The Journey to a English Resource Center

    This past month my village and I reached a significant Peace Corps achievement…we completed our first grant project! My village, counterpart, and I have been working tirelessly for the past 9 months on this and I’m happy to announce that our new English Resource Center at my school has officially opened! We took a previously empty corridor and turned it into a new English classroom equipped with new technology, custom furniture, and a mural designed and painted by students. 

     This process began in February of this year when my counterpart and I decided we wanted to conduct a project at our school. Although most volunteer choose to write grant and complete projects, it’s not required by Peace Corps and it is up to each volunteer and their community to decide. From the beginning, my counterpart and community have shown significant desire to do one. The previous volunteer in my village (who served over 20 years ago) did one that built the fence around our school, and it is still talked about to this day (along with other not so great stuff she did that will remain nameless…) My counterpart and I began by hosting a meeting with our school and community leaders where we identified the most significant needs in our village. Although we came up with several ideas, the one that received the most support was to address the lack of space at my school. For reference, my school was built over 40 years ago for 250 students, and we now currently have over 1000 students. My first year our English classroom could barely fit 12 students and it was frequently used by other subjects and teachers due to lack of available rooms. To say this made teaching lessons and hosting clubs difficult would be an understatement. As a result, at the end of this meeting my community agreed that our first grant priority should be to create a space dedicated to English learning. 

The Empty Space of our Soon-To-Be English Classroom

     After this meeting, my counterpart and I attended a three-day Peace Corps training in Bishkek where we learned how to write grant proposals and implement projects. With this training, my counterpart and I constructed our final idea for the project. We would turn an empty corridor in our school into a new English classroom (aka the English Resource Center). This included constructing the walls, furnishing it, and supplying it. Another need my community addressed was the lack of teaching materials. During my first year, we did not have access to a printer, projector, or laptop. With the amount of teaching materials that would be available if we had these things, my counterpart and I decided we would write these into our project as well. 

My Counterpart and I at Training

     Using what we learned from training and what our community wanted, my counterpart and I then worked together to write our grant proposal. During this process, I focused on writing most of the application components addressing community needs, our implementation plans, and how we will monitor the success of the project. Meanwhile, my counterpart primarily worked on creating the budget for each item we would need and securing our community contribution. A huge aspect of Peace Corps projects is the emphasis on that it should be a partnership between the volunteer and the community. With that, the community is required to provide 25% of the total grant funding. However, it does have to come directly through monetary donations. Instead the community can donate materials and labor as well. My community ended up fulfilling their 25% through labor and material donation, funds from the village government, and a donation from a retired English teacher’s daughter. 

     After submitting our grant application, it was approved by Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan and Headquarters and then published on the Peace Corps website to gain funding (aka the equivalent of GoFundMe). There are Peace Corps grants that you can complete without fundraising, but due to timing I decided to apply for the grant that required fundraising. Lucky for me, I have the most supportive group of people in the world who were more than willing to support my community and our dreams. I allegedly set the unofficial Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan record for the quickest volunteer to fundraise all of their grant money (a little under $4000 in 36 hours.) Let’s just say my days of Girl Scouts, high school sports, and sorority philanthropy fundraising prepared me well for this. With this, I cannot thank every person who donated enough! None of this would have been possible without your support and it means the world to me and my community. 

     Once we had received our grant funds, my counterpart and I started by contracting two local businesses from my village to build the walls and furniture for the room. One of our goals for this classroom is to promote English conversation, so when we designed the desks, my counterpart and I chose to have four large round tables made, instead of traditional desks, in order to promote conversation. I know it seems like a trivial detail, but it is another way we were able to make this classroom our own. From there, we purchased the rest of the items needed, including a laptop, printer, projector, laminator, and a double-sided whiteboard/chalkboard.

