Journal Entry - May 4th, 2006

My name is John. Ok, so maybe that's not the name my parents gave me, maybe it's not the name my friends call me by, and maybe it's not even the name that is on my driver's license and passport. Despite all of this, my name is still John. I know this because of the two friendly local guys who sit at the base of Suleiman Too between 6:40 and 6:50 every morning and who helpfully call out my real name to me as I run by them on my way down the mountain back to my apartment. At first, in my ignorance, I wanted to stop and correct them of what I perceived as their error in identifying me. However, as time passed and the ritual repeated itself, I began to wonder if maybe, in their ignorance of what was enscribed on my birth certificate, they had perhaps unwittingly stumbled onto some deeper truth about my identity. Maybe in this time and this place I no longer present to the world as Bryan, but instead as John. And if, in reality, a name serves as no more than a particular grouping of sounds in the air or scratches on paper meant to identify an individual to those around him, then who was I to judge that my name was not John. Being trapped inside my own mind and body and unable to truly perceive how I appear to others, I in fact am the worst judge of what my name should be. So, my name is John.

Post from my journal

I wake up to the sound of a siren rising urgently up from the street below my apartment. At first I barely recognize it; my brain, still befuddled by sleep, frantically searching my memory for a similar noise in its history to compare this strange high-pitched shreaking to. Finally something clicks, and I identify the vibrant pulsing as a siren. Still struggling to pull my consciousness back from the edge of sleep, I hazily wonder if the siren is police, fire, EMS... Has something happened to someone I know? Is my building on fire? Has there been a shooting? As these questions rush through my foggy mind, like homebound ships desperately trying to reach port ahead of a storm, the siren cuts off abruptly. As my brain struggles valiantly to cope with this new development, the room I am laying in starts to come into focus in the steel gray light of early morning. Wardrobe. Couch. Two ratty old chairs. A small TV in the corner. Suddenly it all makes sense. The odd tones of the siren. The way it ended suddenly. The siren was no emergency warning at all. At least, not an emergency as I would think of it. Rather, it was the modified horn of a marshrutka, one of the cramped and often crowded mini-buses that serve as the main form of public transportation in Central Asia. Finally the light goes on in my head as the sun slowly stretches its own tendrils of light over the horizon. It is 6 a.m. And I am in Kyrgyzstan.

I really need to learn some Uzbek dances...

Originally Posted Monday, December 26, 2005

Currently Reading
One Hundred Years of Solitude
By Gabriel Garcia Marquez
see related

There are definitely times when you will be doing something in Kyrgyzstan and it really hits home what an incredibly random, unique experience this Peace Corps gig is. For me, one of those moments happened today when I was sitting at the guest of honor at an Osh law school Christmas party/concert/play/trivia contest/art contest/etc. (if you hadn’t noticed yet, the Kyrgyz are big on multitasking). After the festivities were over an hour late in starting (which is still early in Kyrgyztime), I was treated to a front-row seat for almost two hours of Christmas music, break-dancing (or attempted break-dancing), a three-person tall cheerleading pyramid of Kyrgyz guys in jeans a couple sizes too tight, Christmas skits, a Christmas trivia contest, and last (and most certainly least) my dancing solo to some Uzbek music in front of the entire party of around 100 students. This experience did give me an answer to one of my previously unanswered cultural questions. I am no longer curious about whether the Kyrgyz whistle or not – I can testify that it is a definite fact that they do, and do so quite loudly! During the festivities I also judged a Christmas tree decorating contest, seeing how, as an American, I am obviously an expert in that field (right!). While I gave it the clichéd “110%” I couldn’t keep a straight face for the entire party, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to tell my hosts that I wasn’t laughing at their efforts but rather at the incredible randomness of seeing a stereotypically gaudy Christmas-pageant style production… in a predominantly Muslim country in the middle of Central Asia!

In less positive news, as of today our K13 group has been reduced by one more, taking us all the way down to 58 volunteers from our initial contingent of 66, with our second consecutive involuntary medsep (medical separation, for those of you not familiar with Peace Corps lingo). Jordan (AKA The Real King of Houston) - we’ll miss you man, the south won’t be quite the same without you! I should note that if we continue at this rate of exodus, the entire K13 group will be gone from Kyrgyzstan by about July of 2007 – or about 4 or so months before we could start officially COSing (more Peace Corps lingo – COS is Completion of Service). Keep your fingers crossed that the bleeding stops soon; I’m getting tired of losing friends back to the U.S.!

