20,000 more words about camp

Telling my story through pictures

Fat Camp

I wanna write and tell all the crazy stories here that have happened. But I'm not sure if it is like PEace Corps where you aren't allowed to write the whole truth til after you leave and are not apart of the organizationa anymore. so I will wait till afterwards. For now I will offer a few pictures.

Build me a fire

knocked up, knocked out

While I was in Chicago I went and saw the movie Knocked up with my cousin EMily and a friend of her's. Unfortunately we are all going to have to see the movie again. The girl who sat directly behind us was saddely mistaken into thinking that everyone in the theater cared about her opinion about everything. She was lucky that I'm trying to be polite because she should ahve gotten knockedout. I wanted to find her afterwards and tell her that while her opinion does matter... to somebody. It really doesn't matter at all to me and I want to HEAR the movie!

continuing that thought!

Oh, you know just hanging out at some ancient ruins. Why wouldn't there be an ass load of sheep hanging out in the ruins, I mean it's Kyrgyzstan.
Caitlin and I had to chase a turkey. We might have been having a little too much fun doing it too.

The Chocolate Cake Caitlin bought for us volunteers for us to cope with me being the K-14s first Ad-sep. Didn't realize it was the most expensive one when I picked it out, but totally worth it.
K-Train and I kinda felt left out of the pic so be just looked longingly into each others eyes.
The Peace Corps place to hang out when in Bishkek although they raised their prices ALOT right before I elft so I don't know if it is still a hang out. Prolly....
Me and my kick-ass Russian Tutor Nargiza. She was so nice and took me in and let me watch Russian DVDs at her apartment. I miss her alot!
The penguin doesn't know what to do. Lost in having to pack up my life in Kyrgyzstan I had to resort to putting on the ole penguin outfit to cheer me up

Caitlin and I in At-Bashy! I must say it is considerably prettier than Kant. This posse was not my choice!!!!

Just want that on the record!

After Thought

I didn't really take very many pics in Kyrgyzstan cuz I thought I had 2 years and didn't want to waste my memory. Fortunately Caitlin did take a lot of pics of her visit and here are just a few to give you an idea of the craziness.




Caitlin and I looking at the SI swim suit edition. K-Train had more than one copy so he didn't mind us taking a look. We're wearing the calpacks cuz they are comfortable.




BAAAAA!!!! Caitlin sure was excited about these sheep so we had to get a pic with them.

Cotton Candy! It was Caitlin and I's last food together before I left and our first one when we were reunited. There was the world's worst carnival going on a few blocks from my apartment. This stuff was more expensive than when we got it at Lake City!

Saint Patty's in Kyrgyzstan. Exactly where you wanna spend Saint Pat's. Thank goodness Caitlin brought lots of party favors to get us in the holiday mood.

If I had stayed any longer I would ahve ended up an old babushka. I was aging at warp speed!!!

The yurt in Ala-too square with the girls! If I had known that I would be sleeping there a few days later because Peace Corps gave me no where else to sleep... I... I would have been more shocked than when the day actually came.


Teaching in Jill's class. I don't remember what was going on here but it doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary.

Early I said I was aging at warp speed and here I look like any picture taken of me when I was twelve!!! I love the trolley bus it took FOREVER to get where you were goign but you saved 2 som!!! That is like 5 cents.

K-Train and I in a very typical Kyrgyz wedding photo posture. No smiley involved. Took a very long time for us to get straight faces. love that he is drinking some nashe pevo... translates into our beer.

Jill, Caitlin, and I doing the Remer hand between your legs dance.

"And this is the dance where I put my hands between my legs!"

We rocked that little cafe in At-bashy. So worth everythign that happened afterwards.

Nooryz.. Kyrgyz New Year. Nice outdoor Uzbek cafe. you don't have to wear shoes which I always love. Caitlin and Rick's firend that was visiting both got pooped on by birds. It started rainign and Rick whined the whole time. It was awesome!

From my head to my toes

I beginning to realize that all the jobs I get on the farm are the ones that no one else wants to do at all. A good number of these jobs include poo. Today I had to power wash two tractors and a manure spreader. One of the tractors is a blue New Holland Front Loader. It had been used a lot for scrapping manure out of the manure pits so let’s just say it was pretty dirty. You never would have known it was a New Holland by the color of it.
When power washing a nice combo of cold water and tiny chunks of manure fly back at you. I ended up totally covered in this vulgar paste. I have to laugh at my friend Nick who told me a story one time of how he got a little cow manure splattered near his eye and that was the grossest thing to ever happen to him. I was so covered that when my mom came up and saw me power washing she said, “ Gosh,I didn’t even notice that this tractor was blue. It wasn’t blue earlier was it?” I nod. “hmmmm. And you used to be blue.” She was commenting on how my shirt that had been blue was now totally black. I couldn’t wipe any of it off my face because It was all over my hands and arms so I had no clean space to move it away from my eyes and mouth.
It’s a shitty job but somebody’s gotta do it.