     Perhaps the thing I am most proud of about this project is the mural that was created in the classroom. When designing this project, I wanted to find a way for students to be involved in the process. I proposed that we hold a contest between students to design a mural that demonstrates the friendship between Kyrgyzstan and America that came together for this classroom. After receiving all the submissions, the teachers would vote on the best design and the winner would get to paint their mural in the room for all to see for years to come. In the end, we had over twenty submissions and ended up merging two students’ ideas to create the final design. The designs came from one of my ninth graders and one of my seventh graders. This mural was particularly special for my ninth grade student as she has always talked about and dreamed of being an artist. Throughout the entire process she kept telling me how this was her very first piece of commissioned art and she cannot wait to use it in her portfolio for her future career. In the end the two winners and a third student spent about a week painting the mural which features the Kyrgyz landscape (mountains, trees, a river), a traditional Kyrgyz yurt, the Kyrgyz and USA flags as kites, and a globe featuring the USA and Kyrgyzstan. I’ve attached photos of the mural below, and even though the picture looks incredible, it does not do it justice. The amount of detail, love, and attention that were put into this mural was off the charts and I think this will always be one of the proudest moments of my entire service.

The Process 

The Completed Mural

     After the room was completed, a training was held with the English teachers at my school to show them how to use all of the new equipment and technology in the room. We then had an opening ceremony that featured school officials, representatives from the village government, and Peace Corps to commemorate the moment. Since opening, we have seen an increased interest in English in our school. Now, every student wants to spend time in the classroom, take books from our new English library we created, and attend any and all English events possible. We have also started using the classroom to host trainings and talking clubs for English teachers in my surrounding area. I am excited to see how this classroom continues to impact my students and school during the rest of my service and for years to come.

The Completed Room

 

Opening Ceremony 

     Once again, I cannot thank everyone who has been a part of this project enough. Whether it was through donations, social media support, or messages of well-wishes, I am very grateful for y’all. Additionally, this would not have been possible without the support and hard work of my counterpart and community. I had only a small part of this entire process and I am excited for the work that will continue to be done during my last eight months of service.

Mom in Kyrgyzstan

If the title of this post didn’t give it away…my mom came to Kyrgyzstan! She was here for about  a week and experienced every aspect of my daily life in Kyrgyzstan (including the outhouse - RIP her phone). Here’s a recap of everything we got up to during her time.

After 36 hours of travel, she landed in Bishkek where I attempted to meet her as she exited the airport. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the airport had two exits so I may or may not have been standing at the wrong one…but it’s okay because we found each other eventually. In Bishkek, we spent time going to Osh Bazaar, visited the Kyrgyz National Museum, and saw the general sites. We also watched my favorite Kyrgyz movie, “Queen of the Mountains”, which details the life of Kurmanjan Datka (aka the Queen of the South) who is the most famous women in Kyrgyz history and largely credited with uniting Southern Kyrgyzstan when they were annexed by Russia. There’s two reasons I love this movie: 1. There’s a version with English subtitles on YouTube and 2. She lived during a time where it was rare for women to be in power, so for her to be regarded so highly speaks to the monumental impact she has had. Also, she’s one of the only women well known in Kyrgyz history and her story deserves to be heard. I’ll include a link to the movie on YouTube for anyone interested in watching.

 Kurmanjan Datka with english subtitlesYouTube · Aitysh FilmSep 4, 2016

We had lunch with my Kyrgyz/Russian teacher who lives in Bishkek and another volunteer who lives in the area. My teacher (who speaks better English than me and has famously taught me English words) has always reminded me of my mom and I had no doubt they would hit it off. Turns out I was right and we spent hours talking about how every person in the world is Kyrgyz (true) and how if I chose to put effort into learning Russian I’d speak much better Russian (also true.) 

Ala-Too Square in Bishkek 

Finally, we also met up with my host sister! She just moved to Bishkek to start her first year of university and is studying International Business and Chinese. We ate at a traditional Kyrgyz restaurant, because my sister wanted to give my mom a “Kyrgyz Style” experience (her words, not mine.) During my service, my host sister is who I’ve become the closest to and when she’s at home we do everything together. My host mom has taken to calling us twins and after spending one dinner together, my mom also agreed. 

