tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56598292011-06-21T11:30:20.833-05:00Charles Harkness spends two years as a peace corps volunteer in KyrgyzstanMegan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1117934123091779792005-06-04T20:10:00.000-05:002005-06-04T20:15:23.100-05:00

OK, folks, my turn. Megan has not done anything since February, other than enter the one item that I sent her. Her reasoning: “ Kyrgyzstan and all of Central Asia are in such turmoil, why should I try to do anything from a distance?” Good reasoning, too. Several of the PCVs who have been keeping blogs have been warned by Peace Corps, Washington, to use greater care in what they write. Peace

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1113622554654273092005-04-15T22:33:00.000-05:002005-04-15T22:35:54.656-05:00

From an email sent to Megan on Friday, April 15:As we walked, Tina asked me when I was leaving. "Six weeks from today" "Why?" I started talking. "It's difficult to say; I want to go home, but I don't want to. I don't want to stay here, but I want to. I've undertaken so many things, but I've seen nothing come to closure. That makes it a tough and frustrating job. Now maybe if I stay just

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1107920783192356072005-02-08T21:44:00.000-06:002005-02-08T21:46:23.193-06:00

As Charles was healing from his fall, the long time Country Director, Joseph Curtain resigned effective immediately. A new CD has been appointed and here is his bio from the Peace Corps website. He arrives next week. Kyrgyz Republic – Alex Boston Alex Boston joins the Peace Corps after a career in foreign service and local government. Boston served as a Foreign Service Officer in Peshawar,

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1106277823135585162005-01-20T21:10:00.000-06:002005-01-20T21:23:43.136-06:00

A four months overdue Dispatch from the Other Side of the World. October: Autumn settles into Central Asia with rain and leaves falling off of the trees and snow settling into the mountains just to the south of Bishkek. While the weather settles into that pattern of some warm and some cool days, Charles is relegated to using his oven to warm up his place; there is no such thing as a thermostat

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1095906028469126642004-09-22T21:17:00.000-05:002004-09-22T22:04:21.666-05:00

Summer is coming to an end in Bishkek. The trees are dropping their leaves having gotten so stressed by lack of moisture. Temperatures are falling and the need to have a jacket in the morning and keeping the windows closed is more common than not. Being in Central Asia does not mean that Charles is in Asia as most Americans think of it. Charles may be next door to China but there are none of the

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1095520861345418072004-09-18T10:16:00.000-05:002004-09-18T10:21:01.346-05:00

On the one year anniversary of Charles' leaving the United States for his Central Asia adventure I posed these questions to him: Congratulations! You have made it to the year marker! A year ago today you left Chicago for an amazing experience. Has it lived it up to your expectations? How many people from your group have survived? What has been the defining moment of your year? What do you

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1093391281724656862004-08-24T18:38:00.000-05:002004-08-24T18:48:01.723-05:00

An Update from the Other Side of the World: Charlie’s B&B, or rather Food and Floor, is remaining a popular stop off in Bishkek. During a normal week, Charles might see at least a couple of PCVs, most transiting for out of country vacations. And speaking of vacations, Charles just returned from a week-long vacation in Bangkok and other points in Thailand. Prior to going on his altogether too

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1089001598438727892004-07-04T23:01:00.000-05:002004-07-04T23:26:38.436-05:00

Charles has started his new position with Arabyaev University and is quite positive that he is making a good impression with all of his hard work. And it is very hard work transforming a Soviet style university into something recognizable to the Western educated. He comes home exhausted at the end of the day but it is a good type of exhaustion as he feels that he has found a good place to work

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1087857112233965642004-06-21T17:29:00.000-05:002004-06-21T17:31:52.233-05:00

An Overdue Update from the Other Side of the World: This update to Charles’ continuing adventures in Kyrgyzstan is long overdue as for a time he was unsure if he was going to be staying in country. His first job with Kyrgyz National University did not work out and he spent a considerable amount of the past two months looking for a new position that would allow him to continue as a Peace Corp

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1082953249782506822004-04-25T23:20:00.000-05:002004-04-25T23:23:52.466-05:00

