Or at least something like that was what I was told and I think it means “happy new year!” (I hope anyway, people could have been saying that I smelled like sheep urine, or worse.) This was an interesting new year, but only one to be expected around here. Let me begin a few days earlier. On the 30th I met one of the local pastors around here who does everything: church planting, spreading the news along with running a small orphanage and supporting the family with raising sheep and cattle; needless to say he is one of those few that you meet once in a lifetime and you know you’re in the presence of greatness; he is one for whom it is written “in those days there were giants in the land”. I caught a fever later that night nothing ravaging, but something that temporarily laid me out so I slept in until noon on the 31st. We then went for an earlier meal at a local restaurant that began to play techno 80’s/90’s music with Billy Joel (interesting). New Year is a big holiday here since for the most part they do not celebrate Christmas; everything shuts down even the restaurants and small family stores and everyone stays home to spend time with family and friends. Then at midnight the restaurants that double as a disco open and everyone parties till they drop, but the team and I had a different plan. Being the outdoors people we are, we took a hike into the local foothills (with a nice foot of snow) to watch the New Year roll in. it was beautiful! Fireworks everywhere lighting up the city below; serious Disneyland fireworks can be bought off the street for a few bucks (since china is so close), and of course we had our own with a little champagne. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
The next day I was awakened by a certain Finnish friend jumping on me and cajoling me into going to the bazaar to buy groceries for the night’s dinner with her; I gave in pretty easy. I’ve never seen the bazaar in the state that it was; it might as well have had some tumble weeds blowing through. There was hardly anyone there which is in quite contrast to the way it usually is jostling with life and color, walking shoulder to shoulder and having someone shove some random piece of sheep meat in my face (on one occasion the meat cart was being pushed by with the meat steaming in the cold Kyrgyz air meaning a fresh kill). There were in fact only a few people at the bazaar: one tried to sell us meat out of the trunk of her car (black market meat?) and the other was selling produce out of the back of their car; we figured black market produce was safer so we thought we’d go meatless for the night’s meal. After making prep for the meal we decided to go for a hike and some snowboarding. Yes, that’s right I did mention the 12-16” of fresh snow that we got and the fact that we brought 5 boards with us? Well, we did. Snowboarding is actually part of the outreach we do here and we were able to begin last week when the snow fall gave us enough coverage. Most of the time we begin walking to the mountains everyone knows what we’re doing and children start following and last week I found myself giving snowboarding lessons when I looked downhill and saw men leading a cow down the street (that’s really not something you see everyday snowboarding). They also have small graveyards in the hills that are really cool to ride past too (they would make a great photo shoot). However on this day (January 1st), as we walked into the hills a family was having a holiday gathering around a bonfire and invited into the circle when they saw us. Before I realized it vodka a forced into my hand followed by all the men saying “salaam gorum” and making drinking motions; I didn’t want to insult so I accepted the hospitality chased with a local delicacy being shoved in my face. So I ate that too, which if not for the rubbing alcohol taste left in my mouth would have otherwise made me gag. You see what I swallowed was gelatinized sheep fat with spices [can you say mmm?]; and if you’ve had menudo before and put the leftovers in the fridge, well it tastes like that disgusting looking layer of jello fat that floats on the top. Yuck!
Well, what else are we doing here? To be honest that’s a question that I often find myself asking on a daily basis. A great deal of the work is inviting nationals to dinner and meeting and building relationship from there, but often that just doesn’t seem like enough. One of the big things that we were going to do fell through and that was working with the orphanage; we were able to visit and work with the children a few times until I went there one day last week only to find dead silence and no children. The next day I went with a translator to discover that because of the local energy crisis the children had been sent to a warmer city and not to return until march, bummer. The highlight of today was taking a marshooka ride. A marshooka is an 8 passenger van that the city uses like a shuttle and during “rush hour” I counted 23 people in one ride that I took. Yes, that’s right: people sitting on laps and butts in the face, but its all normal for the locals. My friends and I had a blast laughing at each other; oh by the way, the marshooka’s have this permanent cigarette and vodka smell in them and there’s almost always one drunk riding that always finds his way next to my friend James. Funny thing that I’ve recently observed about intoxication: it’s a helpful translator for any language. Ya, I’ve had deep conversations with inebriated individuals that ranged from Russian occupation to free dentistry and gold teeth to my beard and marital status. Really, one of the best parts of my day. The second would be a drunken 55 year old woman that had me and Leena dance with her during dinner tonight. We were eating at one of those restaurants that turned into a disco with booming techno music halfway through our meal, but it was fun and man that drunk lady could move.
I know I joke a lot on this blog, but please don’t take me lightly. I take seriously what I’m doing here and struggling for purpose is something I do and will continue to do daily. My frustrations with the leadership on this team are at a boiling point: organization and communication are inadequate and poor. Ministry and work should have been pre-arranged and ready for us to jump into, but it hasn’t been and I’m finding that I have had to go out and set things up for myself to do so I don’t rot weeks of my life away here, which is fine but I was put under the impression that things were laid out for us. I mean, this place is nice and great to visit but the magic wears after ten days of going to the bazaar to buy food and then cooking for 15-17 people. So I’ve arranged to meet with people from the Peace Corps later this week along with some locals to see how myself and the team can get plugged in. please, pray for open doors and work!!! Salaam to everyone from Kyrgyzstan!
PS. Merry Christmas too! Ours was great I helped make a 4 course meal that included a huge leg of lamb. Peace.