After a brief stint in Bishkek, we headed to my site where my mom met my host family, school, and almost the entire village. My mom visited all my classes where I bribed students with Hersheys to ask her questions in English. Here’s a recap of the most common/best questions asked and highpoint moments:

• “You two look the same” (almost every person said this)
• “You (my mom) look 35” (she’s 56 and now says she’s moving here because everyone says she looks so young)
• Do you like Kyrgyzstan? Yes
• Do you like Kyrgyz food? Yes
• Do you like Kyrgyz people? Yes
• Do you know Mr. Beast? No
• What’s your favorite flower? A rose
• What’s your favorite animal? Dogs
• Can you tell us an awkward story from when Emily was a kid? I played the french horn for three years in middle school
• One of 5th grade girls has been learning to play Komuz (a traditional Kyrgyz instrument) and showed us what she’s been learning
• A third grade boy stopping class to come and show us his best dance move 
• Teaching my 7th graders all of our dogs names (Crush, MJ, Scout, Bergman) and all of them being obsessed with the name Crush and repeating it over and over again

In addition to meeting my students, my mom also met all the teachers at my school, including my director, fellow English teachers, and Kyrgyz tutor. We gave each of them, and countless others, Texas lapel pins, so now my village proudly represents Texas (I’m teaching them “Deep in the Heart of Texas” next.) 

The Arslanbob Small Waterfall

We spent one day going into Jalal Abad city where we met with my Pre-Service Training Kyrgyz teacher and the two other volunteers in my rayon. I also showed her the world-famous (if the world was me) store that just opened in the city and sells Dr. Pepper! For those of you that know me, you know how much of a game changer having weekly access to Dr. Pepper is for me now. 

Throughout the week, my mom also learned how to make several traditional Kyrgyz foods, including manty (dumplings), ash (rice), and lagman (noodles). My host mom also learned how to make banana bread after seeing a video of it on TikTok a few weeks ago. 

Ash, a traditional Kyrgyz dish 

Another day we headed up to Arslanbob (the world's oldest walnut forest) with my host mom and my host mom's sister and brother. In the summer, Arslanbob is full of tourists, Kyrgyz and international alike. However, we went during the middle of walnut harvest season so the town was empty and we didn't see any other tourists except for ourselves. We visited the smaller of two waterfalls because the bigger one was inaccessible due to the road being blocked by snow. At the waterfall, my mom showed my host mom and her sister how to use the panorama feature on your phone to have someone in a photo twice...let's just say they were captivated by it and I'm sure there will be many more photos like that to come (example below). After we returned home, my host mom mentioned how this was the first time she'd been to this waterfall and never would've visited without my mom coming. She then went on to mention how she never could have imagined meeting Americans, much less having the relationship both myself and now my mom have with her. 

Example of a panorama photo taken by my host mom

Speaking of my host mom, I think by far the best and most impactful part of my mom coming to visit was the relationship she made with my host family. My host family has been the best part of my Peace Corps experience and I cannot imagine completing my service with any other family. When my mom came, it solidified just how deep the connection between all of us has become. 

One night, my host mom's entire extended family came to our house to meet her (20+ people). They were worried this would be overwhelming, but it actually feels calmer than most of my family gatherings in America. My host mom is the oldest of five, with three sister sisters and one brother (coincidentally the same as my mom), and since day one they have all accepted me as part of their family. They call me their younger sister and tell people I'm actually biologically related to them, which confuses many. By the end of the night, they said my mom was now also their sister and are already planning a family vacation with my mom to Issyk-Kul next summer. They also told us that they tell everyone they have relatives in Texas and said our families are now officially joined together (so for any of my family reading this, we have new relatives in Kyrgyzstan). By the last night, my host mom was referring to my mom as her "love sister" and saying they are sisters and forever connected. My host mom also told me that since my mom left, they've been WhatsApp-ing and using google translate to send messages back and forth. 

After spending six days at my site, we finally returned to Bishkek to meet up with other volunteers one final time, buy last minute souvenirs for family back home, and mourn the loss of Liam Payne (One Direction Forever <3 ) 

Banana bread made by my mom and host mom 

Now that it's been a couple of days since my mom has left, I think this visit not only showed my mom my new life in Kyrgyzstan, but also let me reflect on the relationships and experiences I've had during the past 16 months. With less than a year left of my service, I've started to plan out my final goals and things to achieve. I've also started to think about when the day to say goodbye comes. I can only imagine how difficult how it will be with my students and host family. I've already started plotting ways to see my host family after my service ends. Until then, I still have 9 months to go and there's no use getting sad about goodbyes now. 