Another posting soon, and this one will include pictures… promise!

Songs, Sex, and Sickness

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Currently Listening
Parachutes
By Coldplay
see related

Russian polka music... that's really the only way to describe what I'm listening to as I type this post at an internet cafe near my office. I really don't know why I'm so surprised by this after watching Russian television though - their "hot" pop music stars all remind me of Weird Al, so obviously they already had the polka thing covered if the surplus had managed to leak into the pop genre. Ok, I have obviously jinxed the music by writing this, as we have now switched over to Michael Bolton played at a rather uncomfortable volume (which, for Michael Bolton, is any volume at which I can hear it).

Anyway, moving on to more important things (for the rest of you at least). Things are still going well here in Osh, despite the fact that I have been battling a sinus infection since Sunday. The weather has been pretty nice, sunny and not incredibly cold, so it's been really frustrating to be more or less cooped up indoors trying to recover! I think I can trace this particular illness back to the freezing cold nights spent at the hotel (phoenetic Russian - gostinitsa) in Kochkor-ata where I stayed last Thursday and Friday nights while on a roadtrip with Rainbow to give a STD/sex ed seminar to students at the technical college there. Fortunately, it was a memorable experience for far more than just the legacy it left my immune system to deal with! Highlights include singing Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight," Bryan Adams' "All for One" and John Lennon's "Imagine" in a bouncing marshrutka on the rather horrible road between Jalalabad and Osh - with my coworkers, while toasting with vodka (we'll miss you Chili!), and all of this on a cheap guitar that busted its G-string (no jokes, please... that's just in bad taste) a few minutes into our drive. Also included are the time I was asked, out of the blue, to explain what oral sex was to a class of around 20 (primarily female) Kyrgyz college students - understanding of course, that they have absolutely no concept of it! I managed to stumble through a basic, and I thought rather tasteful, explanation in English, which they all seemed to understand because as I talked they all started giggling and turned bright red (actually, in most cases, they simply turned a brighter shade of red than they already were). Afterwards, I have to say, I realized that I cannot begin to imagine a more unique Peace Corps - Kyrgyzstan experience than to be a male PCV in the south teaching Kyrgyz girls about safe sex - and not getting into trouble for it!

After two full days of the seminar, it was nice to come back to Osh on Saturday night and go out with a bunch of other volunteers to celebrate both Carol's COS and Raabia's (http://lilraabs.blogspot.com) 22nd birthday. While I showed up to the party a little late, I have to say it was definitely worth going, and in my estimation we gave both Carol an admirable send-off and Raabia a resounding welcome to the over-21 crowd. Hopefully, my actual physical voice will return soon, so that I can come and talk to the English clubs and classes that other PCVs have invited me to this week.

On that note, I am gonna go and rest some more and hope things continue to improve, talk to you all soon!

And the smackdown finally came...

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Currently Listening
The Best of 1980-1990
By U2
Track: All I Want is You
see related


Ploxoy (Bad) Bryan! Ok, so I have been officially "encouraged" to tone down my blog and not put up any information that could be construed to have a political meaning - therefore, today's planned posts on my impression of Hitler as being slightly less than enlightened in his dealings with Jews and my discussion of why I consider Ghengis Khan to have been a less than a magnanimous victor have been cancelled.

What I can tell you, however, is that I have finally managed to "swear in" as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), and now am living at my permanent site of Osh City. The swearing in part of training actually turned in to be much more difficult than I expected it to be. Not because it was a hard ceremony to go through, but because the "culture house" in Tokmok that we swore in in was freezing! I watched my hands turn blue during the ceremony, and was starting to consider emergency options for creating warmth when we finally finished the ceremony! Even the Ambassador wanted to put a hat on, as she told us later at a reception for us at her house. Fortunately, we were able to warm up later, as some of us went out to a dance club in Bishkek and danced out some of our pent-up frustration from PST - after doing a little bowling downstairs. While I can't say that the bowling center/dance club mix really makes sense to me, it certainly worked that night!

