This is it!  My first trip as a team leader from start to finish…  Pressure?  No.  Just an immense amount of fun – awesome people and a beautiful place. 🙂

When I was deciding where to plan my first trip as a team leader, I was overwhelmed by the choices.  So many places, so little vacation time…  I’ve never been one to do the “popular” thing or to steer away from a challenge, so I picked one of the remotest and challenging destinations I had heard of – rural Kyrgyzstan.  I reasoned that it had good reviews from my volunteer friends and I might as well put that Russian study to use.  Right?  Right.

I had a long runway for recruiting and managed to put together a fantastic group of 11 very “normal” volunteers…haha, maybe you had to be there to get that joke. 🙂  But seriously – it was fantastic.  We stayed in a local home and despite sharing one working toilet, one outhouse and every possible minute together for 2 weeks, we managed to not only tolerate each other but become fast friends very quickly.

The stories abound – vodka and mustache nights, the bikini model in Lake Issyk Kul, the quote book…not to mention the incredible kindness of the family and community during our stay in Barskoon.  This is location that I highly recommend.  Then you too will be able to say “I don’t know anyone else who _(fill in your favorite memory here)_ in Kyrgyzstan!”