Finally, this blog is dedicated to Liz and Carson who got engaged while my mom was visiting me!! Congratulations to my favorite couple, I can't wait to celebrate y'all so so soon <3 

P.S. This is a shoutout to myself because I translated Kyrgyz/Russian all week for my mom and also her English responses and I think I only mistranslated 5% of the time. Most of those 5% all stem from my mom asking the most difficult questions imaginable (ex. "What's the origin of Kyrgyz language and how did it evolve into what it is today?")

Summer Went Away

Hi everyone, long time no see! I’ve been very busy since my last post and the past three months have literally flown by. Speaking of time flying, I’ve officially started my second year of being a volunteer! It’s crazy to think about the fact that I’m closer to finishing my service than I am to beginning it. 

The school year starts in a couple of days on September 2^nd (it usually starts September 1^st but it’s complicated this year with it being a holiday weekend – independence day is August 31^st). Until then, I thought I’d share this post to catch everyone up on what I’ve done the past three months during my summer holiday. For context, school ended May 25^th and Peace Corps’ only guideline for volunteers is to host camps and clubs, travel, and take time to both decompress from the past year and get ready for the next one.

 

June: 

 

            Honestly this month was not that exciting in terms of things to do, but it was very productive! I conducted English clubs for my school once a week. Each club had about 100 kids across all grade levels come, so it was a lot… One thing I loved about these clubs is that it had a lot of students that I don’t teach that are either in a different class or go to a different school. My rule for clubs is that if students show up interested and ready to learn, I don’t turn anyone away. This definitely got difficult at times like when we fit 40 students in a 15-person classroom. I think both mine and my students favorite club was our friendship bracelet making day. It’s definitely the hardcore Taylor Swift fan in me that loves making friendship bracelets, and I was very excited to share it with my students. My mom sent me a bunch of bracelet making materials (shoutout mom), and my students and I spent hours making hundreds of bracelets in English. With this, I also now have my fair share of friendship bracelets (and rings from the students who didn’t measure correctly). Bonus points: I also made a specially curated only Taylor Swift playlist for this day. My students didn’t really understand it, but they appreciated it nonetheless. 

Friendship bracelet making with my 4th graders.

            In addition to English clubs, I also got in contact with one of the preschools in my village and started teaching 2 hours a week to their 5-year-old classes. With this age, I can’t say they learned much, but we started working on basic greetings, the alphabet, numbers, colors, and body parts. We do all of our learning through songs, dances, and games, and not to brag but it’d be difficult to find any Kyrgyz 5 year olds that know “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” better than my students… Teaching this age made me remember how much I love working with younger kids and it’s something I plan to continue to do during the school year. 

 

            Finally, myself and the two other volunteers in my region hosted six different trainings for the English teachers in our area and the surrounding ones. We taught a variety of topics such as objective writing, lesson planning, and classroom activities. In total, we probably had about one hundred teachers attend, and from the feedback we received, it sounds like they really enjoyed it and learned a lot. 

 

July:

            This was my month of fun and travel. My school and preschool were closed this month for repairs, so my plan all along was to spend July traveling. 

            

            It started with a weekend trip to Sary-Chylek, which is an alpine lake three hours away from my house. This place was by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in Kyrgyzstan, and possibly even the world. Pictures are below but even then, they don’t do this place justice. We spent most of our time swimming and hiking, two things that I’ve been wanting to do for a while, so it was nice to spend a couple days in nature doing things I love. 

