This week I had the adventure of travelling to Bazarkargon, a village near the major city of Jalalabad, in the south of Kyrgyzstan, to visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer. It would take about 45 minutes to fly from Bishkek to Jalalabad, but the taxi ride took about 9 hours... The drive goes through the mountains and over some unpaved roads, so it was a crazy ride! Our taxi driver was nice, but a bit reckless, as most taxi drivers are. Anyone who's driven in a foreign country knows what I'm talking about :-). But in the end, after a long day of driving, we arrived in Bazarkargon safely.
I've been having a really good time here with Sua, a fellow trainee, and Holly, the PCV we're visiting. Holly has made us some awesome American food, which has been wonderful! The first night we had pizza, then on Wednesday we had stuffing, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and apple pie (yum!). And last night we had spaghetti, and today I ate a burrito! It doesn't exactly compare to real American food, but it tastes like heaven because it's just so much different from Kyrgyz food (which is generally very good, don't get me wrong). Just a little taste of home...
The visit has been good and very informative. The volunteer we're visiting has actually had to learn Uzbek because she is in a primarily Uzbek village and teaches at an Uzbek school. It's been fun to experience life here, but I really don't want to have to learn Uzbek like she did! We have interviews coming up in the next few weeks where we can request where we'd like to be placed, and so I have a better idea of what I'm going to say in that interview. Of course, I really want to be in a place where I can learn Russian, and it sounds like the north will be more conducive to that. So I'm going to make my preferences very clear to Peace Corps; they said that last year, most people got the place they requested, so the prospects look good. It sounds like they really take your preferences into consideration because they don't want you to ET (Early Terminate), so they want happy volunteers :-).
Just as a side note, I'm sorry I haven't really been able to post any pictures (besides that random one of us at the airport). It's kind of a hassle to do it from the Internet cafe, so I'll do my best in the future, but pictures may not be as frequent. Alright, there's the most recent experience! I head back to Tokmok tomorrow, so pray for a safe trip! :-)
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