Great Story

I wanted to get down one of the best stories I’ve heard yet in country…

My friend Karl lives in a village near the lake. I heard from Elise a few weeks ago that he was in Bishkek on medical. She told me that he thought his back might be broken. Turns out, his back was hurt, but thankfully not as badly as had been earlier thought. The way he hurt is back is the interesting part.

It starts out with Karl coming home from work and his host family telling him that they have sold their home and plan to move to another village. This leaves Karl literally in the street. He tells PC and they recommend some guy who has a spare room in his apartment. He’s told that the owner of the apartment is young and has a girlfriend who occasionally stays in the apartment. Karl moves in and, from what I hear, was really happy with the setup…Until he is woken up in the middle of the night by someone pounding on the front door. From his bedroom, Karl hears the door open, then people yelling, then the sounds of someone being thrown around and furniture breaking. The girlfriend is screaming the entire time. Karl doesn’t know what to do, and can only listen behind his locked door. Suddenly, whoever was in the apartment begins pounding on Karl’s door and yelling hysterically. With only minutes before the door is broken down, Karl is faced with the possibility of getting the shit kicked out of him. In what I admire as a ballsy move, Karl takes the only slightly less dangerous route, and jumps out of his second story window. He lands in a patch of snow, seriously hurting his back. He is able to limp his way to the local militzia who contact Peace Corps. Karl doesn’t learn who the assailant was until a few days later. Turns out it was the girlfriend’s husband.

I don’t really know what happened to Karl afterwards or where he is living now. I can only hope he’s doing better now.

What else is new? Just heard from the PC gossip line that another volunteer is going home. That makes 5 from our group in the last 3 months, and added to that is another 3 volunteers from the K11’s. The first winter is supposed to be the hardest time, and the numbers seem to prove it…Beyond that, I’m going to be in Bishkek next week. I’m flying up on Thursday to visit Elise and see some other friends. I kinda hated Bishkek during training but I’m looking forward to a weekend in the big city. What I’m not looking forward to, however, is the hour long, Kyrgyz Air flight. An hour in the air is much better than the 12 hour taxi ride through icy mountain passes, but I’ve heard bad stories about flying in this country. One friend told me the airplane door opened during the flight, which prompted the stewardess to calmly get up and shut it again. Her control implied that this sort of thing isn’t uncommon. Wish me luck.

Ok, hope everyone is well. Check my link for new pictures…I’ll talk to you later.