 

The summit at Sary-Chylek

     I then went to Issyk-Kul, the largest lake in Kyrgyzstan and one of the most famous tourist destinations here. It’s on the opposite side of the country from where I live, so getting there wasn’t easy, but it was worth it in the long run. I spent some time visiting the city of Karakol, seeing other volunteers, and swimming in the lake. From there, the main reason for my trip was to attend Kol Fest, which is Kyrgyzstan’s first and only music festival located on the lake shore. Our days there were full of music, Kyrgyz cultural demonstrations, and meeting people from all over the world. I thought it was really interesting to meet tourists and hear their stories for how they came to Kyrgyzstan. I guess for me, I’d never heard of Kyrgyzstan before Peace Corps, so I’m always curious to how people end up here. The highlights of the festival include meeting Kyrgyzstan’s best Komyz (traditional Kyrgyz instrument) player (she said if I learned how to play I could perform with her so stay tuned…) and a singer from the UK, Wyldest, who I spent hours talking to on the last day about music, the “gig men”, and the differences between Western and Kyrgyz cultures (if you’re reading this…hi <3). Some other notable moments include: learning to twirl a flaming baton, 150 som hot dogs, and getting to wear themed outfits again (the concert girl in me was alive albeit very briefly).

 

            Immediately after Issyk-Kul, I got on a bus to Almaty, Kazakhstan so I could head to Mongolia!! Almaty tends to have more international flights than Bishkek, so volunteers often bus from Bishkek to Almaty before their flights. From Almaty, myself and three other volunteers flew to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia! 

 

            I didn’t really know what to expect in Mongolia, the only thing I knew about beforehand were the Mongols and two-humped camels. It turns out Mongolia is one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. Mongolia is also a Peace Corps country and former USSR, so in my head I thought it’d be like Kyrgyzstan. In some cases they are very similar. Both countries are traditionally nomad, but based off my experiences, Mongolia still features this tradition more than Kyrgyzstan. We learned during our trip that many families are still nomadic and that students attend boarding school during the school year and meet up with their families during breaks. 

            We spent our first few and last days in the capital of Ulaanbaatar. We visited several museums, including the Mongolian history museum and natural science museum. We also went to several Buddhist monasteries and the North Korean embassy (accidentally). To my surprise, Ulaanbaatar had a lot of Korean influence and restaurants on every corner. While in the capital, I think most of our meals were spent at these places which I can’t complain about. 

            The highlight of the trip was our tour to the Gobi Desert. We took a four-day guided tour to Southern Mongolia to visit the Gobi Desert. We spent our nights in yurts, visited the place where dinosaur eggs were discovered, rode two-humped camels, and climbed to the top of Mongolia’s tallest sand dune. I also ate goat for the first time! If I had to rank it with other animals I’ve eaten, I’d say it goes right after horse but before sheep. 

The peak of the tallest sand dune in Mongolia

A Buddhist Monastery in Ulaanbaatar

 

August:

            After a whirlwind July, my August was much more relaxed. I restarted my English clubs for students and began prepping for the upcoming year. I took a quick long-weekend trip to the capital, Bishkek, to attend the new group of volunteer’s Swearing-In Ceremony. We now have 22 new volunteer English teachers ready to serve all over Kyrgyzstan (Reid’s mom if you’re see this, your son told me you’ve read a lot of my posts so thank you!). I was there to work social media during the ceremony, so I spent my time interviewing our new volunteers and staff members, hosting the Facebook livestream of the ceremony, and dropping the phone with the livestream during the US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan’s speech…

The newest Peace Corps Volunteers in Kyrgyzstan!

That’s the brief-ish recap of my summer! It was a whirlwind three months that definitely went by faster than expected. Going into the summer I was worried I’d be too bored, but in reality, I didn’t have enough time to accomplish everything I wanted. Summer was great, but I’m ready for this school year to get started. Now that I have a year under my belt, I feel much more prepared and ready to make a greater impact this year. With that, I also have several exciting events coming up including my project to build a new English classroom at my school, so stay tuned for that! Thanks for reading and as always make sure you’re folling my Instagram @emilyinkgz .

p.s. let me know if you get the song reference in the title of this post 

Blending Kyrgyz and Korean American Culture

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

For those who don't know me, my maternal grandma immigrated to the United States from South Korea back in 1970. My mom, who was 2 at the time, went with her. Over the next 40 years, she went on to have 4 more children (5 in total - 4 girls and 1 boy), teach herself English, and even earn her American citizenship after 18 years in America. Although she passed away on October 3rd, 2008, her legacy lives on within her own children, 11 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. 

