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One Last Goodbye

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Salut, I think I ended up delaying this post further than I should have, but to be honest, coming back was harder than I thought it would be. Goodbyes are hard. I have never been good at saying it, and despite the Peace Corps even doing a session on how best to say goodbye to our communities and villages, it still didn’t hit me fully. I kept delaying it and putting it off, intending to release it at the end of July, but then time seemed to slip away. Everyone in my cohort, K-29, who is not extending and staying another year, has finished their service and left their village. Emotions and the finality of everything can feel like a tidal wave. So much has changed since June 2023, when I first departed. Yet, in some ways, nothing has changed at all. Peace Corps staff in Kyrgyzstan have undergone numerous changes and reassignments, particularly among the American staff. In some ways, it made it feel chaotic. As I left and as I have reflected, there are so many things that can affect your ...
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On the Well-worn Paths

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Salut, I didn’t expect the last few weeks to at once feel so busy but also so empty. I often have lamented at how much extra free time I have, as opposed to being out and about. I certainly didn’t have that problem this time around. I remember June of last year and feeling that sense of emptiness. A sort of nothingness creeping up due to the end of the school year. At the beginning of June last year, I was visited by Bhaavya and we went on a grand tour around Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. I haven’t embarked on something quite like that, but the house is always busy.  Immediately after school and graduation ended, the teachers and I were invited to a large wedding. Aldoberdi’s (the chemistry teacher) son was getting married. All the weddings I have been to have been because I know the groom’s family, which I find a bit of a coincidence. Baktygul was unable to come, as her husband hadn’t given her permission, which is point blank what I told the other teachers when they asked her wherea...
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The Final Bell

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Salut,  Just like that, school is over. All the lessons and schedules and freakouts, chaotic messes, garden clean-ups, snow days, all is over. It feels strange and maybe not fully sunk in. 4 volunteers in our cohort are extending their service, and 19 are from K-30, last year's new cohort. I suppose I should just say it now, but Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan has canceled this year's cohort. No new volunteers will be arriving. As I implied in my last blog post, Peace Corps has been trying to cut and trim due to budget cuts from the top, and I heard from various staff members about the ways they were going to accommodate K31. Clearly, with difficulty.  Proposals to move our weekly Hub Days during training to the main Peace Corps office, and proposals to eliminate the Ashu House orientation, among other things. I discussed in the first few blog posts how these affected my service. It's like I said , my cohort seems to have been lucky to have the most normal and fluid service ...
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