Charles returned from in-service training at Lake Issyk-Kul with the wish that he had had those ESL (English as a Second Language) instructors from the very beginning of his tenure in Kyrgyzstan; he definitely passed on that recommendation to his supervisors. One of them is a Fulbright fellow. He found training to be interesting, tiring and different. The training was held at a Soviet-era

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1080507318194685942004-03-28T14:55:00.000-06:002004-03-28T15:04:00.496-06:00

Life on the Other Side of the World has fallen into a sometimes hum-drum pattern; work, eat, sleep, repeat. Charles’ students are, for the most part, like college students everywhere; some are enthusiastic learners, and others are more into playing at learning. He is able to get some good discussions going, especially when the subjects are about daily life and country. In-service training

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1079327640305491342004-03-14T23:14:00.000-06:002004-03-14T23:16:20.936-06:00

The plea for books has garnered much response. Charles is expecting to be inundated with books as many of you have responded in the affirmative to cleaning off your bookshelves and sending books to those in need of English language help. M-bags are the way to go to send books to the Other Side of the World. A surface mail M-bag will cost about a dollar per pound vs. the more than 3 dollars a

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1077657743019851072004-02-24T15:22:00.000-06:002004-02-24T15:33:00.716-06:00

A much delayed summary of Dispatches from the Other Side of the World: December: After a steady, three month diet of cabbage and lamb and beef, Charles was finally able to experience some of Bishkek’s other choices for eating. The Hyatt Hotel has a restaurant where Charles was able to eat a couple of nice meals around Thanksgiving (they are also one of the few establishments in the country

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1069015495949584562003-11-16T14:44:00.000-06:002003-11-16T14:45:17.500-06:00

A clearer picture of Charles' future assignment is now available. His counterpart at Kyrgyz National University is a first year member of the English Department faculty. She is all of 23 years old and has just completed her own studies. Starting two days after he is sworn in as a PCV, Charles will have about 15 hours of planned work in composition and American Literature each week. He will

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1068948630392684422003-11-15T20:10:00.000-06:002003-11-16T14:29:07.436-06:00

Charles has gotten his assignment in the English Department at Kyrgyz National University. He will be spending the next 5 days on site and with his new host family. Kyrgyz National University is where Charles did his practice teaching so he is all ready familiar with the site and the faculty. All he knows about the new host family is that they live in a four room apartment. The Peace Corps

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1068424132638659202003-11-09T18:28:00.000-06:002003-11-09T18:28:50.220-06:00

Due to electrical and email issues, there is far less news to report than usual. However, I felt that people would like to know that Charles is still doing well and is involved in getting his final assignment. After practice teaching, Charles received two gifts from his classes; one was a kalpak, a local type of hat and the other was a local form of jews harp. It was very kind of these

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1067090840614758822003-10-25T09:07:00.000-05:002003-10-25T09:07:20.456-05:00

Charles has been very busy this past week with practice teaching at Kyrgyz National University. What follows is a summary of his week: A package sent airmail by Megan has arrived. It took somewhat longer than two weeks from the point of leaving Minnesota to be delivered to Charles in Kyrgyzstan by the Peace Corps. His days have been very full with leaving his host home at 7:30 am and not

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1066502849455841842003-10-18T13:47:00.000-05:002003-10-18T13:47:29.113-05:00

As Charles spent much of the last week in Bishkek, ready access to internet facilities allowed for more than normal communications. A summarization of the last week in Kyrgyzstan follows: Dispatch #1: The plans to go to Lake Issyk-Kul fell through so Charles will spend the time off from classes as the guest of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bishkek. Now for those of you who thought that he was

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1065545076852090482003-10-07T11:44:00.000-05:002003-10-07T11:44:36.546-05:00

Sorry it has been so long between dispatches from the Other Side of the World. I will do the best that I can to update you on how Charles is doing by summarizing the past few emails that I have received from him. Dispatch #1: His host family in Novo Pokrovka is Kyrgyz in ethnicity. After a week in the home, he has discovered that being a senior, senior citizen is quite difficult in a culture

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1064342118957520522003-09-23T13:35:00.000-05:002003-09-23T13:35:18.713-05:00

If you are so desirous of knowing what the weather is in Bishkek, The Weather Channel online will give you a forecast and a nice little satellite map of Europe and Central Asia. Click here for the forecast and map.