My Grandma, Grandpa, 2 of my cousins, and I when I was a month old

Growing up, elements of Korean culture were infused in every aspect of my life, most predominantly in the food. I can't remember a holiday where we did not eat Korean food. Although we always had the American classics (turkey, mac and cheese, rolls, etc.), Korean classics were also always present (kimchi, bulgogi, galbi, rice, etc...). To me, this was never something that I viewed as out of the ordinary, it was all I'd ever known. However, the older I got, I realized my friends did not share in this experience with their families. It became something to be proud of and I always relished this unique aspect of my identity. 

Another huge part of Korean culture that my grandma imparted on us was the importance of family. Until college, I had never lived more than 15 minutes from the rest of my family. In fact, to this day, the majority of my family all live in one neighborhood. With this, my cousins and I are all more like siblings. We all went to the same schools, in fact, one of my cousins and I were in the same grade, and spent most of our free time together. Two of my cousins and I went through a 2-year phase where we played Monopoly four times a week. Brandon and Caitlyn if you're reading this, just know that as soon as I get back, I'll be back to winning every game. We would also have entire family meals every two weeks growing up, week-long sleepovers at each others' houses in the summer, and went on family vacations together every year. Let me tell you, there's nothing like 20+ family members sharing one house for a week...

Some of the cousins (and "bonus cousins") on a family vacation in 2019

Being Korean American and growing up in this environment has always been an important part of my identity. I always say you don't know me without knowing these things about me. I also take great pride in being the first person to return to Asia since my grandma left Korea. With this, I knew that I wanted to be able to share this part of myself with my community in Kyrygyzstan. 

Most often it comes up when people first meet me, since the first thing Kyrgyz people ask to see are photos of my family. From there the conversation usually leads to me explaining the back story of my grandma and mom moving to America, and ends with me explaining how I am also Korean, despite being from America. To say I've drawn more than a few family trees would be an understatement. Many Kyrgyz people also love to ask what food we eat in America. I take this time to talk about how I grew up eating Korean food and the backstory behind that. The idea of being Korean American is a new concept to most people I meet in Kyrgyzstan, and most meet this new information with many questions and genuine curiosity. This is a story and part of me that I don't think I will ever be tired of sharing. 

In March, I used my week off of school to meet my mom and sister in Seoul, South Korea. This was both my sister and I's first time in Korea, and my mom's first time since moving to America as a child. We spent the week learning more about traditional Korean culture, visiting palaces, and of course enjoying all the food Korea has to offer. We also took a class on how to make Kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish of spicy, pickled cabbage.

Traditional Hanboks 

The finished products of our kimchi class

Upon returning from Korea, I was determined to make Kimchi for my Kyrgyz family. They love spicy food and have always asked me to make them Korean food, so Kimchi is the perfect thing. I have made it twice since returning from Korea, attempting to make it just right. I will say it is more difficult to make in Kyrgyzstan since I can't find all the correct ingredients and have to make substitutions as needed. With it being Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, I thought it would be great to share the recipe for what I call "Kyrgyz Kimchi". 

            Kyrgyz Kimchi

        

 Ingredients Needed: Napa Cabbage, daikon radish, green onion, fish sauce, Korean chili powder, ginger, garlic, salt, sugar, water

           Sidenote: I don't measure anything here, so everything is added to your heart's content!

1. Rinse your cabbage and put salt between each leaf
2. Put the cabbage in a bowl of warm water and salt for 8 hours. Rotate the cabbage every 2 hours.
3. Rinse the cabbage and let it dry for 2 hours
4. Cut the green onions and radsih into small pieces
5. Mix the chili powder, salt, fish sauce, garlic, ginger and sugar to make the sauce 
6. Add the green onions and radish to the sauce
7. Coat each leaf of cabbage with the sauce.
8. Put the cabbage into a jar and put it in your refridgerator
9. Eat within 2 weeks!

