The Welcome Tour.
I must say that Craig’s visit was largely successful. It was actually perfect timing as I had already had some travel plans to visit Naryn, another part of the country to participate in Diversity Week, a seminar to demonstrate how all Americans are inherently different and that we’re not all rich and beautiful (a concept, no doubt that is transmitted by the exports from Hollywood). Matt, a K-13 volunteer inherited the annual project at Naryn State University and held a 5 days symposium that had different panels of speakers including an Asian-American panel, a man’s panel and a women’s panel just to name a few. I took part in the women’s panel and also had a 30 minute time slot to talk about my favorite subject: myself. (Just kidding). I really had no idea what to say so I highlighted where I’m from, where I went to college, what I studied and that pretty much every job I’ve ever had I’ve worked with kids. I then opened it up for questions and was astounded by the student’s inquiries, here are a few that I remember: What is love? What do you do when you get angry? How do you solve your problems? My first instinct was to answer, “How the hell do I know?” But I tried to articulate my thoughts and opinions in a manner that would make sense to everyone including myself, but I must say it was pretty difficult being put on the spot by 40+ students, faculty and volunteers. It was a really interesting experience and I was so impressed by the student’s curiosity, attentiveness and level of dedication to the English program in Naryn.
In Bishkek I was spoiled rotten by doing all the things I can’t normally afford on a volunteer’s salary. We went to the Opera, splurged for the good seats at 150 sohm a pop, ate at the city’s best restaurants and strolled around the square. I taught during the week and even woke Craig up one morning to be my lesson plan for my best class, which gave them an opportunity to talk with another native English speaker. He got to meet a bunch of volunteers that came up to Bishkek for a training seminar and best of all (in my opinion) I was just able to enjoy his company.
I’m just speculating but I think the highlight of the trip was when Craig bought a sheep for my host family then helped them slaughter it. This is a huge tradition in Kyrgyzstan and usually momentous occasions and sheep slaughtering go hand in hand. I don’t want speak for him but I think the entire experience for him was in a word, shocking. We went to go get the sheep from a neighbor and they had some string out, Craig turned to me and said, “see if they want me to walk him home.” I was like, Craig, first of all, there are no leashes here and second of all, they’re tying its legs together, I’m pretty sure it’s going in the trunk of the car, which it was. So we get home, and they round up some men and they get to work. I’ve seen sheep slaughterings before and I have to say it’s not exactly something I enjoy but something I can now tolerate way better than when I first got here. Actually, the hardest part for me is just when they slit its throat. After they start to skin it and it starts resembling meat more than an animal I can disassociate it from the fact that it was running around in front of me ten minutes earlier.
As more time passed, the more comfortable the other men got with Craig helping out. They handed him a knife, told him where to cut, when and where to snap the leg and when to scoop the leftover blood from the chest cavity into a bowl. At one point the men were laughing and joking about how they should scare Craig by ripping off a testicle from the sheep and eating it raw. I thought everyone was joking and in good humor but before I knew what was going on, one of the guys slivered off a piece of fat from the sheep’s butt (a delicacy) and held it out to Craig- before the classic “noooooo….” escaped my lips, he grabbed it from the guy's hand and shoved it in his mouth. (He’s never one to back down from a dare.) I was just waiting for it to come back up and I wasn’t sure if it was safe or healthy but felt at least a little relieved when one of the other men followed suit. I guess he’s not one to back down either. As kid who grew up in New York, Craig had never even been on a farm before so I think this was quite an experience.
I think one of the most difficult things for me was not being able to recall what it was like for me to experience things for the first time in order to relate to what he was going through. I couldn’t remember how I felt or what I thought and I’ve become so used to my daily routine that I realized that the novelty of being here has worn off and how I’m living and existing here instead. For many volunteers this is considered a huge success for integration and assimilation but for me, it was somewhat frustrating because somewhere along the way the appreciative value of being here has been diminished. In a lot of ways, he reintroduced me to all the things I love about being here especially the things that I reduced to daily nuisances like shopping in the bazaar. It’s so easy to adopt a “get in and get out alive” mentality but if you take your time and take in what you’re seeing you’d be so surprised at what you’d be able to find (popcorn kernels!). I’m grateful I was able to show around such an open-minded and positive person because it gave me a chance to see this country again through someone else’s eyes. And to be honest, I was in serious need of a fresh look.
