Some really exciting news this week: In addition to being about to welcome our 10,000th visitor (!), I got the news that Monday Bazaar has been selected as a finalist in the 4th Annual Peace Corps Blog It Home blogging contest!  And I need your help!

I’ve mentioned a few times that Peace Corps has three goals:

1. To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained Volunteers.
2. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

This Third Goal is a big deal, and it’s the primary goal of this blog: to help people learn about the faces and places of this amazing country to foster friendship and understanding.  And the Blog It Home contest is intended to recognize the accomplishments of Peace Corps bloggers around the world who are working hard on this goal.  And, out of over 300 blogs that were nominated, I’m one of 20 finalists that were selected by a panel of judges!

This is the part where you come in!

The final part of the contest is a Facebook vote, running from right now until August 15th, and I need your likes and shares!  The number of likes on the photo will be combined with judges scores, and the top 8 bloggers will get to go to Washington, D.C. for a professional development conference in late October.

To vote, just LIKE the photo below, and SHARE it with all your Facebook friends and tell them to go to the photo page and like it there!

I can’t do this without you, so please like and share as much as you can during the next five days!

If you’re new to Monday Bazaar, then welcome!  Here’s some of my favorite posts from the past few months to get you started learning about life and culture here in Kyrgyzstan!

1. 72 Hours In Osh, Kyrgyzstan
2. Why I Joined The Peace Corps
3. Jailoo and Yurts: The Summer Lives of Kyrgyz Nomads
4. Hang On To Your Hats: An Exhaustive Guide to Central Asian Headgear
5. Kyrgyzstani Movie Night: “Kurmanjan Datka: Queen of the Mountains”

Thanks again for your support, and thanks again for your loyal readership.  And to my new readers, thanks for checking out my blog, and I hope you’ll come back to read more soon!

-Mark