On a more serious note, I will start work on Monday, working for Info-Center Rainbow (more info on Rainbow can be found in the post below). I really like the organization and my director and coworkers, so I am excited about being able to help. Of course, with all that excitement comes a lot of nervousness about my ability to contribute, and, of course, my ability to continue to enhance my language skills. Now that I am in Osh, those language skills will have to start including Kyrgyz and Uzbek as well as Russian, a triple-threat I am not currently feeling all that confident about. While the grammer for Kyrgyz and Uzbek is much simpler than Russian, learning them involves learning new sounds for letters that I learned for the first time only three months ago - not a task I am relishing. On the positive side, the weather in Osh is really nice at the moment, sunny almost every day and warm enough to go out without a jacket despite the fact that it is December. I will spend most of the rest of this weekend walking around the city, trying to get a better feel for where things are located, and just enjoying the relative warmth here compared to Bishkek and the rest of the north.

Anyway, time for me to get out and start learning my new home better!

Moving Time (7)

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Currently Listening
All That You Can't Leave Behind
By U2
see related

Two words - OSH CITY BABY!!! (Ok, so that was three words, but really, what are you gonna do about it, huh? We have a minimalist/nonexistent legal system here, so you can't sue me for it!). But anyway, tangental thoughts aside, I'm moving to Osh! I'll be working for what sounds like an excellent NGO down there, called "Public Information Center - Rainbow" (www.rainbowkg.org for those of you down with the Cyrillic alphabet). Their mission is (direct plagiarism follows): "To reduce the vulnerability of young people to HIV/AIDS/STIs and drug use through raising awareness, teaching safe behavioral skills, providing youth friendly health services, and making means of protection easily available." I'm incredibly excited about my site placement, both the location and the NGO, if you couldn't already tell from the prodiguous use of CAPS and exclamation points! I am replacing a K-11 volunteer, Courtney, who had been working with them, and apparently my job will be to move them from a very good donor-funded NGO to a completely sustainable organization by developing income-generating sources for them, as well as helping with their programs as I find the opportunity.
The only downside I see to my site placement so far is that the weather in Osh will be interesting for me, apparently it gets well into the 100's and 110's during the summer, and is very cold in the winter, so while I don't mind the cold, the heat could really wear me out during the summer I think! I am really nitpicking though, because other than that, Osh City sounds wonderful. One of the best, if not the best, University in Kyrgyzstan is there, so there should be good secondary project opportunities there, running business and English clubs for interested students. Hopefully that will also help my improve my Russian, as well as picking up some Kyrgyz and Uzbek. I am going to sit in on some brief Uzbek lessons my language teacher is giving to a couple of TEFL volunteers who are moving to Uzbek villages, to try and pick up at least some basic words and phrases to use when I get down there. I am hoping that picking up Uzbek and Kyrgyz will be quite helpful around Osh I think, especially at the Osh Bazaar, the oldest continuously-running Bazaar in Central Asia (not that we're bragging or anything... we're just better at Bazaar-running than everyone else :) ).
On the political front here, apparently much of what is going on revolves around an ongoing gang way between two mafia leaders, a Kyrgyz and a Chechen. Deputies from the government keep getting killed, over their alleged ties with one of the other mafia group - and it was the killing of the last deputy that touched off the prison riot in Bishkek at Prison #31 that has made so many international observers uncertain about Kyrgyzstan's stability. Living here, however, you don't really notice anything about it in the city during the day, but the local University students are afraid that if the mafia war gets any more heated, it will take down the government with it, and that will result in a civil war between the more conservative southerners (yes, I now will be a "southerner" in Kyrgyz parlance, hence the comment about those damn yankees at the top of this blog), and the more Russified and liberal northerners. I can't say that the situation has me scared yet, but it certainly is interesting to know that this type of thing is going on right underneath your nose, and you know nothing of it other than the video of demonstrations on TV. Very surreal, sort of like Hurricane Katrina was for those of us in the US living outside of the immediately affected areas.
Anyway, it is time to go have some lunch with Anne (who apparently had a "rough" night in Bishkek last night... meaning it's not so much the night that was rough, but this morning that is rough because of last night). What can I say, you can't keep those Boulder girls down for long!

I'm out!

