It’s official now, tomorrow I will leave my family here in Ivanovka and move on to new things. There are many things I will miss from this place.
I will miss my Kyrgyz teacher, Tamerlane Hero-King, or the anti-Borat. He is sweet, and wholesome, and likes to make jokes and play “gotcha” games, like charades where the guessers are instructed to guess anything but what the mime is trying to imitate. I will also miss having class with 6 guys 6 days a week, 5 hours each day. I won’t, however, miss the odor that our classroom inevitably had, or the perpetual talk of bowel movements that inevitably exists in large groups of boys no matter where you live in the world.
I will definitely miss my Kyrgyz family. I will miss my parents here who call me lazy in the morning, but then make me dinner with a smile at night. I will miss my brother Meder who wakes me up by sneaking onto my bed in the morning, assuring me that he will be the first thing I see everyday.
Now, I might not miss the Kamikaze rooster in the back yard who charges my shins whenever I go to the outhouse. And I might not miss pooping only at night, only once the many flies who reside in that outhouse have gone to sleep. But I will surely miss the current tribe of 300 chicks who peck around the compound daily, and guessing which of them would love to similarly charge my ankles, if only given the chance.
I’m definitely going to miss watching the field in back turn from just one solid patch of fallow weeds, slowly into a neatly segregated patchwork of potatoes, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers. I will miss watching them grow. I may or may not miss hauling buckets of water up from the well using only a hoe. Though I will surely miss watching Meder drop down to his skivvies to retrieve the buckets we’ve dropped from the bottom.
It’s been a beautiful spring here in this small town. I’ve seen so many Kyrgyz family events, I’ve seen crops grow, and I’ve eaten berries from our fruit trees; I’ve also been greeted by most everyone that I pass on the street. What is Kyrgyz here? What is human? What is just simple and wonderful?
It’s not for me to say really. My role here has been to just watch and to learn; to try and figure out how to help people be happier, however they define it. To improve lives simply by my presence, and hopefully by the memory of our time together once I have left.
But isn’t that the goal of all of our lives? To be happy in the present, and happy in the lives of the people around us? I am technically here as a “development worker,” but as far as I’m concerned, there can be no greater development in a person’s life, no matter where in the world they live, than simply more happiness.
But that’s KyrgyCarl again, running his mouth. Thank you for reading folks, and thanks again for all your wonderful responses. It’s just a pleasure having you all along for the ride.
Originally Written June 6th, 2009
