My head has been heavy the last few days. Violently throwing up in the night air brought on something of a sinus infection. I left out the story of how my salary was stolen from my host family. The teacher who is supposed to support me told my host mother to give her half of my salary because she gave my classes while I was in Thailand. My host mother, the lovely Zuchara, of course handed the money over without questioning this teacher's basis for requesting the money. According to our contract, no one else may take a volunteer's salary from the school except for the host family. Additionally, the teacher did not work the hours according to the school administration. I became frustrated insofar as the one teacher at the school who is meant to help me and know my contract took advantage of the situation. The school administration and Peace Corps have come to some arrangement, but the money still hasn't made it to my host family. I have been left without a primary point of contact at my school. This teacher is another English teacher who cannot even speak to me in English. She never functioned within her role as my counterpart. This scenario is completely typical of the Kyrgyz professional world unfortunately.
I am generally fairly frustrated with things as they are right now, which probably explains why I have been less communicative lately. As I wrote before, the veneer of living here has worn off. Now many aspects of my life not only feel remarkably slow but also completely irritating. I have spent a lot of time reading in my room over the past couple weeks. I managed to read, "God Lives in St. Petersburg" (Bissell), "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (Thompson), "White Teeth" (Zadie Smith), "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (Haddon), the collected aphorisms of Pantajali, and four Newsweeks cover to cover. I have been voracious.
I went swimming with my host father on Sunday. He someone reserved an entire Olympic pool at a nearby resort for himself, my host brothers, and me. It was nice to have a swim and a shower. My host family continue to be one of the only redeeming and gratifying features of my life in Kyrgyzstan. I went to a seminar at the GTZ Ecological Center this morning concerning some of the future projects on the lake. People were speaking German, Russian, Kyrgyz, and some, limited English. It was truly fascinating to just take in the linguistic exchange nevermind the discussions about water sanitation and irrigation. I will be a facilitator with English-speaking tourists this summer and will also be involved with some of the pilot projects they have started in the biosphere: like a yak farm, a yurt camp, various outdoors water and mountain sports, and the nature reserves especially in the south. I can't wait not to be teaching and to be more directly connected to the biosphere program. I have four more days of teaching, and I will be heading to Kegety (the first village) to see my host family. My first host sister, Venera, gave birth to her baby, and I have been invited to see him/her. I'm not really sure if it's a girl or boy. I am heading there with another volunteer, Rich, who lives a few villages down on the lake. We trained together and he's the first person I talked to back in the States the summer before I came.
We were given an estimated calender from the government about the different phases of the experience. I am definitely on-track with the extreme frustration I feel toward Kyrgyz culture, my work, my languages, and myself. The calender was compiled over the last 40 years and has this scary way of knowing what you are going through even if you haven't read it in some time. When I pulled it out a couple of days ago, it was so right on like a horoscope after five cups of coffee (it could say anything) that I was again amazed by its power.
The situation in Uzbekistan has lead to the influx of Uzbek refugees in the south of Kyrgyzstan. Some volunteers have been evacuated from the region near the southern Uzbek border, but the rest of the country remains unaffected by the rumblings in the tummy of our neighboring Stan. By the way, why is it snowing in the mountains behind my house, freezing cold and windy at night, and it's almost June? Answer this and you will be saved. -MJ
