Wanderlustress

Stunning

We arrived in the mountains to find a perfect crisp fall and foliage at it's peak. It could not be more perfect for our wedding. See more pics from our hike this morning...

Wedding week begins...

We're heading up to the mountains today to kick off wedding week! GBH's mom says its so beautiful up there right now, she can hardly drive. My mom arrives tomorrow, with huge family and friends contingents arriving Thursday and Friday. The weather has been and promises to be gorgeous. Details have settled into place, ready to be forgotten. Focus is now on all the wonderful people who can be with us for our special day, and those who can't are in our hearts.

Keepsakes

Yesterday I spent 12 hours sewing x-tra lace from my wedding dress into a monogram-pillow for a friend of mine. She's quite special because she will be spending 15+ hours on a plane to be with us for our wedding. Long-lasting friends deserve long-lasting keepsakes.

Stitching away for hours gave me a lot of time to think, and one of those thoughts turned to my host-sister's cousin in Uzbekistan. She is great with a needle and thread and made traditional Uzbek souvenirs for me to take home. Here are some of her creations (tea cozy, apron, and cloth fan), and below that, one of my own...

Command Center

It's been a full-time job over the past few months planning our wedding. Luckily, we've had the time to do a lot of it ourselves. In some ways, what we learned in Peace Corps was that you CAN do a lot yourself in many things, that life IS simpler than succumbing to the commercial, reach-in-your-pocket-consumer society that overwhelms a lot of our minds. And when you do it yourself, there is not only the pride, but also a satisfaction in the results being what you wanted and entirely your own. The scarcity in everyday life in Uzbekistan forced us to be more creative than normal, a lot of make-shift this and that.

This has been our wedding command center: brainstorming, writing emails, researching everything, sending and receiving pictures of ideas, a lot of bow-tying, present wrapping, stuff-stuffing, seating plan shifting, wedding vow writing, and a lot of peeking over our computers looking at each other asking, "And what about.....?" "Did you.....?" "Why are we....." "How much.....?" "Who.....?" "When.....?" (You can fill in the blanks with about a million and one things!)

10 days to go...

...and I dared to get my hair cut before the wedding! The jury is still out on my new do, but what is for certain as GBH and I work on writing our vows is that its not about the hair. I feel very grounded - between my relationship and my environment at this point in my life, there is a certainty about life...come what may.

I have really enjoyed being in Colorado, and living in Denver in particular. People seem happy to be here, comfortable in their own skin, and taking advantage of the life-style. I have yet to meet a person who wants to leave, which I find unusual. In every other city I've been in, people always seem restless to leave.

The American Red Cross is pursuing its largest volunteer drive in the history of the organization. I went to download the Denver chapter's volunteer form so I can help out after the wedding is over only to find a notice saying that Denver has over 8,000 volunteers offering their services, and no more volunteers are needed! The community spirit is impressive and I'm glad to be surrounded by it. For me, life after Peace Corps has to be among a community of people who care...and I seem to have found it.

Uz in the news...

...and it isn't always good. This is the only account I've read about a new requirement that all visitors to Uzbekistan must have a manditory medical examination upon entry. Scary. I see this as another way for them to make up an excuse to arrest people. There hasn't been any published reports that I've seen about a particular medical concern warranting these exams.

"Welcome to Uzbekistan, please bend over!"

At least the world hasn't completely forgotten...here's an update on the Andijon refugees in Romania and their account of the May '05 atrocities, in The Guardian.

The Cook

The one thing I hate most is racism. Personally, I get hit with employment distinction by skin color. When I'm in Asia, as a darker-skinned Southeast Asian I'm right up there with maids and prostitutes. I would always get an extra search while travelling for business in places like Japan and Korea. I have numerous accounts which make me too angry to recall, but the most interesting and sadly funny incident occured just the other day...

I was in the Colorado mountains located in a particularly wealthy resort area, enjoying the outdoors with the family lab, Willie. A little Mexican girl no more than 8 years old who came up from Mexico City and is raised by a nanny joins me to play with the dog. How nice, I thought. She looked up at me and asked, "Are you taking care of Willie?" I was puzzled and said, yes. She replied, "Why, are Willie's parents away somewhere?" Still puzzled I said, no they're here. Then she looked at me with a very assured expression and said, "Then you must be the cook!"

I should have just left it at dog sitter.

Perspective

An Uzbek friend of mine from Andijon now studying at a university in the mid-west gave me some of her views on American life. It is always interesting to be on the receiving end of cultural judgment, which is why I've enjoyed having friends from all over the world.

In Uzbekistan, whenever you order a salad, it mostly comes Russian-style - few vegetables mixed with a lot of mayonnaise. Lettuce is almost unheard of. In America, my Uzbek friend says, "Your salads have too much green stuff in them!"

In Uzbekistan these days...
- Americans are pulling out of the military base after the Uzbek government demanded its withdrawal earlier this year
- Freedom of speech deteriorates as an international media development organization, Internews Agency has been ordered to leave the country
- More NGO's come under pressure as the latest casualty falls - IREX operations have been suspended
- Trials for those arrested in connection with the Andijon uprisings are about to begin
- Andijon refugees sent to Romania will receive English language training by former Uzbek-speaking PCVs
- A state of paranoia continues for Uzbek citizens as the National Security Service investigates further arrests

...and I received an offer of condolences for our hurricane Katrina devastation from a friend in the Ferghana Valley. I guess if he started listing all that is wrong with America, condolences are indeed, warranted.

I'm back...

After getting back to America, daily life in America seemed too mundane to continue blogging. And the sting of having been censored during the Andijon incident left a mark about the responsibilities inherent in publishing anything to the general public, albeit unofficially. Sharing facts and opinions come with risks beyond the personal that I was not prepare to handle. More than that, I could not reconcile losing the principals of free speech, exchanging my constitutional rights for the responsibility suddenly thrust upon me...

Having said that, post-Peace Corps life may not be of the most exotic variety, but it has been the most exciting time in my life! In between getting engaged, wedding planning, getting an apartment, looking for a job, wedding planning, wedding planning, buying furniture, wedding planning, and wedding planning...I do often think about Uzbekistan. I think about what's happening now, the people there, what has transpired, and tiny remnants of reflection enter my mind.

And so I'm back.