It’s been almost 6 months since Danny left for Kyrgyzstan
and over 5 months since we have heard his voice. Although we text every few
days, conversations are usually short due to limited Internet access. Danny’s
village has no wifi and so he must rely on 2g data. The internet is slow and
goes in and out.
Our lucky day today! Danny is in the town of Kerben today for a conference
and he has wifi. Lucky for us, our stars connected and we were able to talk to him for almost 2 hours.
Danny’s host parents are 50 and 54 with six children, a
married daughter with children living in Jalal- Abad City about 5 hours away, a
married son with children living in Bishkek, a son working in Russia, an 18
year old daughter attending university in Bishkek, a 22- year-old son living at
home and working on the family farm and a 9-year old living at home and a
student of Danny’s.
Danny’s host parents are practicing Muslims with Host dad
praying on his mat about five times a day. Host grandma carries a strand of Muslim
prayer beads in her pocket. Host dad is probably the most religious person
amongst his friends, encouraging his friends and children to read the prayer
book and avoid alcohol. Host mom is spoiling Danny. He no longer does his own laundry
as host mom does laundry for the ‘entire household’.
Danny does not socialize with the young men in his village as they sit around and drink vodka. Their only 'job' especially in the winter is letting the animals out in the early morning and herding the animals back in at dusk. He prefers socializing with his co-workers or the elders in the village. Young people with ambition leaves the village and
attend university in the bigger cities or find work in Russian or Turkey.
The village has a population of about 50 families. Danny’s
school is in the next village, across the river, about a 15-minute walk from
home. (Danny is thinking about buying a mule to ride to school. It only cost
about &1000.00 som. ) The school services students from the surrounding
five small villages. Since the 5th graders are participating in a
pilot program that offers daily English lessons, they are the fastest learner of the English language.
All the other grades have English lessons only twice a week.
For the most part, Danny enjoys teaching. The girls are very
interested in learning, while the boys just want to play. Danny’s Kyrgyz
counterpart speaks limited English even though she is the ‘English’ teacher making is a bit more challenging to teach.
Host dad's goal for Danny is to learn how to slaughter a
sheep/goat before he completes his PC commitment. Host brother is able to
slaughter a goat in 15 minutes. While eating mutton is 'ok', Danny does enjoy eating horse meat.
Aside from missing food variety and daily showers, Danny has
adjusted to village life. He enjoys the clean air, beautiful mountains, and
picturesque sceneries. The ‘bigger cities’ are polluted with burning coal
making the sky dreary and grey. Although coal is also burn in the village, an
advantage is being situated up on the mountains which helps keep the air clean.
