Thanks Mom, Dad and Gramma for packages. I am already enjoying the snacks, books and enertainment from home. Note to anyone wanting to send me mail: 1) I love mail – snail, email…anything. 2) I’m going to be going to permanent site in several weeks, so I wouldn’t send anything else to the PST address. I can still get items, but it quite complicated for staff to get it to us.

Culture day was entertaining last Saturday. Each language group performed skits, a talent, and presented a food item. We had a crowd-pleasing skit (thanks to Raul) and Samsih was tasty, I think. Unfortunately, we tanked the talent…singing a national song. We didn’t know it We also had to dress in traditional clothing. Picture me in a yellow flowy dress with an embroideed black vest and matching hat. I don’t even think I have it on my camera, come to think of it. The best part of the day was a concert by local musicians and dancers. Two men played the Komuz- a traditional stringed instrument. It is something like a cross between a banjo and a ukelele with nylon-type strings. The neck is long compared to the body, and there are no frets or openings in the body.Also there are only 4 strings. One of the players, a young man, was awesome at finger picking. He reminded me of the style of Andy McKee as he tapped on various parts of the body for percussion, played on the neck, and showed off a little by pumping or waving one arm while playing with the other. The guy also stuck in a few harmonic tones, which amazed me since I can’t even begin to figure out where those tones are WITH frets.

Language proficiency and mid- PST assesments also happened this past week. Right now I am doing alright. I still have a lot of Kyrgyz to study, but passing the final test should be fine as long as I keep studying. In our tech sessions, we presented training sessions to other volunteers and are going to be learning some specifics on how to train teachers in the next two weeks. Overall, I really liked training others and tryig to develop reflective discussion questions for the analysis of teaching. Again, I know I have a lot to learn here, but I am grateful that I enjoy it so far. I’ll hang on to that for now.

I should wrap this up for now. Note to the ladies of the Luke Study: My mom sent the cards and verses that you gave me before I left (I don’t know how they didn’t make it into my bag!!) Thank you again for your encouragment and reminding me just how mighty God is…I needed it.

~ by Amber on May 16, 2010.