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1064187884944240302003-09-21T18:44:00.000-05:002003-09-21T18:44:44.463-05:00

Good Sunday morning, All:  And welcome to the Bishkek internet.  First day of freedom; "base restriction" for we new volunteers ends today as we are picked up by our host families for the next three months. It has been a long, long week.  Flew to Chicago last Sunday, spent the day with Tom and Anna, and then reported into the staging hotel on Monday.  A day and a half of rather intense

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1063892898150070302003-09-18T08:48:00.000-05:002003-09-18T08:48:17.640-05:00

After a short phone call on Wednesday evening, Charles was off from O'Hare to London. According to Expedia, the flight landed on time, allowing for a three hour layover in London before taking off for Bishkek via Baku, Azerbaijan. This flight departed at 8:30am CDT. He should arrive around 5:30pm CDT or 4:30am in Bishkek!

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1063680079568626952003-09-15T21:41:00.000-05:002003-09-15T21:49:13.920-05:00

For those who might be thinking that they want to send something to Charles, I have an interesting tidbit from the US Postal Service....Ignore everything the Peace Corps tells you and please put the country name, ie. Kyrgyzstan on the last line of writing. Therefore, your address should have Kyrgyzstan on both the top and the bottom unless I find out differently. Also, make your packages and

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1063310831206160272003-09-11T15:07:00.000-05:002003-09-11T15:07:11.233-05:00

Two more days and I'm out of here. All the yard and outside of house projects are cleaned up; packing is checked and re-checked; thank-you notes are written (Got some wonderful items last Saturday at the Open House). Guess the biggest job left at this point is to "clean down" the refrigerator and freezer so that I don't leave a lot of unwanted food behind for Megan.

Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1061497496879152282003-08-21T15:24:00.000-05:002003-08-21T15:24:56.900-05:00

Yet another day of "getting ready." Megan helped with loading the Lexmark printer driver into the new laptop and setting up a hotmail account. We both worked at trying to change the aol account so that Megan is the primary, and then I will drop my account. Our experience is that it can't be done! We both tried via the computer with no results; I tried by phone and was told by individuals with

Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1061335040801346572003-08-19T18:17:00.000-05:002003-08-19T18:17:20.970-05:00

I'm all packed, and have a new laptop. And it's still three weeks until I leave! Slight change of travel orders: I will leave here on September 14, spend a day in Chicago with Tom and Anna, and then report in for orientation on the 15th. I should arrive in Bishkek at 0430 on the 19th of September.

Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1060954230481816492003-08-15T08:30:00.000-05:002003-08-15T08:34:52.190-05:00

Chose the biggest Barnes & Noble in the Twin Cities Metro yesterday and purchased three paperbacks--one in anthropology, one in literature and one in economics. Not sure that is the end of the purchases, although it is almost the end of the packing space. The luggage is pretty well packed; bulk items are going to have to be left behind--winter bathrobe, for example.

Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1060617452561462512003-08-11T10:57:00.000-05:002003-08-11T10:57:32.533-05:00

Why am I doing this, anyway? There are three reasons for the basis of it: 1. As a Quaker, I am against physical intervention in any situation; there are always non-violent means to peace--between people, between nations. They need to be explored more fully; the Peace Corps is such an opportunity. 2. Over the years I have been given much; it is time that I give something in return. 3. In a

Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1060554011429746012003-08-10T17:20:00.000-05:002003-08-10T17:21:52.283-05:00

Most pre-planning is done, and purchases made. Becoming a Peace Corps volunteeer is not either cheap or easy. Picture the immediate expense of a two year supply of clothing (including long underwear! and a good sleeping bag in the event you waken to find the heat has gone off and you have just frozen to death), a two year supply of razor blades, shaving cream, batteries for the flashlight to be

Charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659829.post-1060361232154524072003-08-08T11:47:00.000-05:002003-08-08T11:47:12.143-05:00

We are busy getting Charles ready to leave for the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan. With 6 weeks notice, it has been a little hectic but things are coming together. Invites to the open house went out this week so we should be able to have ourselves a party on 6 Sept.

Megan Harkness-Madolenoreply@blogger.com