Children's Day in Balukchi

If you saw the title you may have a faint idea of what this blog will be about. It's not a case of false advertising. I wouldn't do that to you. It actually is about Childrens Day in Balukchi. The body of this post will do what bodies are supposed to do and tell you more about Children's Day in Balukchi.

Children's Day in Balukchi is an actual holiday (not created by Peace Corps Volunteers) that occurs annualy on the first of June. We had ours on the fifth of June which isn't far off. Jenny, who lives in Balukchi and I really like, organized the whole thing. Jenny gets props (or something to that effect) for pulling it off. Jenny had a DJ there, a shashlick maker (like meat & fat kebabs, I don't really like it), baloons (I blew & put (stop laughing) most of them up), and about ten other volunteers doing everything from bowling (empty soft drink cans & basketball), egg carry (eggs & spoons), baloon animals (baloons, no animals), fishing (poor Karl), "other" (I forget), and of course the ever-popular crowd control. The natives (& natives' parents) occasionally get restless. They need more rest.

I painted faces with little crayon-like sticks. The colors I had were red, yellow, blue, black, and white. I had the most call for red and blue. All the kids wanted what was on the box which was an extremely complex blue drawing around the eyes. I drew Jadie-stripes instead. Have you heard of Jadie? Jadie is a caracter on a sitcom from Brazil that is very popular in Kyrgyzstan called "Clone." It's called Clone because somehow the people make clones of themselves. I don't know how to tell the clones from the non-clones but the Kyrgyz have figured it out. Clone stopped putting out new stuff about two weeks ago but there is a spinoff with Jadie (can't get rid of her) out now. I haven't seen it.

The face painting went really well. I painted kids faces for two or three hours without the hint of a break and had a great time doing it. Kid after kid came up at first until there was a sun & wind screen of little bodies all around me. It helped to keep out the sun and the wind. The fact that I was sitting in the shade didn't hurt either. Working with little kids, not eigth-graders but little five year-olds was the most fun of all. I found that I missed their screams, their crazy questions and their desire for guidance. I think that's what I like the most about teaching little kids. While most of my peers have control over me and I feel powerless, I can help little ones along and that feels really good to me.

Thanks to Jenny who pulled off this extremely awesome day! Now I am planning my own children's thing in Darkan and my first invitee will be Jenny. And yes, I think I will be painting faces again.