Winter is coming to an end...

The sun is coming up early and setting after five. I definitely feel like spring will come sometime in the future and that's exciting. As you can probably tell-- the cold has been a bit difficult. Definitely not built for cold, long winters, but it feels really nice to have survived it! I now know I can heat a house through a whole winter with coal, that at low enough temperatures glass jars of food will explode, that sleds are the best way to transport water in the winter, and that hats are super awesome.

So as for things that have happened... after vacation we have about two weeks off of school for flu quarantine. That was a super productive time period that I used to work through the details of a lot of projects I want to do. After that we had some school and regular stuff. This weekend we decided to do some research in Naryn City and visit some friends. Turns out, Naryn City is wonderful. Everyone is really excited to hear you speak Kyrgyz, nobody seems all that surprised that there's an Indian in Kyrgyzstan, and the streets are clean-ish and well lit. The road to Naryn was long. We decided to go from Talas to Naryn in one day (two six hour drives) which was kind of crazy but fun. Naryn looks a lot like Talas but the mountains are closer and people seem to take more pride in their houses appearance (matching fences and stuff). Through their mountain pass there are random statues of painted women and silver colored statues of various mountain animals perched atop the mountains. One of the most amazing moments was actually driving into Naryn City, you basically drive towards this huge orange clay cliff and as you get close you see a path winding into it. You drive with cliff towering on either side, curve to the right and see the little city appear in front of you. This city itself is between two mountain ranges with a river running near it.

So things are going we right now. We are more than 10 months in to service and that feels good. New volunteers will be coming in the Spring and I have applied to be a trainer for them, so that might be a cool thing in the future. As usual, I miss you all and look forward to seeing you again.

Athena

Here's a picture of my 5th form...

Кыш келди—Winter has come

I just walked to the outhouse in the rain. When I opened the door to leave the outhouse it had begun to snow---quite surprising. Anyway, its winter. I wear thermals everyday and we are regularly using our coal stove to warm our house.

This is the first week in a few in which I feel that things are going really well. I have been talking to my friend Roxanna about a health secondary project which I am getting excited about; we're doing a training for Vice Principals on Thursday to get started. I'm also working on talking to the local government about starting weekly teacher trainings for English teachers next year. I am also working on getting a regional resource center in our village and a possible solar heating project. Anyway, it now seems that I'm hitting a stride. For some reason, when Peace Corps told us it would be a while before we truly adjusted and became productive I didn't really understand what they meant. Well, now I do. Anyway, things are starting to move forward---Yay for progress!

Oh---here's a tangent---I ate horse! Can you believe that? It was tasty but not better than other meats I think. It may be that it wasn't especially good as it was cold and not spiced at all (most meat is cooked in Kyrgyzstan by putting it in a giant pot of water and boiling it). A friend of mine actually at wolf which was a bit of a mind trip to think about.

In not work or strange meat related news, I went to a party for a teacher's birthday this past weekend which was really fun. It was the first gathering of Kyrgyz people that I really felt comfortable at which was nice. I think its that I know have gotten to know the staff a bit and that my Kyrgyz is good enough that I'm not entirely confused by most conversation. I've also begun to start learning Russian. Its been a good way to give my brain some exercise. And....its almost Thanksgiving! We're having a big Talas volunteer thanksgiving in Talas city which promises to be delicious and fun. I've gotten close with the Talas crew and am always exciting to spend time with them all. I can definitely see how people have lifelong friendships after doing Peace Corps together. You experience an amazing strange two years in which you and your perceptions change on a daily basis. Pretty crazy/scary/wonderful.

On the 12th of December we will be heading to Bishkek for Program Management & Design conference. Should be interesting. I'm excited that the whole thing will be in Kyrgyz—there's never enough language practice. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm familiar with the information and would be bored in English. I'll try to upload more picture while I'm in the city so keep an eye out for that. We're also getting ready for our trip to Italy/Spain with our families which is more exciting than I can describe. Wine, cheese, vegetables... I can barely imagine it