Well, it’s now been a few days at my permanant site! There is plenty to talk about, but since family is so important here, I’ll start with that. I live with a great family. My father is a architect/builder, my mother an administrative aide, two sisters (13 and 14,) and a 7 year old little boy. My two sisters speak a little English, enough at this time for me to communicate simple things like what I’m doing, what I need, etc. etc. They seem to have a real desire to communicate in English, and often whip out there little Uzbek-English dictionaries when a difficult word comes to their minds. So that’s a relief. I guess I realized things were really different just yesterday when I was summoned into the TV room for an hour of watching Mr. Bean. The whole family was in stiches for the entire time. My take is that if a family can laugh together (something sadly lacking in my 1st family I now realize,) then they can probably get along just fine. It was a great cultural/bonding moment.

In terms of location, the area in which I live is very beautiful. There are big trees all around, and mountains serve as a backdrop in nearly every direction. We even have a little stream running behind our house. My counterpart is very hands on, maybe a little smothering, but nonetheless energetic and enthused, something not as common here as back home. My classroom is kinda dumpy, but has books, a TV and VCR courtesy of the previous volunteer at my school. I’ll start teaching this week for a month at which time school lets out for the summer…

And okay, I’m gonna brag a little here. Today I met up with some other volunteers from the region and we had lunch with the American Ambassador to Uzbekistan. It was a good time because, 1) we had a delicious meal at no cost and 2) some interesting discussion. It made me feel a lil special 😉 So, now I’ll be heading back to town and unpacking (you know that always take me a while.) Lets keep our fingers crossed that things stay well for as long as possible.

For now,