I am going to get straight to the point. Today, I miss home.
For those of you who know me, my feelings about home has always been more on the negative side. It was never really easy growing up in a small Southern town as an Asian American. I never truly felt like I belonged in the Delph and always had these conflicting opinions and values.
However, as I ride on the overcrowded marshrutkas and walk through the underground tunnels in Bishkek, I can't help but feel nostalgic about home. This morning, I fell asleep on the marshrutka with country music playing on my iPod and then woke up to traditional Kyrgyz music blaring as I nearly flew out of my seat from the bumpy roads. I felt distorted and it took me a few seconds to remember where I was.
90% of the time, I really do love being in the Kyrgyz Republic and feel so humble to be able to work and live here. It's just that there are a few days (ok... maybe a little more than a few days) when I want nothing more than to fly back home for the day. The "honeymoon" phase has definitely begun to wear off as I constantly battle the infamous "D". I have a handful of close friends and fellow volunteers here, who are wonderful, but sometimes I just miss my besties from home. I miss familiarity. I miss not having to try so hard with speaking two foreign languages and often failing miserably. I miss my mom. I miss my baby dog, "Happy" (although she's not much of a baby anymore). I miss being able to drive and not having to wait over an hour for a taxi or a marshrutka. I miss that infamous "Southern hospitality". I miss my BBQ and sweet iced tea. I miss the days when life was simple and all you had to do was sit back and relax with the hot summer wind blowing in the sweltering and humid Southern nights (that's right, I even miss that).
I came into the Peace Corps knowing that it wouldn't be easy. I just didn't know how hard it could be sometimes.
My schedule has been filling up since training finally ended. I have begun computer trainings and English language/ FLEX trainings in a few villages. I also started my Kyrgyz and Russian tutoring and hopefully I will be able to speak more understandable "Krussian". Really, anything to get my points across. Throw in some Krussian, a little English and some gestures. I should be be an expert in Gestures by the end of two years. With life becoming more busy, I have less time to miss home. It's just every now and then, it hits me. Today, was one of those days.
So, really, today's post isn't anything special. Rather, it's just a post of me whining. All in all though, life really is good here! I just miss my Southern roots today. :)
Love,
Lida
PS, I had 2-3 unfinished posts from 1-2 months ago that I will eventually post. Be sure to look for those in the coming week!
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Kyrgyzstan? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Kyrgyzstan in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez