Mile 19 is about where you start to hit the wall in a marathon, depending on your training. It varies from person to person, from marathon to marathon, and depending on how you’re doing physically and mentally. I’ve run races where I never hit the wall. In another I hit it at mile 16. It’s not enough to stop you, because you keep going. You have a job to do, a goal to reach. But it’s been hard, and November has been, I think, a proverbial hitting of the wall for me.
I started off November in Washington, D.C., climbing onto a plane back to Kyrgyzstan. After spending nearly a week recovering from the jet lag and the 37 hour trip, I finally was able to put pants on and get myself to a moderate semblance of humanity (seriously, call your representatives and tell them to repeal the Fly America Act. My ticket to Osh was twice as expensive and took more than twice as long as the cheapest available ticket thanks to that law </rant>).
Once I got my feet back under me, I took a little jaunt up to Bishkek to deliver a training for volunteers about the fantastic new Ministry of Education health curriculum that I hope they’ll train their schools and teachers on. In case you missed it, the Ministry of Education created a resource book that has EVERYTHING a teacher needs to implement a comprehensive health curriculum for 6-11th forms, including lesson plans, worksheets, and even scripts they can read for sensitive topics they might not feel comfortable interpreting for students. I applaud the Ministry for their work bringing this resource to schools – it will do a great deal to improve the frequency, quality, and consistency of health lessons in schools.
The weekend was both amazing and horrible at the same time. On the one hand, it was hands down one of the most fun weekends I’ve had in Kyrgyzstan; I met up with my local friends on both Friday and Saturday night, including some I hadn’t seen in months. On Saturday, I walked into the cafe, and literally had a line of 20 people I needed to say hi to because so many good friends were there. It was the best feeling.
On the other hand…on Friday, my jeans got caught on a radiator and tore irreparably wide open (HAHAHAHAHA), so I had to awkwardly tie a scarf around my waist the next morning to not flash all of Bishkek. Luckily, there is a Levi’s store in Bishkek (as my friend Sean might say, in text speak, *~*~luxury*~*~), so I was able to replace my pants pretty easily. Then, on Saturday night, someone went through my jacket and stole my wallet. I had the miraculous foresight to remove all of the cards and cash from it before I left my jacket unattended. So it was only the loss of a nice wallet that is completely replaceable, and a student ID that I shouldn’t have been using for discounts anyway. The fun we had and the time with my friends was totally worth it though!
Back in Osh (“meanwhile, across town…”), November has been otherwise quiet and calm. I’ve been working on graduate applications, struggling to get myself to work on top of all that work, and dealing with a lot of talk with friends and family in the US.
Apart from all that complete lack of excitement, I’m just quietly chugging along with other projects. For Movie Club, we watched Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Wall-E this month, with some great discussions about freedom, democracy, respect, and diversity along the way. My books are moving forward, and we managed to get 60 copies of the ministry curriculum from Bishkek to Osh for another training project.
The last standout project for the month of November is my project with my friend Josefin for 16 Days of Advocacy Against Gender-Based Violence. For 16 days, we are uploading a photo of a young woman that Josefin met during a street fashion project, and letting her tell her story. We put together an article of all their photos on the blog, too. I’m really excited about this project, and I encourage you all to take a look and read up on it.
Now it’s December, now it’s winter, and now we’re getting ourselves ready for the long haul through the winter. And the holidays, which are always one of my favorite times of the year. Current Love Actually watch count: 1.
Did I forget something? Got feedback? Let me know in the comments!