Agitating

In my 23 year history of being a little sister I have gotten very good at agitating people. I have a gift for saying precisely the wrong thing at that moment when someone doesn’t want to hear it. Then I do that whole Midwestern/Canadian apology thing later which just seems to exasperate the person even more.
Lately, though, I have been doing a totally different kind of agitating. I have been agitating manure. I sit in a tractor that is hooked up to a pipe and for hours watch that pipe shoot out the manure back into the pit. You have to do it just so because you want to get the manure all loosened up. You also need to get the manure swirling to help mix it up even more. I sit and watch swirling poo…
Fact:
I.Am.Cool.

Country Girl

I have friends, mostly my friends who grew up in the suburbs, who get irritated that I don’t listen to country. They love it… no…. they LOOOOOOVE country music. That’s right they love it so much it requires 5 extra “O”s. They question if my dad actually is a farmer or if I have ever seen a cow, if I don’t know every line of the newest …. Give me a country star (is Shiana Twain still big?) … Faith Hill (?) song.
I have to confess I have been listening to more country music since I came home. Partly because country music is every other radio station, and partly because when I get the good tractor there is a radio on it and it seems to ONLY get country stations. I don’t know if that is a requirement for a radio in a tractor, to only get country stations, or if this radio just likes country music.
After hearing many…many country songs I understand why it is predominately my suburbanite friends that love country music. They can relate to the music. They too spent their time down by the levy (I sorta think I know what a levy is, but why are so many of them in country songs?), they spent their teen years making out on tractors and dancing in barns.
Country songs also seem to love to sing about how regular they are. If you question that listen to the song Common Man or Regular Guy Like Me. They just like singin’ about there good wife, their great kids, and beer. I do have to give some respect to men that know the difference between Case Red, New Holland Blue, and John Deere Green…. and can find ways to sing about them.
I did find it odd how many country songs defend country music. I heard probably four songs in an hour and half defending how great country music is and why they listen to it. You don’t hear Pop songs having to defend why they are great. Well, except for ‘NSYNC’s Pop…. But I super-duper (with a cherry on top) love that song. How can you not love it with lines like:
Sick and tired of hearing all these people talk about
“what’s the deal with this pop life and when’s it goin’ fade out”
Fantastic!
Country, though, has more than one anthem declaring that it will live on. In all honesty country doesn’t need any of these, because their anthem was written long ago. As Hank Williams Jr said A Country Boy Can Survive.

Birds

I have to be honest I am terrfied of birds. Their beaks, the feathers, the whole flying thing gets kinda creepy. I find Alfred Hitchcock's Birds the second scarriest movie ever, after Return to Oz(don't play those wheelers, a talking chicken, gnome king, dessert of death... that movie is freaky!!!!)
Without thinking I agreed to disk my brother's fields. It means I was driving a tractor that is pulling a devise that turns up the soil. That all sounds fine till you realize that every seagul(extra yucky!) from a 30 mile radius it seems comes flying up hoping to catch some worms that might have gotten turned up.
I'm not sure why I'm extra freakedout by seagulls, but I think it has something to do with my childhood. Probably when my old sister Karen was eating a piece of KFC and a seagull swooped down and tok it right out of her hand!!!! I witnessed this horrific display. So, imagine my terrior as I drive a tractor through a sea of seagulls, breaking up the calm white serfiace just to have a giant waves of white feathers coming at me every inch of the way.
I have had to be looking at tiny little baby birds in their nests latly. When I told my neice that I don't want to because bird feathers freak me out, she so nicely pointed out that baby birds don't have feathers. Right.... true actually.... but that makes them even creepier!!!! little featherless no flight birds are even freakier.... don't ask me why. Just please don't come at me with one!

Why the new blog?

