The Time Has Come...

September 26, 2006

6:30 AM

It’s has been a while since I sat down to write here, and a lot has happened since my last sit down. In a quick summary, I will break down the past week:

I have left my training village officially and I am now living at my permanent site where, God Willing (Кудай Буюрса), I will be living for the next two years. Last week, on Thursday, September 22, I was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) with fifty-eight of my fellow trainees. After the completion of two and half months of training, we were sworn in by the ambassador of the United States to Kyrgyzstan (Кыргызстан), Marie Yovanovitch, on a stage in front of an audience of our PST host families, our LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators, our language teachers), PC staff, US Embassy staff, and our future counterparts (*more on the counterparts later). I really had no idea what to expect heading into the swear-in ceremony. I didn’t know if I would be excited, neutral, or nervous. As the ceremony moved towards completion I had a huge rush of accomplishment come over me. I have taken the first step, of many to come, during my service. I am now a PCV and I am now in my permanent site, ready to face the challenges of the service I came here to do.
Yesterday I had my first day of “work” at my school. I loosely label it work because I do not start teaching until October 2. For this first week I will be observing classes, getting accustomed to the school, and writing lesson plans. Yesterday I was introduced to all of my students by the school’s director and my counterpart (*). After a lengthy presentation by both, the students then asked me if I could tell a little about myself, in Kyrgyz (Кыргыз). Being able to tell about myself and my family was one of the major topics of language lessons during PST, and I was very glad. I came off sounding like I had better Kyrgyz (Кыргыз) than I actually do, simply because most of it was engraved in my mind due to two months of practice. Overall, the students and faculty were very excited that I knew any Kyrgyz at all, and were very happy when I asked them, with the help of my counterpart (*),to be patient with me and that I will do all I can to help them learn English, as long as they are willing to help me learn Kyrgyz.
After the introductions I was then, to my surprise, shown my classroom. Upon my first visit to my village and my school, I was told that they work on a rotating teaching system, and the students stay in the classrooms. After talking with them and PC after my visit, I was ready to adjust my initial expectations of how to run my class without my own classroom. But like I said, they surprised me and have arranged a classroom for me to use, design, and create into a full scale English center. I am very happy about this, but I am also kind of worried. In order for me to have a classroom, someone had to move; a class, a teacher, a subject, had to have been moved to a new location. So while I am very excited to have my own classroom, I have a feeling of guilt knowing that I will now be occupying someone’s previous classroom. I will do my best to not waste this gift they have given me, but in time I am also going to find out how they were able to arrange this, and see to it that no one was displaced due to my presence.
This situation is eerily similar to much of my time here. It is very tough to be in a country that treats their guests like Kings and Queens. Seriously, it may sound very ignorant to say that it sucks to be treated with such respect and open arms, but let me explain. My first example is from my first host family living situation. I loved this family, they bent over backwards to make sure my transition into Kyrgyz (Кыргыз) culture was a smooth and overall enjoyable experience. But while I was given a room in their house for two and half months with two beds, a wardrobe, and a desk, my two sisters slept on the floor of the guest room on blankets and used boxes in the hallway closet as their wardrobe. I will forever be in debt for what they did for me and I was very grateful to have the room they let me use, but I couldn’t help feeling sick knowing that I was occupying a room for two. And the craziest part, and the part that is still tough to take, is that because I was a guest, it was natural for them to give me as much as they could afford. I remember reading in the Central Asia Lonely Planet book that you must be careful in this part of the word. Without even thinking twice, a family could wipe out a year’s earnings simply to treat a guest. They were very on spot with that statement. Guests and “guesting” are huge in this country, and it is a wonderful part of the Muslim culture that holds guests and passersby in very high regard. My school and my village, in one day, have been no different, and I have a “battle” ahead of me to try and integrate myself into the village, the school, and my family in order to be seen as a resident, rather than a guest. Every PCV in Kyrgyzstan (Кыргызстан) deals with this “struggle” in one form or another. It is just the way life is here, and is part of the adapting experience of Peace Corps.

* Counterpart:
A counterpart is essentially your first point of contact at your permanent site. Usually, but not always, they speak English and are able to be a very helpful guide for you in the beginning when you language is still poor (and throughout the full two years if you build a good rapport with him/her. My counterpart is a wonderful lady that has a mind like a sponge. She knows English very well, but due to a two-year break (maternity leave; she has five children), she has not used it for a while. Nonetheless, she knows much more English than I do, and is also fluent in Kyrgyz and Russian. This being said, it is scary to speak English with her because every new word I use, she stores away in a permanent memory bank. I just cannot work like that and it takes time and repetition for me to really grasp new words and concepts. She is amazing (eerily similar to my host mother, who has learned more English in the past two days than I can do so in two weeks), and has been a wonderful source of help. She is doing everything she can to aid me in trying to acclimate myself to the school and the village.
The funny thing is that when we talk, she tends to have just as many questions as I do. She thinks I am crazy though because every answer she gives connects to another question I have. She has personally told me to rest and let things happen. I am really happy with my village and especially happy with my counterpart right now. She is definitely going to be a wonderful person to look towards for help in the next two years.