Where Am I?

 I have learned countless different things about myself. I am definetly appreciating life more so than in my past.  In America it seems as if things were not going a certain way it was woe is me and my life.   Now a new revalation has been instilled in my heart.  If things are not going well it is Woe is Kyrgyzstan not me.  It is where I am that is the problem.  I do not mean that physically.  It is not about the place I am I quickly realized after thinking it was the country I was serving.  It is simply an attitude of where I am in life.  I am now anxious to see where this realization will take me.  

Carolyn 

Healthy Tormenting

So, Hello

I am still in Kyrgyzstan. Now, I have arrived at permanent site. Which means I have a job and a new host family. I feel like I have been overly enthusiastic about how much I love everything. Basically, I am upset about the loss of my language right now. I am getting in the habit of not talking at all when I am at work and at home. I feel like the longer I am around native speakers of Russian, and the more I get to know them the more they want to pull apart what I thought I already knew regarding the language. So, I barely speak. I have a language tutor now. Maybe my language will improve and I can get out of this habit of being silent. Also, I have been watching many disney movies that are translated in Russian. It is great I can always hear the English right before the translation takes place.

As for nutrition education, no one listens to me in fact I am critisized. It is especially frustrating when other volunteers critisize me for what I eat or talk about concerning healthy eating. I am trying my best to fight the urge to to go back to school for research in nutrition.

The main part of my life that is fufilling right now is going to the orphanage to teach english. I like being creative and acting crazy while teaching. It is pretty interesting with only a piece of chalk and a black board as my teaching tools. I do a lot of acting to demonstrate verbs.

I miss music. I cannot believe I did not bring an ipod. I dont want to get started about the people and things that I miss in America.

However, I am meeting many interesting people. I have run into other christians here. I went to the Russian Orthodox church last Sunday. I left within 10 minutes because I was not wearing a head scarf--even the children had head scarfs on. So, I figured I would go back the next Sunday, of course, wearing my new beaded tan headscarf. Better yet, a few people from here invited me to a prayer meeting. Also, this weekend is my host sister's wedding. I am so excited to see a Kyrgyz wedding!

I have been torturing my little host brother for entertainment. Thats right not tutoring(as my host family demanded the day I arrived). Torturing. I had about enough of him tormenting me with every move I make upon my new arrival into town. So, I have been whistling in the house. Everyone here is very superstitious about this. It is said that you wont have money. So, he screams "HET DANGY,shhhhhh," in a very frantic manner. I am like what do you care if I have money or not??

Anyway, please feel free to send me emails at cgood711@gmail.com

I will keep you posted

Carolyn

LIttle Time

I am in Bishkek. Today, I meet my host family in Luxemburg, which is very close to Kant City. Instead of learning Kyrgyz like I thought, I will be learning Russian. I am so excited for today. It seems like I have been here for a month and it has only been a couple days. I am meeting so many people. Everything is amazing. Although, I am having a very hard time with tolerating the food.

I traveled to Istanbul. Some of us got out of the airport, which includes me. Luckily, I ran around with a friend who has been there before. So, I feel like I saw quite a bit. I guess I dont really know that. Anyways, I miss all my friends at home. Sondra told me that I can never take everyone around with me, but I can always take God with me. That means everything to me.

Carolyn

Expect to not expect.

I am packing my bags to go to Kyrgyzstan with the Peace Corps. I tried to weight one of the bags, but I could not fit it on the scale. So, who knows if I went over 100lbs or not. Honestly, I would like to fit more into the bag. With all of this being said, I see how that is pretty materialistic.

I spend my days basking in the sunlight, going to the gym,cooking, and worrying about what to expect in Kyrgyzstan. So, I am trying not to have expectations. I cannot think of very many instances in life where I would have no expectations to what a situation might be like. I have expectations for everything here it seems. I grew up here. This adventure is a prime example in the making. Now I know what it feels like to not expect. So, there you have another expectation of traveling-- to expect nothing, which is an expectation for the next time I travel.