And that's it! I always thought Kimchi would be a difficult thing to make. However, it's a lot simpler than I ever anticipated. It's also served as a way to share my culture with my Kyrgyz community. One of the three goals of Peace Corps is to share your own culture with your local community. Like I mentioned before, you don't know me without knowing about the Korean side of me. I take great pride in being able to share my experiences as a Korean American with my community in Kyrgyzstan. 

Bonus picture!! Here's my siblings and I as children wearing traditional Hanboks that our grandma brought us from one of her trips to Korea. Let's just say it's hard to blend in wearing while wearing these in your front yard in Texas for all neighbors to see.

We Love English! - English Week 2024

    The month of February is English Month in Kyrgyzstan! It's supposed to be a month to highlight English learning with open lessons, performances, and a bigger focus on English at school. At my school, although we are celebrating all month, the second week of February specifically is "English Week." With this, we decided to have our English performance on February 14th (aka Valentine's Day) with the theme "We Love English!" Here's a little of what we did:

    Our big production was our own interpretation of "Beauty and the Beast." Our interpretation means that there was no Gaston, limited singing and it only lasted about 15 minutes. However, quality over quantity, and our students put on an amazing production! Each class helped make the costumes, backdrop and posters, and some of our 4th, 7th, and 8th-grade students were the different characters. In the month leading up to this, I took on the dual role of English teacher AND Drama teacher as I helped the students write the script, practice their lines, and rehearse their scenes. In between each scene, we had different students sing or dance to English songs. 12 of my 4th-grade students all played Chip, and with their mother, Mrs. Potts (aka a 7th-grade girl), sang "I'm a Little Tea Pot." Our big finale included one student singing an English love song she learned from TikTok, while Belle and the Beast slow danced and the rest of the characters circled them. 

Chip and Mrs. Potts have become a fan favorite at school with drawings of them everywhere!

    After "Beauty and the Beast," we had a competition between classes to solve English riddles (ex. What has 4 legs but can't run? A chair.) To finish our presentation, several of the younger classes performed small nursery rhymes or songs. This included performances of "5 Little Monkeys", "5 Little Ducks", "Little Snowflakes" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Each class also made their own costumes, so we had many snowflakes, ducks, monkeys, and stars running around all day. Not to mention, all the costumes from "Beauty and the Beast", it looked like it could've been Halloween and not Valentine's Day. 

Some of our decorations created by students

    In addition to the students' performance, we also had English decorations around the school. Each class designed posters with nursery rhymes/songs or Beauty and the Beast that we hung up around the school to advertise English Month. My English clubs also created a poster called "We Love English Because..." and many students wrote why they loved learning English. 

 One thing preparing for this performance has taught me is that my students love to create art and do projects, and by including them in these things their interest in English grows exponentially! I'll definitely be designing my future lessons and clubs around more music and art. 

One of my student's "I Love English because..."

    Although my students' English performance may be over, we still have 2 more weeks of February to go. Future events include a spelling bee, a non-English teacher trivia game, and more... My students are also already asking about putting on an end-of-year English show, so I guess pretty soon it'll be time to start designing that. I mean I'm not complaining, because this performance has done nothing but motivate my students to learn more English and I'm looking forward to where their learning goes from here! 

Some of the English teachers with our director!

Sidenote: although you won't see pictures of any students or minors on my blog, if you follow my Peace Corps Instagram (@emilyinkgz), you'll be able to see some more pictures and videos from their performance. 

We'll Move to India Forever

 For those who read my last post, you'll know that I recently went to India during my Winter break (for those who haven't read my last post...I went to India). With the Peace Corps, we earn 2 days of Annual Leave per month of service. This leave can be used to travel to different parts of Kyrgyzstan or other countries, and since I'm a teacher, it can only be used during school breaks. This past winter break myself and four other volunteers decided to use our leave for the first time to travel to Kerala, India! 

