Tag: Peace Corps

I Got Reposted On The Peace Corps Passport Blog!

Published on by Mark Jahnke

Hi everyone!

Some exciting news, my blog on the Nomad Horse Games got reposted on the Peace Corps Passport official Peace Corps blog today!  Check it out!

For those readers new to my blog who’ve followed the link in my bio, hello and welcome!  My blog contains stories from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, some travel tips, some cultural notes, a bunch of recipes, and lots and lots of pretty pictures both here and at my Instagram!  Take some time, explore it all, and hopefully learn something new!

And for those of you who’ve stumbled here because you’ve been invited to serve in Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic officially), you’re being considered for service in Kyrgyzstan, or who are thinking about applying to join our wonderful band of yurt-loving capacity-builders, please feel free to send me an e-mail with any questions you have or post comments below or on other posts!  I love making this blog a dialogue, and you might even get a full post dedicated to answering your question!  There’s DEFINITELY a packing list post in the works!

With all that in mind, stick around, thanks for reading, and talk to you soon!

-Mark

Sleeping On The Floor

Published on by Mark Jahnke

One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of Central Asian houses is just how sparsely furnished they are.  A family usually owns a dining room table, a table for the topchan outside, a bunch of chairs, some couches in the guesting rooms, maybe a wall cabinet unit for memories, and possibly a few desks and wardrobes in the bedrooms.  You probably have noticed that beds are not on that list.  In fact, my room is the only room in my house that actually has a bed in it. Continue reading “Sleeping On The Floor” →

The TezJet: A Love Letter

Published on by Mark Jahnke

 

One of the hallmarks of American culture is that we love cheering for the underdog. We love supporting the Red Sox in their fight against the Curse of the Bambino. We love cheering for unpronounceable countries in the World Cup. And above all, we love supporting our hometown pilots against Big Airline.

It is in this context that I’d like to introduce you to a start-up company in Kyrgyzstan called TezJet. Continue reading “The TezJet: A Love Letter” →

Mile 4: Adventure, Uncertainty, and Illness

Published on by Mark Jahnke

When you join the Peace Corps, you know that you’re going headfirst into an unknown of knowns. You know that you’ll get sick, but you don’t know when. You know you’ll have an adventure, but you don’t know how or where. You know you’ll have ups and downs, but you don’t know the nature of those challenges. In fact, inasmuch as we have been trained to know how to handle a pretty insane number of wild and wacky situations, many of which are genuinely likely to happen, not knowing if and when they will happen means that, at most times, you still feel completely immersed in the unknown. It’s the fundamental paradox of the Peace Corps.

I spent a lot of August wandering in that wilderness. Continue reading “Mile 4: Adventure, Uncertainty, and Illness” →

Mile 3: You Better Work

Published on by Mark Jahnke

Before I had even arrived at my office on my first morning of work after swearing in back in June, I had already made a mistake. Thanks to my basic language abilities, I missed a change in instructions, and wound up half an hour away from where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there. Oops.

Continue reading “Mile 3: You Better Work” →

Nomad Horse Games Festival

Published on by Mark Jahnke
Horsemen rest near the end of the day.
Horsemen rest near the end of the day.

There are a few things that most people, upon first glance at their Central Asia Lonely Planet, will remember most vividly about Kyrgyzstan: yurts and horse games. Most people who come to Kyrgyzstan get to see or stay in a yurt and drink kymyz to their heart’s content. But not very many get to see the traditional Kyrgyz horseback games. And yet this past weekend, I and several other volunteers found ourselves high in the passes of the Alay region south of Osh at the Nomad Horse Games Festival, one of the first of its kind in the world, organized by the Community Based Tourism organization here (If you’re planning a trip to Kyrgyzstan, CBT is one of the best ways to go).

Continue reading “Nomad Horse Games Festival” →

Mile 1: One Month On

Published on by Mark Jahnke

The other day, I was thinking about my strategy of counting down and breaking down my time in various placements to reduce the stress that comes from having so much time remaining. In particular, I was thinking about how I use that strategy for marathons, breaking it down into 26 consecutive 10 minute chunks (on a good day, pace-wise). It then occurred to me that 26.2 is about the same as the number of months that I am here in Kyrgyzstan. Thus is born my monthly summary series, Mileage.

I’ve been here for a month now.

Continue reading “Mile 1: One Month On” →

Site Placement: I’m Moving To Osh!

Published on by Mark Jahnke

SO the title of this post is in all caps because this was the day that I have been waiting for for MONTHS. See, when you apply to the Peace Corps, you are told your country of service and the sector in which you’ll be working. For the vast majority of volunteers, this means that you will be teaching English, but that also means that you have just about no idea where in the country you’ll be heading. In my case, as a Health trainee, I know that I get to work on health issues, and from my side research, I know where some of the areas of need are, and what kinds of organizations the Health program usually places volunteers into. BUT, none of us had any idea what our jobs would be, or where we would be. Until today.

Continue reading “Site Placement: I’m Moving To Osh!” →

Kyrgyzstan: An Announcement

Published on by Mark Jahnke
Flag_of_Kyrgyzstan.svg
The flag of Kyrgyzstan (from Wikipedia).

I think we probably all saw this coming, but I’ve got myself a ticket back to Central Asia.  This time around, I’ll be in Kyrgyzstan, one country over from Tajikistan, and immersing myself further in the ways of the Silk Road.  I’ll be working as a Health Extension Volunteer in the Peace Corps (although I can’t officially call myself a Volunteer until July), and as of yet I have no idea where I will be placed, or even which language I will be trained in.  I could be placed in the rural mountains, where feet of snow fall on yurts cast wide across the steppes, or I might be in a regional city, where marshrutkas abound and there might even be a movie theater.  I might be in a regional capital with other expats.  It’s hard to know now, but what I do know is that it will be one of the hardest but most rewarding things that I will ever do with my life.

Continue reading “Kyrgyzstan: An Announcement” →