Thank you!

Thank you all so much for your donations to my town's water project! It is finished and beautiful! The director of the program wants to remind everyone that, even though the project is complete, they're still taking donations. The organization pays up front for all projects so we can start work on them as quickly as possible, but this means they don't always get the full reimbursement, which makes it tricky for them to continue funding other fantastic projects. So give a little bit and feel good about sharing clean water with cool people like my students! http://appropriateprojects.com/node/1290

Another couple of things:  I don't update this regularly enough to understand it quite yet, so it always takes me a couple minutes to find the "New Post" option.  While searching for it this time, I found that y'all have looked at my site over two thousand times - how cool is that?  Makes me feel even more guilty for hardly ever updating...sooo I'll give you a quick overview.

Since last I wrote, my family and I met up in Turkey for a fantastic two weeks of sight-seeing and eating.  Then most of the group accompanied me back to Kyrgyzstan for another week of...well, a lot more eating (for as long as stomachs held out).  Sharing Kyrgyzstan with Americans was an incredible opportunity.  Obviously, the adventure had both up's and down's, but I believe they came away with a good understanding of Kyrgyzstan's beauty and hospitality. 

After they left, my host family really kicked house-renovations into top gear.  Our kitchen now has a floor, ceiling, and our petchkas (fireplaces where we burn our trash and cook our food) are tiled.  Also, we are building our very own banya (sauna, bath house)!  My father must be doing real well with his work in Moscow.  We're all very proud of him but miss having him around.  Other than my nephews, this has become an all-girl house over the last several months.

My real mom asked me to share this (I wrote it in a letter to you, Darcy Lou, so for you, it's a teaser) sentiment regarding Peace Corps, so I'll leave you with it:
I am so comfortable with my life and happy with myself at this place and time.  I may have gotten here without my Peace Corps experience, but I doubt I would've taken the time to notice.

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately... I wanted to live deep and such out all the marrow of life!  To put to rest what was not life...and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived...
H.D.T