Moving Time (6)

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Currently Listening

Seventeen Days

By 3 Doors Down

I guess it's a sign that I have been here a while that memories of what life in the US was like are slowly taking on the quality of fantasies rather than of actual recollections of tangible experiences. Life here seems normal, both the good and the bad of it, and I suppose that is a good sign that I am slowly "integrating" into the culture. Fortunately, I have such a wonderful host family here in Krasnaya Rechka that they have made the process about as easy as I imagine it is possible for it to be. Currently, all of the trainees here are awaiting our site assignments, which we get on November 2nd, and determine where we will be for the next two years, barring the need to change sites for some unforseen reason. I expect that the social dynamic among trainees will probably really change once that happens, as we will start talking to mroe people who are going to be posted closer to us. I think the SOCD folks will still be pretty close, just because we are now just 13 people, spend a lot of time together, get along really well, and will be facing a lot of obstacles unique to the SOCD program when we get to site. I am definitely nervous about my posting - I am just crossing my fingers that I don't get horrible unlucky and have Peace Corps put me someplace in the middle of nowhere where no one speaks Russian and I have no resources to do my job with!
We also are a little antsy just because there have been some demonstrations in Bishkek, dealing with political difficulties arising from the tension between the populations in the north and the south of the country. There are demonstrations calling for the Prime Minister to resign, though many of the demonstrators are apparently paid for their attendance. The Prime Minister is very popular in the north, and generally more well-respected than the President according to locals I've spoken to - although those locals tend to be northerners themselves and therefore might be somewhat biased in their viewpoints. This is just another example of the long-running tension between the north and the south of Kyrgyzstan, something that most of the people here are very tired of. Local politics, while generally the main topic of the local news, tends to elicit only sighs and head-shaking from my host family and their friends. They are more concerned with the immediate needs of day-to-day life than the political struggle over the broaders outlines of Kyrgyzstan's future.
Hopefully, that last paragraph did not contain not too much "political" information under the Peace Corps guidelines, though if it does I'm sure I will find that out soon enough :) On a lighter note, I have taken to playing games with the local kids in my village, the ones that shout "Hello" at me repeatedly (they are tireless to the point of obnoxiousness). Since they are ignoring my speaking Russian to them, and won't say anything other than shout "Hello" at me 10 - 15 times every time they see me walk by, I have taken the hint from another volunteer and just started replying with random English words, generally following a certain theme for a few days. This week, that theme has been car parts. I can't wait to get a letter sent through Peace Corps in 20 years when one of these kids grows up, learns some English, and becomes an auto mechanic. I smile every time I walk by the kids now, thinking of the look on one of their faces when he learns that "timing belt," "catalytic converter," and "alternator" are not English greetings. Lame as that may be, you really have to take what you can get in the way of humor around here!

Until next time!

Moving Time (5)

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Currently Listening
Welcome Interstate Managers
By Fountains of Wayne
see related

Ouch! Ok, so I am a little stiff and sore today, but it was completely worth it. Yesterday I got a long-awaited opportunity to strap on some shoulder pads and play a little American Football! The American University of Bishkek stages a "Kyrgyzstan vs. The World" football game every fall, in which University students who have taken a class in football the entire term long play a hodgepodge team of ex-pats, many of whom have never met each other until the game, much less had the opportunity to practice together. We hung tough though, despite our lack of cleats or leg pads compared to their full equipment. We lost 18 - 14, and had a possession at the end of the game to win it, but couldn't get the ball down the field through the air. Next year, we are winning though, mark my words! I am putting together a short playbook, the basics of an audible system, and we are going to practice the basics of blocking, center-QB exchange, handing off, and tackling. If you are going to be a K-14 guy and you read this, bring some cleats if you have them! They are worth their weight in gold! If I can get ahold of some pictures from the game, I will post them soon - I have, as always, a great 'fro after some game time in a helmet, so the pictures are quite funny.
I also want to start posting a list of books I have read while I am here, since it seems like a good idea since I am going to be going through a lot of them! So far, it is (in no particular order):

Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel
Caleb Carr - The Alienist
Caleb Carr - Prince of Darkness
Charles Frazier - Cold Mountain
Barack O'Bama - Dreams of My Father
and currently reading: Robert Fogel - Without Consent or Contract

Alright, I'm out until next time!

