PST Host Family

There is a lot that I can tell about my last few days spent living in Bishkek with my future family, but for now I am going to fill you all in about how great my current living situation is.

First off, my host family in Kant has been awesome.  I really lucked out being placed with this family.  It’s actually sort of funny that before coming here I didn’t understand how host family dynamics worked.  I didn’t get why people started calling strangers Mom and Dad and saying how many brothers and sisters they had.  I couldn’t grasp it at all.  Well, two months in and I can understand it MUCH better now.  My Kant family is actually like family now.  I have become very close with my host mom and host sister and I LOVE my baby brother.  Spending the last few days away from them really made it sink in how accommodating they have been to me the last few months.  

It set in almost immediately when I met my future host family about how close I had become to my Kant family.  The new host family doesn’t understand my broken Kyrgyz language abilities and isn’t as good about speaking in slow sentences so I can pick out words that I know.  They didn’t seem to understand that when I say “Ооба” (yes) to almost everything and how it doesn’t just mean, yes, it means that I understood them and I don’t have the vocab yet to explain much more.  They didn’t laugh at how much I say please and thank you (it isn’t common in Kyrgyz to say it as much as we do in English and my Kant family is always amused at my silly American ways) and they didn’t cheer when I learned to create a full sentence.  Simple things, but it makes me feel really good when my Kant family supports me in this new foreign adventure.  

The day that I was sitting in my future office and my phone rang I was surprised to see that Aigul, my Kant host mom, was calling. It was the first time she had ever called me and I didn’t quite know what to expect. Back when I first got my cell phone we both joked about how horrible that call would go since my language skills are still developing.  In the last few weeks I have taken to texting her when I will be coming home and that is just about the only cellular interaction we have had.  So, I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up and Aigul spoke to me and I actually understood what she was saying!  She wanted to make sure that I was ok, that I would be coming home to Kant the next day, and that I was being fed.  All very important questions.  :)  *And skip forward to today when Aigul was telling me that she told my host father that she had called me.  She said he got a real kick out of the idea of us talking on the phone because there are not hand gestures to accompany the speaking and that she told him that I was a great Kyrgyz speaker and the call went great.  Small victories. 

On my way home from Bishkek, right before rounding the corner to my house, I quickly looked up the word for ‘missed’ and practiced repeatedly how to say “I missed you” before walking into our house.  As soon as I walked through the door and Aigul looked up at me, I smiled really big and in my best Kyrgyz accent I said my practiced words.  She was BEAMING!  She laughed and repeated my sentence back and we hugged.  Then she called my host sister in and Aidi came bounding into the kitchen house and ran up to me giving me a HUGE hug and kiss.  I repeated my sentence and she started laughing and hugged me again.  Danyel, my 7 month old baby brother even remembered me and got super giggly when I picked him up.  Aigul and Aidi got a real laugh out of that too, because Danyel didn’t stop smiling at me.  These people have genuinely accepted me into their home and I love being around them. 

 I know that it is normal to feel uneasy about moving to a new family, but I not only feel uneasy about it, but I am worried they are not going to live up to my current family standards.  I KNOW that I will miss these people so much when I have to move an hour up the road to Bishkek.  However, they’ve already told me that I will be visiting often and I am welcome anytime, so I will take some solace in that.  Heck, Aigul even asked me the other day when I would be getting married, because she wanted to start saving money so she could come to my wedding back in Alaska.  When I told her that it wasn't looking good for me to get married any time soon and I had no date in mind, she told me 2015 worked for her and she and the family would be coming.  I laughed and shook my head thinking she might not be kidding…  :)