I still have a hard time believing he was even here. It was such a whirlwind two weeks, I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything. It meant so much to me that someone would be willing to come so far to see me and to experience where I’ve been living and what I’ve been doing for the last year and a half. From the beginning I said that he would be one of two people who I would ever imagine visiting me here (besides someone related to me), but I’m still surprised he came. I didn’t ask him but I hope he enjoyed his stay, I hope he’s glad he came, I hope he took something away from being here and I hope that he was as glad to see me as I was to see him.
And Craig, if you’re reading this, I’ll see you soon.
In Bishkek I was spoiled rotten by doing all the things I can’t normally afford on a volunteer’s salary. We went to the Opera, splurged for the good seats at 150 sohm a pop, ate at the city’s best restaurants and strolled around the square. I taught during the week and even woke Craig up one morning to be my lesson plan for my best class, which gave them an opportunity to talk with another native English speaker. He got to meet a bunch of volunteers that came up to Bishkek for a training seminar and best of all (in my opinion) I was just able to enjoy his company.
I’m just speculating but I think the highlight of the trip was when Craig bought a sheep for my host family then helped them slaughter it. This is a huge tradition in Kyrgyzstan and usually momentous occasions and sheep slaughtering go hand in hand. I don’t want speak for him but I think the entire experience for him was in a word, shocking. We went to go get the sheep from a neighbor and they had some string out, Craig turned to me and said, “see if they want me to walk him home.” I was like, Craig, first of all, there are no leashes here and second of all, they’re tying its legs together, I’m pretty sure it’s going in the trunk of the car, which it was. So we get home, and they round up some men and they get to work. I’ve seen sheep slaughterings before and I have to say it’s not exactly something I enjoy but something I can now tolerate way better than when I first got here. Actually, the hardest part for me is just when they slit its throat. After they start to skin it and it starts resembling meat more than an animal I can disassociate it from the fact that it was running around in front of me ten minutes earlier.
As more time passed, the more comfortable the other men got with Craig helping out. They handed him a knife, told him where to cut, when and where to snap the leg and when to scoop the leftover blood from the chest cavity into a bowl. At one point the men were laughing and joking about how they should scare Craig by ripping off a testicle from the sheep and eating it raw. I thought everyone was joking and in good humor but before I knew what was going on, one of the guys slivered off a piece of fat from the sheep’s butt (a delicacy) and held it out to Craig- before the classic “noooooo….” escaped my lips, he grabbed it from the guy's hand and shoved it in his mouth. (He’s never one to back down from a dare.) I was just waiting for it to come back up and I wasn’t sure if it was safe or healthy but felt at least a little relieved when one of the other men followed suit. I guess he’s not one to back down either. As kid who grew up in New York, Craig had never even been on a farm before so I think this was quite an experience.
I think one of the most difficult things for me was not being able to recall what it was like for me to experience things for the first time in order to relate to what he was going through. I couldn’t remember how I felt or what I thought and I’ve become so used to my daily routine that I realized that the novelty of being here has worn off and how I’m living and existing here instead. For many volunteers this is considered a huge success for integration and assimilation but for me, it was somewhat frustrating because somewhere along the way the appreciative value of being here has been diminished. In a lot of ways, he reintroduced me to all the things I love about being here especially the things that I reduced to daily nuisances like shopping in the bazaar. It’s so easy to adopt a “get in and get out alive” mentality but if you take your time and take in what you’re seeing you’d be so surprised at what you’d be able to find (popcorn kernels!). I’m grateful I was able to show around such an open-minded and positive person because it gave me a chance to see this country again through someone else’s eyes. And to be honest, I was in serious need of a fresh look.
I still have a hard time believing he was even here. It was such a whirlwind two weeks, I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything. It meant so much to me that someone would be willing to come so far to see me and to experience where I’ve been living and what I’ve been doing for the last year and a half. From the beginning I said that he would be one of two people who I would ever imagine visiting me here (besides someone related to me), but I’m still surprised he came. I didn’t ask him but I hope he enjoyed his stay, I hope he’s glad he came, I hope he took something away from being here and I hope that he was as glad to see me as I was to see him.
And Craig, if you’re reading this, I’ll see you soon.
posted by Katie P. at 10:37 PM
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