Paradise found!

I just received my permanent placement site and I am officially moving to Paradise! I will be on the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul located between the lake and mountains. My site is on hills overlooking the lake, and the beaches are about a 30 min walk away. There are apparently tons of trails taking off from my village and the biggest gold mining site is located straight south of my village, so it's like I’m back in Elko, NV. I am right at the southern tip of the lake halfway between two largish (both are about an hour away). I am also pretty close to a ski resort!

My school has 1500 students and 12 English teachers. My village has about 8,000 people, which is relatively big, but there is no internet….so blog entries maybe sporadic. My Kyrgyz counterpart has worked with a PC volunteer who left last year and apparently she is great. Even though I'll be the only PC volunteer in my village, my site also has a Habitat for Humanity office and international volunteers come in every summer to build houses. Therefore, I will probably meet up with HFH volunteers and help out building houses during the summer.

Anyways, I am extremely excited I have been told by a number of people that the southern part of the lake is one of the best locations in the country. Apparently the Japanese version of the PC does a lot of community tourism work around my village and often includes PC volunteers on there trips-- including ice climbing.... very cool. In fact my village has so many hiking and trekking trails that it is trying to get a community tourism business started… which means I'll have a lot of opportunity for cool side projects!!

Now you all have a reason to come visit me!!