We visited our permanent village (Also new address, don't use the old one anymore!)
Since I last updated you all, a lot has happened. We have completed our mid-training language assessment and two active teaching practicums, all of which went quite well. In celebration of May Day my family slaughtered a sheep which we helped butcher and clean (Ok, we helped a little). Overall, the last few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Lots of learning and excitement sprinkled with a bit of homesickness---I miss you guys! It seems the fact that we now live in Kyrgyzstan is just starting to sink in.
That said, we also received the exciting news that our final placement will be in Talas Oblast in the village of Bakay Ata. Bakay Ata is a village of 8,000 at the edge of the mountains in Talas. Last week we visited and met our new host families, counterparts, and schools. I will be teaching in a small Humanitarian Lyceum that has 150 students. Alex will be teaching at a large Seondary School that serves 800 students. It is about 45 minutes from Talas City, much more of a town than a city, and fairly close to Kazakstan. There is a hospital, a few small stores (that mostly sell candy), an internet cafe, tiny library, 3 schools, a music school, a public banya, a militsia station, a local government building, and a post office. Pretty Detailed huh? (Peace Corps had us make a map)
Visiting was absolutely wonderful, it was exactly what we needed to remember why we came here in the first place. Our host family has a wonderful garden with berry bushes, an apple orchard, vegetables, and chickens---pretty much the mini-farm of my dreams. Our host mother is a pharmacist, host father is a fireman, two younger brothers study/work in Bishkek, two youger sisters go to Alex's school, and little (4 years old) brother runs around a lot. The are friendly, easy-going and incredibily helpful. We have a great room with a stellar view of the garden and a grouping of lily of the valley flowers outside the window. My school is a compound with 4 small buildings in it, that contain 5-6 classrooms and a teachers room. There's a small playground and a 16 friendly teachers. This summer Alex and I will be running an English club 2-3 days a week and, with our friend Jesse, hopefully doing a week long summer camp. All in all, it's exciting. Well, that enough for now.... Here's our address in cyrillic—it will be much more likely to find us written like this---and a picture (or two depending on how long load time takes).
Кыргызстан,
ин. 723800, г. бакай ата раяон
бакай ата айылы
Кыргыз почтасы
атена Parker
Kyrgyzstan
723800 Bakai Ata Rayon
Bakay Ata Village
Kyrgyz Post Office
Athena Parker
