Sick Again
After our site visits we were ready to start our two week practicum, where all the volunteers in our village would teach 3 classes per week. The morning of my first class, I threw up on the way to school and it wasn’t because I was nervous. Phil, also in my group, did the same thing (we thought we might have both had food poisoning) so we were not looking forward to spending the next 4 hours in a school trying to muscle through our first teaching session. I went home instead and slept for the next 8 hours only to be woken by my mom and sister when they brought me tea. I was in really bad shape. By Tuesday I was even worse and couldn’t even communicate to my family about how bad I was feeling and I didn’t have the energy to walk across my village to get our LCF to tell her to call the Medical Office in Bishkek. All day long I got progressively worse and by the time night rolled around I had a 102.7 temperature and something violent was going on inside my body. The Peace Corps medical office brought me into Bishkek and they were afraid that it was acute appendicitis so I had to go to a local hospital to get checked out. My blood test came back negative but I had lost so much fluid over the course of 2 days that I had to receive my second IV since being in country. I have been deemed by everyone here as a “high medial priority”.
I didn’t eat for about 4 days and after that my diet consisted of bullion and toast. Like I said my mom was a cook for 25 years so she started slowly introducing different foods into my diet. My family here was so worried about me at first because they didn’t know what to do with me and they thought I was going to go home. They were both crying when I left for Bishkek but I told them that it’s going to take a lot more than this to get me to leave the country. Thanks to the staff, my family and the other volunteers, I was able to get back on my feet in no time, I have no idea what I would have done without them. Chris Burns, one of the guys who led our orientation in Philadelphia said that you’re not a real Peace Corps Volunteer until you’ve crapped your pants. We thought he wasn’t serious but when I was really ill, I definitely pooped my pants twice. I thought it was hilarious because I started thinking about all those old SNL skits, “Oops I crapped my pants.” If anyone wants to send me Depends, I am sure they will be put to good use. Hey, don’t judge until you’ve lived in a developing country too.
Practicum
Since I was sick, I missed the entire first week of my practicum so I only ended up teaching twice. During my second class, the PST director ended up observing me. I had prepared so much by cutting out pictures from Newsweek and made up a game called “now or later” and even incorporated a tennis ball into my lesson plan. My discipline was definitely lacking and I had absolutely no control of my students and one of them wanted to leave so they were asking my director how to translate a note in the middle of my class! One of them brought it to me and it said “myxno (May I, in Russian) to go out please”. At first I said sit down and pay attention but finally I was like alright, just go, just leave. I think the director knew I was distressed because he thoughtfully added, “well, at least they came back”. Needless to say, I think this is going to be a much harder job than I had originally anticipated.
My Russian is slowly improving and we had our Mid-Service Test on Monday. At first I was really nervous, but then I realized that I’m not in college and this “grade” won’t actually count towards anything. I ended up getting an “excellent” in listening and speaking and a “good” in grammar and pronunciation. I couldn’t have been happier because I thought I completely botched my oral exam. My mama and Tanya were so proud of me and I said it was all because Tanya is so patient and sits with me for at least an hour everyday and makes me tell her everything I know how to say.
Site Placements
We got our site placements on Wednesday and I am going to be living in Kok-Oi which is a village of about 6,000 people about 10 km out of Talas. Since there is a mountain range separating the Chui and Talas oblasts the easiest route is through Kazakstan, which makes it kind of isolated. Regardless, everyone who lives there or who has been there loves it so I am really excited. Mostly everyone was happy with their placements but it was a really weird day. It’s kind of sobering to find out where you are going to be living for the next two years. Luckily I already have a place I can call home and I am sure I will visit Koshoi often. I didn’t make any specific requests during our interviews because I figured I would be happy no matter where they placed me. I just wanted to be somewhere where I could learn and develop my Russian. Phil, Bohee, Tim and I are all pretty much on the opposite sides of the country which kind of sucks, they completely botched our Russian group. All the other groups were kind of put in the same area but ours was hacked apart. I guess it will give us a good reason to travel during our down time, though.
I didn’t eat for about 4 days and after that my diet consisted of bullion and toast. Like I said my mom was a cook for 25 years so she started slowly introducing different foods into my diet. My family here was so worried about me at first because they didn’t know what to do with me and they thought I was going to go home. They were both crying when I left for Bishkek but I told them that it’s going to take a lot more than this to get me to leave the country. Thanks to the staff, my family and the other volunteers, I was able to get back on my feet in no time, I have no idea what I would have done without them. Chris Burns, one of the guys who led our orientation in Philadelphia said that you’re not a real Peace Corps Volunteer until you’ve crapped your pants. We thought he wasn’t serious but when I was really ill, I definitely pooped my pants twice. I thought it was hilarious because I started thinking about all those old SNL skits, “Oops I crapped my pants.” If anyone wants to send me Depends, I am sure they will be put to good use. Hey, don’t judge until you’ve lived in a developing country too.
Practicum
Since I was sick, I missed the entire first week of my practicum so I only ended up teaching twice. During my second class, the PST director ended up observing me. I had prepared so much by cutting out pictures from Newsweek and made up a game called “now or later” and even incorporated a tennis ball into my lesson plan. My discipline was definitely lacking and I had absolutely no control of my students and one of them wanted to leave so they were asking my director how to translate a note in the middle of my class! One of them brought it to me and it said “myxno (May I, in Russian) to go out please”. At first I said sit down and pay attention but finally I was like alright, just go, just leave. I think the director knew I was distressed because he thoughtfully added, “well, at least they came back”. Needless to say, I think this is going to be a much harder job than I had originally anticipated.
My Russian is slowly improving and we had our Mid-Service Test on Monday. At first I was really nervous, but then I realized that I’m not in college and this “grade” won’t actually count towards anything. I ended up getting an “excellent” in listening and speaking and a “good” in grammar and pronunciation. I couldn’t have been happier because I thought I completely botched my oral exam. My mama and Tanya were so proud of me and I said it was all because Tanya is so patient and sits with me for at least an hour everyday and makes me tell her everything I know how to say.
Site Placements
We got our site placements on Wednesday and I am going to be living in Kok-Oi which is a village of about 6,000 people about 10 km out of Talas. Since there is a mountain range separating the Chui and Talas oblasts the easiest route is through Kazakstan, which makes it kind of isolated. Regardless, everyone who lives there or who has been there loves it so I am really excited. Mostly everyone was happy with their placements but it was a really weird day. It’s kind of sobering to find out where you are going to be living for the next two years. Luckily I already have a place I can call home and I am sure I will visit Koshoi often. I didn’t make any specific requests during our interviews because I figured I would be happy no matter where they placed me. I just wanted to be somewhere where I could learn and develop my Russian. Phil, Bohee, Tim and I are all pretty much on the opposite sides of the country which kind of sucks, they completely botched our Russian group. All the other groups were kind of put in the same area but ours was hacked apart. I guess it will give us a good reason to travel during our down time, though.
posted by Katie P. at 6:45 PM
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