Kyrgyz Republic | Jae Cho
Home: Gloucester, Virginia
Hello, my name is Jae Cho, and I’m from Gloucester, Virginia, and I’ve been serving as a Peace Corps volunteer since July 2019 in the Kyrgyz Republic. I’ve been serving as a TEFL teacher, teaching English as a foreign language at J. Mukambaev Secondary School in a small village called Kurmonty, in the Issyk-Kul oblast. There I’ve been working with five other counterparts or who are also English teachers and lovers of the English language: Meerim Eje, Asel Eje, Darike Eje, Symbat Eje, and Saltanat Eje. Through countless hours of training, scheduling, co-planning, and co-teaching, my counterpart and I were able to succeed in our goal in training to eventually become successful co-teachers. I’m very much thankful to them forever, and I’d like to express my gratitude. I hope to see them once again after this is all over.
I will forever and foremost miss my host family — my mother, Darika Appa and my father, Kubanychbek Atta — who are also respectable teachers and parents. I will also miss my host siblings Kundyz Eje, Makcat Baikye, and Nurjan. I’ll miss my neighbors, my committee members, my faculty and staff, as well as 900 students from my school — primarily from grades five to 11. But I hope to one day see them again, and I wish the best of luck in the future as they work toward goals and careers.
I’ll also miss the local natives at the dukuns (the local shops), post office, the hospital, and police station. My director Bekjan Aitbaivooch has always been very caring toward me, as well as our assistant director Nurgyl Eje as well as other staff members.
Jae was teaching English as a foreign language in a school in a small village.
There’s some unfinished projects that I left behind, one of them consisting of a resource center for learning English. I’d hoped to build a resource center in the fall to help students, faculty, staff and community members be well-versed in the language, and so they could access materials to further their education — whether it be notebooks or laptops or other computer, sound equipment, projectors, and sound technology, as well as books and literature. I want to see that through..
I hope everyone stays safe, and I look forward to returning to my service as soon as possible.
Unfinished business: building a resource center for learning English to help students, faculty, and staff.
This story was first published in WorldView magazine’s Summer 2020 issue. Read the entire magazine for free now in the WorldView app. Here’s how:
STEP 1 – Create an account: Click here and create a login name and password. Use the code DIGITAL2020 to get it free.
STEP 2 – Get the app: For viewing the magazine on a phone or tablet, go to the App Store/Google Play and search for “WorldView magazine” and download the app. Or view the magazine on a laptop/desktop here.
Thanks for reading. And here’s how you can support the work we’re doing to help evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers.