It has been a hectic two weeks, on every front.
At home…
The transition of the new keilinchak (daughter-in-law) into the household has been nothing less than disastrous. There is a lot of fighting, crying, complaining, pleeding, followed by quiet resignation – on the part of everyone in the family, including me. On top of the personal trauma, the entire house is being painted. Unfortunately, the sought after rejuvenation of the house is masked by rapid decay of the peace and tranquility I once enjoyed. And previously manageable little annoyances like flies, mosquitoes, loud radios, the pit (still not used to it), and drunk uncles, contribute to an irrepressible urge to get the %@$! out of there.
…and my prayers have been answered. For a month starting this Friday, I have been asked to house-sit for the director of an American NGO here in Andijon. He and his family are escaping the 95+ summer scorch and going back to the states for vacation. So between house-sitting, more training in Tashkent in mid-July, and working at a summer camp with my NGO in Kyrgyztan in early August, I will be out of the fray for seven weeks! Thanks to that guardian angle who always comes to my rescue.
At work…
Work has really picked up, starting with two trips out to the field last week. First trip was to assess the community’s need and desire to continue the cross-boarder sports programs and tournaments. It was great to receive such energy and enthusiasm from the people, particular from the women who want to expand their volleyball league into other communities. We will be working with our funder to procure equipment and possibly money from major corporations like Nike. The second trip was with the director of USAID for Central Asia to review our community programs. As it always is with high-level delegations, the visit was punchy, to the point, and too brief for the locals to understand why Americans don’t even have ten minutes to sit down for a plate of Osh that took them half a day to prepare. I wondered that myself and decided that I do not aspire to such a high position.
Great news is our bank accounts are now open so all programs will proceed apace, starting with our camp. Next, we will be filming of a documentary about children with disabilities in Andijon to be aired on local television on 1st September. It will be part of a public awareness campaign as well as a fundraising effort for the children’s homes and schools. Concurrently, we will also be conducting leadership training seminars for women around the region. Out of the training we will designate community leaders throughout the 14 districts of Andijon who can coordinate community programs for us in the future.
I am also working on creating a guide to resources for NGOs in Uzbekistan. There is a lot of information out there that is useful but it is often difficult to unravel the who’s who throughout the global funding community. I am working with a local Uzbek volunteer to create this and she will help to the transfer knowledge to my co-workers so that they can learn how to conduct research for funding on the internet, etc., and also have a resource they can use after I’m gone. The bigger idea is to, hopefully, take this to other NGOs so it can help them as well.
I also managed to get a TEFL Peace Corps volunteer to come and teach English to my colleagues twice a week. This will help to build their capacity to work with foreign donors, share ideas, write proposals, find funding, etc. Big goals and we’re starting small, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.
Personal…
I have been doing really well, despite the day-to-day hassles of Uzbek living. Got to spend time with a good friend/fellow PCV who was in town training election observers, been receiving generous packages, still doing yoga twice a day…its all good, although I did get attacked by a Rottweiler and managed to escape with only superficial scrape wounds. (Don’t worry, Mom!)
I’m mostly bogged down with ideas of things that I want to do in my service that can help the people – from looking in to solar power and green houses for farmers, to designing a fly-cover for food as a possible cottage industry for rural villagers to make, to outlining a talk for kids about volunteerism, NGOs, and their role in society. The latest idea has to do with making ping pong tables which I won’t get into now. And as silly or far fetched as some of these ideas may be…I’m willing to come up with a thousand bad ideas in order to make just one good one happen.
Until next time…peace.
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