August 22, 2002
Kibray, Uzbekistan

 

Uzbek clowns and free watermelons


Assalom Alaikum,

Greetings (again!) from Uzbekistan. I have been here for about seven days, and I am slowly getting back into the Uzbek swing of things. I don't have much to write about yet, but I since I was going to be in Tashkent today, I decided to send a short note just to say that I arrived safely and am doing well.

There are 50 trainees in the Uzbek-14 group. (We are really the 13th group of volunteers to serve here, but they skipped 13 because of superstitions). Six of us were here last year; four of us were Uzbek-12s (myself, Jordan Earl, Nate Hersh, Carlo Boehm) and the other two were Uzbek-10s (Salissa Wahlers, Stephanie Tomlin). It was very comforting to show up in Washington and learn that I wasn‚t the only one who decided to come back. The new people seem nice too.

We've been staying at a sanitorium in Kibray, a small town about 40 minutes outside of Tashkent and right next to Chirchiq, where I'll be living for most of training. A sanitorium is a health resort-type of compound. They are found all over the former Soviet Union. This one is a fertility clinic. We‚ll be here until the end of next week, when we move in with our host families. I will be returning to the same family that hosted me last year. I'm very excited about that. The homestay coordinator told me my family found out I was coming back and basically demanded that I return to live with them. Also at the end of next week, we will be assigned our permanent sites. I requested a small village, but I don't know what I'll get.

Last night, there was a circus here at the sanitorium. There were only four performers (a father, his two sons, and a little kid) but it was very entertaining. The father, a jolly Uzbek man with a big, round belly, was a strongman. He lifted many heavy weights with his pinkie fingers and his teeth. His sons played music, clowned around, ate fire and knives, and did acrobatics. I never thought I'd see an Uzbek circus, but it was a lot of fun. I've heard rumors about a really nice circus in Tashkent. I'll have to check it out some time.

I was with some other Americans and our language teacher in Kibray today, and we passed a watermelon vendor on the street. He started yelling in our direction and pointing at his watermelons. Naturally, I figured he wanted to sell us watermelons. So I ignored him and kept walking. After we had passed his shop, he grabbed a watermelon and followed us. He shoved the watermelon into my hands saying "no money, no money!" in Uzbek. So I got a free watermelon. I wondered why he gave it to me specifically. My teacher said it was because Uzbeks love Indian movies. I look Indian, so I got a free watermelon. This place isn't so bad!.

I've been hitting the Uzbek books pretty hard since I've been here, and the language is slowly coming back to me. The transition from intensive advanced Arabic to intensive beginning Uzbek was a bit challenging. My mind is still thinking mostly in Arabic, but I can feel the transition happening. I'm learning to resist the urge to speak Arabic every time I open my mouth, but little words still come out here and there. I am in class with the other former Uzbek-12s, and we're mainly focusing on reviewing and remembering everything we learned last year. I had forgotten how it feels to be at the beginning stages of a language. But judging from last year, I expect my Uzbek to improve drastically once '‚m living with my host family.

Regarding our evacuation: This week, we heard from two different U.S. Embassy officials(the Deputy Chief of Mission and the security officer) that our evacuation was unnecessary. Both men said the embassy was extremely opposed to PC's evacuation and even protested the move. Both men as well as our new country director said overwhelming parental pressure in the states led to our evacuation. Parents called senators, senators called PC, and PC left Central Asia. Embassy officials never left and never felt unsafe. Hearing all of this twice in the same week was a bit upsetting. But '‚m trying not to dwell on the past. I'm here now, and it's a new beginning.

I' m doing very well so far, and I'm very happy and very excited to be back here. At the moment, I am just waiting to return to my host family. That's when all the fun stuff will begin. If you're wondering, my health has been pretty good so far. I had a nasty reaction to a spider bite a few days ago, but a couple days on benadryl cleared it up quickly. The benadryl also helped me sleep through the night and get over jet lag. No giardia yet!

That's all for now. I'll write more when things get interesting.

Peace & Blessings,
Sofia

P.S. Send letters and let me know how you are doing!!

 

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