Here's a brief synopsis of everything that went down:

The trip started by traveling to Almaty, Kazakhstan as no flights go from Kyrgyzstan to India. For me, getting to Almaty involved three different taxi rides to Osh (the biggest city in Southern Kyrgyzstan), a plane ride from Osh to Bishkek, and another bus ride from Bishkek to Almaty. Let's just say if there's one thing I've gotten good at, it's making extensive travel plans. Once we arrived in Almaty, we spent the hours before our flight exploring the city. The highlight was visiting the Zenkov Cathedral, the second-tallest wooden church in the world! I also met a man from Kerala, India who was able to give us a lot of recommendations (literally what are the odds).

The Zenkov Cathedral

After a flight from Almaty to New Delhi, an 8-hour layover, another flight from New Delhi to Kochi, Kerala, and a five-hour taxi ride through the rainforest and mountains, we reached our first destination: Munnar, Kerala, India! This was the part of the trip I was most excited for. Firstly, I booked us a treehouse to stay in that was also in a smaller village outside the main part of the city. This treehouse turned out to be in the middle of the rainforest, featured an outdoor shower, had the largest spiders I'd ever seen, and the best host who made us Masala Chai every morning. We also spent time touring the Tea Farms (aka the tea farms with the highest elevation in the world) and a Tea Factory. I don't think I've ever seen anything as beautiful as the endless hills of tea plants. During our last night in Munnar, several of us took a cooking class that began in the Munnar Bazaar to buy ingredients and then traveled 30 minutes into the mountains to our guide's home where his mother taught us to make authentic Keralan food.

The Cooking Process

The Final Product of Cooking Class

After Munnar, we traveled to Thiruvananthapuram (or Trivandrum for short). Here we spent most of our time at the beach and eating fruit (the best combination in the world if you ask me). Those who know me, know I love all things involved with the ocean (swimming, sharks, whales, almost being drowned by the waves, etc...). After being in Kyrgyzstan (the most landlocked country in the world) for 7 months, it was much needed to be back near the water again. I also bought some goggles, channeled my 8 years of swim team experience, and impressed everyone with my aquatic abilities. We also saw elephants, and one of them decided to play catch with me and his bamboo. Throwing bamboo covered in elephant snot is way easier said than done. 

The Tea Estates Surrounding the Mountain Road

Once we were finished in Trivandrum, we took a quick trip to Alleppey to visit the backwaters. Here we saw not only the backwaters, but also rice farms and several fishing villages that our only reachable by boat.

 Our final city was Kochi, the capital of Kerala. Kochi is a city full of history and features the ruins of a Portuguese Fort, prisons from India's fight for freedom against the U.K., a Synagogue built in 1568, along with countless other things. Our time here was spent mostly walking around exploring the city as there were pieces of history at every corner. 

Trivandrum at Sunset

After a beautiful and surreal week, our time in Kerala came to an end. On our way home, we also had a ten-hour layover in New Delhi where I found Reese's in Duty-Free and spent way more money than I should have on them. Reese's are one of the foods I miss most and so it was 1000% worth it. I also forced my friend to take a picture of me with them for the mems. 

Proof 

After traveling nonstop for over a week, I had reached a point of delirium and I think it started to show. Upon our re-entry to Kyrgyzstan, the Kazakh border patrol asked me if I'd prefer him to speak English or Russian. I then told him I don't speak English and instead I spoke Kazkh (I don't speak Kazakh but I'd heard it was similar to Kyrgyz). I then proceeded to do the entire border entry in Kazakh, and I think I confused him enough that he just let me through. 

This entire trip was nothing I ever could've imagined growing up. India had always been on my list of places to go, but I never thought it would actually happen. One of the many reasons I joined the Peace Corps was to travel to places I never thought I'd see. It's safe to say this trip fulfilled that. 

Here's a fun fact about me to close out this post: before going to India, I had only eaten Indian food one time, and it was in Kyrgyzstan.  I also have a comically low spice tolerance. Many people in Kyrgyzstan, the USA, and India told me that this was an insane way to figure out if I liked Indian food. However, I'm proud to announce I only cried once from spice during the trip, and I'm now such a fan of Indian food that I dream about it once a week. 

The One Time I Cried From Spice

Finally, shout out to Taylor Swift for writing the lyric "we'll move to India forever." It's been used as both a blog title, Instagram caption AND TikTok audio.