Spring...?

Well, having been recently inspired by a fellow PCV’s much better written blog, I thought I post something since I’ve been pretty lazy about doing that lately. Winter recently decided to give it another go yesterday with this huge storm that went through the country. I heard there were pretty powerful winds in some other oblasts in the country. By the time it made it to us it wasn’t nearly as powerful I guess. Anyway, it snowed most of yesterday but thankfully melted rapidly, before it could settle and make the much hated mud return. The last two weeks were wonderful in terms of weather though, and I’m hoping it returns to that way soon. Although yesterday and today have been extremely clear (albeit much colder though) after that front came through.

I’ve been playing soccer the past few days and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the times when we play until sunset and I get to watch the sun fall behind the mountains across the lake. It’s pretty surreal at times; here I am in Kyrgyzstan playing soccer in another language with the guys in my village, winded after trying to make my way to the goal, and I look back behind my little school towards the lake and see this indescribable beauty of a sunset over Lake Issyk-Kul. The colors are so vibrant and the air so crisp and clean, I think to myself, and then my mind darts right back to the game and I’m off running somewhere on the field. This happens almost every time I play soccer but the impact is always the same. As I look towards the lake, that brief moment of actually feeling the beauty of this place and of the truly unique time I’m having here, I hope is forever embedded into my memory because I know I don’t ever want to forget it and I know I will miss it.

That brings to mind another thought. It’s funny how we can have nostalgia for something that hasn’t yet ended in our lives. I guess as my time runs out here (less than 6 months now I think) those feelings will get stronger. I’ve been in situations where I feel this overwhelming and exhilarating emotion come over me. I guess it is nostalgia; I’m not sure what else to call it. It happens at the strangest times, sitting around watching my coworkers at a celebration, the look on my students faces when they really get something, or the feeling I get when I know they are asking or talking to me about things they probably can’t talk about to anyone else. It even happens sometimes in the little random acts of hospitality as I’m grabbed by an older man to come into his house while I’m rushing to school, so he can give me a glass of bozo (homemade Kyrgyz “wine” I guess you could call it. But it’s not really wine, it’s made from wheat I think). Anyway, it’s a pretty powerful feeling and it makes me fear having to say goodbye to this place whether it is when my contract ends or after I stay on to work for a little longer.

My mood is improving with the weather and the exercise has certainly helped. The dark cloud of winter is leaving and it’s awesome. I gave a training with my counterpart covering students learning styles to some teachers at my school yesterday. Less teachers came than I had wanted but I think it was a time issue. Next training I will make sure to correct for that and try to have as many teachers as possible come. But for those that came, I’m fairly sure they enjoyed it and actually learned something useful. My counterpart is continually impressing me this year with how much she has learned from our work together. It’s nice to finally see some positive outcome from work that 90% of the time is very hard to see concrete results. I mean you can’t measure the impact a person has on another person’s life – and you never know how, or more importantly, when that impact will affect someone. It could be 20 years later or next week.

On that note, it’s a shame that I won’t be replaced this year, but I’m hoping there’s a chance in the future for my site to get another volunteer. My counterpart certainly isn’t to blame for me not getting replaced. She has already worked almost 2 years with a volunteer and she has possibly found a much better paying job elsewhere (the low salary for teachers here is a problem, and hopefully it will be improved sooner rather than later), so she doesn’t want to commit another two years to working with a volunteer. I completely understand that and I don’t blame her for taking that job if she gets it; I would do the same in her position.

So all in all, things are looking up here. I’ll be leaving my site for about 3 weeks soon to be a trainer for the new group of volunteers (god, K-18s already). I’m excited to meet them all and I’m hoping their fresh enthusiasm rubs off a bit. It really is contagious; it’s easy to catch being around 60+ people with the highest hopes, expectations, and positive thoughts for their next two years. I’m thinking it’ll give me a nice morale boost for the last few months of service. Hopefully I’ll have some time to inquire about some jobs that might be available also. I’m becoming more accepting of the idea that if I just can’t find the right job I don’t think I’ll regret leaving if I have to in August/September. There are pros and cons to both scenarios and frankly I’d probably be happy however it turns out. That doesn’t help much with motivation though haha. Contentment can be bad that way I guess.

Hope you’re all doing well. Shoot me an email – haven’t heard from many of you lately. Let me know what’s going on in your life. Believe it or not I like to hear about that, and most people enjoy talking about themselves so it’s a win-win situation yeah?

Pat


Baby sheep and goats!
The view from part of our yard toward the lake...it was so clear today and there's quite a lot of snow on the other sides mountains. Not sure why that cow is standing where it eats its food but he stayed there for like an hour today.
Another view from near the house.