PCV Rhonda Lee Ferns says: So what did Peace Corps do to protect the volunteers in Kyrgyzstan? They called us when the protesting and road blocks started and asked us to go on "Stand fast" status, which means we weren't permited to travel anywhere outside of work and home, and when the riots in Bishkek began, the entire country went to "consolidation" where all the volunteers in each region gathered together at one location, and asked to stay there until further notice.



PCV Rhonda Lee Ferns says: So what did Peace Corps do to protect the volunteers in Kyrgyzstan? They called us when the protesting and road blocks started and asked us to go on "Stand fast" status, which means we weren't permited to travel anywhere outside of work and home, and when the riots in Bishkek began, the entire country went to "consolidation" where all the volunteers in each region gathered together at one location, and asked to stay there until further notice.

It's been a while.....sorry!

[Excerpt]

As many of you know from the news, there were a number of protests and even "riots" here in Kyrgyzstan a few weeks ago, and my mailbox was flooded with "are you alive" messages (another reason why I haven't updated in a while). I must say, this is the first time I've ever survived a revolution of any sorts, but where I live here in Karakol, nothing happened at all. I live in the northeast corner of the country where there are a large number of Russians and other minorities, and here they are more apolitical than the southern parts of the country. Even the riots that happened in Bishkek, the capital, were started by people from the south who traveled to the capital on two large luxury buses. So what happened? I'm not exactly sure, but from what I gathered, the people here got tired of rigged elections and decided to do something about it. Many of the locals that I have talked to said that they had believed President Akaev started out with good intentions when he became president after the downfall of the Soviet Union, but then again, no one really expected his family to end up owning 70% of the national resources either. Then there's the fact he had promised publicaly numerous times that he wouldn't run for president again, but then about a month ago ads started being broadcasted to promote his relection..........hmmmmm, somethings smelling fishy around here.

So what did Peace Corps do to protect the volunteers?

They called us when the protesting and road blocks started and asked us to go on "Stand fast" status, which means we weren't permited to travel anywhere outside of work and home, and when the riots in Bishkek began, the entire country went to "consolidation" where all the volunteers in each region gathered together at one location, and asked to stay there until further notice. Consolidation totally sucked, because in my region there are 11 volunteers and we had to live together for three days, and weren't suppose to go anywhere (however, since Karakol was quiet, many of us went out during the day, and just came back at night). Thank God that didn't last for very long, but if things had gotten any worse, we would have certainly have been evacuated to Kazakstan to wait out the turmoil. So anyways, you don't have to worry, Peace Corps takes care of it's volunteers.

When this story was posted in May 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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May 7, 2005: This Week's Top Stories "Peace Corps Online" on recess until May 21 7 May Carol Bellamy taking the reins at World Learning 7 May Gopal Khanna appointed White House CFO 7 May Clare Bastable named Conservationist of the Year 7 May Director Gaddi Vasquez visits PCVs in Bulgaria 5 May Abe Pena sets up scholarship fund 5 May Peace Corps closes recruiting sites 4 May Hill pessimistic over Korean nuclear program 4 May Leslie Hawke says PC should split into two organizations 4 May Peace Corps helps students find themselves 3 May Kevin Griffith's Tsunami Assistance Project collects 50k 3 May Tim Wright studied Quechua at UCLA 2 May Doyle not worried about competition 2 May Dodd discusses President's Social Security plan 1 May Randy Mager works in Blue Moon Safaris 1 May PCVs safe in Togo after disputed elections 30 Apr Michael Sells teaches Islamic History and Literature 28 Apr

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May 7, 2005: Special Events "Iowa in Ghana" on exhibit in Waterloo through June 30 "American Taboo" author Phil Weiss in Maryland on June 18 Leland Foerster opens photo exhibition at Cal State RPCV Writers scholarship in Baltimore - deadline June 1 Gary Edwards' music performed in Idaho on May 24 RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

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