August
9, 2009
Three Types of
Volunteers
My
friend, the assistant to our Country Director recently told me volunteers,
after a sufficient time at site, fall into one of three social
categories. They either hang out mostly with fellow volunteers, surround
themselves with locals or a combination of the two. I fall into the second
category. I correspond with one volunteer. She lives in a
village in Naryn and one of the many things we have in common is she doesn't
keep company with the vols in her oblast, either. The reasons that we don't
differ, but we've both found contentment in having all Kyrgyz and Russian
friends.
She
was victimized by a false rumor (the #1 activity of PCVs is gossiping). I
simply decided not to spend my two years of service chumming around with people
I can find in Brooklyn. Additionally, I have little in common with
know-it-all 22 year-old white males. I was one at one time. You may say I have even less in
common with my Kyrgyz friends, but I would disagree. We share a
sincere desire to learn about each other's culture. The biggest obstacle I
face is their age. Most of them are early 20's and their life experience
is limited. In spite of this, they've enlightened me in many ways.
The volunteer
in Naryn (hereafter referred to as “N”) and I messaged constantly and spoke on
the phone often. I found her a refreshing voice in the sea of GenXer’s. She
lived in a village so didn’t have volunteers around her like I did and enjoyed
her Kyrgyz family and friends. I felt she was ok with that, very similar to me.
I never
intended to look for or find a girlfriend in the PC, either a volunteer or
Kyrgyz national. I wanted to fulfill my service and move on, but as the
universe often overrules our wants and desires, I developed an attraction to N,
and when we had group meetings, I truly cherished the opportunities to talk
face to face. I sensed that she might have felt the same for me, but I wasn’t
sure. In time we spoke of meeting in Bishkek to hang out for a weekend.
In the
book: Did we meet or did I chicken out?
