Kara-Kol

I was invited to come and do an English club lesson for students in Kara-Kol. Kara-Kol is a city east of Bishkek, on the other end of Lake Issyk-Kul. It is about a 6hour ride by marshruka. The English club was on Friday morning, so Thursday evening Dastan and I got on a marshruka and headed to Kara-Kol. Friday morning we had English club and about 10 students were there. It was a good thing that the sun was out because the room that they typically use was being occupied by another group and no one had a key to open up another room. So we had our class outside! It was fun, we talked and played some games and at the conclusion of the lesson made plans for them to meet me the next day and show me around Kara-Kol. That night, they had a kind of hang out time for the students at a café, they had some discussion time and did a presentation on HIV/AIDES. Then we ate fried potatoes, but these ones were crinkle cut and reminded me of french fries back home (it made me smile). Afterwards we were invited to Chicka and Mira’s home for dinner. The whole new life team of Kara-Kol was there, and we had a really good meal. Then it was time for Nertz- I am not a good Nertz player, we didn’t play that game when I worked at the pool; needless to say I did not do very good, but had a good time! Saturady morning I met with 4 students from the day before and they showed me around Kara-Kol- the campuses, the center, Tsume, a couple parks, a museum, the stadium, and the bizarre. It was a nice time- walking around and learning more about the area and about them. I liked Kara-Kol, it is much quieter than Bishkek, there is more nature, less cars and the mountains are closer. It is very beautiful there! While I was there I also go to walk around with another girl,(as the team had trainings), she brought me to their zoo. I was warned ahead of time that I might see that it is not a very good zoo. Particularly because they don’t have enough money maybe to feed the animals what they need- for ex.- the bears aren’t always fed meat, but potatoes. Well, we went and I thought it was pretty good- not as bad as I was told. They had a variety of animals from that area, and it was pretty cool. It reminded me of the Utica zoo. We were again invited to dinner- which was again delicious! It was a good time for me, not only to see more of this amazing country, but to meet and get to know some more people here!