because I needed one.
So the question now becomes: what am I up to?
Well, nothing special to be honest and I kinda like it that way. It has been weird for me lately because I'm normally so concerned that people know I'm alive and care about me and are interested in me... but since I got the boot from Peace Corps I haven't been so worried about that.
In case you didn't know I did get kicked out Peace Corps, no quitting for this girl! Actually (we'll protect his identity and call him Joe New York) Well, Joe New York tried to kick me out before we even got to Kyrgyzstan because he said my sense of humor didn't fit Peace Corps. I talked him into letting me stay and was able to stay and work for 10 months, 10 months longer then anyone thought I would make it since they tried to kick me out in Philly.
I had no where to go when I first got back because I didn't tell anyone I was back right away. I ended up staying in Abe Cross's Parent's basement. It was actually really nice and a good week long adjustment to being back in the country. Now I'm totally use to being back here but at first it freaked me out.
Since then I have gone home and worked on the farm a bunch. Have you ever had to move three years worth of cow crap in a week? I have!
However, that isn't my biggest accomplishment since I got back, oh no it is talking my cousin Lena into giving her mom a peach tree for mothers' day. I don't know why I did it? I just really wanted to be apart of buying a peach tree.
My mom liked to accuse me of never wanting to leave home. That couldn't be further from the truth. I did get her off my back though by finding a job out there in the real world.
I'm going to be a photographer at Fat Camp!
Not just any fat camp, Camp Shane, The Fat camp! I'm super excited. I'm sure once I get there I'll be asking my facovirte question, How did I get here? Until then I'm going to keep rockin' it here on the farm.

Women's Day

International Women’s Day. It isn’t a big holiday in America because we have mother’s day. However, in Kyrgyzstan it is a BIG holiday. And let’s just say as a woman I kicked it! It was also my counterparts birthday, and she is awesome so we had to have a big party.The 7th was when the teachers rocked out. There are no male teachers at my school so the women through their own party. First, at the school we had a concert and my students gave me cards, candy, flowers, and a little angel figurine(very me :P). After the concert the teachers thought all the students were gone and were joking around saying, “We got wine and there are no students or men are coming along! So, We are going to drink and PARTY and be loud and stay out all night!!!”(we stayed out till 4 when the pay checks came in) What they didn’t realize was to male students were still in the room taking care of audio equiptment and they were mortified.The Physical education teacher at my school also gave me a Russian Language book for beginners. She kept putting a lot of emphasis on the Beginners part. I kept nodding acknowledging that I know I don’t speak very good Russian.At the party in the café we ate so much. I was bit over joined at the abundance of cheese, which I can’t afford. I kept whispering to myself, oh, sweet, sweet calcium. Also, when I took a little bread, with a piece of kalbasa, and some cheese… having a psuedo-sandwich and getting protien and calcium at the same time. It was too good to be true.We sat around singing old Russian songs. I’m currently trying to learn two. We danced to Russian techno and there were only 3 songs on the play so we heard the songs 4 or 5 times a piece. There were some soldiers who danced with us for a while. They ended up buying us women a bottle of champagne to celebrate with. In my mind you sit around and enjoy champagne but we had to take it as shots. They also made me sing a song in English. I went with I just called to say I love you, by Stevie Wonder. It’s easy and for some reason they all know it. They also made me stand up and give a toast so that teachers who didn’t know me could get to know me a little bit. My counterpart told me I could give it in English and she could translate if need be. I didn’t want everyone thinking I couldn’t speak any Russian and also didn’t want to give a bad toast, so I might… MIGHT have spoke a little long. For some reason even though I know very little Russian I know a lot of toasts and congradulatory phrases. So, I just kept talking. Fortunately I proved that, yes I do in fact know some Russian and it is alright to talk to me in Russian, versus chopped up English.Later that night Svetlana(my counterpart) took me to a concert. It was mostly in Russian but a little bit was in Kyrgyz and Ukrainian. When the Ukrainian part came up I was like dang I don’t understand anything. Fortunately, Svetlana calmed my nerves by leaning over and telling me that it was in Ukrainian.The next day actually on the eigth we had a party at Svetlana’s it was women’s day/her birthday party. She invited another volunteer, Rick, from a near by village to rock out with us too. There was sooooooo much food. All Rick and I could keep saying was I’m so full, I’m so happy, mmmm, ahhh I guess I’ll have one more plate full. I have already written to Max after Man’s day about the dish she made for us(he is the only one that regularly asks about the food) it was Scalloped potatoes with cheese and pork. On Man’s Day I ate about half the tray this time with Rick there to compete I got a little less. But she also made us Bish Bermak, because I ahd told her that I didn’t know what it is. It is a Tradtional Kyrgyz meal that has noodles and normally Mutton(she made it with beef). It’s literal translation is five fingers. Your suppose to eat it with your hands, but since we were in a Russian home we dished it out with a spatula and ate it with forks. We also had a cake that had like Grahmam Cracker layers, it was amazing!Mixed in with the eating was a good bit of Kareoke and dancing. On Man’s day I had to sing all the songs on the English Kareoke CD by myself. It was nice because this time I could pawn off some of the songs onto Rick. I did an amazing back up to his Losing My Religion and Hotel California. However, when I tried to help with My Father’s Eyes Rick yelled(put southern drawl on it) “Carol be QUIET! I’m singing like ERIC CLAPTON RIGHT NOW!!!!” I had to reliquish myself to back up dancer. When my turn came to sing like Whitney Houston and belt out some I Will Always Love You, Rick and Sasha(Svetlana’s husband) did not settle for being backup singers. Even though I had a microphone I could not overpower them. I got my turn later when I made them sit through Hello, Dolly and they didn’t know all any of the words. Sasha and Rick were readily best friends despite the fact that Rick, though he speaks it perfectly, he only speaks Kyrgyz. Sasha being Siberian, only speaks Russian. Although they all did force Rick to sing a couple songs on the Russian CD despite, him not knowing any of the songs.Overall it was a great time. Can’t wait for women’s day next year.Spraz-nikam.

