The Big Green!

It’s been concourse time again! This concourse—in honor of St. Patrick’s Day—was a special one, not only because it was the largest one to date (8 volunteer schools participated, with about 50 students and 14 volunteers attending), but because we hosted it here in Jon-Aryk! My girls were so excited to be the hosts, and they were terrific ones. They caught on impressively quickly to the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, and from the first discussion we had about the concourse back in January, were already planning how to decorate our auditorium! In fact, for a few weeks there, they almost seemed more excited about the decorations than about actually preparing for the competition :-). I had to gently help them refocus their energies on writing and practicing a skit before I let them think about decorating again :-).

I must say that while the concourse itself was a great success, hosting it created a lot more work than usual for my girls and I, especially this last week. In addition to preparing ourselves for the competition for the last 2 months, we spent hours and hours cutting out hundreds of shamrocks, pots of gold, and leprechaun footprints; baking 200 shamrock cookies (thanks to the cookie cutters, food coloring, and sprinkles Mom sent); and the Friday before the concourse, we stayed at school until 6pm decorating (many decorations also thanks to Mom) and cleaning. By the time concourse day arrived, I was already beat! But like I said, my girls were excellent hosts. In addition to the amazing decorating job they did, they’d also prepared cards and gifts for each volunteer, welcoming them to our school. They certainly went over the top (as they always do) to make everyone feel welcome in Jon-Aryk!

The concourse began by breaking the students up into mixed teams so they could get to know people from other schools. We played a Jeopardy-type trivia game as a crowd-breaker, and then we sent everyone out on a Treasure Hunt! Chris has prepared clues that led the students all over the village in search of the Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow. The idea was inspired by the treasure hunts Dad used to send Suzanne & I on each St. Patrick’s Day when we were growing up. Then after lunch was the main event: skits. The theme this time was “catching a leprechaun.” Each school had to make a trap and incorporate it into their skit. My girls were the first to perform and created a lot of laughs with their story involving a giant magnifying glass, 2 young girls, 2 drunk men, 2 leprechauns, and jokes about being in love with one of the new volunteers, “Mr. Joe” (on whom most of my girls have had a crush since they met him at Halloween). It was quite hilarious. I took a video of the whole thing, which I can’t post here, but you’ll have to see it when I get home! Because the exciting news is that this was the skit that won my girls their first First Place at a concourse! I can’t contain my pride and love for my girls, who have worked so incredibly hard and come such a long way since their first concourse a year ago, when they placed 4th out of 5. To contrast the two competitions, you just would never know they were the same students. To go from 4th place to 2nd place (at Halloween) and then to win at our own school has been such a gratifying journey. These girls are some of the brightest, sweetest, hardest working students I have ever met (even in America), and they truly deserved this win.

After the skits, we had some fun outside playing potato games (perhaps a bit of a stretch connecting it to St. Patrick’s Day, but fun nonetheless!). The students competed in three relay races: first, carrying a potato across the field on a spoon, then passing a potato from neck to neck without using hands, and finally, potato sack races! It was a blast! At the end, all the volunteers humored our students by doing our own spoon and potato sack races. It’s hard to describe the feeling, but as we were jumping around in potato sacks, laughing our heads off, with students surrounding us, cheering us on, and loving every minute, I just thought—These are the moments when I love being here, in Kyrgyzstan, doing this volunteer thing. These are the moments when it’s all worth it.

So the concourse went off, with plenty of hitches (who are we kidding? This is Kyrgyzstan!), but it was great fun for all involved. And now it’s finally over!! No more preparations—woohoo! That is a relief, and now it’s nearly spring break and I’m taking a vacation! On Friday, I’m going down south to Osh and Jalalabad for a desperately needed week out of the village. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!

Mixing the cookie dough! It was so much more fun doing this as a big group--they loved it!

My girls had never seen cookie cutters before, so they had a blast! Kyrgyz people don't make cookies. One things I've learned is that they aren't big dessert people. They'll buy cookies or a cake at the bazaar, but no one makes their own.

Cookies! All the Kyrgyz people who saw us making them (we did it at the kitchen at school) just couldn't understand why they were GREEN! Who would want to eat GREEN cookies??

Decorating the Friday before the concourse.

It's hard to show just how great the auditorium looked after it was all decorated, but this is one view...

Baktigul and Magira in the leprechaun hats they made themselves! My girls are so creative!

Aizada competing in the potato sack race!

Our post-win pic. Me, my girls, and--of course--Mr. Joe

(In Kyrgyzstan, they always address teachers and elders with the Kyrgyz equivalent of "Miss" or "Mr." and then the first name. For example, my name here is Miss Liza. Thus, "Mr. Joe.")