Moving Time (4)

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Currently Listening
The Joshua Tree
By U2
see related

Today is a day of triumph that I feel I must share with the world - I have finally found the good internet in Bishkek! DSL speed is just amazing after you have been on very slow dialup connections for a month or so, especially when you have so many emails to send and so much news to try and catch up on. It's wonderful to have this day to relax before heading back to language training on Monday morning - something that I am dreading as much as anyone in our language group I think. While I am sure that the day will come when Russian is a natural way to speak, at the moment it is all I can do to not laught out loud when Olga (our teacher) lists off another new conjugation we have to learn. The Russians certainly love their conjugations, that is for sure! Not just verbs, but nouns, adjectives, and even numbers are conjugated in Russian. I often feel like I need to bring along a laptop computer to sort things out for me, as the complexity of formulating a basic sentence in Russian in which you need to conjugate several words all into different cases and genders seems like a job for a computer program rather than my overworked brain!
The increasing complexity of the language certainly stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the environment in northern Kyrgyzstan. Now that I have had the opportunity to settle in a little bit, I feel like I have a much better feel for the area. Every day the strongest feeling I get is one of decay. All the old Soviet buildings, the infrastructure, the sidewalks, everything is just slowly crumbling back into nothingness. And along with that, the people are fighting the problems indicative of social decay as well - alcoholism and unemployment. It's sad and surreal all at once, like something out of a post-apocalyptic graphic novel. I suppose though, that is the reason we are here - to try and find a way to, if not turn back the clock, then speed up the transition to a new period of success for the Kyrgyz people.
Well, it is time to go and catch a marshutka back to my village, but hopefully my next post will be a little meatier. Until then, peace out!
Bryan

Moving Time (3)

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Currently Listening

X&Y

By Coldplay

So, this will likely be a pretty quick post, since the internet cafe in Naryn city I am currently using isn't exactly the fastest known to man (or woman for that matter). I have made it safely to Naryn where I am staying with a current PCV in the city and just seeing how his life and the life of other volunteers in Naryn city works. Fortunately, we have beautiful weather here right now, and the temperatures are quite mild for the 6 or 7 hours a day you get good sunlight in this little mountain city. However, once the sun hides behind the mountains, temperatures plummet, even inside, since the apartment buildings are waiting until it gets really cold (whatever that is) before they turn on the heat. Last night I slept in a sleeping bag fully clothes with a jacket over me to keep warm, and that seemed to work pretty well. I can only imagine what is required in the winter here, and from the solemn looks on the faces of the PCV's living here, I don't imagine it is the most pleasant thing in the world. The K-11 and K-12 volunteers in Naryn city are an incredibly smart, funny, and tight-knit group though, and I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a few days here hanging out with them. Naryn in also quite different from the Turkish village I have been staying in, as it is the most Kyrgyz of all the cities in Kyrgyzstan - and there is both good and bad in that. Certainly, Naryn has problems - unemployment, alcoholism, bride-kidnapping, but there are smart and generous Kyrgyz working here alongside Peace Corps volunteers to help with those problems as well.
For those that might be wondering, "bride-kidnapping, what is that?," I will provide a brief overview. In Kyrgyzstan, girls between the ages of around 15 - 22 or so will often be kidnapped forcibly off the street and taken to a man's house, where all his female relatives will exert tremendous pressure on the girl/young woman to marry the kidnapper. They also tell the girl that if she doesn't, they will tell people that their male relative raped her, which will make her value as a wife plummet (her family will receive a much reduced bride price for her if she is believed not to be a virgin). Under this kind of pressure, and often many hours from their homes in unfamiliar surroundings, with no way to get home or receive help of any kind, girls will acquiesce. This kind of activity is generally overlooked by the police since it is considered a cultural tradition. More and more girls are standing up to this kind of treatment and refusing to marry their kidnappers, but the practice is still very common and successful in and around Naryn. Men from all over Kyrgyzstan come here to kidnap brides. The sad thing about it is that often girls that are kidnapped are students at Naryn State University and are on their way towards an education and a better life for themselves - a life they rarely can achieve if they are kidnapped, as they will then be solely responsible for bearing children for their husband and keeping his household. Sometimes parents will arrange with the kidnappers to kidnap their daughters - one girl that a volunteer knew here was kidnapped on the day of her wedding to the man she had been dating by a guy she didn't know, but who her father had contacted because he didn't approve of her marrying this other man. She was grabbed off the street on the morning of her wedding, and no one she knows in Naryn has heard from her since. The man she was supposed to marry, since he was now without a bride but was set up for a wedding, called up his ex-girlfriend, and married her on that very same day instead. Such is how life goes in Naryn sometimes, for better or worse.
After reading that, you might not have a very pleasant opinion of the Kyrgyz, Naryn city in specific, or Kygyzstan in general. However, it is important that you have a balanced impression of Naryn. For example, consider this: one of the PCVs here works for a very successful crisis center for abused women and children who have no other place to go, or who have been enslaved by local human traffickers and have either managed to escape or have somehow been rescued. The center feeds, clothes, and houses these victims until they can find a boarding school or other more permanent arrangement for them. So while what westerners would consider repressive cultural practices still exist in Kyrgyzstan, right alongside them are very successful progressive enterprises that are supporting more westernized standards of human rights. Such is the dichotomy that is modern-day Kyrgyzstan.
Anyway, it's time to jet out of here to run by the bazaar to get stuff to make barbeque chicken pizza tonight - a big event around here, and one I should not be late for!
Bryan
PS: Also, I just wanted to post a link to my friend Anne's blog (www.annewieland.blogspot.com) for those of you that might be interested in a female perspective of K-13's experiences in Kyrgyzstan so far. Also, Anne is just a blingin' awesome person, so you should enjoy her blog no matter what! Oh... and if that isn't enough to entice you... she also has pictures up!