All Up in the Air!

So sorry that I haven’t written here for a while. Life has been a little crazy. This entry will probably be a little boring but it is to catch people up on my life.I recently switched sites. New school and an apartment to myself. The apartment came furnished with only a couch so it is my little oasis in the mass of my junk that I have no place to put anywhere. The apartment also came with; hold your breath, a hot shower and a FLUSH TOILET!!! This was very exciting for me, and since I have no real furniture to speak of the first few days I spent hanging out in the bathroom admiring my flush toilet. I ended up putting up a map of the world I have in Russian so I could feel like I was learning something hanging out in there all day.My new school is awesome. A much better fit for me. I teach 4th and 1st form, although I haven’t had 1st form because they have been on vacation all week. I’m running lots of different clubs: Debate Club, Science Club, Conversation Club, ACCELS club, and I’m going to be starting some sports clubs soon. I also teach adults English twice a week at the American Corner in the Library. It is strange starting at a new school because I have to start the process of introducing myself with everyone all over again. The other day I had to use the bathroom before my classes but an older lady, I don’t know if she is a teacher or not beat me to it. So, I patiently waited as she turned off the light to the bathroom I said Hyet, Hyet, ne nada (no,no, no need) She gave me a little bit of a dirty look and didn’t say anything. She then pointed to a door down the hallway. I looked at it, and then looked back at her. She then took me to the other door and told me this was the student’s bathroom. I said fine, not understanding at first that she thought I was a student and then she left. I looked in at the squatter holes that are for the students and back down the hall at the teacher’s bathroom with a flush toilet. The older lady had turned down another hallway but I could hear her talking so I knew she was close by. I decided to make a run for it; the only problem is I was wearing my rain pants still. I was wearing because it is always muddy and dirty yet everyone talks about if I have mud on the bottom of my pants so I was trying to keep them clean. I made a run pasted her only 5 feet from her swishing as loudly as possible. I locked the door and took my time hoping she wouldn’t be outside the door when I opened it. I must have stalled long enough because she was gone. It’s weird I have always been considered much older than I actually am and now I’m an adult and need to be viewed as one I get accused of being a student. There is a very good sports complex near my school, so I wanted to take some classes there. I found the perfect one for me, belly dancing. I have already gone to two classes. I’ve always been bitter that I have never gotten to take a dance class and there might be good reasons for me never having taken one before. I’m terrible. I have no expectations though and just view it as a chance to get out in the community and meet some more people. It’s also one of the perks of being a foreigner. In America I would have to acknowledge that I know I look ridiculous, here I’m just the foreigner that doesn’t know any better. Love it! The first lesson was tough because I was in the very back of the room and couldn’t see the instructor and it was like a bad game of telephone where everyone is just watching the person in front of them and it becomes slowly worse down the line. Even though I couldn’t see the instructor in the mirror in the front of the room I’m a good 6 inches taller than anyone else in the room and could easily watch myself. I have lessons three nights a week so maybe by the end of my service I’ll be able to do one maybe even two moves correctly. I’m really focusing on the hand movement parts more then the booty shaking and the actual belly dancing part.Before moving to my new site I spent a week down in Naryn which is considered the “Authentic Kyrgyz” part of Kyrgyzstan. It was very interesting for me, because to be honest I don’t know much about actual Kyrgyz people. Although, now at my new school I do have a few Kyrgyz students and my Director/neighbor is Kyrgyz. I got to spend sometime with my friend Remer’s family which was interesting for me because it was one of my first interactions with a Kyrgyz family. Remer’s host father told me I speak good Russian. When I said that wasn’t true he corrected me with, “I said GOOD not Excellent.” Ahhhh. Thanks I stand corrected. That has become one way I have figured out if guys are flirting with me when I am talking to boys my age, they will tell me I speak good Russian. That being a blatant lie that we both know is a lie I now know where we stand.Overall, everything is going well and it is good for me to have a new site. I like it a lot and hope things will be going better now. Sorry for not updating sooner for those of you who have complained and please email me telling me how you are doing.