I had to go to the bathroom so she could accompany me. As I went to the bathroom in the outhouse she would drop trou right outside and pee facing the outhouse door. One time I wanted my privacy so I went without her and as I was coming back in she was like, what are you doing!? I’ll go with you, don’t pee by yourself! I guess that’s like of like the women in America who can’t go to the bathroom alone.
Detained
We had plans to leave our sites on Sunday to return to our villages outside of Tokmok. My Ata put me on a Marshrutka (the local transportation which is like a small bus), got on and was like, this is my daughter, she is an American, please make sure to help her get on a Marshrutka to Tokmok once she gets to Bishkek. All of the volunteers were supposed to leave the Talas oblast together but either my director didn’t get into contact with them or they didn’t get into contact with my director but I was all alone. I didn’t find out until the next day that all of the other volunteers ended up traveling together. I thought I was going to be fine since I had a Kazak visa and they said that it’s common for marshrutkas to travel through Kazakstan to avoid the high passes through the mountain range, plus I had a whole marshrutka of people that were supposedly going to look out for me.
Once we got to the border, they took my passport and were like, no get off, no Americans can travel through this post. I didn’t understand what they were talking about because I told them I had a legitimate visa and passport. The guy started to move towards me as if he was going to physically remove me from my seat so I was like alright, alright, I’ll come, I’ll come. Up until this point, I thought my Russian had been progressing rather satisfactorily but now I see exactly how much work that needs to be done in the next two weeks before I leave PST. So anyways, they sat me in a chair and I didn’t know how long I would have to wait or where I would go once they finally decided that I could leave. After a couple hours they finally put me on an autobus even though I had no idea where it was going. It took me to another border site and I got detained at that one too. I am not sure why or what they were doing but it seems like everyone wanted to question the American that couldn’t pass through the border post. After more stamps and questioning they finally let me through.
At this point I was furious because the two things that Peace Corps told us not to do were 1) travel alone and 2) travel at night. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t even inform us that there were certain places that Americans were not able to travel through and how no one contacted me so I could travel with all the other volunteers. I hadn’t cried at all, but I can’t even describe how distressing the situation was and knowing there was nothing that I could do about it. At this point I had been traveling for 10 hours, even though I should have been home in 5 and I was running out of money because every time I got on a new vehicle they wanted me to pay even though I had paid 3 times already. The lady sitting next to me in the marshrutka had a baby and two children and she told me that I should just go home with her and spend the night because it wasn’t safe to travel alone at night. I thought it was against Peace Corps regulations so I told her that I had to get home but looking back in retrospect I probably should have just gone with her. One girl finally saw how distressed I was so she told me that she spoke little English and she escorted me to a bus station and put me in a taxi and told me that it would drop me off at my front door. I couldn’t have been more grateful. I left at 8 in the morning and got home around 10 at night and my only saving grace the entire day were the 2 women that tried to help me get home safe.
As if it’s not hard enough being here, I haven’t seemed to catch a break- If I have already 3 trips to medical and was detained at the Kazak border in the first 2 months I can’t even imagine what the next 2 years has in store for me.
Last week all the volunteers went to visit the places that we would be living for the next two years. I really liked my village, and my family. My Apa (mom in Kyrygz) is 50 years old and is Azerbaijani and my Ata (Dad in Kyrygz) is 57 years old and is Kazak. They have two children, a 21 year old daughter who is married and living in Talas, named Nargeeza and a son who is 20 and in the army whose name is Eldar. Since Eldar is in Bishkek I only got a chance to meet Nargeeza who is so adorable and bubbly. I am hoping that having her around will improve my Russian.
My School
My school (grades 5-11) is fairly big, it has about 900 students. It’s in pretty decent shape and since the school has a gym and I am thinking about starting a volleyball team as one of my secondary projects. They even have a computer lab with 6 computers and the teacher, Sergai seems to know what he’s doing. My counterpart, who is also the only other English teacher doesn’t speak English so I am not sure if that’s going to make my job easier or harder. My director seems like a nice enough guy but when he was doing the formal introductions he told the entire staff that I speak “Bad Russian” I was like, It’s not that bad, it’s just slow, plus I’ve only had less than 2 months of training. Other than that, everything seemed pretty good. When the Kyrgyz girls found out I was visiting the school they all came to the teachers lounge and called me out to talk to them. They were so cute asking when I was coming back, if I would be their teacher and if I wanted to come over to all their houses. It feels good knowing that they put me somewhere that I am wanted and needed.
Pee Trips
When I went to visit my permanent site my Apa (mom in Kyrgyz) told me to tell her every time I had to go to the bathroom so she could accompany me. As I went to the bathroom in the outhouse she would drop trou right outside and pee facing the outhouse door. One time I wanted my privacy so I went without her and as I was coming back in she was like, what are you doing!? I’ll go with you, don’t pee by yourself! I guess that’s like of like the women in America who can’t go to the bathroom alone.
Detained
We had plans to leave our sites on Sunday to return to our villages outside of Tokmok. My Ata put me on a Marshrutka (the local transportation which is like a small bus), got on and was like, this is my daughter, she is an American, please make sure to help her get on a Marshrutka to Tokmok once she gets to Bishkek. All of the volunteers were supposed to leave the Talas oblast together but either my director didn’t get into contact with them or they didn’t get into contact with my director but I was all alone. I didn’t find out until the next day that all of the other volunteers ended up traveling together. I thought I was going to be fine since I had a Kazak visa and they said that it’s common for marshrutkas to travel through Kazakstan to avoid the high passes through the mountain range, plus I had a whole marshrutka of people that were supposedly going to look out for me.
Once we got to the border, they took my passport and were like, no get off, no Americans can travel through this post. I didn’t understand what they were talking about because I told them I had a legitimate visa and passport. The guy started to move towards me as if he was going to physically remove me from my seat so I was like alright, alright, I’ll come, I’ll come. Up until this point, I thought my Russian had been progressing rather satisfactorily but now I see exactly how much work that needs to be done in the next two weeks before I leave PST. So anyways, they sat me in a chair and I didn’t know how long I would have to wait or where I would go once they finally decided that I could leave. After a couple hours they finally put me on an autobus even though I had no idea where it was going. It took me to another border site and I got detained at that one too. I am not sure why or what they were doing but it seems like everyone wanted to question the American that couldn’t pass through the border post. After more stamps and questioning they finally let me through.
At this point I was furious because the two things that Peace Corps told us not to do were 1) travel alone and 2) travel at night. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t even inform us that there were certain places that Americans were not able to travel through and how no one contacted me so I could travel with all the other volunteers. I hadn’t cried at all, but I can’t even describe how distressing the situation was and knowing there was nothing that I could do about it. At this point I had been traveling for 10 hours, even though I should have been home in 5 and I was running out of money because every time I got on a new vehicle they wanted me to pay even though I had paid 3 times already. The lady sitting next to me in the marshrutka had a baby and two children and she told me that I should just go home with her and spend the night because it wasn’t safe to travel alone at night. I thought it was against Peace Corps regulations so I told her that I had to get home but looking back in retrospect I probably should have just gone with her. One girl finally saw how distressed I was so she told me that she spoke little English and she escorted me to a bus station and put me in a taxi and told me that it would drop me off at my front door. I couldn’t have been more grateful. I left at 8 in the morning and got home around 10 at night and my only saving grace the entire day were the 2 women that tried to help me get home safe.
As if it’s not hard enough being here, I haven’t seemed to catch a break- If I have already 3 trips to medical and was detained at the Kazak border in the first 2 months I can’t even imagine what the next 2 years has in store for me.
posted by Katie P. at 6:49 PM
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