Moving Time (2)

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Currently Listening
O
By Damien Rice
see related

Well, this is my first actual post on this blog, but props to Annie for filling in for me with only a slightly exaggerated account of our staging time in Philly. This is my third internet connection since arriving in Kyrgyzstan, and my first in which I likely will have time to actually type an entry instead of just slinging a couple of quick emails and running. So, what can I say about this place? It is absolutely beautiful country; the Tien Shan mountains are enough to make even a recent Denver resident stare in awe - there are absolutely no words to describe it. Hopefully I will have a chance to upload some pictures soon (knock on wood!). The people are incredibly nice too - my Turkish host family in Krasnaya Rechka have been wonderful, kind, generous, and understanding of my intestinal difficulties with the massive amounts of greasy carbohydrates that we eat morning, noon, and night. I am starting to feel quite Russian, between the constant contact and study of the language and the massive amounts of potatoes and bread I have been eating!
I went to the Osh Bazaar in Bishkek today, and managed to pick up a nice pair of only slightly gaudy slippers (an exaggerated thumbs up and "OK" drawn on the front of them... really not too bad considering the local selection!) for $2. My host family will be quite happy, since I won't have to put on shoes to walk between the house and the eating room, or the bathroom, or the Banya (the place where you pour fire-heated water over yourself for cleaning). It is starting to get a little colder here, but that should be nothing to what I will experience next week on my visit to a volunteer and his NGO in Naryn next week. Naryn is an isolated town of around 50,000 people in the center of the country, high in the mountains, and known for its very cold weather; highs in the -0's and 0's in the winter, with lows in the -30's and -40's. We might get our first snow when I am up there, so I am packing warm!
I have been to a Turkish wedding and birthday party since I have been here, so I can say this - Turkish people know how to throw a party! Dancing, vodka, lots and lots of (often unidentifiable) food - you really have to experience it to understand. There is so much to write, and I have such little time, I'd like to ask people if they have any requests about what they would like to see me post on here. About other volunteers, the local people, the mix of cultures, the training - just ask! Since K-14 will be coming in March or thereabouts, I will try and have an extensive listing of what you guys will need to know up by around February - about 2 or 3 months into my site posting!
Take care!
(Oh, and Peace Corps really does rock my socks off - Annie wasn't lying about that!)

Moving Time!

Ok, so I have decided to run two simultaneous blogs, in order to better serve the blog-reading public out there (in the case of my blog, that's about 6 of you, but still, I'm all about service :) ) So, I am copying in all the posts from my other blog (www.xanga.com/kybs) to get this one up-to-date. Here it goes!

Friday, September 16, 2005
Well, I am now down to the last 10 hours in Philadelphia. I have had a GREAT time in orientation. Gosh, those sessions were so fun and I have to say I really enjoyed doing the exercises with the group!
Tonight a bunch of the volunteers and I ordered some pizza, got some beer and threw down in room 1420. I got a little drunk then decided to go do some laundry. After we walked some 20+ blocks we arrived at a little laundro-mat where we threw our clothes in some washers and headed to the next door bar for shots of vodka. I haven't yet checked to see if all of my clothes made it back from our trip, but the buzz was fun enough to make it worth the gain/loss.
I have a big day tomorrow...lots of flights and time in airports, therefore, I must be on my way. It was fabulous finally catching up with all of you and I hope to hear from you soon.
Yours truly,
Bryan

PEACE CORPS ROCKS MY SOCKS OFF!!!!!